Enabling Copilot and Creating Slides

Creating Presentations With Copilot In PowerPoint

Copilot in PowerPoint can generate a full presentation — slides, structure, visuals, speaker notes — from a single prompt. This lesson covers the full flow, from the first prompt to the finished deck.

You can use PowerPoint either online at powerpoint.cloud.microsoft.com or through the desktop app. Both work the same way for Copilot.

Checking That Copilot Is Available

Look for the Copilot icon in the top-right corner of PowerPoint. If you can see it, Copilot is enabled. If you can't, sign in to your Microsoft 365 account inside PowerPoint first — the icon appears only after sign-in.

Starting A New Presentation

Open the Copilot panel and choose Create with Copilot. This opens a blank presentation along with the Create a presentation with Copilot interface, where you describe the deck you want.

If you already have a blank presentation open, click the shooting stars icon at the top-left of the slide area and pick Create a presentation about from the dropdown.

Writing A Strong Prompt

The output is only as good as the prompt. A strong prompt covers four things:

• Goal — what the presentation should be about;
• Context — who the audience is and where you'll present;
• Tone — formal, playful, technical, inspiring;
• Data — sources, facts, or types of information Copilot should draw on.

Just giving a topic ("a presentation about dance") gets you a generic deck. Adding context and tone is what makes it actually usable.

Reviewing The Outline

After you submit the prompt, Copilot generates an outline of the presentation before building any slides. You can:

• Drag sections to reorder them;
• Add missing sections with the plus (+) icon;
• Expand the scope with extra ideas.

For example, a presentation on dance could get a new closing section reflecting on how dance exists across cultures, in animals, and as a way humans feel connected and alive.

Editing the outline before generation is much cheaper than fixing slides afterwards.

Choosing The Visual Style

Next, pick how the deck should look. You can either:

• Let Copilot decide automatically by choosing Suggested;
• Select a specific presentation style yourself.

You also choose how images are added:

• AI-generated images — flexible, can match unusual concepts, but visibly synthetic;
• Stock images — real photos, better when realism matters.

If you go with AI-generated, you can also pick a visual style for them.

Generating The Slides

Copilot estimates how many slides to make based on your instructions (length, scope). When you're ready, click Generate slides.

You then preview the full deck and choose to keep it or discard it. If you keep it, the full presentation drops into PowerPoint.

What You Get In The Final Deck

Generated decks come with a few useful extras built in:

• Speaker notes on each slide, suggesting what to say;
• Automatic sections, which make navigation easier in longer decks;
• Editable slides — you can refine any of them manually after generation.

Treat Copilot's output as a strong first draft, not the final version.