If you use Office Online like I do, then it’s great news that Microsoft has now added a few handy features to make formatting your Word document or PowerPoint presentation a lot easier. These updates should roll out automatically to all users over the next few days.
Word Online is coming out with new text formatting options. Format Painter is being added, so now you can copy the format of your selected text with Ctrl+Shift+C and then paste the format onto another selected piece of text with Ctrl+Shift+V. That way it’s easier to reformat multiple pieces of test easier and without having to keep going through options to make your document look consistent.
New autocorrect features will be added as well, including auto-capitalization, so now you don’t have to worry about forgetting to capitalize the first word on some of your sentences. Microsoft says in the coming weeks, you’ll see some nice automatic formatting options like typing two hyphens to create a long dash, that way you don’t ever have to use Alt+0151 to type a long dash ever again—or at least in Word Online.
PowerPoint Online is making it easier to make you illustrations look really nice. You can now use your mouse and keyboard to move, resize, and delete objects. Sometimes it must drive you crazy when you can’t get the object perfectly where you want it. Smart Guides has been added, so it’s a lot easier to align your objects with other content. You can also select multiple objects at a time.
PowerPoint Online also now let’s you create and edit tables right from your web browser. Previously, you could only view and move existing tables. This must have been pretty aggravating to some users.
The new full-screen reading view and zooming tools in PowerPoint Online makes it more comfortable to view presentations from devices with small screens. High DPI support will be added to Word Online for viewing PDFs.
It’s nice to know that Microsoft is working on Office Online for users who don’t use the full Office 365 or prefer the ease of just using a web browser. Hopefully one day Office Online will be powerful enough so some user’s don’t feel they have to download Office 365 if they prefer to work from their web browser or save storage space.
Further reading: Microsoft, Office, Office Online, PowerPoint, Word
