Microsoft has unveiled some new and improved Microsoft 365 features. These upgrades, introduced during this year’s Microsoft Inspire conference, are more relevant than ever and were designed with the needs of the hybrid worker in mind. From third-party integrations in Teams to nifty tricks in Outlook, here’s a quick guide on what to expect from the latest version of Microsoft 365.

Work seamlessly with Windows 365

Windows 365 is a cloud service that allows users to experience a more powerful and more agile version of Windows 10 or 11. Also called the “Cloud PC”, Windows 365 will enable you to access your entire PC — including personalized apps and settings — from any device. This means Windows 365 users can start working from anywhere right away, which is especially useful when finishing an urgent task or getting the most out of a productivity streak.

Windows 365 eliminates logistical complexities and security concerns that often get in the way of efficient hybrid working. With a Cloud PC, you can start working on your office computer, pick up where you left off on your tablet during your commute, and jump right back in on your desktop if you’re working from home the next day.

Experience a more powerful Teams app

Teams is now loaded with new apps that are sure to make Microsoft’s communication platform even more collaborative. One of the new apps coming to Teams is Confluence Cloud by Atlassian, which allows users to take notes during a Teams meeting. The notes can be formatted as action items, mentions, tables, and the like to make the salient parts of the meeting more digestible. On top of this feature, the notes are also easily shareable in the Teams channel, allowing everyone to immediately access a copy of the minutes of the meeting.

Salesforce will also be available for Teams. With the Salesforce for Teams app, you can integrate Salesforce records into different chats, calendar meetings, or channels so you can access and refer to the documents during discussions.

There’s also a new Q&A app that will help improve question and answer sessions in meetings or webinars with a large number of participants. Attendees can now ask questions and reply to other participants’ questions throughout the meeting, and organizers can moderate discussions by filtering responses, marking the best answers, and pinning posts. This gives the Q&A more structure and makes it easier for everyone to search for relevant information.

Get better organized to improve productivity

It’s easy to get disorganized when you have several things on your plate. With Microsoft 365’s new features, it is a lot easier to prioritize tasks, organize events, and take necessary breaks in between.

For one, you can now pin emails to the top of your inbox so you can readily find important emails later. Message reminders in Outlook will also help you stay on top of your tasks by nudging you to take action on emails that you might have missed.

There’s also no need to sift through thousands of documents to find the right files to attach to your plan in Microsoft Planner. The app can now show you a list of files related to your agenda that you might want to attach, helping you save time and effort.

What’s more, a new setting in Outlook lets you schedule meetings early or late so you can carve out essential breaks between back-to-back engagements. Scheduling breaks between meetings gives you and your employees time to breathe and prevents you from feeling overwhelmed or burned out.

We’ve only just scratched the surface of Microsoft 365’s newest features. If you want the latest updates on this topic, don’t hesitate to contact us. Our tech experts are always ready to answer your queries.

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If you want to keep everyone updated on each other’s assignments or improve your team’s productivity, sharing your calendar on Microsoft 365 is a must. In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can sync your schedules on different versions of Outlook.

Outlook on the web

If you have Microsoft 365 or another email service based on Microsoft Exchange Online, follow these steps to share your calendar:

1. Open the Calendar by clicking on the calendar icon at the bottom of the page.
2. Once you’re in Calendar, go to the toolbar at the top of the page. Click on Share and choose which calendar you want to share. Keep in mind that you can only share calendars you own and not other people’s.
3. Indicate whom you want to share your calendar with by entering their email address or name.
4. Select which activities recipients are permitted to perform on your calendar. You can choose from the following:
   • Can view when I’m busy ⁠– if you want the calendar to show when you’re busy but hide certain details
   • Can view titles and locations ⁠– if you want the calendar to indicate when you’re busy, as well as key details like an event’s title or location
   • Can view all details ⁠– if you want the calendar to reveal all details about an event
   • Can edit ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to modify your calendar
   • Delegate ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to alter your calendar and share it with other users
5. To proceed, click on Share. If you change your mind, click on the Trash icon to cancel sharing your calendar.

