Draft a promotion kickoff document from your notes with Copilot in Word

What This Does

Every promotion needs one internal document that sales, finance, legal, the agency contact and the printer can all point to. Copilot in Word turns your rough notes into that kickoff document in a fixed layout: promotion code, a one-line objective, timeline, owners, assets needed, approvals and open decisions. It does not write talking points or a creative brief, and it never writes offer terms.

Before You Start

• Word is open with a blank document, and your notes are in the document or in a file you can reference. Microsoft's page says Copilot can start a draft from a prompt, an outline, notes or a referenced file.
• You can see the Copilot button in the corner of your document. Microsoft's page says that if you do not see it, it may not be included in your Microsoft 365 subscription or may be switched off by your organization. Ask IT, and see Microsoft's pricing pages for license details.
• You have the legal-approved summary of the offer terms open beside you. Legal owns the terms and the fine print.
• Your notes use promotion code names and codes such as "Retailer A" where terms or dates are confidential. Check your company's AI policy before you paste unreleased plans.

Steps

1. Put your notes in the document

Paste your notes at the bottom of a new document, or save them in a separate Word file. Keep them rough. Include dates, who owns what, which assets are needed and which approvals are pending.

2. Open Copilot and give it the layout

Select the Copilot button in the corner of the document. Microsoft's page says the chat pane opens with Edit mode on, where you can type a prompt. Send:

"Using the notes below, draft a promotion kickoff document with these headings: Promotion code, Objective (one line), Timeline, Owners, Assets needed, Approvals (legal, finance, retailer), Open decisions. Use only information in my notes. Where a date, owner or figure is missing, write 'To be confirmed' and do not guess. Do not write offer terms, talking points or creative direction."

To use a separate file, type / in the chat pane and start typing its name. Microsoft's page describes this as the way to point Copilot at a document.

3. Review the preview

Microsoft's page says Copilot shows a preview of suggested changes in chat in a shared document, and nothing is added until you approve. Read the draft against your notes. Keep it, discard it or refine it with a follow-up such as "Move all approvals into a table with a Status column."

4. Check every fact

Compare each date and each owner against the plan, and each figure against the source it came from. Replace the offer line with the wording from the legal-approved summary, copied as written. Delete any sentence you cannot trace to your notes. Then send the document to the owners listed and ask each to confirm their own lines.

Real Example

Scenario: An invented promotion coded SPRING-A for Brand X at Retailer A. Notes say: objective is to lift shelf visibility in spring, proof due in week 3, legal review due in week 4, printer file date in week 5, owners are initials AB for creative and CD for finance, and the retailer feature slot is not confirmed.

What you get: A one-page document with the headings above. The retailer feature slot appears under Open decisions, and any date your notes did not give reads "To be confirmed". If Copilot adds a date or a discount you never mentioned, delete it.

Tips

• Ask for a summary of open decisions only after you have checked the draft. It will repeat any error already in the document.
• Select Chat only if you want Copilot to answer questions in the pane without changing the document, as Microsoft's page describes.
• Keep a note of which documents Copilot drafted, in case your company asks.

Tool interfaces change. If a button has moved, look for similar Copilot options in the same area of Word.