Search the Community

Showing results for tags 'microsoft 365'.

  • Search By Tags

    Type tags separated by commas.

  • Search By Author

Content Type


Forums

  • Favorites
  • General Discussion
    • Introduce Yourself
    • General Discussion
    • Jokes & Funny Stuff
    • Members' Metropolis
    • Real World News
  • Technical Help & Support
    • Hardware Hangout
    • Smart Home, Network & Security
    • Tips, Tweaks & Customization
    • Software Discussion & Support
    • Programming (C#, C++, JAVA, VB, .NET etc.)
    • Web Design & Development
  • Platforms (Operating Systems)
    • Microsoft (Windows)
    • Apple (macOS)
    • Linux
    • Android Support
  • Submitted News, Guides & Reviews
    • Essential Guides
    • Back Page News
    • Member Reviews
  • Recreational Activities
    • Gamers' Hangout
    • The Neobahn
    • The Media Room
    • The Sporting Arena
  • Neowin Services & Support
    • Site Announcements
    • Site & Forum Issues

Find results in...

Find results that contain...


Date Created

  • Start

    End

Last Updated

  • Start

    End

Filter by number of...

Found 495 results

  1. John Callaham
    Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available for all businesses, large and small by John Callaham In November 2023, Microsoft officially launched Copilot for Microsoft 365 Enterprise customers, specifically for large companies that had signed up for Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 enterprise plans. The cost to access the Copilot generative AI features was set up as $30 a month per person. Today, Microsoft announced an expansion of that effort. Copilot for Microsoft 365 is now available for all businesses, both big and small. Now, customers with Microsoft 365 Business Premium and Business Standard plans can add Copilot and all of its features and uses. Like the Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans, the smaller Business Premium and Business Standard plans are $30 a month per person. Not only is the service expanding to more businesses, but Microsoft is also ditching the previous 300-seat minimum to get Copilot added to a Microsoft 365 business subscription. Now, there is no minimal seat amount needed, which means a single person who runs a business on their own can add Copilot with just one seat required. If any customers are still on the older Office 365 E3 and E5 plans, they can also access Copilot for the first time without the need to have a Microsoft 365 account. Finally, any commercial business customers can go through the many different Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider partners to subscribe to Copilot for Microsoft 365. Microsoft also offered up an update on Copilot for Microsoft 365 since it launched in November. Since it became generally available in late 2023, the list of companies that use the service has expanded to include Visa, BP, Honda, Pfizer, Accenture, KPMG, and PwC. These new announcements come on the same day as Microsoft's reveal of Copilot Pro. It will give individuals more features and more powerful access to the Copilot AI compared to the current free version for the cost of $20 a month.
  2. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: New email sync button for Outlook and more by John Callaham This week's look back at the last seven days of new entries on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap website will include some upcoming features for Outlook, Teams, and Microsoft Stream. Microsoft Outlook: New email sync button is coming Microsoft previously said it was going to be putting lots of new features and improvements in the new Outlook for Windows in 2024. One of the new features is due in February 2024 for both Outlook for Windows and on the web. It will add a new email sync button to the app. A button option to initiate email sync is coming to the new Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web, this will allow users to ensure that their send and receive email experience is up-to-date. This functionality will be within the View tab of the Ribbon. Microsoft Teams - New co-organizer feature for Town Hall and more Microsoft Teams on Windows. Mac and the web will add a new Town Hall feature in February: Co-organizers can edit town hall details, publish the event, and cancel the event, similar to the organizer. Another new Teams feature for Windows due in February will offer some new call setting additions: End users will now be able to change their external call routing settings directly from the Teams app, allowing them to decide how incoming PSTN calls are routed. Calls can be redirected based on existing unanswered call settings or sent to voicemail. This new capability provides more flexibility for handling customer communications. More updates for Microsoft Stream and Forms Microsoft Stream business users will be able to put in reactions to videos starting in June 2024. This feature will allow users to add or remove reactions to specific points of a recorded video via Stream Web App and Embed. Viewers will be able to see how their colleagues feel about a video and show their support towards the video owner. These reactions will be present in the timeline to highlight the most important parts of the video and can be used for navigation. Also, owners of the video can see detailed analytics about when viewers are reacting to videos and have ability to disable the feature. The Microsoft 365 Roadmap also mentions that Stream users will be able to add a video to a playlist directly from an embedded video in March. Microsoft Forms users will be able to check out a new sync feature with Excel in a preview starting later in January. Microsoft Forms supports quickly and easily syncing form responses to an Excel file. Now you’ll always have the latest information, updated automatically, so you can leverage the full range of Excel functions to analyze your data and collab with your peers. The new feature will become generally available in July. That's all for this week's Microsoft 365 Roadmap roundup. Come back next Sunday to see what's been added to the roadmap in the next seven days.
  3. John Callaham
