Copilot Quick-Start Beyond Word & PowerPoint
What Copilot can do in Outlook, Teams, and the Copilot app — practical, no fluff, ready to use today.
Summarize a long email thread
Open any email thread. Click the Summarize button at the top. Copilot reads the whole chain and gives you the key points in seconds. No more scrolling through 30 replies.
Draft a reply from scratch
Click Reply → then click the Copilot icon → select Draft with Copilot. Tell it what you want to say in a few words. It writes the email. You edit, then send.
Check your tone before sending
Write your email normally → click the Copilot icon → select Coaching by Copilot. It tells you if the tone sounds accusatory, unclear, or too informal. You decide what to fix.
Schedule a meeting from an email
Open the email thread → click Schedule with Copilot in the ribbon. Copilot pre-fills the meeting invite with the right people and context from the thread.
Try this right now
Open the longest email thread in your inbox right now.
Click Summarize at the top of the thread.
Read the summary. Check: did Copilot get the key points right?
Now click Reply and try Draft with Copilot. Type: "Acknowledge receipt and say I'll follow up next week."
Review the draft. Edit anything that doesn't sound like you. Then close without sending.
Useful prompts for Outlook Copilot
It drafts, you review, you send. Always read the draft before clicking Send — especially for external emails or sensitive content.
This is probably the biggest time-saver for your LWG calls. Copilot in Teams can generate a full meeting summary, list action items, and let you ask questions about what was discussed — all from the transcript.
Copilot needs the transcript to work after a meeting. If transcription is off, you can still use Copilot live during the call, but there is no recap afterward. Always turn it on at the start of every meeting.
During a meeting
Join or start your Teams meeting as usual.
Click the Copilot icon in the meeting toolbar (top bar).
When prompted, click Turn on transcription. This is the key step.
The Copilot panel opens on the right. You can now ask it questions live: "What was just decided?" or "Catch me up — I joined late."
At the end of the meeting, ask Copilot: "List all action items with owners."
After a meeting
Go to the meeting in your Teams calendar or find it in the meeting chat.
Click the Recap tab. This is where everything lives.
You'll see: a summary of what was discussed, action items with owners, and the full transcript.
Click Open Copilot in the top-right corner of the Recap to ask specific questions: "Was my name mentioned?" or "What was decided about the training package?"
You can export notes to Word or Excel for further editing.
Useful prompts during or after a meeting
Your new workflow: Teams call → Meeting Minutes template
This is the full pipeline that connects everything together.
The full Recap tab with AI-generated notes may require Teams Premium or the M365 Copilot enterprise license. If you don't see the Recap tab or it's limited, ask your IT admin whether your WHO account includes this feature.
Open the Microsoft 365 Copilot app (copilot.microsoft.com or through the M365 app). The left bar is your command center. Here's what each item does.
If you've used custom GPTs in ChatGPT, you already understand agents. Same concept: you give it a name, a set of instructions, and knowledge sources. From then on, you just talk to the agent — it already knows the context and the rules.
For you specifically, this means: instead of pasting the Country Report prompt every time, you could have a "GTFCC Report Agent" that already knows your role, your templates, and your filling rules. You just give it the mission notes.
Example configuration for a personal agent
Rules: replace only the bracketed text, keep all formatting and headings intact, use only content from the source document I provide, add [NO DATA IN SOURCE] where data is missing. Never invent data.
"Generate meeting minutes from today's Teams recap"
"Fill the Daily Training Notes for Day 1"
How to create it — 5 minutes
Open the Microsoft 365 Copilot app (copilot.microsoft.com).
In the left panel, find Agents → New Agent.
Describe your agent in plain language. Example: "An assistant that helps me fill GTFCC document templates using field mission notes, following strict formatting rules." Copilot will build the initial configuration for you.
Click Configure to review and refine: name, instructions, and knowledge sources.
Under Knowledge, add your SharePoint folder where the templates are stored.
Click Try it to test before saving.
Save. The agent now appears in your left bar under Agents.
1. Can you see "New Agent" in the left bar? If yes, you can build one. If it says "admin required" or is greyed out, ask WHO IT to enable Agent Builder for your account.
2. Are your templates in a SharePoint folder accessible to you? If they're only on your local desktop, move them to OneDrive or SharePoint first — the agent can only read files that are in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
A personal agent is available only to you. To share it with the whole LWG team — so anyone can click and use it — a WHO IT admin needs to publish it to the organization. This is a reasonable request to make; it's not a complex setup on their end.
Summarize thread
Top of email thread → Summarize button
Draft email
New email or Reply → Copilot icon → Draft with Copilot
Check tone
Compose email → Copilot icon → Coaching by Copilot
Enable transcription
Meeting toolbar → Copilot icon → Turn on transcription
Meeting recap
Calendar event → Recap tab → Open Copilot
Build an agent
Left bar → Agents → New Agent