Office Archives - CyberGuru

Ribbon changes are coming to Microsoft Office

cyberguru Training October 23, 2018October 29, 2018Classic Ribbon, Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Office, Office 365, Ribbon, Simplified Ribbon

After twenty years of faithful service the familiar Microsoft Office ribbon, containing your menus and commands, is going to change. As part of the latest round of updates, a new look is being rolled out progressively across the Office programs, beginning with Outlook. But don’t worry, you will have two choices of ribbon – the simplified ribbon or the classic ribbon.

If you have been using Office for a while, you will begin to notice some changes to the look and feel of the various products. Starting with Outlook, Microsoft is revising how the user interface appears. The simplified ribbon aims to help users “focus on their work and collaborate naturally with others”. The simplified ribbon will streamline the existing top section of the screen, reducing the space it takes up on the screen.

Here’s an example of how it looks in Outlook:

Ribbon changes are coming to Microsoft Office - Example of Ribbon changes - Microsoft Outlook — Example of Ribbon changes – Microsoft Outlook

You can switch between the simplified ribbon and the classic ribbon by using the switch icon, which is located near the top right of the window.

These changes will also follow on Word, Excel and PowerPoint. In addition, the ribbon has a new appearance with new colours and icons and has been designed to scale on screens of any size.

For more information on the simplified ribbon, please see the Use the Simplified Ribbon support page (link opens in new window) and reference guide (link opens in new window).

CyberGuru provides consulting, training and support in Office 365, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint as well as a range of other products. If you would like to know more or want to enhance your knowledge and skills, please contact us.

Coming in mid-2018 – Microsoft Office 2019!

cyberguru Consulting March 20, 2018March 19, 2018Microsoft, Microsoft Office, Office, Office 2016, Office 2019, Office 365

Microsoft has announced the next perpetual edition of Microsoft Office, Office 2019. In keeping with Microsoft tradition, it will arrive in the middle of preceding year rather than the year of its name.

In breaking with tradition, Office 2019 will only run on devices using Windows 10 and not on older editions of Windows, namely Windows 7 or Windows 8.1.

Microsoft have also advised they will release Office 2019 with five years of mainstream support and approximately two years of extended support to align with the current version of Microsoft Office (Office 2016) which is expected to end on 14 October 2025. For more information, please see the Microsoft TechNet article.

While this seems harsh, we often still see computers running versions of Windows and Office well past their use by date. By the end of this year, Office 2007 will be nearly 12 years old, and Office 2010 not much younger. We strongly suggest that now is the time consider upgrading to Office 2013 or 2016, or transition to Microsoft Office 365.

It looks like the subscription model is becoming the increased focus from Microsoft, and purchasing Office 365 will be the way going forward to continue to keep getting the latest features. We expect Office 2019 will likely be the last version that Microsoft release, with future releases all being subscription-only.

CyberGuru is able to provide consulting, support and training in Microsoft Office applications, and able to support you in the transition from one version to another. If we can assist in any way, please contact us.

Microsoft releases Office 2016

cyberguru Consulting October 9, 2015October 9, 2015installing, Microsoft, Office, Office 2016, Office 365, updating

We are about three months short of 2016, but this hasn’t stopped Microsoft from releasing its 2016 edition of its flagship productivity suite, Microsoft Office. Microsoft Office celebrated its 25^th birthday this last year, and whilst the products have been available for a standalone for some time, this edition brings the products much closer.

On first look, there is little difference between the Office 2013 and 2016. The ribbon is coloured with the icon colour of the particular product (for instance, blue for Word, green for Excel and orange for PowerPoint) and the text in the user interface has returned to capital letter titled rather than entirely uppercase.

However, there have been improvements under the surface. On all of the products, an addition has been made to the menu bar enable the transition for those using older versions and struggling to find menu items on the ribbon. There is now “Tell me”, which is similar of Clippy (for those who remember earlier versions of Microsoft Office!) whereby the command you are looking to complete can be entered into a text box and the appropriate options will be shown to you.

One of the items promoted heavily by Microsoft are the new sharing features. People who save their documents on SharePoint or OneDrive will have a boost their productivity when they collaborate their editing with others. You can open shared documents and see each other are in the document and their changes as they happen. It has to be seen to be believed, but for teams that are working from multiple locations, it can be a real time saver. We are looking forward to collaborating and sharing documents with others in this way!

Another time saver is version history, which can show you the previous saved versions of your documents easily. If you are looking to work out what has changed between saves, you can use this to compare the changes, even midway through a document.

Outlook has also seen a few changes, notably the ability to now see Groups created within Office 365, share documents with recipients in conjunction with SharePoint and OneDrive for Business, as well as Clutter, which helps priorities your email based upon your personal prioritisation.

As the cloud and internet-based workers continues to gain momentum, there is greater integration between OneDrive as well as Skype. We are likely to see this continue as by default all documents will be saved into OneDrive.

Microsoft Office apps are now also available more devices and platforms, including Windows, Apple and Android phones and tablets. Microsoft announced recently that devices under 10.1 inches will be eligible for the free Microsoft Office apps.

If you are a current Office 365 subscriber, then you can upgrade to Office 2016 or wait until the notification appears as an automatic update. If you are looking to do it now, simply log into your Microsoft Office 365 account and follow the prompts to install the update. You don’t need to remove Office 2013 as this will be installed side-by-side with Office 2016 automatically.

CyberGuru is able to provide individuals, small businesses and not-for-profit organisations with assistance in deploying Office 2016 in their organisations by way of consulting, support and training. If we can be of any assistance, please feel free to contact us.