Voice-Based Integration to Simplify Task Capture in Microsoft To Do
Hi everyone, We’re working on Gennie, a voice-based assistant designed to integrate with task and productivity tools like Microsoft To Do to make everyday task capture easier. Many tasks come up during meetings, calls, or while switching between apps, but they often get added to task lists later, sometimes missing important context. The goal of this integration is to let users speak tasks or reminders naturally and have them organized in Microsoft To Do, while keeping Microsoft To Do as the primary task manager. Some Microsoft To Do–specific use cases we’re exploring: Creating tasks using voice Adding notes or details to existing tasks hands-free Capturing quick reminders as they come up Reducing friction between conversations and task entry We’d love to hear from the community: Where does task capture slow you down today? Which Microsoft To Do actions would benefit most from voice input? Looking forward to learning from your workflows and feedback.
Looking for Feedback on To-Do List Usage for Design thinking
Hello everyone I’m currently working on a design thinking project for a To-Do List apps and I’m trying to better understand how real users use task management tools like Microsoft To Do I would really appreciate it if you could share your experiences and problems by answering a few questions What features do you use most in to do list apps What are your biggest challenges or frustrations when using To-Do List apps Are there any features you wish existed in Microsoft To Do How do you usually organize your tasks and priorities Your feedback will be very valuable for my research and will help me design a more user-friendly task management experience Thank you so much for your time and insights Best regardsBoost mobile productivity with Surface Laptop 5G for Business and Surface Copilot+ PCs
Surface Laptop 5G is here to supercharge mobile productivity. With built-in AI, enterprise-grade 5G, and up to 20 hours of battery life, it’s designed for secure, seamless work—anywhere. We'll explore engineering and design highlights that make these devicines shine. Also available for order starting today, Surface Laptop for Business 13-inch and Surface Pro for Business 12-inch bring the power of Copilot+ PCs to more mobile form factors.Thinking by hand: digital inking with Surface Pen
Keyboard and mouse or touchpad have become fundamental to everyday work. Microsoft Surface engineers have spent years refining those traditional tools to deliver exceptional experiences—but that’s not the end of the story. What if there was another tool—something that added flexibility, creativity, and a more personal way to engage with your ideas? That’s where inking comes in. The digital inking experience on Surface devices is designed to facilitate new ways of working. To understand how a seemingly simple tool can transform productivity, we spoke with Surface MVPs, who are experts recognized for their deep knowledge of Surface devices. They shared how using the Surface Pen supports effective ideation, collaboration, and innovation. To learn how embracing digital ink can enhance your business’s device strategy, read on. Ideas in motion Some ideas are easier to write down. Others are easier to draw. Inking makes it simple to capture both with sketches, diagrams, or notes as thinking develops. Rob Quickenden, Chief Technology Officer at Cisilion, relies on the Surface Pen to communicate complex concepts. "In meetings, I often draw solutions for customers or my team directly in OneNote or Whiteboard, whether offline or in real time," he says. That could mean a rough outline of a network infrastructure, a quick process flow for a marketing project, or notes layered over a shared document to streamline decision-making. Inking can communicate ideas that would otherwise require long explanations, which can increase the efficiency of collaboration. Surface Slim Pen 2 capabilities include a feature called Zero Force inking, which reduces the delay between the pen touching the screen and the ink appearing. A sharper tip and precision tilt detection enhance control. Haptic feedback provides tactile cues that simulate a writing sensation. The added tactile response engages the hand and the mind for intuitive and fluid inking. The result feels natural—like pen on paper, but with the expansive capabilities of digital technology. Digital efficiency, handcrafted engagement: how handwriting activates complex brain connectivity Research using EEG analysis shows that handwriting with a digital pen activates more complex brain connectivity patterns than typing, supporting memory formation and deeper learning.[1] Yet traditional handwritten notes come with drawbacks: they pile up, get misplaced, and aren’t searchable. OneNote Copilot now supports inked notes, allowing users to analyze both typed and handwritten notes directly from the ribbon or canvas.