This Week in IT – Optimize Your Workflow with New Microsoft 365 and Edge Integration

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Cut down on time-consuming window switching with Microsoft 365 and Edge. This Week in IT, I look at a new integration feature in Microsoft 365. Microsoft recently announced changes to Outlook that will allow users to view email and web content side-by-side, following on from a similar update to Teams last month.

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Cut down on time-consuming window switching with Microsoft 365 and Edge. This week in IIT, I look at a new integration feature in Microsoft 365. Microsoft recently announced features to Outlook that will allow users to view web content and emails side by side, following on from a similar update in Teams last month. So stay tuned to see how this new feature in Teams and Outlook works.

Welcome to the show where I discuss all the latest news on Microsoft 365, Windows and Azure. But before I get started, I’ve got a quick favor to ask you. About 70% of the people who watched last week’s video weren’t subscribed to the channel. Now, this week as we go live, we’re on about 3,330 subscribers. So I’d really love if we could push that up this week to about 3,360. So if you’d like to help us achieve our goal, then please subscribe to the channel and don’t forget to hit the bell notification to make sure that you don’t miss out on all the latest uploads.

Microsoft has long included features in Windows to help you organize and optimize your workflow. So that can be things like searching for content and arranging Windows. And there are lots of features built in like virtual desktops, Windows snapping,(…) snap assist and window grouping in the Windows 11 taskbar. Even Edge has some features built in to help you organize Windows and tabs like tab grouping, split screen and vertical tabs and workspaces. But while these features in Windows and Edge, they’re really useful to avoid constant Windows switching, which is a real time consuming activity, you have to arrange the tabs or the Windows manually yourself. So that means you have to think about what’s the best way to organize them and then actually do that organizing manually.

Last month, Microsoft introduced a feature that’s going to help you to organize and optimize your workflow without you really having to think about how to organize the information on screen. And they introduced this feature in Teams. Now they’re calling this a multitasking Microsoft 365 and Edge integration feature, which it kind of is. So they introduced a feature where if you’re in a Teams chat, for instance, and somebody, let’s say shares a link with you to a document, you click the link, it opens up in Edge and well, nothing special in that, of course. But not only that in the Edge sidebar, you get access to the Teams chat from where that link was opened.

So for instance, if somebody is sending me some content that I need to review, I get to see that content in the web browser, but I also get to see the Teams chat by the side. So I can review the content and then update the chat with my feedback at the same time. And I don’t need to think about anything. I don’t need to constantly switch windows or rearrange my windows. It’s all done for me.

And while it may seem like a really simple thing, it’s been super useful. So now every time I click a link, I don’t even have to think about, oh yeah, I’ve got to switch backwards and forwards to the chat. It’s really super annoying. I can just basically read feedback, press enter, and that’s it. I’m done. So that’s all well and good. But what did Microsoft announce this week?

They announced that a similar feature is coming to Outlook. So you can imagine a situation where, again, you’ve received an email in there, some kind of link included, you open it, going forwards that by default is going to open in Edge. And in the Edge sidebar, you will get access to that email. And of course, you can read the email, whatever comments there are there, and reply to that email while you’re viewing the content that’s connected to that email, again, all side by side with the help of Edge and the sidebar.

Really super useful stuff. Now this is coming to Microsoft 365 commercial users and those who have subscriptions to a personal or family plan. So if you have a free Outlook account, this is not going to be something available to you. You need to be on some kind of paid subscription. Now by default, Microsoft is saying that this will be configured. So Outlook will be configured to open any links in Edge, even if that’s not the preferred browser that you have set in your Windows configuration.

Now you will be able to override that. So you can choose, for instance, okay, I don’t want you to open those links in Edge, just use whatever browser I have set in my Windows settings. And you can do that in Outlook through Files, Options, Advanced, File and Browser Preferences. So are there any disadvantages to this? Well, you need to be using Edge or be prepared to use Edge, at least for this one particular feature.

And as this is rolling out, it’s only going to work with Microsoft 365 work and school accounts or Microsoft accounts, you know, those that are connected to Outlook and Hotmail, that kind of thing. So if you’re using Gmail or Apple email in Outlook, at this stage, it’s not going to work with those non-Microsoft accounts. But Microsoft is saying that at some point down the line, they’re going to try and have this working with all supported third-party email accounts in Outlook, starting with Gmail.

So I suppose that signifies that Gmail is the next most used kind of account in Outlook. So this, I think, is a really great feature. And I know that some of you are going to be rolling your eyes, “Oh my God, that means I’ve got to use Edge.”

Well, you know, I think that Edge is actually a really great browser. I mean, I know you’ve got the kind of Chrome-based privacy issues and all the rest of it that you might not be so happy with, but it might be that your work mandates that you use Edge anyway. And there are some really great features in Edge for people who are using it at work. Things like vertical tabs, workspaces, I think, are brilliant. And as I mentioned before, things like the Edge sidebar and the split screen feature, while they may seem a little bit gimmicky, I don’t think they are really.

They do have their uses. And if Edge can kind of suggest when and how you should be using them rather than you thinking about, “Oh, I need to create a split screen,” or, “I need to open the Edge sidebar with my email now,” it just does it for you. Then that is really going to help you optimize your workflow with the browser. Now, I’m a big fan of these changes.

Of course, you can change the configuration, the default configuration, and choose to use another browser, whatever you’ve got set in your Windows preferences. You can do that, but then of course you’re going to lose this integration with Microsoft 365 and getting this side-by-side content and chat or email feature. If you found this video useful, then I’d really appreciate it if you gave it a thumbs up because it helps us to grow the channel on YouTube and get the video seen by more people.

I’m going to leave you with the video on the screen now about some new advanced features coming to Intune with a new subscription plan, Intune Suite. So do check that out and thanks for all the comments on last week’s video. It was a really interesting conversation. But that’s it from me today and I’ll see you next time.