20 Microsoft 365 Productivity Tips That You've Probably Never Used (But Should)

20 M365 Productivity Tips
That You’ve Probably Never Used
(But Should)
Christian Buckley
Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC
Microsoft RD & MVP

Christian Buckley
Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC
Microsoft RD + MVP
cbuck@collabtalk.com
www.buckleyplanet.com
@buckleyplanet

@buckleyplanet #collabsummit
Leverage the new Office App
As you’ve probably seen in the MASSIVE
media push, the new Office app for iOS and
Android is now available!
The big question: Does it replace your
standalone apps?
There is a great article by Jon Friedman, head
of Microsoft Office design, on the reimagining
of the app – and how Microsoft has more to
come https://medium.com/microsoft-
design/designing-the-new-office-app-for-
mobile-1ec1162a966
You can download the app from the store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/microsoft-
office/id541164041

The primary features include:
 Adding notes
 Snapping photos and videos
 Reviewing and editing
documents and slides
The next layer down includes:
 Transferring files from phone
to PC
 Converting image to text and
table in Excel
 Creating and manipulating
PDFs

You can search within existing cloud locations,
including your SharePoint and OneDrive locations,
which means also accessing O365 Groups-enabled
Teams and Yammer
In some ways, the new Office app duplicates some
of the capability in the OneDrive app
You can quickly and easily add new cloud locations,
including a long list of 3rd party tools

Find content, review visual cards
Pin important documents
Search for content across connected libraries
Review and edit content in mobile format
…and preview in print view
View and edit metadata
Share files from your mobile device

Convert tables and graphs to Excel data
Convert text within images to usable text

Easily transfer images and files between your PC and phone
One caveat mentioned by fellow MVP Hal Hostetler: Office mobile has an
issue that Word, PowerPoint, and Excel mobile DO NOT have. It insists that all
data and its cache must be in Internal memory. The three stand-alone apps
allow data and cache to be placed in External memory (your MicroSD card). If
you have an older phone or a newer one with limited memory (my LG G5 has
32 GB). its EASY to run out of memory!! Outlook mobile has the same issue
PLUS it has no "sync slider" like the desktop app to limit memory load.

AI-Powered To-Do Tracking in Word
Editor—Word’s AI-powered writing assistant—is
an indispensable tool for the written word. But
sometimes you need to leave a placeholder in
your document and come back to it later to stay
in your flow.
Word now helps users create and fill in these
placeholders without leaving the flow of their
work.
For example, type TODO: finish this section or
<<insert closing here>> and Word recognizes
and tracks them as to-dos. When you come back
to the document, you’ll see a list of your
remaining to-dos, and you can click each one to
navigate back to the right spot.

AI-Powered To-Do Tracking in Word
Once you’ve created your to-dos, Word can also
help you complete them. If you need help from a
friend or coworker, just @mention them within a
placeholder. Word sends them a notification with a
“deep link” to the relevant place in the document.
Soon, they’ll be able to reply to the notification
with their contributions, and those contributions
will be inserted directly into the document—
making it easy to complete the task with an email
from any device.
Over time, Office will use AI to help fill in many of
these placeholders. In the next few months, Word
will use Microsoft Search to suggest content for a
to-do like <<insert chart of quarterly sales
figures>>. You will be able to pick from the
results and insert content from another document
with a single click.
Currently in preview with Office Insiders.

Leverage Cortana Scheduler for meetings
Building on Microsoft’s strategy to re-brand
Cortana as an intelligent personal assistant, you
can now leverage Calendar.help and have Cortana
help you organize online meetings and book
conference rooms.
Scheduler is not a replacement, but an alternative
to FindTime and FreeBusy that leverages the power
of AI and allows you to respond with natural
language.
Scheduler works with your Office 365,
Outlook.com, or Google calendar. Cortana, using
Scheduler, knows your meeting preferences and
uses them to find the best times.
This is key: External participants do not need to
download anything.

Leverage Cortana Scheduler for meetings
To get started, go to https://calendar.help/
Once registered and your account confirmed, simply send an email message to cortana@calendar.help and ask
her to schedule meetings for you:
• Focus time
• Weekly 1:1
• Online meeting
• Lunch meeting
• Coffee or Drinks
From the desktop or mobile device, you can also verbally ask Cortana to schedule these meetings.

