Learn Microsoft Office 2021 E-Book

Linda Foulkes

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 589

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

This second edition book covers the new and exciting features of Microsoft Office 2021 for desktop and web apps, helping you broaden the skills from the previous edition. Using real-world experiences, this book will guide you through practical examples that set off your thought process to boost productivity.
To build new skills in each application, the book ensures that you gain a thorough understanding of new functions, such as PivotTables, Dashboards, and data manipulation methods in Excel.
You’ll explore PowerPoint tools such as Presenter Coach, Presenter View, the record tool, and setting reading order to mention a few. You’ll also manipulate slide elements using Auto Fix, draw features, insert video captions, explore playback options, and rehearse presentations using the body language Presenter Coach feature. The book demystifies the Transform feature and shows you how to dictate directly in Word. You’ll even be able to work with Styles by refining the layout and multiple tables of contents. Finally, you’ll focus on making the best use of Outlook enhancements and working remotely using Teams.
By the end of this book, you’ll have understood the features of each app inside out and enhanced your existing skills using new techniques to make your professional life more efficient.

Leseprobe

Learn Microsoft Office 2021

Second Edition

Your one-stop guide to upskilling with new features of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Teams

Linda Foulkes

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Learn Microsoft Office 2021

Second Edition

Copyright © 2022 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

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To my precious grandson, Caden – you are my inspiration, dedication, and the light of my life. I am so blessed to watch you grow in age and every stage. You are inscribed in my heart the way these letters are in the pages of this book. Remember to always be kind, caring, and the best version of yourself as you move through your life.

– Gran Gran, Linda Foulkes

Contributors

About the author

Linda Foulkes is a senior learning and development trainer at Knights. She is also a Microsoft Office Master Trainer, Certified Educator, and Microsoft Innovative Expert Educator with an educational and corporate background spanning 25 years. Linda is the author of the first edition of the book Learn Microsoft Office 2019. As well as being certified as an IT trainer, Linda represented South Africa at the Microsoft Global Forum in Redmond in 2015. She has certified students to compete at the Microsoft Office Specialist Championships in Texas, presented at conferences, and hosted webinars, TeachMeets, and MicrosoftMeets. She has a keen interest in e-learning and has developed e-learning paths and content for the Microsoft Office suite of programs.

About the reviewer

Ambarish Tarte is a Mumbai-based Microsoft Certified Professional and a globetrotter who conducts corporate training for various corporate giants/multinational companies across the globe. With Microsoft Office and Office 365 end user apps being his forte, he operates as a corporate training consultant with a team of associates in almost every major city in India. He began his corporate training stint in 2011 and has had the privilege to train delegates of over 20 nationalities in classroom and online sessions. Being able to add a bit of humor and always keep participants engaged during training is a unique selling point that Ambarish has achieved over the years. Ambarish is also a YouTuber and runs various social media pages.

I thank my parents for their continued support during my stint so far as a corporate training consultant. Quitting a full-time job and moving into freelancing requires support from your family and my parents left no stone unturned in doing so. I would also like to thank Mr. Saiesh G Tripathi, my colleague, for his input. Thanks to Ms. Neha Sikka, my protégé, for the initial screening of the chapters in this book.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1: Learning Word 2021

Chapter 1: Exploring the New Interface and Managing OneDrive

Technical requirements

Exploring standalone versus online 365 apps

Highlighting the new interface features

Overall look and feel

The title bar

Customizing the QAT

Using Microsoft search

Checking a document using the Accessibility feature

Applying dark mode (enhanced)

Exploring Focus mode

Using the immersive reader

Managing OneDrive

Saving documents to OneDrive

Syncing a document to OneDrive

Understanding OneDrive icons

Troubleshooting sync errors

Saving and renaming files in Office 365

Saving documents in Office 2021

Renaming documents in Office 2021

Summary 

Chapter 2: Dictation, Co-authoring, and Embedding

Technical requirements

Investigating the new transform feature

Dictation enhancements within Word

Activating Dictate

Setting options when recording

Using dictation commands

Transcribing meetings

Refining writing using the Editor tool

Commenting and co-authoring

Commenting using the new contextual view

Sharing a document with others

Adding comments to a shared document

Embedding and converting using Word 2021

Embedding videos into Word

Embedding forms into Word

Converting Word documents into PowerPoint slides

Summary

Chapter 3: Styles, Referencing, and Media

Technical requirements

Managing the styles environment

Viewing a document in the Draft view

Adding the Style pane

Making sure styles are not updated

Referencing features using Word 2021

Working with multiple ToCs

The Table of Contents feature in Word for the web

Creating cross-references

Creating media and drawing elements

Stock Images

Coloring using Hex values

Applying sketched style outlines

Summary

Chapter 4: Managing Professional Documents

Technical requirements

Modifying page layouts

Inserting and modifying section breaks

Headers and footers

Constructing online forms

Preparing the form layout

Working with the Developer tab

Investigating content controls

Adding and modifying legacy form controls

Protecting a form

Using Microsoft Forms

Recording document automation

Creating Quick Parts

Generating Quick Parts

Editing Quick Part entries

Creating macros

Running and editing macros

Comparing and combining documents

Summary

Part 2: Learning PowerPoint 2021

Chapter 5: The PowerPoint Interface and Presentation Options

Technical requirements

An introduction and new features

Stock Images

Transparency

Linking to a slide

Recording using Ink Replay

Immersive Reader

Using Presenter Coach (Speaker Coach)

