How do I turn off Copilot in Word documents?

For any Mac users who don't have the Preferences option to turn off Copilot—which was the case for me—the only way I was able to get rid of it (after HOURS of trying various things Microsoft's website and chat were advising) was to talk with someone in Microsoft text support, who sent me a link to an older version of Word. I had to uninstall the Word app on my Macbook, then install the old version. Note that Word still opened the new-with-Copilot version until I deleted the old app from Trash and restared my computer.

One other thing: Had to be sure that automatic updates is turned off—otherwise it'll update itself to the Copilot version unbidden.

What a ROYAL PAIN.

P.S. I don't know if it'll work for you or only because it was sent to me by a Microsoft tech guy, but it's worth a shot. I tried to paste in the link but wasn't allowed. Here's a screenshot showing it, perhaps you can type in the URL to see if it'll work: