A Beginner’s Guide to Office 365

a beginner guide to office 365

Office 365 has evolved and transformed to stay relevant in today’s business world. Yet many businesses still use it exclusively for Microsoft Word and Excel. If you find yourself looking at the other apps and features and wondering what they do, keep reading this guide to Office 365.

Applications

So, we all know about Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. These applications are essential for creating documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and communicating internally and externally.

But we encourage you to take a look at other apps like SharePoint, which we’ll talk about later, as well as Microsoft Teams, a group chat tool.

Cloud Storage

Office 365 makes use of cloud computing to store and secure your files. This makes it easy to retrieve them if something happens to one of your computers.

Cloud storage is great, but migrating to it can be tricky. You need to make sure you can find all of your documents and keep them all safe.

Collaboration 

Some businesses still collaborate by having their employees send email attachments back and forth to each other. This method is slow and confusing. It’s easy to mix up the files and send the wrong one.

Microsoft SharePoint is an Office 365 app dedicated to collaboration and file sharing. With it, your employees can work on the same file, so they don’t have to send anything through email.

The Beginner’s Learning Curve

There’s a lot of information here, and we’ll admit that there’s a beginner’s learning curve. Once you get over it, however, using the applications comes naturally. Just consider getting some outside help so you can get comfortable with the apps and migrate your data over.

To talk more about Office 365, or anything else, contact us today.

3 Ways to Stay Organized with Microsoft Office 365

3 ways to stay organized with microsoft office 365

Businesses can improve their organization with Microsoft Office 365. New programs included with the Office package, such as Lync and Sharepoint, improve its functionality. Businesses can now collaborate and stay organized with Office 365 Online. Here are three examples of how you can do just that:

Organize Your Projects

With Office 365, you can encourage collaboration among employees. Even if employees are on different teams or in different departments, it’s easy to collaborate with Microsoft Sharepoint.

This improves project management simply by making it easier for businesses to stay organized. Rather than having to send files back and forth through email, employees can work on the same project together.

Organize Your Team

With Microsoft Lync, businesses can make internal communication easier than ever. Lync provides an optimal user experience that focuses on simplicity and functionality.

If you already use VoIP, then you can use Lync to keep your client base and employees more organized. If you’re considering switching to it, then Microsoft Lync makes the transition easier for employees.

Organize Your Documents

When you use Microsoft Sharepoint to save documents, you have the option of storing them on the cloud. Although this isn’t necessary, it helps businesses to keep track of their documents on a company-wide basis.

As a manager, it’s important for you to have access to all files from accounting spreadsheets to marketing presentations. Storing your documents on the cloud will make this easier.

Businesses that take full advantage of Microsoft Office 365 notice an improvement in organization and an increase in productivity. With Microsoft Lync and Microsoft Sharepoint, communication and collaboration are easier than ever.

To talk more about Microsoft Office 365, or anything else, please contact us.

Guess What? You Already Know How to Use Office 365, (and You Probably Already Love it Too!)

guess what you already know how to use office 365 and you probably already love it too
how to use office 365

Because Office 365 is new to some people, they picture:

  • A program that’s hard to set up,
  • A program that’s only for Mac computers,
  • Some new app that’s only for mobile devices, or
  • Some confusing, new-fangled version of Microsoft products geared toward people who think the old platforms are useless or outdated.

However, Office 365 is essentially the best of the traditional Microsoft Office platform, combined with the simplest and most convenient upgrades that modern cloud computing has to offer. Though many products can easily lose their initial fan base when they upgrade or make changes to keep up with the times, by the time people most comfortable with Microsoft products understand what Office 365 actually is, everyone will realize it’s a genuinely perfect fit for most smb’s.

Why?

With 365, Microsoft gives users subscription-based access to its suite of office products. If you buy it for yourself, it’s less than $10 a month. However, many companies choose to buy it for their staff for several reasons:

Everyone in the office can collaborate on one secure system with ease.

It doesn’t matter if you’re in the office, or in another country; once you’ve connected your devices through the platform, you can quickly share documents and data through One Drive as if you were in the same office. This enables you to complete projects faster. In addition, since 365 is also integrated with Skype Lync, you can easily conduct business conferences and make free/cheap VoIP calls as well, without paying a separate company and without downloading special software.

Microsoft gives users 1 terabyte of cloud storage for each user, and each user is able to use the software on one laptop/desktop, one tablet and one phone.

