Microsoft 365 edition
In its October overview, Microsoft shows new Copilot features for Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint, Word, Teams and more.
Copilot cleans up Excel files and helps with accounting
In Microsoft's October overview, Excel gets the most new Copilot features. Three of them matter.
The first is cleanup. Copilot looks for duplicate values, messy formatting and wrong data types. A data type is the kind of content in a cell, such as a date, a number or text. This feature was rolled out in October.
The second is for accounting. Copilot helps accountants reconcile accounts, prepare journal entries and analyze financial figures. This feature comes worldwide in November.
The third is the interactive canvas. It turns data into a report with charts, key figures and insights. If the data changes, the report changes too. You adjust it by chatting with Copilot. The canvas also comes worldwide in November.
What does this mean for you? If you work with long lists of figures, you no longer have to find duplicate rows and dates saved as text yourself. If you make a report every month, you do not have to rebuild it each time there are new figures. If you work in accounting, you get help with work that takes a lot of time: reconciling and preparing journal entries.
Background for subscribersCopilot in Excel looks for duplicate values, messy formatting and wrong data types and suggests fixes. You approve every change, and the feature was rolled out in October. Many other features first go only to smaller groups, such as Frontier and Insiders, so you won't see them right away.
OneNote recordings: what an admin needs to know
Admins do not have to do anything for the new recording feature in OneNote. If the organization does not want it, an admin can turn it off with a policy setting. This applies to OneNote on Windows and to employees with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Microsoft recommends informing users about the rules for transcription and consent. Discuss with the IT department whether you need that setting. Also decide what your employees are told about transcription and consent in advance, before the feature appears for them.
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