[2] With Microsoft Surface Pro and Microsoft 365, handwritten notes can be synced, searched, and converted to type. In OneNote, you can write meeting notes with the pen, circle key points, and later search for any word—even handwritten ones. Brett Gilbertson, Digital Skills Coach and Microsoft Surface MVP, says, “The most underutilized and overlooked feature on Surface Pro is the pen. It’s essential for notetaking, ideating, and creating—a true thinking tool.” He switches seamlessly between structured notes in OneNote and freeform sketches in Whiteboard. Collaboration without friction: Enhancing remote and in-person teamwork with digital inking In digital meetings, quick visuals help teams align. Inking adds this layer of interaction, turning passive screens into active workspaces. Josh Jones, Modern Work Specialist at Microsoft, uses the Surface Pen during Teams meetings to stay focused and effective. “Nothing is more impressive in a Teams sales call than quickly annotating or scribbling on a PowerPoint presentation to emphasize a point,” he says. In project planning, inking supports real-time changes. During a Whiteboard session, participants can add ideas and adjust flowcharts without switching tools. Everyone stays engaged because the interaction is direct and visible. The Surface Slim Pen button can be set to open apps like OneNote or Whiteboard or launch capture tools. With one press, a user moves from thinking to doing. In-person work benefits as well. Drawing on a shared screen helps explain steps or review feedback without adding to the agenda. Teams can sketch a timeline, update a checklist, or approve changes on the spot, and visual ideas can be captured in real time. Precision productivity: achieving detailed control with Surface Pen The touchpads on Surface devices are designed to be highly responsive and accurate, but fine tasks may benefit from additional control only a pen can offer. The Surface Pen delivers that control, supporting designers, engineers, and professionals who work with detailed visuals. SungKi Park, IT & Integrated Communication Coordinator, integrates inking into both creative and business tasks. "I use the Surface Pen a lot for Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator work," he says. "And for work, I use it for signing electronic documents." In Photoshop, the pressure-sensitive pen refines brush strokes and selections. In Illustrator, tilt functionality creates natural shading. Precision matters in everyday work, as well, whether signing contracts, marking up reports, or annotating documents. Mobility without compromise Work doesn’t happen in one place. It shifts between offices, airports, coffee shops, and meeting rooms. Sometimes, a different input method makes all the difference. Anand Narayanaswamy, a freelance writer and author, balances both touch and pen input flexibly to enable focused work in more places. "I use both the touchscreen and pen depending on the task," he says. "For instance, I use the pen for drawing in Paint, which helps me create stunning visuals." The pen's precision and ease of use make it ideal for quick sketches, annotations, and signing documents on the go. Switching between keyboard, touch, and pen keeps work moving. A quick note in OneNote during a call. A diagram in Whiteboard while waiting for a flight. A contract signed on the spot, no printer required. The Surface Slim Pen 2 makes portability seamless. It magnetically attaches to Surface Pro Signature Keyboard or Surface Laptop Studio, so it stays charged and in reach, providing up to 15 hours of battery life.[3] Technology made human Work takes many forms—structured notes, quick sketches, informal ideas jotted down between meetings. Inking empowers employees with more options to match the input method to the task. When pen, screen, and software are engineered to work together, the experience becomes seamless, whether capturing notes, collaborating on visual ideas, or just brainstorming. If you’re excited by the power of the pen to change how your teams work for the better, Surface provides a thoughtfully engineered set of features to maximize the value of the technology. Discover the latest Surface Pro devices for business to get started. [1] Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom, Front. Psychol. , 25 January 2024, Sec. Educational Psychology, Volume 14 – 2023, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1219945 [2] Subscription required for some features. [3] Battery life varies significantly based on device configuration, usage, network and feature configuration, signal strength, settings, and other factors. Learn more about Surface battery performance for details.
Vertical Tabs! Enable control of pin/collapse pane (please!)
