We all know that Microsoft 365 boasts a powerful Office application suite, but what about it’s other apps & services, included free of charge?
When most people think about Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365), they think of the core Office application suite software: Outlook for Email, Word for rich document editing, Excel for spreadsheets, among others.
But surprisingly, there are a lot of features included with Microsoft 365 that many people know nothing about! Often, these features & apps can provide the same functions as popular third-party paid software, and they’re already included with the cost of your monthly Microsoft subscription. Crazy, right?! That’s why the team here at Cirrus have spent the past few weeks trying out these tools, so we can bring our valued customers up to speed on our favourites.
In this blog post, we’ll be looking at Microsoft Lists, Planner, Sway & Forms, while breaking them down into their most handy features & best use cases.
Here’s a breakdown of each of these apps, so you can skip ahead to ones that interest you the most:
Microsoft Lists is a versatile list management and organization tool that helps individuals and teams track information, streamline processes, and stay organised. It allows users to create lists from scratch or choose from pre-built templates, providing a structured framework to capture and organise data. Each list consists of columns that define the type of information to be stored.
Microsoft Planner is an intuitive, visual interface for managing tasks & projects. It allows teams to create projects or plans, which act as containers for organising tasks and related activities. Within each plan, team members can create individual tasks, assign them to team members, set due dates, and add relevant details and attachments.
Microsoft Sway is a digital storytelling and presentation tool that allows users to create interactive and visually appealing presentations, reports, newsletters, and more. It provides a unique way to highlight information and ideas by combining text, images, videos, and other media elements.
Microsoft Forms is a powerful survey and data collection tool that enables users to create, distribute, and analyse forms and questionnaires. It allows users to create surveys, quizzes, polls, and questionnaires with ease. Users can design forms using a variety of question types and formatting options.
Microsoft Lists
As mentioned above, Microsoft lists is a versatile list management and organisation tool. Here are its key features:
List Creation and Customisation: Users can create lists tailored to their specific needs, whether it’s a simple to-do list, inventory tracking, issue tracking, or project management. Lists can be customized with columns, data types, and formatting options to match unique requirements.
Column Types and Formatting: Microsoft Lists supports various column types, such as text, number, date, choice, and more. These column types enable users to capture and categorise diverse types of information accurately. Conditional formatting can be applied to highlight important data or create visual cues based on specific criteria.
Collaboration and Sharing: Multiple team members can collaborate on lists simultaneously, making it easy to share and edit data in real-time. Permissions can be set to control access levels and ensure data privacy and security.
Views and Filtering: Users can create different views of the same list to focus on specific information or arrange data in different formats, such as grid view, gallery view, or calendar view. Filtering options allow users to narrow down the data based on specific criteria.
Integration with Microsoft 365: Microsoft Lists seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft 365 applications like SharePoint, Teams, and Power Automate. This integration enables users to access lists from various tools, embed lists in SharePoint pages, and automate processes based on list data.
Overall, it’s a very impressive & immensely powerful, while still being easy-to-use, list management tool. But when might you use it?
Project Tracking: Microsoft Lists is ideal for managing and tracking projects, enabling teams to create lists for tasks, milestones, and deadlines. Users can track progress, assign tasks, and update statuses, ensuring everyone stays aligned and informed.
Issue Tracking: Lists can be used to track and manage issues or tickets. Columns can capture details such as issue description, priority, assigned person, and resolution status, facilitating efficient issue resolution and providing visibility to the team.
Inventory Management: Lists can help track and manage inventory items, including quantities, locations, and purchase dates. This enables teams to monitor stock levels, plan restocking, and avoid inventory shortages.
Microsoft Planner
Microsoft Planner is an intuitive visual interface for managing tasks and projects. What features does it have, you ask? Keep reading…
Task Management: Users can create, assign, and track tasks within a project. Each task can be customised with details, labels, and attachments, making it easier to communicate requirements and expectations.
Collaboration: Planner facilitates team collaboration by providing a centralised space for discussions and file sharing. Team members can comment on tasks, attach documents, and communicate progress updates, fostering better communication and coordination.
Visual Planning: Planner offers a visual, Kanban-style board view, where tasks are represented as cards that can be moved across customizable columns such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Completed.” This visual approach provides a clear overview of the project’s status and helps in prioritizing work.
Notifications and Reminders: Users receive notifications and reminders for task assignments, due dates, and updates, ensuring that everyone stays informed and on track with their responsibilities.
