Posts by Joaoferreira

What’s new for Copilot – August 2024

August 2024 has brought a wave of exciting updates to Microsoft Copilot, enhancing its capabilities and making it an even more powerful tool for productivity and collaboration. Among the standout features this month are the automatic summary of documents and sentiment analysis capabilities, which promise to revolutionize the way users interact with their documents and data.

One of the most anticipated features is the automatic summary of documents in Microsoft Word. Now, every time you open a document, Copilot will generate a concise summary, saving you time and helping you quickly grasp the key points. This feature is perfect for busy professionals who need to stay on top of their workload without getting bogged down in lengthy documents.

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By João Ferreira Aug 27, 2024 Copilot 0 Comments

Reading Corner: Michael Jordan – The Life by Roland Lazenby

I wrote this post on the last weekend of the Paris Olympic Games, a weekend that will most likely be the last time I’ll see LeBron James and Diana Taurasi playing for the United States team on an international stage. I mention these two because they are some of my references, and I had the privilege to watch them play their entire careers while still pursuing my dream of being a professional basketball player. This fact reminded me that I haven’t told you yet about the first book I read this year – Michael Jordan: The Life by Roland Lazenby.

Michael Jordan was a big influence in my childhood and when I started playing basketball, but I never had the opportunity to see him play regularly while he was still in his prime. I was too young to have memories from the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Dream Team and growing up in Portugal, a country with just four TV channels in the public service, I never had a chance to watch a full game of the Chicago Bulls in the 90s. However, I did have a chance to watch NBA Action once a week, a show with the top plays of the week where Michael invariably appeared.

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By João Ferreira Aug 11, 2024 Books 0 Comments

What’s new for Copilot – July 2024

As Microsoft continues to innovate, the latest updates for Microsoft Copilot bring a host of exciting new features designed to enhance productivity and user experience. From content authoring assistance in SharePoint to personalized prompt recommendations in Copilot Lab, these updates are set to transform the way we work.

These features, along with many others, were announced during July 2024, promising to make Microsoft Copilot an even more indispensable tool for users. Stay tuned and dive deeper into each of these updates and explore how they can enhance your productivity.

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By João Ferreira Jul 31, 2024 Copilot 0 Comments

Embracing Slow Productivity with Copilot and Microsoft 365

Recently, I read the Slow Productivity book from Cal Newport and it truly resonated with me. The book explains how we can achieve more without falling into the pseudo-productivity trap. While reading, I couldn’t help but think about how AI, particularly Copilot and Microsoft 365, is already helping me implement these principles. This article isn’t a detailed review of the book but rather my thoughts on how Copilot can help you avoid burnout and achieve more doing less things.

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By João Ferreira Jul 26, 2024 Copilot 0 Comments

Reading Corner: Slow Productivity by Cal Newport

Cal Newport’s latest book, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout, is a must-read for every knowledge worker. In current times, it seems that everyone is focused on achieving more and more, following rules and patterns that no longer make sense as they were developed to limit physical fatigue of factory labor or maximize the use of solar light.

As we sprint towards the goal of always achieving more, we tend to add more tasks and responsibilities to our lists, ultimately leading to anxiety and having a negative impact on productivity. The book starts with an introduction to Pseudo-productivity, a concept used to describe the use of visible activity as the primary means of measuring actual productive efforts.

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By João Ferreira Jul 21, 2024 Books 0 Comments

What’s new for Copilot – June 2024

If you’re like me, you’ve probably heard a lot about AI changing how we work. Well, it’s true, and Microsoft’s Copilot is leading the charge.

This June, Copilot got even better. It’s now working hand-in-hand with our old friends – Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Plus, Copilot for Microsoft 365 got some cool new features.

Knowing your way around Copilot in Microsoft 365 is becoming a big deal. So, even if you haven’t tried Copilot yet, keep an eye on what it can do. Trust me, it’ll make jumping into AI-assisted work a whole lot easier when you’re ready.

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By João Ferreira Jun 29, 2024 Copilot 0 Comments

Reading Corner: The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim

The Unicorn Project by Gene Kim is a book that everyone working in IT should read, regardless of their role within the organization. Don’t let the title or the format deceive you; I also had doubts that a novel about IT could be interesting, but I was so wrong. I guarantee that the story told in this book occurs in thousands of companies worldwide, and even if you don’t work in IT, I bet you will find something that relates to your daily job.

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By João Ferreira Jun 9, 2024 Books 0 Comments

What’s new for Copilot – May 2024

Welcome to the future of computing with Microsoft Copilot! May 2024 has been a landmark month for technological innovation, as Microsoft unveiled the first computers with Copilot natively embedded, harnessing the power of the revolutionary NPU processors. This integration marks a significant leap forward, not just for personal computing, but for the entire digital ecosystem.

As Copilot expands its horizons into hardware and Windows, it continues to evolve within the classic Office suite. Microsoft 365 users can now experience the enhanced capabilities of Copilot in Microsoft Teams, which has been leading the charge with several new integrations designed to streamline and enrich the meeting experience.

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By João Ferreira May 31, 2024 Copilot 0 Comments

Discover Recall, the Ultimate AI Memory Tool for Your Windows PC

In the modern workplace, the amount of data we interact with can be overwhelming. Microsoft latest innovation, Recall, promises to transform how we interact with our digital environment. This feature, part of the Copilot + PC initiative, is a game-changer for information retrieval on our computers.

Recall acts as a digital extension of our memory, enabling users to find almost anything they’ve seen on their desktop. With just a brief description, Recall displays snapshots of relevant content, mimicking the capabilities of a photographic memory. This intuitive method simplifies workflows, allowing users to relaunch content directly from these snapshots, be it a webpage or a Microsoft 365 application.

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By João Ferreira May 21, 2024 AI, Windows 0 Comments

How to Enable Microsoft Places Public Preview

Exciting news for those eager to streamline their workplace coordination: Microsoft Places is now in Public Preview! This fresh addition to the Microsoft suite is designed to simplify your calendar management and provide insights into your colleagues’ work locations. Although not all features are currently available, you can begin exploring its capabilities today.

In this blog post, I’m explaining how administrators can activate Microsoft Places globally across their organization or selectively for certain user groups.

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By João Ferreira May 15, 2024 Microsoft Places 0 Comments