    Microsoft teams up with Typeface to add AI features to Dynamics 365 Customer Insights by John Callaham Business marketing teams who want to come up with new campaigns will soon be able to use new AI features with the Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights platform, with some assistance from startup AI company Typeface. In a press release, Typeface announced it will be a part of the content creation features for a future version of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights. The platform will soon add Microsoft Copilot AI assistance features. Marketing teams can type in a campaign proposal using natural language or upload a previously created marketing brief. The platform will utilize Copilot to create a marketing board with information like "audience data, journey orchestration, and channels" for their proposed campaign. Microsoft stated that marketing teams can also use the board to check out "recommendations from Copilot for additional segments that may not have been previously considered." The Typeface's features then come into play. Marketing teams can use the them inside Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to access content for their campaigns, like images, fonts, themes, and more, from the company's library of assets. In Microsoft's own blog post about this new partnership, the company said: This is just the beginning; we will be delivering further content curation, journey testing, and metrics monitoring to optimize campaigns. Our vision is that, together, this new AI-first experience will transform how marketers work by reducing the complexities of end-to-end campaign management and enhancing marketer productivity and ROI. Current Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights customers will be able to access the new Copilot and Typeface AI features via an early access public preview that will begin sometime in the first quarter of 2024. Those customers can learn more about the public preview and sign up for that preview at Typface's site. The general availability of these AI features is expected sometime in the third quarter of 2024.
  4. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Share channel links in Teams and more by John Callaham It's the first week of a new year, and that means the Microsoft 365 Roadmap site is back in full swing with a number of interesting upcoming new features. We have already reported that the roadmap claims Teams meetings will be added to Android Auto sometime in February, but there are even more future additions that have been listed on the roadmap for the last seven days. Microsoft Teams: Sharing channel links with others and more One feature that is coming in February 2024 for all Microsoft Teams users will make it easier to share content with others: Need to add your colleague to a channel discussion? Copy the link of a private or a shared channel, a channel post or one of its replies and share it with your partner, so they can join the discussion in one click. Another feature coming in February for PC, Mac and Web users will be helpful for Teams organizers when they need to make a new webinar: Organizers can schedule a new webinar by duplicating information from an existing scheduled one. This includes duplicating information such as details, presenters, theming, and more. The organizer can also edit and update the information as needed for the new event. Premium Teams town hall organizers on those same platforms will get another new feature in February that will help others who speak different languages. Town hall organizers will be able to select the caption languages that will be available to the attendees for translation. Currently the languages are preset for attendees to pick from; now organizers will be able to select the 10 translated languages available to attendees. There's another Teams town hall feature that's coming in February as well: Organizers can schedule a new webinar by duplicating information from an existing scheduled one. This includes duplicating information such as details, presenters, theming, and more. The organizer can also edit and update the information as needed for the new event. Finally, Android and iOS users will get a new feature later in January: Walkie Talkie, a push-to-talk experience that enables clear and secure voice communication over the cloud, enables teams to communicate instantly on a channel. Through this new functionality, users can now join up to 5 channels in multi-channel mode, easily switch between these preselected channels to listen to incoming transmission or initiate PTT transmissions. Other Microsoft 365 Roadmap additions: Stream translation features and more Microsoft Stream, the business-based web streaming service, will get a new transcription translation feature on the web in January: Make your content more inclusive by creating videos that your coworkers can easily view and understand in their primary language. Transcript translations in Stream (on SharePoint) give you the option to translate the transcript and closed captions of your Stream videos into more than 100 supported languages. To enable translations Admins must first setup billing using an Azure subscription, then they must be enable the feature in the M365 Admin center. Once enabled translations are billed via pay-as-you-go meters. SharePoint will also be getting font customization features in March on the web, and in June those same SharePoint users will be able to put in custom fonts and themes for their sites. In July, the new Outlook for Windows will let users add shared mailboxes as accounts. Also, the new To Do app will be available in Outlook in July as well. Finally, the Microsoft Forms site will get a revamped new user experience in May: Introducing an upgraded onboarding experience tailored for new Forms users, designed to provide a seamless and user-friendly initiation to the platform. Get started effortlessly with our refreshed interface and streamlined features. That's our rather extensive look at what's new on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. We will be back in another seven days with another look at updates on the site.
  5. John Callaham
    Microsoft Forms now has a new Practice mode for quizzes to assist students by John Callaham Microsoft Forms is a great way for businesses, teachers, and other people to create quizzes and texts, along with polls, surveys, and other ways to get feedback from people. Today, the company announced a new mode specifically made for students to help them learn and reinforce their knowledge of subjects. In a blog post, Microsoft revealed Practice mode, specifically for online quizzes in Forms. In this special mode, students will get each question on screen one at a time. If they get a question right or wrong, they will instantly learn the outcome. If the question in the quiz has more than two choices for an answer on the screen, and the student gets one of them wrong, they will be given a chance to select the right answer to that question. Even if they get a question on a Microsoft Forms quiz wrong on the first attempt, they will still receive encouraging messages on the screen. Students will also be give a chance to skip a question they don't feel ready to answer, or they can simply ask to give them the right answer. This will allow students to go through the quiz at their own pace. After the student completes a quiz in the new Practice mode, they can then review all the answers they gave during the quiz. Again, the Microsoft Forms app will offer encouragement to students who finish the quiz so they can be given a chance to try again with another Practice mode quiz, or move onto the real test. Teachers and parents who want check out the Practice mode in Microsoft Forms can do so by checking out this template quiz online. They can then click on the three dot menu on the top right side of Microsoft Forms app, and then click on the Practice mode slider to launch a quiz in that mode.
  6. John Callaham