Using presentation templates

Setting up slides and working with files

Embedding fonts

Saving and collaborating presentations

Saving presentations in different formats

Collaborating on presentations

Setting print options and layouts

Adjusting print settings

Using view and zoom options

Presentation views using the ribbon

Using the status bar commands

Setting presentation zoom options

Switching between multiple presentations

Summary

Chapter 6: Formatting Slides, Charts, and Graphic Elements

Technical requirements

Setting up slides and applying layouts

Adding new slides

Duplicating selected slides

Deleting multiple slides simultaneously

Copying non-contiguous slides to other presentations

Inserting an outline

Inserting an agenda

Reusing presentation slides

Applying slide layouts

Changing slide layouts

Working with text, shapes, and objects

Inserting and formatting lists

Adding headers and footers to slides

Formatting textboxes

Arranging objects

Rotating objects

Using the Selection pane

Grouping objects

Resizing objects

Resetting objects

Modifying charts

Applying and modifying themes

Inserting audio and video

Inserting a video clip

Applying styles to video content

Applying a style to an audio clip

Adjusting the playback options

Inserting captions

Summary

Chapter 7: Photo Albums, Sections, and Show Tools

Technical requirements

Creating and modifying photo albums

Working with presentation sections

Formatting sections

Applying animations and transitions

Using Animation Pane

Setting up advanced animations

Setting animation timing

Working with transitions

Using hyperlinks, actions, and comments

Adding actions

Using Zoom

Inking feature

Exploring slide show options and custom shows

Setting up a slide show

Playing narrations

Setting up the Presenter View

Setting up timings

Showing media controls

Creating a custom slide show

Setting the reading order

Rehearsing with Presenter Coach

Recording a presentation

Using master slides and hiding slides

Creating master slides

Hiding slides

Summary

Chapter 8: Mastering Best Practices with Presentations

Technical requirements

Principles of presentation design

Importance of design and presentation skills

Identifying tools to enhance presentation design

Accessing the Pickit for PowerPoint add-in

PowerPoint Designer

Displaying web content

Presentation planning

Basic design principles

White space and the rule of thirds

Using clear messages and persuading audiences

Conveying content to an audience

Getting to know an audience

Visual impact and useful techniques

Considering the brain

Learning about visual and verbal passages

Law of proximity

Investigating the impact of images and sound

Applying guides to slides

Aligning and grouping objects

Color psychology and the brain

Using the color wheel and other tools

Considering style in PowerPoint design

Using the Gestalt principles when designing slides

Summary

Part 3: Learning Excel 2021

Chapter 9: New Features, Filters, and Cleaning Data

Technical requirements

New features to enhance proficiency

Unhiding multiple sheets

Troubleshooting tip

Collaborating using Sheet View

Speak Cells

Adding the Camera tool

Flash Fill

Generating maps

Importing data from a PDF

Updating Excel on the web

Filtering using Advanced Filter

Defining criteria

Applying Advanced Filter

Using operators to refine filters

Extracting using wildcard characters

Extracting using the FILTER function

Conditional formatting functions

Setting up a validation rule

Setting up a conditional formatting rule

Using Icon Sets

Importing, cleaning, joining, and separating data

Importing datasets

Cleaning data

Joining data

Separating data

Summary

Chapter 10: Exploring New and Useful Workflow Functions

Technical requirements

Learning about dynamic arrays

Constructing an array formula to calculate a total

Using the array and IF function combined

Evaluating array formulas

Investigating new functions

New dynamic array functions

Building IFS functions

Building on VLOOKUP

Exploring XLOOKUP

Exploring XMATCH

Investigating the LET function

Exploring database functions

Learning database function syntax

Using DGET to return a single value

Constructing DAVERAGE

Using the AND/OR criteria

Using the COUNTIFS statistical function

Recapping the COUNTIF function

Learning the COUNTIFS statistical function

Summary

Chapter 11: Date-Time Functions and Enhancing PivotTable Dashboards

Technical requirements

Working with dates

Understanding how dates are interpreted

Exploring date functions

Working with time

Displaying hours as time

Using Paste Special to convert hours into time

Separating time from date/time

Converting text to a time format

Adding time

Enhancing PivotTables

Adding PivotTable fields

Creating dashboards

Using slicers and timelines

Inserting a timeline

Setting up report connections

Changing the design theme

Sharing your dashboard with others

Additional PivotTable customizations

Splitting data into separate worksheets

Changing value field settings

Counting employees

Amending column headings

Moving PivotTable reports

Constructing the GETPIVOTDATA function

Summary

Chapter 12: Useful Statistical and Mathematical Functions

Technical requirements

Exploring mathematical functions

Generating random numbers

Learning about the RANDBETWEEN function

Working with PRODUCT functions

Rounding with MROUND

Rounding with the FLOOR function

Returning integers

Working out how to use AGGREGATE

Converting measurements with CONVERT

Exploring statistical functions

Finding the middle ground

Counting empty cells

Averaging using one condition

Averaging using more than one condition

Summary

Part 4: Outlook 2021 and Useful Communication Tools

Chapter 13: Creating and Attaching Item Content

Technical requirements

Investigating the Outlook environment

Accessing the Mini toolbar

Using the To-Do Bar

Using the Message pane to display folder items

The Navigation Pane

The Peek bar

Previewing Outlook items

Previewing emails in the Message pane

Using the Reading Pane

Manipulating Outlook program options

Using the Focused inbox option

Investigating mail options

Turning off email notifications

Manipulating item tags

Working with views, filtering, and printing

Changing the view type

Using the Focused Inbox option

Using the Reminders Window

Applying search and filter tools

Printing Outlook items

Creating and sending email messages

Specifying a message theme

Showing/hiding the From and Bcc fields

Configuring message delivery options

Configuring voting and tracking options

Sending a message to a contact group

Moving, copying, and deleting email messages

Replying to and forwarding email messages

Creating and managing Quick Steps

Attaching item content

Attaching an Outlook item

Attaching external files

Summary

Chapter 14: Managing Mail and Contacts

Technical requirements

Cleaning up your mailbox and managing rules

Cleaning up the mailbox

Creating and managing rules

Managing junk mail and automatic message content

Allowing a specific message (not junk)

