Forum Discussion
Copilot Changes in New Outlook
Copilot in the New Mail has recently changed to this (I have a $30/mo subscription to Copilot through a business account):
If I click on the little circle thing or press Alt+i it displays this with the text below already filled in:
I never start prompts to Copilot with "Help me write an email to" so I always have to manually delete this text to enter the actual prompt. Once I do that, Copilot opens the full-blown sidebar with a big discussion. And to top it off, Copilot in the sidebar does not follow the Copilot drafting instructions I saved in the Copilot settings in Outlook.
This is a regression compared to how Copilot used to work, which is shown in the screen below:
Granted I only ever used "Auto rewrite" in that drop down menu so you could shorten it some. However, this version is better because: (1) it does not open a large sidebar and expect me to enter into a big discussion, (2) there is no pre-existing text in the prompt box so I can press a hotkey and quickly dictate my prompt using the built-in dictation in Windows, (3) it will follow the drafting instructions I saved in the Copilot settings in Outlook, and (4) it shows the option to Auto rewrite the text.
I want Copilot to work the way it used to work and, especially, for Alt+i to open up the latter menu in all situations. I understand that some people might want to engage in a big discussion in the sidebar with Copilot, but don't make that the default.
2 Replies
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.
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.
