Office 2016 was officially released this week by Microsoft. I generally have the latest Microsoft operating systems and software before they’re available to the public as a function of being a tech journalist and a Microsoft MVP, but I know that many people are perfectly content to just keep the version of Office they’re already using–even if it’s the version they’ve been using for the last decade.
If you’re on the fence about upgrading to Office 2016, here are five reasons you should consider making the switch:
Office 2016 is here. Microsoft officially released the latest version of the popular productivity suite on Tuesday with a variety of new and improved features designed to make organizations and individuals more productive.
Should you make a switch and upgrade to Office 2016? That is a very subjective question that depends heavily on how and why you use Microsoft Office in the first place, as well as how you acquire Office. If you’re looking for reasons, though, here are five things that might make Office 2016 worth the plunge.
1. Real-time Collaboration
One trick that rival productivity suites have had for a while but has been lacking in Microsoft Office is the ability to do real-time collaboration or co-authoring. Co-authoring in Word and PowerPoint enables more than one person to work on a document (or presentation) at the same time—even if they are using different devices or operating systems. Microsoft Word also includes the ability for those working in the document to see where others are currently editing the document in real-time.
2. More Efficient Email
Mail clients, including Microsoft Outlook, have included spam filters capable of separating legitimate messages from junk mail for years. Many of the ostensibly legitimate emails, however, still don’t require immediate attention. The Clutter feature in Outlook 2016 separates important emails from unimportant emails so you can focus on what matters. The messages deemed frivolous or less urgent are moved to the Clutter folder where you can view them at your leisure. Clutter also learns to be more effective over time based on which messages you move out of Clutter back to your Inbox and which emails you delete from your Inbox without even opening. Unfortunately, Outlook 2016 is still missing a unified inbox.
3. Smart Lookup
A new context menu option called Smart Lookup gives you quick and easy access to a range of information about a word or phrase. In previous versions of Office you could right-click a word to find its definition but Smart Lookup takes it farther. Smart Lookup provides more comprehensive details about the highlighted word or phrase, including related Wikipedia entries.
See the full list of reasons on Forbes: 5 Reasons To Make The Switch To Office 2016.
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