Microsoft Office goes touchscreen friendly

New preview versions of the latest Microsoft Office apps are available for anyone testing Windows 10 Technical Preview. The “universal” apps can be used on any Windows device, from a desktop to a tablet or phone. They come with a host of touch features to make working on a touchscreen (and a smaller screen) more natural, and make the many MS Office desktop-era features more accessible.

When the final version of Windows 10 is released later this year, new systems, Windows Phones and tablets will ship with the apps for free. However, since Windows 10 won’t be free for businesses, we don’t expect enterprises to start getting Office licenses for free either. While usability is one of the key features, pick up and go is another, so users can start a document on their PC, leave the office and continue working on it on their phone or tablet, thanks to OneDrive storage.

Note that these aren’t the productivity apps that will ship as Microsoft Office 2016, which is being developed with standard PCs and enterprise users in mind. The Office 2016 apps will feature easier integration with cloud services and data sources. They will allow for a wider and deeper range of analytics tasks, as the Office suite tries to exist in a world of big data and smart dashboards that are rendering the standard Excel spreadsheet and PowerPoint display redundant in many businesses.

The Windows 10 Office touch apps, along with Outlook and Office for iOS and Android are part of Microsoft’s plan to keep Office relevant in an increasingly fragmented device market, where Windows Phones and tablets have a very small market share. The Office anywhere, anytime approach, including Office 365, is part of the plan to keep adoption of Google Docs, and productivity services from Amazon and others at bay.

Key to the success of Windows 10 will be new hardware. Microsoft is likely to unveil the Surface Pro 4, and possibly a Surface Pro mini tablet around the time of the OS launch to tempt enterprise users, while third parties are already producing a raft of cheaper hardware for those not in the executive suite to make Windows tablets more affordable.

Microsoft Office goes touchscreen friendly

What’s coming to Office 365 in 2015

Now that Microsoft has moved its office suite to the cloud, Office 365 users are a little more demanding about the updates and features, after years of impressive updates to other cloud services. So, here’s what Microsoft has on its raft of rolling out, and in development features, for the suite in 2015.

In the process of currently being rolled out to the general user base, we have:

Declutter your inbox

This is a new Clutter folder that will appear in Outlook online and plays host to low priority emails that you decide aren’t worth dealing with immediately. It learns what you don’t need to look at, and will start automatically moving those messages to the Clutter folder.

Document related chat

Document conversations let users link their Yammer conversations about a particular file to that document, so SharePoint or OneDrive documents, images and videos can be seen with a record of that chat, allowing everyone to remember what was discussed. Editing the document is an in development feature (see below).

Groups in Office 365

With a growing focus on collaboration, Groups will provide a unifying experience for users across Outlook and OneDrive for business, linking people, conversations, calendars, and content for easier and more relevant collaboration efforts across applications.

Still in development, hopefully arriving in 2015:

Compliance for Office 365

Larger businesses love policies, and Compliance Center for Office 365 will allow the implementation of rules and regulations across the apps and services. This will ensure workers follow the rules and don’t access any content or send any messages that they shouldn’t be sending. A different feature, but related to this, is File Deletion Policies, which is also in development.

Improved Excel functions

One of the most asked for functions are pivot tables in Excel Online, and these are coming. Microsoft is hard at work on adding support for the editing and updating of workbooks containing pivot tables and power views, which are currently limited to the desktop version.

Office support in Yammer

You’ll soon be able to open and work on documents from directly within Yammer, again helping to improve collaboration and workflow. The feature, when launched, will enable co-authoring by different users at the same time, while users chat and discuss the document’s content.

Which feature are you most looking forward to from Microsoft Office 365 in 2015?

What"s coming to Office 365 in 2015

Microsoft takes the fight to competitors with free Office 365

In a surprise move, tech-giant Microsoft has announced it is making parts of its Office 365 software available to mobile workers on iPad, iPhone, and Android tablets for free. The new policy will allow users to make edits to documents from the comfort of their mobile offices, without needing to pay for a Microsoft Office 365 subscription. The move is the latest volley in Microsoft’s campaign against Google, Amazon and Apple, as CEO Satya Nadella attempts to win mobile users’ hearts and minds as part of the company’s ‘mobile first, cloud first’ strategy.

There is a slight catch; free users won’t have access to the full suite of services open to paying subscribers, but it’s still an encouraging move and one that shows Microsoft may finally be taking the threat posed by Google and Apple a little more seriously. Nadella has long been a proponent of making Microsoft 365’s applications available to mobile users; one of the first things he did upon taking office as Microsoft’s chief executive was to scrap the company’s previous, unwieldy mobile apps and replace them with bespoke new apps that took the needs of mobile users into careful consideration.

Former Ovum man and current employee at Jackdaw Research, Jan Dawson, welcomed the move, saying Microsoft are right not to charge mobile users, arguing that paying for the basic Microsoft Office services the app provides is unreasonable in many cases.

“Think about the kind of Office-related work you might want to do on an iPad,” he wrote on his blog, before going on to highlight that your average user will use the service to fix the odd typo and finesse a spreadsheet during their daily commute, not embark on the next great American novel, or write a TED talk.

