Tag Archives: Office 365

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Text Prediction Is Coming To Microsoft Word

Most modern email systems these days have a “predictive typing” feature. As you’re composing an email, the software behind the system predicts (fairly accurately) what you’re about to type and suggests the next word, or even the next few words for you. If you hit the activation key (which is generally the Tab key, but varies a bit depending on the system you’re using), the suggested words will get plugged into your email automatically.

Once you get accustomed to using it, it’s a nice feature that helps increasing your typing speed. Microsoft Word for Windows doesn’t yet have that feature, but it’s about to. In fact, it’s being rolled out next week, and by the time you read these words, it may already be available.

Assuming it is available around the same time you read these words, you owe it to yourself to try it out. It does take a bit of getting used to, but given its accuracy in Outlook, there’s no reason to think it won’t be every bit as accurate in Word; the company can port the same basic technology over, after all.

It’s a good feature, and a very good addition to Word. If you find that you don’t like the suggestions the software is giving you, just ignore the unobtrusive words as they pop up and keep typing whatever you intended to, but if you find the AI to be pretty good at guessing what you were about to write, you’ll find that it does help you write more quickly.

You won’t see a huge improvement in speed, but even at the margins, it’s helpful. If you spend a lot of time writing reports, the time saved will add up rather quickly.

Kudos to Microsoft for making the change. It’s a welcome addition indeed.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft Word Adding Transform Feature To Create PowerPoints

Microsoft has been rolling out a number of good, interesting features to a broad spectrum of products lately. However, this one we’re not quite as sure about.

On paper, it certainly looks interesting. The idea is that if you have a Word Document, at the touch of a button, you can transform that document into a PowerPoint presentation, complete with AI-selected digital assets.

Given the overall strength of Microsoft’s AI when it comes to predictive typing, this has the potential to be a pretty handy feature, but there are a couple of caveats.

First and foremost, it’s not widely available yet. You have to be a member of the Windows Insiders group to get early access and experiment with it. Second, and perhaps more telling is the fact that Microsoft opted not to release a demo showing the new feature in action.

While the first point is standard practice, the second gives some industry experts a momentary pause. Normally, when a company announces a bold new feature, they’re eager to show it off to the world. In the case, absent a demo, we are left wondering how effective the AI is at selecting digital assets appropriate to the topic of the document you’re transforming. That remains to be seen.

It’s an unquestionably interesting idea, and even if the first iteration of its execution leaves something to be desired, we hope that Microsoft will stick with it and make incremental improvements until it lives up to expectations. At present, we’re guardedly optimistic about this one. It sounds great and if it works as advertised, it could be a real time saver. The absence of a demo, however, makes us wonder if it’s as robust as it could be at this point.

Time will tell. In any case, kudos to Microsoft for extending their Office Suite in a new and interesting way. We’ll reserve final judgment until we can see it in action.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Microsoft Adds New Security Feature To Office 365

Microsoft has made an important change to Office 365 you should be aware of.

The company recently introduced a new feature called Application Guard, which is now available to all Office 365 users with supported licenses.

The Application Guard blocks files that have been downloaded from untrusted sources by shunting them to sandboxes.

These isolated, secure containers allow Office 365 users to read, edit and print those files without having to open them outside the container. That means you don’t put your network at risk by manipulating files from untrusted sources.

Microsoft initially previewed the new feature on a limited basis back in November, 2019 and since then, the company has been continuing to refine it. It’s now ready for prime time, and available to all Microsoft 365 users with E5 or E5 security licenses.

Admins should be aware, however, that the new feature is toggled off by default. If it’s something you want to make use of, you’ll need to enable it for each of the applications you intend to use it for. It’s also worth mentioning that the new feature only works on endpoints running at least Windows 10 Enterprise version 2004 (20H1) that also have the cumulative monthly security update KB4571756 installed. So there may be some prep work needed before you’re ready to roll out the new feature on your company’s network.

Finally, be aware that the new Application Guard feature is integrated into both Microsoft Defender for Office 365 and Microsoft Defender for Endpoint. So once the system is up and running, you’ll be able to easily monitor and receive alerts from secure containers in the event that Microsoft Defender detects one or more problematic files within them.

Overall, this is an excellent enhancement that will make your network safer and more secure. Kudos to Microsoft for an excellent job here. Try it out at your next convenience.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Office 365 Exchange Users Get Disposable Email Feature

During the 2019 Microsoft Ignite convention, the company announced a new feature they were planning to add to Exchange Online.

The new feature, dubbed “plus addressing” would give Office 365 Exchange users the ability to create a potentially unlimited number of disposable email addresses using a + delimiter.

That’s handy, given that so many sites want your email address from you before they’ll give you access to whatever information you’re after, so it’s a great addition to an already excellent service.

If you use Exchange Online, there’s good news; the feature Microsoft talked about last year is now available, and you can give it a test drive at your next convenience.

When you create a new, disposable email address, any mail you get to that address is automatically routed to your inbox for review. If you want to keep your inbox free of clutter, that’s as simple as creating a new inbox rule that automatically re-routes those messages to some other folder in your inbox so you can keep everything organized.

Note that the new feature is disabled by default, but admins can easily activate the feature if they wish. To do so, simply connect to the Exchange Online PowerShell and run the following command:

Set-OrganizationConfig -AllowPlusAddressInRecipients $true

We think it’s fantastic that Microsoft has made this addition, but in fairness, they are playing a bit of catch up here. This is something that Google has made available to its G-Mail users for quite some time, so Microsoft is more than a little late to this particular party.

Still, better late than never as the saying goes, and kudos to Microsoft for adding a high value feature that will no doubt be well-received by a significant percentage of the company’s user base. Check it out today. The first time you use it to sign up for something, you won’t know how you got along without it.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

New Updates For Office 365 Will Include Phishing Protection

Are you an Office 365 user? If so, be aware that Microsoft is adding some powerful new protections to the software suite, designed to make you safer.

Hackers commonly target Office 365 users with a type of attack known as “Consent Phishing.” That basically means that the hacker in question will use a variety of social engineering techniques to try and trick a target victim into giving up his or her Office 365 access, usually by way of an app that asks for permissions. If the user grants those permissions, the app can install all manner of malware on the target’s device.

The new security upgrades that Microsoft is rolling out makes users safer in three different ways:

  • First by a general tightening of app consent policies
  • Second, by placing a greater level of scrutiny on publishers of OAuth apps during the verification process
  • Third, by changing the rules surrounding user consent when consent is asked for by an unverified publisher

These changes are already in place, and since their initial rollout, Microsoft has verified more than 700 different app publishers and more than 1300 individual apps. Verified apps can be recognized by the small blue badge with a white check mark in its center. Those apps, you can install with confidence.

As a Microsoft representative explained:

“To reduce the risk of malicious applications attempting to trick users into granting them access to your organization’s data, we recommend that you allow user consent only for applications that have been published by a verified publisher.”

It’s good advice, and these are excellent (even if they’re somewhat overdue) changes to the company’s policies. Kudos to Microsoft for rolling out the upgrades to their processes, and to the legitimate publishers who are already moving to embrace the recent changes. This will help keep users safe, and that’s a very good thing.

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