In February, we announced the availability of the Microsoft Learning Tools Immersive Reader on Word Online and OneNote Online. As a result of customer demand, we are pleased to announce that Immersive Reader is now available for Outlook.com, Outlook on the web and the OneNote Windows 10 app. Immersive Reader includes a view that utilizes techniques proven to help people read more effectively, such as:
Read Aloud—Reads text out loud with simultaneous highlighting that improves decoding, fluency and comprehension while sustaining the reader’s focus and attention.
Spacing—Optimizes font spacing in a narrow column view to improve reading fluency for users with visual crowding issues.
Syllables—Shows the breaks between syllables to enhance word recognition and decoding.
Parts of Speech—Supports writing instruction and grammar comprehension by identifying verbs, nouns and adjectives.
In addition to the Immersive Reader rollout across new apps and platforms, we are also adding new language and geographic availability for the Read Aloud, Syllables and Parts of Speech features. This expanded language support—coming to Word Online, OneNote Online, Outlook on the web and the OneNote Windows 10 app—will allow more customers across the world to experience the benefits of both the Learning Tools and the Immersive Reader. For the OneNote Desktop Learning Tools add-in, we are launching Japanese dictation, plus bug fixes and other small improvements. See all of the details at the Learning Tools language support page.
And finally, we are excited to announce the availability of Try it out—an updated and enhanced capability on the recently redesigned Microsoft Learning Tools landing page. Try it out allows anyone to quickly and easily try out the Immersive Reader, without needing an Office 365 ID or a Microsoft account. We hope these announcements enable more people to read in a way that works best for them, and we look forward to hearing impactful stories from more of you, such as this story about empowering students to read in a new way.
Immersive Reader brings increased accessibility to Outlook on the web
In talking with customers, a common request we heard was to bring the same Immersive Reader capabilities of Word Online and OneNote Online to those accessing Outlook via the web. Starting today, the Immersive Reader will begin rolling out to Outlook.com and Outlook on the web worldwide.
There are several ways to launch the Immersive Reader in Outlook on the web or Outlook.com:
On any received message, select the Reply all drop-down and then select Show in immersive reader.
Right-click any message and select Show in immersive reader.
From the main message view, click the…and select Show in immersive reader.
The new Immersive Reader for Outlook on the web and Outlook.com will be available in many languages and countries. Visit the Learning Tools language support page to learn more.
Immersive Reader comes to the OneNote Windows 10 app
Since the release of Learning Tools for OneNote Desktop, many customers have asked for these same capabilities in our OneNote Windows 10 app. With the June OneNote Windows 10 app update, the Immersive Reader will be available to all customers via the View menu and will be pre-installed.
The new Immersive Reader in OneNote Windows 10 will be available in many languages and countries. Visit the Learning Tools language support page to learn more.
Expanding the global reach of the Immersive Reader
Since the Immersive Reader rolled out to Word Online and OneNote Online in February, customers all over the world asked us to expand these capabilities to more languages. Today, we are pleased to announce that Read Aloud is now available in 14 new languages and geographies, including:
Arabic(Saudi Arabia)
Czech
English (Ireland)
French (Switzerland)
German (Austria)
German (Switzerland)
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Romanian
Slovak
Thai
In addition, the Syllables feature is being added to four languages: Hungarian, Indonesian, Romanian and Slovak.
Finally, the Parts of Speech feature for German, Italian and Dutch will be enabled for Word Online, OneNote Online and Outlook on the web in the next few weeks. Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, Danish and Brazilian Portuguese languages will be available later this summer.
Try it out—the updated and enhanced landing page for Learning Tools
With the recent interest and popularity of the Learning Tools and the Immersive Reader, we wanted to allow anyone to quickly try out the functionality through any web browser and experience all its benefits and features. We recently updated our Learning Tools landing page with the Try it out function that immediately launches the Immersive Reader. You can also put your own custom text in and try it out. The new Try it out feature supports 39 languages, so people from around the world can immediately experience the Immersive Reader.
