Yammer is getting some enhancements, Microsoft announced today. Chief amongst the changes is improved integration with Office 365. The update makes it simpler for users to manage their Office documents within the service. Microsoft points out this is something that users have been requesting for some time.
If you are unfamiliar with Yammer, it gives customers tools to stay connected across an organization. This announcement comes a week after Microsoft integrated Yammer with SharePoint Team site and Document library. That update also brought a OneNote notebook and Planner for task management to the service.
Today’s update builds on that previous release by including the ability to manage Office apps. Microsoft says “With today’s announcement, users can now create Office documents such as Word, PowerPoint and Excel and co-author them with their team from within a Yammer group. Additionally, users can to easily browse their SharePoint and OneDrive libraries to share files and start discussions with their teams on Yammer.”
Changes
When a document is created, users are now able to name the file and have it redirected to Office Online. From there editing tools will be provided to offer a full suite of Office editing features. Sharing files through Office 365 has also been added. This means members of a group or across a company can access files that have been shared.
“Work is more than just conversations. Every day we collaborate with co-workers to create documents in Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Now, create these Office documents without having to leave Yammer. With the full functionality of Office Online, you can co-author documents with colleagues, view version history and mark important files as official. Because you’re in Yammer, you can also easily share and discuss the document with your team from within your group.”
Files can also be shared across Yammer from OneDrive and SharePoint. This can be done within the service and allows documents from those two Microsoft tools to be shared with other in an organization, group, or team.