The Microsoft Office team has released their rundown of the monthly features introduced into Office 365. In March 2017, this included improvements to co-authoring, the Microsoft Teams general release, and more. Here is a look.
Office Insiders in the Fast Ring experience co-authoring in Excel
By sharing a document with your co-worker, you’ll be able to see real time changes made in the spreadsheet. If you’re not in the Fast Ring, co-authoring can also be experimented with in Excel Online, Excel on Android, Windows Mobile, and for Office Insiders on iOS. Mac will have to wait its turn.
AutoSave in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
If your documents are stored in SharePoint Online, OneDrive, or OneDrive for Business, you can enable AutoSave. Currently, it is only available to Office Insiders in the Fast ring on Windows desktops.
Microsoft Teams and Bookings roll out
Two major additions to Office 365 extended their reach this month. Bookings, the schedule and appointment manager for Business Premium subscribers, rolled out worldwide. Meanwhile, the Slack competing Microsoft Teams became generally available. Even we here at OnMSFT jumped on the bandwagon and converted our background system to Microsoft Teams in celebration.
OneNote got a list of updates of its own
- Ink Math Assistant feature added to graph handwritten equations
- Accessibility Checker for Windows 10 analyzes your notes so that more people can understand and read them.
- OneNote Online now has inking and the Draw tab added
Improved Visio integration in Excel and PowerPoint
Making flowcharts between Excel and converting them to PowerPoint was made easier through Data Visualizer templates. Furthermore, users are now able to take Slide Snippets to save, export, or otherwise use small pieces of a presentation in other areas of PowerPoint. One such is the Morph transition where it gradually transitions between overlapping snippets.
It’s also worth noting that Visio Online is now generally available for Office 365 commercial customers.
Beyond the software updates, the Office 365 team has been busy. Earlier this month, it was announced that Office 365 is now available in 181 markets. They also opened up registration for the SharePoint Virtual Summit, taking place on May 16.