Japanese dictation language added to the OneNote Desktop Learning Tools add-in
Support for Japanese dictation on OneNote Desktop has been added, in addition to bug fixes and stability improvements to the add-in. You can grab the latest version (v1.3) of the OneNote Desktop Learning Tools add-in on the Microsoft Learning Tools page.
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Outlook Customer Manager now rolling out worldwide with enhanced capabilities
The Outlook Customer Manager provides an easy way for small businesses to track and grow customer relationships from right within Outlook. Today, we are pleased to announce the Outlook Customer Manager is now rolling out to all Office 365 Business Premium subscribers worldwide, and is also now available for Outlook on the web and Outlook for iOS. In addition, we’ve enhanced the Outlook Customer Manager to help you manage customer relationships more effectively, including intelligent reminders and integration with Bing, Cortana and Microsoft Flow.
More ways to access Outlook Customer Manager
Last November, we released Outlook Customer Manager for Outlook for Windows desktops and since then we have been working to expand the service across platforms. Today, we’re excited to announce the availability of Outlook Customer Manager for Outlook for iOS and Outlook on the web.
We know that access to customer information is often useful when you’re on the go. The Outlook Customer Manager add-in—now available in Outlook for iOS—gives you a quick view of a customer’s information or a deal in progress. To get started, under Add-ins, next to your email in Outlook for iOS, just tap the Outlook Customer Manager add-in. The standalone mobile app for the Outlook Customer Manager will allow you to take a detailed look at all your customers and deals, and will be available in the iOS App Store in the coming weeks.
Quickly get to customer information with the Outlook Customer Manager add-in for Outlook for iOS.
In Outlook on the web, just click the Outlook Customer Manager icon to see a quick view of customer information, such as emails, meetings, calls, notes, files, tasks, deals and deadlines. Over time we will add more functionality, including a detailed view of all your customers and deals.
Now view customer information in Outlook on the web.
Additionally, Outlook Customer Manager is now available in 39 languages, so you stay on top of your customer information in many more ways.
Get automatic reminders for emails containing customer inquiries
Within the busy day of a business owner, it’s easy to miss important emails from customers—especially when you’re heads down attending to urgent tasks. Outlook Customer Manager helps you stay on top of customer inquiries by understanding requests made in email. When an email arrives, Outlook Customer Manager looks to see if it contains a request for a meeting, information or a file, and automatically creates a reminder for you on the Today page.
Get timely reminders on the Today page.
Auto-fill customer business information with suggestions from Bing
Outlook Customer Manager lets you associate all the people you deal with from a company together, to give you one view of information coming from various sources. But spending time to set up up-to-date information on a company can keep you away from more important work. To save you time, Outlook Customer Manager now suggests company information surfaced from Bing. If you accept a suggestion, the business address, website and other information found online are automatically added to the company’s profile in Outlook Customer Manager. This feature is currently available to users who have chosen English-US language setting in Outlook.
See company information suggestions from Bing.
Let Cortana automatically schedule meetings with customers
Setting up a meeting with customers can be time-consuming—often taking more time than the duration of the meeting itself. Leveraging the new Microsoft incubation project Calendar.help, Outlook Customer Manager now offers you the option to let Cortana, your personal digital assistant, arrange meetings on your behalf, so you can focus on more productive work. The first time you try this feature, Outlook Customer Manager will walk you through the Calendar.help Preview sign-up steps. You’ll see this capability if you’re in the Office First Release program.
Delegate meeting scheduling to Cortana.
Add Outlook Customer Manager to your business workflows
Maintaining consistent customer information across the various apps your business uses can be a hassle. We made it easy to connect to Outlook Customer Manager using Microsoft Flow, so you can automate repetitive multi-step workflows needed to manage customer information. For example, with a few clicks, you can ensure that new subscribers who sign up for your newsletter in MailChimp are automatically added as business contacts in Outlook Customer Manager. To help you get started, we created a few templates.