    Microsoft Teams meetings and chat support is coming soon to Android Auto by John Callaham Sometimes, company employees who work remotely or travel a lot for their jobs still need to attend online business meetings. That might happen even if the worker is driving a car. Now it looks like Microsoft will expand access to online meetings to those is in a moving vehicle. In a new entry on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap site (via TechRadar), Microsoft says it will roll out access to Teams on Google's Android Auto platform sometime in February. Once it does become available, people who use Android Auto will be able to join Microsoft Teams meetings via the calendar view. The new Teams support in Android Auto will also extend to allowing users to call their speed dial contacts, along with being able to see their recent calls. There's no word on how exactly these new features will work, but hopefully, we will learn a lot more about Android Auto support in Teams before the new feature rolls out. In the meantime, Microsoft will be adding a bunch of new features for Teams users in the month of January. That includes the ability for Copilot users to access the Intelligence Recap feature in Teams, which helps summarize an online meeting after it has happened for people who were unable to attend or for people who want to find out info they missed during a meeting. Microsoft recently gave its own summary of the number of new features it added to Teams in December 2023, along with new Teams-supported hardware devices. A few weeks ago, it revealed that there are currently 320 million monthly active users for Teams. There are also over 2,000 apps made specifically for Teams that are available to download, with more on the way. Finally, Teams users can access "over 145,000 custom line-of-business (LOB) apps built by enterprises."
  7. John Callaham
    Microsoft Teams will add Intelligent Recap for Copilot users in January 2024 by John Callaham We were not planning on doing a Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly post this week, as we thought there would not be any new entries during the holiday week. However, there were a few new posts on the site that went live on December 28, and two of them revealed new features for Microsoft Teams users that will roll out in January 2024. One of the new features that will launch in January is for Desktop and Mac users of Teams. Microsoft plans to add the Intelligent Recap feature for people who use Teams with the Copilot chatbot. The Intelligent Recap feature was first added in May 2023. It lets Teams Premium users who either missed an online meeting or simply didn't pay a lot of attention during the event, get an AI-created summary of that meeting. The summary includes "automatic generated meeting notes, recommended tasks, and personalized highlights" according to Microsoft. The Microsoft 365 Roadmap description for the Teams Intelligence Recap feature in Copilot states: Copilot users can access intelligent recap after meetings to get a summary of the meeting, including: personalized timeline markers to easily browse the recordings by when you joined or left, when a screen was shared, and when your name was mentioned; browse recordings by speakers, chapters, and topics; as well as access AI-generated meeting notes, tasks, and jump to name mentions in the transcript. The other new feature that will be rolled out for Teams Desktop and Mac users in January 2024 will provide an easier way for people in Teams chat to share contact info: Users can now share the contact information of someone who is not in a chat to make it easy for others to confidently get to know other collaborators. As we reach the end of 2023, it's likely that 2024 will see a ton of new features added for Microsoft 365 customers, and we will stay on top of those features with our weekly Roadmap features.
  8. John Callaham
    LG reveals MyView monitors with streaming services and Microsoft 365 support by John Callaham We are getting closer and closer to CES 2024. The massive annual trade show in Las Vegas is just 10 days away, but we are already getting some reveals about what products will be shown off ahead of time. Today, LG announced a new lineup of PC monitors called MyView. These "smart" monitors are made for the home office but come with integrated support for streaming services via LG's webOS, which it also uses in its smart TVs. All three models will have 31.5-inch IPS displays with refresh rates of 60Hz, 4K resolutions of 3,840 x 2,160 pixels, and support for HDR 10. They also include two HDMI ports. The 32SR85U and 32SR83U models have three USB-C ports, while the 32SR70U has one USB-C port. The new LG MyView monitors can stream from free and premium streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, Pluto TV, and more via webOS without the need to connect the monitor to a PC. It even offers access to cloud productivity services, including Microsoft 365, with no PC required. In that regard, they are very similar to displays that have been available for some time from LG's big monitor rival, Samsung. The LG MyView monitors support mobile screen mirroring from smartphones and tablets via Apple's AirPlay 2 and Miracast. The monitors also come with a remote control so you can access webOS without needing a PV. Some of the new monitors will be available in different color choices, including essence white, mild beige, cotton pink, and cotton green. So far, LG has yet to announce prices for these new MyView smart PC monitors. The company has also not revealed where or when they will go on sale. Hopefully, we will learn more at CES 2024. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
  9. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Teams will get improvements for collaborative notes and more by John Callaham Microsoft added some final entries for the Microsoft 365 Roadmap web page this past week before the company shut down for the holidays. However, there were some interesting new listings for upcoming features. We have already reported that Microsoft 365 Copilot will add support for pinning chats in early 2024. Here's what else was added to the Roadmap last week: Microsoft Teams - New collaborative notes support coming to meetings and more Starting in March 2024, Microsoft will add a new way for Teams meeting users on the desktop to create collaborative notes: This enhancement to Collaborative notes enables anyone invited to the meeting to create collaborative meeting notes and agendas both before and after the meeting. This means more collaboration, more efficiency, and an even more seamless teamwork experience. Speaking of Teams meetings, they will be getting some invite improvements in February 2024 on the desktop and Mac: Meeting invite is the first thing that the user invited to the meeting sees before joining. We are making some design improvements to make sure we have the most important information there and it's better grouped. In February 2024, Teams on the web, desktop and Mac will get some live translation improvements: Organizers can select up to six languages for attendees to choose from for live translation for captions during a town hall. Other Microsoft 365 Roadmap listings for Microsoft Stream and Outlook Microsoft Stream, which offers enterprise users a way to offer videos to their employees, will get a new option in January 2024 for blocking the downloads of shared videos: Some videos are meant to be viewed but not downloaded. Soon you will be able to share videos more securely with the "Can view, but not download" option. This option will be available in the permission drop down in the Microsoft 365 share dialog for Stream videos. When you select "Can view, but not download," people who access the video you shared will be able watch it, but won't be able to download or copy the video file. Outlook users on the Mac will get a new To DO feature in January 2024: To Do helps you manage your tasks and stay on top of what's next. These features will be available in Outlook for Mac for commercial users This will be the final Microsoft 365 Roadmap roundup article of the year. Come back in two weeks on January 7, 2024 for the first such post for the new year.
