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Microsoft adds AI-powered LinkedIn resume assistant to Word
We're starting to see more results from Microsoft acquiring LinkedIn last year, like the new employment information features brought over to Outlook.com members. Now the company that build Office is bringing AI to your job search with a new LinkedIn-powered feature in Word called Resume Assistant.
Microsoft pulls in LinkedIn details for Outlook.com users
It's only been a day since Microsoft killed Outlook.com premium features like tougher email security and more storage and brought them to Office 365 members instead. Today, the company announced that it will bring LinkedIn integration to Outlook.com subscribers, a feature that has been part of Windows 10 since June of this year.
Microsoft’s Learning Tools for students heads to Word on iPad
With its Learning Tools, Microsoft has developed a few ways to make it easier for students to get a better handle on reading and writing. One tool, for example, can read your words aloud and help you identify common grammatical issues. Another, called Immersive Reading, can also read text aloud while highlighting it in "focused" view (where words are spaced out in a distraction-free environment). The Learning Tools started out as a OneNote plug-in, but Microsoft has steadily expanded it to Office apps on desktops, mobile and the web. Today, the company announced they're headed to Word for iPad.
Office 365's revamped web launchers put you to work sooner
Sometimes, it's not your productivity apps that need a tune-up... it's how you get to those apps that needs work. And Microsoft knows it. The tech firm has redesigned the Office.com front end and Office 365's web app launcher. There's now a recommended section that surfaces the activity that's relevant to you, so you can quickly jump to where you're needed -- say, a Word file that needs edits or your recent PowerPoint presentation. You can also search for people, apps, documents and sites right from the get-go.
Parallels makes Windows apps work with your MacBook's TouchBar
If you're one of those Apple users who likes (or needs) to run Mac OS and Windows side by side, you'll probably be into Parallels Desktop 13. Especially if you have one of those MacBook Pros with a TouchBar. The latest version of the software makes certain apps on Microsoft's platform fully compatible with Apple's digital OLED strip, including all the major web browsers and the entire Office Suite. For instance, if you're running PowerPoint for Windows through Parallels, you can use the TouchBar to do things like bold or italicize the text on your slides. You can also customize functions based on which app you're using, just as you would on the Mac OS interface.
Trojan uses a key internet feature to receive marching orders
If malware uses a remote command-and-control server to function, it's relatively easy to cripple it by blocking the internet addresses it uses. It's not always that easy, however, and researchers at Cisco's Talos group have found a textbook example of this in action. A recently discovered Windows PowerShell trojan, DNSMessenger, uses the Domain Name Service for communication -- you know, one of the cornerstones of the internet. Few computer users are equipped to block DNS without causing other problems, and they might not notice unusual data traffic even if they're looking for it. While using DNS isn't completely unheard of, DNSMessenger uses an "extremely uncommon" two-way approach that both sends commands to victim machines and sends results back to the attacker.
Microsoft Office for Mac gets Touch Bar support
Owners of the Macbook Pro with Touch Bar will be pleased to hear that Microsoft Office now works with the LCD strip Apple introduced with its latest laptop. Support for Touch Bar was announced alongside the new MacBook Pro at an Apple event last October, but Office support is now available to all users. The Touch Bar has special layouts ready for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, with Outlook and Skype additions coming soon. It's the latest high-profile app to get Touch Bar support and joins other massive apps like Adobe's Photoshop and Apple's own Final Cut Pro.
Microsoft puts AI to work in Office 365
Microsoft isn't just trying out artificial intelligence through bots and voice assistants -- it's going all-in. The crew in Redmond has revealed that Office 365 is wielding cloud-based AI to automate many tasks. Tap for Word and Outlook surface relevant content from your company to help finish a project, for instance. PowerPoint and Sway will have a QuickStarter feature that gives you curated outlines for given topics, saving you the trouble of creating the foundation of a presentation from scratch. Excel, meanwhile, will have a way to turn raw geographic data into Bing-based maps.
Microsoft Office iPhone users can doodle with their fingers
If you want to sketch or perhaps add your signature to a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document on iOS, the only option has been to use the iPad Pro's Pencil. Now, with the latest version of Office for the iPhone, you can draw directly on a document with no need for the stylus. Once you launch the app, you can "use your finger to write, draw and highlight with the tools in the new Draw tab," Microsoft says.
Gene editing can end disease and fight global famine
We're looking at the single greatest advancement in genetics since Mendelev started growing peas. CRISPR-Cas9 gene-modification technology is powerful enough to cure humanity's worst diseases, yet simple enough to be used by amateur biologists. You thought 3-D printers and the maker movement were going to change the world? Get ready for a new kind of tinkerer -- one that wields gene-snipping scissors.
Skype video and voice chats come to Office and Outlook on the web
You can already have Skype text chats while you're collaborating on Office Online docs or checking mail at Outlook.com. But wouldn't you rather talk to your colleagues and keep your hands free for, you know, work? You're about to get just that: Microsoft says it will bring Skype's video and voice chats to everyone using Office Online and Outlook.com, starting in November. On top of this, it's trotting out a Chrome extension that lets you quickly work with Office and Sway content in the browser, whether it's stored on your PC or in the cloud. All told, you don't have to worry quite so much about leaving Office's native apps behind.
