Microsoft 365 Roadmap Weekly: New features for Copilot in Excel and more

We are once again checking out the Microsoft 365 roadmap website to see the new entries that have been put in for updates to the company's many productivity apps. This week didn't have a flood of new entries as has been the case for the last few weeks, but there are still some interesting new features to look forward to.

Excel users on the PC, Mac, and the web will get a helpful new Copilot feature later in July:

Previously, when a user asked Copilot to make changes to their table data, Copilot would make the changes directly. Now, Copilot will respond with a description of the planned changes, along with a button to "Apply". Users can choose to refine before applying. This provides more user awareness and control over Copilot's changes.

The new Outlook for Windows app will get a new keyboard shortcut in September:

Users in new Outlook will now be able to use the Alt key to bring up key tips when using keyboard navigation. This behavior was previously Win+Alt. Other Outlook apps will not be impacted by these changes.

In August, Outlook web users will be able to quickly add an account to their Outlook mobile app:

Microsoft is simplifying how users can add their Microsoft 365 for work or school accounts to Outlook mobile by allowing them to use a QR code instead of typing their username and password. This experience will roll out first to Outlook on the web. From there, users will see a new button in Help labeled “Outlook mobile." Once they click it, a QR code will appear. Users can scan the QR code from within Outlook mobile following the steps for "Add account" to add their account without the need to type their usernames and passwords.

Web users of Outlook will get some extra help when they use Copilot to draft a document in September:

Draft with Copilot will include information from Bing search, resulting in content that's as current as what you would find when searching with Bing on the web.

Those same Word on the web users will get another Copilot draft improvement in September:

You will no longer need to reference certain types of organizational data for Copilot to generate contextually relevant content. People and chats will still need to be referenced explicitly.

That's our look back at the last week for the Microsoft 365 roadmap web site. We will return next Sunday with a peak at what's new on the site for the upcoming week.