  10. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 Copilot will soon let you pin up to 15 chats by John Callaham Copilot for Microsoft 365 subscribers will soon get a new feature similar to one that is already available in Microsoft Teams. A newly added entry to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap site says that Copilot will soon support pinned chats on the website. The specific description is: Users of Microsoft Copilot with Graph-grounded chat can easily return to their recent chats and organize their work in Microsoft Copilot. With the new pinned chats feature, they can pin up to 15 chats for easy access later. The roadmap says that this new pinned chats feature will be available as a preview in January 2024 and will officially roll out to all users in February 2024. There's no word yet on how exactly the pinned chats feature in Copilot will actually work. Having said that, pinning chats are already a feature found in Microsoft Teams. Users can hover over the chat they want to pin in Teams and then click on the More options menu. Then they can select the Pin icon in the menu to put that chat over other conversations. It's possible that the pinning chats feature that's in the works for Copilot might be handled in a similar way. Microsoft is already working on adding even more new features to Copilot soon. In a recent chat on X (formerly Twitter), Mikhail Parakhin, Microsoft's head of Advertising and Web Services, responded to a person's inquiry about the full availability of Plugins for Copilot, along with dark mode, GPTs, and, pinning chats. Paraklin's response was as expected: Working on all of the above. Holiday lockdown doesn't help (we reduce production changes at this period, because so many people are on vacation). It sounds like we can expect a new push for Copilot features to begin after January 1.
  11. John Callaham
    Microsoft Teams now has over 320 million monthly active users and over 2,000 apps by John Callaham It's been a huge 2023 for Microsoft Teams, in more ways than one. Microsoft launched the new Teams apps for Windows and Mac in October, offering users better overall performance compared to the older "classic" Teams app, which will be retired after June 30, 2024. Today, via a blog post, Microsoft announced that Teams is now being used by over 320 million active monthly users worldwide. The blog added that "tens of millions more people adopted Teams this year" although a specific number was not announced. In addition, the blog post stated that over 2,000 apps are now available to download from the Teams store along with "over 145,000 custom line-of-business (LOB) apps built by enterprises." Going forward, Teams and Microsoft 365 will support the use of Microsoft's Copilot generative AI assistant, which became generally available on November 1. The blog post says that enterprise users can extend the use of Copilot in Teams through the use of plugins. The blog post states: A powerful way to create a plugin is to use Teams message extensions, which can retrieve external data, analyze and summarize information, and allow users to take actions via Adaptive Cards in Teams. Developers can now create message extensions using Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. For existing message extensions, make sure app manifests are updated. The use of Microsoft Graph connectors can also be used to extend the use of Copilot, Microsoft says that in the spring of 2024, Lucidspark's virtual whiteboards and Lucidchart's intelligent diagramming will use Microsoft Graph connectors. The blog post states: Information such as the content of Lucid canvases, the date the Lucid document was created or modified, the author, and other relevant fields will be ingested via Graph connectors to surface rich insights to users. Content ingested from Graph connector data will be linked in Copilot's references, allowing users to link back to the original Lucid whiteboard or diagram. Not mentioned in the blog post was that the European Union began a probe in July of Microsoft's bundling of Teams in Microsoft 365 in 2023 for alleged anticompetitive rule violations. Microsoft responded by offering Teams on its own as a separate subscription in October, but this move reportedly may not be enough to keep the company from avoiding a possible fine from the EU.
  12. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Improvements coming to Teams for Safari and Firefox and more by John Callaham Since we are getting closer to the holiday season, we are seeing a few less entries added to the Microsoft 365 roadmap in the last week. However, there are a few interesting listings about upcoming features, especially if you are a Microsoft Teams user. Microsoft Teams - Performance improvements for Safari and Firefox browsers in the works and more If you want to access Teams meetings on Apple's Safari or Mozilla's Firefox web browser, the good news is that Microsoft will be adding some improvements for those browsers with a preview in January 2024, and a full rollout in February: The latest Teams meeting experiences will be available for Teams on the web in Safari and Firefox browsers - including performance improvements, refreshed pre-join, updated meeting stage, and the updated meeting toolbar. (for anonymous join only) Another new feature coming to Teams on the desktop, web, and Mac versions will offer calendar notifications in February: Users can now triage the calendar notifications in their Activity Feed and will get notifications for meeting invites, updates, cancellations, and forwards (if the user is the meeting organizer). These notifications will show up as unread in the Activity Feed pane and will display the details when a user clicks on it. The mobile versions of Teams will gain access to the previously released AI-based Intelligence Meeting Recap in February: Intelligent recap is now available on Teams for iOS and Android, so users can access AI-generated meeting notes, AI-generated tasks, and name mentions, and easily browse the meeting recording by speakers. Finally, Teams users on the web and desktop will be able to "use team tags to @ mention groups of people within shared channels" in February. Microsoft OneDrive on the web will soon add templates for files The Microsoft 365 roadmap also added a new upcoming feature for OneDrive on the web that will roll out in February that should help with people creating Office app files from OneDrive: We're refreshing the file creation experience in OneDrive for Web which you initiate by clicking the “Add new” button. Soon, clicking the “Add new” button in OneDrive will give you the option to create a blank file or choose from a selection a high-quality, beautifully designed Word, Excel and PowerPoint templates to jumpstart your work. As always, the Microsoft 365 roadmap listings are not set in stone, so features and their rollout dates are subject to change. Come back in seven days for another look at the roadmap.
