Microsoft Unveils Cool New Features for Windows 10 And Office 365

Microsoft held a press event today in New York to reveal new hardware. Microsoft also took advantage of the opportunity to share some of the new capabilities that are part of the Windows 10 2018 Update and new features rolling out to Office 365 users.

New Windows 10 and Office 365 Features

Microsoft said that Windows 10 is now running on more than 700 million devices around the world. Office 365 continues to see strong adoption and growth year after year. Combined, Windows 10 and Office 365 form the foundation for much of the core computing people do—which makes it crucial that people are satisfied with the user experience. Microsoft is constantly exploring the way people actually use the software and hardware they create and striving to improve and streamline those experiences.

Here is a quick synopsis of the major updates and features announced today:

You will soon be able to view and search your PC timeline from your iPhone.Microsoft

Your Phone app: By installing the Your Phone app on your Android smartphone, you get seamless access to photos and texts from your mobile device on your Windows 10 PC. When you take a picture with your smartphone, you can drag and drop them from your device to your PC—and copy, edit, or markup the photo. You can also view, send and receive SMS text messages from your Android phone on your PC through the Your Phone app. There is an iOS version of the app that is slated to be available in early November, but the capabilities in iOS appear to be limited to being able to send a web page to your PC so you can pick up where you left off and continue surfing on a larger screen.
Timeline on smartphone: Microsoft rolled out the Timeline feature on Windows 10 earlier this year. It lets you go back in time to find websites, documents and other resources you were working on whether it was on your PC or a connected smartphone. The new Timeline update allows that to work in reverse as well—so you will be able to view and scroll through the Timeline from your PC on your smartphone. This feature is available in preview starting today for Android via the Microsoft Launcher app and will be coming soon for iPhone.
Inking and 3D: Microsoft announced new AI-powered inking and 3D updates for Word and PowerPoint. You can draw or sketch your thoughts and Microsoft AI will transform it into perfectly formatted slides. AI will also help recommend slide designs based on handwritten ink or change written text to Smart Art. New 3D embedded animations can expand creativity by automatically turning your work into 3D animations. Microsoft also added new pen gestures that make it easier to add line breaks, insert new words, or split or join words when writing text by hand.
Line Focus helps you stay focused on the content you're reading in Microsoft Edge.Microsoft

Microsoft Edge: There are a few cool new tools for the Microsoft Edge browser. Line focus lets you highlight a set of one, three or five lines at a time so you can focus better on the content. There are also new grammar and learning tools and an offline dictionary that allows you to look up definitions for words in Reading View for web pages, books, and PDFs even if you’re not connected to the internet.
Snip & Sketch: The new Snip & Sketch app will appear on the list when you press Alt + Tab, and you can quickly invoke the snipping tool by pressing the Windows key + Shift +S. You can just snip a rectangle or the full screen or select a freeform area, and then you can annotate and share the screenshot. Microsoft says the original Snipping tools for Windows 10 will still be available until or unless they receive enough user feedback suggesting that people don’t need both experiences.

Evolution of Windows and Office

I have to say—I am a huge fan of both Windows 10 and Office 365. There are a variety of features and benefits to appreciate about each of them, but one of the things I love the most is that they are “living” platforms that are constantly updated and evolving. Office 2019 was recently launched for Windows and macOS systems, and I looked at the news and said, “Oh! The people who don’t subscribe to Office 365 can now spend an inordinate amount of money to catch up with the features and capabilities I’ve already been using in Office 365 for months—or years.”

I just don’t understand sticking with that old model. It doesn’t make sense from a functionality and productivity standpoint because almost as soon as you install the software it’s already obsolete and you lack a rapidly growing list of new features and capabilities that Office 365 subscribers have access to with each passing week. It also doesn’t make sense from a financial standpoint, because upgrading every 3 or 4 years to a new version of the standalone Microsoft Office suite costs more than just paying the monthly Office 365 subscription.

When it comes to Windows, there were always monthly patches and updates, and you would get massive Service Pack updates every year or so, but there was still an expectation that every few years you would have to scrap the Windows operating system you have and install a whole new one—going from Windows XP, to Windows Vista, to Windows 7, and on and on. Windows 10 just continues to grow and evolve over time. Granted, the annual fall update is a bit like a Service Pack, but—at least as of right now—there doesn’t seem to be any anticipation or expectation of scrapping Windows 10 and installing a completely different version of Windows at some point in the future.

I appreciate updates like these—new features and capabilities that aren’t necessarily revolutionary, but evolve and improve the user experience in subtle—but important—ways. The synchronization and seamless integration of the phone and features like Line Focus in Microsoft Edge and the new Snip & Sketch tool are all great improvements that will help people work more effectively and efficiently with Windows 10 and Office 365.

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