Microsoft announced the latest round of changes and improvements to Office 365 recently. Having the latest software updates always available is one of the great advantages of cloud computing.

Office 365 subscribers can now take advantage of the following:

Collaboration in Excel

Anyone who’s already found co-authoring useful in other Office 365 programmes will be giving the high fives to Microsoft for finally bringing this functionality to Excel.

Spreadsheet files stored in OneDrive and OneDrive for Business are now available to the whole team working on a project, with no locked-out, read-only messages when accessing a Workbook someone else is working on. Sharepoint users will find the same docs available for collaboration from their Sharepoint site.

There are many other improvements too, but co-authoring potentially offers the most flexibility.

Auto-save in Word, Excel and PowerPoint

This is another big improvement in functionality and comes from a relatively minor tweak. If you’ve ever accidentally lost work because you forgot to save it, you’ll immediately see the benefits.

With the new Office 365 improvements, auto-save happens as you work when files are stored in the Cloud. With changes saved on the fly, users don’t have to remember to save their work as they go. It may sound like a small thing, but it’s very reassuring.

Yammer Improvements

The Yammer iPad app has a new design and a better search function. Usage reports from Office 365 also now include Yammer activity. There is a new user interface as well as a universal search feature and automatic sign-in.

Education Features in Teams gets Better

Teachers and other educators will find the new features in Teams helpful. Newly introduced is support for OneNote Class Notebook, and the ability to distribute assignment notes. Admins can enable or disable private chats, and block third party apps. These features will help to control what integrates with Teams. They can either limit or open up what students and other staff members can access.

Auto-save is also now a feature, so new assignments automatically save as users create or work on them.

Profiles in Outlook

Office 365 commercial customers can look forward to a richer profile experience in Outlook. New features pull in information from Microsoft Graph, presenting users with a deeper level of interaction. Relevant files and group memberships, as well as recent conversations become available. Together they offer better connections between colleagues or customers.

Over the next few months, Microsoft also plans to add updates to the calendar and people sections. The new user interface will make it easier to tag relevant information in emails, as well as preview files and photos in the conversation list.

Microsoft is constantly updating Office 365 based on user feedback as well as the latest tech innovations. When your business depends on its IT infrastructure (and few businesses don’t these days), it’s good to know your organisation is as future-proof as it can be.