What’s new and coming to Microsoft Outlook – Ignite 2024
Since its launch, Copilot in Outlook has helped you manage and triage your email, providing drafting assistance, summaries, and insights to help you save time. Whether you need help drafting the appropriate email response, schedule meetings in a few clicks, find key information in an email thread, or make sure your message has the right tone and clarity, Copilot can help you achieve your goals. During Ignite, we added to our efforts to help you manage your inbox, and showed you how you can manage your meetings easier using Copilot, and also dived into the latest updates to the new Outlook for Windows and what to expect in the coming year. Let’s take a look at the capabilities we announced this week! Manage meetings easier with Copilot in Outlook We spend a lot of time in meetings during our work hours, sometimes as high as 60% of our time can be spent between meetings, emails, and chats. Even scheduling a meeting can take up to 15 mins, but Copilot can make this a little easier. Copilot now helps you schedule 1:1s and focus time, just ask Copilot to find some time with someone in your org and it will find the optimal time. Because Copilot is grounded on your organization’s data, it knows who your close collaborators are so you can ask Copilot something like “Schedule a meeting with my manager for next week” or “Schedule a meeting with Caitlin for next week” and Copilot will know to whom you are referring. Do you need time to finish a project? No problem – Ask Copilot to find reserve focus time for next week, “Find 3 hours of focus time next week before Wednesday”, and done! Now you can focus on your project. Schedule one-on-one meetings using Copilot in Outlook Meetings can make it easier to make decisions, iron details, or discuss ideas but sometimes it’s hard to keep them on track and focused. Making sure your meeting has an agenda can help you stay on track and make sure you are tackling the important points – Copilot can draft an agenda for you based on your input, just open the meeting invite, select “Draft with Copilot”, and provide some input like “Review the Contoso project, introduce a new team member, and discuss sales plan”. Copilot creates an agenda which you can easily edit. Once you are ready, just remember to send the invite. Use Copilot in Outlook to draft an agenda for your meeting Sometimes, you need to schedule a meeting with more than one person, but have you had to schedule a meeting to bring a long email to a conclusion? Reading and summarizing long email threads is time consuming and finding time between multiple people can be challenging, unless you have Copilot. Without leaving the conversation, Copilot can help you schedule a meeting to bring that long email thread to closure – Just select the “Schedule with Copilot” button and Copilot will get you ready for that meeting, it will i) Summarize the entire thread, ii) Create an agenda, and iii) find a time that works. Quick and easy, schedule a meeting in just a few clicks. Get help from Copilot to schedule a meeting based on an email conversation A new way to draft emails We all need some help sometimes writing an email, whether you are having writer’s block to start or you want to rewrite some parts of it – The new drafting with Copilot experience can help. We’ve updated the drafting experience to make it native to the compose window in Outlook, added suggested prompts so you can kick off your draft without even typing, and allow you to rewrite parts of your message with Copilot. Is it hard to choose which draft iteration is the best one? No worries, we’ve added the ability for you to review and choose between all the suggested drafts. So, whether you need a little help to get started or a lot of help to make sure you have the best message, Copilot has you covered. New Outlook for Windows showing the new drafting with Copilot experience What is new andcoming to the new Outlook for Windows The new Outlook for Windows is a reimagined experience designed to be more agile and innovative. With faster feature deployment and availability, it brings the latest Microsoft 365 Copilot capabilities and delivers a consistent experience across Windows. As we continue to work on your feedback to bring you the best experience for the new Outlook for Windows, there are some updates we want to share. Where we are We reached General Availability for commercial customers this year and are still in opt-in phase with optional policies for organizations that want to move their users into new Outlook. To see all our adoption content please visit https://aka.ms/newOutlookAdoption and continue sending us your feedback at https://aka.ms/newOutlookFeedback to help us prioritize our work. What to expect Over the past few years, we have been in an opt-in phase for the new Outlook. As we plan to transition to an opt-out model, some organizations have already begun migrating on their own. We anticipate that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) with Microsoft 365 for business plans will begin to be moved into this phase starting in January 2025, and with customers withMicrosoft 365 for enterprises licenses following in 2026. Importantly, there will still be an option to revert to the previous version if needed. In the coming year, we expect more organizations to expand their piloting and planning efforts for the new Outlook. During this phase, we encourage you to file DCRs and submit feedback both within the app and through your account teams. Graph showing the current state and estimated timelines What to do next The new Outlook migration journey has 3 main steps. Pre-migration, migration, and post-migration. Pre-Migration: During pre-migration, admins and their IT teams should learn as much as they can about the migration - What the migration entails and the implications for their organization. This also involves early migration piloting. Migration: The migration step is when the migration is executed. Piloting continues and the migration process evolves and becomes more extensive. Post-Migration: Finally, in post-migration, IT is wrapping up the activities from the second step. They’re also decommissioning the previous experience and learning to improve subsequent migrations. Graph showing the migration stages for the new Outlook for Windows Plan your migration Review the migration kit - https://aka.ms/newOutlookAdoption Admin control options - https://aka.ms/newOutlookControlRelease Learn about policy management - Policy Management - Deploy Office Prepare to manage updates and set up early adopters on Targeted Release Transition from COM to web add-ins - Migrate from COM to web add-ins and review a list of available web add-ins. We hope all these updates help you be more productive, save time, and plan your migration to the next phase. Please, keep sending us your feedback – It really helps us focus our work. Thanks!
