10 of the Best Amazing Hidden Features of Microsoft 365

Working with a team in a remote working environment can be challenging.

It can be annoying when someone else adds to the document you're currently working on. The words move around and your train of thought gets lost. Since there are urgent matters you need to attend to, you can't always keep your eyes on what you're working on.

With Microsoft Office 365, you're able to see who did what on a document in real-time. You'll be able to see edits, added content, and where they are currently editing. This feature works on Powerpoint, Word, and Excel.

Along with this, you are also able to chat with people who are also working on the document. No need to go to a different platform to ask them about it.

Office 365 offers a wide variety of applications and programs for its users. This feature has been around for a while but only a few users know how to utilize it to their advantage.

Did you know that you can automate certain processes like document approval? It's called Microsoft Flow.

Did you know that you can have a private dashboard that analyzes your work habits? It's called MyAnalytics.

There's so much to discover in the app library of Office 365. What's awesome is that the app library grows each day, making sure users work more productively and efficiently.

Microsoft Sway is a presentation program that helps you create interactive reports, articles, newsletters, and of course, presentations. It's more similar to Prezi than Powerpoint.

Bing helps you build your presentations by reading them and suggest relevant content, pictures, and even videos. As you add more and more words, Bing updates the suggestions based on your content.

Back when we used to do presentations face to face, it was easy to point to where we want their attention to focus on. But now, presenting online can be a bit of a challenge.

Pointing on your screen to direct their attention isn't really helpful because they can't see where you're pointing at. We can always use our mouse as a pointer but then again, not everyone in our audience can see it.

Why not change your mouse cursor to a fake laser pointer?

When you're presenting with Microsoft Office 365, you can do exactly that. All you need to do is press the CTRL button and then click and drag the left mouse button.

Have you ever caught yourself reading something and not understanding what you read? So you read it again but at the end, you still seem to zone out and not understand.

It's all right. It happens to the best of us.

Maybe having it read out loud to you can help? Office 365 has a feature called "Immersive Reader" and you can access this on the View panel. This helps you concentrate because you're reading and listening at the same time. This is also useful when you need to multitask.

If you want to impress your boss and co-workers with your presentation, this app is perfect for you. It's called Power Map and it's available in Office 365.

Power Map lets you turn boring data from Excel into a fully customizable map where data is represented. You can change how the data is presented once you're inside the application.

This helps you make a visual representation of the data you need to present. It's easier to see differences, similarities, and patterns. It also helps your audience understand the data you need to present because it's summarized visually.

Don't you just find it annoying when you need to edit a PDF document? You go online and look for a decent pdf converter only to be bombarded with ads. The end product may not even be the same format! Plus, you're not even sure if the document remains confidential if you convert it on the internet.

Gone are the days of struggling to convert a PDF. You can do exactly just that in Office 365!

You can convert the PDF document by simply opening it with Microsoft Word or by dragging the file to Word.

Having multiple attachments in an email can be a nightmare if you have a limited internet connection. You have to download then edit then re-upload the document to the email once you're done. It's such a hassle!

Instead of attachments, a link would be more convenient. All you have to do is click on it and you'll be directed to the document. No downloading needed.

It's important to note that this feature is not unique to Office 365. A lot of cloud storage services allow you to share links to documents. The advantage of Outlook among these services is that it automatically grants permission to the people addressed in the email to edit the document.

Emails can be overwhelming especially on Mondays when they all start pouring in. Office 365 offers a feature where an AI (Artificial Intelligence) can take care of your cluttered inbox.

You can set up rules for the AI to follow in separating your important emails and your clutter emails. You can then enhance the learning of the AI by marking other emails as clutter. This teaches the AI that these kinds of emails should also be moved to your Clutter inbox.

OneNote is helpful when taking down minutes of a meeting. You can have bullet points, checklists, and to-do lists. Do you know what can make it even more awesome? Being able to send those items as Outlook calendar events.

You can send these notes by email and add important details like date, time, location, and attendees.