Microsoft Office 365 Personal User Guide

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Microsoft© Ofce 365

Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime

KATHERINE MURRAY

PUBLISHED BY Microsoft Press A Division of Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, Washington 98052-6399

Library of Congress Control Number: 2011932154 ISBN: 978-0-7356-5694-9

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Seattle

To all users of technology who are willing to take a chance,

make a choice, and try a new way of doing things so that

we can nurture and enjoy a happy, healthy planet.

—K.M.

Contents

Introduction xvii

Part I Finding Your Place in the Cloud

Chapter 1 What’s Happening with the World of Work? 3

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Teams, Teams Everywhere—In the Ofce and Outside of It 4

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Worldwide Collaboration Is Here 5

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Going for the Green—With Groups of All Sizes 6

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Heads in the Cloud (Computing) 7

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A Closer Look at Ofce 365 8

You Can Use What You’ve Got 9

Big-Time Security 9

Keep It Simple with the Ofce 365 Home Page 10

Stay in Touch with Outlook 11

Sync Your Team with Microsoft SharePoint 13

Real-Time Connection with Microsoft Lync 14

Work with Ofce Web Apps 16

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What’s Next 16

Chapter 2 Getting Started with Ofce 365 17

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Creating Your Ofce 365 Account 18

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A Look Around the Ofce 365 Home Page 19

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vi Contents

■

Setting Up a Prole 21

Changing Your Password 22

Changing Your Prole Picture 23

Setting Ofce 365 Preferences 24

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How Does All This Work? 26

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What’s Your Service? Different Setups, Different Services 27

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Getting Ready to Use Ofce 365 28

Installing Microsoft Lync 28

Getting Ready to Use Ofce 2010 31

Setting Up Your Mobile Phone 35

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How Ofce 365 Meets Small Business Needs 36

The Big Picture: Online and Off 37

Email, Calendars, Meetings, and More 37

Creating a Team Workspace 38

Sharing Documents with Your Team 39

Instant Messaging, Calls, and Web Meetings with Microsoft Lync 40

Behind-the-Scenes Support: Security and Reliability 41

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What’s Next 41

Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account 43

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Are You an Administrator? 43

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An Overview of Your Administrative Tasks 45

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First Things First: Key Tasks to Complete 46

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Adding and Managing Ofce 365 Users 47

Adding Users 48

Changing Passwords 54

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Viewing Domain Properties 55

Adding a Domain to Ofce 365 56

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Setting Up and Managing Outlook and Exchange 57

Create a Distribution List 59

Add External Contacts 60

Migrate Your Email 61

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Setting Up SharePoint Online 62

Adding Users for SharePoint Online 62

Assigning User Permissions 64

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Conguring Lync Online 67

Set External Communications 67

Modifying User Information 68

Setting Up Dial-in Conferencing 68

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Managing Your Subscriptions 70

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Getting Help with Ofce 365 71

Creating Service Requests 72

Checking System Status 74

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What’s Next 76

Part II Teamwork in the Cloud

viiContents

Chapter 4 What Your Team Can Do with Ofce 365 79

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Starting with the End in Mind 80

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Creating a Shared Space 81

Displaying the Team Site 82

Working with Document Libraries 84

Creating a Space for Announcements 85

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Sharing Calendars Securely 86

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Translating Content on the Fly 88

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Making Instant Contact with Team Members 89

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Holding Online Meetings 90

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Broadcasting Presentations Online 92

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Creating and Modifying a Website 93

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What’s Next 94

viii Contents

Chapter 5 Creating Your Team Site with SharePoint Online 95

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Planning Your Team Site 96

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Creating a Simple Team Site—Fast 96

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Putting Some Thought into the Team Site Design 97

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Choosing a Site Theme 99

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Changing the Text Layout of Your Page 101

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Posting an Update 103

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Adding and Formatting Pictures 105

Editing Your Picture 107

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Adding a New Page 109

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Entering and Editing Content 110

Formatting Your Text 110

Adding Text Styles 111

Applying Markup Styles 112

Coding for Language 112

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Adding Web Parts 113

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Sharing Your Site 115

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What’s Next 116

Chapter 6 Posting, Sharing, and Managing Files 117

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What Is a Document Library (and Where Is It)? 117

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Creating a Document Library 119

Adding Documents 120

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Organizing Document Libraries 122

Ordering Files in Your Document Library 123

Modifying the Current View 124

Adding a New Column to the Document Library 128

Creating a New View for Your Document Library 129

Switching Views 130

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Working with Document Library Files 130

Adding a New Library Folder 132

Starting a New Document 132

Viewing File Properties 133

Checking Out and Checking In Files 134

Setting Alerts 136

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What’s Next 136

Chapter 7 Adding and Managing Workows 137

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Introducing Ofce 365 Workows 137

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Creating a New Workow 139

Setting Workow States 141

Specifying Task Details 142

Editing Your Workow 144

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Using a Workow for Your Project 145

Checking Workow Status 145

Completing a Workow Task 146

Stopping a Workow 148

ixContents

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Managing Workows 149

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What’s Next 149

Chapter 8 Working with Ofce 2010 Web Apps 151

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A First Look at Ofce Web Apps 152

Introducing Ofce Web Apps 153

How Ofce Web Apps Work 154

Web Apps on Your Phone 156

What You Can—and Can’t—Do with Ofce 365 156

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Creating, Saving, and Closing a New File 157

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Working with an Existing File 158

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Choosing Your Tools 160

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Levels of Editing in Ofce Web Apps 161

Viewing Your File in Ofce 365 161

Editing in Your Web Browser 162

Taking It to the Desktop 163

x Contents

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Co-authoring with Ofce Web Apps 165

Editing in the Browser 166

Another Way to Co-author in Ofce 365 167

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Reviewing and Editing Excel Worksheets 168

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Working with OneNote Notebooks 169

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What’s Next 172

Chapter 9 Going Mobile with Ofce 365 173

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How Will You Use Your Phone with Ofce 365? 174

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Receiving and Sending Email on Your Phone 175

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Using the Ofce Hub on Your Windows Phone 7 179

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Last-Minute Word Editing on Your

Mobile Device 182

Editing a Word Document on Your Phone 183

Adding Comments 185

Formatting Text 187

Saving and Sending Your Edited Document 189

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Reviewing and Updating Excel Data 190

Working with the Worksheet 191

Making Simple Editing Changes 192

Saving and Sending Worksheet Changes 194

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Tweaking a PowerPoint Presentation on Your Phone 195

Mobile Editing for Your Presentation 196

Saving and Sending Your Presentation 198

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What’s Next 199

Part III Connecting in Real Time

Chapter 10 Email and Organize with Ofce 365 203

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Introducing Outlook Web App 203

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Checking and Managing Email 204

Checking, Reading, and Responding to Your Mail 205

Creating a New Message 206

Changing Mail Views 208

Choosing a New Theme 209

Managing Your Mail 210

Setting Mail Preferences 215

Creating a Meeting Request 216

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Working with Your Calendar 218

Adding an Appointment 219

Changing Your Calendar View 220

Sharing Your Calendar 221

xiContents

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Importing and Managing Your Contacts 224

Adding New Contacts 224

Importing Contacts 225

Searching for a Contact 226

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Adding and Completing Tasks 227

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What’s Next 228

Chapter 11 Talking It Over with Microsoft Lync 229

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Introducing Microsoft Lync 230

Signing In to Lync 230

Getting Started with Lync 232

Entering a Personal Note 233

Setting Your Location 233

Setting Up Sound and Voice 234

xii Contents

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Working with Contacts in Lync 236

Creating a Contact Group 237

Accepting a Contact Request 239

Setting Privacy Levels for Contact Relationships 240

Tagging Contacts 241

Changing Contact Views 243

Working with Presence and Contact Cards 244

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Instant Messaging with Your Team 245

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Making a Call with Lync 248

Launching a Video Call 249

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Sharing Programs and Files 250

Sharing Your Desktop 251

Sharing Programs 252

Using a Whiteboard 253

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What’s Next 254

Chapter 12 Designing Your Public Website 255

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Getting Started with Your Public Website 256

Making Simple Web Changes 256

Setting Up Your Site 258

Applying a Page Background 259

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Choosing a Theme and Header Style 260

Changing the Site Header 261

Add a Logo to Your Site 262

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Choosing a Custom Color Scheme 263

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Adding and Formatting Text 264

Formatting Your Headings 265

Creating Lists 266

Adding Hyperlinks 267

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Inserting, Formatting, and Aligning Images 269

Formatting Your Picture 270

Setting the Alignment for Images 271

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Adding and Organizing Pages 271

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Selecting a Navigation Layout 273

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Adding Gadgets to Your Site 275

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Optimizing Your Site for Web Search Results 276

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Previewing and Publishing Your Site 277

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What’s Next 278

Chapter 13 Integrating All Parts of Ofce 365 279

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Using It All Together—Online and Off 279

Checking a File Out of Your Document Library 280

Checking a File in After You’re Done Working on It 280

Saving Files to Your Computer 281

Saving Files to Your Document Library 282

xiiiContents

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Getting Productive with Ofce 365 284

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Creating an Annual Report 284

Thinking Through Your Content 284

Planning for Production 285

How Ofce 365 Helps Facilitate the Process 285

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Tracking a Sales Promotion 287

Thinking Through Your Approach 288

Planning for Production 288

How Ofce 365 Can Help with Your Sales Promotion 288

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Preparing an Online Training Module 290

Thinking Through Your Training 290

Planning for Production 290

How Ofce 365 Can Help with Your Online Training 291

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Happily Ever After…in the Cloud 292

xiv Contents

Appendix A Extras for Great Teams 293

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Thinking Through Your Group Process 294

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Team Contact List 294

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Excel Worksheet with Licenses and Permissions 295

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Meeting Agenda Template 295

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Tips for Your Team Site 296

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Proposal Checklist 297

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Marketing Checklist 297

Index 299

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Microsof t is interested in hearing your feedback so we can continually improve our books and learning resources for you. To participate in a brief online survey, please visit:

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About the Author

Katherine Murray has been writing articles and best-selling books about Microsoft Ofce in all its avors since it was rst released. She’s taught hundreds of thousands of Ofce users how to be productive (and creative) in Microsoft Word 2010 Inside Out, Microsoft Ofce 2010 Plain & Simple, and Microsoft Word 2010 Plain & Simple, as well as through her many articles on CNET’s TechRepublic and in Windows Secrets. Katherine is also a member of the Society of Environmental Journalists and writes frequently about earth care topics. Her book, Green Home Computing for Dummies, was published by Wiley in 2009.

Katherine’s blog and website, BlogOfce since 2002. Her new Ofce 365 companion site, Connect & Collaborate,offers an ongoing source of how-to’s, tips, and strategic case studies for Ofce users and IT professionals who want to efciently and successfully work in the Cloud. Katherine’s focus is on delivering essential techniques and insights to help members of virtual teams who may be developing workow strategies and managing projects, as well as those who are tasked with bringing those projects—simple or complex—to completion.

Readers of this ebook, Microsoft® Ofce 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime, can sign up for Katherine’s free monthly Ofce 365 newsletter “Connect & Collaborate” by clicking here, and can receive Katherine’s Video Tip of the Month by clicking here.

, has inspired and educated Ofce users

Introduction

LE T ’ S HE AR IT for freedom. Freedom from your desk. Freedom from those boring

managers’ meetings. Freedom to work anywhere, with anyone, anytime, on almost

any device. Sounds good, right?

Ofce 365 is Microsoft’s smart and simple answer to cloud computing. Using the various programs in Ofce 365, you can do all the tasks you’re used to doing in your favorite Ofce applications—write documents, create presentations, check email, manage your calendar, crunch numbers, and more—and then share what you create in real time on a team site, design and publish a website, and even create and host live online meetings while you’re traveling on the train, sitting in a coffee shop, or dialing in on your phone.

This book shows you how you can use cloud computing—and specically, Ofce 365—to get more done, collaborate more easily, and work more exibly than you ever have before. From the necessary how-tos about creating and administering your Ofce 365 account and working with the various Ofce 365 programs to sharing les with your team, creating a team site, using Ofce Web Apps, and holding online meetings, you’ll discover how easy it is to work online and off, accessing and sharing your les whenever you need to. After you learn about each of the core programs, you can try strategies for building successful teams, and get some good ideas on practical ways you can put all this cloud power to work.

Who This Book Is For

Microsoft Ofce 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime is all about cloud solutions for small businesses, focusing on the core software services (Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Ofce Web Apps, and Microsoft Lync), and demonstrating ways you can create, manage, and lead teams effectively using the communications and collaborative online tools.

You’ll nd helpful ideas and solutions in Ofce 365 if you

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 Own or work in a small business and want to be exible where and

when you work.

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 Need to collaborate with others near or far.

xvii

xviii Introduction

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 Want to store and work with les online from any point you have web

access.

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 Lead a team online or face to face.

What Is Cloud Computing?

The phrase cloud computing brings to mind for me the feeling of stretching out on a hillside on a summer day while my sons pointed out the animals and shapes they saw in the clouds above. Cloud computing is a little like that—the ability of your technology to take on the shape you need for the type of project you need to accomplish. Want to put together a project team? You can do that in the cloud so that team members all over the globe can collaborate and communicate easily. Need to create a meeting space for your regional sales reps? You can create a team site for everyone in the cloud, using web servers and software, and you can enable every person to log in from any point they have access to the web.

So where is this cloud? The real denition of the phrase cloud computing simply means the ability to access les and applications online through multiple devices—your computer, browser, or phone. Microsoft has already been offering cloud services through the web in various ways:

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 Windows Live SkyDrive is one of the Windows Live Services, a free

web-based application that enables you to save, store, organize, and share les easily.

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 Microsoft Ofce Web Apps are available for Word 2010, PowerPoint

2010, Excel 2010, and OneNote 2010, making it possible for you to save and work with your Ofce les online and collaborate with other authors. Ofce 2010 Web Apps are free to registered Ofce 2010 users.

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 Microsoft Ofce Live Small Business is a web-based suite of services

that enable you to create and market a website, communicate with others by email and instant messaging, and store and share les online. The basic services are free, and you can add specialty features for a monthly fee.

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 Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) is a suite of

messaging and communications programs designed to provide the kind of collaboration support companies need. BPOS includes Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Ofce Communications Online, and Ofce Live Meeting, all for a monthly, per-user fee.

The best news about cloud computing for you as an end user is the added exibility the services offer you, without additional investment in either hardware or software. You can simply use your web browser—which is open anyway, right?—to get to the les you need to work with, make any changes, and save and share the les as you see t.

The great thing about cloud computing for companies is that it enables them to expand the services they offer both staff and customers without adding to their own hardware infrastructure. Web services enable companies to connect workers and make collaboration possible on a global scale without adding servers, setting up datacenters, and more. The environment is secure, exible, and expandable to accommodate as many users as businesses need to support.

Introducing Ofce 365

Microsoft Ofce 365 is Microsoft’s latest venture into cloud computing, bringing together tried-and-true programs that make communicating and collaboration natural online. Ofce 365 includes Microsoft Exchange Online for email and scheduling, Microsoft SharePoint Online for sharing les and creating team sites, and Microsoft Lync Online for instant messaging and online meeting. Ofce 365 mixes the capabilities of those programs with cloud versions of Ofce Professional Plus programs.

xixIntroduction

What Cloud Computing Means for You

Ofce 365 makes using Ofce in the cloud a simple, natural, and affordable way to make the most of services you are already familiar with, in ways that easily extend the technology you are probably already using. Sound too good to be true? It’s not. Ofce 365 enables you to easily and naturally

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 Collaborate globally in real time.

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 Use programs you already know.

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 Create a virtual ofce where you can work with information securely

while you’re on the go.

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 Use your PC, browser, or phone interchangeably.

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 Keep your information secure.

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 Keep your hardware costs down.

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 Use multiple devices to access and work with les.

xx Introduction

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 Create a shared team site.

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 Boost productivity by making it easy for people to work together.

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 Give users instant access to each other with presence technology and

instant messaging.

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 Incorporate social networking in your team communication.

Ofce 365 Versions

Because different types of organizations and businesses have different needs, three different versions of Ofce 365 are available for end users. These three versions are

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 Ofce 365 for small businesses Small businesses and profession-

als who don’t have large IT requirements will nd just the set of tools they need in Ofce 365 for small businesses. This version is easy to try (free for 30 days) and then low-cost ($6 per user per month at the time of this book’s publication), and it offers businesses Ofce Web Apps, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online, and Microsoft Lync for instant messaging and online meetings.