  13. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 Insiders can now use Cameo placeholders in PowerPoint presentations by John Callaham In 2022, Microsoft added the Cameo feature to its PowerPoint presentation service. It allows users to use your camera feed from, for example, your PC's webcam, and create a video recording that can be put in your PowerPoint slides. However, putting in support for Cameo videos in PowerPoint presentations was a fairly tedious task as they had to put in and format the Cameo in each slide. This week, Microsoft 365 Insiders can try out a new feature that should help automate that task. In a post on the Microsoft 365 Insider blog, Microsoft stated: By adding a cameo placeholder to your slide layouts or templates, you can add consistency to your slide deck. You can integrate and format the cameo placeholder within your presentation as you’re creating your content and designing your slides, and it will automatically turn into a cameo. PowerPoint users can either create a new file or open an existing presentation, and then select the View option, followed by the Slide Master option. Then the user can click on the Insert Placeholder option, and finally the Cameo selection. Users have the option to change the shape of the Cameo format so it fits on their slides. They can also make changes to its outline in a variety of different color choices, and there's also the option to add a shadow effect to that outline. Right now, PowerPoint users on Windows and Mac can create Cameo placeholders in their slides. However, after the layout has been set up, PowerPoint users on the web can then go into their presentations and add new slides with that Cameo layout. At the moment, the new Cameo placeholder feature is available for Microsoft 365 Insiders on PowerPoint for Windows version 2309 (Build 16827.20278) or later or the Mac version 16.77 (Build 23082700) or later.
  14. John Callaham
    Microsoft Teams Public Preview adds a way to decorate your background in video meetings by John Callaham A few weeks ago, Microsoft announced that a number of new features would be rolling out shortly for its Teams online meeting and collaboration tools. One of the features mentioned was a way to change and decorate a person's background when they were on camera during an online meeting. Today, the company announced that feature is now rolling out for Microsoft Teams Public Preview and Microsoft 365 Targeted Release users. In a post on the Microsoft 365 Insider blog, Microsoft stated: As a Teams Premium user, you now have the option to leverage AI to augment your real-life surroundings and create a personalized atmosphere for your meetings when using camera. If you want to change and decorate your background either before or during an online video meeting you can select the Effects and Avatars option. You can then pick the  Video effects selection and then you can click on the Decorate button. You should see the Background settings pane. You can pick a theme from the pane, and then click on the Generate backgrounds button. Pick one of the backgrounds, and then click on the Apply and save background button so your custom background is available for others to see in the meeting. At the moment, this new feature is available for Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted Release users. Admins must set up their Teams clients to accept public preview features. They must also have a paid Teams Premium license and they have to use the new Teams app for Windows or Mac. Microsoft has already announced that the new custom background decoration feature will be generally available for Teams Premium users sometime in early 2024. Other new features, including using avatars in virtual immersive spaces meetings, will also roll out generally for Teams users in the early part of next year.
  15. John Callaham
    Microsoft has updated the Catch Up feature for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for the web by John Callaham If you are signed up for Microsoft 365, you might use the web versions of the company's popular Word, Excel, and PowerPoint productivity apps. This week, Microsoft revealed that it has made some improvements for all three apps that center on their Catch Up functionality. Catch Up, in case you are unaware, allows users to quickly view the latest comments and changes made to files that are being shared and collaborated with other people. In a post on the Microsoft 365 blog, the company says that Word, Excel, and PowerPoint users now have two more Catch Up features to check out. The first of the two new features is a section called Activities For You. Microsoft says: When you come back to a collaborative file, the Catch Up feature will notify you of any new comment activity that is directed at you, in the Activities for you section. Clicking any of the items in that list will take you directly to that comment so you can quickly follow-up with your collaborators. These activities will include comment tasks, mentions, and replies. Microsoft adds that when users see a blue dot next to a name in the Activities For You section, that means there are activities you have yet to see. Any item on that activities list can be dismissed by the user if they no longer wish to view it. The other new Catch Up feature will let users quickly who has made any edits or changes in a collaborate file: You will find a summary of who made edits in the document, workbook, or presentation since you last viewed it. Clicking this section will direct you to the top-most edit in the file. If there are no new edits, you will also be able to access previous edits from this section. The files must be stored in either OneDrive or SharePoint in order to use the Catch Up feature. It is available now for both Word and PowerPoint on the web and will be added to the Excel web app soon. Microsoft adds that Catch Up will be added to the Windows versions of all those apps in the near future.
