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Tag: Microsoft Office

  • Zoom May Be Planning Email and Calendar Tools to Take On Office and Google

    Zoom May Be Planning Email and Calendar Tools to Take On Office and Google

    Zoom may be ready to move beyond video calling and collaboration, with possible plans to introduce email and calendar tools.

    Zoom is one of the leading communication platforms. Adoption of the company’s service expanded dramatically during the pandemic, and Zoom has been looking for ways to keep that momentum going and build on its existing base. According to The Information, via The Verge, the company may be planning to introduce email and calendar tools to better compete with Microsoft Office and Google Workspace.

    In many ways, the move makes sense. Slack was once the undisputed king of corporate messaging but has seen its user base eclipsed by Microsoft Teams. Much of that is due to the integration Teams offers with the rest of the Office suite. Zoom is no doubt keen to build out its own ecosystem, which would go a long way toward fending off defections to Teams or Google Meet.

    According to the report, the new features could launch as early as later this year. Needless to say, Zoom’s battle will just be getting started with the launch of those features, as neither Microsoft nor Google will take a challenge to their business lying down.

    Despite the difficulty in going up against Microsoft and Google, however, it be exactly what Zoom needs to do in order to evolve and stay relevant.

  • Microsoft Working to Unify OneNote Applications on Windows

    Microsoft Working to Unify OneNote Applications on Windows

    Microsoft is planning to unify its versions of OneNote for Windows, providing a singular experience to its users.

    Microsoft currently offers multiple OneNote apps for Windows: the version installed with Office and the one available via the Microsoft Store. The company is looking to unify the apps, providing users with a common experience.

    The company outlined its plans in blog post:

    If you’re wondering which OneNote app on Windows will receive the updates, here’s the best part: no matter which OneNote app you use today, we have a path for you to get these updates. Today, OneNote supports two apps on Windows: the OneNote app installed with Office and the OneNote for Windows 10 app available in the Microsoft Store. Advances in Windows and Office will allow us to unify the two apps so that you’ll have the simplicity of a single OneNote app on Windows while enjoying the interface and features you’re already familiar with. 

    Microsoft says no action is needed at the current time, but new features will be rolled out over the next 12 months as the company works to unify the apps.

  • The Return of Clippy: Microsoft Bringing Clippy Back As An Emoji

    The Return of Clippy: Microsoft Bringing Clippy Back As An Emoji

    Love him or hate him, the animated paperclip Clippy is set to return as an emoji.

    Few things have so divided Microsoft Office users as much as Clippy. Introduced in Windows 97 (and removed in Office 2007) as a Microsoft Office virtual assistant, some people loved Clippy’s antics, while others hated him.

    The company teased Clippy’s return in a tweet saying, if the tweet received 20,000 likes, the company would replace the Microsoft 365 paperclip with Clippy.

    The tweet has received 154.9K likes (including one from yours truly. You’re welcome for that, by the way), pretty much ensuring Microsoft will follow through with its promise.

    “When we looked at redesigning the paper clip, we thought, ‘How could you not?” Claire Anderson, Microsoft’s art director, and resident “emojiologist,” told CNN Business. “It’s a way of honoring where we’ve come from as we also look at a new tech style. .. But like most nostalgic things, we know Clippy can be polarizing.”

  • Standalone Microsoft Office Update and Text Prediction Coming Soon

    Standalone Microsoft Office Update and Text Prediction Coming Soon

    Microsoft is preparing updates to its venerable office suite, including two big features: continued support for the standalone, non-365 version and text prediction.

    Microsoft has been aggressively pushing Microsoft 365 (previously Office 365) for some time. Many businesses and individuals, however, don’t want to pay a monthly fee to access their office suite. What’s more, the various cloud features of Microsoft 365 may not offer much value for some customers.

    The company has announced it will continue to support a standalone version of Office, called Microsoft Office Long Term Servicing Channel (LTSC). In fact, Microsoft is committed to supporting Office LTSC for the foreseeable future.

