Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 suite has exploded in popularity in recent years, with a reported 115 million daily active users of Microsoft Teams alone in Q3 2020. And it’s easy to see why: Office 365 provide organisations a single, secure platform through which teams across the globe can collaborate, share knowledge and be productive.
While you might already be already familiar with the major players in the Microsoft suite, there’s a whole stack of useful Office 365 features that you may not know about. Here’s a look at just a handful.
1. Internet searches within documents
Need to look something up while you’re in the middle of working on a document. With Office 365 there’s no need to interrupt your workflow or your train of thought: the Smart Lookup feature in Microsoft Word allows you to do an internet search right from your document.
To access the feature, just right-click on a word or a phrase, then click 'Smart Lookup' and a Bing search will pop up in a window in the right-hand pane of your document.
2. Outlook add-ins
Whether you want to improve your inbox organisation skills, automate day-to-day tasks or check your email spelling and grammar, there’s a huge range of add-ins available to level up your Outlook experience.
To install add-ins, open the Office Store from within Outlook.com or go to Microsoft AppSource to search and download. When you install an add-in in Outlook.com, it will appear in other versions of Outlook as well, such as the desktop app.
All add-ins are validated by Microsoft and only have access to the data in the email message that you're working in.
3. Set up a joint project planner for your work group
Billed as a ‘simple, visual way to organise teamwork’, Microsoft Planner functions as a collaborative to-do list for you and your colleagues. Using Planner, teams can assign and collaborate on tasks in real time, set due dates, update statuses and share files within a joint dashboard.
Microsoft Planner is currently available to premium, business and educational subscribers to Office 365.
4. Turn handwritten notes into readable documents
The free Microsoft app Office Lens enables you to capture notes and information from whiteboards, menus, signs, handwritten memos, or anything with text, and turn them into a readable document on your device. It’s great for capturing sketches, drawings and equations too, and even images without text.
Simply choose your mode — Photo, Document, Whiteboard, or Business Card — and Office Lens will convert your image the appropriate format.
5. Multi-person document editing
Last but definitely not least, Office 365’s cloud-based features make it simple and easy for multiple people to work on and edit the same document. That goes for everything from Word documents to Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations and more.
Not only does this enable smart collaboration for dispersed workforces and remote teams, but it also ensures everyone who accesses a document sees the most up-to-date version – as files are updated in real-time.
Considering migrating to Office 365? Get in touch with the Area9 team today to discuss your needs.