9 ways Copilot can turbocharge OneNote
Microsoft OneNote is a robust note-taking tool in its own right, but the integration of Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant, takes it to a whole new level. In this guide, we highlight a handful of Copilot functions in OneNote that speed up and enhance how you work with your notes, from summarizing the contents of a notebook to creating visual materials from its data.
(We have a separate story that introduces OneNote’s interface, layout, and tools and another that covers Copilot’s writing capabilities in OneNote, Word, and Outlook.)
Who can use Copilot in OneNote
To use Copilot in OneNote, you need a subscription to a Microsoft 365 Personal or Family plan, a Copilot Pro plan, or a Microsoft 365 Copilot business plan. Users with a Copilot Pro plan or a consumer Microsoft 365 plan can only use Copilot in the OneNote desktop app for Windows; business users under a Microsoft 365 Copilot plan can also use it in the web, Mac, and iPad apps.
Caution: Like all generative AI tools, Copilot can make mistakes, so you should always check its output for accuracy.
In this article:
Using the Copilot sidebar
Summarize your notes or meetings
Organize your notes
Create templates for meetings, outlines, tables, and task lists
Create study materials
Create charts, diagrams, mind maps, and other visuals
Find and cite sources
Transform your notes to Excel, PowerPoint, or Word
Brainstorm with you
Translate your notes into other languages
More actions with the Copilot pop-up menu
Using the Copilot sidebar
For most of the tips in this story, you’ll interact with Copilot via a sidebar to the right of the main OneNote pane. To get started, open a notebook in OneNote, then select a page in the notebook to open it in the main window.
Next, click the Home tab at the upper left of the screen. Click the Copilot icon toward the right of the Home toolbar; the Copilot pane will open along the right.
When you first open the sidebar, you’ll see a few cards with suggested prompts for Copilot. They guide you through how to use Copilot’s main features. You can customize one of these prompts, or write your own prompt inside the chat box at the bottom of the sidebar.
srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-01-copilot-sidebar.jpg?quality=50&strip=all 505w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-01-copilot-sidebar.jpg?resize=159%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 159w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-01-copilot-sidebar.jpg?resize=369%2C697&quality=50&strip=all 369w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-01-copilot-sidebar.jpg?resize=89%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 89w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-01-copilot-sidebar.jpg?resize=44%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 44w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-01-copilot-sidebar.jpg?resize=254%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 254w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-01-copilot-sidebar.jpg?resize=190%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 190w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-01-copilot-sidebar.jpg?resize=132%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 132w” width=”505″ height=”955″ sizes=”(max-width: 505px) 100vw, 505px”>The Copilot chat sidebar in OneNote.
Microsoft
Icons at the bottom of the chat box allow you to clear previous prompts you’ve entered and results generated by Copilot, list suggested prompts and templates to have Copilot work from, and turn on your PC microphone so you can prompt or chat with Copilot by speaking aloud.
Once you’ve entered a prompt, Copilot generates a result for you. Depending on the kind of content that you requested, the generated text may have citation numbers throughout it. Clicking a number will show the source that Copilot used to create the corresponding passage, which is based on pages in your notebook, or from the internet.
srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-02-copilot-sidebar-result.png?quality=50&strip=all 348w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-02-copilot-sidebar-result.png?resize=169%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 169w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-02-copilot-sidebar-result.png?resize=95%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 95w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-02-copilot-sidebar-result.png?resize=47%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 47w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-02-copilot-sidebar-result.png?resize=271%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 271w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-02-copilot-sidebar-result.png?resize=203%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 203w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-02-copilot-sidebar-result.png?resize=141%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 141w” width=”348″ height=”616″ sizes=”(max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px”>Copilot generates results in the sidebar and provides follow-up prompts.
Howard Wen / Foundry
You can copy Copilot’s result to your PC clipboard (click the Copy button at the end of the result) and/or click the thumbs up or thumbs down icon to rate it.
There may also be one or more suggested prompts that appear above the text entry box, and a circular arrow icon below these prompts. You can click any of these to have Copilot generate another result.
Or you can enter a new prompt in the chat box, such as asking Copilot a follow-up question to the initial result it generated.
Here are some of the most useful things you can have Copilot do in OneNote:
1. Summarize your notes or meetings
As you add text, images, tables, and more to your pages, and add more pages to your notebooks, you may find that your notebooks become lengthy, disorganized, and hard to follow. This can be a particular problem in a shared notebook with multiple people creating and adding to pages. Copilot can generate a summary of a notebook’s contents to help you get a sense of what’s in it.
Or say different co-workers took notes in a shared notebook during the same meeting. Copilot can synthesize these disparate notes into a single meeting summary.
To get started, select the item(s) you want Copilot to summarize:
To summarize the notes on a single page, open the page.
