Smarter and intelligent research and edit tools for Microsoft Word

Microsoft unveiled some fresh and significant updates for the Word, PowerPoint, and Outlook tools yesterday including a new set of cloud-powered intelligent services to the Office apps.

In an official blog post, Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office team, said, “This month, we are releasing a new set of cloud-powered intelligent services in Office apps designed to save you time and produce better results. These features help you improve your writing in Word, deliver dynamic presentations in PowerPoint and prioritize the emails that matter most to you in Outlook.”

Let’s start with Researcher, a brand new tool that helps you find and incorporate reliable sources and content for your paper and add it, along with the accompanying citation, to the document within a matter of seconds. Users can also deploy the Bing Knowledge Graph to pull in the appropriate content from sources around the web that include Journals, encyclopedias, databases and so on.

The feature is presently available for Office 365 insiders using Word 2016 on Windows desktops and the subscribers will receive it in a few days.

Then, there is this new editor that makes use of machine learning, natural language processing and inputs from Microsoft’s own team of linguists to create that perfect document for you.

Also, since Editor is based on the clouds, it will keep developing with time while also adjusting itself to your particular needs and requirements.With Editor, you will have different color codes for different kinds of errors — spelling (red squiggle), grammar (blue double underlined) or writing style (gold dotted line) — outlining each error that occurs.

Coming to Microsoft’s email- it gets @mentions just like how things happen on social networking platforms such as Twitter and Linkedin. Someone can be flagged by just typing the @ symbol in the body of the email and choosing the desired person. Their name will automatically be highlighted in the email and their email address will be automatically added to the To: line.

Outlook is also getting access to Focused Tabs. The feature has been already available in Outlook on iOS and Android, however, it's only now that it is making its way to Outlook on Windows, Mac, and Outlook on the web.

Last but not the least is “Zoom” for Microsoft Powerpoint. The update will let you easily create interactive presentations on the go with smooth, effortless navigation in and out of any slide or section. Also, you can present your slides in whatever order makes sense without exiting slideshow mode.