    “At Microsoft, we believe that the cloud will power the work of the future. Overwhelmingly, our customers are choosing the cloud to empower their people—from frontline workers on the shop floor, to on-the-go sales teams, to remote employees connecting from home,” writes Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365. “We’ve seen incredible cloud adoption across every industry, and we will continue to invest and innovate in the cloud as we partner with organizations everywhere to build the best solutions for the new world of work. But we also know that some customers just feel that they can’t move to the cloud despite the widely embraced benefits.”

    A preview of Office LTSC will be available in April.

    Microsoft 365 Text Prediction - Image Source: Microsoft
    Microsoft 365 Text Prediction – Image Source: Microsoft

    At the same time, the company is also bringing its long-anticipated text prediction to all users. The company teased text prediction in September. As the user is typing, text prediction recommends the most likely next word. The feature continues to learn over time, becoming more accurate in its recommendations.

    According to the Microsoft 365 roadmap, text prediction will be available to all users in March.

  • Microsoft Ends Office 2010 and Office 2016 for Mac Support

    Microsoft Ends Office 2010 and Office 2016 for Mac Support

    Microsoft has ended support for Office 2010, as well as Office 2016 for Mac, and is instead pushing users toward Microsoft 365.

    Office 2010 is one of the most popular versions of the venerable office suite. In fact, as recently as 2017, a survey showed it was in use among 83% of organizations around the world.

    In spite of that, Microsoft has officially ended support for Office 2010, as well as the corresponding Office 2016 for Mac. Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365, explainedthe decision:

    As we first announced back in April 2017, this decision aligns with our broader commitment to providing tools and experiences designed for a new world of work. If this year has taught us anything, it’s that we need to help our customers stay agile and connected despite constant change. And that means delivering cloud-connected and always up-to-date versions of our most valuable apps to every person and every organization on the planet. With Microsoft 365 Apps, we do that in three big ways. First, the cloud enables real-time collaboration across apps and within Microsoft Teams, the hub for teamwork. Second, AI and machine learning advance creativity and innovation in everything from PowerPoint design to Excel analysis. And finally, built-in, cloud-powered security protects your data and provides the peace of mind that comes with knowing your business will not only be productive, but also secured.

    We understand that everyone is at a different stage of their journey to the cloud, and we’re committed to supporting our customers throughout their transition to Microsoft 365 Apps. For those customers who aren’t ready for the cloud and have a specific need for on-premises or hybrid deployment, such as fully disconnected or restricted environments, we offer Office 2019, the perpetual version of Office that does not receive feature updates. But for everyone else, we’ve created a set of resources to help you transition to the Microsoft 365 Apps and innovations designed to help keep your environment up to date once you’ve made the transition.

    As more companies move to the cloud, as well as engage in remote work, Microsoft 365 is increasingly becoming a critical option for many companies. This move will no doubt accelerate its adoption.

  • Microsoft is Making Office 365 Better, Here’s What to Expect

    Microsoft is Making Office 365 Better, Here’s What to Expect

    Microsoft revealed last week that major updates are headed to Microsoft Office. These changes are for Office 365 and Office.com users and are expected to start rolling out beginning this month and will continue throughout the year. People can expect to see changes like a simplified command ribbon, new colors and icons, and enhanced search function coming to Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint.

    Microsoft said in a blog post that their customers have revealed that they continue to use Office for important work because of the power that the software’s apps offer. But users also said they want the software “to adapt to the changing environment” and for the company to “simplify the user experience and make that power more accessible.”

    What Updates are Coming to Microsoft 365

    The company is bringing its vaunted Fluent Design system to its Office apps. One feature coming to Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, Word, and Outlook is a new ribbon design. The simplified ribbon is smaller, easier to use, has new animations, more accessible icons and a more modern look and color. A dedicated color and avatar for participants using the same document will also be included.

    Users will also start seeing new icons and colors across all apps. Since these icons and colors are designed as scalable graphics, they will appear crisp and clean regardless of the size of the screen.

    Users will also be getting an improved search experience that can anticipate contacts, find upcoming meetings, or revisit previous searches. They will also be introduced to “zero query search,” a feature wherein users can see recommendations powered by the Microsoft Graph and AI by simply placing their cursors over the search box.

    Microsoft Also Launching Office 2019

    Microsoft is also planning to offer the newest version of its standalone business software, the Office 2019, by the latter part of the year. But businesses can sign-up in advance and preview what new features the software will offer.