To summarize part of a page, select a passage of text on the page. Ideally, you should select a good chunk of text, perhaps a few hundred words.
To summarize more than one page in the same section of a notebook, hold the Shift key and, in the panel to the left of the main window, select the pages you want summarized.
To summarize all the pages in that section, select the section title in the far left panel.
Once you’ve selected your page, pages, section, or text passages, type a prompt into the Copilot side panel that instructs it to generate a summary.
In your request, you can include specific ways you want the summary to be formatted. For example, if it’s a summary of a meeting, you can ask it to try to extract the agenda highlights and issues that were discussed during it.
Examples:
Summarize my notes
Summarize my notes and highlight key points in them
Summarize these meeting notes, highlighting agenda items and issues
srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-03-summarize-page.png?quality=50&strip=all 348w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-03-summarize-page.png?resize=170%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 170w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-03-summarize-page.png?resize=95%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 95w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-03-summarize-page.png?resize=48%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 48w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-03-summarize-page.png?resize=272%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 272w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-03-summarize-page.png?resize=204%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 204w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-03-summarize-page.png?resize=141%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 141w” width=”348″ height=”615″ sizes=”(max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px”>Copilot can summarize a page in OneNote.
Howard Wen / Foundry
2. Organize your notes
It’s important to keep your pages organized, especially as you create more of them and make changes to them.
You can prompt Copilot to organize the pages in a section, such as ordering them by the date they were created. To do this, select the section, then type a prompt in the Copilot sidebar instructing the AI to organize the pages in it.
Examples:
Organize this section
Organize this section by date
Copilot will analyze the pages and present its suggested organizational outline for the section. If you like what you see, click the Apply button, and the pages in the section will be reorganized.
You can also prompt Copilot to organize the notes on a page. Select the page so that it appears in the main window. Then in the Copilot sidebar, enter a prompt instructing Copilot to organize it.
Examples:
Organize my notes
Organize these notes into categories
Organize these notes by their tags
Copilot will present its suggested outline for the page. Click the Apply button, and the notes on the page will be reorganized.
srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-04-organize.png?quality=50&strip=all 349w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-04-organize.png?resize=169%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 169w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-04-organize.png?resize=95%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 95w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-04-organize.png?resize=47%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 47w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-04-organize.png?resize=271%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 271w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-04-organize.png?resize=203%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 203w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-04-organize.png?resize=141%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 141w” width=”349″ height=”618″ sizes=”(max-width: 349px) 100vw, 349px”>Copilot can analyze a OneNote page and suggest how to organize it.
Howard Wen / Foundry
3. Create templates for meetings, outlines, tables, and task lists
Let’s say you have a regular monthly meeting. Having a template for it that you can simply fill out each time would be convenient. Just tell Copilot to create a template for a meeting — and list the headings that it should contain.
Example:
Create a meeting template with these sections: attendees, minutes, agenda, points discussed, action items
Likewise, you can tell Copilot to generate an outline and specify what the section titles should be.
If you want a table, describe how many columns and rows it should have, and list the text that certain cells should have inside them.
Example:
Create a table that’s 4 by 6 with the words Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Orlando in the first row
For task (to-do) lists, tell Copilot to generate a task list and list the to-do items on it.
Examples:
Create a to-do list with the following tasks: Research the market, Interview clients, Book plane tickets, Renew app license
Create a task list for conducting a job interview
A task list generated by Copilot.
Howard Wen / Foundry
Once Copilot generates a result that you’re happy with, copy and paste it onto a page.
To save this page as a template to reuse later: Click Insert on the toolbar and select Page Templates. On the Templates side panel that opens along the right, click Save current page as a template at the bottom. You’ll be prompted to enter a name for your custom template.
To insert your customized template onto a page: Click Insert on the toolbar and select the down arrow to the right of Page Templates to open a dropdown. Your new custom template should appear on the list. Click it to insert it onto the page.
Alternatively, open the Templates side panel as described above. Below “Always use a specific template,” click to open the dropdown. Scroll through the listing of templates to find and select your custom template.
Tip: As you add notes to a page, Copilot may see that you’re entering information that can be formatted as a task list. For example, references to an assignment that you or a co-worker should do may trigger Copilot to set up a to-do list that you can track on the page.
4. Create study materials
If you need to study information in your notes for an upcoming meeting or presentation, Copilot can determine the key points you should know. You can also ask Copilot to create flashcards, a quiz, or a study guide based on the notes in your pages.
Examples:
Create flashcards based on the contents of this page
Create a study guide from my notes
5. Create charts, diagrams, mind maps, and other visuals
By looking for patterns, relationships, trends, and so on in your notes, Copilot may be able to generate appropriate charts or diagrams. Or if a page contains a list of ideas that you wrote, it may create a mind map that visualizes the relationships among them.
