Build a custom PowerPoint skill for a repeated task

Step 1: Identify a task you repeat with the same instructions every timePowerPoint

Look for a task where you already type nearly the same prompt every time — "reformat this into our standard title-slide layout" or "convert these bullets into a two-column comparison" — specific and mechanical enough that the instructions don't actually change between decks.

Step 2: Define the skill from your standard promptCopilotPowerPoint

Open Copilot's skill builder (the "Create a skill" option in its pane), paste in the exact prompt you'd normally type by hand, and give it a clear, specific name — a skill called "Format Title Slide" is something you and a teammate will actually find and reuse later; one called "my skill 1" won't be.

Step 3: Test it against a deck you didn't use to build itPowerPoint

Open a completely different deck — one with a different number of slides, different existing formatting — and run the skill on it before trusting it generally. A skill that only works on the exact example you built it against isn't actually reusable, it's a one-off dressed up as automation.

Step 4: Share it with teammates who do the same taskPowerPoint

Share the skill from its menu to the team or org library rather than keeping it personal, so colleagues doing the same repeated formatting get the identical, tested result instead of each writing their own slightly-different version of the same prompt.

Check the work

• The skill produces a correct result on a deck it wasn't built against.
• The output matches what manually following the original prompt would have produced.
• Teammates doing the same repeated task are using the shared skill, not personal variants.

Source: Microsoft Tech Community, "What's New in Microsoft Copilot — September 2026"