Filtering junk mail with Never Block Sender

Viewing the Safe Senders list

Blocking senders

Managing signatures

Creating contact information and groups

Modifying a default business card

Forwarding a contact

Creating and manipulating contact groups

Summary

Chapter 15: Calendar Objects, Tasks, Notes, and Journal Entries

Technical requirements

Working with the calendar, appointments, meetings, and events

Difference between meetings, events, and appointments

Creating and manipulating appointments or meetings

Modifying meeting requests and manipulating the calendar pane

Setting the response options

Updating a meeting request

Canceling a meeting or invitation

Proposing a new time for a meeting

Viewing the tracking status of a meeting

Editing a meeting series

Using the @ mention feature

Manipulating the calendar pane

Creating a calendar group

Creating and managing tasks

Creating tasks

Managing the task details

Sending a status report

Assigning a task to another Outlook contact

Marking a task as complete

Accepting or declining a task assignment

Creating and manipulating notes and journal entries

Creating a note

Changing the current view

Categorizing notes

Working with journal entries

Tracking Outlook items and files

Setting out-of-office options

Summary

Chapter 16: Creating and Managing Online Meetings

Technical requirements

Adding remote meetings to Outlook

Learning about Teams and Zoom meeting add-ins

Troubleshooting the Teams Meeting icon

Joining and leaving meetings

Customizing meeting options

Creating and managing Channels

Creating Channels

Managing Channels

Setting Teams and Channel notifications

All about Teams Chats

Summary

Chapter 17: Presenting and Collaborating Online

Technical requirements

Differences between OneDrive and SharePoint

Apps within Channels

Presenting during online meetings

Presenting PowerPoint options

Presenting using PowerPoint Live

Exploring Presenter Modes

Functionality in Teams Meetings

Collaborating and file sharing

Uploading files to channels

Working with New Sheet View

Working with versions

Summary

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

This book is a comprehensive journey through Office 2021 applications, which includes visual and detailed explanations of concepts and the opportunity to practice using relevant workplace examples. In addition to imparting new and updated skills for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook, we explore Microsoft Teams to effectively collaborate and present. Also included is a topic on best practices.

This book is a progressive broadening of skills from our previous edition, and addresses the most up-to-date, efficient, and streamlined features of the Office 2021 applications. This edition includes a section on presenting with PowerPoint, Teams channel top tips, collaborating, and learning all about presenting during meetings.

Who this book is for

This second edition of the book is tailored to those working with Microsoft Office applications and wanting to broaden their skillset and learn about new technologies. It would be of value to those working in any industry and for students who are moving into the workplace, or for certification. The book introduces real-world practical workplace skills applicable to beginners through to power users, helping to make the most of the most recent application features.

Although there are no prerequisites, an understanding of the applications would be beneficial, as covered in the previous edition of the book, Learn Microsoft Office 2019.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Exploring the New Interface and Managing OneDrive, firstly discusses what Microsoft Office 2021 offers within the single-user license compared to the Microsoft 365 online version, and then progresses to upskill you on the new interface features. Throughout, we will explore many new tools applied to the office standalone and web apps. The final topic will concentrate on managing the OneDrive experience in the cloud and desktop connections and teach you how to troubleshoot sync errors.

Chapter 2, Dictation, Co-Authoring, and Embedding, focuses on features new to Office 2021 and the latest versions (and revisions) of the Office 365 offering. You will learn about the new transform feature to integrate amazing presentations with Microsoft Sway. We will discuss the new dictation tools in Word 2021, and also investigate co-authoring requirements and learn about modern commenting. The last topic introduces several new embedding features.

Chapter 3, Styles, Referencing, and Media, touches on enhancements to existing features and teaches you how to become more comfortable when working with styles by refining the layout. We will troubleshoot more than one table of contents within a document and take a look at cross-referencing. There is also a section on working with media content and drawing elements.

Chapter 4, Managing Professional Documents, a new-edition chapter, revisits some of the features with updates applicable to the Office 2021 interface and teaches some new features. We'll teach you how to construct a form using content controls and generate an online form within Word desktop and online to collect information from others. You will also recap adding headers and footers to a document, tracking, and the compare/combine tools, as well as learning how to automate processes when using Word 2021.

Chapter 5, The PowerPoint Interface and Presentation Options, introduces new PowerPoint 2021 features and recaps skills to personalize and navigate the interface to perform tasks such as creating, saving, printing, and viewing presentations. New features covered here will include Presenter Coach, Stock Images, Transparency, Link to Slide, Ink Replay, and the Immersive Reader, and we will cover even more over the next few PowerPoint chapters.

Chapter 6, Formatting Slides, Charts, and Graphic Elements, teaches you how to set up a presentation, order a sequence of slides, apply a presentation theme and slide layout, and reuse slides. You will also learn how to manipulate slide elements using the Auto Fix feature, insert an agenda, and work with charts, which make data much easier to present and explain, thus adding to the impact of a presentation. We will also investigate the new drawing features and how to create and insert captions into a video, as well as exploring playback options for audio and video.

Chapter 7, Photo Albums, Sections, and Show Tools, teaches you how to create stunning photo albums with captions and define presentation sections and motion effects. We will also run through animations, transitions, and how to control slide timings and the playback of audio narration. You will learn about the new Record feature, work with Presenter View, Inking, and advanced morph, and cover a topic on the new feature to set the reading order and rehearse presentations using a body language and presenter coach.

Chapter 8, Mastering Best Practices with Presentations, discusses how the strength of a PowerPoint presentation not only relies on your ability to utilize powerful tools that are housed within the application when creating presentations but also depends on your ability to design and communicate well. This chapter of the book focuses on useful design and presentation principles to consider when creating professional presentations.

Chapter 9, New Features, Filters, and Cleaning Data, takes you on a journey through essential updates and new features of Excel 2021. You will learn all about Advanced Filter and the new FILTER function and explore conditional formatting rules further. We will focus on cleaning data and learning how to import, clean, join, and separate data, learning about some new features along the way, such as the UNIQUE function.