Create custom results pages for Microsoft Search
Create custom search results pages
for Microsoft Search!
Announced in January, you can now
create custom search results pages
in SharePoint Online, controlling the
layout and design of search results
to tailor your SharePoint Online
experience for your enterprise
environment.
Btw, you can then share these results
as tabs within Teams.

Create custom results pages for Microsoft Search
To configure a custom results page in
SharePoint Online follow the steps
below:
 Browse to the site where you would
like to configure a custom results
page and select Site Collection
Settings > Search Settings.
 In Search Settings, choose to Send
queries to a custom results page,
and provide a value for Results
page URL: and save your changes.
Read more at
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-
365/blog/2020/02/27/improve-collaboration-
apps-customize-experiences-new-to-
microsoft-365-in-february/
Watch a video at
https://youtu.be/SG3ngNXGUX8

Adding to OneNote Meeting Notes via Mobile
Within any new meeting, you have
the option to add OneNote meeting
notes to any outgoing meeting invite.
From the Appointment menu, simply
select Meeting Notes.
Next, select either Share Notes with
the Meeting or Take Notes on Your
Own

Adding to OneNote Meeting Notes via Mobile
From your mobile device, you can
now capture images, audio, or even
video and add directly to the personal
or teams notes, giving you yet
another way to capture multi-media
for your collaborative efforts.

Adding interactive Microsoft Forms to PowerPoint
While not brand new, Forms is an
underutilized resource that allows you to
quickly and easily publish surveys and snap
polls within your organization – or to
external users and partners.
Creating your surveys is easy, as is
changing the question types, adding or
removing answers, and rearranging the
layout before or after you push it live.
Additionally, as the survey author, you
have access to real-time stats, and can
share the results with your management
team or respondents.
https://forms.microsoft.com

 Microsoft Forms is now integrated with
PowerPoint for Office 365, providing a
seamless way for speakers, trainers,
and educators to connect and interact
with participants. As shown in a
Microsoft Tech Community blog post,
presenters can get real-time audience
feedback via forms and quizzes
without asking them to leave
PowerPoint.
 To get started, in PowerPoint under
Insert, click the Forms icon to create a
new form/quiz or insert one you’ve
already created.
 Please note that this feature is
currently only available for PowerPoint
Windows 32

To see the responses to your form or quiz,
sign in to your Office 365 account at
https://forms.office.com/
Open the appropriate form from your My
forms page, and then select the Responses
tab at the top of the page.

To create a quiz, check out the
article at
https://support.office.com/en-
us/article/create-a-quiz-with-
microsoft-forms-a082a018-24a1-
48c1-b176-4b3616cdc83d

Add Quick Polls to Outlook emails
Quick Poll by Microsoft Forms is an Outlook app
available in the Microsoft Store, and enables users to
add user-friendly forms to your outgoing emails,
accessible through Outlook or through the Forms
website.
This tool is not for complex, multi-question surveys,
but for a single poll question.
Outlook has long included voting buttons (under
Options > Tracking) but this new app gives users the
ability to quickly and easily capture pulse survey
information from their constituencies.
https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-a-quick-poll-in-microsoft-
teams-a3f9112c-01e1-4ee4-bd88-25e4e243b80b

Create Internal or External Polls with Microsoft Forms
While not brand new, Forms is an underutilized
resource that allows you to quickly and easily
publish surveys and snap polls within your
organization – or to external users and partners.
Creating your surveys is easy, as is changing
the question types, adding or removing
answers, and rearranging the layout before or
after you push it live.
Additionally, as the survey author, you have
access to real-time stats, and can share the
results with your management team or
respondents.
https://forms.microsoft.com

Adding an Email as a Task in Outlook and To-Do
 To-Do is quickly becoming “the”
default task management
solution within Office. Within
Outlook, did you know that you
can drag-and-drop an email into
To-Do via the Tasks icon?
 Most of us are used to dragging
and dropping emails into
Calendar to set up reminders and
schedule meetings, but you can
follow the same process to define
tasks.
 Just grab an email and drag it
down to the Tasks icon at the
bottom left of Outlook.
https://todosupport.helpshift.com/a/microsoft-to-
do/?s=tips-tricks&f=adding-an-email-as-a-task-in-
outlook-on-windows&l=en&p=web

 A task dialog will open up,
with task details at the top and
the body of the email below.
From here you can set due
dates, reminders, assign it to
someone on your team, push
it to OneNote, and more.

