Copilot helps you summarize long email threads, view different perspectives, and identify unanswered questions. You can quickly respond using prompts or expand brief notes into full emails with resources from Microsoft 365. Additionally, you can easily adjust the tone and length of your draft emails.
Summarize Email Threads
Copilot in Outlook introduces the “Thread Summarize” feature to enhance your email management. This feature offers concise bullet points or generates a comprehensive summary of the selected email thread, displayed above the thread in the reading pane. This design helps you grasp the main points of extended email conversations quickly. Moreover, the summary includes links to specific responses, enabling quick access to different parts of the thread.
Create Emails from Scratch
With Copilot, you can start a new email by simply providing a topic and a few bullet points. Copilot uses this information to draft a complete email for you, saving you time and ensuring your message is comprehensive.
Refine Your Draft
To perfect your draft, Copilot allows you to adjust the tone or length of your response. You can request Copilot to make your email more formal or casual, or to extend or shorten the content as needed. This flexibility ensures that your emails are tailored to your audience and purpose.
Copilot in Outlook takes email drafting to the next level by allowing you to generate multiple drafts for the same email, each with different tones and lengths. This feature enables you to find the perfect version that suits your needs.
Things to consider when reviewing a Copilot draft:
Pay particular attention to the salutation at the start (Dear/Hello/Hi there, etc.) and the complementary close at the end (Sincerely/Best regards/Thank you, etc.). Are they in the proper tone for the target audience and the type of message that you want to send?
Note the overall tone of the message. Is it too casual, too formal, or too direct for the type of email that you want?
Note the length of the message. Is it too short? Or does it carry on for too long?
Make sure that the relevant data is being shared with your recipients.
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In Word, Copilot for Microsoft 365 revolutionizes the way you create and refine documents, making it easier than ever to produce compelling content. Copilot assists in drafting from scratch, enhancing existing text, and summarizing lengthy articles. With Copilot, you can start a document using simple prompts, integrate resources from across Microsoft 365, and effortlessly adjust the tone and conciseness of your writing.
Draft a New Document
One of Copilot’s main objectives in Word is to streamline the document creation and modification process. When you open a new document or add a new line to an existing one, the Draft with Copilot window appears. You can request anything from a simple task like “write an essay about basketball” to more detailed instructions, including outlines, notes, or file references. The Reference your content button allows you to add up to three existing files to your prompt, which Copilot can use to generate your new document.
Using Copilot in Word: Drafting and Updating Documents
When you use Copilot in Word to generate a new document, it starts by creating a draft. While working in draft mode, you have two options for updates:
Regenerate a New Draft
If you’re not satisfied with the current draft and prefer a completely fresh start, you can select the Regenerate icon. This prompts Copilot to create an entirely new version of the document based on your initial instructions, giving you a brand-new draft to work with.
Update the Current Draft
If the current draft is close to what you need but requires some changes, you can provide Copilot with specific instructions. Enter your request, and Copilot will update the existing draft according to your prompts, generating a revised version with the changes applied.
Chat commands to explore- For existing document content:
“What are the key points in this doc?”
“Summarize this document.”
“Is there a call to action?”
Linking Files in Copilot for Word
One of the standout features of Copilot in Word is its ability to create documents based on information from other files. For instance, you can draft a speech using the details from an outline or another document. This is achieved by linking the relevant files into a Copilot prompt. You can link multiple files, provided they are stored in a OneDrive account. Locally stored files on your PC cannot be linked.
Methods to Link Files in Copilot Prompts
Select from the Most Recently Used File List
When you open or save a file, it gets added to the application’s Most Recently Used (MRU) list. In Copilot, you can click the Reference this file button (or Reference this content, depending on the app). Copilot then displays a drop-down menu with your three most recently used files and provides a link to browse through the entire MRU list.
