Brigham Health IS has been upgrading all Partners standard-build workstations and laptops with Microsoft Office 365 ProPlus, which includes the 2016 versions of commonly used software applications, such as Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. The refresh began in May and will continue through this fall.

While it might take some time to get used to new user interfaces, most of the core features and functions you use every day remain intact and familiar. In addition, the update introduces several handy new features. Here are a few tips for getting the most out of the latest version of your Office applications. Learn more about the Office 365 ProPlus upgrade.

“Tell Me What You Want to Do”

Tired of hunting through multiple layers of menus to find a specific function? Let Microsoft find it for you. Look for the little lightbulb icon at the top of the screen in any of the Office 2016 application and start typing your intended action where it says “Tell me what you want to do.” Tip: Use Alt+Q on your keyboard as a shortcut.

Outlook: Email Attachments Get Smarter

Few among us have managed to avoid the embarrassment that comes with hastily typing these words in an email: “Sorry, I forgot to include the attachment in my last email. Here it is!” Fortunately, Outlook 2016 has your back. If your email includes a phrase like “see attached” or “here’s the attachment,” but you neglected to attach a file, a pop-up message will alert you when you try to send the message.

PowerPoint Designer Helps Make Slides Stylish

When you insert a picture into a slide, PowerPoint will now bring up several “Design Ideas” on the right side of the screen to help make your presentation look more polished. The options vary based on which theme you have selected in the “Design” tab.

Can’t Find Your Office Apps? Pin Them to the Taskbar

After your workstation is upgraded, your Office applications will be accessible directly from the Windows Start menu. They will no longer be in the Microsoft Office folder. Want to save yourself a few clicks? Try pinning them to your taskbar (the horizontal strip at the bottom of your screen) for one-click access. You can do that by right clicking the application icon (when the program is running or on the Start menu) and selecting “Pin this program to taskbar.” Alternatively, you can drag and drop the icon from the Start menu to the taskbar.

Work in the Cloud

Brigham Health’s software license for Office 365 ProPlus includes web-based versions of the Office application suite, which can be accessed at office.com after logging in with your BWH email address. In addition, saving files to your cloud-based OneDrive directory allows you to access those files from either your desktop or the online Office portal. To save a file in the cloud, choose “OneDrive – Partners HealthCare” as the location from the “Save As” menu.