Forum Discussion
Share a Word document with a Copilot-generated summary Error
Has anyone had any success having Copilot generate a summary of a Word document when sharing? This recently became available but none of our Copilot users have seen it work.
None of the files are encrypted, which is stated as a requirement. Surely this will work eventually, but I am looking to confirm it is not just our users.
- It seems to be an issue with Copilot generating summaries for shared Word documents even though it's a recently introduced feature. Here's what you can gather from the information provided:
Shared Document Summary Not Working: Multiple users are reporting Copilot not generating summaries for shared Word documents.
Encryption Not the Cause: The documents are confirmed to be unencrypted, eliminating a potential cause mentioned in requirements.
Possible Upcoming Fix: The user expresses hope for a future solution.
While there's no confirmed fix yet, here are some alternative approaches:
Work with Local Copy: If possible, download a local copy of the document and try generating a summary with Copilot.
Summarize Manually: Unfortunately, this might be the only option for now if a local copy isn't feasible.
It might be helpful to report this issue to Microsoft directly through their support channels. This can raise awareness and potentially expedite a solution. You can find their support contact information on the Microsoft website. MarcusC_83, did you ever get this working? I only tried it today and 9/10 files fail with the "Unable to summarize for this file" error.
I have not seen this work yet. The message we are receiving now, on new files and those initially tested, is that Copilot can't access the content due to our organization policy. But there's nothing I can find in documentation pointing to what organization policy is preventing this. Nor have we configured anything such as Restricted SharePoint Search that may be causing this.
- Thanks MarcusC_83 and others. In my experience it fails randomly on similar Word files in the same folder with exact same permissions / policies. So I'm thinking something in the contents could be the reason blocking, like embedded video files or some complex table format etc. the AI can't crunch through easily.
- There are a couple of reasons why your users might not be seeing Copilot-generated summaries when sharing Word documents:
License Requirements:
Copilot document summaries are currently only available to users with a Copilot for Microsoft 365 or Copilot Pro license.
Double-check that the users attempting to share documents have the necessary licenses.
Feature Availability:
This feature is still relatively new and might be gradually rolling out.
Even if users have the correct licenses, it's possible the functionality isn't fully available in their specific region or tenant yet.
Document Compatibility:
As you mentioned, encrypted documents are not supported.
Ensure none of the documents being shared have encryption applied.
