Are You Using Microsoft 365 To Its Full Potential?

Posted: 30th December 2020

Microsoft 365 (previously Office 365) is one of the most effective tools for businesses, boosting productivity, collaborative working, and efficiency. Most organisations will use Microsoft 365, but are they using the programme’s apps to their full potential?

Here are 5 useful features of Microsoft 365 you might not know exist:

#1. You can edit a PDF in Microsoft Word… What!?

That’s right. After agonising hours spent trawling the internet for a free and effective PDF editor, the solution was within Microsoft 365 all along.

It’s really simple to do too: In Microsoft Word, navigate to the File menu to open the PDF file you need to edit. When you try to open the PDF, you’ll be presented with a message notifying you that your document will now be converted to a Word file for editing. Agree to this by clicking OK and away you go! When you’re done, you can re-save the file back into a PDF format.

#2. Share videos with Microsoft 365 Stream

Stream is an app within Microsoft 365 that’s so often overlooked but is a great way to share videos without clogging up inboxes with huge file sizes.

As with all Microsoft 365 apps, it’s self-explanatory to navigate and allows you to store and share videos via the cloud. Having one place where you can store videos and make them fully accessible to all your staff is a great tool for delivering training conveniently for all or even sharing a presentation with remote workers.

#3. Make your emails heard

With the popular Microsoft 365 email tool, Outlook, you can make sure you grab the attention of essential recipients.

Perhaps you’re managing a project remotely and want the entire team to be in the loop, but only selected colleagues need to take action: You can tag actions to certain recipients by giving them an @-mention. Here’s how:

1. In the body of your email type ‘@’ followed by the name of the person you want to mention.

2. Outlook will automatically pull their email address into the recipients’ field and highlight their name in the body of the text.

3. When they receive the email, it will also be highlighted to them they have been formally mentioned in the email, making them aware the content is essential for them to read.

Learn more about how to use Microsoft 365 Outlook effectively.

#4 Presenting LIVE

The Microsoft 365 PowerPoint tool is a firm favourite but is probably used to a fraction of its full capability.

For example, did you know you can run a live presentation around the globe in over 60 languages and in real-time? All you have to do is navigate to Slideshow and choose to Present Online. A QR code will be generated which will grant access to your audience who can view live with the option of subtitles in their chosen language.

#5 Let Microsoft 365 organise your inbox

All it takes is a week out of the office and your inbox can become a sea of stress that will zap your productivity in the days ahead.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. With Outlook, you can set rules for the app to follow to sort your incoming emails automatically. Dependant on various factors, such as subject or sender, you can set Outlook to filter incoming emails into designated folders.

Simply right-click on a relevant email and select Create Rule. From here you can give Outlook instructions on what to do with any further relating emails.

Of course, this won’t reduce the volume of emails associated with the second you take leave from the office, but it can take your inbox from chaos to organised chaos at least!

If you just stick to the basics of the Microsoft 365 apps, you could be missing out on some real productivity nuggets. What’s more, you could be missing out on some apps entirely. Here are 5 apps you could be paying for but not using.

More Than IT Support – It’s IT Consultancy

Remember, at Jupiter IT, we’re about more than just resolving your IT issues and installing new hardware; we’re here to guide, advise and train our clients to make sure you’re getting the most from your tech.

As a Microsoft partner for over 12 years, we have certainly seen Microsoft 365 deliver on its objectives; for our clients and for us as a business as well.

If you’re running Microsoft 365, make sure you’re using it to its full potential; get in touch and we’ll be happy to show you the ropes.