Edge's native implementation of vertical tabs when combined with tab groups make it an ideal browser for organized productivity and that's why I continue to use it as my daily driver on all desktop platforms. There is just one major pain point I find with using the vertical tab features: toggling its visibility. Of course, using vertical tabs makes more efficient use of screen real-estate (for landscape-oriented displays), but that does mean less screen space for actual webpage content, a reality which becomes obvious with 2+ vertical-tab-enabled browser windows open side-by-side. Thankfully, Edge includes convenient UI buttons to "Collapse" and "Pin" the vertical tab pane's visibility, but this is currently the only way to toggle this behavior, diminishing productivity of keyboard-centric use. Recently, the Edge team added the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+,(comma) — which switches the UI between vertical and classic tabs at the top. This is great, but it negates the value of having a collapsible vertical tab pane which would still show webpage favicons in the same visual paradigm of a vertical list and feels like a much more natural UI toggle. Some other users in the Edge Insider community have pointed out that such a side-panel collapse/expand key shortcut exists in many other popular programs as well. I've been trying to find some way of automating the collapse/pin behavior of the vertical tab pane, but it doesn't seem feasible without a proper menu option. Please consider adding a key shortcut specifically for this behavior, or instead include an option in the alt-menu dropdown that can be triggered via something like Power Automate. Thanks again to Edge team for all their work¿Cómo instalar GitHub Copilot en Visual Studio?
[Blog original en inglés] GitHub Copilot es un asistente de programación impulsado por Inteligencia Artificial (IA) que puede ejecutarse en varios entornos, ayudándote a ser más eficiente en tus tareas diarias de programación. En este blog, te mostraremos específicamente cómo funciona GitHub Copilot en Visual Studio y cómo puede aumentar tu productividad. Comprendiendo la diferencia entre GitHub Copilot y GitHub Copilot Chat: GitHub Copilot funciona directamente en tus archivos de código, proporcionando sugerencias para tu código. Funciona de manera similar a IntelliSense, pero es capaz de proponer bloques completos de código en base a lo que estás escribiendo. También proporciona acceso a comandos, puede explicar el código y ofrecer funciones adicionales directamente respecto a tus archivos. GitHub Copilot Chat funciona en una ventana independiente dentro del entorno de Visual Studio. Proporciona un asistente de chat que puede recordar el contexto de la conversación y ofrecer sugerencias inteligentes. Ambas extensiones se pueden instalar por separado. Te recomendamos probar ambas para que puedas elegir la que prefieras. En próximas oportunidades, te mostraremos más detalles sobre cada una de estas extensiones. Instalando las extensiones de GitHub Copilot Ambas extensiones se pueden instalar directamente desde Visual Studio, a través del menú Extensiones / Administrar extensiones. Desde allí, busca GitHub Copilot y GitHub Copilot Chat. También puedes dirigirte a Visual Studio Marketplace, que contiene una gran cantidad de extensiones para mejorar tu experiencia con Visual Studio. Ten en cuenta que GitHub Copilot requiere Visual Studio 2022 17.5.5 o posterior. Más información Para obtener más información, consulta nuestra colección de recursos aquí. Mantente al tanto de este blog para más contenido sobre Visual Studio. Y, por supuesto, ¡también puedes suscribirte a nuestro canal de YouTube para más contenido!Microsoft Teams new chat and channels AMA (Ask Microsoft Anything)
NOW ON DEMAND | Microsoft Teams product makers were on hand to answer your open questions during the live Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA), live, and hear your feedback – It was an opportunity to connect with Teams product experts behind the new chat and channels experience. New questions are now closed, and you can respond to existing chat threads. Helpful resources to review before attending this webinar: Review Jeff Teper's blog, "Streamline collaboration with the new chat and channels experience in Microsoft Teams" to learn more. Noga Ronen's tech blog: "Introducing the new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience" New adoption microsite: "The new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience" New eBook: "Microsoft Teams: The new chat and channels experience - A Public Preview guide" And hear from Teams product leads, Russell Dicker and Arpana Barve, as they chat with Karuana Gatimu about: "Designing the new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience"Announcing: To Do is now rolling out to Outlook for Windows
We’re excited to announce that To Do is rolling out to Outlook for Windows for the Current Channel users (starting with Current Channel version 2207). With this release, you can use the To Do app right from Outlook for Windows to plan your work and commitments effectively and stay focused on the tasks at hand.
