Microsoft today during a March 30 online event took the wraps off a new Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscription, but, that’s not all the news of the day. The company also detailed that the classic Office apps, Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are all getting updated with some cool new artificial intelligence-powered features.
Overall, there are three new features that you need to be aware of: An editor for Word, premium templates in PowerPoint, and a Money template in Excel. All the new features will be rolling out starting today, but some won’t necessarily be free.
As for specifics on these features, the Editor element in Word will available as a right-panel inside the app and on the web. It will provide some suggestions for common writing tasks. This includes checking for plagiarism, spelling, suggestions on how you can rephrase and rewrite sentences, or replace words to be more inclusive in your writing. Microsoft says it will also be available in over 20 languages. Editor is also coming to Outlook.com, and as a standalone browser extension for Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome, too.
When it comes to PowerPoint, it will get some new premium templates. This includes the ability to add video backgrounds to your presentation. The previously announced Presenter Coach is also included, too, but will only be for Microsoft 365 Subscribers.
Finally, with Money in Excel, you’ll be able to input and turn the information from your bank accounts and other accounts into live data feeds. There are also specific data types available for the feature, powered by Wolfram Alpha, which can help in choosing colleges, picking a diet, and more.
In terms of pricing, Editor in Word will be free for all, but some of its features locked behind a Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscription. Similarly, the same applies to some of the new features in PowerPoint. Finally, with Money template in Excel, it will start for free for Office Insiders, but only subscribers will have access to the new data types. We’ll have more on all these new features coming soon, so stay tuned to OnMSFT.com
