A Guide to the Microsoft Office 365 Updates

Our subscription service provides you with the latest version of Office 365, giving you access to all the brilliant applications and services it offers.

An updated version of Office 365 was released this month. The update includes tonnes of bug fixes and security updates across the board.

As much as we love the fixes we wanted to take a look at all the feature updates that have happened across Office in recent months and years.

However big or small, they all make each application that little bit better, so we wanted to focus in on all those tweaks.

Here’s our run down!

Outlook

• The search function was improved so it would include the most relevant files.

• Outlook now checks your grammar as you type and when you include a link in an email, the URL will be automatically replaced by the file name.

• Outlook will alert you of any suspicious sign in activity.

• Settings can now be updated from the cloud, for example automatic replies and privacy settings.

• You can create polls with ‘Quick Poll.’

• Whilst using the focused inbox mode, you can now sort emails by flag status.

• And if all that leaves you feeling lazy, you can now let Outlook read your emails to you whilst you sit back and enjoy a cuppa!

Teams

There have been lots of new features for Teams – which we expect has had a surge in use since office workers were sent home to work remotely.

• You can join live events anonymously now, so you can simultaneously present, and Webinars can be given to up to 1,000 people at a time.

• Group chats can now include external users that have access to Teams.

• You can send ‘reactions’ during meetings, and virtually raise your hand. You can customize your video background as well.

• Users can create an out of office message for Teams. 

Word

• Word benefits from some new collaboration features making co-authoring faster.

• There was the introduction of a snazzy dark mode.

Excel

• In Excel you can now unhide multiple sheets at a time and resize conditional formatting dialogues.

• Excel now supports files from OneDrive/SharePoint with names up to 400 characters.

• You can now respond to comments and mentions from within emails without even opening the workbook.  

• 3D graphics can be inserted in to worksheets as well. 

• A new AI powered ideas pane analyses your data and offers suggestions on what you can do with it.

PowerPoint

• PowerPoint has welcomed an improvement to streaming video.

• PowerPoint can take your scribbled notes and drawings and convert them in to readable text and crisp shapes.

General

• Sensitivity labels can be applied to Excel, Word and PowerPoint to align with your company’s polices.

• Across the Office suite you can easily switch between panes using a tab on the right side, which appears when you have two or more panes open.

• All the key applications now support animated GIFs.

• Photos taken on an iPhone can be inserted straight in to Office applications.

• Using an @mention of people in document comments now results in an email notification to the people mentioned.

• Also across the applications (apart from Outlook) you can use a new account manager to display all 365 work and personal account in one location, making switching between them easier.

We think Office 365 is a fantastic resource for businesses, and we can’t wait to see what updates they have in store for us next!

For more information on Office 365 plans, get in touch with the team today!