Forum Discussion
Copilot in PowerPoint: Status of Word-from-OneDrive Feature for Personal Accounts
I’m trying to get clarity on the availability of a particular Copilot capability in PowerPoint for personal Microsoft accounts.
From Microsoft’s guidance, Copilot Pro users with personal (non-work) accounts should have the option to build a presentation directly from a Word file stored in OneDrive. This is reportedly done by selecting a paperclip icon or entering “/” in the Create a presentation command to choose the Word document.
Here’s what I’m experiencing:
- In both PowerPoint desktop and web, there’s no paperclip icon, and typing “/” doesn’t surface any OneDrive files.
- In Word for the web, I can connect to a document, but the desktop version doesn’t provide this option.
- I’ve seen mixed reports online—some say it’s working, others suggest it’s only live for Microsoft 365 Insider builds or specific regions.
I’d like to know:
1. Is this feature currently active for all personal accounts with Copilot Pro?
2. Could it be restricted to certain build versions, Insider channels, or geographic areas?
3. Are there prerequisites (AutoSave, file location in OneDrive, privacy settings, etc.) needed to make the option appear?
Any official confirmation on whether this is rolled out globally and the exact requirements would be very helpful.
3 Replies
I can see the same issue you do. One way around it is to copy the link of the the file from OneDrive or from the open file and paste that into the Copilot side bar. For example:
Create a presentation from [FILE]That should work for you. Hopefully the rest of the interface gets updated soon.
Thanks, I appreciate your reply. I actually discovered that workaround myself some time after my original post.
Before that, I tried something else I found online. I joined Microsoft 365 Insider on the Current Channel (Preview), updated PowerPoint, and the interface changed a bit, but it was worse. I still couldn’t create a PPT from a file using “/”, and the paperclip icon never appeared. I also tried “Create a presentation from a file” and pasted a shared OneDrive link. I got a message saying the file needed to be saved in SharePoint for it to work, which sounded like it only works with a business M365 account. I didn’t try the Beta Channel because I figured it would be the same.
I unsubscribed from Microsoft 365 Insider, PowerPoint reverted to the regular build, and then I tried your method again: “Create a presentation from a file” and paste the OneDrive link. This time it worked and generated the PPT from a Word document as Microsoft’s docs describe. The odd part was that at the end Copilot said it only partially completed the Word-to-PPT transfer because the model “lacked practice,” which felt strange given I’m on Copilot Pro.
Would you mind sharing which subscriptions you use? From what I have seen, the standard Copilot in Microsoft 365 Personal or Family did not work for this flow, and I only got it to work with Copilot Pro. That is just my observation, not official guidance, and it has been hard to find clear Microsoft documentation on this. I may have missed a document that explains it better, so your answer to this new question would really help me rule things out.
I'm just using the credits through my M365 Family subscription for home use, and I have the M365 Copilot license through work.
