Managing Your Copilot Conversations

Why conversation management matters

Finding previous conversations

Copilot keeps your recent conversations in a sidebar panel. You can:

• Browse the list (most recent first)
• Search by keyword to find a specific conversation
• Scroll back through older chats

Where to find them: In Copilot Chat (web, Teams, or M365 app) → look for the chat history panel on the left side. In some views, click the history icon to reveal it.

Renaming a chat

By default, Copilot names conversations based on your first prompt. This often isn’t very helpful — “Tell me about the budget” could be any of a dozen conversations.

How to rename:

1. Find the conversation in your chat history
2. Right-click (or click the three-dot menu)
3. Select Rename
4. Enter a descriptive name: “Q3 Budget Review — Marcus” or “Client Proposal — Acme Corp”

💡 Naming strategy that works

Marcus at Horizon Logistics developed a naming convention for his Copilot conversations:

• Topic — Person/Project — Date: “Warehouse Efficiency — Q3 Review — Oct”
• Action — Subject: “Draft — Partner Email”
• Meeting — Event: “Standup Recap — Mon 14th”

When he needs to find something, the descriptive names make search instant. His team adopted the same convention.

Deleting a chat

Sometimes you need to remove a conversation — test prompts, sensitive topics, or just tidying up.

How to delete:

1. Find the conversation in your chat history
2. Right-click (or click the three-dot menu)
3. Select Delete
4. Confirm deletion

Important: Deleting a chat removes it from your history. However, if you’ve saved memories from that conversation (via Copilot Memory), those memories persist separately — deleting the chat does NOT delete saved memories. You manage memories in Settings separately.

Adding a conversation to a notebook

When a Copilot conversation produces valuable insights you want to keep long-term, you can add it to a notebook:

1. In the conversation, find the response you want to keep
2. Click the Add to notebook option
3. The content is saved to your Copilot notebook — a persistent space for curated AI insights

Notebooks are great for:

• Research findings you want to reference later
• Key decisions or analysis from Copilot conversations
• Draft content you’re building iteratively over multiple sessions

Four conversation management actions

Action	What It Does	When to Use
Find	Browse or search your conversation history	Looking for a previous chat or insight
Rename	Change the auto-generated conversation title	After an important conversation — name it clearly for future searching
Delete	Permanently remove a conversation from history	Test prompts, sensitive conversations, general tidying
Add to notebook	Save specific responses to a persistent notebook	Valuable insights, research, decisions you'll reference again

💡 Real-world: Dana's clean-up routine

Every Friday, Dana at Oakfield Healthcare spends 5 minutes managing her Copilot conversations:

1. Renames important chats from the week: “Onboarding Policy Update — April” instead of “Tell me about the onboarding policy”
2. Deletes test prompts and one-off questions she won’t need again
3. Adds to notebook any policy analysis or decision summaries she wants to keep
4. Leaves ongoing project conversations as-is for next week

Result: When someone asks about a policy decision from 3 months ago, Dana can search her renamed history and find it in seconds.

🎬 Video walkthrough

🎬 Video coming soon

Managing Copilot Conversations — AB-730 Module 11

Managing Copilot Conversations — AB-730 Module 11

~7 min

Flashcards

Question

Where do you find previous Copilot conversations?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

In the chat history panel on the left side of Copilot Chat (web, Teams, or M365 app). You can browse recent conversations or search by keyword to find specific chats.

Click to flip back

💡 Show hint

Question

Does deleting a Copilot chat also delete saved memories from that chat?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

No. Deleting a chat removes it from your history, but saved memories (via Copilot Memory) persist separately. To delete memories, go to Settings > Personalization.

Click to flip back

💡 Show hint

Question

What is a Copilot notebook used for?

Click or press Enter to reveal answer

Answer

A persistent space for curated AI insights. When a conversation produces valuable findings — research, decisions, analysis — you can add specific responses to a notebook for long-term reference, beyond the conversation itself.

Click to flip back

💡 Show hint

Knowledge Check

Knowledge Check

Jordan has been using Copilot for 3 months and has over 200 conversations. He needs to find a specific chat where he analysed competitor pricing last month. What should he do?

AScroll through all 200 conversations from newest to oldestBSearch his conversation history using keywords like 'competitor pricing'CAsk Copilot in a new chat: 'What did I ask you about competitor pricing last month?'DCheck his Outlook inbox for a copy of the conversation

Check Answer

Knowledge Check

Ava found a great Copilot analysis of BrightLoop's Q3 campaign performance that she wants to reference during next quarter's planning. What should she do?

ATake a screenshot and save it to her desktopBAdd the response to a notebook for persistent referenceCRename the conversation 'Keep This' so she doesn't forgetDShare the conversation with her manager for safekeeping

Check Answer

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Next up: Ready to explore Copilot agents? Learn when to browse the Agent Store for a pre-built solution versus building your own from scratch.