Microsoft 365 Blog

A monitor mockup showing a screenshot of the Create tab within Copilot Actions, set against a gradient purple and blue background.

6 min read

Introducing Copilot Actions, new agents, and tools to empower IT teams

Microsoft 365 Copilot is becoming a daily habit for people around the world—already, nearly 70% of Fortune 500 companies are using it. Dow anticipates that Copilot will save it millions of dollars on shipping operations in the first year; at Bank of Queensland Group, 70% of users are saving two and a half to five hours per week; Eaton is speeding up internal documentation processes by 83%; and Accenture is going big, rolling out Copilot to 100,000 employees.

An financial advisor works at a table in a shared office space. On the right side, the image is overlaid with icons of multiple Microsoft 365 apps and the Copilot icon.

4 min read

The latest on AI at work: November 2024

For Microsoft and our customers, work is changing at the speed of AI. To help you stay ahead, we’ll share monthly highlights of new Microsoft Copilot innovations, plus the latest from our customers on how they’re getting the most value from Copilot.

A person sitting at a table, smiling, working on a laptop. The photo is overlaid on a magenta and orange graphic design background.

3 min read

Streamline collaboration with the new chat and channels experience in Microsoft Teams

Working together can turn great ideas into reality and bring people together as a team. We’ve been paying attention to our customers’ evolving needs in the AI-powered workplace, which require faster, simpler, and smarter solutions to achieve more.

Product screen showing the Copilot Pages interface and collaboration between users in the Microsoft 365 Copilot web experience. The image background shows a dynamic visual of the Microsoft 365 app icons.

8 min read

Microsoft 365 Copilot Wave 2: Pages, Python in Excel, and agents

We are introducing Wave 2 of Microsoft 365 Copilot innovation, with three key updates. From enterprises to small businesses, they help Copilot get better every day. Nearly 1,000 customers have given us direct feedback on Copilot, and we’ve made more than 700 product updates based on that feedback.

A laptop with the Copilot icon on screen on a blue desk with a vase of purple flowers, sewing cushion, and cell phone.

3 min read

New agent capabilities in Microsoft Copilot unlock business value

Microsoft Copilot is already helping individual employees boost productivity, creativity and time savings. With the announcements at Microsoft Build 2024, we’re delivering an entirely new set of capabilities that unlock Copilot’s ability to drive bottom-line business results for every organization.

Microsoft Copilot text boxes with meeting prompts and text screens in front of a background of three stacked books.

5 min read

Microsoft and LinkedIn release the 2024 Work Trend Index on the state of AI at work

For our fourth annual Work Trend Index, out today, we partnered with LinkedIn for the first time on a joint report so we could provide a comprehensive view of how AI is not only reshaping work, but the labor market more broadly.

Decorative image of Microsoft Copilot including the logos of Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Word, and OneNote.

4 min read

Bringing Copilot to more customers worldwide—across life and work

Continuing our vision for Microsoft Copilot to bring the power of generative AI to everyone across work and life, we’re expanding availability and purchase options for individuals and organizations and bringing new value to Copilot Pro subscribers.

6 min read

Introducing Microsoft Copilot for Finance: Transform finance with next-generation AI in Microsoft 365

We’re announcing the public preview of Microsoft Copilot for Finance, a game-changer for finance professionals and the newest role-based extension of Microsoft Copilot. Microsoft Copilot for Finance is a momentous leap forward, specifically crafted to revolutionize the daily grind of well-known financial processes.

5 min read

Expanding Copilot for Microsoft 365 to businesses of all sizes

We are updating our Microsoft Copilot product line-up with a new Copilot Pro subscription for individuals; expanding Copilot for Microsoft 365 availability to small and medium-sized businesses; and announcing no seat minimum for commercial plans.

