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Microsoft Office is finally available on Apple's Mac App Store
Just as Apple promised back at WWDC last year, Microsoft's Office 365 suite is finally available on the Mac App Store today. It's pretty much what you'd expect: the entire collection of apps, including Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, OneNote and OneDrive, all purchasable within a few clicks on the store. You can also subscribe to Office 365 from within the apps, as you'd expect. Notably, it's the first time Apple has offered a bundle of software on the Mac App Store -- a surprisingly late addition for the company that helped popularize the concept of centralized software downloads.
Microsoft Office app for Windows 10 provides a hub for all your work
Microsoft's revamped Office.com portal has apparently been a hit with the productivity crowd (over 40 percent of Office 365 users start there), and now it wants to turn that experience into a native app. It's launching a simply-titled Office app for Windows 10 that serves as a hub for every modern version of Office, whether it's a 365 subscription, the free Office Online suite or offline tools like Office 2016 and Office 2019. Consider it a starting point for the day's work, especially if you regularly use more than one productivity app.
Office 365 for Mac now supports Dark Mode
As promised, Office 365 is ready to wring more out of macOS Mojave. Microsoft has updated the Mac version of its subscription productivity suite with several helpful features, two of which are tied to Apple's latest software. The obvious one is Dark Mode support -- you won't strain your eyes quite so badly if you're writing a school essay at night. And if you need to quickly add a photo to your presentation, PowerPoint now supports Mojave's Continuity Camera feature to let you directly import pictures from your iPhone or iPad.
Microsoft's redesigned Office icons reflect its move to the cloud
Microsoft's Office icons on Windows and the web have been conservative, to put it mildly. They've been functional things you click while you scramble to finish a business spreadsheet or school report. The company would like you to sit up and take notice this time around, though. It just unveiled redesigned Office icons that will reach apps and the web in the "coming months," and they're decidedly more interesting. To Microsoft, they're a reflection of how much Office has changed in the five years since the icons last received a makeover.
Microsoft Word will automatically create to-do lists for you
Microsoft will start turning the notes you leave in Word documents into to-do lists. The company is testing a new feature in its word processor that will automatically detect notes and messages left for yourself and others and turn them into actionable lists. The beta version of the feature is available for some Office for Mac Insiders starting today and will roll out to Windows testers in the coming weeks.
Microsoft Office will get a dark mode for macOS Mojave
Microsoft Office users on macOS Mojave are in line for a welcome update, as a dark mode is on the way. However, you might need to wait a little while before Microsoft makes it a little more comfortable for most users to hash out their masterpiece novel in Word in the middle of the night. The mode just went live for Insider Fast testers, according to Office product manager Akshay Bakshi.
Microsoft merges search across Windows 10, Office, Edge and Bing
Amid hardware updates and other announcements at Ignite 2018 Monday, Microsoft said it's releasing a string of new features to boost productivity, including one major change that will affect how you find what you're looking for. The company is unifying search across Windows 10, Office, Edge and Bing in Microsoft Search. The search box will live in a "consistent, prominent place" across the apps, the company said.
Microsoft removes device install limits for Office 365 subscribers
Microsoft is removing limits on the number of devices on which some Office 365 subscribers can install the apps. From October 2nd, Home users will no longer be restricted to 10 devices across five users nor will Personal subscribers have a limit of one computer and one tablet. However, you can only stay signed in on five devices at once.
Microsoft adds file protection and email encryption to Office 365
Protecting yourself (and your documents) from cyberattack is only getting more important, so Microsoft is introducing new security features for the Home and Personal versions of its Office 365 suite. These aim to protect customers from the usual customers -- viruses and phishing scams -- as well as the increasing threat of ransomware. There's even a few convenient file-sharing and email features in the mix.
