Microsoft Office 2016 / 365

Microsoft Office is also commonly referred to as Office Suite that also includes Word, Excel, Power Point and Outlook.
Currently Office Suite is available in two version: Office 2016 (for desktop computer) and Cloud version (Office 365 for subscription based users) comes with desktop and web applications..
The advantage of using Office 365 is that all the new features and enhancements are updated automatically so we can get all the latest tools as soon as they are available.
Another advantage is that it seamlessly integrates with Microsoft’s cloud service (Onedrive).
So the Office 365 files can be stored and shared on the cloud and can be accessed from anywhere using devices including smartphones and tablets.
Mobile applications of Office 365 are also available for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile platforms.
If we want to upgrade our Office 2016 desktop version, which is a one time purchase, we need to buy the upgraded version. However if you are an Office 365 user, we will regularly get upgrades free of cost.

Design of Microsoft Office 2016/365 :

Office 2016/365 has four themes Colorful, Black, Dark Gray and White.
To change the theme, Select File -> Account/Options from any office program.
In the Account screen, choose a theme in Office Theme drop-down.
The Colorful theme is a different colour in each application such as blue in Word, green in Excel, Orange in Power Point and light blue in Outlook.
Dark Gray theme offers a softer version of high contrast visuals.
Black theme provides the highest-contrast visual and is available only for the Office 365 subscribers.
White theme displays the classic look of Office.

Microsoft Office 2016 User Interface

Various Options in FILE Tab :

Using the File tab, we can access the Backstage view quickly and easily.
The backstage View gives the information like the size of your file and the number of pages in it.
It also view any hidden information present in our file.

Contextual Tabs :

The Contextual tabs or Context-sensitive tabs are those tabs that cannot be always seen on the ribbon.
We can choose to display them when required.
These tabs appear when there is any object selected; for example, an image, a table, a chart or anything similar on the file.
It is found on the right of the tabs that are always present on the ribbon.
For example, if we select an object then the contextual tab called Format comes into view on the ribbon.

The Super Tooltip :

The super Tooltip is a small window that comes into view when we take the mouse pointer over a command in the UI in Office 2016.
The job of the Super Tooltip is to give a brief description of the command and it sometimes also shows a small picture to make the description clearer.
Again if we move mouse pointer over a dialog box launcher, we will see the Super Tooltip with the preview of the window that the dialog box launcher opens.

The Mini Toolbar :

Toolbar called the mini toolbar, which appears adjacent to the selected text.
We can access this toolbar to perform text formatting or to use some of the most frequently used commands.
We can also find this mini toolbar adjacent to the context menu when you click inside the file anywhere.

The Live Preview Feature :

The live Preview feature we can have a look at the result of selecting an option from a drop-down menu or a gallery before using that option in your file in Office 2016.
Here we can avoid from trying different options in our file before actually selecting an appropriate one.
The live preview allows us to see in advance how the selected text will look when this option will be selected.

Understanding the Features of Microsoft Office 2016

Microsoft office 2016/365 offers a multitude of new features that make it far more superior to its previous versions.
Microsoft Office offers the facility to co-author a word document or a PowerPoint presentation in real time.
The document or the presentation must be saved on OneDrive or SharePoint.
The most attractive feature of this facility is that the changes made by different authors are not overwritten.

Simpler and easier document sharing :

It has a new Share button in the ribbon.
It is available across Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Using this button we can share access to our document with our team members and also learn about who is currently working on it.
And we can review the access permissions to the document too.
And to use this share button is saving our document in either OneDrive or SharePoint.

Smart Lookup :

Using this features, we can quickly gather information about a word or phrase by selecting the word, right-clicking it and then selecting the Smart Lookup option from the context menu.
The results comes in the Smart Lookup pane that appears within our application and are powered by Microsoft’s Bing search engine.
This search results include definitions from Dictionary and also articles from Wikipedia and other related searches from the web.
And to read more about the searched word online, click on a link.

Introduction of new types of charts :

Charts make it easier to spot patterns and trends in our data.
This feature helps us to see a better arrangement of our data in the form of Waterfall, Radar, Treemap, Histogram, Box and Whisker and Sunburst.
It comes with two new types of charts, Map and Funnel.
We can create and use these charts in Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Now with the Map charts, data visualization is made easy in Excel.
We can convert data into an advanced 3D interactive map.
Funnel charts are used to show values across multiple stages in a process that resemble a funnel.
They are used to present processes such as in a sales pipeline in a better way.

Addition of Skype :

Using Office 2016/365 we can make Skype calls from within Office applications.
We can make use of all the services such as Instant Messaging, calling, sharing screen etc.

Quick Start a Presentation :

Power Point 365 offers a useful feature called Quick Starter that helps to start with our presentation on any topic of our choice.
This feature guides step-by-step in building an outline for a great presentation by suggesting different design and research ideas.
It appears in the New screen as a template called Start an Outline.
First, start by searching the topic on which we want to make the presentation.
And QuickStarter suggests relevant content as well as creates starter slides for our presentation.