Recent articles

Published May 4, 2010

2 min read

New Outlook Hotmail Connector released today

After several months of beta testing, Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 has officially been released as a replacement for Outlook Connector 12. Outlook Hotmail Connector 14.0 is compatible with Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010. Why use the Outlook Hotmail Connector? If you have been using Outlook Connector 12.1, you already know that it enables you

Published April 2, 2010

1 min read

Power Tip: Create an AutoNumber field that starts with a number greater than 1

Today’s guest blogger is Luke Chung, President and Founder of FMS, Inc. Luke has written and presented a wide range of topics related to Access over the years. In addition to their many Access related products, FMS offers a wealth of great Access papers, tips, and video on their site. In Microsoft Access tables, the

Published March 8, 2010

4 min read

How to create, view, and share Word 2007 templates

Many of you ask how to create templates, plus how to apply them to another document or share them with other people, so here are the instructions you need to get started! For guidelines on how to create templates that are easy to use or that will print correctly, and for tips on using some

Published February 24, 2010

1 min read

Scatter charts with PowerPivot

Rob over at http://powerpivotpro.com has a interesting post on scatter charts and PowerPivot: At right is a list of all chart types in Excel. But not all of them are supported as PivotCharts. Try to use XY (Scatter), Bubble, or Stock as a PivotChart, and you’ll get an alert saying you cannot create it with

Published January 13, 2010

1 min read

Build your own board game, create playing cards

We recently published an energy calculator template from one of our content partners in Canada, Microsoft Home Magazine. During that process, they let us know about a board game activity that they recently published on their site, and we love it! The online article provides useful how-to steps and it comes with Word and Excel

Published January 13, 2010

1 min read

Cross version compatibility between Access 2010 and Access 2007

Today’s guest writer is Lois Wang—PM for reports and version-to-version compatibility. I saw a question on the Access TechNet Forum the other day that I’d like to share with the community: “I can’t open accdb files in Access 2007 after they’ve been opened in 2010.” Access 2010 brings you many new features (Data Macros, Calculated

Published September 23, 2009

1 min read

Adding Every Other Cell in a Column

Today’s author is Bill Jelen, author of 24 books on Microsoft Office Excel. He is a regular guest on TechTV with Leo Laporte and the host of MrExcel.com, which includes more than 300,000 questions and answers about Excel. Jenny asks “Is there a quick way of adding every other cell ?, I have a column

Published September 21, 2009

2 min read

New and Improved Solver

Thanks to Eric Patterson for putting together this post. In Excel 2010, we have made a number of improvements to Solver that make it easy for beginners to get started and more advanced ones to find solutions to all types of problems. The purpose of this post is to review the improvements to Solver, and

Published September 1, 2009

2 min read

Windows 7 Volume License and Trial Availability

Last month we made Windows 7 available to customers with Software Assurance and to MSDN and TechNet Subscribers. Today I am happy to announce two more ways for businesses to get Windows 7 for their deployment and evaluation. Volume License Availability, at a Discount Starting today, businesses can order upgrades to Windows 7 from a

Published July 7, 2009

3 min read

Use the VBA SaveAs Method in Excel 2007

Today’s author is Ron de Bruin , an Excel MVP. You can find more useful tips and links to Excel add-ins at his website: http://www.rondebruin.nl/ You see a lot of old SaveAs code that does not specify the FileFormat parameter. In Excel versions before Excel 2007, code without this parameter will not cause too many

Published June 30, 2009

3 min read

Week Numbers in Excel

Today’s author is, Ron de Bruin, an Excel MVP. You can find more useful tips from Ron and links to Excel add-ins at his website: http://www.rondebruin.nl/ There are four primary week numbering systems in use worldwide. Each system has subtle differences that you should be aware of. Excel can work with any of these systems:

Published March 12, 2009

6 min read

Excel VBA Performance Coding Best Practices

Today’s author, Chad Rothschiller, a Program Manager on the Excel team, is back with a follow up from his previous post on VBA and Excel performance. I want to start off this post by thanking everyone who sent in their examples in response to my January request. It is incredibly helpful to be able to