Office 365 has made some big strides in the last 12 months, adding many new features available for you to use.
In this article, we’ll take a look at 15 of these useful features and I’ll explain how they can help you be more productive.
1. Multiple people can edit the same document at once
Office 365 co-authoring lets everyone edit a document at the same time in Word, PowerPoint and Excel.
- See edits and changes as they are made.
- There is no longer a need to email attachments, eliminating worry about working on incorrect versions.
- Make collaboration easier and more productive.
2. Skype with coworkers while working on a document
Skype document chat makes it easy for you to collaborate on a document from within your browser. This feature is an early look at what we can expect to see with the integration of Skype for Business in Office 365.
- Take advantage of real time online collaboration in Word and PowerPoint.
- Start a chat from inside the document and continue conversations via Skype on your desktop or mobile even after you exit the document.
3. Link to files in emails instead of using attachments
Sharing files in the Outlook web app just got a lot easier if you store files in the cloud using OneDrive for Business.
- Send links to files in emails rather than using attachments.
- Recipients can simply open the file via the link, make edits and send it back, eliminating the need to open the document directly and save multiple versions.
- Everyone working on the document sees the latest version and can make edits to one single version, enhancing collaboration.
4. Use two Microsoft cloud storage accounts on your Android phone
Microsoft OneDrive app for Android lets you use both your company and personal OneDrive cloud storage accounts from the single app.
- Easily switch between company and personal files.
- Work on and share documents across phones, tablets, PCs and Macs.
5. Turn notes into calendar items
OneNote, Microsoft’s note-taking tool, can be used directly inside Outlook.
- Easily turn your to-do notes in OneNote into tasks in Outlook calendar.
- Additional information about your meetings, like dates and locations, can be automatically transferred to your calendar.
- Easily create media-rich, mobile-responsive presentations that are interactive and engaging for readers.
- Pull in images directly from Bing image search. Bing will even read your presentation and suggest images.
6. Use Sway and Bing to automatically find images for your presentations
Sway is Microsoft’s new PowerPoint app that’s similar to Prezi. It is a cloud-first design which means it can take advantage of all the new capabilities of cloud computing.
7. Convert scribbles to text and drawings
The Lasso tool makes it possible to scribble handwritten notes into OneNote on a touch-screen device and turn it into regular text and numbers.
- Save time by handwriting or drawing notes while on the go and convert them into text when you’re back at the office.
8. Clutter teaches your inbox to de-clutter itself
Use Clutter to de-clutter your email inbox by setting rules and marking messages as clutter.
- Never miss an important email by using Clutter’s machine learning feature to ensure your important emails are not missed in your overloaded inbox.
- This tool is similar to Google’s “Priority Box”.
9. Ignore annoying reply-all conversations
Use the ‘Ignore’ button to mute reply-all email conversations.
- Don’t get bombarded with unwanted group emails.
- Clicking ignore deletes the conversation and automatically places all future messages in the Deleted items folder.
- Easily rejoin the conversation by clicking the ‘Stop ignoring conversation’ button.
10. Add a real signature to an email
Docusign for Outlook is a free electronic signature app that is available in the Office store.
- Eliminate the need to manually print and sign documents. Quickly attach your real signature inside an email instead.
- Gather signatures from others by requesting one in your email.
11. Turn your mouse icon into a laser pointer in presentations
Turn your mouse icon into a red laser pointer while using PowerPoint. This is a cool feature that might help you spice up your next presentation.- Draw your audience’s attention to something on a slide by turning your mouse icon into a red laser pointer.
12. Turn rows of data into a map
The Excel Power Map lets you display your data in a more creative, visually-appealing way.
- Make your data easier to read by converting data rows into images.
- Turn geographic data into a 3D map.
13. Excel charts, graphs and pivot tables made easy
Excel’s new feature, Quick Analysis, will quickly show you all the ways you can format your data.
- Better understand your data by presenting it in a chart total, table or sparkline (mini chart).
14. Let Excel reformat your data
Flash Fill makes it is easy to reformat your data in Excel.
- Save time by letting Flash Fill see what you are doing inside Excel and automatically do the rest for you.
- For example, if you want to separate <first name> and <last name> from one column into two columns, after you do a couple of rows, Flash Fill will recognize what you are doing and complete the rest of the task for you.
15. Edit a PDF file
Editing PDF files is easy when you use Office 365’s PDF to Word converter.
- Quickly save Word files as PDFs.
- Convert PDFs into Word files that you can edit and collaborate on.
Considering moving to Office 365?
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