BlackBerry and Microsoft team up to make work phones more secure
BlackBerry and Microsoft may have been bitter foes before their smartphone dreams came crashing down, but they're becoming close allies now that they're focused on services. The two have unveiled a partnership that helps you seamlessly use Microsoft's Office 365-capable mobile apps from inside BlackBerry's more secure, contained Dynamics space. Ideally, this gives you the best of both worlds: you can work on that Excel file across devices without making your IT manager break into a cold sweat.
Microsoft releases its LinkedIn resume helper for Word
Microsoft is now ready to polish your job applications -- the company has released its LinkedIn-powered Resume Assistant for Office 365 subscribers. The AI-based helper sifts through LinkedIn profiles to find prominent examples of work experience and skill listings for your dream job, giving you some helpful tips for customizing your CV. You can also tap the ProFinder marketplace to talk to experts who can offer career advice, and search for relevant jobs without leaving Word.
Microsoft's cloud business just keeps growing
If there's one major takeaway from Microsoft's earnings reports over the last few years, it's this: The cloud is everything for Microsoft. And, based on the company's financials for the second quarter of 2018, its success in the cloud doesn't appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Microsoft reported a 12 percent revenue jump for the period, reaching $28.9 billion up from $25.8 billion a year ago. And mostly, that growth was driven by the company's investments in cloud services.
Microsoft adds support for iOS Files app, drag and drop to OneDrive
Apple's latest operating system for its mobile devices, iOS 11, added a ton of productivity tweaks. One of the biggest is Files, a new, well, file system for iOS that lets users interact more directly with documents and images without having to go through an associate app. Now Microsoft has just added several new features for its Office and OneDrive iOS apps, including access to OneDrive through the Files app. Other additions feature drag and drop capabilities, co-authoring on iOS (and Mac), and a better list view in OneDrive to help find your files more easily. Microsoft has also added new features to its Slack competitor Teams, like the ability to add interactive cards from apps into chats.
Microsoft's Slack rival helps you find and use apps
Microsoft is determined to make Teams a strong alternative to collaborative chat apps like Slack, and it's now targeting one of Slack's strong points: apps. The company is rolling out a major update whose centerpiece is a new app store that lets you find the tools you need, whether it's a productivity booster like Adobe Creative Cloud or a chat bot. Accordingly, you can bring content from apps directly into a conversation, such as a relevant news story or the weather, and check out what's happening across your apps in a dedicated space.
Microsoft unveils improved AI-powered search features for Bing
Microsoft unveiled a handful of new intelligent search features for Bing at an event held in San Francisco today. Powered by AI, the search updates are meant to provide more thorough answers and allow for more conversational or general search queries.
Microsoft adds more AI smarts to Office 365
Microsoft has been adding cloud-based artificial intelligence to its popular Office suite for years now. In addition to new AI-focused upgrades to Cortana and Bing, the company also announced several new tools for Word, Excel and Outlook to help you make the most of your data, organizational content and more.
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 axes Outlook.com premium features
We hope you didn't get too attached to Outlook.com Premium -- from all indications, it's already going away. Microsoft is adding most of Premium's features (tougher email security, ad-free web access, more storage and top-tier support) to Office 365, but in the process has revealed that it's removing the paid option for Outlook.com users. You can keep receiving the benefits if you renew an existing subscription, but new subscriptions are "closed." If you took advantage of the custom email domain, which isn't coming to Office 365, Microsoft is working on a way to transfer that domain somewhere else.
Microsoft's all-in-one 365 subscription is available for schools
Microsoft just launched its latest bid to bring its services into every aspect of schools and the workforce. To begin with, it's offering its all-encompassing Microsoft 365 subscription to education. Schools can pay a single per-person rate to get Windows 10, Office 365, the Enterprise Mobility and Security Suite and even Minecraft: Education Edition. Office 365 for Education is already free, but Microsoft is betting that all the other perks will be worth it for faculty that wants a one-stop shop for the software they need. It'll be available on October 1st -- too late for the return to school, so don't be surprised if you don't see this used in earnest until the winter semester or next fall.