 Click on the calendar icons
to pick your start and due
dates. Change the status
and priority, as appropriate.
 Once you have defined the
start and due dates, it is
always wise to set a
reminder, IMO.

 Within the Tasks view of Outlook,
you can quickly view all of the
tasks created within Outlook – as
well as task lists created in the To-
Do app (Windows or mobile)
 For additional productivity, there
is much more than you can do
with To-Do integration to your
mobile device and other smart
speakers, and automate using
Microsoft Flow. We’ll cover more
of those examples in future tips…

Create screen capture videos in Microsoft Stream
 You can now use Microsoft Stream to record screen capture videos up to 15 minutes in length. Think of creating your own
short training videos where you show something on your screen with narration and everything. Here's how that works…
 When you're in Microsoft Stream, you can start your screen capture session by selecting Create > Record Screen:
This tip courtesy of @duffbert

 To start your recording, click the Record button:

 Before the recording starts, you get to choose exactly what you want to be capturing. This could be everything on your
screen, a specific application, or a specific tab in Edge. Once you pick what you want to focus on, click Share:

 Your screen capture then starts to record. You have 15 minutes to record your video. You can pause temporarily if you need
to by clicking the Pause button. Once done with your recording, click Next:

 At this point, you can either choose to re-record your video (Record Again), or you can Upload To Stream:

 Now you can name the video, add a description, and set other information. Once the item is published, you can go out and
change things such as what channels the video should appear in:

Create Tabs in Teams Chats
We’re all familiar with creating Tabs in
Teams, but did you know that you can
also create a Tab in a Chat? It is a
great way to expand your
collaborations with individuals or
small groups without having to create
the more “permanent” Teams or
Channels.
Tabs in channels can be seen by
everyone in the Team, but Tabs in
chats can only be seen by members of
the chat.
The same is true for bots used within
private or group chats, which you can
read more about at
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoftteams/platform/bots/wha
t-are-bots

Create Tabs in Teams Chats
To get started, go into the target chat
in Teams and select the + from the
top nav to add a tab.
The Add a Tab dialog will open,
allowing you to select from all of the
apps available to your organization.
In this example, I want to post a blog
post to our chat that we can
reference in our ongoing
conversations.
Once saved, the new tab appears in
our chat, and only members of the
chat can view this information.

Use Alt-Tab & Windows Key to Organize your Desktop
The reality is that multi-tasking (i.e. context-switching) is a productivity-sapping dream of the ADHD and OCD crowd (I am one
of them). Having said that….we all do it. So why not make it easier to organize our already overly complex desktops?
The two tools that I rely on are switching between applications using Alt+Tab, and the screen-splitting bliss of the Windows Key
and arrows. When you add in the Windows Timeline feature, you will become the Master of your screen domain!
First, we’re probably all familiar with the Alt+Tab capability, which allows you to see and move between any and all open
applications on your desktop. This is an essential tool when you have one screen or many screens.

Next up in screen splitting. Let’s say you’re taking notes in OneNote while reviewing several sites in the Edge browser, or
documentation hosted on Teams. Select the first app, in this case OneNote, and while holding down the Windows Key on
your keyboard, hit the right arrow ()

The primary application will lock into place on the right, and as with the Alt+Tab process, you can then select from the
available open apps.

The second app will lock into place. You can then grab the divider between them, and slide left and right to adjust how much
screen real estate to give each as you work.

Timeline feature in Windows 10
Great tip from MVP Joanne Klein:
If you ever find yourself with a
rebooted machine and wondering
what happened to the last few
documents that were open on your
desktop, leverage the Timeline
feature in Windows 10.
https://joannecklein.com/2019/09/22
/the-timeline-feature-in-windows-
10-a-hidden-gem/

To enable this functionality, go into
Settings > Privacy > Activity
History to select which accounts to
show, and whether you want to make
your history visible (store your
history locally) and/or share your
history with Microsoft.