    Office 2019 is geared for companies that are not ready to run everything from the cloud and prefer to keep some apps on their on-premise servers. Businesses will have to pay a one-time fee to use and enjoy the new and updated Microsoft Office. They will also gain access to any future updates and features as they are released.

    Some things that Office 2019 will reportedly have are enhanced inking capabilities, including a roaming pencil case feature. Outlook users will have updated contact cards, @ mentions support and focused inbox features. Meanwhile, Word will have integrated sounds, text-to-speech features, and a new black theme while Excel will have improved 2D maps, Power Query, and Power Pivot.

    Businesses without Office 365 subscription plans that are interested in seeing a preview of Microsoft 2019 beta should sign up at the company’s Collaborate portal.

    [Featured image via Office 365]

  • Skype Android App Lets You Schedule Calls, Open Office Files

    Skype Android App Lets You Schedule Calls, Open Office Files

    Last week, Microsoft announced Skype call scheduling from the Outlook apps for iOS and Android to make it easy to schedule and begin a group chat and call with friends and colleagues.

    The Outlook team wrote in a blog post, “It can be challenging keeping up with friends, family and colleagues. Finding a time that works for everyone and remembering to show up is difficult enough. And then sometimes technology gets in the way: “How do I find you? How do I invite you? Do you have this app installed?”

    “Outlook and Skype have solved this problem,” it added. “When creating a new event on your calendar, Outlook now includes the ability to add a Skype Call. When you tap the Skype Call toggle, Outlook includes a Skype link in the description of the event. When your scheduled meeting time arrives, recipients simply click the link in their calendar to launch Skype and join the conversation.”

    Now, the Skype app for Android has been updated to include call scheduling (via TheNextWeb).

    Under the “What’s New” section for the app on the Google Play store, it lists “Create calendar events,” and says you can tap on a contact, then tap the menu on the upper right and select “Schedule a call.”

    Also new is the ability to open Microsoft Office files. You can tap on a received Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or PowerPoint presentation to pen the file in its corresponding Office app.

    Image via Google Play

  • Microsoft Launches Office Insider Program

    Microsoft Launches Office Insider Program

    Microsoft announced on Friday the launch of a new program called Office Insider. This gives Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal and Office 365 University subscribers the ability to opt in to pre-release builds of Office 2016 for Windows.

    The program was announced alongside new features for PowerPoint, which are exclusive to Office 365 subscribers. These, the company said, are the first in a series of planned Office 365 updates which it will be rolling out soon.

    “As an Insider, you get first-hand access to the latest innovations, putting you on the inside track for all things Office,” said Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Microsoft Office team. “And when you become an Office Insider, you are joining a community of like-minded power users. With your partnership, we can ensure a high quality Office experience for millions of Office users worldwide.”

    “If you are a commercial Office 365 subscriber and would like to get early access to new features, you can opt in to Office 365 First Release,” he added. “Mac customers, stay tuned for more shortly on Office Insider for Mac.”

    You can find the program and get more details here.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Microsoft PowerPoint Gets New ‘Game Changing’ Tools

    Microsoft PowerPoint Gets New ‘Game Changing’ Tools

    Microsoft announced on Friday that it is giving PowerPoint some new “game changing” tools that make it easier to build “designer grade” layouts and transitions.

    The PowerPoint update is just the first in a series of planned upgrades for Office 365 subscribers. The new tools include PowerPoint Designer and Morph, which automate the creation of slides and presentations and utilize a cloud-based recommendation engine and smart animation technology.

    “PowerPoint Designer allows anyone to create high quality professional slides within seconds,” explains Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s Office team. “Just drop an image into your presentation and Designer provides you with several design ideas. Select your favorite and you’re done! This allows you to spend less time figuring out how to produce high quality designs and more time preparing for that key moment—your presentation.”