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 Ofce 365 for enterprises Enterprises have larger-scale IT needs than

small businesses or individuals, requiring software that can handle a large number of email accounts, messages, and attachments; provide guaranteed uptime; offer reporting and support options; and deliver Active Directory features that enable a single sign-in for end users. Ofce 365 for enterprises offers all these features and adds on to standard BPOS services to extend the collaboration and online meeting capabilities. Ofce 365 for enterprises also offers exible plans so that businesses of different sizes can tailor the features to get just the kind of cloud support they need.

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 Ofce 365 for education Educational users face a unique set of

challenges—they need to provide students with access to the latest software possible, but they have to do it on a shoestring (and perhaps diminishing) budget. Cloud-based services can help users in education save money and give students the tools they need to create projects, collaborate in real time, and learn how to use software in the cloud.

WHAT DOES OFFICE 365 ADD TO BPOS?

Microsoft Business Productivity Online Standard Suite, also known as BPOS, has 40 million users all over the world. This highly success- ful online software suite offers communication and collaboration features that make it easy to connect in real time and work together on projects large and small.

Ofce 365 for enterprises extends the features of BPOS by adding Microsoft Lync for instant messaging and online meetings, Outlook Web App for management of email and scheduling, Ofce Web Apps, and the ability to create reports and administer the account through a web-based dashboard. The educational version of Ofce 365 also includes the latest version of Microsoft Live@Edu, which offers cloud solutions to thousands of schools and millions of students around the globe.

xxiIntroduction

A Quick Roadmap

Microsoft Ofce 365: Connect and Collaborate Virtually Anywhere, Anytime is organized in three parts to help you learn about different aspects of setting up and working with Ofce 365.

Part I, “Finding Your Place in the Cloud,” takes a look at the way people are working in the cloud today and introduces you to Ofce 365. Chapter 1 looks closely at teams, both inside and outside the ofce environment, and it takes a look at the way Ofce 365 offers a greener choice for small businesses. Chapter 2 shows you how to create an Ofce 365 account and set up a prole, and it gives you a big-picture tour of Ofce 365 so that you can begin planning just what you want to do with the tools. Chapter 3 is for the team manager or person who will be managing the Ofce 365 site; you’ll learn how to customize the site, add mobile devices, and set up and manage Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Lync online.

Part II, “Teamwork in the Cloud,” is your guide to setting up, organizing, managing, and helping your team be successful using Ofce 365. Chapter 4 spotlights all the team features you can use to get everybody on the same

xxii Introduction

page, calendar-wise; you’ll also nd out how to share les, hold online meetings, instant message each other, and broadcast presentations. Chapter 5 walks you through creating, editing, and sharing a team site. Chapter 6 shows you how to create document libraries, share les with team members, and manage the les in SharePoint Online. You’ll also nd out about working with le versions, tracking le changes, and comparing and merging les. Chapter 7 shows you how to create and use workows to keep your team moving in the right direction, and Chapter 8 introduces all things Web App by shining a light on the capabilities of the various tools and showing you how to work with les online, coauthor documents, edit worksheets, broadcast presentations, and share notebooks. Chapter 9 rounds out this part of Ofce 365 by focusing on mobile technologies: nd out how to use the various Ofce Mobile applications to review, edit, and share the les you develop with your team.

Part III, “Connecting in Real Time,” shows you how to use the communication and instant-messaging options in Ofce 365 to stay in touch with your team in real time. In Chapter 10, “Email and Organize with Ofce 365,” you learn how to use Outlook Web App to import and manage contacts, set email preferences, organize mail folders, work with your calendars and tasks, and more. Chapter 11, “Talking it Over with Microsoft Lync,” shows you how to connect in real time to other online users through instant messaging, voice calls, and online chats. You’ll learn how to manage transcripts, invite others to the conversation, and host web meetings. Chapter 12, “Designing Your Public Website,” shows you how to use the web tools in Ofce 365 to create a website to showcase your products and services and give your customers a sense of who you are and what you offer. Chapter 13, “Integrating Ofce 365,” presents a set of examples that show how you and your team can use the various tools in Ofce 365 together to create and share business projects.

Let’s Get Started

Now that you have a general sense of the road ahead, let’s get started using Ofce 365. In Chapter 1, you learn how small businesses are using cloud computing to accomplish business-critical tasks in a exible way. You’ll then get to dream a little about the cloud shapes you want your Ofce 365 to take as you begin using this powerful suite of cloud-powered tools.

Acknowledgments

One of the best things about writing books is working with the talented team that makes it all come to life. Big thanks go out to the team that made it possible for you to be holding this book in your hands today:

Thanks to my editor, Rosemary Caperton, who managed this project with expert care, championing it from the very start and helping to improve and further the idea, while dissolving obstacles, nding a path to the resources we needed, and troubleshooting problems as they arose. (I’d add “She’s able to leap tall buildings in a single bound,” Rosemary, but I think someone has already used that.) This book truly

To Steve Sagman at Waypoint Press, Roger LeBlanc, and Mitch Tulloch for their many talents, expressed though their wonderful design and layout (Steve), always excellent editing (Roger), and a careful, conscientious, and constructive technical edit (Mitch).