  16. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 app for Windows and the web will add file sharing features and more soon by John Callaham The Microsoft 365 app allows consumer subscribers of Microsoft 365 Personal and Family plans to access all of the apps (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, OneNote, and more) in one central location. Today, Microsoft announced some new features will be rolling out during the next few weeks of December for the Windows and web versions of the Microsoft 365 app. In a post on the Microsoft 365 Insider site, it was revealed that the Microsoft 365 app will soon add file-sharing and deletion features from its Home or My Content screen. To share files, users will just need to click on the More options button next to the file they want to share, and then they can select Share and the details of where the file is going. To delete a file, the user once again will click on the More Options button, select Delete, and then press the Yes, Delete option. All deleted files will be placed in the OneDrive Recycle Bin folder. Another feature that's recently been added to the Microsoft 365 app will make it easier for people to find the right app they need for a particular task. Microsoft says: By answering a short 2-question survey, you can find the best tool for your tasks and make the best use of the various Microsoft 365 apps available. A similar feature will give Microsoft 365 app users more information on new apps and features they might not know about: The Apps section includes featured app cards with engaging content and videos from product experts who share fun tips and tricks to get started on a new or current project with apps like Clipchamp and Designer. Microsoft says all of these new features will be added to the Microsoft 365 Windows and web apps for consumer subscribers by the end of 2023.
  17. John Callaham
    Microsoft announces some new and upcoming features to its Clipchamp video editing tool by John Callaham In 2021, Microsoft announced it was acquiring Clipchamp, an easy-to-use web-based video editing tool. Since then it has included the tool as part of Microsoft 365 Personal or Family subscription plans. More recently, it added the tool to Microsoft 365 Commercial plans, and added support for importing Xbox game console video captures into the app. In a recent update to the Microsoft 365 Insider blog, Microsoft outlined a number of new features that have recently been added or will be included soon, to Clipchamp. One recent feature is called Auto compose. Clipchamp's website has more info on this AI-based feature: Simply upload your photos and videos, pick a video style and let our AI create a professional-looking video. Turn memories from your life events, travel or holiday season into videos that stand out on social media. There's also a new content library tab in Clipchamp. It will help users find stock content from both free and premium outlet to add to videos. The tab includes current trending and recently used content, along with content that's been separated by categories. Users can also type in specific content they want to find, such as holiday-themed videos, images, or audio clips. Starting earlier in December, Microsoft started rolling out a new feature for Personal accounts that will allow Clipchamp users to record audio voiceovers for their videos, up to 30 minutes long. The blog points out a couple of nice features this will bring to users: Creating a voiceover and adding auto captions can also be much quicker than creating text from scratch. With separate voiceover tracks, you can update and edit your voiceover without needing to edit your entire video. Finally, Personal account users can now use AI-based text-to-speech features for voiceovers. Users can also change the language, voice, emotion and pitc of that AI voice in the app. This feature will be included in Microsoft commercial accounts sometime in early 2024.
  18. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: Copilot is coming in Feb. 2024 for Outlook and more by John Callaham It's been yet another fairly slow week on the Microsoft 365 Roadmap, as we get into the holiday season. However, there's always something new that might be of interest to people who use the service. Microsoft Outlook - Copilot is coming to classic Outlook in February 2024 The classic version of the Outlook email client for Windows will be getting Copilot features in 2024, according to the Microsoft 365 Roadmap. One will add a way for Copilot to draft a new email in Outlook, which is pretty straightforward. The other new roadmap entry might be a bit more interesting: Copilot coaches you on how to best get your message across and you can adjust the tone and length of your message. The web version of Outlook is also getting a new feature for admins in January 2024. When an app is deployed in Integrated Apps (Get Apps & Upload Custom LOB apps) in the Microsoft Admin Center, it will be available in Outlook on the web in Read Message Actions and Compose Ribbon. Microsoft Teams - Making channels earlier to make and more Microsoft Teams will make it easier to create channels across all of its supported platforms sometime in January 2024. We added the option to create a channel directly from the + button in the Teams app, making it easier for the user to create a channel. It will also be easier to make new teams in Microsoft Teams next month as well. When creating a team, the new default experience will be ‘create a team from scratch’, making it a simpler and quicker experience. Also planned for January is a new Teams feed for desktop and web users: Users can access a personalized feed based on important updates in the channels they are a part of. Teams users on its mobile apps will get a new feature as well in January. Teams calendar on mobile devices displays the live status of a meeting with avatars of the participants who are in the call, whether the meeting is being recorded and the duration of the meeting. Come back next week for yet another look at the Microsoft 365 Roadmap.
  19. John Callaham
    Microsoft adds support for filtering comments in Word for the web and Mac by John Callaham Microsoft has added a new and handy feature for people who like to use the company's web version of its Word app. They can now filter comments on documents so they can find ones that are directed to them, and more. The new feature was announced on the Microsoft 365 Inside blog. It stated: Using modern comments is now even more efficient with the introduction of filtering in the Comments pane, also known as List view! You can now filter for comments that @mention you, comments that are active, or comments that are resolved. Up until now, you could see all the comments – both active and resolved. In the Comments pane, you can now toggle between each filtered view to find the information most relevant to you, based on your workflow. Word users on the web can simply open up a document that has comments and then select the Comments button in the menu bar. They can then select the Filter down arrow to filter those comments. Microsoft has a number of tips and tricks for this feature in the blog post. They include being able to use multiple filters at once by selecting @mentions me and Active only, and also the @mentions me and Resolved only. At the moment, the feature does not allow the selection of the Active only and Resolved only filters at the same time. Another note to remember is that if you close the Comments pane in the Word document all of the comments will now be visible. Opening the Comments pane again will show your previous filters are still set up and will remain so until the Reset All option is selected. In addition to the Comments filter feature for Word on the web, Microsoft has also added this same feature to the Mac version of the same app, along with the Mac version of the Excel app.