    “This all works thanks to a powerful combination of automated design and smart image analysis,” he adds. “PowerPoint Designer was built in collaboration with professional graphic designers, who helped develop over 12,000 creative blueprints. Designer applies cloud intelligence to analyze and identify the most compelling portion of your images to determine which blueprints work best with your content. For example, if the visual contains a natural scene, Designer can zoom, crop and frame it. But if the image contains a chart, it focuses in on the relevant region to ensure the important data is highlighted. Designer then selects from the 12,000+ blueprints to provide multiple layout options to help you make the most of your image. The end result is a high quality and customized presentation—in seconds.”

    The Morph feature creates “cinematic motion” by animating between slides. It can even animate 3-D shapes or be applied at the word and character levels. That includes text-wrapping.

    For more on how to use Morph, read this.

    PowerPoint Designer and Morph are both premium features and are only available to Office 365 subscribers.

    Image via Microsoft

  • LinkedIn Wants To Help You Learn Microsoft Office 2016

    LinkedIn Wants To Help You Learn Microsoft Office 2016

    Microsoft Office 2016 was released on Tuesday. Considering that it’s going to be used in countless business environments moving forward, you might want to get to know it and become fluent in the latest version of the storied software.

    LinkedIn knows this, and announced new courses for it from Lynda.com, which it acquired earlier this year.

    “The Lynda.com team wants to help you learn the skills you need to do your best work and to help you stay current on fast-changing technologies,” says LinkedIn’s Tanya Staples. “To keep you current, we work closely with software companies such as Microsoft, Adobe, and, of course, LinkedIn, to understand which new features and changes are coming that will impact your day-to-day. That means we’re adding new content everyday to ensure our courses are relevant.”

    Lynda.com has 14 new Office 2016 courses, which in total consist of over 56 hours of video. That ought to be enough to make you pretty proficient with it.

    There’s a New Features course and “Essential Training” courses on Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, OneNote, and Say for both Office 2016 and Office 365.

    “In addition to new courses being added to Lynda.com every day, we’re also working hard to make them more accessible so you can learn anytime, anywhere,” says Staples. “Some people prefer to learn during their morning commute watching on their phones or tablets, others prefer to watch on a desktop or laptop. Either way, convenience and flexibility are key so we have expanded offline viewing beyond mobile phones and tablets to desktops and laptops making it possible for Premium Annual Members to download and watch courses offline. This means, you can can now download a course in it’s entirety to watch on any device–a tablet, mobile phone or desktop, anytime, from anywhere–no internet connection needed.”

    LinkedIn says its corresponding courses for Office 2013 have over 10 million views, so the new ones should be pretty popular too.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Microsoft Office 2016 Gets Official Release Date

    Microsoft announced that Office 2016 will become broadly available starting on September 22, which is just around the corner. Those with volume licensing agreements in place can download it from Microsoft’s Volume Licensing Center starting October 1.

    The company released the IT Pro and Developer Preview in March, and has since been refining the experience for Windows, which includes IT management enhancements including improvements to the upgrade and installation experience. Office 365 users will see changes to how the apps are updated in the future.

    Office 365 ProPlus subscribers will still get monthly feature and security updates, but Microsoft is now referring to this as “Current Branch,” with subscribers always having the most current Office apps and capabilities available. The next Current Branch release is also September 22. It will have all the new app updates included. There’s also a new option called Current Branch for Business, which delivers three feature updates per year in addition to the monthly security updates. The first Current Branch for Business build will drop in February. That will include the same feature set as the September 22 release plus four extra months of security updates.

    “We’ve also addressed a number of the other top IT requests in Office 365 ProPlus, including deployment support for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) to help control network traffic when deploying updates and new reports on Office activation and usage available in the Office 365 admin portal,” says Microsoft’s Julia White. “Beyond the new deployment and management options, the new Office also adds support for Data Loss Prevention across the Office 2016 apps, Multi-factor Authentication and other mission critical control capabilities.”

    “Also, back in March we pledged our commitment to compatibility with your existing Office customization by not making changes to the extensibility model for macros or add-ins,” she adds. “If you’ve been evaluating the preview, you would have seen that most of the tools and processes for managing and deploying Office 365 ProPlus (15.x) versions are very consistent with Office 2016. In August, we published guidance for updating Office 365 ProPlus to the Office 2016 version and kicked off the Office IT Pro Deployment Script project.”

