# Explainers Twenty-six picture-led pages. One idea per screen, a big picture on every screen, under a hundred and twenty words on the whole page. These are not lessons. There is nothing to follow and nothing to complete, just one small thing to do at the end. They are for the moment before a lesson, when you need to see what the thing actually is. Each is a single self-contained page. Save it, print it, or open it on a phone with no signal. Nothing is stored and nothing is sent. ## Digital skills foundation The five areas the European Commission named in DigComp 3.0, one page each. Start here if the phrase “digital skills” has never been pinned down for you. - [What digital skills means](/explain/what-digital-skills-means/index.md) — The five areas of DigComp 2.2 drawn once, so the reader can see which one they are worried about. 7 screens. - [Finding things, and telling what is true](/explain/finding-things-and-telling-what-is-true/index.md) — Information and data literacy: searching, judging a source, keeping what you found. 7 screens. - [Working with other people online](/explain/working-with-other-people-online/index.md) — Communication and collaboration: which channel, who can see it, what you leave behind. 7 screens. - [Making something](/explain/making-something/index.md) — Digital content creation: making, changing, and who owns it. 7 screens. - [Keeping yourself safe](/explain/keeping-yourself-safe/index.md) — Safety: devices, personal data, wellbeing, and the environment. 7 screens. - [Getting unstuck](/explain/getting-unstuck/index.md) — Problem solving: what to do when the thing does not work, and knowing what you do not know. 7 screens. ## Microsoft 365, apps and services What the subscription actually is, where your files really go, and what your employer can and cannot look at. - [What Microsoft 365 is](/explain/what-microsoft-365-is/index.md) — A subscription, not a program. What arrives with it and what does not. 7 screens. - [Where your files really live](/explain/where-your-files-live/index.md) — OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams are one place wearing three coats. 7 screens. - [A chat is not an email](/explain/a-chat-is-not-an-email/index.md) — Teams and Outlook: what each is for, what is kept, who can find it later. 7 screens. - [What your organisation can see](/explain/what-your-organisation-can-see/index.md) — What an admin can and cannot look at, said plainly, without frightening anybody. 7 screens. ## Microsoft's AI stack How the pieces sit together, which Copilot you have, and why the same question gives a different answer at work. - [The Microsoft AI stack](/explain/the-microsoft-ai-stack/index.md) — One picture: the model underneath, Copilot on top, agents beside it, your data behind it. 7 screens. - [Which Copilot have you got?](/explain/which-copilot-have-you-got/index.md) — The free one, the paid one, and how to tell which is in front of you. 7 screens. - [What grounded means](/explain/what-grounded-means/index.md) — Why the same question gives a different answer at work than at home. 7 screens. ## Copilot The one included with Microsoft 365, and how to ask it for something and get it. - [Copilot Chat](/explain/copilot-chat/index.md) — What it is, where it is, what it can see, what it cannot. 7 screens. - [Asking for something](/explain/asking-for-something/index.md) — Task, audience, length, example. Four parts of a request, drawn. 7 screens. ## Microsoft 365 Copilot The licensed one: in the apps, what it can see, and what to check before you send anything. - [Copilot inside the apps](/explain/copilot-inside-the-apps/index.md) — The same assistant in three places, doing three different jobs. 7 screens. - [What Copilot can see](/explain/what-copilot-can-see/index.md) — It sees what you can already see, and no more. Permissions in one picture. 7 screens. - [Checking what it gives you](/explain/checking-what-it-gives-you/index.md) — Names, dates, figures. Three checks before anything leaves your hands. 7 screens. ## Microsoft pre-built agents The agents Microsoft ships: what one is, and where to find them. - [What a ready-made agent is](/explain/what-a-ready-made-agent-is/index.md) — Somebody else already made it, gave it a job, and pointed it at some knowledge. 7 screens. - [Where the ready-made ones are](/explain/where-the-ready-made-agents-are/index.md) — Where to find the agents Microsoft ships, and how to tell one from a chatbot. Re-check names before writing. 7 screens. ## Copilot in SharePoint Asking a single site a question, and why your colleague gets a different answer. - [Asking a site a question](/explain/asking-a-site-a-question/index.md) — Copilot in SharePoint: point at a site, ask, get an answer with a link back. 7 screens. - [Why two people get different answers](/explain/why-two-people-get-different-answers/index.md) — Permissions decide the answer. The same question, two people, two results. 7 screens. ## Agent Builder agents Making your own without code, and telling it what to refuse. - [Making one yourself](/explain/making-an-agent-yourself/index.md) — Agent Builder: a name, a job description, some knowledge, a test. 7 screens. - [Knowledge, and edges](/explain/knowledge-and-edges/index.md) — What you point it at, and telling it what to refuse. 7 screens. ## SharePoint agents An agent that is a file, and what happens when you share it. - [A SharePoint agent is a file](/explain/a-sharepoint-agent-is-a-file/index.md) — It sits in Site Assets as a .agent file, and file permissions decide everything. 7 screens. - [Who can use the one you made](/explain/who-can-use-the-one-you-made/index.md) — Sharing an agent is sharing a file, and the answers still follow the reader's own permissions. 7 screens. ## How these are made Every picture is drawn from six shapes: a box, a line, an arrow, a square dot, a dashed frame and a label. No photographs, no icons, no stock. Green marks the thing being explained; amber marks the thing you do. A page cannot publish until it passes a checker that counts the words, the screens and the colours, and refuses anything without a description on every picture. ## Where the facts come from The five digital skills areas are quoted from DigComp 3.0, the European Digital Competence Framework, published by the Joint Research Centre on 11 November 2025: five areas, twenty-one competences. Everything about Microsoft was checked against Microsoft Learn on 22 August 2026. Microsoft renames things often; where a page teaches a name rather than an idea, it says so. Not sure which to read? [Find your starting point](/start/), three minutes.