Thanks to its powerful features, rich templates library, Designer integration, and a built-in recorder, PowerPoint is a go-to solution for creating engaging slides. However, making a captivating presentation requires time, effort, and, most importantly, skill. Here is where Microsoft Copilot comes in to help automate such mundane tasks and craft stunning presentations that can inform and inspire your audience in no time.
In this article, I will discuss the best Copilot features that can enhance your presentations with striking visuals and engaging narratives.
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How to access Copilot in Microsoft PowerPoint
You need to meet the following prerequisites to access Microsoft's AI bot in PowerPoint.
Copilot is available only on Microsoft PowerPoint desktop apps. First, you need to subscribe to one of the Microsoft 365 plans to install PowerPoint on Windows or Mac. Head to the Microsoft Store to purchase a Copilot Pro subscription at $20 per month. It unlocks Copilot in all desktop apps like Excel, OneNote, Word, Outlook, Loop, and, of course, PowerPoint. The software giant offers a 1-month free trial to new subscribers. Once you subscribe to Copilot Pro, open any presentation in PowerPoint and find the Copilot button under the Home tab in the top-right corner.
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5 Generate slides using text prompts
As soon as you create a new PowerPoint presentation from a blank file, the software gives you three options to choose from. You can simply select Create a presentation about and enter the prompt with a description of the pitch.
In the example below, I ran the following text prompt.
Create a presentation about long-term EV benefits over conventional gas vehicles.
Here is what Copilot came up with. It quickly gave a detailed rundown on environmental advantages, economic benefits, technological advancements, performance and user experience, and social and global impact. Then, you can either use these pointers in your existing slide or ask Copilot to generate slides.
At any point, you can move or rearrange answers (like putting the performance and user experience header at the top) and even click the + icon to add more with Copilot. For instance, you can ask it to write Disadvantages of EVs over gas vehicles to balance your arguments. Let's select Generate Slides at the bottom.
Copilot quickly created a detailed presentation with 23 slides about the topic (yes, you heard it right). It divided the entire pitch into different sections and even generated and inserted images for relevant slides. Neat, isn't it? If you are satisfied with the results, click Keep it and import them into PowerPoint for further editing.
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Copilot even added relevant notes under each slide for better understanding. It won't add animations, gradient backgrounds, fancy text, and other advanced elements yet. You can either add them manually or use the Designer tool to generate ideas.
4 Summarize your presentations
When you deal with long presentations, you can ask Copilot to summarize the pitch in no time. It's a handy feature for educators who often receive PPTs from students about various topics. Instead of reviewing them manually, they can ask Copilot to do the heavy lifting. Let's take the same presentation, for example.
You can open a presentation, summon Copilot, and ask it to summarize the presentation. Aside from added text, Copilot also looks for charts, images, and other media types to improve the summary. For instance, if you have some sales data graphs, statistics on marketing expenses or data about smartphone market share, Copilot can understand this information and include relevant intel in the summary, too.
In our example, here is what Copilot came up with - astutely picking up the main topics and a one-line summary for each heading.
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3 Generate and insert images using Copilot
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Your text-heavy presentation may feel boring and bland without relevant images. Instead of digging the web for necessary media files, ask Copilot to generate them.
While finalizing my Long-Term Benefits of Electric Vehicles presentation, I got stuck at the Economic Benefits section and wanted to juice it up with some graphics. I launched Copilot and asked it to create an image based on the prompt below.
You need to be expressive and clear with your prompts. Instead of writing A piggy bank with overflowing money , run the below description for better results.
A piggy bank overflowing with coins and bills, showcasing the importance of saving money with electric vehicles
Copilot leveraged Microsoft Designer and created four images for my presentation. I inserted the most relevant one which I liked and decorated my slide in no time.
2 Get useful insights about your presentation
You can also get useful insights from your existing presentation. In the same PPT, you can ask relevant questions like these to get answers from the deck instantly.
What is the user experience like with electric vehicles?
How do electric vehicles benefit the economy?
You can even ask Copilot to show key slides and jump to relevant slides to find the required information.
1 Create a presentation based on content imported from another file
Did you brainstorm your pitch in a Word document or a PDF file? Copilot can create an entire presentation from your own information source as well. However, the feature is limited to Copilot for Microsoft 365 (Work) license only. Here's how it works.
You can opt to Create a presentation from a file as in the first section above, or type Create a presentation from (file) into the chat and select a suggestion from the file picker menu.
To get the best results, make sure to leverage Word styles and insert images to help Copilot understand the structure of your documents. Copilot will be able to organize your presentation into sections with relevant heading slides.
Craft engaging presentations
Overall, Copilot is basically your personal assistant to translate ideas into appealing presentations. That said, its effectiveness depends on your text prompts. You need to be quite descriptive with your prompts to get the desired results. You'll still also want to review its output for accuracy, of course. Whether you are a seasoned presenter or just starting with PowerPoint, I recommend trying Copilot integration in your workflow.
As mentioned, your Copilot Pro plan unlocks Microsoft's assistant on other desktop apps, too. Check out our dedicated post on using Copilot in Microsoft Excel.