Alternatively, you can publish your calendar and share it with others using a URL. Here’s how you do it:

1. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
2. Select Shared calendars.
3. Go to Publish a calendar and choose which calendar you want to publish and how much information is revealed to recipients.
4. Click Publish.
5. You will be given the choice between using an HTML or an ICS link. The HTML link can be used to view your calendar using a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. An ICS link allows recipients to import your calendar and view it on their own Outlook calendar.

Outlook.com

Like Outlook on the web, Outlook.com allows you to share your calendar directly or publish it. The steps for sharing are exactly like those used in Outlook on the web, too, except you only have two options for how recipients can use your calendar. These are “Can view all details” and “Can edit.”

Publishing your calendar on Outlook.com requires you to::

1. Click on the calendar icon to open the Calendar view.
2. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
3. Go to Calendar and select Shared calendars.
4. In “Publish a calendar,” select which calendar you’re publishing and how much information it contains.
5. Click Publish and choose to use either an HTML or ICS link.

Outlook on iOS and Android

If you’re using a mobile version of Outlook, these are the steps for sharing your calendar:

1. On your Outlook app, click the hamburger button at the top-left corner and select Calendar.
2. Go to Share and tap on Add People to indicate your calendar’s recipients.
3. Input each recipient’s name or email address. Once you’re done, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.
4. You will see a list of recipients. Tap on a name to edit their permissions and how much information they’re allowed to see. As with Outlook on the web, available options are “Can View,” “Can Edit,” “Delegate,” “Only When I’m Busy,” “Only Titles and Locations,” and “All Details.”
5. To remove a user from your recipients, tap on Remove at the bottom of the page.
6. After you’ve set permissions, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.

The Outlook calendar is an excellent feature for managing your team’s events and workflows and can help boost your efficiency and productivity. If you have other questions and concerns about Microsoft 365, get in touch with us today.

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More than just offering apps and cloud services designed to boost productivity, Microsoft 365 also provides robust security tools for protecting data from loss and theft. Make the most out of these tools and ensure data security by following these tips.

Take advantage of policy alerts

Establish policy notifications in Microsoft 365’s Compliance Center to help you meet your company’s data security obligations. With these in place, your employees will receive policy tips about sending confidential information anytime they’re about to send messages to contacts outside of the company network. These preemptive warnings can prevent data leaks and also educate users on safer data sharing practices.

Secure mobile devices

Since employees often use personal smartphones or computers to access their work email, calendar, contacts, and documents — especially if they’re working remotely — securing employee-owned devices should be a critical part of protecting your organization’s data. Installing mobile device management features for Microsoft 365 enables you to manage security policies and access permissions/restrictions, and remotely wipe sensitive data from mobile devices if they’re lost or stolen.

Use multifactor authentication

Relying on a single password to protect your Microsoft 365 accounts could lead to account hijacking, which could put your data at risk of being compromised. Instead, enable multifactor authentication (MFA). MFA requires users to supply additional credentials on top of a password before they can access their accounts. This makes it difficult for hackers to access your accounts since they not only have to guess user passwords, but they also need to provide a second authentication factor like a one-time SMS code or a fingerprint scan.

Apply session timeouts

Many employees usually forget to log out of their Microsoft 365 accounts and keep their computers or mobile devices unlocked. This could give unauthorized users unfettered access to company accounts, allowing them to steal sensitive data. By applying session timeouts to Microsoft 365 accounts, email accounts, and internal networks, users will be automatically logged out after a period of inactivity, preventing hackers from taking over users’ devices and accessing private information.

Avoid public calendar sharing

Microsoft 365’s calendar sharing feature allows employees to share and sync their schedules with their colleagues. However, publicly sharing this information is a bad idea because it helps attackers understand how your company works, determine who’s away, and identify vulnerable users. For instance, if security administrators are publicly listed as “Away on vacation,” an attacker may see this as an opportunity to unleash malware on unattended computers.