Integration with Microsoft 365: Planner seamlessly integrates with other Microsoft 365 applications like Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint, enabling easy access to tasks, deadlines, and related documents from within familiar tools.
Overall, it could be used as a much cheaper (free! – if you already subscribe to MS365) alternative to Microsoft Project. Need some ideas of when to use it?
Project Management: Planner is ideal for managing projects of any size. It allows teams to create plans, break them down into tasks, assign responsibilities, and monitor progress, ensuring that everyone is aligned and aware of their deliverables.
Team Collaboration: Planner enhances team collaboration by providing a shared workspace where team members can communicate, share files, and work together towards project goals.
Task Tracking: With Planner, individuals and teams can track tasks and their progress, helping them stay organized, prioritize work, and meet deadlines effectively.
Personal Productivity: Even for personal tasks and to-do lists, Planner can be used as a lightweight productivity tool to stay organized and manage individual responsibilities efficiently.
Battle of the Task & Project Managers: Planner vs Lists
You’ve just read the descriptions of Microsoft Planner & Microsoft Lists and are probably thinking “wait a minute, don’t they do the exact same thing?”. While yes, they do share similar features, and if you choose can be used in similar ways, here’s a comparison of when we’d recommend using one or the other:
Use Microsoft Lists when you need…
Data Organisation: Microsoft Lists excels at organizing and managing structured data. It provides a flexible framework for creating and customising lists to track several types of information. If your primary focus is on capturing and organizing data, such as inventories, issue tracking, or project milestones, Microsoft Lists offers the necessary flexibility.
Data-centric Workflows: Lists are ideal for scenarios where data collection, analysis, and reporting are paramount. If your team primarily deals with data entry, data management, and reporting, Microsoft Lists provides robust features for capturing and organizing information efficiently.
Customisation: Microsoft Lists allows for extensive customization of lists and columns, including data types, conditional formatting, and views. If you need a high degree of flexibility to tailor your tracking system to specific requirements, Microsoft Lists is the preferable choice.
Use Microsoft Planner when you need…
Task Management and Collaboration: Microsoft Planner is designed specifically for task management and team collaboration. It provides a visual, Kanban-style board for creating and tracking tasks, assigning them to team members, and monitoring progress. If your primary goal is managing projects, assigning tasks, and fostering collaboration, Microsoft Planner is the recommended choice.
Visual Workflow: Planner’s visual board view allows for easy visualization of tasks and their progress across different stages. If you prefer a visual representation of tasks that can be easily moved across columns representing different project stages, Microsoft Planner offers a more intuitive and visual approach.
Integration with Microsoft 365: If your team heavily relies on other Microsoft 365 tools such as Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint, Microsoft Planner seamlessly integrates with these applications, providing a cohesive workflow and centralized access to tasks and related documents.
Microsoft Forms
There isn’t a business in the world that doesn’t gather data or use forms for internal processes. In recent years, businesses have been moving away from traditional paper forms to digital forms, often relying on paid services to do so. But, Microsoft, as ever, has a tool for that; enter Microsoft Forms. Here is its key features:
Form Creation and Customisation: Users can create forms from scratch or choose from pre-designed templates to save time. Forms can be customised with various question types, including multiple-choice, text, rating, and more. Formatting options such as themes, images, and branching logic enhance the visual appeal and interactivity of the forms.
Response Collection: Microsoft Forms provides multiple ways to distribute forms to respondents. Users can share forms via email, links, or embed them on websites or Microsoft Teams. Forms can be accessed on various devices, making it convenient for respondents to provide feedback.
Real-Time Response Tracking: As respondents submit their responses, Microsoft Forms automatically collects and compiles the data in real-time. Users can view response summaries, download response data, and track response rates to gain insights quickly.
Collaboration and Sharing: Multiple users can collaborate on form creation and analysis. Users can share forms with colleagues, collaborate on form design, and collectively view and analyze responses.
Analysis and Reporting: Microsoft Forms offers built-in analytics features that allow users to analyze and visualize the collected data. Response data can be presented through charts, graphs, and summaries, helping users gain meaningful insights and make informed decisions.
Here’s some ideas of when to use Microsoft Forms:
Surveys and Feedback: Microsoft Forms is perfect for creating surveys and collecting feedback from customers, employees, or event attendees. Users can gather opinions, suggestions, and satisfaction ratings, enabling organisations to make data-driven improvements.
