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Microsoft has just added support for three new text formats to Copilot Notebooks. Users can now import Markdown, plain-text, and rich-text files.
Neowin
@ivan_jenic ·
Aug 14, 2026 15:06 EDT
Image: Microsoft
After giving it a big redesign earlier this year, Microsoft keeps improving Copilot Notebooks with new additions. The service now supports three new types of text files, those being Markdown, plain-text, and rich-text files. This gives users more options for adding different types of reference documents.
If you’re not familiar with it, Copilot Notebooks is a tool in which you import various materials and then ask Copilot questions about them. Up until now, Copilot Notebooks was mostly centered around Microsoft 365, as it mainly supported 365 documents like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files, as well as PDFs, Copilot Pages, and Loop files.
With the introduction of new text formats, users can bring in things like READMEs, technical notes, logs, transcripts, and other text-heavy files directly into a notebook without converting them first. The markdown format is probably the most interesting addition, since it surged in popularity with the rise of AI agents, as they mostly use .md files for context and instructions.
Here are some scenarios that Microsoft recommends users try now that the new text formats are supported:
Turn a transcript into action: Add an exported meeting transcript and ask, “What did we decide, who owns each action, and what remains unresolved?”
Find patterns in feedback: Add a plain-text export of support tickets and ask, “What are the most common issues, and which themes appear to be emerging?”
Investigate an incident: Add a README and system log, then ask, “Compare the expected behavior with what happened before the failure.”
Get up to speed on a new project: Add a project wiki, meeting transcripts, release notes, and working notes, then ask, “What do I need to know to contribute effectively to this project?”
The update isn’t huge, but it makes Copilot Notebooks a lot more practical. If you’re not deeply embedded into Microsoft’s ecosystem, not everything you work with is going to be a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file. Microsoft says this is only the beginning, as it promised to introduce support for even more file formats soon.