Users also get full downloads of every standard Microsoft program including Outlook, Word, Excel, Sharepoint, Lync, Exchange, Power Point, One Note, Access and Publisher.

Lastly, let’s face it. The Microsoft product suite has always been notoriously expensive.

365 is basically the cheapest way anyone’s ever got a suite of Microsoft products directly from the manufacturer.

How to Use Office 365

Using Office 365 is as easy as using a website like Facebook or a software program like Skype.

  1. You simply log into your account at portal.office.com, with the information in the email you received after you signed up.
  2. Next, you change your password.
  3. Then, when you’re ready to download your software, you download and install your software suite just like any other program. You just go through all the standard install prompts and options.
  4. Once you’ve downloaded the software and your online access is up and running, you’re good to go. If you’ve ever used Microsoft Office before, you already know how to use Office 365.

However, if you have any questions or need any guidance at all — or find a program that’s new to you, because you’re mainly used to the standard programs; just contact us.

As your Managed Services Provider, 4 Corner IT offers you and your staff full installation and support for Office 365!

A Quick Guide To Inserting A Logo In Outlook Signature

a quick guide to inserting a logo in outlook signature

how to insert logo in outlook signature Have you been wondering how to insert logo in your outlook signature? The process is pretty simple even if you are not very familiar with Outlook. According to this article, creating and selecting a signature is not that difficult in Outlook. However creating the signature you want with for example a company logo in it can be quite of a hassle.

First, make sure you have a picture copy of the logo saved separately. It should be in a location that should be easy to find, like in the My Documents folder or the Desktop. But whatever works for you is fine.

Second, open Outlook. Click on File, then on Options on the left-hand side.

A new dialog box will open. Click on Mail, then on the Signatures (button along the right side).

This will open the Signatures and Stationary box. Inside, you will be able to see your different signatures and settings.

If you do not have a signature yet, to create one, click on New, and name your new signature. Once you click OK, you will be able to create the signature to your liking inside the open box in the bottom of the Signatures and Stationary box.

Third, once you’ve created a signature, add the logo. Simply select where you’d like to add it, and click on the add picture, or image icon. If you have the latest version of Outlook, it’s the second to last icon above where you’re creating your signature.

Once you click on it, it will allow you to pick your logo image.

Click Save, and you’re done. Your signature has a logo.

To add a logo to an existing signature, simply highlight name of the signature by clicking on it, and select where you would like to place the logo. Then follow the same steps to add the logo by clicking on the image icon. Don’t forget to save.

And you’re done! Outlook has many incredible features to help you conduct business, and allowing you to add logos to your signatures is only one of them.

To learn more about how Microsoft Outlook can streamline your business, contact 4 Corner IT.

Top Benefits of VoIP and Office 365: Implementing a VoIP Phone System with Office 365

top benefits of voip and office 365 implementing a voip phone system with office 365

If you haven’t already made the switch, now may be the perfect time. A hosted VoIP Phone System for Office 365 can truly enhance your customer experience; providing your staff with the tools they need for highly efficient, streamlined customer service.

The power of Hosted VoIP coupled with Microsoft’s Skype for Business system will allow for even more flexibility in not only external, but also internal business communications.

Office 365’s Skype for Business offers a universal platform for instant messaging, video conferencing, voice communications, Exchange email, and a wide array of other Office 365 applications.

Top Benefits of VoIP for Office 365

  • The Office Experience Anywhere: Whether at the office, home, or overseas Skype and hosted VoIP allows staff to use Office features from virtually any location. Features like HD Video Conferencing can bring staff together no matter their location using their desktop, laptop, tablet, or other mobile devices.
  • Cost Effective Implementation: In most cases, you do not have to upgrade your current office equipment to begin using all of the features Hosted VoIP and Microsoft Office 365 have to offer. Hosted VoIP allows you to use your current office equipment, seriously decreasing start-up costs.
  • Mobility: By enabling VoIP on handheld devices, all the features provided by your office’s hosted VoIP services will be available for use.
  • Flexibility: Hosted VoIP services and integrated Office 365 services are completely scalable. So whether your company is experiencing a growth spurt or is in need of a scale-back; your provider can make the necessary changes to your account quickly and easily without service disruption.
  • Customized Service: Your subscription to Office 365 app features is completely customizable; therefore, you can take advantage of apps whenever they are needed simply by changing and adjusting available features with your provider.

If you are interested in learning more about hosted VoIP solutions, please contact the professionals with 4 Corner IT.