Chapter 10, Exploring New Functions and Useful Workflow Functions, concentrates on the latest functions, helping you to learn the syntax and construction of a formula, such as XLOOKUP, LET, and XMATCH, and focuses on IFs. We will learn how to combine formulas, such as IFERROR and VLOOKUP, explore the term ARRAYS, and look at the new dynamic array functions in Excel 2021. Also included is a topic on database functions and a final topic exploring COUNTIFs.

Chapter 11, Date-Time Functions and Enhancing PivotTable Dashboards, explores date functions and looks at how to work with time. We will explore DATEDIF(), YEARFRAC(), EDATE(), WORKDAY(), and many more functions to become more productive in the workplace. In addition, a large part of this chapter will explore a host of PivotTable customizations and a walk-through on creating dashboards. We will also learn how to construct the GETPIVOTDATA function to reference cells in a PivotTable report.

Chapter 12, Useful Statistical and Mathematical Functions, builds on prior skills to work with math, trig, and statistical functions using Excel 2021 and introduces some additional functions to the mix. We will explore how to generate random numbers using the RANDBETWEEN and RAND functions. In addition, we will work through examples of PRODUCT functions, including the SUMPRODUCT, MROUND, FLOOR, TRUNC, AGGREGATE, and CONVERT functions. We will also investigate the MEDIAN, COUNTBLANK, and AVERAGEIFs statistical functions.

Chapter 13, Creating and Attaching Item Content, takes you through Outlook 2021 enhancements, where we will explore and configure objects such as mail, contacts, tasks, notes, and journals. You will set some advanced options and language options in the interface and learn how to manipulate item tags and arrange the content pane. We will learn how to search and filter and attach content to an email and will cover email best practices.

Chapter 14, Managing Mail and Contacts, introduces you to best practices while working with message attachments, to keep your mailbox clean and streamlined. You will learn how to set up rules and manage junk mail options and how to create or modify signatures within the Outlook application. This chapter will also teach you how to be proficient at creating business cards for contacts, and you will learn how to set up and manage contacts and contact groups.

Chapter 15, Calendar Objects, Notes, Tasks, and Journal Entries, teaches you how to work with calendars, appointments, and events, as well as setting meeting response options and arranging calendars and calendar groups. You will also learn how to work with tasks and how to assign them to other Outlook users, as well as tracking them via the status report tool.

Chapter 16, Creating and Managing Online Meetings, introduces you to all the significant features to communicate and collaborate using online tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom. We will look at how to set up, join, and manage meetings within the Outlook 2021 environment, learning about the different methods to present content using the Share icon within Teams and Zoom. There is also a topic on meeting notes and we will discover many useful apps in the Teams space.

Chapter 17, Presenting and Collaborating Online, is where we will discover the Teams app's useful features and understand the different locations we save to in the online space. The best methods to share and present PowerPoint slides using PowerPoint Live will be explored, as well as the new Presenter modes. We will look at important features, such as spotlight, attendance reports, raising a hand, recording video, and meeting notes. The final topics will address collaborating and file sharing using Teams and you will learn about versions and sheet view.

To get the most out of this book

The main focus of this second edition of the book is Microsoft Office 2021 desktop applications, but we do make reference to Microsoft 365 web apps for comparison when explaining certain features.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to access the files from the book's GitHub repository (a link is available in the next section).

Download the example code files

You can download the example files for this book from GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Learn-Microsoft-Office-2021-Second-Edition. If there's an update to the code, it will be updated in the GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots and diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/NjcRa.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Open the workbook named MattsWinery.xlsx."

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: "Make sure you are on the General category on the left of the Settings screen. Scroll down to select Calls on the left, then locate the Voicemail heading and select Configure voicemail."

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Part 1: Learning Word 2021

Microsoft Word 2021 is included in Microsoft's latest Office desktop productivity suite, Microsoft Office 2021. This part of the book introduces you to Word 2021, identifying its new features and demonstrating how to use it to create, format, and work with documents. You will cover everything you need to know to start using Word 2021 productively, in the workplace, at home, or for certification purposes.

Beyond the basics, you will cover a range of tasks, from learning about the new features, understanding OneDrive, and getting to grips with adding references and multiple tables of contents to a single document to real-time collaboration and dictation techniques. Throughout, you will be introduced to new features of the application and learn how to work with long documents. Once you reach the end of this part, you will have gained advanced-level knowledge and skills to be a pro at creating professional Word 2021 documents.

This part contains the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Exploring New Features and Managing OneDriveChapter 2, Dictation, Co-Authoring, and EmbeddingChapter 3, Styles, Referencing, and MediaChapter 4, Managing Professional Documents

Chapter 1: Exploring the New Interface and Managing OneDrive

Welcome to the first chapter of Learn Microsoft Office 2021. This chapter will highlight the difference between the standalone and subscription versions of Office 2021. In our previous edition of this book, Learn Microsoft Office 2019, we provided an in-depth explanation of all the Office applications and covered the very basic to advanced skills. In this book, we will build on the skills that were presented in the first edition.

First, we will look at what Microsoft Office 2021 offers within the single-user license compared to that of the Microsoft 365 online version, then progress to upskill you on the new interface features. We will also become familiar with the importance of OneDrive when working with Office 2021, learn how to manage OneDrive, and learn how to save files in Office 365. Lastly, we'll point out any new formatting elements, as well as quick ways to control attributes and ways to speed up the document formatting process.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

Exploring standalone versus online 365 appsHighlighting the new interface featuresManaging OneDriveSaving and renaming files in Office 365

The skills mentioned in this chapter will help build your confidence so that you can work on the later chapters in this book.

Note

Some of the interface features we will talk about span all the Microsoft Office suite applications and can be accessed and applied using the same method shown for Word 2021.