Employ role-based access controls

Access management is another Microsoft 365 feature that will limit the flow of sensitive data across your organization. It lets you determine which users have access to specific files in your company. For example, rank-and-file employees won’t be able to read or edit executive-level documents, minimizing the risk of data leaks.

Encrypt emails

Encrypting classified information is your last line of defense against data breaches. If hackers intercept your emails, encryption tools will make files unreadable to unauthorized recipients. This is a must-have for Microsoft 365, where files and emails are shared on a regular basis.

Partner with us to ensure your organization’s Microsoft 365 accounts are always secure and compliant with changing data security requirements. Give us a call today — our team of experts are here to help.

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In 2019, Microsoft introduced the Presenter Coach feature in PowerPoint to help users give better presentations, be these in person or virtually. Using artificial intelligence, this feature gives you pointers on how to improve your pitch, pacing, word choice, and much more. It was initially available only in PowerPoint for the web, but this year, Microsoft expanded its availability and the types of feedback it provides.

Availability on all platforms

Presenter Coach is now accessible on all platforms: web, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android. This means you can utilize this feature whenever you need it and wherever you are — at home, in the office, or even on the go.

Three new types of feedbacks

Aside from expanding the availability of Presenter Coach, Microsoft also added three new kinds of feedback:

1. Body language

Great presenters rehearse not only what they say, but also their gestures, stance, and facial expressions to ensure that these support their message. For example, they can use hand gestures to emphasize a point, instead of keeping their hands in their pockets or behind their back. They also utilize their eyes, mouth, and facial muscles to convey emotion. By projecting the right body language, they can establish their credibility and connect with the audience.

This is why Microsoft introduced a new capability that uses your video camera to provide feedback on your body language. After your rehearsal, the Presenter Coach will give you a summary report using the following metrics:

• Clear view – Evaluates how well your audience will be able to see you
• Eye contact – Tells you whether you are able to maintain your gaze toward the camera
• Distance – Analyzes whether you are too close or too far away from the camera

2. Repetitive language

During presentations, repeating certain words and phrases can help you emphasize particular points and ensure that your audience recalls them. However, if this technique is done incorrectly, your listeners may find it distracting. On other occasions, you may not even realize that you are using the same words and phrases over and over again, but your audience will most likely catch on.

To help prevent you from overusing the same words and phrases, Presenter Coach will identify them after listening to your rehearsal. Not only that, but it will also give you a list of synonyms that you can use instead so you can switch it up and keep your audience more engaged throughout your presentation.

3. Pronunciation

Presenter Coach can help ensure that you correctly pronounce all of the words that you will say during your presentation. It will display the words you mispronounced during rehearsal and offer a recorded pronunciation guide of that word. You can listen to the correct pronunciation as many times as you want while practicing your presentation.

Currently, Presenter Coach is optimized for the General American English pronunciation, but it can take into account variations in accent. In case you don’t agree with the suggestions provided or you don’t find them useful, you can disable the pronunciation feedback.

Note on privacy concerns

While Presenter Coach uses your camera and microphone to be able to evaluate your rehearsal, it will only do so when you click on Rehearse with Coach and then Start Rehearsing. It does not save any video or audio when you rehearse. It was purposely designed to respect your privacy while still being able to provide clear and actionable feedback that will help you improve your presentation skills.

Want to learn more powerful features in PowerPoint and other Microsoft 365 apps? Contact us today and we’ll help you make the most out of your M365 subscription.

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Microsoft Excel is now better than ever, thanks to its extremely user-friendly features. Pull yourself up skillswise by following our three tips below.

