Top 10 New Features in Office 365

Here I've listed the top 10 features in Office 365 that you should check out.

1. Offline messaging now available in Skype for Business: You no longer have to wait until your colleague is online to message them. Simply message your offline colleague and he or she will be notified via Skype for Business and Windows Alerts. This strengthens and eases quick communication between employees.

2. Collaborative tools are now front and center in Word and PowerPoint: When you open a shared presentation or document, in a glance you are now able to see who is working within the document and where. In addition, you are able to chat with colleagues in the document instantly with Skype for business and view their document activity. All of these features have been conveniently placed in the top right corner of the ribbon.

3. Smart search for photos in OneDrive: You can now search for photos in OneDrive based on the objects in the image. OneDrive automatically recognizes and tags objects in the photo to make them more accessible through search. Tags can also be edited to fit the user’s specification.

4. Create a work group directly from Outlook: With this update the user can create a new group or browse groups directly from the Home tab in Outlook. Clicking on a group from the sidebar now gives you access to all features directly in Outlook to manage and collaborate with the group. This eases and centralizes the process of collaboration amongst groups.

5. Draw and annotate with ink in Office 2016: This feature is optimized for Office users on touch devices. Simply annotate with ink to make notes, highlight portions of text, quickly create shapes, or write math equations and have them converted to text on touch devices. This makes the process of editing more interactive with the ability to add greater detail.

6. Get & Transform evolves data management in Excel 2016: Get & Transform in Excel allows the user the ability to connect, transform, combine, and share data. The Excel user is able to make connections to data sitting in the cloud, in a service, or locally. The Excel user can then shape the data to meet their needs while keeping the original source intact. Multiple data sources can be combined to create a data model as well. Lastly, once the query is complete, the user can easily share it directly from Excel.

7. Publish Excel workbooks directly to Power BI: With this function your workbook will appear in Power BI exactly like it would in Excel, however, the features provided by PowerBI give you the ability to pin elements from your worksheets to dashboards. Moreover, Power BI gives users the ability to create highly interactive reports and dashboards based on data from the Excel workbook. The user can then quickly share their insights with anyone in their organization.

8. Declutter Outlook with the quick archive feature: The archive button appears in the Home tab of Outlook to give the user quick access. Multiple messages can be quickly moved to the Archive folder without deleting them. Archived messages can be easily found through search and are accessible through various devices including your phone. This feature allows the user to maintain a clean inbox while preserving important messages.

9. Preload attachments for a Skype for Business meeting: With this feature participants of a Skype for Business meeting can focus on the discussion at hand without being hindered by loading files. Participants of the meeting no longer have to share their screen to show specific documents. Instead, all of the participants have the ability to view the documents by opening the file directly from Skype for Business.

10. The new SharePoint mobile app: This new mobile app provides full-fidelity, on-the-go access to company content, and sites and applications. With a modern, new SharePoint home page the user can easily access team sites as well as search and view activity across teams and organization. Further integration of apps such as Microsoft Flow are coming directly to SharePoint soon, making the application more powerful. Users will now have the full power of SharePoint in their pocket.

Would you like to find out more about Office 365? Learn how you can transform the way you work with Office 365 today.