How to get Copilot to auto generate suggestions when requesting an auto rewrite in MS Word?

Randy Bressler 0 Reputation points
2026-05-29T17:02:46.5566667+00:00

For over a year, when accessing the auto rewrite feature in Copilot, it would provide three options to revise a sentence or paragraphin Word. It no longer offers this feature as it generates one response and inserts it directly in the document.

If I want to fine tune it, I need to provide more prompts. If I want Copilot to provide me with multiple suggestions, it then asks me for more prompts (e.g., formal, emotional tone, shortness, etc.). While ultiimately, these prompts may provide some nuances to accurately reflect my thinking in written form, it is inefficient given the number of steps to get there and hinders productivity.

FYI: I updated my Office 365 as a step to troubleshoot this, but it did not resolve the problem.

Is there a way to fix this?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft 365 Copilot | Development
0 comments

1 answer

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest

  1. AI answer

    2026-05-29T17:03:00.8133333+00:00

    Copilot’s rewrite experience in Word has changed from what was available previously. The current, supported behavior is:

    • Select text in the document.
    • Choose Copilot in the left margin and then Auto Rewrite (or Rewrite with Copilot on some clients).
    • Copilot generates one or more suggestions in a Draft with Copilot / Rewrite pane, where the user can:
      • Navigate between versions using < and > (or Next/Previous buttons, depending on platform).
      • Adjust tone (for example, Neutral, Casual, Concise) and then Regenerate.
      • Choose Replace or Insert below/Insert to apply the selected suggestion.

    From the current documentation, the multi‑suggestion behavior is now driven through that pane and navigation controls, not by automatically inserting three alternatives directly into the document. The ability to always get three inline alternatives without using the pane or tone/adjustment options is not exposed as a configurable setting.

    To get multiple suggestions as efficiently as possible with the current design:

    1. Select the text to rewrite.
    2. Use Auto Rewrite / Rewrite with Copilot.
    3. Use the < and > arrows (or Next/Previous) in the Copilot rewrite UI to cycle through the different suggestions.
    4. Optionally use Adjust tone (Neutral/Casual/Concise, etc.) and Regenerate to quickly get more variants without re‑prompting from scratch.
    5. Apply the preferred version with Replace or Insert below/Insert.

    There is no documented setting to revert to the older behavior where three suggestions are always generated and shown inline automatically. The current rewrite workflow and controls described in the documentation represent the supported experience.

    References:

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

    Was this answer helpful?

Your answer

Answers can be marked as 'Accepted' by the question author and 'Recommended' by moderators, which helps users know the answer solved the author's problem.