Take advantage of Ideas in Excel

If you’re not sure which type of chart best tells a particular story out of a table of data, don’t worry — Excel’s artificial intelligence has got your back. Just click any cell in a data range, then go to the Home tab and click the Ideas button. A task pane will appear, showing recommendations for what data visualization you can use. Here’s a quick reference for what some of the most popular charts are for:

• Column/Bar chart – Compares categories with one another by depicting their numerical standing in terms of column height (or bar length, in the case of bar charts) side by side (think of lining children up and looking at how tall they are)
• Line chart – Shows how data changes over time or another variable that continuously increases at a regular rate
• Pie chart – Sets items as being parts of the same whole to depict and compare how much each contributes to or partakes of that whole
• Scatter diagram – Sets two variables as axes on a Cartesian plane and plots data as points on that plane to show whether a relationship exists between the two variables, and if so, what kind of relationship they have with one another

Intelligent answers for questions about your data

Thanks to natural language processing, users are able to ask a specific question or make a visualization request to Ideas, and Ideas will respond by providing a chart that answers that question or fulfills that request. For instance, if you have sales data for shirts, sweaters, boxers, briefs, jeans, and socks, and you ask for “total sales for boxers, briefs, and socks,” Ideas will show you a pie chart showing how much those three items contributed to their total sales. You can thereafter revise the label of that chart to “Total sales for underwear.”

Save time by using dynamic array formulas

For the longest time, Excel users had to enter one formula in a cell to have something returned in that particular cell only. If, for instance, you opted to use formulas (instead of the Remove duplicates command) to obtain unique values from a list containing repeating names, you’d have had to nest all sorts of functions that only increase in complexity for every succeeding cell that you use. This is no longer the case, thanks to dynamic array formulas.

Simply put, dynamic array formulas let users obtain multiple results that “spill” over multiple cells by just executing a single formula. Plus, just like how a single-cell formula result changes when that formula’s source reference changes, the results of the entire array also stay in sync with the changes in the source reference.

To illustrate, let’s say that you use the Unique function to obtain a list of non-repeating names from a list that mentioned the name “Eric” a lot. The resulting array will be a list that mentions “Eric” only once, but if all instances of “Eric” were deleted from the source list, then “Eric” will be taken out of the results array.

Besides Unique, these are some of the other functions that showcase the dynamic array feature:

• Filter – Extracts all records that match the criteria that the user set (e.g., a list of names of people with green eyes)
• Randarray – Generates a table full of random whole numbers or decimals between two values that are provided by the user
• Sequence – Creates a table full of numbers that begin at a specified value and increase by an increment set by the user
• Sort – Extracts unique values from an array and rearranges them into a new array according to the ascending or descending order of a chosen column index (e.g., a list of billionaires and their respective net worth, sorted from lowest to highest net worth)

Make data extraction easier with XLOOKUP

Let’s say you have a table that records the meals that Mark, Martha, and Marion ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on May 5, 2020. The names of these three individuals are in Column A, while what they had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner are in Columns B, C, and D, respectively.

Finding out what Mark ate for lunch is easy enough to do manually, but now imagine his name among those of 20,000 other people, in a list that’s randomly ordered, in a table spanning the year 2020. Instead of driving yourself crazy, you can retrieve that information efficiently through Excel’s XLOOKUP function.

Extracting data that corresponds to other pieces of data is what lookup functions are for. The very first to be rolled out was Vertical Lookup or VLOOKUP, a function that goes row by row to look from left to right to retrieve your desired information. Next came Horizontal Lookup or HLOOKUP, which did the same thing, except it went column by column to look from top to bottom.

The latest and best iteration of the lookup function is XLOOKUP. It combines both VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP and improves them by being able to go right to left and bottom to top as well.

Let’s go back to our 2020 meals table example above. With XLOOKUP, you can find out who ate roast beef with baked potato on April 2. However, if many people ate that meal that day, you’ll only be able to retrieve either the first or last match in the table depending on whether you specify that the search be done from first to last or in reverse order. Returning multiple matches is possible, but only by integrating other functions with XLOOKUP.

