Office 365 added new intelligence services, more in February

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Published onFebruary 28, 2017

published onFebruary 28, 2017

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As February is coming to a close, the Office team has justpublisheda recap of all the new features that have been introduced in the Office apps this month. Many of these new capabilities are leveraging Microsoft’s cloud-powered intelligence services, and the company claims that they will “get better each month as we deliver continued innovation and further tune our intelligent recommendations as more people use them.”

First of all, QuickStarter is now available in PowerPoint on Windows desktops for Office Insiders on the Fast Ring. This feature makes it easier get started with your presentations by providing you curated content about the topic of your choice. “Simply type in your topic and QuickStarter gets you going with a curated outline, recommendations on what categories to include, information to research further, and associated images tagged with Creative Commons licenses,” explained the Office team.

Office Insiders can also try the new Editor pane in Word on Windows desktops: this feature replaces the Spelling & Grammar pane and works as a digital writing assistant, with many tools designed to help you improve your writing style. The new pane has also been designed to be accessible for the visually impaired, which is always worth mentioning.

For those who use Apple’s latest MacBook Pros, Microsoft has alsobrought support for the Touch Bar in Word, Excel and Powerpoint this month. “The most common commands are intelligently placed at your fingertips based on what you’re doing in the document, spreadsheet or presentation,” explained the Office team. Touch Bar support is coming “soon” in Outlook for Mac, the team added.

Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana can alsocreate suggested reminders based on things you said in your emails. For now, this feature is only available for Windows 10 and Windows 10 Mobile users in the US: to enable it, you’ll have to add your Outlook.com account or Office 365 account in your Cortana connected services. The Office team added that support for iOS, Android and other email services is coming soon.

Lastly, Microsoft made three security-related announcements this month. The first one was Office 365 Secure score, a new security analytics tool that is now available to commercial customers. Second is Office 365 Threat Intelligence, which uses the Microsoft Intelligent Security Graph to help customers stay ahead of cyber threats will be generally available later this quarter. Lastly, customers can also register for thelimited preview of Office 365 Advanced Data Governance, a new tool that leverages machine learning to help them manage their most important data. You can learn more about these three security announcements in this dedicatedblog post.

Radu Tyrsina

Radu Tyrsina has been a Windows fan ever since he got his first PC, a Pentium III (a monster at that time).

For most of the kids of his age, the Internet was an amazing way to play and communicate with others, but he was deeply impressed by the flow of information and how easily you can find anything on the web.

Prior to founding Windows Report, this particular curiosity about digital content enabled him to grow a number of sites that helped hundreds of millions reach faster the answer they’re looking for.

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With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low#

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app#

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities#

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount#

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier#

Office 365 added new intelligence services, more in February#

With KB5043178 to Release Preview Channel, Microsoft advises Windows 11 users to plug in when the battery is low

Copilot in Outlook will generate personalized themes for you to customize the app

Microsoft will raise the price of its 365 Suite to include AI capabilities

Death Stranding Director’s Cut is now Xbox X|S at a huge discount

Outlook will let users create custom account icons so they can tell their accounts apart easier

Office 365 added new intelligence services, more in February