    Microsoft will launch a new IT and developer-focused event series called the Microsoft Cloud Roadshow. At these events, the company will provide free, two-day technical training in 12 cities for Office, Azure, and Windows.

    Image via YouTube

  • Microsoft Office Gets A Google Drive Plug-In

    Microsoft Office Gets A Google Drive Plug-In

    Google announced the launch of the new Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office, which lets Office users open their Word, Excel, and Powerpoint documents stored in Google Drive and save any changes.

    “With Google Drive, you can keep all your important files in one place, then open them with your choice of apps and devices,” says Google’s Darrell Kuhn. “Building on this open approach, we recently made it possible to launch your favorite desktop applications directly from Google Drive. And today we’re taking it a step further by bringing Google Drive to Microsoft Office.”

    “If you’re working on a document, spreadsheet or presentation that’s on your computer, you can also save that file to Google Drive, directly from the Office apps,” Kuhn adds. “This is especially useful for sharing files with teams, or for accessing your files across devices.”

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    The plug-in is specifically compatible with Office on Windows.

    Earlier this month, Microsoft announced the launch of Microsoft Office 2016 for Mac.

    Images via Google

  • Mac Users Get Microsoft Office 2016

    Mac Users Get Microsoft Office 2016

    Microsoft just released Office 2016 for Mac in 139 countries and 16 languages. It includes major updates across the entire suite of apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote).

    The company says this was its biggest Office for Mac beta ever thanks to customer participation, and that it collected over 100,000 pieces of feedback, which led to the releases of features like mproved Mail Merge in Word, Propose New Time in Outlook and support for External Data Connections in Excel.

    “If you already use Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home in Office 2016 for Mac,” said Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office Client Applications and Services team at Microsoft. “It works the way you expect, with the familiar ribbon interface and powerful task panes. Mac users will appreciate the modernized Office experience and the integration of Mac capabilities like Full Screen view and Multi-Touch gestures. With full Retina® display support, your Office documents look sharper and more vibrant than ever.”

    “Office for Mac is cloud-connected, so you can quickly get to the documents you’ve recently used on other devices and pick up where you left off. New, built-in document sharing tools make it easy to invite teammates to work on a document together,” h added. “When sharing documents, you won’t have to worry about losing content or formatting, as Office for Mac offers unparalleled compatibility with Office on PCs, tablets, phones and online.”

    Office 365 subscribers can get the new Office for Mac immediately by going to their account page. Students can also get it here. It will become available as a one-time purchase option in September.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Microsoft Just Launched Office For Android Phones

    Microsoft announced that Office for Android is now generally available and in the Google Play Store. In other words, Android users can take advantage of Word, Excel, and Powerpoint on their Android phones.

    Each has its own app, and join those that were already released for Android tablets.

    “Five weeks ago, we announced the Office for Android phone preview,” says Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office Client Applications and Services team at Microsoft. “We are so grateful to our preview users, and with their help we were able to test the apps on over 1,900 different Android phone models in 83 countries. During the preview, we heard from thousands of these users, and over the last few weeks we were able to incorporate a lot of their feedback into the apps we’re launching today. For example, we made it easier to connect to other popular third-party storage offerings like Google Drive and Box, as well as many usability adjustments to make it easier to navigate commands within the apps.”

    With the new apps, you’ll be able to review and edit documents in “full fidelity” from your phone, as well as read comments and add your own.

    With the PowerPoint app, you can just take your phone to a meeting and present a presentation wirelessly.

    “owerPoint for Android phone gives me the same transitions, animations and design that I would have from my desktop, and I can even use inking to highlight important points while presenting,” says Koenigsbauer.

    On a related note, Google itself recently made presenting with Slides a lot better too.

    With Office, you can get quick access to documents from your phone and see where you were last working within them. You can access those stored in Dropbox, Google Drive, or Box in addition to OneDrive.

    Microsoft has partnered with over 30 OEMs to pre-load the apps on Android devices, which will be in stores later this year.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Dropbox and Microsoft Let You Edit Office Files From The Browser

    Last fall, Microsoft and Dropbox partnered up on Office integration. Now, the companies are taking their partnership a little further. The two announced a new integration that allows users to edit their Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents in Dropbox using Office Online on the web.

