Less features for Office 2016 to help business

The software giant Microsoft on June 26, 2015, officially inaugurated the preview version of the office suite, Microsoft Office 2016 Preview Version, to all the enthusiasts, at the Build Confidence held here. This preview version is available for both Windows and Mac operating systems respectively.

Initially, the beta or developer version of Office 2016 was released to both the OS in March 2015, by offering regular updates, for enhancing security and stability. Subsequently, many build versions were released; and finally the final build, i.e the preview version, was made available to the consumers all over the world. The consumer version is expected to be released, in the second half of 2015, after the new Windows 10 products have been formally launched for the public.

The new Office suite will offer new security, compliance, and deployment features, giving organizations more control over sensitive data and IT, more flexibility in deployment and management. The company has extended their Office footprint to iPad, Android tablets and smartphones. In simple terms, it has upgraded Office experiences on the Mac, iPhone, Android and of course, on the web.

Microsoft has gone easy on user interface changes and has focused on adding tools, for what it sees as today's modern workforce. Those workers, Microsoft says, are prone to working in teams, are incredibly mobile, collaborate more often on projects and are always a mouse click away from a world of information.

Microsoft has appealled to the business developers that it has added new management enhancements such as better network traffic management, enhanced distribution management, flexible update management and simplified activation management, including a new 'Admin Portal' feature, for device activation respectively. It will offer businesses a similar slower update cadence for Office 2016, after the new Windows 10 is shipped on July 29, 2015.

"We understand that there is a popular demand to reduce the number of feature enhancements on certain devices, especially for those being used for critical line of business solutions. Therefore, we have carefully modified and added some features, which are of great use for the users in the long run." said Amesh Mansukhani, senior technical product manager, Microsoft India.

New analysis capabilities are built into Excel, so that you can map, analyze and visualize your data faster and easier than ever. The all new Data-Loss Protection (DLP) is now available in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. IT admins can centrally create, manage and enforce policies for content authoring and document sharing.

Microsoft's email client Outlook, particularly has got a major overhaul completely. For the email attachment option, it now asks you that if you want to add a file or document, you can share the link of that file stored on popular Cloud services like your SharePoint, OneDrive, DropBox, MediaFire and so on.

With the all-new Sway in PowerPoint, it lets you drag and drop photos, videos and files from YouTube, your computer, Facebook, Twitter or OneDrive onto a web browser, any smartphone or a tablet app. This function allows you to organize content in an engaging way to help you communicate in a nonlinear way.

This article is authored by Prateek Chakraborty, presently interning with DQ Channels.