November is coming to a close, and Microsoft is once again detailing some of the changes made to Microsoft 365 over the past month. There aren't a ton of major new features, but there are a couple of nice improvements. Perhaps the biggest Office-related news today was the unveiling of the new icons for its apps, which feature more modern designs.
As mentioned above, though, there are a few nice additions to some parts of Office. For starters, Word is getting the ability to keep track of to-dos. Powered by AI, the app can now add items to a to-do list whenever you insert text such as "TODO: finish this section" in the document. Additionally, if you mention someone in a to-do, they will receive a link to the document that will take them directly to the section that requires attention. The feature is now available for Office Insiders on Mac, and it should make its way to all Office 365 users.
Outlook on the web is also getting a couple of improvements starting next month. It'll be easier to log in to the e-mail service if you have a work or school account, as Outlook.com will automatically redirect you to your organization's login page. Microsoft To-Do is also integrating into Outlook.com, allowing you to drag e-mails into task lists to create a new entry, or schedule tasks by dragging from the task lists into the calendar.
Microsoft Teams is getting a new Quiet Hours feature on mobile devices, and it works pretty much as you'd expect, giving you the ability to mute notifications for specific hours of the day and even specific days of the week so you're not bothered during the weekend, for example. In addition to that, it also allows users to schedule meetings and search for people within the organization.
There are a couple of other features meant to help users create more engaging content. First, Editor is arriving next month in PowerPoint, leveraging machine learning to fix awkward phrasing and create more natural-sounding language. Also in PowerPoint, integration with Microsoft Forms is now available, so you can add quizzes to a presentation.
As usual, many of these updates highlight Microsoft's efforts to connect all of its services and products together. To-Do integration has recently shown up in Microsoft Launcher for Android, and it'll work with Cortana in the future, too, so its arrival in Outlook.com isn't surprising.
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