Despite XLOOKUP’s inability to return multiple matches on its own, it can return multiple values from a single match (a la dynamic array). To illustrate, let’s limit our example table to just one day, and we want to extract what Marion ate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. If you choose to use the older VLOOKUP function, you have to perform it three times — once for every meal. With XLOOKUP, you only have to do it once. This is such a huge time-saver, especially if you want to extract entire rows or columns of data from your source table.

Excel is now more user-friendly than ever before. To take full advantage of the best features Excel has to offer your business, contact us today.

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Many businesses prefer Microsoft 365 not only because of its powerful features and cost-saving benefits, but also because of its world-class security. However, the cyberthreat landscape is constantly evolving, so using this suite of cloud-based tools and services will always come with security challenges. Fortunately, Microsoft is continuously looking for ways to address these issues to ensure that your environment and data are protected.

Vulnerabilities in SharePoint

Businesses typically use SharePoint Online and on-premises SharePoint sites to store sensitive information like personally identifiable data. Failing to secure SharePoint content against unauthorized users is one way to expose data and your business to malicious actors. This can be critical for companies that are required to comply with stringent data privacy and protection regulations and may face serious consequences for noncompliance.

To prevent this, limit administrator-level privileges and enable encryption. Additionally, set the necessary security restrictions per user for every application.

Unprotected communication channels

Phishing attacks and malware are two of the most common ways cybercriminals infiltrate a system, but there are other paths of attack. Microsoft 365 applications like Microsoft Teams, which can connect to external networks, may serve as a medium for ransomware and other types of attack.

Train your staff to identify potentially malicious files and links. Also, offer guidelines on how to handle and route sensitive files and communication to safe locations.

Security risks in dormant applications

Organizations using Microsoft 365 often won’t use all the tools and services included in the productivity suite. You may use one or several programs like Word, Excel, and SharePoint but rarely use OneDrive. If your business has been utilizing specific programs, note that some dormant applications may be prone to attack. This is why it’s crucial to identify the apps that aren’t being used, and have an administrator tweak user settings to restrict availability on such apps.

File synchronization

Like most cloud services, Microsoft 365 allows users to automatically sync on-premises files to the cloud, such as in OneDrive. This useful feature is not without security risks, however. If a file stored locally is infected with malware, OneDrive will view the file as changed/updated and trigger a sync to the OneDrive cloud, with the infection going undetected.

Office 365 Cloud App Security, a subset of Microsoft Cloud App Security, is designed to enhance protections for Office 365 apps and provide great visibility into user activity to improve incident response efforts. Make sure your organization’s security administrators set it up on your systems so you can detect and mitigate cyber risks as soon as possible.

Cybercriminals will continue to sharpen their hacking techniques, and your organization must keep up to protect your systems, apps, and devices. Call our team of IT experts now if you want to strengthen your business IT security.

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The award-winning productivity suite Microsoft 365 comes in several different packages to suit the budgets and needs of various types of businesses. Read on to learn which one is best for your company.

Information workers or frontline workers?

Microsoft 365 is the obvious choice if you’re running cloud-based business systems, but the main question is which suite will serve your needs best. Microsoft has packaged their Microsoft 365 offerings to fall under two types of bundles: Information Worker plans and Frontline Worker plans. Both of these plans will give you access to Office 365 and file hosting service OneDrive, but there are significant differences between the two.

Under the Information Worker suite, there are two Microsoft 365 plans you can customize as per your needs: E3 and E5. You can expand said suite with specific service sets your business needs, such as a standalone Office 365 system, Enterprise Mobility + Security tools, and even sets of the Windows 10 operating system. Meanwhile, the Frontline Worker suite (F1, F3, and F5) is more compact, with Office 365 F3 being the only available add-on.

Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 plans have unlimited archive and mail storage space. They also come with advanced analytics tools such as Delve, MyAnalytics, and PowerBI, all of which are unavailable on the Frontliner plans. Information Worker plans also include access management, threat protection, endpoint management, and other advanced tools absent in the Frontline Worker suite.

In terms of SharePoint, a collaborative platform and document and storage system, Frontline Worker plans are short on enterprise search, Excel services, and Visio — a diagramming and vector graphics app — features. Frontline Worker plans also do not have unified communications.

With these points in mind, it may seem like Information Worker subscriptions are superior — and in many ways, they are — but Frontline Worker plans are more suited for smaller companies running on a tight budget. Microsoft 365 F1 and F3 cost $2.25 and $8 per user per month, respectively, while Office 365 plans E1, E3, and E5 cost $8, $20, and $35 per user per month, respectively.

As a general rule, only consider subscribing to the Information Worker plans when your employee headcount exceeds 50 people and users require more storage space solutions and advanced analytics. Otherwise, Frontline Worker plans should suffice.

E3 or E5

Once you’ve decided to go for the Microsoft 365 Information Worker plans, you need to choose which plan (E3 or E5) suits your business requirements.

E3 offers basic solutions, such as Outlook, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Excel for $32 per month. It also provides access to SharePoint Team sites, video conferencing, and Yammer for social media for businesses.

E5, on the other hand, provides all E3 features together with unified communications, PowerBI, Microsoft Defender, Application Guard, and Safe Documents. It also comes with more cloud security tools, risk-based conditional access, privileged identity management, and both automatic and machine learning-based sensitivity labels. E5 costs $57 per month.

Small- and medium-sized businesses often select E3 and subscribe to third-party applications for their cloud security and VoIP needs. But for more robust data management and security requirements, the E5 plan is the way to go.

Migrating to Microsoft 365 is not an overnight task, and if you’re still undecided about which plan to opt for, contact us today. We won’t just provide Microsoft 365; we’ll also assess your business to find the best plan that fits your budget and business goals.

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More and more organizations across the globe are migrating their data and systems to Microsoft 365. If you’re thinking about making the move yourself, take note of the following common mistakes to ensure your migration is successful and hassle-free.

Not having enough bandwidth

Migrating your files and systems over to Microsoft 365 requires a large amount of bandwidth, which can result in slower internet speeds during the migration process. If the migration is carried out during business hours, you and your employees might struggle to do tasks online, such as sending emails and holding video conferences. To avoid this problem, schedule the migration after regular business hours or on a weekend.

Also, if you are already noticing slow speeds and service interruptions before deploying Microsoft 365, note that these issues will likely get worse after implementation. This is because Microsoft 365 services require a large amount of bandwidth. Ask your internet service provider to check your existing network connection to ensure that it can handle the migration and the day-to-day operations of Microsoft 365.

Lack of end-user involvement and buy-in

User involvement is key to the success of any IT project, including migrating to Microsoft 365. Make sure your end users know what to expect during every stage of the migration process. For one, let them know how long migrating to Microsoft 365 will take and how it will affect their tasks. Starting the migration without informing users that their files and email will not be accessible during the process can lead to productivity loss and resentment toward the new platform.

And to ensure you get your employees’ buy-in, train them on how to use the new platform. Introduce Microsoft 365’s apps and features, and explain how these can help them enhance their productivity and efficiency. This will ensure that everyone is familiar with the Microsoft 365 environment, preventing any disconnect or confusion, and pave the way for a seamless migration.

Rushing the process

While it’s tempting to try and migrate all your data at once, it would be foolish to do so. Successful migrations take months to plan, prepare, and execute. They are best done in stages. If you’re migrating your email accounts, for instance, it’s recommended that you move your emails to Exchange Online before gradually rolling out other apps. This way, all the data you need will be carried over to Microsoft 365 without any loss or corruption.

Stuffed mailboxes and large files

If your users have too many emails in their inboxes or have a lot of large files, the migration process could slow down significantly. Encourage your staff to archive their inboxes and delete large, unnecessary files to ensure that the process goes smoothly.

Outdated software

If your business is still using an older version of the Windows operating system (OS), such as Windows 7 or Windows XP, you’ll have trouble using Microsoft 365. The productivity suite works best with Windows 10, so if you’re planning to implement it, factor the cost, time, and effort it will take to upgrade your OS into your migration plan.

Doing the process yourself

On paper, migrating to Microsoft 365 seems like a simple and straightforward process. This leads many businesses to believe that they can do it on their own. However, without proper guidance from experts, you may run into problems that can harm critical business operations.

Ensure an error-free migration by partnering with us today. We’ll show you the proper way of migrating your business’s systems to Microsoft 365 without affecting your day-to-day operations.

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Do you find it difficult to keep your audience’s attention whenever you do a PowerPoint presentation? You’re in luck because we have some of the best tricks of the trade to share with you.

Start slideshows instantly

The audience doesn’t want to see the speaker’s cluttered desktop or unread emails as the PowerPoint presentation is being set up. Therefore, while waiting for everything to be ready, make sure the projector does not display anything — either have the operator cover it or display something else via the dual monitor function. Take this time to introduce yourself and do a short spiel about what you’re going to talk about. Then, once the slideshow is ready, cue the operator to uncover the projector or switch the dual monitor screens.

If you’re both the presenter and the projector operator, you can take steps so that your PowerPoint file instantly opens as a slideshow (i.e., it bypasses PowerPoint’s editing mode):

1. Before presenting, save your file as a PowerPoint Show in the folder of your choice.
2. When you’re about to present, open the folder and double click your file.

It’s that easy! Take note that this won’t work if you try to open the file via any of PowerPoint’s Open functions — you have to go to the file’s location and double click from there. And to end the show, just press the Esc key.

Say no to bullet points

Audiences hate it when presenters just read walls of text off of their slides. It’s supposed to be a presentation, not a tedious read-along. Some say that bulleted items that have no more than seven words each is good, but both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook agree that bulleted lists aren’t the ticket. A better way to create lists is to drop each item in one at a time, if possible, next to a big image that is the main focus of your presentation. Don’t forget to talk about each individual list item, but not with bullets.

Insert pictures from Flickr and OneNote

Jazz up presentations by including images or memes that’ll make the audience laugh instead of doze off. Head to the Insert tab and select Online Pictures — you’ll see Office.com Clip Art, Bing Image Search, Flickr, OneNote, and even Facebook. A vast pool of online images is now at your disposal. Alternatively, you can just take photos of yourself and use those to help drive your point home in an engaging and relatable way.

Pull back the focus with blackouts and whiteouts

Audience members tend to lose focus or drift away when presentations are longer than usual. If you suspect audience members are starting to lose focus, hit the B key for a complete blackout or the W key for a total whiteout. Then hit any key or click the mouse to return to the slides — this technique helps get the eyes back on you, where they belong.

Chart animation

The challenge doesn’t lie in inserting a chart into the presentation, but in making it interesting. Enter chart animation. After inserting the chart, click the Animations tab and activate the Animations pane. From there, click Add Animation. Pick an animated effect. Then, in the Animation Pane where you see the entry for the chart’s animation, right-click and select Effect Options.

This lets you customize sound and animation timing. But on the final tab — Chart Animation — be sure to change Group Chart from “As One Object” to “By Category.” This displays charts one element at a time as you click, with bars or slices of pie arriving one after the other, as if each was its own slide.

Extend music over multiple slides

To add music to your slide, go to the Insert tab, select Audio > Audio on My PC. Then, in File Explorer, find the music file you want to use and then select Insert. But why confine your favorite tunes to just one slide? Expand it over the duration of your presentation by clicking on the speaker icon that indicates the embedded audio. On the Playback tab, choose Play in Background to have the audio play across the next few slides or until the music stops.