    “This means that users don’t need the desktop versions of Microsoft Office, and can even use a computer that isn’t their own to edit their Office docs in Dropbox,” a spokesperson for Dropbox explained in an email. “Building on the Dropbox and Microsoft strategic partnership announced last November, users can also open and edit Office documents on iOS and Android devices, and officially use Dropbox on Windows Phones and tablets.”

    “With over 35 billion Office documents stored in Dropbox, Microsoft and Dropbox have teamed up to make collaboration seamless across phones, tablets, and the web, making Dropbox the best place to get work done from any web browser,” they added.

    When you go to Office Online, you’ll see the option to add your Dropbox account:

    Once you add the account, you can navigate and open files on Dropbox right from Office Online like so:

    Here’s what using Word Online to edit documents in Dropbox looks like:

    You can also access this same integration from Dropbox itself in the web browser. It will let you access Office Online directly from the file you’re viewing. Do so by clicking “Open” when you’re previewing a Word, PowerPoint, or Excel file.

    All Dropbox and Office Online users have access to the new integration starting right away.

    Last week, Dropbox announced new web previews that look better, load faster, and add functionality. More on that here.

    Images via Microsoft/Dropbox

  • Microsoft Office Gets New Storage Integrations On iOS

    Microsoft just announced a new Cloud Storage Partner Program for Office, enabling third-party storage providers such as Box, Citrix ShareFile and Salesforce to connect their services to Office Online for document viewing and editing.

    This follows a previously announced partnership with Dropbox.

    The company also announced that integration with Office for iPad and iPhone is also available for third-party storage providers via an open API.

    “Starting today, third-party cloud storage providers can natively integrate into the ‘Locations’ picker in the iOS Office apps,” says the company in a blog post. “This will enable users to open, edit and save documents from these providers right from within Office. While we’re announcing availability of the iPad and iPhone integration today, we’re hard at work on the same type of integration for the Office universal apps for Windows 10 and the Office for Android apps. So in the future, no matter what device, platform, or storage provider you’re using, your Office documents will only be a tap away.”

    “Partners that share our passion for boundless productivity can now bring more storage choice and flexibility to our mutual customers,” a spokesperson for Microsoft told us in an email. “Both announcements advance Microsoft openness and continue to drive forward a long-term vision for even greater Office extensibility.”

    Office for iPad and iPhone have seen over 80 million downloads to date.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Microsoft Office 2016 Coming In 2015

    On Wednesday, Microsoft unveiled a whole bunch of Windows 10 stuff. The fun continues on Thursday with the company showing off the next version of Microsoft Office.

    The Windows announcement included Office universal apps, which the company said would offer a touch-first experience across phone, tablet, and PC with new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. Here’s a look at the Word demo:

    And PowerPoint:

    The Office universal apps are pre-installed for free on phones and tablets running Windows 10, and are available for download from the Windows Store for other devices. These will be part of the Windows 10 Technical Preview in the coming weeks and will be generally available later this year.

    Separately, Microsoft is working on the next Office desktop suite called Office 2016, which the company is talking about today. Since it’s a work in progress, you can expect more in the coming months.

    This particular Office product, Microsoft says, will be the “comprehensive” Office experience you’re familiar with, and is best suited for a PC with a keyboard and mouse.

    In Word, a new Insights for Office feature (powered by Bing) in Read mode lets you get online resources (images, web references, definitions, etc.).

    “Use Excel to create and update spreadsheets and gain new insights as you analyze data and visualize it with charts,” says the Office 365 team. “And new touch-first controls shine in Excel, you won’t even miss your keyboard and mouse when selecting ranges of cells, formatting your pie charts or managing your workbooks.”

    “Create and edit beautiful presentations with PowerPoint,” the team adds. “Then use Presenter View to prepare and present with confidence, even use Ink Tools to annotate your slides in real time so your audience really knows what you are talking about.”

    Microsoft says the new version of OneNote makes it easier to get things done with groups of people with a new consistent Office ribbon experience.

    Word is built into the authoring experience in the new Outlook Mail and Outlook Calendar.

    Office 2016 should be available in the second half of this year.