Add Outlook Customer Manager to your workflows with Microsoft Flow.
Get started with one click
Getting started with Outlook Customer Manager is easy. We’re now rolling out to Office 365 Business Premium customers worldwide and expect to be fully rolled out in the next few weeks. You’ll know the service is available for your Office 365 account when you see the Outlook Customer Manager icon on the home tab in Outlook for Windows—just click the icon to get started.
Start with one click in Outlook—no download or installation needed.
Learn more
We put together the following resources if you need more information on Outlook Customer Manager:
Join us for an Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA) session, hosted by the Microsoft Tech Community on May 9, 2017 at 9 a.m. PDT (UTC-8). This live online event will give you the opportunity to connect with members of the product and engineering teams who will be on hand to answer your questions and listen to feedback. Add the event to your calendar and join us in the Outlook Customer Manager AMA group.
More than 10 million people rely on Groups in Outlook every month to work together and get things done. Groups is proving useful to our customers. And for that, we couldn’t be more thankful. Groups in Outlook offers huge improvements over traditional distribution lists, with a shared space for group conversations, calendars, files and notebooks, the convenience of self-service membership and much more.
Today, we’re pleased to announce Groups is now rolling out to Outlook for Mac, iOS and Android. Groups is already available in Outlook for Windows and on the web—so now you can access your group conversations and content no matter which platform you use.
With these updates, you can:
View your group list.
Read and reply to group conversations.
Add group events to your personal calendar.
View unread messages sent to the group.
View group details within the group card (Outlook for iOS and Android only).
There is more to come as we continue to work on making Groups better in response to your input, so stay tuned.
Recently released updates for Groups in Outlook
In addition to bringing groups to more Outlook apps, we’ve released several new features for Groups in Outlook on other platforms, too.
Give guest access—Last fall, we updated Outlook on the web to give you the ability to set up guest access for people outside your organization, set group classification as defined by Office 365 admins, and view usage guidelines. Now, these same capabilities are available in Outlook for Windows.
Invite people to join—One of our most requested improvements was an easier way to invite multiple people to join a group. We’ve released the Invite to join feature to Outlook on the web, which lets you create invitation links and share them with others via email or other channels, giving them a quick way to join the group.
Multi-delete conversations—Group owners can now multi-select conversations and delete them from the group conversations space in Outlook for Windows.
Send email as a group—Office 365 admins can grant send-as and send-on-behalf-of permissions to members of a group using the Exchange admin center. Group members who have these permissions can then send emails as the group, or on behalf of the group, from Outlook for Windows and Outlook on the web.
What’s next
We’re always listening to your feedback as we deliver new Groups capabilities to Outlook. Here are a few of your key requests we are going to tackle next:
Add appointments to a group calendar in Outlook for Windows—When adding an event to a group calendar, you will have the option to do so without sending an invite to everyone in the group.
Addition of Mail Contacts as guests—You will be able to easily add Mail Contacts in your company’s directory as a guest in a group.
Thanks for the feedback, and please keep it coming via our UserVoice site.
Outlook’s new and improved calendar on iOS and Android
Whether you’re planning your next dinner date or an upcoming meeting with teammates, the Outlook team’s mission is to provide you with the best calendar app out there. Today, we’re happy to share that it’s about to get even better on iOS and Android—with new features and a better overall experience to help you manage and make the most of your day.
Here’s a look at what’s new:
Stay connected with Interesting Calendars
A few months ago, we introduced Calendar Apps to let you connect your favorite apps—Wunderlist, Facebook and Evernote—to your calendar. Our goal? To give you a complete and clear view of your day with your events, tasks and notes in one place.
