Copilot
Microsoft's assistant, living inside Word, Outlook, Teams, Edge and Windows itself.
Best for
- drafting inside the app you're already in
- summarising meetings and email threads
- finding things in your own files
Signature move
Ask it to summarise the thread, then ask what's still unanswered.
How it wants to be spoken to
Say which app and which file — it works on what's open in front of it.
Ask for what to keep as well as what to change.
Give the audience and the tone; the default is corporate-bland.
In a work account, assume your organisation can see the prompts.
Why it glitches
None of this is you doing it wrong. These are the shapes it reliably falls into — and the fix beside each.
Acts on the wrong document → open the right file first, don't describe it.
Goes vague when it can't see the source → paste the text in.
Work and personal accounts reach different things → check which one is signed in.
Turns everything into bullet points → “keep it as flowing prose”.
A prompt that works there
Using only the document open in front of you, give me: 1) a five-line summary, 2) the three decisions that were made, 3) what is still unanswered. Do not add facts that aren't in the document.
Bring Tay your actual task and she'll shape it for Copilot.
Practice with Tay