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Copilot Agent not consistently handling file with track changes

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Posted on by CU30031312-0

I created an agent that should be comparing a Word document that has track changes amendments, comments and markups with a template document (clean Word doc), that is uploaded in the knowledge base.

The track changes document is the one I upload each time, which the agent should compare against the template (in knowledge base).

Issue: It appears that on some occasions, i.e. with some files time I upload a track changes Word document, it gives an error that it cannot find any markups.

I tried to trouble-shoot but was not able to find the solution.

Thanks for your advice!

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Sunil Kumar Pashikanti 1,297 Moderator on at

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Hi @CU30031312-0,

Copilot for Word processes the "Current State" of a document's text. It does not natively "see" Track Changes or Sidebar Comments because they are stored in the file's background metadata. This is a design characteristic of how documents are parsed for AI, not a bug in your setup. To have Copilot reason over changes, you must first Accept/Reject them or manually paste the comment text into the chat.

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CU30031312-0 4 on at

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Thanks for your clarification, much appreciated! Is there any other workaround, method to upload the metadata too, or any other alternative that requires less manual work? Thinking of converting to PDF? Many thanks!

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Sunil Kumar Pashikanti 1,297 Moderator on at

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Hi @CU30031312-0,

At the moment, there’s no supported way to upload Word Track Changes or comments as metadata for Copilot to reason over. Converting to PDF doesn’t help either, as revisions are flattened or lost during conversion.

Copilot works on the visible “current state” of text. To reduce manual work, the most practical options are:

Exporting markup as visible text
Extracting comments with Power Automate and passing them as plain text
Accepting changes and comparing against the template

If revision‑aware analysis is required, Copilot inside Word currently offers the best experience, though it’s still not perfect.

Detailed:

Option 1: Export “Markup as text” (lowest friction)
Instead of working with Word revisions directly:

In Word, use:

Review → Show Markup → All Markup

Save a copy where:

Insertions/deletions are visible inline

Upload that file to Copilot

Copilot can now reason over changes because they’re visible text, not metadata.
Limitation: formatting can be noisy, but it works reliably.

Option 2: Auto‑extract comments with Power Automate (best balance)
Use Power Automate to:

Read document comments via:

Word Online (Business) actions

Extract:

Comment text
Author
Location (optional)

Feed the extracted comments to Copilot as plain text

Great for:

Review summaries
“List of requested changes”
Less manual copy/paste

Copilot still won’t “see” true Track Changes directly, but you avoid manual work.

Option 3: Accept changes → Diff against template
If your real goal is “what changed vs the template”, not how Word tracked it:

Accept all changes into a clean version
Compare:

Final doc
Template doc

Ask Copilot to summarize differences

This aligns best with how LLMs actually work
Often produces better results than Track Changes

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