Technical requirements

To benefit from the contents of this book, you must be able to follow along with and work through the examples provided in each chapter. The examples for this chapter can be found at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Learn-Microsoft-Office-2021-Second-Edition.

Exploring standalone versus online 365 apps

In this section, we will discuss the difference between the latest release of Office 2021 versions. Microsoft Office 2021 is offered as a one-time purchase, which grants you a lifetime license for the software.

The Microsoft 365 plans include online apps and can be purchased as subscription services (monthly or yearly) with regular updates to features. Apps that are included with Microsoft 365 can be shared to your devices, as well as within your family unit.

With the Office 2021 standalone desktop version, you are limited to one installation per user. You will need to purchase any further upgrades for the software when they're released. However, security updates will be pushed out to both platforms (standalone desktop and online apps).

Reference

More information regarding Microsoft 365 can be found here:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office.

There are various purchase options for the desktop version of Office 2021 and your requirements will determine the best option. The following applications are always included as a standard:

Word 2021Excel 2021PowerPoint 2021

Other applications such as Access 2021, Outlook 2021, Publisher 2021, Teams, and OneNote 2019 form part of the offering, depending on the plan you choose:

Figure 1.1 – Microsoft Office 2021 plans

The Microsoft 365 contribution (2021 apps) is divided into Home and Business plans, with a range of different options under each. Visit the following website for details: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/buy/compare-all-microsoft-365-products-b?. Regarding the operating systems that Office 2021 requires, it can run on Windows 10 and 11 (as well as macOS).

In this chapter, we will refer to OneDrive and SharePoint. It is important to note the difference between these two online storage apps. OneDrive is a personal online storage and sharing tool that is provided, along with other apps, when you sign up for a Microsoft account. As a personal user with OneDrive, you can grant others access to files, known as file sharing. Note that some plans are free, while some must be paid. SharePoint is used to collaborate on files via a team within an organization. SharePoint offers a higher level of security and access to files is managed by the Admin team.

Let's move on to the next section, where we will look at what changes have been made to the Microsoft Office 2021 interface.

Highlighting the new interface features

In this section, you will learn how to recognize some of the new features that have been incorporated into the latest update of the desktop versions of the 2021 applications. You will also learn whether they are available within the Microsoft 365 apps.

Although most interface features and explanations are identical in some classic applications, any features that can be applied solely to an application will be addressed in the relevant chapter going forward. Let's browse the environment and learn about the different elements that make up Office 2021 applications.

Overall look and feel

Office 2021 has a much clearer interface, with tabs and groups being so much cleaner and crisper. The icons (buttons) are much less complex, with icon graphics represented using single lines. The edges seem softer and easier on the eye – you can locate features much quicker at a glance.

The following screenshot shows the Microsoft Word 2021 interface, as well as the Microsoft 365 – Word 2021 app interface:

Figure 1.2 – Difference between the desktop and online app versions

Some features have been enhanced in the new version of Office 2021. Let's highlight a few of the cosmetic changes.

The title bar

As you may already know, the title bar is located at the very top of each program that's launched in the Windows app and macOS environment.

Microsoft Word 2021 includes an AutoSave button, which can be found on the left-hand side of the title bar, as well as an Editor button.

The area of the title bar that houses the AutoSave button is named the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) and is where you can add any program manipulation icons. The AutoSave and Editor buttons have been added to the QAT by default:

Figure 1.3 – The title bar showing the QAT, which includes the AutoSave and Editor features

The title bar also includes the file's description (filename), along with a drop-down list where you can see the version history of your document, move it to another location, and rename the description of the file.

By default, the AutoSave button is set to Off, and the filename drop-down list is deactivated unless the document is saved to the cloud. Normally, the online cloud service of choice would be OneDrive (or SharePoint).

Customizing the QAT

There are two ways to customize the QAT, as follows:

Use the Customize Quick Access Toolbar drop-down menu located to the top left of the title bar:

Figure 1.4 – The QAT drop-down list

Note

Icons that already display a checkmark to the left indicate that the icon is already an option on the QAT. You simply have to click on the name of the shortcut that you want to add to the QAT.

Click on the File tab, then select Options. From the Word Options dialog box, choose Quick Access Toolbar. From the right-hand side of the dialog box, you will notice the features that are currently visible on the QAT. To add additional features to the QAT, simply double-click on the relevant feature on the left-hand side to add it. Click on OK to confirm this:

Figure 1.5 – The Word Options dialog box displaying the QAT customization options

In the next section, we will learn how to use the new Search facility in Office 2021.

Using Microsoft search

Toward the center of the title bar of your Office 365 apps or standalone Office 2021 applications, you will notice the Search facility. This facility is available when you're using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote:

Figure 1.6 – New Search feature in Office 2021

This tool is extremely useful as it lets you do the following:

Search for contacts (people) and locate text within the documentSearch for common features without going through all the tabsLocate documents you have used in the office environmentLook up definitions Opens the task pane to the right-hand side of the application after entering search terms to locate information from the web, media, and helpFind relevant features after typing in search criteria:

Figure 1.7 – Using the Search facility to locate a feature

The Accessibility feature lives on the status bar and watches you while you work on documents. We will discover this new feature in the next section.

Checking a document using the Accessibility feature

The Accessibility checker is included in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2021.

