Every corporate template comes with rules that are not visible in the file. Always open with the approved cover. Never edit the legal slide. Keep section dividers to a title. Use the quote layout only for real quotes. For years those rules lived in a brand guidelines PDF, a SharePoint page, or the head of a senior designer.
In September 2026, Microsoft gave those rules a home inside the template itself. The feature is called note instructions — “notes steering” in Microsoft’s announcement — and it lets brand managers write plain-language instructions in a template’s speaker notes that Copilot in PowerPoint follows when it generates presentations.
How it works
Note instructions are one of two template settings in Brand Kit, alongside strict brand adherence. A brand manager enables the setting for a template, and writes instructions in the speaker notes of the relevant slides. Microsoft’s examples are deliberately simple:
- “Always include this cover slide.”
- “Don’t modify this slide.”
- “Keep the text minimal.”
When employees create presentations from that template through Copilot, those instructions guide what Copilot does. Only the Brand Kit owner or a brand manager can change the setting, and end users cannot override it.
The point, as Microsoft describes it, is to embed reusable guidance directly in the template, so that employees do not have to repeat the same instructions in every prompt — and, more realistically, so the rules apply even when employees do not know them.
Why this matters more than it looks
It would be easy to treat note instructions as a small convenience. We think they are more significant than that, for three reasons.
They put rules where the model reads them. Microsoft is explicit that Copilot does not treat the text inside a placeholder as an instruction; placeholder wording is styling only. So until now, the only way to tell Copilot “use this layout sparingly” was to hope every employee typed it into every prompt. Speaker notes on template slides are now a proper channel.
They make usage rules testable. A rule in a PDF can’t be checked. A rule in a template’s notes can be tested: run the same prompt with and without it and see whether behavior changes.
They keep the rule with the layout. When the template is updated, the instruction moves with the slide it governs, rather than living in a separate document that drifts out of date.
What to write: five kinds of useful instruction
Useful note instructions tend to fall into five groups.
1. Required slides
“Always include this cover slide.” “End every presentation with this contact slide.” These are the easiest to write and to verify.
2. Protected slides
“Don’t modify this slide.” For legal disclaimers, safe-harbor statements, regulated language, or approved boilerplate that must appear exactly as written.
3. Density
“Keep the text minimal.” “Title only; no body text.” “No more than four bullets.” Density instructions are some of the most valuable you can give, because too much text is the most common failure in generated slides.
4. When to use a layout
“Use this layout only when comparing two options.” “Use for a single statistic with a short explanation.” These help Copilot choose between layouts that look similar but do different jobs.
5. What never to do
“Do not place text over the photograph.” “Do not use this layout for agendas.” Negative instructions are useful for failures you have actually observed in testing.
How to write instructions Copilot can follow
A model follows instructions best when they are short, specific and checkable. A few rules of thumb:
- One idea per instruction. “Keep the text minimal and always include a source line and never use more than two colors” is three instructions competing for attention.
- Say what to do, then what not to do. Positive instructions are clearer than prohibitions alone.
- Use concrete limits. “Keep it short” is vague. “One sentence, under fifteen words” can be checked.
- Avoid brand-book language. “Confident, human, forward-looking” is valuable to a copywriter and nearly useless to a model deciding how many bullets to write.
- Don’t duplicate the theme. Colors and fonts belong in the theme, where they apply automatically. Restating them in notes adds noise.
Test every instruction
Note instructions are influence, not a guarantee. Copilot is a generative model and will not follow every instruction every time. The only way to know whether an instruction is working is to test it:
- Write a fixed set of realistic prompts — the kinds of decks your people actually make.
- Run them against the template before adding the instruction, and record what happens.
- Add the instruction, rerun the same prompts, and compare.
- Keep instructions that change behavior in the direction you want. Rewrite or remove the ones that don’t.
Repeat the tests whenever Microsoft changes the product. September 2026 alone brought two significant changes to how templates and instructions work.
Notes steering, strict mode and Brand Skills
Microsoft now offers three levels of control, and they fit together:
- Strict brand adherence decides which layouts Copilot may use.
- Note instructions say how to use a particular slide or layout.
- Brand Skills, rolling out from late September 2026, hold broader written rules for how presentations are created across the organization.
A useful division: if the rule is about one slide, it belongs in that slide’s notes. If it applies to every presentation, it probably belongs in a Brand Skill.
Key takeaways
- Note instructions let brand managers write rules in template speaker notes that Copilot follows.
- They give usage rules a home the model actually reads — unlike placeholder text, which Copilot ignores as instruction.
- The most useful instructions cover required slides, protected slides, density, layout purpose and observed failures.
- Keep them short, specific and checkable, and test every one against real prompts.
Want your template’s rules written where Copilot reads them? Have your template scored.**
Related reading
- Strict brand adherence: what Microsoft’s template lock does and doesn’t do
- Brand Kit in Microsoft 365 Copilot, explained for brand teams
- How Copilot builds a deck from your template
Sources
- Microsoft Support, Manage template settings in your Brand Kit for Copilot in PowerPoint (August 2026)
- Microsoft 365 Message Center, MC1470415 (10 Sep 2026)
- Microsoft Support, Keep your presentation on-brand with Copilot (July 2026)
- Microsoft 365 Message Center, MC1473166 — Brand Skill support (16 Sep 2026)