    Images via Microsoft

  • Microsoft Shows Off A Bunch Of Windows 10 Stuff

    Microsoft Shows Off A Bunch Of Windows 10 Stuff

    In September, Microsoft unveiled Windows 10, launching an early technical preview for PC on October 1. With the release, Microsoft highlighted advancements for the enterprise and collaboration as well as consistency across devices. It adapted to Xbox, PCs, phones, tablets, and other “tiny gadgets” to delivery that consistency.

    On Wednesday, Microsoft showed off a bunch of new Windows 10 stuff including the operating system’s mobile debut, a new Xbox app, Xbox One game streaming, that new “Spartan” browser we’ve been hearing about, and a new augmented reality headset.

    The company also announced that a free upgrade for Windows 10 will be made available to users of Windows 7, 8.1, and Windows Phone 8.1, who upgrade within the first year after launch. Once devices are running Windows 10, Microsoft will continue to keep it updated for the entire lifetime of the device. It will add features as they become available, rather than waiting for another major release.

    Microsoft revealed that its personal digital assistant technology Cortana is coming to PCs and tablets for the first time with Windows 10. This learns your preferences, and gives you recommendations, info, and reminders as necessary. If you’re unfamiliar with it, it’s basically Microsoft’s answer to Siri and the like.

    Windows 10 with Cortana

    The company showed off Windows 10 for phones and tablets, which it says offers a “fast, fluid and familiar experience that seamlessly interacts with your PC.”

    Windows 10 on Phone

    The “Spartan” browser (that’s just a code name) includes the ability to annotate by keyboard or pen directly on a webpage and share with friends. It also has a reading view the company describes as “destraction free,” which displays articles in a “simplified layout”. It also includes a built-in PDF viewer and reading lists.

    Spartan reportedly won’t be in the next preview build of Windows 10, so it may be a while before anyone gets to use it.

    Windows 10 includes universal apps for Office and other everyday experiences.

    “Office universal apps on Windows 10 offer a consistent, touch-first experience across phone, tablet and PC with new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook,” says Microsoft’s Terry Myerson. “Designed from the ground up to run on Windows, you can easily create and edit Word documents, annotate slides in real-time with new inking features or easily present PowerPoint presentations, and with new touch-first controls in Excel you can create or update spreadsheets without a keyboard or mouse. The next version of the Office desktop suite is also currently in development, more on this in the coming months.”

    “New universal applications will ship with Windows 10, offering innovative new experience applications, consistent across the device continuum, for Photos, Videos, Music, Maps, People & Messaging, and Mail & Calendar,” he adds. “These built-in apps have an updated design that look and feel the same from app to app and device to device. Content is stored and synced through OneDrive, enabling you to start something on one device and continue it on another.”

    With the Xbox updates, users can capture, edit, and share moments from games with Game DVR, as well as play new games with friends across devices. You can get a rundown on all the new Xbox features here.

    With “Continuum Mode,” Windows 10 will move between keyboard/mouse and touch/tablet on 2in1 devices as it detects the transition.

    Finally, Microsoft unveiled two new devices for Windows 10 – the Surface Hub and the Microsoft HoloLens.

    The former is a large screen device designed for the workplace. It takes advantage of custom versions of Skype for Business and OneNote with build in cameras, sensors, and mics.

    “The Surface Hub features state of the art digital white boarding, instant remote conferencing, the ability for multiple people to share and edit content on the screen from any device, and a trusted platform for large-screen apps,” says Myerson. “Available in two sizes – 55” and 84” – the Surface Hub removes the current limitations of traditional conference room scenarios to empower teams to create their best work together.”

    HoloLens would be that augmented reality headset we mentioned:

    “Showcasing the possibilities of holograms in Windows 10, Microsoft HoloLens is the world’s first untethered holographic computer – no wires, phones or connection to a PC needed,” says Myerson. “Microsoft HoloLens allows you to view holograms in high definition and hear them in surround sound, even if they are behind you. And with advanced sensors, Microsoft HoloLens can see what you are looking at and understand what you are communicating with your hands and voice. By putting you at the center of the Windows 10 computing experience, Microsoft HoloLens allows you to create, access information, enjoy entertainment, and communicate in new and exciting ways.”