Unable to Connect my Hotmail Account to Outlook for Mac
I have an M3 MacBook Pro MAX running Parallels Desktop to give me Windows 11. Historically, I have been able to run Outlook on MacOS and Windows without any problems. However, now I can'tadd my Hotmail account to Outfor Mac v16.93. I have removed Outlook and reinstalled it. I have cleared the application data. I also tried to raise a support ticket, but it won't connect to the Live Chat agent. Contact Support - Outlook for Mac OneCustomer | Chat Support We are unable to load chat at this time. Please try again later. When I try to add my Hotmail account back in, I get the following message after accepting the Authenticator challenge. Outlook.com Connecting to Outlook.com. An authentication error occurred while configuring account. Try Again Connecting to Outlook via a web browser works; Outlook on Windows also works. Any recommendations on how I can add Hotmail back into Outlook for Mac? Many thanks, DavidUnlock Outlook Productivity with Snooze and new Calendar Scheduling with Copilot
Hey everyone, welcome back! If you're looking to supercharge your productivity, especially with Outlook, you're in the right place. Today, we're diving into some really cool and amazing features in Outlook that can help you stay on top of your game. Snooze Feature in Outlook First up, let's explore theSnooze featurein Outlook. This feature has been around for a while, but it's perfect for those moments when you need to temporarily set aside emails. Whether you're at an event and need to push emails back until you return, or you just need to prioritize your inbox, the Snooze feature is incredibly useful. For example, I often use it when my workload is packed. I can snooze an email until next Monday at 9:00 a.m., which is my focus time. This way, the email is removed from my inbox, helping me stay focused on my current tasks. If you're wondering where the email goes, it will pop back into your inbox at the scheduled time. You can also view all your snoozed emails in the Snooze folder and unsnooze them if needed. This feature is great for maintaining an organized and prioritized inbox. How to Use the Snooze Feature: Open Outlook and go to your inbox. Select the email you want to snooze. Click theSnoozebutton (clock icon) at the top of the ribbon. Choose a predefined time or selectPick a dateto set a custom time. The email will be removed from your inbox and reappear at the scheduled time. To view snoozed emails, go to theSnoozedfolder on the left sidebar. Scheduling with Copilot Next, let's talk aboutscheduling with Copilot. This feature is a game-changer for managing your calendar. When I first joined Microsoft, I found it overwhelming to network and establish new relationships. That's when I discovered this powerful tool. For instance, if I receive an email from a colleague and need to have a broader conversation, I can use the "Schedule with Copilot" feature. It automatically schedules time with the colleague, finds available slots, and even creates an agenda for the meeting. This helps ensure that everyone is prepared and knows what to expect. It's a fantastic way to streamline scheduling and make meetings more efficient. How to Schedule with Copilot: Open the email from the person you want to schedule a meeting with. Click theSchedule with Copilotbutton at the top of the ribbon. SelectSchedule with Copilot. Copilot will find available times for both you and the other person. Review the suggested times and agenda, then clickSendto schedule the meeting. Upcoming Feature: Scheduling 1-on-1 Meetings with Copilot Lastly, I want to give you a sneak peek at an exciting upcoming feature:scheduling 1-on-1 meetings with Copilot. This feature is expected to roll in December and January and will make scheduling individual meetings even easier. Copilot understands the context of your emails and can look at both your calendar and the other person's calendar to find the best time for a meeting. After opening the event Copilot created you can even use Copilot to draft an agenda based on the email content, ensuring that your meetings are productive and focused. This feature is particularly useful for maintaining regular check-ins and building strong working relationships. How to Schedule 1-on-1 Meetings with Copilot: Open Outlook and select theCopiloticon at the top right. Enter your prompt toSchedule a 1-on-1 meeting. Enter the name of the person you want to meet with. Copilot will find available times for both of you. Review the suggested times and agenda, then clickSendto schedule the meeting. I hope you find these features as exciting and useful as I do. They have certainly helped me become more efficient and organized in my daily work. Whether you're looking to prioritize your inbox, streamline your scheduling, or prepare for upcoming features, Outlook has the tools you need to boost your productivity. Thanks for reading, and I hope these tips help you make the most of Outlook. Have a great day, and I'll talk to you later!
Assign an email adress on an option in MS Form
Hi. New here. I just started using MS Form and Workflow to automate requesting study for new projects. I made a form where you will type in project name, location, system to use, etc. Two of the options in this form are the names of the Salesman and the Draftsman that will do the project that the salesman will assign to. My problem is that upon completion of the form, workflow has the flow of: when a new respose is submitted -> Get response -> Create a task in planner -> Send an email. For the create task, I want the draftsman that will be picked in the form will be the one assigned in the planner including the salesman who filled up the form. Next is sending a custom email, with dynamic content highlighting the response on the form and sending that email to the draftsman that the salesman picked in the MS Form. Is it possible to have this kind of flow? If yes, please shed some light on how I can accomplish this. Thanks bunch.
Turning off email notifications about new comments in one certain file
Hi All! I found a solution to turn off all email notifications on new comments in my shared files (through settings on SharePoint), but it doesn't really solve my problem. In project files I work on with my colleagues, email notifications are helpful for monitoring workflows and streamline the process. At the same time, I'm an owner of yearly excel files shared with a big team in order to monitor the work on all clients and automate the visualization of it, but it gets commented on a lot and I don't need to get all of that on my Outlook. Is there any way to turn off email notifications about new comments for just one file without turning them off on all my shared files? Kind regards, Jakub Banasik