Once enabled, select the Timeline from the nav bar and then drag the slider on the right to go back
and select the documents, slides, or apps that you had open on that date.

Visualize your data with Ideas in Excel
If you’ve used the Ideas option in PowerPoint
and were wondering when this fantastic, AI-
driven feature would be included within Excel,
it’s here!
Excel Ideas helps users create high-quality
documents, presentations, and spreadsheets in
less time.
Put simply, it uses AI to turn data into
visualizations to help you easily identify
summaries, trends, and patterns.
In addition to getting recommendations from
Ideas, you can also directly ask questions about
your data and narrow down the Ideas by
selecting only the fields you want to see. When
you choose fields and how to summarize them,
Ideas analyzes that data—speeding up the
process and presenting fewer, more targeted
suggestions.

Ideas in Microsoft Excel empowers you to
understand your data through high-level visual
summaries, trends, and patterns.
To start using Ideas in Excel, select your data
set, and then click on Ideas on the top right
ribbon.
A panel opens on the far right with different
visualizations of your data.

You can refine the options you see by selecting
specific fields on which to focus.
These options change the visualizations available to
you. The idea is to provide a jumpstart into these
visualizations – which you can tweak and adjust to
create the right view of your data and convey the
right messaging.
Once you’ve identified the visualization that works
best for your data, select +Insert PivotChart

A new tab is opened within your spreadsheet, with an abbreviated set of data based on your selection, and the
related PivotChart.
From here you can cut and paste into a presentation, or further manipulate the look and feel or the data.
To learn more about Ideas, watch this video.
To learn more about Ideas, read this article.

Send attachments as links in Outlook
https://support.microsoft.com/en-
in/help/4011261/how-to-set-attachment-
preference-for-attaching-a-cloud-file-in-outlook
 Send links, not files!
 When working with cloud files
(SharePoint, OneDrive) you can set
the default attachment state to a
link rather than always attaching a
copy of a file.
 To get started, in your Outlook
desktop app go into Files, and then
Options, and look within the
General section for Attachment
Options.
 Select Always share them as links
and click Ok.

 Next, open a new email
message and select Attach
File. Navigate to the relevant
cloud-based file and attach.
 The file will attach with the
cloud icon, and by default,
will say Anyone can edit. As
your recipients open this file,
they will be viewing and/or
editing the document from
within your cloud
environment.

 Click on the right arrow on
your file to see additional
options, such as removing
the attachment, or changing
the permissions.
 For local files that are not in
the cloud, you can attach
them to your email per
normal steps, then select the
right arrow on the file to
save it to the cloud (you’ll
see all of your available
options), allowing you to
manually change an
attachment to a link.

Present like a pro with PowerPoint Presenter Coach
Now that you’ve made your
content and graphs look amazing,
PowerPoint Presenter Coach (in
preview) helps you nail your
delivery.
For some, the art of delivering an
impactful presentation comes
naturally, while for others it can be
a stressful experience.
Available through PowerPoint for
the Web, Presenter Coach provides
real-time feedback and
suggestions to help you gain
confidence and improve your
public speaking abilities.

Present like a pro with PowerPoint Presenter Coach
As you practice presenting, it offers
alternatives to filler words (e.g. “um”) as
well as terms and phrases for inclusive
audiences. It also alerts you when it
senses you’re just reading the slides or
reading them too slow or fast.
When you’re done, you see a summary
page with insights on how to improve
over time.
You can find out more about
PowerPoint Presenter Coach at
https://support.office.com/en-
us/article/Rehearse-your-slide-show-
with-Presenter-Coach-cd7fc941-5c3b-
498c-a225-83ef3f64f07b
You can also watch PowerPoint
Presenter Coach in action in this video.