To Michael Stroh, author of Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Plain & Simple, who generously contributed some of the illustrations in Chapter 9, and to Kenyon Brown, Senior Editor at O’Reilly Media (Microsoft Press Division) for his help in getting us needed resources at a critical hour.

would not be here without her.

xxiiiIntroduction

And to Brent Watanabe, Windows Phone 7 Developer, for his suggestions and friendly help as we gured out how to capture live Ofce 365 mobile images to share in the book.

Thanks to one and all! Your efforts and care are very much a part of this book!

Errata and Book Support

The following sections provide information on errata, book support, feedback, and contact information.

Errata

We’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this book and its companion content. Any errors that have been reported since this book was published are listed on our Microsoft Press site at oreilly.com:

http://go.microsoft.com/FWLink/?Linkid= 221811

xxiv Introduction

If you nd an error that is not already listed, you can report it to us through the same page.

If you need additional support, please email Microsoft Press Book Support at mspinput@microsoft.com.

Please note that product support for Microsoft software is not offered through the addresses above.

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Finding Your

Place in the Cloud

WHETHER YOU’RE just learning about cloud computing for the rst

time or you’ve been saving and sharing les online for a long time, it’s

plain to see that having an online component is a smart way to make

sure your les are always available where and when you need them.

This part of the book starts out by giving you a glimpse at how the work

world is changing—setting the stage for cloud computing—and then

you discover how to create an Ofce 365 account and set up the roles

and permissions you need to get started.

CHAPTER 1

What’s Happening with the World of Work?

IN THIS CHAPTER:

■

Teams,teamseverywhere—in

theofceandoutsideofit

■

Worldwidecollaborationishere

■

Goingforthegreen—with

groupsofallsizes

■

Headsinthecloud(computing)

■

AcloserlookatOfce365

IT’S N O S E C R E T that computers, the web, and social media have all

dramatically changed the way we work. What we used to compose on

typewriters (remember those?) or le away in clangy, metal ling cabinets,

we now take care of completely electronically with just a few keystrokes

and a click of the mouse button.

What you used to do by writing, printing, folding, putting in an envelope, stamping and mailing, you can now do by simply composing and clicking Send—and the message reaches the other person almost instantly.

Although you used to spend hours camped around a big boardroom table, doodling on your legal pad while someone presented a workshop that wasn’t entirely relevant to your job, today you can log in to a webcast to catch the bits of a presentation that directly impact what you need to do today. And you can form teams on the y to accomplish specic project goals and then disband the team to go back to your regular tasks.

Technology now enables us to work faster, more productively, and with more exibly than ever. You can easily pull together the resources you need for as long as you need them and then let them go when you’re done. This is a smarter use of resources—and greener, too—and it results in less overhead for your business. You don’t need to add computer systems or people to work on specic project tasks that require some extra help. You can simply go to the cloud.

4 Chapter 1 What’s Happening with the World of Work?

Teams, Teams Everywhere—In the Ofce and Outside of It

We seem to be in a perfect storm of technology and workforce development, where several important aspects of the way we work are coming together. Since the early ‘60s, the use of work teams has been on the rise. Fortune 500 companies are full of them. Most mid-sized businesses have realized that work teams can boost productivity, help managers manage, and give groups more ownership of the work they perform.

Teams enable individual workers to get together in the name of a common goal— producing the annual report, for example—and bring their own respective talents to the mix. Your work team for the annual report might include a writer, an editor, a graphic designer, a production and layout person, a corporate communications person, and someone who can provide the nancial detail. And here’s the good news—data is showing that working in cohesive teams boosts creativity and productivity, and people seem to be happier at work when they’re part of a successful team. That’s all good.

But add another new development to the mix. Now workers are often on the road, traveling from region to region, stationed overseas, or perhaps remotely accessing a corporate network from another continent. The development of new hardware options— more powerful and affordable laptops, netbooks, and smartphones, as well as improved video conferencing tools—make this easier than ever to do. In this global and mobile workforce, how will your team meet its goals? Will the editor know when the writer has nished the draft? What happens to the deadlines?

The simultaneous development of the pervasive and always-on web and the explosion in social media technologies has made it easier to stay in touch with all members of your team wherever they travel and whenever they appear. From any point of web access on the globe, your teammates can communicate with you. Nice. Working virtually has even bigger benets as well—when a team works successfully from remote locations, there’s a reduced need for centralized ofce space, which means lease costs for your company go down. And that daily one-hour commute into the ofce? Gone, if you’re working from home. That saves fuel and reduces the carbon your car is pumping into the atmosphere. Those are just a couple of the large-scale benets that, multiplied exponentially across the planet, make the world a whole lot greener.

But this brings us back to a critical question. In this exible time of go-anywhere, do-anything work styles, how do you stay focused on your team objectives and complete

Chapter 1 5

Worldwide Collaboration Is Here

your original assignment? How do you organize the work, build libraries of les you all need, meet together in the same space and time, and keep track of all the pieces of the project? Facebook isn’t going to help you with that. And your email client—even if it’s Microsoft Outlook 2010—is limited as far as group space goes.

That’s where Microsoft Ofce 365 comes in. Now you have a shared team space, always available online, where you can build document libraries, share assets, assign tasks, and collaborate on all kinds of Ofce projects. Ofce 365 builds on four key technologies— Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Lync, Microsoft SharePoint, and Ofce Web Apps—to give you all the tools and abilities you need as a team to be successful, no matter when or where you work.

Worldwide Collaboration Is Here

Teams form for all sorts of reasons and have all sorts of goals. Some teams are developed to meet a specic project objective—for example, putting together an annual report. There are also leadership teams, program teams, departmental teams, and formal and informal teams. Pretty much anything you want to create—short-term or long-term, with a few other people—can be done better in a team. (OK, that’s an editorial opinion—but experience proves it.)

