Inserting a New Slide with Copilot in PowerPoint 365 for Windows

Want to add a new slide in PowerPoint 365? You’ve got two main ways—think of it like cooking pasta for dinner. You can either make it from scratch (let’s call this the traditional method) or let a smart robot chef whip it up for you (this is the method that uses Copilot).

1. The Old-School Way (Traditional Slide Insertion)

This is like pulling ingredients from your fridge and cooking it all yourself.

1. Click the Home tab.
2. Hit New Slide, or press Ctrl + M (your slide-making shortcut!).
3. Pick your layout you like.

This method is great for control freaks who love to fine-tune every slide.

2. The Fancy Way (Insert with Copilot)

Now imagine saying, “Hey robot chef, make me a pasta with mushrooms and garlic,” and boom—it’s done! That’s Copilot.

This method is perfect for when you're short on time or brainpower, or if you want to explore another perspective. We will explore this method in this tutorial.

We already looked at the traditional method in our Insert New Slide in PowerPoint 365 for Windows tutorial. In this tutorial, we will explore inserting a new slide with some help from Copilot.

To insert a new slide in PowerPoint 365 using the Insert Slide with Copilot feature, follow these steps:

1. Before you start cooking up new slides, you need to open the kitchen! That means launching PowerPoint.
2. Got an existing presentation? Open it up—like reheating leftover spaghetti.
3. Want to start from scratch? Create a blank new presentation—your empty pot is ready for a fresh pasta dish!
4. Either way, you will have a presentation ready to work with, as shown in Figure 1, below.
5. 
   Figure 1: Open a presentation
2. Now that your presentation’s ready, it’s time to call in your AI kitchen helper—Copilot!
3. Go to the Insert tab on the Ribbon, and click the New Slide with Copilot button, shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, above.
4. You can also click the Copilot icon directly, highlighted in green within Figure 1. Doing so brings up the menu, shown in Figure 2, below. Click Add a Slide, highlighted in red within Figure 2.
5. 
   Figure 2: Add a slide
6. Whichever button you click—New Slide with Copilot or the Copilot icon—you’ll summon the star of the show: the Copilot dialog box, shown in Figure 3, below. Think of this as your digital recipe card—this is where you tell Copilot what kind of slide dish you’re in the mood for.
7. 
   Figure 3: Copilot dialog box

Fun Fact: Copilot Learns from You

Copilot isn’t just smart—it remembers context. If you’ve already added a few slides, it can guess what might come next better than your cousin guessing the next line in your pasta recipe!
8. Options within this dialog box are explained, as marked in Figure 3, above.

1. Prompt

9. Now it’s your turn to talk! In the Copilot box, type what you want the slide to be about. It’s like placing your order at a restaurant—the more specific you are, the better the result.
10. But hey, in this case, we’re keeping things simple on purpose, as you can see highlighted in red within Figure 4, below. Why? Because we’re about to hand Copilot a secret ingredient—a file reference that already contains details. And that’s coming up next!
11. 
    Figure 4: Add a slide about

2. Reference a file

12. Got a file (maybe a Word document or PDF) with all the details Copilot needs? Time to bring it into the mix! Click the paper clip icon (yep, just like attaching a file to an email), as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5, below. Or type a forward slash ( / ) right after your prompt. Doing so opens a handy list of files from your OneDrive or SharePoint—kind of like Copilot saying, “Hey, are you looking for one of these?” You can also try typing part of the file name… but honestly, in our experience, that’s like yelling into a pantry and hoping your favorite snack jumps out. It just doesn’t work very well, as you can see highlighted in green within Figure 5.
13. 
    Figure 5: Reference a file
14. So... typing the file name didn’t work? Don’t worry—we’ve got a foolproof workaround! Here’s what you do: open the file you want Copilot to read and copy a Share link instead. Think of it like sending Copilot a map to exactly where your secret recipe is hidden. This technique works best with a Word document saved on OneDrive or SharePoint.
15. First, open the document—either in Word versions for the desktop or Word for the Web. Hit the Share button (usually top-right, looking all friendly), highlighted in green within Figure 6, below. In the little menu that pops up, click Copy Link…, highlighted in red within Figure 6. Voilà! You’ve got a link Copilot can follow to fetch the goods.
16. 
    Figure 6: Copy the file link
17. Now, type a forward slash ( / ) into the Copilot box—this tells it, “Hey, I’ve got something for you!” Then paste the Share link you copied from Microsoft Word. You’ll see the file show up in the Copilot box—check out the red highlight within Figure 7, below. Next, just hit the big Send button, highlighted in green within Figure 7. That’s like saying, “Go, Copilot, go!”
18. 
    Figure 7: Paste link to reference file

3. Start with a prompt

19. Copilot provides some prompt templates that you can customize and use. Click on the one you want to use so the content is copied to the Prompt area.
4. Copiot will now work to create and add your new PowerPoint slide. You will see the Working on it and Finishing up messages, as shown in Figure 8, below.
5. 
   Figure 8: Working and finishing
5. Once the slide is generated, review its content. You will see the new slide generated, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 9, below. You can make manual edits. If you are happy with the results, you can click the Keep it button, highlighted in green within Figure 9. You can also reject this slide by clicking the Delete button, highlighted in blue within Figure 9. You will also see more variations of the slide in the Designer pane, as shown highlighted in purple within Figure 9.
6. 
   Figure 9: Review the new slide

So, what method should you use to add a new slide in your existing PowerPoint presentation? Use the traditional method when you want full control and enjoy the process. Use Copilot when you want to skip the grunt work and let AI handle the heavy lifting.