Today, we’re taking this idea one step further by adding Interesting Calendars, which allows you to subscribe to your hometown sports team’s calendar and see the events automatically pop up in your calendar. TV shows and more will be following soon
Interesting Calendars is available today to Outlook for iOS users with an Office 365 email address (coming soon to Android). Users with an Outlook.com email address will be able to subscribe later this year, with Gmail and other accounts to follow.
Add some personality to your agenda with event icons
Try typing “coffee” or “lunch” next time you create an event and see what happens in your agenda view—the keywords automatically trigger an icon that matches your event title. Icons come in handy when you want to scan your day quickly and see what’s coming up. Also, they’re fun.
For Sunrise users, we even added new icons on top of our regular list. Let us know once you’ve found them all.
Know where you need to go with maps in event details
Don’t want to get lost on your way to your next appointment? Just start typing a location next time you create an event, choose one of the handy suggestions (powered by Bing) and Outlook will include a map with your event details.
Now, before your next event, you can simply tap on the map in the event details and get directions from your favorite maps app.
Schedule in a snap with improved date and time pickers
As we continue to bring more of the Sunrise design expertise to Outlook, we updated our date and time pickers so that scheduling is easier than ever. Our new design provides a simpler, more intuitive way to choose the date and time when creating a meeting—matching how Outlook works on the web or desktop. You can try this out today in Outlook for iOS, and it is coming soon on Android.
Update meetings on the fly with recurrence editing
Recurring meetings can be edited from your mobile device. Now you can adjust the time, location, attendees or even delete the event if necessary while on the go. Outlook confirms if you’d like your changes to apply to the individual instance or all the meetings in the series. We will be adding the ability to create recurring events in an upcoming update.
Make meetings on the go easier with Skype for Business
Following our Skype integration, you can now create Skype for Business meetings directly from your phone. When creating a new event on your Office 365 calendar, the option to add a Skype meeting is now included. Simply tap the Skype Meeting toggle and Outlook includes your company’s Skype information in the description of the event. When the meeting arrives, you’ll also be able to join the call with just a tap.
And there’s even more to come!
Let us know what you think of our new calendar features! We’re not stopping here in our quest to provide you with the best calendar experience on iOS and Android. If you have other ideas for what would make the calendar experience even better for you, let us know right from Outlook by going to Settings > Suggest a Feature.
6 signs your company has outgrown its free email solution
A free email solution is great when your organization is first starting out. But how do you know when you have grown beyond the capabilities of your free email service and you need a more sophisticated solution? The business emailrequirements of a growing company are much different than those of a small startup. Whether you’re using Outlook.com or another provider, there are signs that indicate your business has outgrown free email.
The following list identifies six important capabilities you need now (or in the future) to ensure your email solution doesn’t hold you back. Needing any one of these capabilities is an indication that it’s time to consider moving from a free to a paid email solution:
Security—If you’ve experienced a security breach—or are even worried about it happening—you need a more sophisticated solution that offers increased, enterprise-class security capabilities.
Storage—You’ve reached your storage max: a very simple reason to upgrade. Storage space should never cause you to delete or change how you use your email, especially when paid solutions offer large stores of data.
Tools—Free email tools don’t typically provide robust inbox- and user-management tools. Paid email solutions offer a range of features for managing users as well as extensive rules for managing your inbox—enabling you to spend less time managing your inbox and more time managing your business.
Domain names—Using a custom domain for your business email is a vital way to ensure your business appears professional. For example, “yourname@yourcompany.com” has a lot more credibility than “yourcompany@domain.com.” While free custom email addresses are available, they often leave you open to security threats, because the company you host through will likely have access to your data and other information.
Data—If you’ve ever felt the need to own and manage your email data, it’s time to move to a paid solution. Often, when you agree to free email terms, you’re granting the email provider permission to mine your data and send you ads—which is how their companies remain profitable while offering free services. Not only can this distract from your work, it also puts your company’s data at risk.
