Productivity, accelerated

With businesses turning to digital data and moving away from manual, paper data forms, having data at our fingertips is becoming more commonplace than ever.  Even as the digital world around us keeps us all at pace, many of us still frequently receive data that isn’t digital, such as paper receipts, handouts and meeting notes.  Office 365 is clever when it comes to such dilemmas, and the team at Microsoft is always implementing new tools to make sure your important data is properly integrated into your digital systems.

Read on for three simple, yet smart features that help make this happen.

Capturing paper-based data in Excel

Microsoft recently developed the ‘Insert Data from Picture’ feature in Excel, which is available to use on both Android and iOS Excel apps.  The feature allows users to easily grab any data in a table format, such as financial spreadsheets, work schedules and timetables, and convert it into a digital format in Excel.  This means no more manual data entry, and allows for quick data analysis and arrangement so you can be more efficient with your data decisions.

Converting handwritten notes to digital text in Microsoft Whiteboard

Remember the days of having to copy notes by hand from a whiteboard?  Those days are over with the use of Microsoft Whiteboard and its 'ink grab' feature.  Users can take pictures of notes written on a physical whiteboard and convert them easily into digital text within the Microsoft Whiteboard app.  You can then continue to add to your whiteboard brainstorming session with others within the app on a digital canvas instead.

Analysing the physical world with Excel

Excel can be used in a multitude of ways to analyse data from the real-world.  Many teachers use Excel to help students explore and analyse real-world data, for example by using the 'Excel Data Streamer' add-in.  This feature allows users to bring real-time data in and out of Excel, for example when measuring wind speed from an anemometer or determining the electroconductivity of a solution.  By connecting a sensor to a microcontroller that is attached to Excel, users can view those data insights right then and there on a computer screen.

To learn more about Office 365 and all of its incredible features, join one of our Microsoft Office 365 courses.