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It’ll evolve a little at a time, not in epoch-shifting reboots. ![]() Microsoft office updates issues problems 2016 windows 10#Microsoft has already called Windows 10 the last version of Windows, by which it means that it plans to treat the operating system as a service henceforth. Microsoft office updates issues problems 2016 software#So far, the company has plugged away at improving the myriad components of the new multiplatform Office at a fair clip, suggesting that it’s committed to its new approach.įor folks who lived through the era of conventional mammoth software upgrades–me included–the new age of ongoing improvement requires a mental shift. Microsoft office updates issues problems 2016 update#The fact that a particular feature isn’t in a given update is no longer an implicit statement that it’s unlikely to appear until a major upgrade two or three years in the future. Microsoft is far along enough on this journey that Office 2016 not being an old-style blockbuster upgrade isn’t worrisome. And the browser-based Office apps originally had a vibe that suggested the company was afraid of creating anything that people might like too much, in case it led them to not buy the Windows versions. Even the suite’s venerable Mac version was often treated like an afterthought. It’s a remarkable shift from Microsoft’s classic, fantastically successful strategy for Office, which involved forging a symbiotic relationship between the suite and Windows, thereby weakening every platform that didn’t have Office. The versions aren’t all identical, but the interface makes sense across all the editions and every incarnation is solid in its own right. It’s the only product in its category that’s available in just about any form you want to use it: on Windows PCs, on Macs, on every viable mobile operating system, and on the web. Microsoft office updates issues problems 2016 software upgrade#Here’s the thing, though: Even if Office 2016 is a bit of a disappointment if you judge it as a great big major software upgrade with an emphasis on teamwork, Office is in the best overall shape it’s been in for many years. It’s useful, but it also feels like a vestige of an earlier era of office suites–a solution to the ancient problem of people sending files around as file attachments, rather than a reconceptualization of collaboration. They can’t see what everyone else is doing, but each time someone saves a document to the cloud, the app merges changes. The collaboration available in the new desktop versions of Excel and PowerPoint lets multiple people work on files at the same time. (Strangely, real-time editing is available in the browser-based versions of Excel and PowerPoint, even though they’ve got far fewer features overall than their desktop brethren.) Based on the bit of time I had with a prerelease version of Office 2016 provided to me by Microsoft, the real-time editing in Word is nicely done, which makes its absence in the other Office desktop apps all the more striking. Still, for all that’s new, Microsoft is still playing catchup with the collaborative editing features in Google’s browser-based apps, all of which have long offered real-time group editing as a principal feature. And a web-based tool called Planner–launching in preview mode for users who have signed up to try new features at the earliest opportunity–offers a highly visual approach to basic project management. Outlook has a new Groups feature that lets you keep tabs on collaborative work on shared documents without rummaging through invites in your inbox. Using Skype for Business (formerly Lync), you can initiate chat sessions, audio calls, and video calls with colleagues within Office apps. The Windows desktop version of Word, for instance, now has real-time team editing, letting multiple people work on a document at the same time with all changes instantly visible to everybody. ![]() Office 2016’s collaboration features are baked into multiple parts of the suite. Yet in 2015, it still feels like the next new thing. For years–dating back to the previous century–when new versions of Office have come along, Microsoft has often pitched effortless collaboration as a primary benefit. When I heard that, I experienced an odd sense of déjà vu. Collaboration was a focus of Office 2000, too.
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