How to Use Copilot Skills in PowerPoint

This is part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot Skills series. Start with the hub if you want the difference between a Skill, prompt, plugin, connector, and agent.

PowerPoint Skills let you save a repeatable presentation method and call it again from Copilot. You can choose a Skill from the prompt box, invoke one with an @ mention, turn Skills on or off, and add your own custom SKILL.md.

That is the useful bit: you stop retyping the same long instruction every time you need a deck reviewed, a summary slide created, or a presentation cleaned up.

Official UI reference: Microsoft Support — Copilot in PowerPoint Skills.

The short version

• Open Copilot in PowerPoint.
• Select the + menu in the prompt box.
• Select Choose skills.
• Pick a Skill, or type its name as an @ mention.
• Use Settings > Manage skills to turn Skills on or off.
• Add a custom Skill by uploading it, pasting it through Add skill, or placing its folder in OneDrive.
• Keep the Skill in its own folder with a SKILL.md file.
• Make the folder name match the name field exactly.
• Uploaded custom Skills are for your personal use.

Before you start

You need Copilot in PowerPoint to see the Skills experience.

Microsoft’s PowerPoint Skills support page says Copilot might be missing because:

• it is not included with your Microsoft 365 subscription; or
• your organisation’s settings do not make it available.

Microsoft’s June 2026 feature update says reusable PowerPoint Skills rolled out in July 2026. The support page does not list every supported PowerPoint platform, update channel, or licence combination.

Things to know

If another person can see Choose skills and you cannot, do not assume your app is broken. Check your licence, organisation settings, update channel, and rollout state first. The exact availability matrix is not fully documented publicly.

Choose a Skill in PowerPoint

The quickest route starts in the Copilot prompt box.

1. Open the presentation you want to work on.
2. Open Copilot in PowerPoint.
3. Select the + menu in the prompt field.
4. Select Choose skills.
5. Pick the Skill you want Copilot to use.
6. Add the rest of your request and send it.

The list can include:

• Skills provided by Copilot in PowerPoint; and
• custom Skills you uploaded.

Official UI reference: Microsoft Support — choose Skills in PowerPoint.

Use an @mention instead

You do not have to open the picker every time.

Type @ followed by the Skill name in your prompt:

@copyedit-this-presentation

Review this deck for spelling, grammar, repeated wording, and unclear slide titles.
Keep the meaning and tone. Show me the proposed changes before I accept them.

Microsoft uses @copyedit-this-presentation as its public example. The @ mention makes your choice explicit: you are telling Copilot which reusable method to apply.

For a one-off task, a normal prompt might be enough. Use a Skill when the method is worth repeating.

Manage which Skills PowerPoint can use

PowerPoint can also select a relevant enabled Skill automatically.

To control that list:

1. Open the Settings menu in the upper-right corner of the Copilot pane.
2. Select Manage skills.
3. Turn individual Skills on or off.

Official UI reference: Microsoft Support — manage PowerPoint Skills. Capture the full pane so the toggles and Skill names are readable.

Turning a Skill off has two effects:

• Copilot stops using it automatically.
• The Skill no longer appears in the Skill dropdown.

Turning it off does not mean you have deleted its OneDrive folder. It only removes that Skill from the active PowerPoint experience.

Add your own custom Skill

Microsoft documents three routes. They all lead to the same basic result: a custom Skill stored in your OneDrive Skills folder.

Option 1: Upload a Skill from PowerPoint

1. In the Copilot prompt box, select +.
2. Select Choose skills.
3. Scroll to the end of the list.
4. Select Manage skills.
5. Select Add skill.
6. Upload or drag and drop the Skill files.

Official UI reference: Microsoft Support — upload a PowerPoint Skill. Capture both the Add menu and upload panel.

PowerPoint saves the uploaded Skill to your OneDrive Skills folder. Microsoft says it should then be available from the Skill dropdown.

If it does not appear, open Manage skills and select Refresh.

Things to know

A custom Skill uploaded this way is for your personal use. The public PowerPoint page does not describe a tenant-wide publishing workflow for the picker. Treat organisation-published PowerPoint Skills as unconfirmed rather than borrowing Cowork’s plugin deployment model.

Option 2: Paste a Skill through Add skill

The Add skill flow also provides a form where you can paste the Skill.

After you select Add, PowerPoint saves it to the same OneDrive Skills location.