As we know, the status bar displays information about the current file we are working on and provides quick access to some tasks. The Accessibility checker is one of the default features along the status bar. The checker runs in the background while you work (by default) and offers you recommendations on various accessibility enhancements you can apply to a document:

Figure 1.8 – Status bar showing the new Accessibility feature

If we click on the Accessibility: Investigate feature on the status bar, the Accessibility pane will open to the right of the document. This pane contains the Inspection Results area:

Figure 1.9 – The Accessibility checker in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel

Applying dark mode (enhanced)

Changing the visual display of the Office Theme was available in the previous versions of Office, but the document's background remained white. This feature has now been enhanced to display the document's background in dark mode too. Some enjoy this feature as it is easy on the eye and provides less strain and improved light sensitivity. To access this feature, go to File | Options | General | Office Theme:

Figure 1.10 – Change the Office Theme to Black (dark mode)

We can change the canvas's mode back to display the background of the Word document in white while the rest of the display is in dark mode:

Click on the View tab.Select Switch Modes from the Dark Mode group. Note that the Switch Modes feature only appears as a button on the ribbon when the Office background is set to Black.As you can see, the document's background appears white while the rest of the window remains in dark mode:

Figure 1.11 – Switching modes

While dark mode is activated, we can explore Focus mode.

Exploring Focus mode

Focus mode can be accessed through the View tab on the ribbon, or via the Focus button on the status bar. Focus mode hides all the unnecessary parts of the screen so that you concentrate on the document in question only.

While in Focus mode, move your cursor to the center top of the screen. Click on the three dots (…) to pull down the Word 2021 ribbon. Make sure you are on the View tab, then select a color from the Background button dropdown:

Figure 1.12 – Changing the background's color while in Focus mode

In the next section, we will look at the immersive reader. It is a brilliant tool with several benefits.

Using the immersive reader

The immersive reader is located under the View tab on the ribbon and contains several really useful tools, from reducing eye stress and removing distractions from a document, to reading the text out loud while you proofread your documents:

Figure 1.13 – Immersive reader contextual menu

Once you activate the immersive reader in Word 2021 on desktop or on the online app, your screen will open in much the same view as Focus mode to begin with (explained previously), showing a less complex view of the document.

Let's see what the immersive reader has to offer.

Column width

The width of the margin to the left and the right can be adjusted to suit you in terms of comprehension and concentration. This is especially beneficial when you're working on a smaller screen:

Figure 1.14 – Immersive reader column width options

As we mentioned previously, we can also set the page's color when using Focus mode. Let's learn how.

Page color

Selecting a page color here will create a softer reading experience for the reader and reduce strain on the eyes.

Line Focus

The third button on the immersive reader is the Line Focus dropdown. Dependent on the number of lines that are selected from the drop-down list, the reader will navigate through the document while reading only the number of lines that you've chosen to focus on:

Figure 1.15 – The Line Focus option showing three lines of the document at a time

Although Line Focus is a great tool to aid concentration, increasing the text's spacing (covered in the next section) can also make a big difference.

Text spacing

The fourth option on the Immersive reader contextual tab is the ability to set the text spacing. Using this option will expand the spacing between lines, characters, and words. Click the button once to expand, and then again to reduce the spacing.

Syllables

The syllables option allows you to focus more on pronouncing words as it adjusts words to include breaks, which helps you recognize words. This is a brilliant tool for children who wish to gain command of a language:

Figure 1.16 – A paragraph showing syllable breaks when using the immersive reader

This tool can be used in conjunction with others in the immersive reader. Now, let's focus on the last option – the Read Aloud feature.

Read Aloud

This tool will highlight each word as it reads it back to you, one word at a time. Once you have activated the tool, use the buttons to the top-right-hand side of the window to rewind, play, forward, or set reading speed customizations. If you do not enjoy Microsoft David as the voice narrator, you can select Microsoft Zira or Microsoft Mark instead:

Figure 1.17 – The Read Aloud feature's playback buttons and settings

Once you get to grips with the Read Aloud feature, you may wish to experiment with the following shortcut keys:

Table 1.1 – Read Aloud shortcuts

Now that we have explored some of the new features within the Word 2021 environment, let's learn about OneDrive features and understand what is meant by the term OneDrive.

Managing OneDrive

OneDrive is the online file storage area that you can access once you have signed up for a Microsoft account. It provides you with a means to access services and devices and was previously known as Windows Live ID. You can use OneDrive if you have a Microsoft account or Microsoft 365 Work/School account access. OneDrive is free to use if you are happy to only have 5 GB of storage space. If not, you can choose from a range of paid plans.

OneDrive is important as the service allows you to add (save) documents directly from within the Microsoft Office 2021 applications to the online storage facility.

Many features within the new version of Office will only be activated once you've done this. Previously, we could upload files to OneDrive and/or save them directly to OneDrive. This feature is now integrated so that we can move files and see version history directly within the Office applications, instead of having to open OneDrive to achieve this.

Like many other plans, OneDrive offers Home and Business plan options. The differences between them relate to the amount of storage quota, your monthly or annual subscription, whether you need the storage free for personal use or Microsoft 365 apps, or whether you want business use with access to Office apps.

In the next section, we will learn how OneDrive is integrated into Word 2021.

Saving documents to OneDrive

As we mentioned previously, for the AutoSave feature to be enabled within Office 2021 applications, you need to ensure that your file is saved to OneDrive. One of the pros of using OneDrive as the preferred storage location for documents is that you will not lose any work as the document is updated constantly in the background. Having files stored in the OneDrive app also means that you can access them at any time on any device that's logged into the Office 365 service.

Follow these steps to save documents to OneDrive:

Click the File tab.Choose Save As from the list on the left.If you are connected to OneDrive, you will see your accounts already listed here. We are already associated with OneDrive – Personal, as shown in the following screenshot:

Figure 1.18 – The Save As options in Word 2021 showing the connection to OneDrive – Personal

If the OneDrive connection is not readily available, click the Add a Place option:

Figure 1.19 – Available locations when saving documents

Finally, choose from either the OneDrive or OneDrive for Business option:

Figure 1.20 – Selecting OneDrive or OneDrive for Business as a document location

After selecting the location, you may be asked to sign in to your OneDrive account if you have not already done so:

Figure 1.21 – Dialog box prompting you to sign in to OneDrive to sync files

Add or amend the File name: description, if necessary:

Figure 1.22 – Adding or amending the File name: description

Click the Save button to confirm your choice.

