Starting in December 2024, all current versions of Strategy will no longer support the Legacy Strategy Office plugin, and it will move to Unsupported status. This .NET add-in relies on a set of APIs that have been deprecated by Microsoft. While many of the product’s workflows may continue to work, Strategy cannot guarantee that all product issues that arise can be resolved as the APIs remain unsupported by Microsoft.
This legacy plugin has not actively been developed by Strategy for over three years. It was substituted with a new add-in, MicroStrategy for Office 365, which supports Office 365 applications. Strategy is committed to ensuring that its modern Strategy for Office 365 add-in not only meets, but exceeds, the capabilities of the legacy Office add-in. Strategy continues to invest in Strategy for Office 365, ensuring a smooth transition from the legacy add-in.
Parity and Enhancements in Strategy for Office 365
Excel Add-In
Supported Platforms:
- The Strategy for Office 365 Excel add-in remains supported on the Excel Windows desktop app and now extends support to Mac desktop and the web version of Excel, offering flexibility across various platforms.
Authentication Modes:
- The Office 365 add-in continues to support standard, LDAP, and Guest authentication, while also adding advanced options like SAML (Okta, ADFS) and OIDC for enhanced security and seamless integration with identity providers of your choice.
Deployment:
- The add-in now supports centralized deployment through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, simplifying large-scale deployment and management.
Supported Object Types:
- The Office 365 Excel add-in continues to support importing various report types to Excel, including pivot tables, cross-tab reports, page-by reports, outline mode, reports with totals and subtotals, and thresholds (non-image based).
- Additionally, the Office 365 Excel add-in now supports importing datasets, Intelligent Cubes, and dashboards, expanding the scope of data you can work with directly in Excel.
- The Office 365 Excel add-in will support Document (RSD) import into Excel in 2025.
Import Workflows:
- The Office 365 Excel add-in continues to support importing visualizations as images, reports with maintained web formatting, data preview, auto-renaming sheets, and overwriting existing data.
- New features include integrated Library browsing during import (with folder browsing and search), selecting attributes, forms, and metrics during import through the "Prepare Data" workflow, and filtering data during the import process.
- The Office 365 Excel add-in will support the import of grids in outline mode in Excel starting in December 2024.
Refreshing:
- The Office 365 Excel add-in continues to support refreshing single or multiple objects at once, and re-executing content through the refresh workflow.
- The modern add-in includes the ability to set an auto-refresh time interval.
Prompts:
- The modern add-in maintains support for importing prompted objects into Excel, re-prompting multiple objects at once, and automatically reusing prompt answers.
Displaying Information:
- The Office 365 Excel add-in continues to support a tabular overview of imported content, displaying Strategy object details (such as name, owner, modification date, etc.) within the Excel worksheet, clearing data from the spreadsheet, and preventing Excel's auto-formatting of data.
- The add-in now also supports the display of Strategy object details in the Excel add-in's side panel via a setting, allowing for more customizable information views.
PowerPoint Add-In
Supported Platforms:
- The Office 365 PowerPoint add-in continues to support Windows desktop and now includes support for Mac desktop, broadening platform compatibility.
Authentication Modes:
- The modern add-in maintains support for standard, LDAP, and Guest authentication, and adds new authentication options like SAML (Okta, ADFS) and OIDC for secure, modern authentication.
Deployment:
- The modern add-in now supports centralized deployment through the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, simplifying large-scale deployment and management.
Supported Object Types:
- The Office 365 PowerPoint add-in now supports dashboards, enabling users to include dynamic, data-driven presentations in their slides.
Import Workflows:
- The add-in continues to support importing visualizations as images, importing multiple visualizations at once, and setting the size of visualizations.
- Newly added support includes integrated Library browsing with folder browsing and searching, along with the ability to maintain visualization positions and sizes from the Library when importing.
Refreshing:
- The Office 365 PowerPoint add-in continues to support refreshing single or multiple objects at once, and re-executing all content through the refresh workflow.
- The modern add-in includes the ability to set an auto-refresh time interval.
Prompts:
- The add-in maintains support for prompted objects, re-prompting multiple objects at once, and automatically reusing prompt answers, making the process more efficient.
Displaying Information:
- The Office 365 PowerPoint add-in continues to support a tabular overview of imported content.
- The modern add-in supports the display of Strategy object details in the PowerPoint add-in's side panel via a setting, allowing for more customizable information views.
Teams App
Supported Platforms:
- Strategy for Office 365 expands the supported applications of the Office integration to include Teams, unlocking the power of your data directly within your collaborative workspace.
Embedded Library Interface:
- Leverage the embedded Strategy Library interface to access, analyze, and share insights without leaving the Teams environment.
Collaboration:
- Share and pin Dashboards in conversations for data-driven collaboration.
Bots and Natural Language Queries:
- Find answers in your data by asking Bots a question. Users can chat with a Bot directly, or add Bots to chats and channels with others, making data insights easily accessible and interactive.
To learn more about the capabilities of the modern Strategy for Office 365 offering, and for more information on transitioning from the legacy Office add-in, please contact your account team or MicroStrategy Support.
