As you may already know, Office 2016 is here. Office on Windows offers a new exciting set of features, with already over one million customers using it across Windows and Mac, within the preview or the download.
There are two versions of Office: the universal apps which are easier to use on mobile devices, and the desktop version that is best situated for a PC with a keyboard and mouse, but is also touch enabled. Due to the OneDrive cloud storage – you can pick up where you left off within the apps, when changing devices.
So we have taken a look at the top 5 features of Office 2016.
1. Collaboration/Team Work
Office 2016 introduces a new way for people to collaborate within Documents. Perfect for an office environment.
- Firstly you can now do real-time co-authoring. This means that there needs to be no more sharing round of Documents. You can invite your co-workers into the Document and you can then see them live editing which is tagged with their names.
- Skype for Business now allows you to IM, talk or video chat right into your documents. From Skype you can now start a real-time co-authoring session straight form any conversation or meeting.
- There now is Office 365 Groups. This means that you, as an individual, can create private or public teams. In each group you get a shared calendar, OneNote notebook, cloud storage for group files and a shared inbox.
2. Tell Me
- In the centre top of the program title bar, sits a query box. This is called the ‘Tell Me Box’.
- The use of this, is that you can type in how to do something in Office. You will then be given a list of commands, leaving you to choose what is best situated for your needs.
3. Smart Lookup
- Smart lookup is a new feature to Office 2016 that integrates Bing into Office. Smart Lookup is a useful knowledge booster.
- You highlight a word or phrase and then select the ‘smart lookup’ service.
- This provides you with a bar on the right side, that gives you a definition, spelling, location and some contextual information on the word/phrase.
4. Microsoft Sway
- Microsoft Sway was originally introduced as a standalone service, but has now been introduced through Office 2016.
- Sway allows you to make media presentations, it has been called a renovated PowerPoint. Drag and drop videos and photos from YouTube, your computer and any social media platforms.
This is a browser based app that is accessible through Office 365.
5. Power Query
- The Power Query tool allows you to import into Excel data from public data sources. You can connect to many data sources such as Wikipedia, Facebook etc.
- When you refresh the document, this will also automatically refresh the imported data in correspondence to what that data would be online. So it is constantly synced.
Office 2016 works very well with Windows 10. All of the Office 2016 apps work perfectly within Windows 10 on the PC and mobile devices. A feature of Windows 10 called ‘Windows Hello’ will log you into Windows 10 and Office 365 all at once. Don’t know about Windows 10? Check out our blog on ‘Should I Upgrade to Windows 10?‘.
So now you know what Office 2016 will deliver for you. But how do you get it?
Consumers or Home Users
– Visit the Microsoft store to purchase.
Choose the right package for you, but don’t forget to back up your files before any installation/download.
Businesses or Schools
– Get in touch with us to discuss pricing options for volume licensing.
If you are not yet sure, you can try a preview for one month, to see if Office 2016 is right for you.
Click on the banner below to try out Office Business Premium for 1 month for up to 25 users.
