Microsoft just released its Office 2016 few days back. Microsoft office is used by more then 1.2 billion people around the globe, They use it for small tasks like word processing or for big tasks like powerful number crunching at large enterprises.
There are new features added to the popular app of office, that is none other then the Word. Microsoft just made word more intelligent, with some new features that are helpful. There is a new Tell me feature which lets you simply search for the feature or task you’re looking for and it brings the option up. If you’re struggling to find how to insert a chart, just search for “how do I insert a chart” and that option will be presented to you.
The biggest addition that is added to word is the new real-time co-authoring. With this new feature you can now see what others are typing in real time when multiple people are editing a document stored on one of Microsoft’s cloud services. This has been previously reserved only for web versions of Office, and used widely on Google Docs. This feature really comes handy when you are editing a document in group and you are able to see the changes what your partner is making in a document.
The real time co authoring is different then the one you see in Google Docs, lets say you and you’re partner are working on a document in Google Docs, then you can’t both edit the same line as it locks the other person out.
There also a new version history side panel. This is a life saver for people who work with multiple people on a document and at times there are movements where one of the member screws ups the whole document.Version history is now easy to access, and you can quickly restore an old version in seconds.
Microsoft is really working hard to make its Outlook more powerful and modern. Even in the Office 2016 the new outlook still can feel a little bit out dated. The Outlook 2016 is focusedat Exchange ActiveSync compatible services like Outlook.com or Office 365, If you are Gmail user thenyou’ll just get basic IMAP email support and no ability to bring in contacts (CardDAV) or calendar items (CalDAV).
There are some good changes made in Outlook 2016. Microsoft has added a clever way to manage attachments in Outlook. If you’ve used a OneDrive document recently, then you can attach it without ever seeing a file dialog. Microsoft plays a clever trick here, if you’re document is stored in OneDrive then there will be a link instead of attachment. Microsoft also adds an email organisation tool called Clutter. The new Clutter can prioritizes your email and clears low priority messages into a separate folder.
Skype for business is like the regular skype that we see, you can do voice or video calls and screen sharing in addition to the traditional Lync features like calendar scheduling.Skype for Business has the ability to create group chats, but it feels like an add-on rather than a core feature.
Now talking about the one the new feature that office 2016 has for sharing and cloud-powered documents is Sway. Basically Sway allows anyone to create a beautiful website from just images and text without any effort. you don’t actually need an application to access Sway. You can insert pictures, videos, tweets, and charts so there are plenty of options. It’s an interesting blend of Word and PowerPoint that creates an interactive webpage as the end result. Sway truly an impressive feature for us in Office 2016.
The new Office 2016 is now available now to Office 365 subscribers, which continues to start at $70 a year or $7 a month for the Personal edition.There’s also a Student package that costs $80 for four years.Microsoft clearly had to play catch-up, and took some cues from big-name competitors like Google and Trello in the process. The company is indeed late, but hopefully, it would seem, not too late. By focusing less on improving the already full featured desktop Office apps for 2016, it feels like Microsoft has spent most of its time making sure Office works well everywhere you want to use it.
TechnoLife 