Create content in Word with the new, improved Dictation
Save time and simplify work with improved
speech-to-text!
It’s now easy to create content with your
voice in Word thanks to a new dictation
toolbar, suggestions experience, and auto-
punctuation support.
You can also now work in six new preview
languages: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Swedish,
Norwegian, and Japanese.
The new Voice Dictation in Word for the
web is rolling out to all Office 365 users
now.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoft-
365/blog/2020/02/27/improve-
collaboration-apps-customize-experiences-
new-to-microsoft-365-in-february/

Improve brainstorming with Microsoft Whiteboard templates
If you’re looking for ways to improve your team
collaboration, it’s always helpful to start with a
template — whether you’re trying to brainstorm
your next big idea or get everyone on the same
page.
Within the Whiteboard app, there are now
templates (in preview) to help you run more
effective meetings with Kanban sprint
planning, SWOT analysis, project planning,
learning, & more.
Pre-created layouts provide an immediate
structure—with helpful tips for running
activities—and expand to fit all your content.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-
365/blog/2019/09/25/microsoft-365-web-desktop-productivity-
new-features-office/

Getting started in easy. Go to
Office.com and search for the
Whiteboard app for your device or
desktop (Windows 10).
The website will push you to the
relevant store, from which you can
download and install the app.

Getting started in easy. Go to
Office.com and search for the
Whiteboard app for your
device or desktop (Windows
10).
The website will push you to
the relevant store, from which
you can download and install
the app.

Once installed, select the + option from
the bottom navigation to see your menu
of options.

From here you can add the pre-built
(preview) templates.

In this case, I’ve added a Kanban list
which I’ll use with my team to
organize our planning for an
upcoming event, leveraging my
Surface Pro to quick add and edit, and
drag-and-drop tasks as I project onto
a screen for the entire team.
This is a great free tool that anyone
with Windows (or iOS) can get started
using quickly and easily.

Here’s how:

Restore previous versions in File Explorer
It is often the small, incremental
improvements that can add the
most productivity to your daily
activities.
You can now view and restore
versions of a document directly
within File Explorer – rather than
having to open the application to
view the history.

Restore previous versions in File Explorer
Simply right click on the file name,
and from the menu dialog, select
Version History
The version history dialog opens, allowing
you to scan through your various versions
and open the right version.

Viewing your recent edits in OneNote
With the amount of work we
do on a daily basis, it's often
hard to remember just
exactly where you updated
or changed information.
If you're using OneNote to
store information, OneNote
makes it easy to find
everything you changed and
where exactly it was updated
using the Recent Edits
feature. Here's how that
works…
Go to the History tab in the
Ribbon Bar and click on the
Recent Edits icon. You'll see
a number of date options
that OneNote will use to
show you your changes. In
my case, I want to see
everything that's been
changed Since Yesterday:

I click the Since Yesterday
option, my Search Results
pane appears on the right
side of the page, Whenand
lists every page that's been
updated since the date
option I selected. In addition,
I can click on the links to the
page to go directly to that
location, plus I'll also see the
changed page and content
highlighted in yellow:

By default, it searches the notebook that I'm currently
viewing. However, I also have the option to have it search
just the section I'm in, an entire grouped section, or all the
notebooks I have in my OneNote client:
I also have options on how I want the data sorted.
By default, it's by date modified, but I can also go
by section, by title, and by author:

Checking for gender-inclusivity when using Word
If you're old like me, words like "policeman" and "fireman" just want to roll off your tongue, as that's
what you grew up with. But today's communication often requires a more gender-inclusive word
selection like "police officer" or "fire fighter." Microsoft Word has an option that will allow you to do
grammar checks for that very scenario. Here's how to activate that…
In Word, go to Options > Proofing > When correcting spelling and grammar in Word, and click
on the Settings button after Writing Style: Grammar & Refinements:

Scroll down to Inclusive Language, and select the option for Gender-Specific Language:

Here are some examples of what happens now…

Get my slides Slideshare
Follow me @buckleyplanet
Connect with me /IN/christianbuckley
Check out my blog www.buckleyplanet.com
Subscribe to youtube/c/collabtalk
Email me cbuck@collabtalk
Thank You!
https://www.slideshare.net/echo4sharepoint/20-microsoft-365-
productivity-tips-that-youve-probably-never-used-but-should

Christian Buckley
@buckleyplanet
http://www.buckleyplanet.com
Tom Duff
@Duffbert
http://OneMinuteOfficeMagic.com
…AND subscribe on YouTube at YouTube.com/c/CollabTalk

20 Microsoft 365 Productivity Tips That You've Probably Never Used (But Should)

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