Microsoft recently released updates to Office 365 and Office 2019, bringing a slew of new features to their entire suite of office and productivity apps, including enhancements to Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook.
Let’s take a look at three of the most useful new features found in Microsoft Word.
1. Resume Assistant (Office 365 only)
One of the most difficult aspects of putting together your resume is finding just the right wording to use. The new Resume Assistant, available for Office 365 subscribers, can provide inspiration and insight by showing you real-world examples of how other people in the field you’re interested in describe their work experience and skills on their own resumes.
Start by opening the Resume Assistant under the Review tab of the Ribbon. Click Get Started, and type in the name of the role you’re interested in, for example, Graphic Designer. You can further narrow down your search by typing in the industry you want to work in as well, such as Marketing and Advertising.
Then click See Examples. Resume Assistant draws from the work experience descriptions of LinkedIn users, letting you see the wording other people in your selected roles and industries have used on their resumes, which you can draw inspiration from in writing your own.
Resume Assistant also shows job opportunities you might be interested in. You can use these job listings for ideas on how to further tailor your resume to fit the job descriptions you come across.
And, when you have your resume in a presentable shape, you can click the job offers to learn more or even to apply for the job.
2. Translate Text
The translation feature in Word 2019 and Word for Office 365 has been updated to provide a smoother and more seamless experience, making it quick and easy to translate anything from selected text to entire documents.
Start with the document you want to translate open in Word. Go to the Review ribbon and open the Translate menu. To translate the entire document, choose Translate Document. If you only need to translate a section of the document, first select the text in the document, then from the Translate menu choose Translate Selection.
If this is the first time you’re using translation, you’ll be prompted to turn on Intelligent Services, which must be enabled in order to use the translation feature.
In the translator panel, you can often leave the From menu set to Auto-detect, but if you find Word is having trouble with the translation, you set the Original language in the From menu.
Then choose the language you want to translate into, and click the Translate button. The translated version of your document will open in a separate window, which you can save and continue to work on, if necessary.
3. Turn Text to Speech
It’s often difficult to proofread your own writing. Because you know what you intended to type, it’s easy to overlook spelling or grammatical errors when reading through the document yourself.
In Word 2019 and Word for Office 365, you can have your document read aloud to you. In addition to making mistakes more obvious, listening to what you’ve written can help you assess how well your writing flows together.
Start by selecting the text that you’d like to have read back to you. Then, under the Review Tab, click the Read Aloud button. Word begins reading right away, and a set of controls also appears on screen.
Use the controls to pause, play, rewind, or fast forward the reading voice. You can also click the Settings button to adjust the reading speed, and, on Windows, you can choose different reading voices.
Listening back to what you’ve written can help you find errors you otherwise might have missed. It’s a good idea to have Word read aloud at least the most critical parts of your document and keep an ear out for mistakes.
Want to learn more? Watch our course Word 2019 Essential Training or Office 365: Word Essential Training.
Other courses you might be interested in are:
- Office 365 New Features
- Excel Essential Training (Office 365)
- PowerPoint Essential Training (Office 365)
- Outlook Essential Training (Office 365)
- Office 2019 New Features
- Excel 2019 Essential Training
- Outlook 2019 Essential Training
Topics: Productivity tips
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