In a world where remote work is becoming more accepted, and workers are seeing each other less often, Microsoft's enhanced range of collaboration features is long overdue.
Many of Microsoft's dedicated Office users got frustrated, constantly needing to send edited files. Collaborative writing tools make your life easier. Collaborative writing tools make your life easier. Thanks to the Internet, collaborating on a writing project should be a snap. If you've ever co-produced one, you know this can be difficult. It shouldn't be with the right tool. Read more . Integrating multiple editions into one final document became a nightmare. With collaboration features now available in Office 2016 and Office Online, Microsoft promises that "your content stays in one place and no one has to miss out on other people's edits ever again." If you have an Office 365 subscription How to manage your Office 365 subscription How to manage your Office 365 subscription How to get familiar with Office 365? Make sure you are in full control of your account and subscription settings with this guide. Read More smart features. If you have an Office 365 subscription, you can get it now for free, and we'll show you how below. Read more.
Sounds peachy, right? Rather like Google Docs many years ago, in fact. But better.
What we're essentially talking about here is the new share button pressed in the top right corner of each of the major Office 2016 programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and even OneNote) and Office Online (the free, browser-based version). ). The Office version does not pay for Word! 5 Reasons Why You Should Use Office Online Not for Word! 5 reasons why you should use Office Online Office Online is the free, cloud-connected version of Microsoft Office. The limitations are offset by the features, useful even for Office desktop users. Best of all is its Read more). But that is not all. Microsoft has also introduced Outlook Groups and Office 365 Planner.
We'll take you through each of these in turn, along with a few other tools that will help you collaborate more effectively than ever before. Teamwork:10 Tips for Effective Real-Time Online Collaboration Teamwork:10 Tips for Effective Real-Time Work Online Collaboration Read more. However, if you don't use much Microsoft Office, there are plenty of other collaboration tools How to work from home and be productive with online collaborative tools How to work from home and be productive with online collaborative tools I wish I could skip the commute and work from House? Remote work also has its drawbacks. We show you how to harness the power of the Internet to stay productive while working remotely. Read More
If you want to collaborate on an Office document, either using Office 365 or Office Online (on any device), you'll first need to save this to the cloud (via OneDrive or SharePoint). Once this is done, you can At the end Start changing your collaboration workflow for the better.
By clicking the share button in the upper right corner of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote (read our introduction to OneNote How to Use OneNote Like a World Famous Scientist How to Use OneNote Like a World Famous Scientist Charles Darwin would have loved OneNote. He was an avid note-taker who recorded everything he observed. Here's how you might have used OneNote to organize your work and move your research forward. Learn more), you can choose to invite people by name or by Email address. This is also where you can choose which permissions to give your colleagues:Can edit , or Read Only .
You will be notified within Office when the invitation has been accepted. In Word, you can see the types of collaborators in real time. This co-editing feature in Excel and PowerPoint isn't that streamlined yet, so pressing Save will refresh the document so you can see the new changes right away.
Another way to share your Office documents is to send a sharing link to your colleagues. If you're sharing with a group of people, this will be faster than inviting each person individually.
You can choose two links to share (find these by clicking Share> Copy Link , then choosing to copy the Read Only link or the Power to edit link). Send the relevant links to your colleagues. When someone clicks on these links, they will always be taken to the most up-to-date version of the file.
In Office Online, you can even click the Skype logo to make a quick call to your co-workers for faster decision making.
Once you've shared a document, you can see a list of your collaborators in the sharing panel on the right side of the screen. This is where you can see who is currently editing the document.
If “Real Time Editing” appears next to a contributor's name, you'll be able to see their changes as they're being typed. if only "edit" appears, you'll have to wait until they save your version before you can see those changes.
To change any contributor's permissions, right-click their name and click change permissions . You also have the option to remove all permissions from the collaborator so they can no longer access the document.
The first version of Office 365 Groups was released in 2014. However, it has been transformed for Outlook 2016, and is now available as a standalone app on Windows Phone, iOS [No Longer Available], and Android [No Longer Available], as well as within the desktop app. Before you sign in, You'll need a paid Office 365 subscription (there's a 30-day free trial) or a school account.
At its core, Groups is Microsoft's answer to Slack, where members can start and join channels/conversations on different topics. But there is much more integration with Microsoft products.
Both public and private groups are made up of individuals. “conversations” (instead of emails). Group members can chat in real time about various projects, to help move projects forward more easily. It also offers useful OneDrive integration for accessing files, a group calendar for scheduling meetings and Skype for Business for impromptu voice and video calls, and a shared OneNote notebook and inbox.
If your team relies heavily on Microsoft products, this is a great addition to your collaboration features. But if you use a lot of other services like Google Drive, Dropbox, etc., you'd probably be better off using Slack instead of 365 Groups, due to the sheer number of integrations available. That said, Office Collaboration with Dropbox improves collaborative editing of Office files with Dropbox and Project Harmony. Improve collaborative editing of Office files with Dropbox and Project Harmony Dropbox has made a promising move towards collaborative writing and editing. Project Harmony is giving Dropbox for Business users early access to a new desktop collaboration feature. Read More
To create a group in Outlook 2016, follow these instructions. To create a group using Outlook 365 web-based, follow these instructions.
Just as Outlook Groups seems to be Microsoft's answer to Slack, 365 Planner seems to be Microsoft's answer to Trello.
Unfortunately, only available on certain business and school plans . With Planner, you can more visually organize large team projects and tasks across all your devices, to help make them more manageable. In Microsoft's own words:
Tasks can be sorted by status or who they are assigned to, and individual users can easily see a list of tasks assigned to them. Colorful graphics also visualize the status of each project at a glance.
The last two years have seen Microsoft catch up with competitors that were way ahead in terms of collaboration features.
But even though Microsoft has made quite a comeback, the company isn't stopping there. Soon we will see Microsoft launching GigJam. This app will allow you to connect your work to various applications on the web, from Salesforce to Google Drive. In turn, automating repetitive tasks will be easier, and so will collaboration. Letting the right people see the right information at the right time will be much easier.
There is much to do. The structure of Microsoft products is far from easy to understand. The number of packages you can subscribe to, and the apps you'll have access to, is still a mess. Real-time co-editing in some applications needs improvement. Despite this, the collaboration features that Microsoft now offers have finally brought Office in line with most of its competitors.
Do you think you'll use these features to improve your collaboration workflows at work?