  20. News Staff
    Mastering Microsoft 365 ($39.99 Value) FREE download by Steven Parker Claim your complimentary eBook (worth $39.99) before the offer expires on Dec 19. Written by experts from the Windows 365 product group and a seasoned Microsoft MVP, this book offers a unique perspective on the features, functionality, and best practices of Windows 365. Drawing from their extensive professional experience and insight, the authors provide invaluable knowledge for those eager to learn about the next generation of cloud computing. Get ready to gain deep insights into this cutting-edge technology from industry insiders. Mastering Windows 365 starts by covering the fundamentals of Windows 365, helping you gain a deep understanding of deployment, management, access, security, analysis, and extensions with partner solutions. As you progress, you’ll explore the different connectivity layers and options to optimize your network connectivity from the endpoint to your Cloud PC. You’ll also learn how to manage a Cloud PC via the Microsoft Intune admin center successfully and experience how Windows and Windows 365 come together to provide new integrated experiences with Windows 11. In addition, this book will help you prepare for the new MD-102 Endpoint Administrator Exam, enhancing your career prospects. By the end of this book, you will be able to successfully plan, set up, and deploy Windows 365 Cloud PCs. This free offer expires on December 19. How to get it Please ensure you read the terms and conditions to claim this offer. Complete and verifiable information is required in order to receive this free offer. If you have previously made use of these free offers, you will not need to re-register. While supplies last! Mastering Microsoft 365 ($39.99 Value) FREE download Offered by Packt Publishing, view their other free resources. Expires Dec 19. We post these because we earn commission on each lead so as not to rely solely on advertising, which many of our readers block. It all helps toward paying staff reporters, servers and hosting costs. Other ways to support Neowin The above not doing it for you, but still want to help? Check out the links below. Check out our partner software in the Neowin Store Buy a T-shirt at Neowin's Threadsquad Subscribe to Neowin - for $14 a year, or $28 a year for an ad-free experience Disclosure: An account at Neowin Deals is required to participate in any deals powered by our affiliate, StackCommerce. For a full description of StackCommerce's privacy guidelines, go here. Neowin benefits from shared revenue of each sale made through our branded deals site.
  21. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly - Join Teams work meetings from the free version and more by John Callaham After a fairly slow couple of weeks, the Microsoft 365 Roadmap website getting busy again with a number of upcoming features being added to the last in the past seven days, particularly for future Teams additions. Microsoft Teams - Join a work meeting from the free version and more If you want to join a Teams work meeting but couldn't use the paid version to sign in, an upcoming update for all Teams platforms in February 2024 will fix that issue: This feature enables Microsoft Teams (free) users, those using a personal Microsoft Account, to directly join Teams for work meetings from within the client and stay connected even after the meeting has ended. This feature similarly also enables Microsoft Teams (work or school) users to join the Microsoft Teams (free) meetings directly from within the client. These users are no longer prompted to join via a browser and treated as meeting guests (anonymous). Another upcoming feature for Premium desktop and Mac Teams clients in February 2024 will add the recent Intelligent Meeting Recap feature for transcript-only meetings: Intelligent recap will support meetings with only transcript enabled, and without recording enabled. In the case when only transcript is enabled for a meeting, the features from intelligent recap that users can access are AI-generated meeting notes, AI-generated tasks, and name mentions. The new Teams for Windows app will add a feature in January 2024 to make it easier to control your microphone: This feature, available in the new Teams experience on Windows, enables you to mute and unmute your audio by clicking the mic icon in Windows taskbar. To control your mic during the meeting from the taskbar, do the following: select the mic icon on your taskbar or press Windows logo key + Alt + K to mute or unmute. Microsoft Outlook - Opening the To Do app and more Microsoft is continuing to add new features to the recent revamp of the Outlook email client for Windows. One of them will launch in January 2024, according to the roadmap: Use the To Do app without leaving the new Outlook for Windows! Clicking the To Do icon in the navigation bar will open inline and will no longer open in a separate browser window. That's all for this week, but come back in seven days for another look at the Windows 365 Roadmap.
  22. John Callaham
    Microsoft 365 Insiders can check out typography improvements in Word and Outlook for Windows by John Callaham If you are a member of the Microsoft 365 Insider program, you get the chance to check out improvements and changes in the Office lineup of productivity apps before they are released to the general public. Today, Microsoft announced that Insider members will be able to use new and automatic typography features and improvements that have been added to both the Word and Outlook apps for Windows. In a blog post, Microsoft stated: The first set of these research-backed refinements brings intelligent, adaptive justification, kerning, and OpenType ligatures to Read Mode in Word for Windows and the Reading Pane in Outlook for Windows. These updates will be applied automatically, without major layout changes, only when our layout scoring algorithm determines that they will improve the layout. Microsoft added that these new features are optional and can be switched off at any time. Word users can open an existing document, and then click on the View option, followed by the Read Mode selection. They can then use the Zoom slider, located in the lower right corner of the screen, to adjust the text in the document. Word users who want to turn off these features can do so by clicking on File > Options > Advanced > Reading Mode. They can then clear the Advanced Typography in Reading Mode checkbox. They can also individually clear the boxes for Use Smart Justification and Use Hyphenation. In Outlook, the new typography features are set up as the default via the Reading Pane. Users can access it by clicking on View > Reading Pane > Right or Bottom. As with Word, Outlook users can clear the checkbox for Advanced Typography in Reading Mode, along with the Use Smart Justification and Use Hyphenation checkbox. This can happen by clicking on File > Options > Mail > Editor Options > Advanced > Reading mode, Microsoft 365 Insiders in the Beta Channel can update to Version 2312 (Build 17116.20000) or later to get access to the new Word and Outlook automatic typography features.
