Use Full Copilot Chat View for Better OCR on Scanned Documents
Switch to the full chat view to analyze difficult scanned PDFs.
Avoid using the 'Summarize' button in file previews for scanned documents; instead, upload the file directly to the dedicated Copilot chat window for full file analysis.
The Scenario
You have a multi-page scanned PDF document in your OneDrive, and the standard 'Summarize' button is giving you an error about low-resolution images.
Before & after
Users often rely on the 'Summarize' button in OneDrive or Teams previews, which often fails on low-res scans. This results in 5–10 minutes of frustration trying to find a high-res version.
By opening the full Copilot chat view, the AI can perform deep OCR on the entire file. This process takes 1–2 minutes to yield a high-quality summary.
The Prompt
Summarize this scanned PDF document, ensuring you perform OCR on all pages: [ATTACH_FILE]
Integration buttons in OneDrive and Teams often only analyze the low-resolution 'preview' images of a document rather than the source file. For complex documents, using the dedicated Copilot app ensures the model processes the original document data.
Source
Microsoft 365 Copilot | Microsoft Community Hub"it only access the complete file when the Copilot view is used. In all other views... [it] only works on the preview images."