Forum Discussion
M365 Copilot for PowerPoint doesn't refer to entire contents of the reference Word file.
We have a paid M365 Copilot license. We are trying to use it in PowerPoint to create a PPT by referring to a Word file. However, we are facing two critical short-comings:
1) The copilot gives us an error when we try to refer more than two files. It says it can't refer more than one file. However, in official documentation its clearly mentioned that M365 Copilot can receive multiple reference files. Here's the error screenshot:
2) When we do use the copilot with one single word file, the outline and PPT generated by the copilot is partial - it limits itself to referring only first 3 pages of a 4 page document. The reference word file has just 4 pages and <1100 pages, the reference word file contains total 10 sections but the PPT generated using M365 Copilot only captures 8 sections and skips the other 2 sections.
This is very critical, makes the product quite useless if its only utilizing 3 pages. We have replicated this over other reference documents as well and the results are same.
1 Reply
Hello,
Just sharing this in case someone else is wondering the same thing — the original question is still visible, but the account that posted it has been deleted. So I figured I’d share the answer here for future reference.
Can you use more than one Word file with Copilot in PowerPoint?
Currently, when you first start prompting Copilot in PowerPoint, you can only choose one Word document to base your presentation on. In the first screenshot, you can see it’s using Office Dog policy.docx(because who wouldn't love dogs? 🐶) as the source.Copilot creates an outline based on that file. Notice the “+ Add new topic” button, that’s important for what comes next.
Also good to know: at the bottom, it shows how many slides it plans to generate and reminds you what is the maximum
Once the outline is generated, you can actually add more reference files. Just hit the “+” button between sections, describe the new topic, and upload another Word doc, like in this example with Different Dog Breeds.docx:Copilot will then include content from both documents in the same presentation.
Recommendations I would suggest:
- Split the Word file into smaller documents and use them one at a time as reference material.
- Move the most important content to the beginning of the document.
- Give clearer prompts, e.g. "Create a presentation that covers all 10 sections of the reference document in one slide per section."
- Create multiple PowerPoint files, each focusing on a specific section, e.g. "Create a presentation about Section 1" in one file, "Create a presentation about Section 2" in another, and then combine them manually.
