Use Copilot in Word to map the people, places and dates in a chapter
For Copyeditor / Proofreader (Freelance / Publishing)s ·
What This Does
Before you trust your memory of a chapter, you can ask Copilot for a map: every person, place, date and number it sees, with where each one appears. The map is a prompt for your own consistency checks. It shows you the names to hunt for when the same character turns up as two different spellings, or a date sits oddly against an age.
The map is not the check. You still read the chapter.
Before You Start
- Check the contract first. The chapter belongs to the author or publisher. Many publisher contracts, freelance agreements and house AI policies say whether an editor may open client text with an AI feature, and some forbid it or ask for disclosure. Ask your managing editor if you are unsure. If the answer is no, run this whole guide on the invented sample below. Then use the same map-building habit by hand.
- Microsoft 365 Copilot is available to you. Microsoft says it needs an eligible Microsoft 365 subscription or Microsoft Copilot license. If the Copilot button is missing, your plan or your organization's settings may not include it. Check Microsoft's Copilot plan page or ask your IT contact.
- You have read how your Microsoft account handles data. Microsoft's Copilot page links separate privacy articles for work or school accounts and for personal accounts. Read the one that matches yours.
- You are working on a copy of one chapter. Never a whole book at a time.
Steps
1. Open the chapter and switch to Chat only
Open the chapter in Word. Select the Copilot button in the corner of the document, which Microsoft calls the Copilot Dynamic Action Button. The chat pane opens with Edit mode on. Select Chat only so Copilot answers in the pane and changes nothing in the file.
2. Ask for the map
Ask for a table, with a place to look for each entry:
List every person, place, date, age and number written out in words or digits in this chapter. For each, give the exact form as written, how many times it appears, and the heading or the first words of the paragraph where each instance sits. Put people, places, dates and numbers in separate tables. Do not correct anything and do not comment on style.
If the table is cut short, ask for the next group (places, then dates) in a follow-up.
3. Spot-check the table against the text
Pick five or six entries and find them in the chapter with Word's Find. Check the count, the spelling as written, and the location. If any are wrong, treat the whole table as a rough guide, not a record.
4. Look for what Copilot may have left out
Keep reading the chapter with the map beside you. Copilot may leave things out, particularly passing mentions, so the map covers what it saw, not what is there. Add what you find to your own list.
5. Turn conflicts into queries
Where two forms of a name differ, or a date does not fit an age, mark the place in your own style sheet or query list. Do not change the text. The author decides which form is right.
Real Example
Scenario: Invented sample for Title A, Author A. Short enough to check by eye.
Mara Okafor left Linden Bay on 3 March 1987, nineteen years old and carrying one suitcase. Her brother Tomas met the ferry at Port Hale. He was twenty-two. In April 1988, Marla started work at the Hale Ledger, and on her twentieth birthday in May 1988 Tomas took her to dinner. Lyndon Bay felt far away by then.
What you get: A table something like this.
| Type | Form as written | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Person | Mara Okafor | 1 |
| Person | Marla | 1 |
| Person | Tomas | 2 |
| Place | Linden Bay | 1 |
| Place | Lyndon Bay | 1 |
| Place | Port Hale | 1 |
| Organization | Hale Ledger | 1 |
| Date | 3 March 1987 | 1 |
| Date | April 1988 | 1 |
| Date | May 1988 | 1 |
| Age or number | nineteen, twenty-two, twentieth | 3 |
What you notice: The map sits two forms side by side that should probably be one. Mara and Marla could be one person. Linden Bay and Lyndon Bay could be one place. Neither is for you to fix. Each becomes a query asking the author which is intended.
There is a third item the table does not mention. If Mara was nineteen on 3 March 1987, her twentieth birthday falls no later than March 1988, so a twentieth birthday in May 1988 does not fit. Copilot may or may not point that out. You look for it by comparing the dates and ages in the map. Then you query the author.
Tips
- Ask for separate tables. One mixed table is harder to scan for variants.
- Build the map one chapter at a time and combine the results in a spreadsheet of your own. A single request for a full book is more likely to drop entries.
- Add confirmed spellings to the project style sheet as you go.
- Use a code, such as "Title A", in any message or file name you share around the project.
Tool interfaces change. If a button has moved, look for the Copilot button near the document corner, and look for a chat-only option in the pane.