Microsoft Update July - August

Welcome back to another Microsoft Update where we summarise some of the latest headlines from Microsoft, so that you don’t have to. 

This month Copilot is making document editing a breeze with new word limits to summaries, and new capability to revise and reformat selected text.

Unfortunately, this month wasn’t without its challenges for Microsoft with the CrowdStrike incident and other outages causing disruptions across New Zealand and the globe.

Revise and reformat selected text with Copilot

Revising and reformatting text just got easier for Copilot customers using Word for web and Windows: Version 2405 (Build 17628.20110 or later) or Mac: Version 16.86 (Build 24060916 or later).

Users can simply highlight the portion of the document they want to refine, click the Copilot icon and select ‘Make changes’.

From the prompt box, users can describe the changes they wish to make (including changing languages, organising text to be clearer, and contextual changes), then select ‘Generate’.

After Copilot has created the new content, users can choose to keep it, discard it or regenerate.

Check out an example below:

Sample text:

The beauty of nature is a constant source of inspiration and wonder. From the majestic mountains that touch the sky to the serene beaches that kiss the ocean, every element of the natural world tells a story of its own. The vibrant colors of a sunset, the soothing sound of a flowing river, and the intricate patterns of a blooming flower all remind us of the incredible diversity and harmony that exist in our environment. Whether it’s the rustling leaves in a forest or the chirping of birds at dawn, nature’s symphony is a reminder of the delicate balance that sustains life on Earth. Taking a moment to appreciate these simple yet profound wonders can bring a sense of peace and connection to the world around us.

Prompt: Can you please modify this text to be more concise?

Output:

Nature's beauty inspires and amazes us. Mountains, beaches, sunsets, rivers, and flowers show the diversity and harmony of our environment. Nature's symphony of sounds and colors connects us to the world and brings us peace.

For more information about this functionality, check out the Microsoft Insider’s blog.

Create neat lines and shapes with ink in Word!

The people have spoken, following positive feedback to the Draw and Hold gesture in OneNote for Windows, Microsoft have added the same functionality to Word!

Simply sketch a line, arrow or shape then hold your pen in place for a few milliseconds and watch it be converted to a neater version. In addition to the familiar array of shapes available in OneNote, Microsoft has also added support for a heart and a star to both platforms.

Once your sketch has been tidied up, you can leave it as it is or drag to resize or rotate it.

For more information about this functionality, check out the Microsoft Insider’s blog.

Presenter and Attendee Experience just got better…

We’re all familiar with the small meeting window we see in a Teams meeting when we’ve minimised the main meeting window – it can be tricky to keep track of raised hands/ see participants etc.

Following feedback, Microsoft has introduced an expanded gallery view for the minimised meeting window. Users can now expand the existing single-tile view to show up to 4 meeting participants and a ‘Me Video’ tile.

Using the expanded gallery view, you can:

• See more participants in the current meeting
• See (and lower) raised hands
• See reactions from participants
• Directly mute noisy participants
• See a preview of your own video
• Receive relevant in-meeting notifications
• Access relevant controls
• Leave the meeting from the call monitor

This functionality is currently available for Teams Public Preview/ Targeted Release Customers.

For more information about this functionality, check out the Microsoft Insider’s blog.

CrowdStrike – What you need to know

On 19^th July, an American based cyber-security company released a faulty update to it’s security software that caused widespread problems for Windows OS based platforms at an enterprise level. It is estimated ~8.5million Windows users were impacted – you may have noticed this in the form of credit and payWave services being temporarily unavailable.

Disruption to SharePoint and M365 services was minimal - the short period of time that these platforms were inaccessible was purely as a precautionary action. Once services resumed, it was deemed that there was no access, security, or other faults  or issues with those platforms.

We have not observed any fall out for SharePoint, and no faults or concerns have been raised at this stage.

Radio New Zealand: CrowdStrike glitch: Worldwide tech outage hits. Here’s what we know

Radio New Zealand: CrowdStrike IT outage affected 8.5 million Windows users, Microsoft says

Microsoft services offline for thousands around New Zealand

Issue ID: MO844647

The cause of an outage impacting thousands of users around New Zealand is still under investigation. Reports of issues impacting Outlook, Azure cloud computing and Teams began flooding in at 8:30am according to DownDetector.

Parliamentary Services, the New Zealand Police and 2Degrees were among the impacted organisations.

Microsoft responded by rerouting network traffic to alternate infrastructure and began seeing improvements in service availability.

Radio New Zealand: Microsoft services go offline for thousands around New Zealand