Copy the File Path from File Explorer
Locate the file in OneDrive using File Explorer, right-click on it, and select the Copy as path option. This copies the file’s URL to your clipboard. In the Copilot prompt, you can enter a forward slash (/) and paste the URL.
Copy the File Path Using the Share Option
Open the file in its respective app, then use the Share option from the menu bar. In the drop-down menu, select Copy Link. In the Copilot prompt, enter a forward slash (/) and paste the URL.
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When considering the employee and employer benefits of working remotely, businesses are wise to change. The alternative could make your outfit less competitive.
If you would like to gain a little perspective on how radically our culture has changed, try this exercise. Pick up a pencil and a piece of paper and write out a half-days’ worth of emails rather than send them electronically. You will probably discover the first one looks more like scribble than cursive writing. And, your productivity will completely tank.
At first blush, the exercise demonstrates our reliance on electronic devices and real-time communication. But on another level, it shows that thought leaders are wise to embrace technological advancements as they emerge. Remote workforces rank among the more innovative trends of the business landscape today.
“To remain competitive in today’s work-from-anywhere environment, companies will need to invest in responsive technology infrastructure and enhanced virtual collaboration tools, as well as training and tailored performance management and incentive strategies for remote workers,” director of HR at the Gartner research group Emily Rose McRae reportedly said.
This shift away from in-house staff to people working from home or on the road once earned mixed reactions from industry leaders. But the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted businesses across the globe to find a way to have valued employees work from home until health crisis passes. Employers and employees alike are discovering this advancement tend to be mutually beneficial when utilizing platforms such as Microsoft Teams.
Mutual Benefits of Remote Workforces
The health crisis has motivated businesses to shift to Cloud-based systems and Microsoft Teams strategies as a short-term measure. But HR departments may want to take the opportunity to scan the workforce landscape because work-from-home expectations are expected to surge and impact hiring.
“By 2030, the demand for remote work will increase by 30 percent due to Gen Z fully entering the workforce. Gartner’s most recent ReimagineHR Employee Survey found that only 56 percent of managers permit their employees to work remotely. Organizations without a progressive remote-work policy will be at a competitive disadvantage for attracting and retaining talent,” according to Gartner.
That being said, these are the reasons why the global trend to remote productivity is well-received by management and staff.
Commute & Stress Reduction: No one can dispute the fact that commuting to the office adds unpaid work hours. Sitting in traffic or being packed into commuter rails tends to be an unpleasant way to begin and end each day. Employees and employers share this stressful routine. Remote work platforms such as the Cloud and Microsoft Teams allow all parties to sit down with a morning beverage and log on from anywhere. No hustle, no bustle, no extra hours, and no commuter expenses.
Talent Without Borders: Before the massive cellphone footprint, people used landlines with rotary dialing, and long-distance was expensive. In those days, it was common to pay a premium just to call someone in the next state over. But just as your cellphone can connect you to people far outside your region without added expense, so can the Cloud. When projects are conducted in Microsoft Teams via a Cloud-based network, your remote talent pool expands exponentially. A skilled person 1,000 miles away can secure a job they are qualified for, and employers gain access to talent otherwise unavailable.
Reduced Infrastructure: An increasing number of organizations that do not necessarily require a brick-and-mortar footprint. These outfits can eliminate that cost in some cases. Other operations can reduce office space expenditures. With remote workforces, less can be more.
Live-Work Lifestyles: Millennials and the Gen Z crowd tend to see work and life more closely aligned in their lifestyle than previous generations. The Cloud has been a boon and securing offsite positions allows employees a preferred professional lifestyle. Raising children no longer comes attached to childcare expenses or limited “parent hours” jobs.
Microsoft Teams Supports Remote Workforce Culture
With dispersed workforces increasing, Microsoft Teams ranks among the most business supportive products on the market. It seamlessly works with Cloud-based networks and delivers real-time communication. The platform offers chat, video conferencing, managed channels, shared calendar options, and project space that can provide supervisors with top-tier oversight. In these troubling times, Microsoft Teams use has surged by tens of millions. But industry leaders may also want to consider the long-term benefits of embracing remote workforces into the future.
