12.3 Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook
You can use it in each app for the task it is actually good at.
Before:00. Getting Your Footing
Each app has the thing Copilot is actually good at: drafting and summarising in Word, exploring a table and suggesting formulas in Excel, a first-draft deck in PowerPoint, triage and thread summaries in Outlook. This topic works through them with the checking habits attached — suggested formulas get verified, generated decks get rebuilt on a proper master. It closes the module because it applies the limits and prompting topics to concrete work. The common confusion is expecting the same strength everywhere; it is strongest where the source material is yours and weakest where it must invent.
Work through these
Word: drafting, rewriting, summarising a long document
In the word processor it is strongest at drafting, rewriting and condensing a long document. These are tasks where you can check the output against something you already have.
Excel: exploring a table, suggesting formulas — then checking them
In the spreadsheet it can describe a table and propose formulas, and every proposed formula needs checking before it reaches a decision. The checking is not optional.
PowerPoint: a first-draft deck from a document, then rebuilding it properly
In the presentation app it will produce a first-draft deck from a document, which is a starting point rather than a deliverable. Rebuilding it on a proper master is the next step.
Draft, analyze and present with Microsoft 365 Copilot (MS-4018) · CourseOutlook: triage, summarising a thread, drafting a reply
In the mail client it summarises threads and drafts replies, which is where the time saving is most immediate. Read the summary against the thread before acting on it.
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