The document will now be saved to the cloud and the title bar will display Saved… just after the description of the file. Every couple of seconds, the filename area will refresh to display Saving…. This will happen when OneDrive updates (syncing) any amendments you've made to the cloud automatically:

Figure 1.23 – The title bar indicating when the document is updated and saved to the cloud

Note

When a document is saved to an online location, as shown in the preceding screenshot, the Save button to the left of the QAT will display a double arrow to the bottom right of the button. Click that button to refresh the document with amendments from other authors.

Note that documents will not sync automatically to the cloud, nor from the cloud to your devices, unless the following is true:

Sync is activated on your device.You have an active internet connection.You have set up your OneDrive account and you are signed in.A document is currently open and reporting a sync error.

Next, we will learn how to sync documents to OneDrive and learn about the various status icons in File Explorer for your OneDrive connections.

Syncing a document to OneDrive

When we create documents in Office 365, they are stored in OneDrive's online storage area. These documents are only available online if you're not synced to other devices. The same would happen to documents that have been created locally within Microsoft Word 2021, for instance. Although documents exist in the OneDrive location on the local computer's File Explorer area, they may not be available online until certain sync conditions have been met.

To sync documents to the cloud or from the cloud to a OneDrive-connected folder location, you will need to set up OneDrive and have sync active. To understand this better, let's look at a scenario.

The following screenshot shows an example of the contents of the Safer Solutions folder on OneDrive online:

Figure 1.24 – The contents of the Safer Solutions folder on OneDrive

Tip

The three blue stripes at the top left of the filename (as shown in the preceding screenshot) indicate that the file has recently been updated.

Now, let's go to the same OneDrive folder that exists in File Explorer on our local computer. Notice the Status column in the following screenshot. Not all the status icons are the same. The SS Event document's status indicates that it only exists online, although we can see the file in the OneDrive-connected folder locally. This means that we can see the file in OneDrive and that on opening the file from this area, it will only open in the browser.

The Marketing Burst 2021 document was saved locally and synced to OneDrive online (which means that the document can be accessed online and locally). We will discuss why the folder and document are pending sync here:

Figure 1.25 – OneDrive folder connection showing the status of documents

Next, we will discuss the different statuses so that you know how to manage your online and local environments better.

Understanding OneDrive icons

In the previous section, the OneDrive-connected folder on my local computer indicates that two of the folder items are pending sync. We can check the status of a document by placing our cursor over the status icon in the Status column (see the following screenshot). There are several status icons, so it is important to recognize the differences between them:

Figure 1.26 – Explorer showing the OneDrive sync pending status

The following table outlines the most common status icons:

Figure 1.27 – OneDrive-connected folder status meanings

To ensure that a file/folder remains only on the local device, right-click on the file/folder in the OneDrive folder on the computer and select Always keep on this device. The status icon will display a green circle with a white checkmark:

Figure 1.28 – The Always keep on this device option after right-clicking a document

There are several reasons why we may receive sync errors when working with the OneDrive folder locally. Let's learn how to troubleshoot such sync issues.

Troubleshooting sync errors

Once you have set up OneDrive on your computer, you can check its status by clicking the OneDrive icon to the right of the Windows taskbar. This icon will indicate whether you are online, offline, or if sync has been paused:

Figure 1.29 – The OneDrive taskbar's icons displaying paused, offline, and online

When you visit the OneDrive folder location within your File Explorer area, you will notice the sync status next to the document or folder. It is important to keep an eye on both these status areas so that you can ensure your documents are being synced, are accessible on all devices, and contain the latest amendments.

Depending on several factors, OneDrive could slow down your system considerably if you're syncing all the time. You can change this setting so that you only sync manually or pause syncing for a certain period.

To pause syncing

Follow these steps to learn how to pause syncing:

Click the OneDrive icon on the Windows taskbar.Select Help & Settings.Click the Pause syncing drop-down arrow:

Figure 1.30 – OneDrive's Pause syncing option

Choose to pause for 2, 8, or 24 hours.The OneDrive icon on the taskbar will indicate that OneDrive is paused.

Now, let's learn how to specify which online folders are available on your computer.

Choosing folders

Folders from OneDrive's online storage can be made available on your local computer. If we use OneDrive as our primary storage area, we may need to make a few of these folders accessible locally:

Click the OneDrive icon on the Windows taskbar.Select Help & Settings.Click Settings.Be sure to select the Account tab at the top of the dialog box that populates.Click the Choose folders button (sign in to OneDrive if required), then select the folders by clicking on them:

Figure 1.31 – The Account settings dialog box for OneDrive

Select OK to confirm this.

Note

OneDrive accounts can also be unlinked from your PC using the respective Unlink this PC option on the Account tab. Go to the Settings tab to choose options related to starting OneDrive and customizing notifications.

Saving and renaming files in Office 365

Files are automatically saved to the cloud when you're using Office 365 plans. The cloud platform that can be accessed through Office 365 is OneDrive, as we explained previously.

Saving documents in Office 2021

Saving a document when you're working in the Word 2021 online application is a simple process:

Locate the document's description on the title bar of the application.Select the drop-down arrow to the right of the document's description.The File Name area, as well as the Location areas, can be amended here.After typing in the filename's description, click the OneDrive location to tell OneDrive to choose an online folder to save the document to.Notice that Save status and Version History are also part of this drop-down list:

Figure 1.32 – Office 365 – Clicking the drop-down list to the right of the filename to see the Version History and save options

Renaming documents in Office 2021

In this section, we will learn how to rename documents without having to use the Save As… command or navigate back to File Explorer to rename the document. It is now possible to rename a document directly within the Office 2021 environment, without creating a copy.