Improving Data Analysis with the IF Function in Microsoft Excel
Have you ever wondered what the IF Function in Microsoft Excel actually does? Here we explore a few top tips for making it save you time while evaluating data.
There’s no doubt that Microsoft Excel is a robust program. Companies all over the globe utilize this application to analyze, track, and otherwise organize data in an easy-to-read format. But how much do you know about it and the various features that are available? And are you taking the right steps to ensure you’re looking at your spreadsheets in the most efficient manner possible? Here are a few of our tips and techniques to help you save time and improve your data analysis by using the IF Function in Microsoft Excel.
Tip #1: Understand What the IF Function Actually Does to Help Your Workflow
The first real step in making sure you’re using Microsoft Excel’s IF Function appropriately is to understand what it actually does. The IF Function tests whether a condition is true or false, and then performs an action. These actions can be calculations, data entry, or something closely related. The function is incredibly useful if you have large data sets or need to make significant changes, as it is a great way to save time in your workflow.
Tip #2: Creating the IF Function is Incredibly Easy
Creating the IF Function effectively starts with knowing the three parts: the logical test and then a value if true and a value if false. From there, all you have to do to make it work with your spreadsheet is to choose the data sets that you want to evaluate and determine what you want the true and false results to be. To do this, use the IF Function on the Insert a Function menu. Click okay and enter the conditions as you are prompted to do so on the screen.
Tip #3: Knowing How to Nest Functions
It is possible to use multiple IF Function formulas at the same time. In some cases, you might have multiple different possibilities or different levels of data that you want to compare. That’s when knowing how to nest multiple IF Functions becomes important. Nesting functions adds the ability to build more comparisons within your formulas instead of having to complete them separately.
Tip #4: Adding AND and OR to Your Functions
You can also add AND and OR to your IF Functions to make the results much more specific. While this is technically part of understanding how to nest functions, knowing how to do this is an effective way of utilizing the IF Function in a more efficient manner. An example of this is comparing two columns of data: one showing the amount of sales and one determining if an employee has completed training. By adding AND or OR to your IF Function, you can show a specific result, such as those employees that hit a specific sales goal and finished the training program you provided. As you can see, this can be a really easy way to get the information you need without having to spend a ton of time scouring through your entire spreadsheet.
Tip #5: Using Range Names to Make Data Easier to Sort
Range names are essentially a stored label that allows you to identify a range of one or more cells. They are incredibly useful for navigation, formulas, and even printing off specific parts of your spreadsheets. For use with the IF Function, you can utilize data ranges to save time when you’re working on a specific block of values as it allows you to use that range name instead of specific cell names. Range names can have letters, numbers, or an underscore, but cannot have spaces. And they are not case-sensitive, but title case is recommended for ease of viewing.
Tip #6: Remembering to Use Quotations with Text Strings in Your IF Function
Using the IF Function is an incredibly easy way to add text to a specific cell when certain criteria are present. However, you do need to remember to use quotations around your text strings in your IF Function formula. Failure to do this can really mess up your data set and make the formula not work correctly. Should you have a problem getting the IF Function to work for you, this is one of the first things you need to check.
Tip #7: Changing Text with Conditional Formatting Based on Your Result
Not only can you add text or insert a formula with the IF Function, but you can also change text visually with conditional formatting based on your result. It can be done automatically and setup within Excel under the Home tab. Examples of this option in use include turning a specific number bold and red if it does not meet the criteria of your IF Function, or highlighting it in yellow if it does meet certain requirements.
Conclusion
Microsoft Excel is a great way to analyze and interpret datasets. The IF Function allows you to do this in an easy-to-read and simple manner while saving you tons of time in the long run. These quick tips are a great way to skip complicated formulas and really make your spreadsheets work for you.
