Forum Discussion
Copilot Changes in New Outlook
I can't repro this. When I remove "Help me write..." text, the floating prompt remains and doesn't open the Copilot sidebar for me.
Also, it only shows that text and not the menu when the email is still empty. Which makes sense, as it can't rewrite an empty email ;-)
If I write something first, and then open Copilot, I get the full menu as per your second screenshot and nothing has been typed into the prompt yet.
FWIW: When I open Copilot with Alt+i in an empty email, I immediately press CTRL+A as well to select the "Help me write..." text. When I then start writing my prompt, it will overwrite the pre-fill prompt text.
- dblagent007May 22, 2026Brass Contributor
Here's a video showing the Copilot sidebar pop out and take over more than 50% of the window for a new email just to tell me stupid, irrelevant things like: "I've drafted the email ..." "If you'd like I can do ..." I don't want a massive amount of my window area taken up with dumb messages like this.
Also, it only shows that text and not the menu when the email is still empty. Which makes sense, as it can't rewrite an empty email ;-)
The problem is that if I enter a prompt into the box shown below, Copilot will not follow the drafting instructions I have in the Outlook settings. Prompts I enter in the box below bypass the drafting instructions in the Outlook settings, which makes it relatively useless for me.
On the other hand, prompts I enter into the old box (shown below) do follow the drafting instructions I have in the Outlook settings. And, it follows the prompts even when the email is empty ;-)
FWIW: When I open Copilot with Alt+i in an empty email, I immediately press CTRL+A as well to select the "Help me write..." text. When I then start writing my prompt, it will overwrite the pre-fill prompt text.
Yes, it's possible to remove the text in the prompt box in various ways, but it shouldn't be there in the first place.