Two new updates to Microsoft 365 Copilot for Word: Smarter Creation and Researcher agent

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What’s New in Microsoft 365 Copilot for Word Microsoft continues to evolve its Copilot capabilities in Word, bringing powerful new features that enhance productivity and streamline workflows. Two newly announced updates are rolling out this fall: First out of the gate is the integration of the Researcher Agent, allowing great content generation within Word itself. The second update is bringing more of the search and creation capabilities we have in Chat directly into Word. These updates represent a meaningful step toward closing the functionality gap between Copilot in Word and Copilot Chat. For me, this is a most welcomed improvement, making it easier for end users to get the results they want even faster, with less friction and more flexibility. Deep Research with the New Researcher Agent in Word Not too long ago, Microsoft introduced the Researcher agent in Copilot Chat, but moving and editing that content required copy/paste and jumping between applications. With this coming update...

New releases, and more from the world of Teams - October

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Ignite
It's been almost a month since Microsoft Ignite, and although there were plenty of news regarding Teams, the Teams team have been working hard to bring us even more the past few weeks. Here is a recap of the last month.

First of all, if you haven't caught up with all the news from Ignite, take a look at this collection of breakout sessions: Unleash productivity with these Microsoft Teams breakout sessions at Microsoft Ignite
If you want to get the highlight of a few, but important sessions, take a look at what the Teams MVP's have been blogging about: Microsoft Teams Events Blog

Just after Ignite, Microsoft published the following "what's new in Teams": September 28

Administration and Training
Microsoft has been publishing a lot of training videos for admins and end-users. You can also sign up for instructor led courses right here: Instructor-led training for Microsoft Teams

If you are planning on an upgrade from Skype to Teams, here is a couple of videos to get you started:

For those who worry about rights required to manage teams within O365, here are some news on the new administrative roles: Use Microsoft Teams admin roles to manage Teams

Software updates
All desktop clients and the IOS mobile client have been updated, and the related information can be found on the following pages:

Skype for Business Room Systems

Skype for Business MSI Desktop Client October 2018 Update

Skype for Business for Mac

Teams for iOS

Important note on TLS
As announced earlier, the official support for older TLS versions ends on October 31st. TLS 1.0 and 1.1 won't be turned off, but may stop working as parts of the infrastructure gets updated. If you happen to use LPE (Lync phone edition) devices, there will be no support if problem arises. It's time to upgrade to newer models or just phase them out.

Take a look at the officially supported devices going forward: https://office.com/teamsdevices

Office server 2019 releases
Microsoft announced the release of the 2019 servers this week: