You're paying for the full suite, so use it! Discover 10 tips to maximize your productivity across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote.
Most Microsoft 365 users use a fraction of the capability they are paying for. The applications themselves are deep — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote each have productivity features that most users have never discovered. Here are ten that deliver genuine value in a business context.
1. Word: Dictate Instead of Type
Word includes a high-quality speech-to-text dictation feature that converts spoken words directly to text. The accuracy in 2026 is excellent for standard Australian English.
How to use: Home tab → Dictate (microphone icon). Speak naturally; Word transcribes in real time. Works for headset microphones and built-in laptop mics.
Best use case: First drafts of long documents, emails, or notes. Speaking is typically 3x faster than typing, and the friction reduction for initial drafts is significant.
2. Excel: Flash Fill for Data Cleanup
Flash Fill detects patterns in your data entry and automatically fills the remaining cells accordingly. It is one of Excel’s most underused time-savers.
Example: Column A contains “Smith, John” (last name, first name format). You want first name, last name in column B. Type “John Smith” in B1. Press Enter. In B2, start typing the first name from A2. Excel recognises the pattern and offers to fill the remaining rows automatically. Press Enter to accept.
How to enable: Data tab → Flash Fill, or Ctrl + E.
Flash Fill works for date formatting, phone number reformatting, extracting portions of strings, and any other pattern-based data transformation — no formulas required.
3. PowerPoint: Designer for Instant Slide Layouts
PowerPoint Designer (not to be confused with Microsoft Designer the standalone tool) suggests professional layout options as you add content to slides.
How to use: When you add text or images to a slide, the Designer pane appears on the right with layout suggestions. Click any suggestion to apply it instantly.
The suggestions are context-aware: if you paste bullet points, it suggests text-forward layouts; if you add an image, it suggests image-prominent layouts with appropriate text positioning.
For people who spend significant time manually tweaking slide layouts, Designer cuts that time substantially.
4. OneNote: Clip Web Pages Directly
The OneNote Web Clipper browser extension saves web pages, articles, and highlighted content directly to OneNote notebooks — preserving formatting, images, and the source URL.
How to use: Install the OneNote Web Clipper from your browser’s extension store. When viewing content you want to save, click the clipper, select the destination notebook and section, and click Save.
Best use case: Research, competitor monitoring, reference material gathering. Instead of a browser bookmarks folder you never revisit, content is saved in a searchable OneNote section with context.
5. Word: Track Changes for Collaborative Editing
Track Changes records every edit made to a document with the editor’s name and timestamp. Reviewers can accept or reject each change individually.
How to use: Review tab → Track Changes → Track Changes (toggle on). All subsequent edits appear in coloured markup. Reviewers comment using Insert → Comment.
For contracts, proposals, and any document requiring review and approval, Track Changes provides a clear record of what was changed from the original and by whom.
6. Excel: XLOOKUP (the Modern VLOOKUP)
XLOOKUP replaces VLOOKUP with a more flexible, less error-prone function. It can search left and right (VLOOKUP only searches right), handles missing values gracefully, and has a simpler syntax.
Basic syntax: =XLOOKUP(lookup_value, lookup_array, return_array)
Example: =XLOOKUP(A2, D:D, E:E) finds the value in A2 within column D and returns the corresponding value from column E.
If you are still using VLOOKUP and your Excel version supports XLOOKUP (Microsoft 365 subscription, Excel 2021+), switch. It handles the same use cases with fewer gotchas.
7. PowerPoint: Morph Transitions for Professional Animations
Morph is a transition type that automatically animates objects moving from their position on one slide to their position on the next. It creates smooth, professional-looking animations without configuring individual animation paths.
How to use: Duplicate a slide. On the second slide, move, resize, or change objects as you want them to appear after the transition. Select the second slide → Transitions → Morph.
When you advance from slide 1 to slide 2, objects smoothly animate to their new positions. This is how polished tech demos and consulting presentations achieve their smooth animated builds.
8. Word: Styles for Consistent Document Formatting
Styles (the formatting options in the Home tab — Heading 1, Heading 2, Normal, etc.) are the foundation of consistent document formatting. Applying Heading 1 to all your section headers means they all look the same, and changing the Heading 1 style updates all of them simultaneously.
They also automatically populate the Navigation Pane (View → Navigation Pane) which provides a click-navigable outline of long documents — essential for quickly moving around contracts, reports, and proposals.
9. Excel: Conditional Formatting for Visual Data Analysis
Conditional formatting applies colour, icons, or data bars to cells based on their values — making patterns and outliers immediately visible without reading every number.
Quick application: Select your data range → Home → Conditional Formatting → Colour Scales (applies a heat-map colour gradient from low to high values) or Data Bars (proportional bars within each cell).
For dashboards, performance reports, and any numerical data you want to scan quickly, conditional formatting converts a grid of numbers into visual information.
10. OneNote: Audio Recording with Linked Notes
OneNote can record audio from a meeting while you take notes — and links each note to the point in the recording when it was typed. When reviewing notes, click any note to play the audio from that exact moment.
How to use: In a OneNote page, Insert → Audio Recording. Type notes while recording. After the meeting, notes and audio are linked.
Best use case: Complex meetings where you want a verbatim record of specific discussions without transcribing everything. The linked notes mean you navigate to the important moments rather than scrubbing through full audio.
CX IT Services helps Melbourne businesses get the most from their Microsoft 365 investment through our managed IT and training service. Contact us to discuss a Microsoft 365 utilisation review for your team.
