Articles about Microsoft Office

Windows 10 isn't a bad operating system, but understandably, not everyone loves it. You know what? That is OK. People have different likes and needs, and sometimes an alternative to Microsoft's operating system, such as Ubuntu, macOS, or Chrome OS can be a better fit.

If you want to switch to Linux, there is no shortage of operating systems based on the kernel. With that said, many of them aren't very user friendly. If you have lived your life using Windows, it is wise to choose a Linux distro that caters to your habits and expectations. One such operating system with a very inviting user interface is Zorin OS, and today, version 12.2 sees release. If you have been on the fence regarding Linux, now might be your time.

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Outlook is one of the most used pieces of software in the corporate world. For a reason, of course -- while its main use is as an email client, it usually ends up being a lot more.

It offers several other features that help organize your daily work, such as syncing your emails with your calendar. This makes setting up and keeping track of meetings and obligations much easier.

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Microsoft Garage -- the Redmond behemoth’s R&D arm -- has released Dictate 5.0, a free add-on for those running Microsoft Office 2013, 2016 or 365 on Windows 8.1 or later. Also available for 64-bit versions of Office, Dictate brings dictation capabilities to Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

The app uses the same speech recognition engine found in Cortana to convert user speech into editable text using whatever microphone has been configured as the user’s default.

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As the world's leading productivity software, Microsoft Office plays an integral role in the daily lives of professionals.

Understanding how to quickly and accurately use Office 2016 can improve your productivity, and provide you with all the tools and knowledge you need to be successful. This ebook from Wiley usually retails for $20, but for a limited time BetaNews readers can get it free.

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Microsoft wants to make Office more secure, so it has announced a bug bounty program for Office Insiders to catch vulnerabilities before shipping a public release.

The bug bounty program targets the Windows version of Office on the Slow ring and features rewards of up to $15,000, but for "certain submissions" -- presumably highly-critical security holes -- the software giant says that researchers can expected to be paid more.

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Microsoft has posted its earnings for Q1 FY2017 (Q3 CY2016), revealing revenue of $22.34 billion, operating income of $7.1 billion, net income of $5.98 billion, and earnings per share of $0.76 cents. The software giant beat analyst expectations of $21.71 billion in revenue and EPS of $0.68. The stock is up around 5.5 percent over yesterday, with shares trading at over $60 -- a record value for the company.

How do the latest numbers compare to Q1 FY2016? A year ago Microsoft reported revenue of $21.66 billion, operating income of $7.07 billion, net income of $5.66 billion and EPS of $0.70. So the revenue, operating income, net income, and EPS are up.

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When contracts need to be reviewed, renewed or revised, the process tends to be labor intensive and time consuming.

Contract delivery and analytics specialist Seal Software is launching version 5.0 of its contract analysis software, which uses machine learning to speed up the process. It also includes a new add-in which allows contract data extraction and review capabilities to be used within Microsoft Word.

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CFOs and Finance Directors have long been warned against the inaccuracies of spreadsheets when it comes to financial planning and analysis. However, as with everything in life, change can often be difficult to accept and this is often the case when it comes to businesses and their financial tools. Sometimes this is because they are reluctant to try something new, but alarmingly, more often than not, it is because the businesses are not aware of the different options available.

Research from Accountagility shows that 72 percent of CFOs consider their firms to be too reliant on spreadsheets. The larger the company, the more spreadsheets are deployed, and the greater the issues and headaches that occur. While Excel is clearly a central tool in many offices, businesses must also consider finance-friendly alternatives that address these risks whilst also respecting the need for control.

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There was a time when Microsoft was seen as the enemy of the Linux and Apple communities. Understandably, at the time, the company only wanted Windows to succeed. Nowadays, however, the operating system is sort of inconsequential. Microsoft seems happy to have its software succeed on 'competitor' platforms such as iOS, Android, macOS, Ubuntu and more.

Today, Microsoft announces that it has partnered with Lenovo on a new mobile initiative. The Windows-maker's productivity apps will be pre-loaded on Lenovo and Motorola-branded devices running Google's Linux-based Android operating system.

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Apple and Microsoft target the same crowd with the iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4, but they go about it from totally different directions. The former has repurposed a consumer-oriented platform to handle the heavier loads required by prosumers while the latter has tweaked its full-fledged PC operating system to work on a tablet touted to be a laptop replacement.

It is this difference in approach which has proven controversial and, to stir the pot once more, Microsoft has released a new Surface Pro 4 ad to suggest that it is a real "computer" while the iPad Pro is basically nothing more than a glorified iPad with keyboard support. Surprised?

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Microsoft today announced a series of updates for its Office apps which help to make the suite more intelligent than ever. There's a strong focus on workflow and efficiency, and things kick off with the Researcher tool. This provides context-sensitive research materials that can be accessed from within Word and quickly added to a document complete with properly formatted citations.

Microsoft says that Researcher will continue to expand to include "sources like national science and health centers, well-known encyclopedias, history databases and more". But this is far from being the only new tool to be added in the latest monthly update.

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Both Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile are inconsequential in the mobile market. In other words, Microsoft has largely failed with its mobile platforms.

With that said, Microsoft is not a failure in mobile overall. Its applications and services work brilliantly on the mobile platforms that matter -- Android and iOS. Today, the Windows-maker announces that Xiaomi will be pre-installing both Office and Skype on its Android devices.

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It feels like we complain about Microsoft a lot here. We do; in recent months there has been a lot to get upset about. There has been a lot of negativity surrounding Windows 10, so let's have a change of subject. Now Microsoft is spamming the Android notification tray with ads for Office.

The notification tray in Android serves a very specific purpose. There's a clue in the name -- and it's nothing to do with advertising. Android user Thom Holwerda was upset this week when Microsoft Office for Android starting to spam him with ads for apps he already had installed. There are many questions here, one of which is why is Microsoft ignoring Google's guidelines and using the notification tray to display ads?

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Shutterstock is now making it easy to find and add quality photos to your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, as it just launched a new add-in for the popular software that lets you explore and buy images from its vast collection.

"We know our customers are frequently using images to enhance their PowerPoint presentations", says Microsoft corporate vice president of Developer Experiences Steven Guggenheimer. "With this Microsoft Office 365 PowerPoint add-in, Shutterstock is broadening our ability to enhance productivity through its collection of high-quality imagery to professional users".

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It is hard to take Windows 10 Mobile seriously when Microsoft announces sales of just 2.3 million Lumias in a whole quarter. If you ever thought that the platform can actually be competitive in today's market, now is the time to wake up. This year, smartphones sales are expected to reach 1.5 billion units. If Microsoft manages to move 10 million Lumias in 2016, Windows 10 Mobile's market share would likely be around the one percent mark.

Microsoft is not the only Windows Phone/Windows 10 Mobile vendor, but it is the largest by far. It sells about 90 percent of the smartphones running the tiled operating system, so its performance has a major impact on the platform's popularity.

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