File sharing—Need to share files and collaborate securely with your team? Paid email solutions enable team-based collaboration and sharing without putting confidential company information at risk.
Graduate to an email solution that offers your growing business increased security, enhanced customization and a variety of features and capabilities to improve collaboration. Not only will this keep your company running smoothly and increase teamwork—your IT team will no longer spend time on common free email service-level issues.
With Office 365, we’re eager to help your small business achieve more. That’s why we are expanding the value of Office 365 to include not only essential productivity and collaboration tools, but also new services to help you run your business. The launch of Bookings earlier this year introduced a new way to schedule appointments with your customers. Today, we are adding a new tool to help you manage your customer relationships more effectively.
As a business owner, you know that getting repeat business starts with knowing your customers well, remembering the conversations you’ve had, and following through on their requests. That can be a challenge when you have many customers to keep track of and not enough time in the day. To make it easier for you to track and grow your customer relationships, we are introducing a new Office 365 service called Outlook Customer Manager.
Outlook Customer Manager gives you a complete view of your interactions with each customer, helps you track tasks and deals in progress, and surfaces timely reminders. You can stay on top of customer relationships right from Outlook, with no need to install or learn separate tools.
Now included at no extra cost in the Office 365 Business Premium plan, Outlook Customer Manager is a cloud-powered solution designed especially for small businesses. And as your business needs grow, you can move to Dynamics 365 to take advantage of enhanced customer information, process efficiency and consistency, and deeper financial and customer insights.
Customer information in one place—without busy work
Trying to keep up with all the information and tasks from emails, meeting invites, call logs, Excel sheets, handwritten notes and other team members can get in the way of more important work. That’s why Outlook Customer Manager automatically organizes customer information—such as emails, meetings, calls, notes, files, tasks, deals and deadlines—in a timeline next to your inbox.
See customer information next to your inbox so you can act on it right away.
The information in the timeline is automatically gathered from the email, calendar and call log data from your Office 365 environment, minimizing the need to manually enter data about your customer interactions. With all your customer information gathered in one place, you can spend less time entering data, or searching for it in various places, and more time with customers.
Never miss what’s important
Within the busy day of a business owner, it’s easy to forget about items that need follow-up—or worse, fail to fulfill important commitments to a customer. Outlook Customer Manager helps you stay on top of opportunities and commitments by surfacing timely reminders, letting you associate tasks with a contact, company or deal, and listing deals by stage, close dates, priority and amount. To help you prioritize your time, the system automatically presents a Focused list of your most important customers and deals.
Dive in for a detailed view of your customers and deals, and see timely reminders.
Get everyone on the same page
At a small business, everyone pitches in for customers. But when several team members talk to a customer, it can quickly get complicated to keep track of all the communication. With Outlook Customer Manager, you can choose to share customer information with your team so everyone is on the same page.
This means the next time an employee is out sick, other team members can answer a call from their customers with all the needed information at their fingertips—from notes from recent customer calls to upcoming meeting dates, and from deal stage information to the name of that customer’s dog.
Access it all on the go
Get on-the-go access.
Work doesn’t always happen in front of a desk, which is why Outlook Customer Manager has a mobile app that gives you quick access to the same customer information you’ll see at your desktop. You can check recent communication right before meeting with a customer, jot down a quick note after a meeting or scan a business card to quickly create a new business contact—all in a few swipes on your phone.
The mobile app is initially available for iOS, and over time we will bring it to other mobile platforms.
Simple to use
Outlook Customer Manager is accessible in one click from the home tab in your Outlook inbox—so you don’t need to install any new software or spend days training your team to get them started. Because your data stays in Office 365, you don’t waste valuable time setting up connectors to other software or services, or managing separate products.
Get started in one click.
Getting started with Outlook Customer Manager
Outlook Customer Manager is now rolling out to Office 365 Business Premium customers, starting with those opted into First Release and continuing worldwide in the coming months. Once it has rolled out to your Office 365 account, you will see an icon for it in the home tab in Outlook 2016 for Windows. Just click the icon to get started. If you want early access, please see this page for more information on how to join the First Release program for Office 365.
