While we discussed how Microsoft’s new office 365 update is focused intensely on mobile devices, the update does have significant improvements — specially in Excel and Outlook for the desktop client as well. Lets take a look.
With this major February update, Microsoft has added new functions to Excel, thus making it simpler and faster to build common calculations. The update also features an improved Formula AutoComplete which helps you find the function you’re looking for. You can know a few new ones, right here.
The launch of Excel 2016 brought new chart types, such as Treemap, Sunburst and Waterfall. Now Microsoft has added the Funnel chart for Windows desktops, tablets and phones, as well as Android, enabling you to display data in progressively decreasing proportions.
Excel is now more integrated into the Power BI service. Power BI — if you are unaware — is a Microsoft service that helps you put all your data on cloud at a single place and then collaborate with your teams to work on the same.
This means you can now pin your workbook’s rich formatted charts and graphs directly to your Power BI dashboards and interact with them from anywhere—giving you even more options for telling your story through data. It goes without saying though, that a Power BI subscription is required for the same.
Outlook too, is getting some new updates — most notable being the ability to join groups more easily. MS says, that it is adding a new Groupssection to the ribbon with easy entry points to browse and join Office 365 Groups. Suggested Groups offer one-click access to relevant Groups you might like to join, personalized based on information in the Office Graph. You can also create new Groups from the ribbon.
Microsoft is also introducing an Archive capability in Outlook 2016 that lets you quickly move messages out of your inbox and into another folder. This will allow you to triage your inbox with an experience similar to archiving in other email services like Outlook.com. Archive is rolling out to Outlook 2016, coming soon for Outlook for Mac, and available today in Outlook on iOS, Android and the web.
