DECEMBER 2019 PCWorld 21supposedly performs a
similar function.
Neither works
especially well with
the type of data I’ve
used. (Ideas for Word
(go.pcworld.com/
idwd), which
Microsoft announced
at Build, is rolling out
now to commercial
customers, with
AI-powered grammar
checking and inclusive
language.)
Now, Microsoft’s
taking a different tack. The search bar at the
top will work in a Bing-like, conversational
manner—you should be able to ask natural-
language queries and receive useful
information in return. It’s rolling out to Office
Insiders at the moment. We’ll see how this
works in practice; as they say, your mileage
may vary.
If that’s not enough, you’ll also be able to
make natural language queries within
Microsoft Search against PowerBI data that’s
also stored in your organization, according
to Microsoft’s Ribas. “The idea here is
leveraging all the search algorithms of
Microsoft for the web, and the Microsoft
Graph—which is unique to us—we’re able to
make enterprise search as easy as searching
the W\web,” he said.You’ll have the option of configuring how severely Edge guards your
privacy, as this configuration screen shows.
now will disassociate itself from your account,
so that your search and InPrivate search
history won’t be tied to your identity. (Other
search providers don’t do this, Microsoft
claims.) Cookies won’t be saved, and your
history won’t be logged. Everything is
deleted once you close the InPrivate window,
Mehdi said.
NATURAL LANGUAGE
QUERIES MAKE EXCEL
SIMPLER
If simply making users aware of new features
is one challenge, so is helping them take
advantage of Microsoft’s artificial
intelligence. Excel used to feature “Insights,”
which was supposed to extract meaning
from your data. “Ideas” (Home > Ideas)