If your team involves one or more people who seem to be always on the go, you need

■

 A way to make les accessible to the remote worker

■

 A means of assigning and sharing tasks, appointments, notes, and more

■

 An online meeting space groups can call in to or use to gather together

■

 A shared site that can be accessed by multiple technologies—laptops, smart-

phones, et al.

■

 Translation tools, if your team member’s primary language is different from your

own or you are working on multilingual documents

If you can create a team space that provides all these types of tools, your global team can log in, share their information, get feedback, and contribute to the project in a way that makes global access a moot point. They could just as well be logging in from the coffee shop on the corner!

6 Chapter 1 What’s Happening with the World of Work?

THE SOFTER SIDE OF GLOBAL TEAMS

Throughout this book, you’ll get many ideas about ways to create and manage teams successfully. But here’s something to consider if you’re working with global teams: different cultures have different expectations about relationships and communication, so if your new team member is from an Asian country, trust might build more slowly— and you might need to lay more groundwork—than when you begin to work with a new teammate from Canada.

In “Tips for Working in Global Teams” (which you can nd at www.ieee.org), author Melanie Doulton describes “high-context” and “low-context” countries. In high-context cultures—Indian, Arab, Asian, or Latin—relationships with family and colleagues is paramount, the entire relationship provides the context for communication, proto- col is valued and followed, and decisions are made slowly and are often based on relationships.

In low-context cultures such as North American, Germanic, and Scandinavian cultures, communication is based less on relationships and more on facts. In other words, the message carries the meaning, whereas in higher context cultures, the relationship sets the stage for the way the message is received.

For this reason, be aware that when you’re working with team members from different cultures, they might hear what you’re saying differently than you think. Take time to build trust and establish relationships with your global team members and, when in doubt, check it out.

Going for the Green—With Groups of All Sizes

One of the best aspects of cloud computing is the way it uses—and conserves— resources. Instead of using millions of computers on desktops that are tied into hundreds of thousands of servers that are purchased, maintained, and repaired by thousands of individual companies, cloud computing offers a scalable alternative.

Because applications used in cloud computing are web-based, the number of servers used increases as more are needed to support the demand. The additional servers then return to rest when they’re no longer needed. This share-the-load approach, on a large scale, saves electricity, reduces the need for hardware components, and increases the efcient use of the resources used to provide the services.

Chapter 1 7

Heads in the Cloud (Computing)

As part of a green strategy, companies can choose to use cloud computing to

■

 Downsize or offset their ofce space

■

 Expand their ability to work globally

■

 Support a mobile workforce

■

 Reduce use of consumable ofce supplies (paper, ink, le storage)

■

 Reduce computer hardware (desktop computers and server systems)

Heads in the Cloud (Computing)

So what are companies doing in the cloud today? IBM commissioned a survey in July 2009 (“Dispelling the vapor around cloud computing,” which you can nd at www.ibm.com) to check the pulse of cloud adoption, and they found that many groups are considering cloud computing in various forms. The survey included respondents who work in communications, nancial services, the industrial sector, and public services. The following table shows the distribution of respondents by country.

TABLE 1-1 IBM Sur vey Participants by Country

Country Percentage

Canada 5

China 10

France 10

Germany 10

India 15

Japan 11

UK 9

USA 30

Many companies are already using or are open to using private cloud computing for the following functions:

■

 Business continuity and disaster recovery

■

 Data mining

■

 Data warehouses

8 Chapter 1 What’s Happening with the World of Work?

■

 Long-term data archiving

■

 Security

■

 Testing environment infrastructure

A smaller percentage of companies have adopted a public cloud approach, which includes the following capabilities:

■

 Audio/video/web conferencing

■

 Data center network capacity

■

 Desktop

■

 File storage

■

 Server

■

 Service help desk

■

 Test environment infrastructure

■

 Training and demonstration

■

 Voice over Internet (VoIP) infrastructure

■

 Wide area network (WAN) capacity

Ofce 365 enables you to create a cloud computing approach that offers just what your business needs require. The four main technologies—Exchange, SharePoint, Ofce Web Apps, and Lync—enable you to stay in touch by email and scheduling, create a shared team site (for both intranets and the Internet), collaborate on all sorts of projects using familiar Ofce applications, and stay in touch with instant messaging and video conferencing. The next section gives you a bird’s-eye view of the features in Ofce 365.

A Closer Look at Ofce 365

Ofce 365 makes it easy for you to work with the applications and programs you’re familiar with in the easy-access, always-on world of the web. You can use Ofce 365 to

■

 Create a shared team site where you create data libraries, assign tasks, schedule

calendars, and more

Chapter 1 9

■

 Check everyone’s availability, and schedule online meetings

■

 Connect instantly by instant messaging, email, or video calls

■

 Keep your les and user accounts secure and keep email safe from spam and

A Closer Look at Ofce 365

scams

■

 Create documents, worksheets, presentations, and notebooks, and share them

seamlessly

■

 Always work with current updates of Ofce 365 software

■

 Create blogs and wikis for your team and for public view

You Can Use What You’ve Got

One of the big features of Ofce 365 is the software’s ability to work with whatever device you’re using at the moment—your desktop PC or Mac, laptop or netbook, Android phone, iPhone, Windows Phone, Nokia, or BlackBerry.

You can log in to your Ofce 365 account, work on les, share documents, update tasks, post to your discussion forum, join a meeting, send instant messages, and more—from wherever you are at the moment, with whatever device you’ve got. Sweet!