5 ways to boost your professionalism over email
Every day, inboxes are packed with more than one billion emails. For small businesses, the challenge to set yourself apart and establish what your business represents in a single email can feel daunting, but it’s easier than you think.
Follow these five simple—yet highly effective—strategies to convert the customer, close the sale, build your brand and continue to build your small business through effective use of business email.
1.Create a custom email address for your business— Show you mean business, and get taken seriously with a properly formatted email address. If you use your personal email, you’re not communicating all the potential your business has to offer. Instead, format your email as yourname@yourcompany.com. 2.Use the To, CC, and BCC lines strategically— Eliminate the risk of unnecessary replies or over-filling inboxes. Ask yourself a few questions to determine if a BCC or CC line is the right choice. Do the contacts know each other (or need to)? Does every recipient need to read every response? Respect recipients’ privacy by placing contacts in the BCC line and add people in the BCC field to eliminate the opportunity for “reply all” blunders. While you’re at it, consider waiting to fill all To, CC, and BCC lines once you’ve drafted and proofread your email. This eliminates the risk of an email “misfire” and gives you a chance to think about what you’ve written before pressing send. 3.Write smart subject lines— A catchy or motivating subject line enhances the chance your email will be read. Create a subject line that’s focused, personal and shows the value or urgency of reading. To create click-worthy subject lines, combine a few action-based and topical subject line elements with an added value to readers. 4.Include a clear next step— Include clear calls to action with precise next steps. Whether you want readers to follow a link, call a number, reply to your email or something else, state it clearly and make it easy for them to follow through. Need a question answered? Don’t dance around it. Ask the question in the beginning of your email, and prompt your recipients to answer toward the end. 5.Proofread— Spellcheck will only get you so far. Don’t just proofread for spelling and grammar; check that your tone is appropriate to the subject matter. Be careful of jokes and sarcasm, as humor can easily be mistaken and misunderstood. And check for one of the most common email errors: referring to an attachment but forgetting to include one.
It’s amazing how impactful simple email strategies are, and you will see the results as you implement them into your small business email communication plan. Once you’ve implemented these strategies (and proofread one more time, for good measure), you’re ready to send.
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Follow the Summer Games in Rio with the new Outlook Interesting calendar feature
Outlook wants to make it easy to focus on what matters most to you. Toward this goal, we’ve recently made big improvements to help you stay on top of your travel reservations and package deliveries by showing summary cards in your inbox and automatically adding events to your calendar.
Today, we are introducing Outlook Interesting calendar—special calendar additions that help you track your favorite events. You will be able to add the 2016 Summer Games in Rio—as well as other popular sports—to your calendar. From the gold medal round of boxing to swimming relays to the gymnastic routines—we have you covered. Powered by Bing, Outlook Interesting calendar lets you browse a curated list of Summer Games, sports leagues and teams and add them to your calendar. Once added, your events will show up on your Outlook calendar across all your devices. It’s simple, intuitive and ensures you don’t miss a thing.
The Interesting calendar feature is rolling out to Outlook.com and Outlook on the web, as well as Outlook for iOS and Android. To start using Interesting calendar follow these easy steps:
1.From your Outlook calendar, click Add calendar in the command bar.
2.Select Interesting calendar.
3.Select one of the available calendars and the events are added to your calendar.
Interesting calendar feature is currently available to users in North America on the new Outlook.com platform as well as for commercial users on Outlook on the web. In the coming weeks, Interesting calendar will be available to set up from Outlook for iOS and Android for users who have an Office 365 account. Once you add a calendar, the events will show up on all your Outlook calendars across your devices.
The Summer Games and Sports calendars are just the beginning. We will be increasing the scope of events we cover in the coming months.
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