In the official Microsoft 365 Insider Blog, which recently moved to a new website (now on the Tech Community forums), Microsoft announced a new feature for Word users, which should make it easier to deal with long documents.
Those with eligible Copilot licenses will soon be able to get an automatic summary right after opening a document. Too long, did not read, you know? Here is how Microsoft describes the feature in the announcement post:
We live in a world of content abundance, so we’re constantly looking for more efficient ways to process information. Microsoft Copilot can help alleviate this situation by providing an automatic summary at the top of your Word documents.
Synthesizing the most important information into a digestible format, the Copilot summary allows you to quickly comprehend key points and ideas without having to read through the entire document.
Copilot summarization is simple: just open a Word document and watch Copilot generate a summary at the top of it. You can click the "View more" button to expand the summary and then copy it or open a new chat with Copilot to discuss it. After making some edits, you will be able to generate a new summary to reflect the most recent changes. Word will also remember the last summary state and launch the document next time with the summary either collapsed or expanded.
Automatic Copilot summarization is now rolling out to select Microsoft Word users with corresponding Copilot licenses on Windows (version 16.0.17928.20114 or newer), Mac (version 16.88, build 24081116 or newer), and the web. The rollout is gradually rolling out, so check back in a few days if you do not have it yet.
You can read more about automatic Copilot summarization in Word in a post on the official Microsoft 365 Insider blog.