Quizzes and Assessments: Teachers and educators can use Microsoft Forms to create quizzes, tests, or assessments for students. Automatic scoring and immediate feedback enhance the learning experience and save time in grading.
Event Registrations: Microsoft Forms can be utilized to create event registration forms, enabling organizers to collect participant information, preferences, and RSVPs.
Data Collection: Forms can serve as data collection tools for research studies, market research, or opinion polls. Users can gather structured data on assorted topics and analyse the results for insights.
Employee Surveys: Microsoft Forms can be used for internal surveys to gather employee feedback, measure satisfaction, conduct performance evaluations, or assess training needs.
Microsoft Sway
Microsoft Sway is a wonderful way to tell stories and give presentations using a mixed-media approach to visual storytelling. It’s a bit like PowerPoint but geared more towards quick & easy creation of stunning presentations on the web. Here are Sway’s key features:
Visual Storytelling: Sway enables users to create immersive presentations by combining text, images, videos, and other media elements in a visually appealing manner. Users can arrange and customise content to create a narrative flow and capture the attention of their audience.
Responsive Design: Sway automatically adapts to different screen sizes and devices, ensuring a consistent and optimized viewing experience on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. This responsive design feature allows users to create presentations that are accessible across various platforms.
Integration with Multimedia and Web Content: Sway seamlessly integrates with various media sources, including OneDrive, YouTube, Twitter, and more. Users can embed videos, audio clips, social media posts, and interactive web content directly into their presentations, enhancing engagement and interactivity.
Collaboration and Sharing: Multiple users can collaborate on Sway presentations simultaneously, making it easy to gather input and work together in real-time. Presentations can be shared with others through links, email, or embedded in websites.
Intelligent Design Assistance: Sway includes built-in design features that suggest design ideas, layouts, and color schemes based on the content users provide. This helps users create visually appealing presentations even if they don’t have design expertise.
Sway vs PowerPoint
Design Flexibility: PowerPoint offers more control over design elements, allowing users to precisely customise the layout, animations, and transitions. Sway, on the other hand, focuses on providing dynamic and responsive design options with fewer manual controls.
Presentation Style: PowerPoint is commonly used for linear presentations with a slide-by-slide structure, while Sway offers a more fluid and non-linear approach to storytelling, allowing for interactive and scrolling presentations.
Collaboration: Both Sway and PowerPoint support collaboration, but Sway’s web-based nature makes it more suitable for real-time collaboration and sharing across multiple devices.
Content Integration: Sway excels in integrating multimedia and web content seamlessly, making it ideal for creating presentations that incorporate a wide range of media elements. PowerPoint also supports multimedia integration but may require more manual steps.
Which one to use?
Choose Microsoft Sway if you:
-
- Want to create visually stunning and interactive presentations with ease.
- Need a responsive and adaptable design that works well across different devices.
- Want to incorporate multimedia elements and web content seamlessly.
- Prefer a more fluid and non-linear approach to storytelling.
Choose Microsoft PowerPoint if you:
-
- Require more precise control over design elements, animations, and transitions.
- Prefer a traditional slide-based structure for your presentations.
- Need advanced features for complex presentations or detailed data analysis.
- Have a preference for a familiar and well-established presentation tool.
In summary, Microsoft Sway offers a unique and visually engaging approach to digital storytelling, while PowerPoint provides comprehensive features for creating traditional presentations. The choice between Sway and PowerPoint depends on the specific needs of your presentation and your preference for design flexibility and interactive elements.
What next?
We just covered a lot of ground, so sit back, take a deep breath, and congratulate yourself for taking this journey of technological discovery. You could save your business time, effort, and money by utilising the Microsoft apps & services mentioned in this post; or you could carry on as you were, not changing a thing. The choice is yours.
We hope that you’ve enjoyed our series of Microsoft 365-centric blog posts, where we’ve sought to bring greater value to Microsoft customer’s existing subscriptions, and that you’ve gained some valuable insights & tips from the content.
Don’t forget that, as a Microsoft Partner, we’re able to provide first-class Microsoft 365 solutions and support, so if you have any questions about the content of our recent blog posts or have an idea of how Microsoft 365 apps & services might benefit your business; contact us today for a friendly, quick non-salesy chat. Here at Cirrus, we’re by your side every step of the way.
The Cirrus Team
