Draft e-mail messages and summarize conversations in Outlook

- [Instructor] Copilot in Outlook can help you draft email messages or get summaries of messages you've received. Copilot works in Outlook for Windows, Outlook for Mac, and even Outlook on the web. However, for Windows users, Microsoft is rolling out a significant new version of Outlook in late 2023, and Copilot only works in that new version. So if you are a Windows user, you should take a look at the top right corner of the Outlook window to see if you have this switch to try the new version of Outlook early. Depending on when you're watching this video, you may already have the new version, or you may need to click this switch to get the preview of the new version. Or if you're using Outlook on the web or on a Mac, you can use Copilot without any extra setup. So first I'm going to select a message in my inbox. And above the message, we see the option to summarize it using Copilot. Now, this may not work on some very short messages. And it's really most useful when you have an ongoing conversation with several messages and replies like this one. So I'm going to go up to the top and click that option to get the summary. Give it a moment, and that's all you need to do. Instead of reading through all the messages and replies in this conversation, I can just read this summary and I will probably find the information I need. Next, I'm going to compose a new message. So I'll click the New Mail button up in the ribbon at the top. I'll just fill in who I'm going to send this message to. And I'll put in a subject line. Then I'll click on the body of the message. And from here, Copilot can save you time by writing a draft for your email message. When your cursor is in the body, you should find the Copilot icon in the toolbar above. And if you're working on Windows, you should make sure that the message ribbon is selected. So you can click that Copilot button, and from here you can write in your prompt. Remember, the more detail you give, the more effective the draft will be. Type in your prompt, then click Generate, and give it a moment. Take a look at the draft that it generates. If you need something different, you could click the Regenerate button. That's this circular arrow button. That will generate a new draft based on the same prompt. Or if you are using Outlook on Windows, there will be a control button just to the left of the Regenerate button. This will give you controls to change the tone or the length of the draft, or if you're using a Mac, those controls will be in menus over to the right side. But from here, I'm going to switch this to be more casual, and I'll change the length, then click Regenerate here. And after a moment, I see that modified draft. When you finally have a draft that you like, you can click the Keep button, or if you're working on a Mac, that button will say Insert. And that will place that text into the body of your email message. Now, you should always review and revise these drafts. In this case, it's listing requirements for a specific job. This is a well-known type of job, so Copilot can find information about it online. It will be based on general information, not on the specific needs for my organization. But I have a nice structure to the draft and some very useful information that I can use as a starting point.