Slides from Word Documents

Improving Slide Design With Copilot And Designer

Strong content alone doesn't make a strong presentation — slides that look plain or repetitive lose the audience even when the information is good. In PowerPoint, Copilot works alongside the Designer tool to improve how slides look, without changing what they say.

Using Design Suggestions

The fastest way to improve a slide's appearance is Design Suggestions from Designer.

Select the slide, then in the Copilot section at the top-right of PowerPoint click Design Suggestions. A panel opens on the right with several redesigned versions of that slide.

Suggestions may include:

• Different layouts;
• Improved spacing;
• New visual arrangements;
• Background changes;
• Better use of images and text placement.

Scroll through the options, preview them, and click one to apply it. If none of the first batch fits, click Generate more suggestions to get another set — you can keep going until something works.

Redesigning Slides With Custom Prompts

Design Suggestions is fast but constrained — Designer picks from a curated set of layouts. When you have something specific in mind that the suggestions don't cover, switch to Copilot Chat.

Select the slide (or several slides), open Copilot Chat from the top-right, and make sure Edit with Copilot is enabled. Then describe how you want the slide to look — colours, mood, structure, specific elements.

You can also apply changes to the entire presentation rather than one slide at a time, which is useful for making the whole deck visually consistent.

When To Use Which

The two tools solve different problems:

• Design Suggestions — when you don't have a specific vision and want to pick from good options quickly;
• Copilot Chat — when you know exactly what you want and need to articulate it.

Suggestions is for browsing. Chat is for instructing.

Adding Images With Copilot

If a slide feels text-heavy or visually empty, ask Copilot to add an image. Select the slide and prompt Copilot — it will generate and insert an image that matches the slide content.

You can guide the result with extra instructions about:

• Image style;
• Subject matter;
• Emotional tone;
• Consistency with the rest of the presentation.

That last one matters. If you don't specify a consistent style, AI-generated images on different slides can clash — one photorealistic, one cartoon, one minimalist. Setting style up front keeps the whole deck visually coherent.

Refining And Adjusting Images

Once an image is in place, you can keep refining through prompts:

• Change the image;
• Replace it with a different version;
• Add an additional image.

You can also crop and adjust images manually inside PowerPoint after Copilot inserts them.

Combining The Tools

The best results usually come from using both tools together:

• Design Suggestions for quick layout improvements;
• Copilot Chat for custom visual instructions;
• Image prompts for adding or refining visuals.

No single tool covers everything — but together they make it realistic to produce a presentation that looks professional without spending hours on visual polish.