Outlook plays nicely with Office for iOS, PayPal and Uber
Outlook is now a more powerful tool if you get a lot of work done on your phone... or just need a quick ride to the airport. To begin with, the iOS versions of Excel, PowerPoint and Word have received tight integration with Outlook. You can send a document you're working on as an Outlook email attachment, or edit someone else's attachment and return directly to Outlook with a new message ready and waiting. Also, some big, promised third-party Outlook web add-ons have gone live. You can set Uber ride notifications in your calendar, or put Evernote clippings into email. Boomerang will schedule both meetings and messages, while PayPal lets you pay a friend for last night's meal. Tie-ins with IFTTT, Wunderlist and Yelp are still "coming soon," but there's already plenty here to keep you busy.
Microsoft's document sharing service, Docs, is available to everyone
Sure, you can technically use OneDrive and other cloud services to share your Office files, but wouldn't it be nice if there were a dedicated site for that? Apparently, Microsoft agrees -- it quietly launched the public beta for Docs, a dedicated website (this was previously a Facebook-only service) that simplifies sharing your Office files, PDFs and Sway presentations. Think of it as a parallel to offerings like SlideShare or Scribd, where the focus is more on preserving the formatting of your work than anything else. You can comment on and download documents, but you'll have to turn to other tools to collaborate on that upcoming report. You only need a Microsoft account to give Docs a spin, so it won't hurt to sign up.
Microsoft Office 2016 Public Preview is now available
Office 2016 may still be getting the finish touches in Redmond, but Microsoft is opening up its productivity suite for public preview. If you'll recall, some apps were included in previous releases of the Windows 10 Technical Preview and made available for both IT folks and devs. As of today, though, regular folks can get an early look and offer feedback on all the new stuff -- including those redesigned universal apps. This means that you'll gain access to OneDrive attachments in Outlook, real-time co-authoring and retooled applications that learn how you work to lend a hand. Specifically in Excel, there are updated charts and graphs alongside one-click forecasting and more data analyzing tools. Looking to take it for a spin before the official release this fall? Even if you're not an Office 365 subscriber, you can nab a trial version right here.
Office for iOS can store your files in iCloud
Until you, if you'd wanted to use Microsoft Office on iOS, you'd have been stuck using Dropbox, OneDrive or SharePoint to store your files online. For some reason, Apple's home-grown storage service was a notable absentee, but thankfully one that has been now remedied. In the most recent update, Microsoft has enabled users to save their documents, spreadsheets and presentations to iCloud, so long as they're running iOS 8. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as with the other platforms, since you have to dig into the "More" section before you can select the option. Still, better than nothing, eh?
Universal Office apps for Windows 10 are now available for preview
Remember those universal Office apps Microsoft spent some time demoing a couple weeks back? Well, as of today, a trio of them are available as part of the Windows 10 Technical Preview. The three workhorses -- Word, Excel, and PowerPoint -- can be accessed on desktops, laptops and tablets running the preview version of Redmond's upcoming operating system, and in the weeks to come, phones will be able to join in. If you'll recall, the so-called universal apps are designed to wrangle touch gestures and properly equip mobile devices, insuring a consistent experience across your Windows-driven gadget arsenal. If you're itchin' to give 'em a go, you can request access right here.
Microsoft's Office preview for Android tablets is now available to everyone
If you've wanted to try the preview of Office for Android tablets during its brief history, you've had to request to join a Google+ group. That's not the hardest thing to do, but do you really want to participate in a special club (and in some cases, sign up for Google+) just to try some productivity apps a little early? As of now, you don't have to. Microsoft has posted the previews of Excel, PowerPoint and Word on Google Play, so you can download them like you would any other app. The only major requirements are that your slate runs at least Android 4.4 KitKat and that you're comfortable with less-than-polished software. You may not want to finish an important report with these releases, then, but it's now easy to experiment with the new Office suite before it's completely ready.
You can now chat on Skype inside Office Online apps
Want to get advice while you're plugging away at that big report in Office Online? You won't have to fire up a separate app (or website) any longer. As hinted at by recent leaks, Skype chat is now built into the web productivity suite's versions of PowerPoint and Word. If you want to share ideas with a colleague, you can keep the conversation running alongside your docs without having to juggle windows or browser tabs. Yes, Google Drive has had a similar option for a while, but this collaboration upgrade is definitely handy if you frequently work in Microsoft's world.
Dropbox makes it easy for workmates to edit Office files
In November, Dropbox users gained the ability to edit Office files from within inside the app, thanks to a partnership with Microsoft. Now, the company has launched its first set of Project Harmony tools so that groups of workmates can take advantage of that feature -- but only if they're Business users part of Dropbox's early access program. These features, which were first previewed when the company started letting users link their business and personal accounts, can make team projects, well, more bearable than usual.
The new Office for iPhone is everything it should have been on day one
I remember when Microsoft first came out with Office for iPhone. It was actually kind of exciting. Here was this thing that for years had only existed in the form of rumors and leaked documents. And there it was, at last: the killer iPhone app, ready to download. Or so I thought. Maybe I was expecting too much, but I came away feeling underwhelmed. That first version of Office Mobile was a watered-down gimp of a program, with pitifully few editing tools and an occasionally confusing layout (imagine having no way of knowing what size font you were using). Compared to some apps, like Google Drive, it wasn't that bad, but it still wasn't as feature-rich as Apple's own iWork suite. Worst of all, the software has received few feature updates in the 17 months since it debuted. Is this what we waited so long for? At last, however, Microsoft seems to have come to its senses. The company is getting rid of Office Mobile and replacing it with three standalone iPhone apps for Word, Excel and PowerPoint, just like on the iPad. In fact, because these apps share code with the iPad version, they arrive with the same robust feature set, along with a couple tricks designed specifically for the iPhone. In short, then, the new apps are everything the original Office for iPhone should have been.
