Sending a tracked document via email is so last season – and frankly, if it’s passed through more than three hands, the document ends up being a soggy, barely recognisable mess. It’s one of the great benefits that the new Microsoft Office 365 2016 upgrade seamlessly handles by allowing multiple people to simultaneously edit and comment, or simply co-author in real-time on a Word document, PowerPoint and OneNote. Hopefully in time, you’ll be able to do the same on Excel as well. By clicking the Share icon and inviting people to collaborate on a doccie, you can literally watch someone editing or commenting as they type happens. And there’s a lot else besides that the new Office offers.

Quite simply, it makes sharing and collaborating a cinch.

Just so we’re clear, Microsoft Office 365 2016 is the latest release to the online office suite Office 365 that was launched in 2011. A TechRadar review describes it succinctly: “What we’re actually getting with Office 2016 isn’t the same Office everywhere. It’s more like the right Office for each platform – and in this case, that’s Windows, Windows 10 and OS X.” (Slaves to Apple products will be pleased to know that Microsoft Office 365 2016 is fully compatible with Mac OS X version 10.10)

But back to the features … take Skype For Business, for instance – for this tool, you would use your Microsoft 365 identity rather than your personal Skype address. It just helps to draw a clear distinction between your personal and professional engagements or discussions. You can add voice, video and screen sharing to those conversations too – making it much easy to collaborate with business partners who are scattered across the city or globe.

Most of us have become so used to engaging and even conducting business meetings and correspondence on our mobile devices. What’s great about Microsoft Office 365 2016 is its ability to sync all your work through the Office mobile apps, which all Windows 10 devices come pre-installed with. Nothing more laborious than having to haul out, switch on and log onto your laptop because you can’t access a spreadsheet you want to quickly show a client on your iPad or tablet.

What’s particularly nifty and arguably the best feature is Continuum Mode. On select Windows 10 premium phones you can project wirelessly to a monitor while simultaneously taking notes with the OneNote app. If you’re not familiar with OneNote, it’s basically a digital note-taking app that allows you to jot down paperless notes and reminders. We all know the frustration of not being able to access apps on your phone while it’s busy using another. I mean what does playing music have to do with snapping a photo? Add to that, you can connect to a mouse and keyboard to use your phone like a computer screen.

And we love the Clutter feature. The email struggle is real – and sometimes you can find yourself wasting peak productivity time wading through hundreds of unimportant emails. What Clutter does is lighten the load somewhat by learning how you prioritize your email and then filing it away in a separate folder for you. Thereafter it gives you a daily summary just to make doubly sure that you haven’t missed anything that might potentially be important. It’s like having a personal assistant who hands you your morning cup of coffee and briefs you on what your priorities are for the day.

And here’s a neat trick to try: screen grab any open app, even if it’s just a portion of the screen, and drop the image into a presentation or project you’re working on.

If this doesn’t convince you that this is the right office package for your office needs, then we don’t know what else will.

Why not give it a bash or trial before committing? You can try it out here

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