Power Point Designer :

Power Point Designer is an intelligent tool for professional-looking layouts for presentations.
It works in the background and as and when we add photographic content on a slide then it comes up with various design ideas.
We can also turn the text content into an easily readable SmartArt graphic with the help of the Designer.
To use it internet connection is required and it is exclusive to Office 365.

Morph :

In Office 2016 a new transition called Morph is introduced in Power Point.
It allows you to create the appearance of smooth and fluid movement from one slide to the next.
The illusion of movement can be created on objects such as text, shapes pictures, charts and Smart Art graphic when slide transition takes place.
Need two slides with at least one object in common to use the Morph transition effectively.
Simply move, rotate or resize the common object in the second slide and then apply the Morph transition to it.

Zoom :

With the Zoom feature, we can present our content creatively in a non-linear way and make our presentation more dynamic and exciting.
When we create a Zoom in Power Point, then we can jump to and from specific slides, sections, and portions of our presentation.
And it will be in an order we decide while making our presentation.
There are three types of Zoom : Summary Zoom, Slide Zoom and Section Zoom.

Researcher and Editor for Word :

•It makes writing simpler.

•The Editor is a built-in proof reader that has advanced proofreading capabilities that help us improve our writing and enhance the quality of our content.

•It makes suggestion as we write and helps simplify the content by highlighting complex words and unclear phrases.

•And it is powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning and natural language processing

•Researcher provides reliable content source that we can use as reference for our paper without leaving Word.

•It displays an overview of the content along with research material and images.

•We can also add the headings in the reference content into our document and build our own structure.

•We can also add selected text in the Researcher pane into our document and cite where the information came from.

Styling a Document

•In a Word document styling can be used to make the text more interesting and attractive.

•A style is a combination of font style, colour and size already designed in Microsoft Word.

•We can apply style to the text in our documents so that they look more professional or to change several things in the documents at the same time.

Apply a Style : 1. Select the text on which you want to apply styling or place the cursor anywhere on the line

2. On the Home tab, you will find the Styles group. Click for more drop-down arrow located at the bottom of the box.

3. Select the desired style from the drop-down menu

4. You will find your text in the selected style

Apply a style set :

•Using style sets, we can modify the entire document including each and every element present in one go.

•Style sets are used to apply a common style to the title, paragraph and heading styles to eliminate the need for styling each element separately.

1.Select the Design tab and go to the Document Formatting group. Click the More drop-down arrow located at the bottom of the group.

Collaborating on a Document

•It is a new feature introduced in the Microsoft Office 2016.

•It has the ability to collaborate on documents and to author, edit and modify the content in real time.

•For this we have to save the document on SharePoint or OneDrive.

•It allows the document to be readily available on the cloud because it will be a common point for all users to access, view and edit the document.

•Enter the basic information so that people can know who is the author of this document.

•And when authoring a document, enter the details such as name, company, address and email so that when others make changes to this document they should know who has created it.

•Similarly the author will be able to know who has made changes the document.

•Select the File tab and then select Options.

•Click the General tab.

•Under the Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office section, specify basic information about yourself, such as user name, initials etc.

•Now the document is accessible to all collaborators with all their changes appearing in the document, displaying the names of the authors with their changes or their initials.

•However, sometimes, for some reasons, the changes may or may not reflect.

•In such cases, we have to refresh the file.

•Now we can lock the content too that we want no collaborator to change.

•First select all the content that we want to lock.

•Then select the Review tab.

•Click the Block Authors options.

Change the default Save location

•Usually, in Office 2016, OneDrive is set as the default save location.

•But we can change it if we want to save our files to our computer by default.

Auto Recover :

•It helps to recover the documents if Word crashes.

•While we work on a document, Word automatically saves it to a temporary folder.

•Word auto saves documents every ten minutes. So if we are unable to save our document for less than ten minutes and computer shuts down, then even Word will not be able to recover the document.

•Open Microsoft Word. If there are any auto saved documents in the recovery folder, we will see a Document Recovery pane right away as we open the Word.

•Click on the document we want to recover.

The Spreadsheet Application

Recommended Charts :

•According to our data the chart type suits best, we can now use Excel 2016’s recommendations.

•It will suggest charts based on our data selection.

•To access the Recommended Charts, first select the data and then on the Insert tab, in the Charts group, Click Recommended Charts and then choose a suggested chart in the Insert Chart dialog box.

Insert recent links :

•Excel 2016 will easily attach hyperlinks to recent cloud-based files or websites.

•To add a link to a recently used file, on the Insert tab, choose Link/Hyperlink and select any files from the displayed list.

Forecasting feature :

•The new Forecast Sheet command helps to predict trends in your data with just one-click.

•It presents the forecast visually in a new worksheet and also preview different forecast options before generating the forecast.

•We can use historical data or the data that has a timeline associated with it to create a visual forecast worksheet.

•Once we make our forecast we will be able to display it as either a line or bar graph.

•We can analyse and understand future trends using the forecast, it becomes easy for us to predict the future sales, the customer trends or the inventory requirements.

•We need to enter a series of data in the form of date entries or time entries and one which has the values corresponding to those dates and times.

•We can also use formulas to create our forecasts.

•The Forecast Sheet command is I the Forecast group on the Data tab.