    I’m sure we’ll be hearing a lot more about all of this soon.

    Microsoft says 1.7 million Windows Insiders (those using the preview version of Windows 10) delivered 800,000 pieces of feedback since the Insider program was launched in September. You can sign up to participate here.

    Images via Microsoft

  • Microsoft Expands Preview Of Office Apps For Android Tablets

    Early last year, Microsoft finally launched its long-awaited Office apps for iPad. In November, the company announced their Android counterparts, making Word, Excel, and Powerpoint available in preview mode.

    Microsoft promised general availability of the apps in 2015. That isn’t happening just yet, but they did just expand the preview.

    In a blog post, the Office 365 Team writes, “Over the last two months, we have heard from people all over the world who want the power of Office on their Android tablet. The feedback we’ve received through this initial phase of preview has helped us shape and optimize the Office experience for Android tablet users. Your feedback also helps us plan and prioritize future feature updates.”

    “We want more feedback from more users to ensure that Office apps work well on a range of different Android tablets before launching the official apps,” it says. “To participate in the preview, you can use an ARM-based Android tablet running KitKat or Lollipop, with a screen size between 7″ and 10.1″. Starting today, anyone can go to Google Play and download the Word, Excel and PowerPoint preview apps. No waitlist. No requesting access. Just go and download the apps!”

    The company is hosting a Google+ Community for the Office for Android Tablets preview, where Android tablet users can request access to the apps and leave feedback about them.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Microsoft Office Online Gets A Bunch Of New Features

    Microsoft took the opportunity on Wednesday to run down a list of features that have either rolled out very recently or are in the process of rolling out.

    One is Insights for Office. This lets you right click on a word, select “Insights,” and get info from Bing Snapshot, Wikipedia, Bing Image Search, Oxford English Dictionary, and the web. This is presented alongside your content.

    The feature is also available via the “Tell Me” feature, which now also has word count and another new feature.

    “We enabled Tell Me to not only show commands that are available directly on the ribbon, but to also surface commands that are hidden away in sub-menus,” Microsoft explains. “For example, if you want to change your document’s paper size to A4, you now only need to type something like “size a4″ and Tell Me will present you the “A4 Page Size” command directly in its drop-down—no need to click into the “Page Size” sub-menu anymore. This makes it even easier to get to the command that fits your intent fast and efficiently! Of course, Tell Me still also shows the “Page Size” command, so you can easily get to other options.”

    Office Online also now has enhanced PDF support. It even lets you copy text from images or search by clicking the FIND button.You can convert a PDF into an editable Word document as well.

    “This feature works the best with documents that are mostly text, such as legal, business and scientific documents,” Microsoft notes. “If a PDF contains mostly graphics and diagrams, like a presentation or a brochure, the converter might have a little trouble with the layout or formatting.”

    Additionally, Office Online will now show you where pages end within documents, and you can now easily insert symbols such as the copyright © symbol or international currency symbols like £ or ¥.

    Image via Microsoft

  • Microsoft Office Ditches Clip Art For Creative Commons Images From Bing

    Microsoft has faced the facts that nobody really wants to use lame clip art in the year 2015. As this year draws to a close, so does the era of clip art for Microsoft Office.

    Now, users are going to be able to utilize Creative Commons images from Bing Image Search rather than the clip art library they previously had access to. In a post on the Microsoft Office blog, the Office 365 team writes:

    Starting today, customers searching for Online Pictures in Office desktop products worldwide will view and download royalty-free images curated through Bing Images. The Office.com Clip Art and image library has closed shop. Usage of Office’s image library has been declining year-to-year as customers rely more on search engines.

    Bing Image Search has higher quality images that are more up-to-date. For example, searching for “cellphone” gives more variety and modern looking phones instead of the old-school bricks from Clip Art. Also, Bing uses a copyright filter based on the Creative Commons licensing system. These are images you can use, share, or modify for either personal or commercial use (settings can be switched to Show all web results to view more images).

    Presumably, the photographers behind the images being used for this won’t have a problem with this like some do with Yahoo’s play to make money on Creative Commons Flickr images.

    Image via Microsoft