Free15 min

Set Up Your First Copilot Notebook

Go from one-off chats to using AI strategically by creating a dedicated space that holds your files, your past work, and how you want Copilot to respond.

Learn

The easiest way to get strategic with AI

Leveling up starts with one move: learning to use Copilot Notebooks.

Setting up a Notebook takes a few minutes up front and then keeps paying off, with less repeating yourself, better results, and a real feel for using AI strategically in your day-to-day.

In the next 15 minutes, you'll build one to help with something you're working on.

Notebooks require a paid Microsoft 365 Business, Enterprise, or Personal plan (starting at $9.99/month).

What's a Copilot Notebook?

A Copilot Notebook holds three things:

Instructions that tell Copilot how to respond every time you open a new chat in the Notebook. (Think of this like a prompt automatically read at the start of each conversation.)
References you attach: Word docs, PowerPoint decks, Excel sheets, PDFs, Loop files, Copilot Pages, OneNote pages, plus OneDrive files and SharePoint folders.
Chats that pull in your references and instructions automatically, and accumulate inside the Notebook as your project evolves.

Without a Notebook: you re-point Copilot at the right files and re-explain how you want it to respond every time.

With a Notebook: the references and the instructions live with the Notebook. Every new chat inside it starts with all of it already loaded (no re-pasting or reframing).

Three ways to use Notebooks

Notebooks aren't just a way to get organized. Instructions make it so you can use them for different types of work:

Initiatives: Use them as a helper for conversations tied to related work like a launch, a campaign, a Q3 strategy, a presentation you are building, etc.
Tasks or workflows: Give them specific instructions that speed up reoccurring work like building a weekly status report, brainstorming your editorial calendar, helping prep your monthly board update.
Specialist feedback or perspective: Have your Notebook act as a role like your CMO giving feedback, a business advisor for strategy questions, or a target customer reacting to content drafts.

Creating Notebooks for the latter two will get you to think about AI strategically, helping you:

Spot where AI can help with processes
Find ways to use AI for new and unique perspectives
Learn to design and edit instructions (prompts) so the Notebook meets your needs repeatedly

How do Notebooks differ from other Copilot features?

If you're a regular Copilot user, you may be thinking Notebooks sound like other features you're familiar with. Here's how they compare:

Regular Copilot Chat: The default Copilot prompt box you use across Microsoft 365. Ad hoc, no curated references, no scoped instructions. Best for one-off questions. A Notebook is focused with references and instructions.
Copilot Pages: AI-generated canvases you capture from a Copilot response and make editable and shareable. Pages hold a single response, not a curated reference set. Pages and Notebooks can stack: you can add a Page into a Notebook as a reference.
Copilot Projects: Available to free users to group chats and add reference files. Unlike Notebooks, Projects do not support instructions or sharing.
Copilot Agents: Custom Copilot assistants built to answer questions. Agents are static, you set them up and others use them. Notebooks are the opposite: a living workspace you and a few collaborators keep evolving as a project moves.

Key takeaways

01If you're asking Copilot about the same area of work repeatedly, or feeding it the same files and background, a Notebook is the better setup.
02A Notebook holds three things: references, instructions, and chats that inherit both automatically. Every new chat inside it starts already grounded.
03Projects work for a specific initiative, a recurring task or workflow, or a perspective you want Copilot to play. The last two are where AI starts working strategically with you.

Your Turn

Now it's time to set one up. Follow the four steps below to create a Notebook anchored to your work.

Step 01

Pick your area of work

If you're unsure where to start or weighing some options, this prompt will help.

Try this prompt

Pick the area of work for your Copilot Notebook

Use this prompt to find the right topic to build your Notebook around, one where persistent references and Copilot instructions will pay off. Just paste it in a new chat window to get started.

Your AI platform may paste this prompt as an attachment instead of text. Once pasted, hit enter to get started.

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Step 02

Create the Notebook and load references

Now that you identified your area of work, you're going to create your first Notebook in Copilot and attach reference material.

Open Copilot Chat (or the Microsoft 365 Copilot app). In the left sidebar, click square menu button to expand the list, then click Notebooks.

Click Create Copilot Notebook. Name it after the area of work you locked in.

Under your Notebook's chat box, find References and Chats toggle. Click the + to the right side to add any reference files.

Above your Notebook's chat box, click Add Copilot instructions to include a prompt AI will read at the start of each chat.

[OPTIONAL] To bring past chats into a Notebook, hover over a chat in the sidebar, click ..., and choose Add to notebook.

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Step 03

Draft your Notebook's Copilot instructions

Copilot instructions tell Copilot how to respond inside every chat in this Notebook. Run this prompt to help your Notebook stay on task.

Try this prompt

Draft your Notebook's Copilot instructions

This prompt helps you write Copilot instructions grounded in your Notebook's background, the references you loaded, and the shape your Notebook takes (knowledge base, specific initiative, or recurring workstream). It produces a draft for you to add to your Notebook's Copilot instructions field. Copy the prompt and paste it in a new chat window in your Notebook to get started.

Your AI platform may paste this prompt as an attachment instead of text. Once pasted, hit enter to get started.

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Step 04

Make Notebooks part of your work

You've built your first Notebook. From here, two things keep you leveling up: get comfortable using and refining this one, and learn to spot opportunities to create new ones.

Use and refine this Notebook

Open a new chat inside the Notebook whenever you work on this topic.
Edit the instructions or add and update files as the work evolves.

Create new Notebooks

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Get Credit

Submission

Describe the Notebook you built. What will it help you with?

Heads up: the person who shared this link with you will be able to see what you submit.

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