  23. John Callaham
    The web version of Outlook will end activity-based authentication timeout support soon by John Callaham Microsoft 365 commercial users who get their emails from the web version of Outlook will soon see a long time feature go away. The company has announced that the activity-based authentication timeout option will no longer be available for Outlook web users, starting in January 2024. The reveal was made in a message posted this week to the private Microsoft 365 admin center, as reported by Petri. Microsoft now says that IT admins who are still using the activity-based authentication timeout feature should make the move to use the idle session timeout option that was launched for all Microsoft 365 web apps back in June 2022. The idle session timeout feature will allow Microsoft 365 admins to set specific times to sign out employees who use Outlook on the web after they don't access or use the web email client. Those same employees will then have to sign in again on their account. They will get a notification one minute before the feature kicks in to keep using Outlook so they don't have to sign in again. In theory, this new method should offer better security options for commercial users rather than the activity-based authentication timeout option. Petri does note that users must set up the browser they use to access the Outlook web client to accept third-party cookies. Also, users to access Outlook via Microsoft's own Edge browser have to set the browser's tracking prevention settings to the default Balance level. Microsoft recently revealed plans to update the new version of the Outlook app for Windows that was made generally available earlier this year. They include plans to add offline support, POP3 account support, Microsoft's Copilot generative AI support, auto-capitalization and much more. The app will also be getting some improvements in performance "ranging from focused optimizations to larger platform investments."
  24. John Callaham
    Microsoft launches the SharePoint Embedded Public Preview for making custom enterprise apps by John Callaham Microsoft is launching a new app development platform today that is designed to help business and enterprise users create custom apps that stores their content inside a current Microsoft 365 tenant. It's called SharePoint Embedded, and it's available in public preview today. Microsoft revealed it as part of its presentation at the ESPC (European SharePoint Conference) event in Amsterdam today. In a blog post, Microsoft stated: Enterprises can use SharePoint Embedded to power line of business apps, creating a unified and familiar experience for both app users and system administrators charged with managing these new apps. ISVs can use this same scalable and performant technology to deliver Microsoft 365 content management capabilities as part of every enterprise app they build. When an ISV adopts SharePoint Embedded, documents are managed within the end customer’s tenant. The ISV’s customers can leverage a robust and consistent content management system they already trust, including global security and compliance. Microsoft has already been using SharePoint Embedded to power two of its newer apps. One is Microsoft Loop, the collaboration service that just became generally available. The other is Microsoft Designer, the AI-based graphics tool that entered its public preview stage earlier this year. Microsoft says enterprise users can use SharePoint Embedded to make apps that support a number of the company's products and services. That includes features like co-authoring in Word or PowerPoint, the use of safety features like Microsoft 365 Backup and Microsoft 365 Archive, and adding a company's content to the Microsoft 365 semantic index that's now used in Copilot for Microsoft 365. Microsoft currently plans to make SharePoint Embedded generally available for all Microsoft 365 enterprise customers sometime in mid-2024. The company will charge businesses based on the storage they will use, along with their volume of API calls and data transfers. Businesses won't have to pay for any additional Microsoft 365 user licenses.
  25. John Callaham
    The Microsoft 365 extension for Edge and Chrome browsers will be retired January 15, 2024 by John Callaham Microsoft has unexpectedly announced it will soon end support for the Microsoft 365 extension for its own Edge browser as well as Google's Chrome browsers. A newly revealed Microsoft support page (via The Verge) reveals that support for both extensions will end on January 15, 2024. The extension was first released under the Office Online brand name by Microsoft for the Edge browser in 2016, with Chrome support added later. It was designed to offer web-based users faster access to the company's many Office applications. Since then, the Chrome Store and Edge stores show that the extension has been downloaded over 6 million times, and over 4 million times, respectively. The support page states: After this date, the extension will no longer receive security updates, non-security updates, bug fixes, or technical support. The Microsoft 365 browser extension will also be removed from Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome web stores as an extension add-on. There is no word on why Microsoft has decided to close support for these extensions. Indeed, just a few months ago in August, Microsoft announced that the extensions had received a refreshed look. The Microsoft 365 icon on the taskbar was put in so users can click it and get access to all of those apps. If you are using the Microsoft Edge version of the extension. here's how to remove it: Once you're signed in with your Microsoft Account, select the Microsoft 365 browser extension icon next to the address bar in your browser. In Settings, right click and select Remove from Microsoft Edge or go to Manage extensions to uninstall the extension. Microsoft says Edge users can now access Microsoft 365 via the browser's sidebar after January 15. Chrome users can ditch the Microsoft 365 extension in this manner; Once you're signed in with your Microsoft Account, select the Microsoft 365 browser extension icon next to the address bar in your browser. In Settings right click and select Remove from Chrome or go to Manage extensions to remove the extension. Chrome users can access these apps simply by going to the Microsoft365.com site, and bookmarking it for faster access. Chrome users can also still get the Windows Account browser extension for single sign-on use. Those same users can download the Office - Enable Copy and Paste extension if they want to cut, copy, and paste content on right-click menus in Microsoft 365 web apps.