Big-Time Security

Ofce 365 invests in state-of-the-art security, reliability, and recovery technology to ensure that your les and messages are secure, your data is safe, and you are always able to access and work with your information. Ofce 365 offers

■

 A guaranteed 99.9% uptime Service Level Agreement

■

 Data centers with SAS 70 and ISO 27001 certication

■

 Geo-redundant, enterprise-grade reliability and disaster recovery

■

 Multiple data centers and automatic failovers to ensure your data is safeguarded

■

 Up-to-date antivirus and anti-spam protection

10 Chapter 1 What’s Happening with the World of Work?

THE IMPORTANCE OF UPTIME

One of Ofce 365’s big promises—and something its users depend on—is the guaranteed 99.9 percent uptime promise. This means that your team site, your les, your public website, and all the tools you need will be accessible online 99.9 percent of the time. This might sound like marketing lingo, but it’s an important promise for teams and companies that run the majority of their business processes in the cloud.

Nowhere was this need more evident than in a recent cloud outage suffered by Amazon’s cloud services. In April 2011, a simple error in one availability zone started a domino-like effect that affected other areas, which resulted in a “re-mirroring storm” that overwhelmed cloud capacity temporarily. This affected a number of sites—for example, FourSquare, HootSuite, Quora, and Reddit—and caused a temporary outage.

Microsoft is providing a nancially backed service level agreement (SLA) for Ofce 365 users and has designed Ofce 365 as a comprehensive geo-redundant service so that data is replicated between geographically distant sites. This means if one site experi- ences a failure, other sites around the world can continue the processing so that Ofce 365 users won’t experience any loss of services.

Keep It Simple with the Ofce 365 Home Page

When you rst log in to Ofce 365, you see a simple and clear home page that shows you how to get started with the tools you want to use. The various tools you’ll use in Ofce 365 are all available on that rst page, making it easy for you to nd your way around and get to the tools you need. This clean screen design also makes it easy for you to navigate, regardless of whether you’re viewing the site on your PC, in your browser, or on your smartphone.

As you can see in Figure 1-1, the navigation bar at the top of the window gives you easy access to the primary views in Ofce 365. You can get back to your Home page from any of the other pages; you can click Outlook to work with mail, schedules, and tasks; or you can click Team Site to display your SharePoint team site. If you are the administrator of the Ofce 365 account, you can also click Admin on the Home page to access another screen where you can set up the various programs the way you want them, add and manage users, and set up the domains you want to use.

Chapter 1 11

A Closer Look at Ofce 365

 Note What’s an administrator? A person with administrator privileges in Ofce

365 is able to create new accounts, set up users, congure the services they’ll use (for example, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Lync, or Microsoft SharePoint), set permissions, and get updates to the software. If you have administrator privileges, check out Chapter 3, “Administering an Ofce 365 Account.”

Choose other Office 365 views. Get help with Office 365.

FIGURE 1-1 The Office 365 Home page makes it easy to begin setting up your space in the clouds.

Stay in Touch with Outlook

When you click Outlook at the top of the Ofce 365 window, you are taken to the Outlook view, where you can check email, compose new messages, organize your mail, add appointments to your calendar, create notes, and add tasks. (See Figure 1-2.) If you’ve used Outlook Web App in the past, Outlook in Ofce 365 will look very familiar to you.

12 Chapter 1 What’s Happening with the World of Work?

FIGURE 1-2 The Outlook view, which includes tools for organizing email and contacting colleagues

and friends.

The folder view on the left side of the screen is where you manage and le away all the mail you receive. You can create new folders and subfolders as needed, just like you do in your desktop version of Outlook. Click Mail, Calendar, Contacts, or Tasks in the lower left corner of the screen to choose the view you want to use to add, modify, review, or delete those different types of information. The center column of the Outlook window shows you the contents of the folder you’ve selected (in this case, the Inbox folder). In the far right panel, you see the contents of the currently selected message. This type of display enables you to scan your email quickly without opening and paging through each message, saving you time and trouble as you move quickly through your mail.

Also in the Outlook view, you can use the presence icon of a contact (located to the left of that person’s name) to see his or her online availability. If the icon is green, your contact is available online. When you click the icon, a list of contact options appears, giving you a range of choices for contacting the person. You can send an email message, schedule a meeting, invite the person to chat, and more. (See Figure 1-3.)

Chapter 1 13

Click the presence icon for direct contact options.

FIGURE 1-3 You can click the presence icon to display options for contacting someone online.

A Closer Look at Ofce 365

Sync Your Team with Microsoft SharePoint

If you’re organizing and managing a team effort, chances are you’ll spend lots of time in SharePoint. SharePoint makes it easy for you to create both a team site—where you can communicate with team members, create document libraries, and more—and a public website, for the information you want to show the world.

When you click Team Site at the top of the Ofce 365 window, your SharePoint site appears, looking similar to the one shown in Figure 1-4. Here you can design your team site, adding content and images and choosing a theme.

FIGURE 1-4 Clicking Team Site displays the SharePoint site your group can use as a common workspace.

14 Chapter 1 What’s Happening with the World of Work?

You can click the Edit tool to the left of the Browse tab to display the editing tools for the SharePoint site. The Ribbon changes to display the Editing Tools tab, which enables you to format the text on your page and insert new page elements such as pictures, videos, tables, and more. (See Figure 1-5.)

FIGURE 1-5 To edit and format your SharePoint pages, you’ll find what you need on the Editing Tools

Format tab.

You can click Site Actions on the left side of the Ribbon to display a list of ways you can modify and interact with your SharePoint site. You’ll learn all about customizing, formatting, and sharing your site in Chapter 5, “Creating Your Team Site with SharePoint Online.”

