AB-730 Lab: Draft a Document with Copilot in Word

LAB - Working with Copilot In MS Word is a short hands-on lab from the free AB-730 Microsoft 365 Copilot course, in which you use Copilot to draft, refine and rewrite a real business document. It is for AB-730 candidates and everyday Word users who want to see exactly which buttons to press and what Copilot produces at each step.

The lab is only about six minutes long, which makes it an easy one to repeat yourself straight after watching. It comes right after the architecture theory lesson on the AB-730 course page, so it is the first time you see the ideas from that lesson in a real app.

What this lab covers

The lab is set in an HR department at a sample company, Contoso Limited. The team has five tasks across Microsoft 365, each done with Copilot in a different app:

1. Word: create an employee onboarding guide for new hires joining the engineering department.
2. Excel: analyse employee attrition data and find the departments with the highest turnover.
3. Outlook: draft a policy update email to all employees about a new remote work policy.
4. PowerPoint: prepare a training presentation on an updated employee benefits package.
5. Meetings: summarise a team meeting about the benefits package from a recorded transcript.

This video covers the first task, in Word. The goal of the whole exercise, as the lab explains, is to observe how the same Copilot adapts its behaviour, output format and capabilities across different Microsoft 365 apps.

In Word, you go through three Copilot actions:

• Draft with Copilot. From a blank document, you give Copilot a detailed prompt for the onboarding guide, including a welcome message, a first-week schedule, an IT set-up checklist, key contacts and compliance policies. Copilot generates a structured document with headings, bullet points and sections, and you choose Keep it.
• Refine one section. You select only the IT set-up checklist and ask Copilot to make it more detailed by adding specific software tools such as VS Code, Azure DevOps, Teams and GitHub. Copilot updates just that section.
• Rewrite. You select a paragraph, choose rewrite, pick the selected section rather than the whole document, compare the alternative versions and click Replace.

The lab’s conclusion: Copilot in Word focuses on long-form text generation, structured document creation, narratives and professional writing.

What you will do

These are the steps the instructor takes in the video, in order, with the moment each one starts. Watch the video for the full walkthrough.

1. Let’s go to the presentation. Before jumping into the lab exercises, let’s first understand what we are going to do. (0:16)
2. Sign in to Microsoft 365 with the lab account. (2:04)
3. Then click blank document. (2:45)
4. Select the account, and a new blank document will be created. In step two, it mentions clicking the Copilot icon in the home ribbon, and selecting draft with Copilot. (2:48)
5. Then I will click generate. (3:13)
6. I will click keep it, and now step five is complete. (5:06)
7. Select any paragraph, click the Copilot icon, and choose rewrite to observe alternative phrasing options. (5:16)

Where it fits in the AB-730 course

This lab is the fifth video in the 20-video course. Just before it is 04 LLMs & Copilot Architecture, the theory lesson on LLMs, Microsoft Graph, the semantic index and grounding. That lesson explains that app context changes how Copilot responds; this lab shows it.

Next come LAB - Working with Copilot In MS Excel, LAB Working with Copilot in Outlook and LAB- Build Stunning PowerPoint Presentation in a Minute using Copilot, which continue the same HR scenario in other apps. Later in the course, the prompt engineering and Managing Copilot Prompts videos help you write better prompts like the one used here.

How to study this lab

1. Watch the scenario introduction (the first two minutes) so you know all five tasks, not just the Word one.
2. Open Word in a second window. The instructor uses a split screen; you can do the same and follow step by step.
3. Open Word from Microsoft 365. The lab shows going to m365.cloud.microsoft.com, signing in, then choosing Apps and Word, or using Create and Blank document.
4. Write a detailed drafting prompt. List the sections you want, as the lab does. A specific prompt gives a better structured draft.
5. Refine a single section. Select just one part and ask for more detail, so you see that Copilot can change part of a document without touching the rest.
6. Try rewrite and compare versions before choosing Replace.
7. Write down what was different about Word, then watch the Excel lab and compare.
8. Check yourself. The course’s mock exam includes an area on Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps; the 10-question sample is free, and the full mock comes with a subscription.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Copilot in Word to do this lab?

To repeat the steps yourself, yes: you need Word with Copilot available. If you do not have it yet, you can still watch the lab, and the course includes a video on creating a Microsoft 365 environment.

How long is the lab?

About six minutes. Repeating it yourself, including writing your own prompt, takes around fifteen to twenty minutes.

What is the difference between “Draft with Copilot” and “Rewrite”?

In this lab, Draft with Copilot creates new content from your prompt, either a whole document or a more detailed version of a selected section. Rewrite takes text you already have and offers alternative phrasings you can choose from.

Is the lab free?

Yes. It is part of the free AB-730 course on YouTube, which you can follow in order from the AB-730 course page.