This route is useful when:

• the Skill is short;
• you want to make a quick change before saving it; or
• someone has given you the SKILL.md content rather than a ready-made folder.

Before you paste anything, read it. A Skill is an instruction set that Copilot will follow.

Option 3: Add the folder directly in OneDrive

You can manage the files yourself:

1. In the Copilot pane, open Settings.
2. Select Manage skills.
3. Select Custom skills.
4. Select Create OneDrive folder.
5. Select Open skills folder.
6. Add one folder per Skill.
7. Put SKILL.md inside each folder.
8. Return to PowerPoint and select Refresh.

This is the clearest route when you want to manage the Skill folder yourself. Keep the first version simple: one folder and one SKILL.md. If you add references, templates, or other companion files, test that PowerPoint actually uses them before relying on them.

The SKILL.md format PowerPoint expects

Each custom Skill needs its own folder:

create-executive-summary-slide/
└── SKILL.md

The file starts with YAML frontmatter and continues with Markdown instructions:

---
name: create-executive-summary-slide
description: >
  Creates one executive-summary slide from the current presentation.
  Use when the user asks for an executive summary, leadership overview,
  or one-slide recap of the deck.
---

# Create an executive-summary slide

## Workflow

1. Read the current presentation.
2. Identify the three to five points a leader needs first.
3. Create one new slide after the title slide.
4. Follow the presentation's existing theme and layout.
5. Keep each point short and do not invent missing facts.

## Output

Use one clear title and no more than five summary points.

The two required frontmatter fields are:

The open Agent Skills specification adds the exact naming rules:

• name must be 1-64 characters;
• use lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens;
• do not start or end with a hyphen;
• do not use consecutive hyphens;
• make the name match the parent folder exactly.

Folder: create-executive-summary-slide
name: create-executive-summary-slide

That matches.

Folder: create-executive-summary-slide
name: executive-summary

That does not.

PowerPoint skips a folder when its folder name does not match the name in SKILL.md.

Edit, replace, disable, or delete a Skill

Open Manage skills, then open Custom skills.

Depending on the Skill and how it was added, the pane can show actions such as:

• Edit
• Replace
• Delete

Official UI reference: Microsoft Support — edit or remove PowerPoint Skills. Use a lab Skill name with no customer or tenant data.

Microsoft’s page text documents Edit and Delete. Its public screenshot also shows Replace for one uploaded Skill. Which action appears can depend on the upload method; check your own tenant.

Use the actions for different jobs:

Official UI reference: Microsoft Support — refresh custom PowerPoint Skills.

What makes a good PowerPoint Skill?

A good PowerPoint Skill has a narrow job and a visible finish line.

The first column gives Copilot something it can finish and you can review.

Include presentation-specific rules

Useful instructions can cover:

• where the new slide should go;
• how many slides or bullets to create;
• whether to preserve the existing theme;
• whether to use speaker notes;
• what source material to use;
• what Copilot must not invent;
• how to handle a missing fact;
• what the final output should look like.

Keep the description practical

The description helps Copilot decide when to use the Skill.

Weak:

description: Helps with presentations.

Stronger:

description: >
  Reviews the current PowerPoint presentation for repeated wording,
  unclear slide titles, and inconsistent terminology. Use when the user
  asks to copyedit, proofread, or check presentation consistency.

The stronger version says what the Skill does and gives Copilot the words that should trigger it.

Troubleshooting

Admin note

The public PowerPoint page focuses on personal Skills. It says users can add Skills created by their organisation, but it does not document the same admin deployment workflow that Microsoft publishes for Cowork plugins.

That leaves two open questions:

1. whether admins can centrally allow or block personal PowerPoint Skill uploads; and
2. whether packaged or organisation-published Skills appear directly in the PowerPoint picker.

Do not fill those gaps with the Cowork answer. They are different surfaces.

Continue the Copilot Skills series

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Skills, explained — the hub: format, distribution, portability, and governance.
• Skills in Excel — end-user Skills and the separate Office.js developer preview.
• Skills in Word — the current Word experience and the standalone-picker question.
• Cowork Skill packaging and distribution — packages, connectors, MCP, validation, and publishing.
• Write your first SKILL.md — the hands-on authoring guide.
• Admin and governance for Copilot Skills — controls, permissions, Purview, and rollout decisions.

Official public sources

• Microsoft Support — Copilot in PowerPoint Skills
• Microsoft 365 Copilot June 2026 feature update
• Agent Skills specification