The Copilot shortcut key in Word is unusual, so much that even Microsoft gets confused. We’ll look at the peculiarities in what seems like a simple keyboard shortcut.
Office Watch reader, Fred J. from Wilmington let us know about this Microsoft social media post
“Click ALT + I and ask Copilot to help”
As Fred notes … that’s wrong it should say:
“Click ALT + i and ask Copilot to help”
Alt + i – lower case only
The Copilot keyboard shortcut in Word only works with the lower case letter ‘i’.
That’s not nit-picking, it’s an important point.
Since Microsoft added the Copilot shortcut key, it’s become a rare (only?) example of an Office shortcut that’s different for upper and lower case.
If you follow Microsoft’s advice and type Alt + I with a capital I (Alt + Shift + I), you’ll get the Mark Citation feature in Word for Windows.
Of course, this only applies with Copilot integrated into the Office apps using either a paid Copilot plan or the new, trial Microsoft 365 Family/Personal plans.
How the Alt + i Copilot shortcut really works
The Copilot shortcut is Alt + i (lower case) and even then, it only works in two situations.
- With the cursor on a new line, Copilot Draft
- With text selected, the ‘Write a Prompt …’, ‘Auto Rewrite’ and ‘Visualize as a Table’ options appear.
If there’s no text selected or the cursor is at the end of a line, Alt + i does nothing.
Again, not a small point. This article was prompted by a few readers asking why Alt + i would not work. Some were, understandably, confused when MarkCitations appeared. Others could not understand why Copilot didn’t always appear when ‘called’.
Change the shortcut
I can hear the Word experts already … “you can reassign the Alt + I (capital) to also start Copilot.
Yes you can. If you don’t use Citations (or even know what they are <g>) go to File | Options | Customize Ribbon | Customize Keyboard to override the default setting for Alt + I
Now both upper and lower case Alt + I will start Copilot, if the other conditions are OK.
