Microsoft Office 365 is unique in that it is still a copy of Microsoft Office installed on your workstation, but it is also being incrementally improved with new features in the background. Microsoft doesn’t make you wait for a new release every few years. Check out these new features that are out now or are coming in the near future.
Multiple people can edit the same document at one
This feature called Office 365 CoAuthoring allows multiple users to edit the same Word, PowerPoint, or Excel document at the same time. Everyone needs to be connected to the Internet and using a recent version of Office 2013 via Office 365. You will see user’s changes and different color text as you work on the document together.
Skype with co-workers while working on a document
Microsoft is beginning to integrate the venerable Skype they purchased a few years ago into other services including Office 365. You can chat with your co-workers while your in the document working via the “Chat” button in Office software.
Turn notes into calendar events
If you use OneNote, Microsoft’s note-taking tool, you can easily turn a list of to-do items into tasks with deadlines and reminders on your calendar. You can automatically add calendar meeting details like date, location, topic, agenda, and attendees to your notes. You can also email your notes to your team using the “Email Page” button.
Not Yet – Sway automatically find images for your presentation
Microsoft is testing a cloud-based presentation software similar to PowerPoint that will automatically collect images from the web and recommend them for your presentation based on your content. Once they work out the kinks look for this feature to be added to PowerPoint.
Convert scribbles to text and drawings
One-Note will convert handwriting on supported devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note to text. It does have to figure out which lines below to together. The Lasso tool in One-Note allows you to draw a lasso around your text to assist with grouping Ink to Text or math equations.
Ignore annoying reply-all conversations
Microsoft Office 365 now offers a mute button for those annoying reply-all conversations that having to do with you. In Outlook just click the conversation then go to home and in the Delete group click Ignore.
DocuSign Add-in
You can now use the popular mobile DocuSign application to sign documents right in Outlook. No more printing, signing, scanning, then emailing. The app will walk you through signing the document then forwarding to others if you need another signature.
Turn your mouse into a laser pointer
Just in case you have forgotten your laser pointer you can change the mouse icon to a red dot in PowerPoint. This actually has been available for awhile in PowerPoint, but it recently has been added to the iPad version of PowerPoint.
Built in mapping
We won’t leave our Excel junkies out. You can now turn rows of data into maps. You can list data county-by-county or state-by-state. Just look for the Power Map feature. Charts and graphs have also gotten easier. Just look for the Quick Analysis in the ribbon bar.
Edit a PDF document
You can now edit PDF documents in Word. Just open a PDF from inside Word and it will ask if you would like to convert it. You can then edit and choose to save the document as a Word doc or as a PDF. Warning: some text laden documents do edit well.
Do you know more tricks? Share them in the comment section below.