Lab 3 - Draft, improve, and share your document with Copilot in Word

Imagine you’re a project manager tasked with creating a comprehensive project report for your company’s new Mystic Spice Premium Chai Tea. In this Lab, you use Microsoft Word to draft the report, convert text to a table for easier readability, and summarize your document to ensure clear, concise content.

[!NOTE] While this Lab illustrates how information can flow from one Microsoft 365 app to another, you aren’t required to do so. Each of these steps can be completed using Copilot in Word directly. Alternate steps are provided as necessary.

Sample file

Throughout this Lab, we’ll craft prompts for Microsoft 365 Copilot that reference this file. You should have already uploaded it to OneDrive during the lab setup process, but if you need to download it again, you can do so here:

Market Analysis Report for Mystic Spice Premium Chai Tea.docx

Exercise 1 - Draft your content

Let’s create a project report using the Market Analysis you’ve already gathered. Then, we can edit this file to get the content we need for our report.

  1. Open a new Word document from your browser by entering +++https://word.new+++.

  2. Select the on-canvas Copilot experience at the top of the blank document.

  3. Enter the following prompt:

    +++Create a project report that includes an executive summary, introduction, product description, project objectives, and discussion. Use the linked document as a content resource.+++

  4. Add the document reference to your prompt by manually entering a forward slash / to open the file search dialog, then search for and select Promotion Plan for Chai Tea in Latin America.docx. Alternatively, you can select Add content and the file from the dropdown list once it is available in OneDrive.

  5. Select the right arrow to submit your prompt and Generate the response.

  6. Review the drafted content and select Keep it.

  7. As you’re reviewing the content of your document, you may find that some text needs to be edited or rewritten. The Product Description section seems to be fairly short, and technical. Let’s edit the text so it’s more engaging for our readers.

  8. Highlight the paragraph, then select Edit with Copilot in the floating toolbar that appears.

  9. Select Auto Rewrite from the menu. Copilot generates several options. Review each, and select to:

    • Replace the current text with the one you prefer.
    • Insert below the text to keep both.
    • Regenerate the suggestions if you don’t like any of the suggestions, you can select to regenerate them, and Copilot provides you three more options from which to choose.
    • Enter text describing the update you’re looking for in the What do you want Copilot to change? field.

  10. Let’s enter a specific prompt to get the results we want. In the What do you want Copilot to Change field, enter:

    +++Rewrite this paragraph to add more detail about the product. The tone of this paragraph should be professional and engaging.+++

  11. Review the rewritten options, choose the one you most prefer, and select Replace.

Exercise 2 - Convert text to a table

While the content in your document may be accurate, consider its readability. Would a section work better if it was presented as a table? Copilot can easily convert text into a table using a prompt.

Let’s see this transformation in action.

  1. Place your cursor at the end of the document.

  2. Ask Copilot to +++Add a list of project milestones and their deadlines+++ using the Draft with Copilot pencil icon. Select Generate.

  3. Select Keep it to add the section to your Project Plan.

  4. Highlight the list, then select Edit with Copilot in the floating toolbar that appears.

  5. Select or type Visualize as a table. The result looks great, overall, but let’s make sure there’s a column for when the task is successfully completed.

  6. In the Copilot prompt box, enter the following prompt:

    +++Add a third column, Task Completed, to the table.+++

  7. Select Keep it to insert the table into your document.

  8. Review the table format and make any necessary adjustments. You can then delete the bulleted list from the Project Milestones and Deadlines section.

Exercise 3 - Summarize your document

As you complete your document, you want to ensure that your key points are presented clearly. A good way to do this is to see a summary of the document. Likewise, should you receive a large Word document that you don’t have time to read in its entirety, the summary feature is key. Let’s create a summary at the end of our document.

  1. From the Home tab, select Copilot to open the Copilot pane, then enter the following prompt:

    +++Summarize the Project Report Promotion Plan for Chai Tea in Latin America document. Highlight the top three points made.+++

  2. Review the generated summary, and select Add to doc (the plus sign below the output) if you want to include the entire summary in your document. You can also highlight any portion of the text, then copy and paste it into your document.

[!IMPORTANT] The text Copilot generates is inserted at your cursor’s location in the document. Make sure you have navigated to the end of the document before you select to insert the content.

You can manually make adjustments to the text, or highlight the summary content and use Copilot to Auto Rewrite as needed. You can also use this summary as the starting point to a Teams or Outlook message when you share your project report with your stakeholders.

Save your document for future reference. You’re ready to share for review, or you can use this document as the starting point for a PowerPoint presentation.

End of Lab