Example:
Create a chart based on this page
srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-06-create-chart.png?quality=50&strip=all 347w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-06-create-chart.png?resize=167%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 167w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-06-create-chart.png?resize=94%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 94w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-06-create-chart.png?resize=47%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 47w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-06-create-chart.png?resize=267%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 267w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-06-create-chart.png?resize=201%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 201w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-06-create-chart.png?resize=139%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 139w” width=”347″ height=”623″ sizes=”(max-width: 347px) 100vw, 347px”>Depending on the information in your notes, Copilot may be able to generate charts or other visualizations from it.
Howard Wen / Foundry
This can work the other way around too: Copilot can analyze the data in charts, graphs, and tables that you’ve added to a page. Then it can summarize any insights, patterns or trends that it finds in them.
Example:
Summarize the table on this page
6. Find and cite sources
You can ask Copilot to search the internet for specific information — such as facts, sources, and statistics — or to define complex concepts or technical terms. This can be helpful if you need to look up more information about the topic you’re writing about, add sources to support the content on your page, or get some fresh ideas. Copilot can generate citations in APA, Chicago, or MLA style.
Example:
Find a statistic about the adoption rate of gen AI in business, and cite the source in MLA style
srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-07-cite-source.png?quality=50&strip=all 348w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-07-cite-source.png?resize=170%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 170w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-07-cite-source.png?resize=95%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 95w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-07-cite-source.png?resize=48%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 48w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-07-cite-source.png?resize=272%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 272w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-07-cite-source.png?resize=204%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 204w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-07-cite-source.png?resize=142%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 142w” width=”348″ height=”613″ sizes=”(max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px”>Copilot web search results with MLA-style citation.
Howard Wen / Foundry
7. Transform your notes to Excel, PowerPoint, or Word
Copilot can convert the content in a OneNote page into other Microsoft 365 file formats. Try instructing it to turn the page that’s open in the main pane into an Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, or Word document.
Example:
Turn this page into a document for Word
8. Brainstorm with you
Copilot can act as your brainstorming partner. Try chatting with it as you would with a co-worker where you’re bouncing ideas off each other. During these sessions, Copilot can offer suggestions and may provide a mind map.
Examples:
What are some things I should consider when holding an online meeting with 8 people who are spread across 3 time zones
Give me ideas for an online marketing campaign for a new coffeehouse
9. Translate your notes into other languages
Copilot can translate the text on a page into another language.
Example:
Translate this page to Spanish
srcset=”https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-08-translate.png?quality=50&strip=all 348w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-08-translate.png?resize=171%2C300&quality=50&strip=all 171w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-08-translate.png?resize=96%2C168&quality=50&strip=all 96w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-08-translate.png?resize=48%2C84&quality=50&strip=all 48w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-08-translate.png?resize=273%2C480&quality=50&strip=all 273w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-08-translate.png?resize=205%2C360&quality=50&strip=all 205w, https://b2b-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/copilot-in-onenote-08-translate.png?resize=142%2C250&quality=50&strip=all 142w” width=”348″ height=”611″ sizes=”(max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px”>Copilot has not only translated the page to Spanish, but offers follow-up prompts in Spanish as well.
Howard Wen / Foundry
(For more ideas of what you can do with the Copilot sidebar in OneNote, check out Microsoft’s gallery of Copilot prompts for OneNote.)
More actions with the Copilot pop-up menu
As you add content to, edit, or otherwise work on a page, you can apply a few Copilot actions to it without invoking the Copilot sidebar.
Click the cursor somewhere on the page; if Copilot is available to do an action, its icon will appear to the left of the cursor. Or you can right-click somewhere on the page, and from the menu that opens, select Copilot.
In either instance, a small menu presents you with three actions that Copilot can do: Summarize page, Create a task list, and Rewrite page.
This mini menu appears when you click the Copilot icon next to your cursor in the main OneNote window.
Howard Wen / Foundry
Summarizing a page and creating a task list are the same as described above. Rewrite page is just what it sounds like: asking Copilot to come up with alternate text for the page. (For more details, see our guide to using Copilot for writing tasks in Word, Outlook, and OneNote.)
Copilot can rewrite the text on a page — but its output is often generic and bland.
Howard Wen / Foundry
In the OneNote Windows app, you may see one additional option in this Copilot mini menu: Take notes with Copilot. This feature is gradually rolling out to users, so you might not have it yet.
We have not been able to test it, but according to Microsoft, you’ll be able to type in a prompt to have Copilot pull in information from other Microsoft 365 apps such as Outlook, Word, and Teams and turn it into a note. For instance, you could ask Copilot to create a task list for a project from documents, emails, and Teams chats about the project.Apple, Google, others join White House digital health data push – ComputerworldRead More