Duplication

If you are constantly reusing the same element throughout your presentation, the good old Ctrl-C + Ctrl-V keyboard shortcut is fine, but Duplication is better. Hold Ctrl while you click and drag on the object to create an exact dupe; keep selecting and making dupes and they’ll all space themselves out evenly. You can even duplicate entire sets of slides: simply select one or more slides on the left navigation pane, select Insert > New Slide > Duplicate Selected Slides.

Animate, animate, animate

Any element of a PPT slide can be animated. Choose the element, go to the Animations tab, and at the right end of the Animations Gallery, click the down arrow to get “More.” You can choose from many options about how an element appears, gets emphasis, or disappears — but for animated motion, go to the fourth section. If you pick Custom Path, you can get the object to do just about any wild motions you want on the screen before it settles down.

Use animations to add flair to your presentations. Don’t overdo them — you don’t want your audience to get motion sickness.

PowerPoint slideshows don’t have to be complicated. In fact, if animations and music cramp your style, then don’t use them. At the end of the day, it’s you who’ll be carrying the presentation and discussion. The slideshow is just a visual aid that helps people understand your points and remember them better.

If you have any further questions regarding our tips or how to execute them, please feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We’re more than happy to answer all of your questions.

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Many successful business owners throw around the phrase “make your own luck,” but what do these words truly mean? Partly, it means not being deterred by terrible circumstances but rather learning from these setbacks to gain better opportunities in the future. Microsoft’s Power BI puts that principle into practice: with predictive forecasting based on previous data, it helps you better prepare for future business challenges.

Power BI is a separate Microsoft product on its own, but if you have a Microsoft 365 Enterprise E5 subscription, then you can avail of Power BI for Microsoft 365. Both versions use a variety of statistical techniques, such as modeling and data mining, to analyze current and previous information to make accurate predictions. Power BI also provides users with the ability to generate reports, interactive charts, and 3D visualizations of business performance.

What’s more, Power BI’s built-in predictive forecasting models can automatically detect data seasonality, allowing users to immediately see the annual, regular, and predictable changes in data. It also enables users to see how results are affected by certain parameters. All they have to do is set parameters such as the time or the confidence interval according to their preferred configuration, and the software will analyze data accordingly. Simply put, users can perform advanced forecasting without the complexity that usually accompanies these kinds of processes.

Power BI’s predictive forecasting can also help fill in gaps with data. Power View, an interactive data exploration and presentation tool, fills in missing values from a data set before carrying out a forecast for a more accurate result.

Get started with Power BI for Microsoft 365 predictive forecasting by doing the following:

1. Upload a workbook with a Power View time series line chart to Power BI for Microsoft 365.
2. Open the file in Power BI.
3. Click on the forecast arrow or drag the forecast dot in the line chart to make the forecasting parameters appear in the Analytics pane at the right of your report. To get your desired forecast or projection, configure the following parameters:

• • Forecast length – This lets you look as far into the future as you wish, be it in days, months, or years.
  • Confidence interval – This parameter allows you to indicate the probability of how close predicted values will be to the actual numbers. For instance, you can set the parameter at 80% to be certain that next year’s actual sales figures will be 80% within the range of your forecast. The higher the confidence interval, the closer the prediction is to the actual results.
  • Ignore last – Outliers in data sets can distort averages and forecasts. For instance, you want to look into sales for the past 12 months, but you know that the data of every month goes through adjustments before being locked in. With this parameter, you can take out data from the most recent month if the numbers haven’t been adjusted yet.
  • Seasonality – A data set is said to exhibit seasonality when a pattern can be discerned from the data values over cycles of time. If you anticipate seasonality in a particular workbook, you can specify the pattern to occur monthly, quarterly, or yearly.

Predictive forecasting, if used properly, can immensely help with the overall strategic planning, market penetration, and operations of your business.

Looking to learn more about Microsoft 365 and its features? Call us today for a chat.

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