If a document has been saved using the specified OneDrive location, you can edit the filename directly within the title bar area of the application, as follows:

Open a document that's been saved to your OneDrive location or create a new document and save it to OneDrive. We are using the Invoice.docx document for this demonstration.Click into the document filename area, located on the title bar:

Figure 1.33 – Renaming a document that's been saved to OneDrive

Rename the document by editing the filename directly.The document will be updated and renamed.

When we save documents to our local personal computer, we will not be able to rename the document directly within Word. Upon accessing the dropdown to the right of the filename on the title bar, we will see that the ability to edit the filename is grayed out. We would need to upload the document to OneDrive first.

Figure 1.34 – When the File name field is grayed out, we will need to use the Upload button to save our document to OneDrive first

With that, we hope you are confident in managing OneDrive and saving files using the desktop app of OneDrive, as well as using the various online plans for Office 365.

Summary 

In this chapter, we learned about the new interface features of Office 2021 and discussed the differences between the online and desktop plans. We explored the immersive reader tools such as Read Aloud and looked at ways to enhance the users' experience when proofreading documents on-screen and renaming documents. The final section concentrated on managing the OneDrive experience in the cloud and on the desktop. We also learned how to troubleshoot sync errors.

The next chapter will focus on more of the new features that Office 2021 offers, as well as the latest revisions that have been made to the Office 365 offering. We will concentrate on dictation, co-authoring, and embedding.

We will also focus on a few more features that are new to Office standalone and web applications. You will learn how to access the new Transform feature so that you can integrate amazing presentations with Microsoft Sway. Then, you will learn how to dictate directly within Word 2021, where we will discuss all the options around the new Dictate feature.

Commenting and working in real time with others is also discussed here. There, we will look at co-authoring and investigate modern commenting, embedding, and converting.

Chapter 2: Dictation, Co-authoring, and Embedding

In this chapter, we will focus on a few more features that are new to Office 2021 and the latest versions (and revisions) of the Office 365 offering. You will learn how to access the new Transform feature to integrate amazing presentations with Microsoft Sway. You will also learn how to dictate directly within Word 2021, where we will discuss all the options around the new Dictate feature. Although the first two chapters of this book focus on skills that have been separated for ease of reading, we often use more than a couple together in applications when working on a document.

Commenting and working in real time with others is greatly enhanced in the new version. We will also be investigating co-authoring requirements and learning about modern commenting. Finally, we will introduce several new embedding features.

The following topics will be covered in this chapter:

Investigating the new transform featureDictating enhancements in Word for the webCommenting and co-authoringEmbedding and converting using Word

Technical requirements

Before you complete this chapter, you should be able to navigate the Word 2021 interface and have knowledge of different parts of the screen, such as the ribbon, groups, tabs, and icons. Being able to select the relevant ribbon icons and being familiar with using the right-click shortcut menu to access formatting options is also a prerequisite.

The examples in this chapter can be found at the following GitHub URL: https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Learn-Microsoft-Office-2021-Second-Edition.

Investigating the new transform feature

Microsoft Sway is located at https://sway.office.com and has been available since August 2015 within Office 365 plans. Before 2015, it was released as a preview on iOS apps. It allows users to create exciting and engaging presentations in a couple of seconds from new or existing documents (reports, books, writing, CVs, stories, and so on) using a specific design and layout. You can edit, share, and check analytics on your sways. Animations are automatically applied alongside design elements. Three options are available for creating sways:

Creating a sway from scratchBasing the new sway on an existing topicCreating a sway from an existing document that you must upload via the website

In the latest Word version of Office 365, we can send a document from within the application using the Transform feature. Follow these steps to transform your Word document into a Sway presentation:

Open the document you wish to create the Sway presentation from. For this example, we will be using the Safest Solutions.docx file. You can find this document by going to the GitHub repository link mentioned in the Technical requirements section.Click on the File tab.Choose Transform from the list provided.The Transform to Web Page pane will open to the right of the Word document:

Figure 2.1 – The Transform to Web Page pane to the right of the Word document

Note

If you haven't signed in to your Microsoft account, you will need to sign in. Details of you signing in will be evident at the bottom of the Transform to a Web Page pane.

Notice the Style area at the bottom of the pane. Click through the style types using the scroll bar to the right of the style's area to navigate through the list of styles. Click each style type to see a snapshot of how the design will modify your document's design once applied.Click the Transform button to continue. The web browser will open and the sway will be presented:

Figure 2.2 – Browser displaying the Word document transformed into a Sway

Click the Edit button to make changes to the sway. Alternatively, click the Share button to allow others to view the sway via a link or send the sway to your social media channels directly.Once you click the Edit button, several cards will appear in the Storyline window, all of which you can customize. At the top of the screen, you will see two buttons, namely Storyline and Design.Click the insert content button (the green circle with a white cross inside it) to add another card.Once it's created, click on the card's background to select it. Then, use the buttons along the top of the card to apply and format accents, elements, links, and many more features:

Figure 2.3 – Sway storyline view displaying new content and card buttons to format elements

Click on Design, then the Styles button to open the Styles pane to apply a different style set and customize colors, typography, and texture:

Figure 2.4 – The Sway Design screen displaying the Styles pane

Using the Transform to Sway feature is a great way to visually display documents creatively instead of using the normal "go-to" PowerPoint presentation. The best way to get to grips with Sway is to create a new sway from scratch and build your content using the card elements.

Access to the transform feature will differ, depending on the Office version you have installed or released through the Office 365 environment. If you cannot locate the Transform option on the File tab, then visit the Export option to locate the Transform to Web Page option:

Figure 2.5 – The Transform to Web Page option on the Export menu

The following screen will appear, where you can select a Style to base the sway on. Select the Transform button to continue:

Figure 2.6 – Accessing Transform to Web Page from the Export option using Word online

The sway is then displayed in the browser, where you can edit it. We explained this previously.

Remember that there are other options for transforming a Word document into a web page. If you do not have access to the features described previously, go to the https://sway.office.com web page directly and click on Start from a document: