@WonderLaura – Laura Rogers

If you’ve been keeping up with Microsoft 365 lately, you’ve probably noticed that Copilot features are popping up everywhere. And honestly? It’s a lot. Between Copilot Pages, Copilot Notebooks, Copilot Chat, and Copilot Agents, it can feel like trying to figure out which tool does what is a full-time job. So let me break down two of the big ones for you: Copilot Pages and Copilot Notebooks.

I’ve been using both of these features in my daily work, and I’ve got to say, once you understand what each one is designed for, they’re both incredibly useful. But they serve very different purposes, and this post and two videos will show you when to use which one.

What Are Copilot Pages?

Let’s start with Copilot Pages. Think of Pages as your collaborative report or document workspace. Here’s the thing that’s really important to understand right off the bat: Copilot Pages are built on Microsoft Loop technology. So if you’re already familiar with Loop, you’re going to feel right at home here.

The beauty of Copilot Pages is that it’s a living, shareable canvas where you can take AI outputs from your Copilot chats and move them into a collaborative space.

How to Create a Copilot Page

Creating a Copilot Page is super straightforward. You start by just chatting with Copilot like you normally would.

Let’s say you ask Copilot to draft an IT governance quick start guide for your company.

Copilot generates the response, and at the bottom of that response, there is a button that says “Edit in Pages.”

Click that, you’ll see two panels. On the left side, you’ve got your Copilot chat where you can keep iterating and refining. On the right side, you’ve got your actual Page, which is that Loop component where everything lives.

Here’s where it gets really cool. You can keep having conversations with Copilot on the left, and then just click a little plus button to add those responses to your Page on the right. Want to add an executive summary? Ask Copilot to create one, then add it to the page. Need a table mapping roles to key decisions? Same thing, it’s an iterative process.

Collaboration Features

The collaboration aspect is where Pages really shines. You can share the page by copying a link using the share icon at the top right, and sending it to coworkers. Or—and this is even better—you can copy the entire Loop component and paste it directly into a Teams chat or even an email. When you do that, everyone can edit that live component right where they are. They don’t have to click away to some other location. The information stays synchronized no matter where people are working on it.

Note: I’ve found that collaborating in Loop components works better than trying to co-author in Word. Word can get a little buggy when multiple people are in there at once. Just my two cents based on experience.

What About Licensing?

Here’s some good news: you don’t need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to use Copilot Pages. You can still create and collaborate on Pages even with the free version of Copilot. The interface looks a little different—it’s more trimmed down without all the extra features like notebooks and agents listed on the left sidebar—but the core Pages functionality is there.

The main difference when you don’t have the M365 Copilot license is that you won’t have access to “Work” mode. You’ll be stuck with “Web” mode, which means Copilot can’t tap into organizational context like your files, emails, and colleague interactions.

What Are Copilot Notebooks?

Now let’s talk about Copilot Notebooks, because this is a different product entirely. Notebooks give you the ability to really contextualize your Copilot interactions around specific projects or topics.

Think of a Notebook as your iterative thinking space. It’s like a whiteboard or lab notes for a complex project where you’re consolidating a bunch of different files, meetings, and references all in one place. You’re not actually moving files into the Notebook—you’re having the Notebook reference all those files. Then when you chat with Copilot inside that Notebook, your conversations are contextual based on all that business data you’ve pulled in.

How Notebooks Work

Let me give you a real example. I’m currently developing a Power BI training course, and I created a Copilot Notebook for it. I added my slide deck, my course outline, and various other documents and notes. Now, when I work on that course, I go directly to the Notebook. All of my chats with Copilot about the course are right there, organized and contextualized around that specific project.

When I ask Copilot something like “What are the types of reports in Power BI?” it’s answering based on the content I’ve added to that Notebook—my slides, my outline, all of it. It’s not just giving me generic information about Power BI reports. It’s working within the context of my actual course materials.

Copilot Instructions

One feature I really like about Notebooks is the ability to add Copilot instructions. This is where you can tell Copilot to focus on certain topics, respond in specific ways (like using bullet points), or tailor information to a particular audience.

For example, when I set up my Power BI course Notebook, I told Copilot that the audience is “Microsoft 365 business users.” That helps it frame responses appropriately. If I were creating an executive briefing Notebook, I might add instructions like “audience is executives who are busy and want straightforward information.” It’s all about customizing the AI’s responses to match your needs.

The Podcast Feature

Here’s something wild that Notebooks can do: they can generate an audio overview. Basically, Copilot will create a fake podcast with AI-generated voices having a conversation about your content. I’m not kidding—it sounds like actual people discussing your project.

Think about the use case here. You’re driving to work, listening to podcasts like normal. Instead of waiting until you get to the office to catch up on a project, you could just listen to this AI-generated overview of all your project materials.

It’s digesting information in a completely different way! Here’s the actual AI podcast of my notebook about my Power BI course. My company is iwmentor.com and that’s where the course will go live in Q1 of 2026.

Copilot Notebooks Licensing Requirements

Unlike Pages, you do need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license to use Notebooks. They will show up in the left sidebar of the Copilot interface when you have that license, along with agents and other premium features.

The Difference Between Notebooks and Agents

You might be thinking, “Wait, isn’t that kind of like a Copilot Agent?” I get why it seems similar, but there’s a key difference. An agent is something you create, point to specific content, and then people just interact with it by asking questions. It’s more static—you set it up and people use it. Here are my other posts about Copilot Agents:

Getting Started with the Copilot SharePoint Page Agent

Creating and Using Copilot Agents in SharePoint

A Notebook is more like a living, breathing collaboration space. You’re constantly adding files, having conversations, refining ideas. It’s something you’re actively working in as a project evolves. The Notebook grows and changes with your project.

When to Use Pages vs. Notebooks 🤔

How do you know which one of these to use? Let me break it down with some scenarios.

Use Copilot Pages when:

• You’re creating a document or report that you need to share and collaborate on with colleagues
• You want to quickly build out content with AI and then refine it with your team
• You need something that’s going to become a more finalized document, like a brief, SOP, or plan
• You want real-time collaboration where multiple people can edit simultaneously
• You’re working on something relatively straightforward that doesn’t require tons of contextual files

Use Copilot Notebooks when:

• You’re working on a complex, long-term project with lots of moving parts
• You need to consolidate files, meetings, emails, and other references all in one place
• You want to have ongoing, contextual conversations with Copilot about a specific topic
• You’re doing iterative work where you’ll be coming back to the same project over and over
• You want to keep all your AI conversations about a project organized in one place

Here’s an analogy that Copilot actually created for me that I think nails it: A Copilot Page is like a report. A Copilot Notebook is like a whiteboard or lab notes.

Real-World Use Cases 🌎

Here are some more practical examples of how you might use each one.

Copilot Pages Use Cases:

Executive Briefing: You need to create a one-pager summarizing a strategic initiative. Start with a Copilot chat to generate the content, move it to a Page, iterate on it with AI, then share it with your team for final input.

IT Governance Documentation: Draft the framework with Copilot, turn it into a Page, add tables and specifics, collaborate with IT and stakeholders, then export to Word when it’s ready to publish.

Client Proposal: Generate initial content with Copilot, build it out in a Page, have your team refine and add client-specific details, then polish it for delivery.

Copilot Notebooks Use Cases:

Project Retrospective: After a project wraps up, create a Notebook and add all project files, meeting notes, and communications. Chat with Copilot to identify lessons learned, what went well, and what didn’t. The audio overview feature could even give you a podcast-style summary of the entire project.

Content Creation Workspace: If you’re developing a course, writing a book, or creating any long-form content, a Notebook gives you that persistent workspace where all your research, drafts, and ideas live together.

Executive Strategic Planning: Gather all documents, emails, and meeting transcripts related to a major initiative. Use the Notebook to surface insights, track decisions, and maintain context across multiple conversations.

Integration with Other Tools ⛏️

Both Pages and Notebooks play nicely with the rest of the Microsoft ecosystem, but in different ways.

Copilot Pages can be accessed directly from the Copilot interface, but you can also get to them through Microsoft Loop. Just go to the waffle menu (or your apps list) and open Loop. Your recent Pages will be right there. You can also access Pages from the Copilot Library, where you’ll find all the pages and images that Copilot has created for you.

Copilot Notebooks actually show up in OneNote, too! You can work on your Notebooks from within OneNote using the exact same interface you’re used to. It’s just another way to get to your content.

A Few Tips and Tricks 💡

Here are some things I’ve learned from using both tools:

For Pages: When you’re iterating and adding content, pay attention to your prompts. If you say “add an executive summary,” Copilot might regenerate the entire outline and then add the summary. Instead, try saying “create an executive summary” so it just generates that one piece. Then you can add it without duplicates.

For Notebooks: Take advantage of those Copilot instructions. The more specific you are about your audience and how you want Copilot to respond, the better your results will be. And don’t forget you can always go back and edit those instructions as your needs change.

For Both: Add context from your actual work files. Both Pages and Notebooks let you reference documents, and that’s where the real power comes in. You’re not just asking generic questions—you’re getting AI assistance that’s grounded in your actual content.

The Bottom Line 📌

Look, Microsoft is throwing a lot of AI tools at us, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. But once you understand that Pages are for collaborative document creation and Notebooks are for complex project workspaces, it actually makes a lot of sense.

I’ve been using both, and they each have their place in my workflow. The Power BI course Notebook has been a game-changer for keeping all my course development work organized and contextual.

The key is just to experiment. Try creating a Page for your next team document. Set up a Notebook for a project you’re working on. See what clicks for you. And remember, you can access Pages without a Copilot license, so there’s really no barrier to getting started with that one.

We’re all figuring this stuff out together as Microsoft keeps rolling out new features. But that’s what makes it exciting, right? We’re watching AI transform how we work in real time!

If you want to dive deeper into either of these tools, I’ve done full demos on both, in my weekly Power Hour live streams. Join us any time and chat during the show!