“Is that functionality worth $70-$100 a year for most users?” he argues.

It is also worth considering that revenue for Microsoft’s consumer Office software has tracked much lower than business revenue. Not much of a surprise in itself, but interesting in that it shows Microsoft is willing to take a financial hit if it means staying on top of the technological heap.

 

Microsoft takes the fight to competitors with free Office 365

Dropbox and Office 365: a match made in heaven?

Recently, the CEO of Dropbox announced that the cloud storage system had reached a total of 200 million users, including 4 million businesses. Drew Houston also announced that the company was keen to increase the number of Dropbox business users. Microsoft’s OneDrive is a similar service, meaning that Dropbox and Microsoft have long been seen as competitors, but changes have now been announced that show a very different reality.

Dropbox and Microsoft working together

Despite offering very similar services, Microsoft and Dropbox have chosen to work together to the benefit of both companies. Users of Dropbox and Office 365 will now find that the two work seamlessly together. The change is said to have ‘broken down walls’, and will increase ease of use and productivity for mobile workers.

Changes to the Dropbox app

The Dropbox app for mobile phones now features Microsoft Office integration. Users will be able to edit Office documents and files straight from Dropbox on their tablet or phone. The same is possible in reverse, with mobile workers able to use files that are stored in their Dropbox straight from their mobile Office applications. This functionality is available on both iOs and Android devices. Users, of course, will still be able to use OneDrive instead of Dropbox if that’s their preferred cloud storage system.

The importance of seamless connectivity

Microsoft’s CEO has said that “people need easier ways to create, share and collaborate regardless of their device or platform”, indicating that many companies will benefit from working closer together and not competing. As a result, Dropbox and Microsoft will be extending their partnership to offer the same connectivity for Windows phones and for PC and browser-based use in early 2015.

For mobile workers, these changes are sure to make life easier. As more and more devices and apps work seamlessly together, it will become easier than ever to upload and download files, make use of cloud computing and conduct meetings and presentations. Users will no longer need to circumnavigate restrictions, and will not be forced to use a certain service or provider. They can make their own choices, to suit their individual needs.

Dropbox and Office 365: a match made in heaven?

Office 365 is now available as a donation to qualified nonprofits

Get anywhere access to familiar Office applications, plus professional email, calendar, HD video conferencing, and more.

Take advantage of the cloud to help your non-profit deliver on its mission.

Microsoft is now offering its cloud-based Office 365 for Non-profits software programme to qualifying non-profits around the world via its software donation programme. The donation is available immediately to eligible organisations in 41 countries around the world, including the UK, and will be extended to a total of 90 countries by July 2014.

Office 365 for Non-profits lets non-profit and NGO staff use its cloud-based service to access files from almost anywhere, whether with a PC, smartphone or tablet. Staff can collaborate using shared applications such as email and shared calendars. Microsoft pledges a 99.9 per cent uptime. Jean-Philippe Courtois, president, Microsoft International, said: “Today we are donating to non-profits and NGOs access to Microsoft’s best-in-class cloud-based productivity and collaboration tools, enabling them to spend fewer resources and time on IT and focus on their missions addressing global issues, such as disease eradication, education and literacy, and environmental sustainability.”

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Office 365 is now available as a donation to qualified nonprofits

Office 365 subscribers get Office Mobile for Android phones

Today, Microsoft are launching Office Mobile for Android phones in the United States at no additional charge for Office 365 subscribers. This means that Office 365 subscribers can now work on their Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents from virtually anywhere–using their Windows Phone, iPhone or Android phones.

Office Mobile for Android phones can be downloaded from the Google Play Store. To use the app, you need a qualifying Office 365 subscription, including Office 365 Home Premium or Office 365 ProPlus (you can find the complete list of qualifying subscriptions here). Office Mobile for Android phones is initially available in the United States, with more countries coming on board over the next several weeks.

A true Office experience

Office Mobile is the official companion to Microsoft Office. Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents look great on your phone, thanks to support for charts, animations, SmartArt Graphics, and shapes. When you make edits or add comments to a document, the formatting and layout remain intact. When you return to your PC or Mac, your document looks like it should.

Easy access

Office Mobile is designed for people on the go.  We made it easy to access your Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents in the cloud on SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro.  When you’re on your phone, you’ll see the list of documents you recently opened on your computer in the Recent Documents panel–no searching needed. And of course, you can view and edit documents you receive in email.

Designed for the phone

Office Mobile has been optimized for the small screen of your phone so you can get things done efficiently.  When reviewing Word documents, the Resume Reading feature takes you to the exact point in the document where you left off on your PC so you don’t waste time searching. The new Slide Navigator lets you browse through PowerPoint presentations fast while Speaker Notes help you practice on the run.

Sharing built-in

Edit documents and share them right from your phone. You can review comments in Word and Excel documents on your phone and add your own.  When you’re done, you can save the file back to SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro or just send it as an email attachment.

 

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