Exercise 2, Task 5: Use Copilot in Outlook to email the safety procedure changes to Operations staff

With the updated safety procedures summarized in OneNote and saved to a PDF file, it’s time to distribute the information to the Operations staff across the Fargo distribution center. Leadership wants staff to understand the changes before the next shift rotation, ensuring everyone is aware of new risks, restricted areas, and emergency updates. You plan to use Copilot in Outlook to draft a clear, informative communication and share the summary with the Operations team.

Perform the following steps to complete this task:

  1. In your Microsoft Edge browser, go to the Microsoft 365 home page, select Apps in the navigation pane, and then select Outlook from the Apps menu.

  2. In Outlook on the web, create a new email. Attach the PDF file of the Summary report that you saved to your OneDrive at the end of the prior task.

  3. In the body of the message, select the Open Copilot (pencil) icon that appears next to the attached file.

  4. The Copilot window that appears contains a prompt field and a menu of edit options below it. In the prompt field, ask Copilot to create an email to Contoso’s Operations staff at its Fargo distribution center. Ask Copilot to:

    • Summarize the updates to the distribution center’s safety protocols that are found in the attached PDF file.

    • Include specific data points from the report into the email. At a minimum, identify new risks and restricted areas.

    • Highlight key insights, but keep the message concise and actionable.

  5. Review the results. While it’s a good start, you feel that some things are missing. Ask Copilot to include information on emergency updates.

  6. Review the updated email. Notice how Copilot generated a new version of the email, which is draft 2 (2 of 2). You can select the back arrow to go to draft 1 of 2, which was the original version of the email that Copilot generated. Since you prefer to keep working with the latest draft, select the forward arrow to return to draft 2 of 2.

[!NOTE] For each request that you make, Copilot generates a new draft of the email. You can optionally navigate to a prior draft and keep it, or you can ask Copilot to modify that draft (rather than the last draft). By default, you typically make each new request while viewing the last draft.

  1. Review the results. You’re satisfied with this final update, so you’re ready to insert the draft into the actual email. In the Copilot menu, select the Keep it option to replace the original email with this final draft.

[!TIP] If you preferred one of the earlier drafts, you could select the forward or backward arrows to go to the preferred draft. Ensure the draft you want to use is displayed when you select the Keep it option.

  1. Review the results. Copilot should have inserted the draft into the actual body of the email. Now, once you use Copilot to draft the initial email, you can still use it to modify the email even after inserting the draft.

    • When modifying an actual email message, you must highlight the portion of the email that you want changed, whether it be a sentence, paragraph, or the entire email.

    • Or if you want Copilot to add more text to the email, you must position the cursor where you want Copilot to insert the text.

    While looking at the email, you decide to make one more change. You’re not sure about the tone of the email, so drag your cursor over the entire email to highlight all of its content. When you do so, note how Copilot displays the Open Copilot (pencil) icon.

  2. In the Copilot menu, select Change Tone, and then select one of the tone options.

  3. Review the results of the modified email that appears in the draft window. You still aren’t satisfied with the way it sounds, so try a different tone.

  4. Note how Copilot creates a second draft using the new tone. You’re satisfied with this version of the email, so select the Replace option to replace the current version of the email with this draft version.

  5. After proofing the email one last time, you aren’t sure whether the paragraph on emergency updates should be longer. You decide to have Copilot draft a longer version of this paragraph to see how it sounds. To do so, highlight just that paragraph and then select the Open Copilot icon.

  6. In the Copilot menu that appears, select the Make it longer option. Copilot opens a draft window and creates an expanded version of that paragraph. After reading this updated version, you feel that the original version sounds better for your audience. You don’t want to implement this expanded version, so select the Discard option in the Copilot menu.

  7. Notice how Copilot returns you to the email with the original version of the emergency updates paragraph left intact.

  8. At this point, you’re happy with the email. For lab purposes, send the email to your personal email address. Verify that you received the email and were able to open the report.

At the end of this task, you should receive a professional, data-driven email that provides Contoso’s Operations staff with visibility into the safety protocol changes being implemented as part of the expansion project to the Fargo distribution center.