Real-Time Connection with Microsoft Lync

So we’ve talked about using Outlook to handle your email and scheduling needs and using the SharePoint team site to keep everybody on the same page—what about those times you need to communicate in real time, using instant messaging or online meetings? Enter Microsoft Lync 2010. Microsoft Lync is an exciting addition to this suite of online services, enabling you to keep in touch with all your contacts and make calls, set up meetings, and send ideas and messages on the y.

Chapter 1 15

A Closer Look at Ofce 365

 Note When you rst log in to Ofce 365, you might need to download

Microsoft Lync by clicking the Install Microsoft Lync link on the control panel page. The process is pretty painless. You’ll nd the steps in Chapter 2, “Getting Started with Microsoft Lync.”

The Microsoft Lync window resembles Windows Live Messenger, but you’ll nd that it includes a different set of tools. (See Figure 1-6.) Adding new contacts is something done by the administrator so that everyone on the team is using the same address book. (As an administrator, however, you can change that setting so that individuals can add the contacts they’d like to include.) You can call a contact by clicking the Call button to the right of the contact name and choosing the command you want from the displayed list.

FIGURE 1-6 Microsoft Lync includes the tools you need to make instant calls and set up online meetings.

With Microsoft Lync, you can make instant contact with others, make Internet calls, share audio and video, and host online meetings. You’ll nd out how to use the various features in Microsoft Lync in Chapter 11, “Talking It Over with Microsoft Lync.”

16 Chapter 1 What’s Happening with the World of Work?

Work with Ofce Web Apps

Ofce Web Apps make it super simple for you to save your Ofce 2010 les online, where you can easily access them from your PC, browser, or phone. If you plan to download, deploy, and license Ofce 2010 Professional Plus with the pay-as-you-go option, you can use the Install Your Ofce 2010 Professional Plus subscription link on the Home page

to download the software and sync it with Ofce 365.

This subscription solution is a great way to ensure that you have the latest updates on the Ofce 2010 software you use. Additionally, you don’t need to have a big IT team to handle the deployment for you, and you can get help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and even make tech support calls as part of the deal. What’s more, you can use the Ofce 2010 applications on your desktop, in your browser, or via your smartphone; save them to your SharePoint libraries; or share them with others on your team through email, by instant message, or in a meeting.

What’s Next

This chapter explored the ways our work world is changing and showed that the time is ripe for cloud computing. Whether you plan to use the cloud yourself—to trade les and access documents from home, from work, and on the road—or you need to create, manage, and lead a team, this chapter gave you a sense of the big picture in Ofce 365. The next chapter shows you how to create an Ofce 365 account and set up a prole, and it shows you how easy it is to accomplish specic business tasks in Ofce 365 so that you can begin planning just what you want to do with the tools.

CHAPTER 2

Getting Started with Ofce 365

IN THIS CHAPTER:

■

CreatingYourOfce365Account

■

ALookAroundtheOfce365

HomePage

■

SettingUpaProle

■

HowDoesAllThisWork?

■

What’sYourService?Different

Setups,DifferentServices

■

GettingReadytoUseOfce365

■

HowOfce365MeetsSmall

BusinessNeeds

BY N O W, YO U ’RE an old pro at creating a new account and setting

up an online prole, right? You create accounts all the time and are

very familiar with the process of posting your information—just what

you want others to see—in the public prole portions of your accounts.

In this way, Ofce 365 is similar to other sites that want to get you up

and running as smoothly as possible. You’ll set up some of the basics of

your account—user name, password, type of account, and so forth—and

then begin building on those basics to create the kind of online cloud

experience you want to have and share with others.

Businesses of all sizes—with teams of all congurations, working from all locations—will nd that Ofce 365 makes connecting, sharing information, and collaborating on projects easy and intuitive. Because you already know the programs—all the Ofce 2010 favorites—you won’t have a big learning curve. And with its

99.9 percent uptime guarantee, Microsoft promises the site will be working round the clock—whether or not you have the IT staff to support it.

So, whether you nd this exciting or not, it all begins here. Fortunately for you, Microsoft makes the whole process pretty painless. This chapter shows you how to create your account, set up your prole, and envision the services you want to make available for your team in Ofce 365.

18 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

Creating Your Ofce 365 Account

The rst step in accessing the wonders behind the Ofce 365 curtain involves creating your own account. Begin by going to www.ofce365.com to sign up. The rst question Ofce 365 will ask you is to decide whether you want to use the Small Business version or the Enterprise version of Ofce 365. This book focuses on the features you’ll nd in the Small Business version, which gives you everything you need for creating a team site, sharing documents, working with email and instant messaging, hosting online meetings, and more. The Enterprise version is designed for larger organizations that have sophisticated data needs and require advanced archiving and Active Directory capabilities.

After you choose Small Business, Ofce 365 presents you with a simple form to ll out. You provide your name and Windows Live ID (and you can sign up for one during this process if you don’t already have one), and then you pass muster by typing the validation key and clicking OK. When you click Continue, Ofce 365 lets you know that it will send your new user name and password to the email address you specied. The Ofce 365 home page then appears, and one by one the various services that are part of Ofce 365 begin to load. (See Figure 2-1.)

FIGURE 2-1 After you sign up for Office 365, the program begins to load your software services.

Tip You’ll see the note, “This may take a few minutes…” only the rst time

you access Ofce 365. After the services are added to your account, you won’t have this kind of wait time again.

Chapter 2 19

Creating Your Ofce 365 Account

WHAT’S A MICROSOFT ONLINE SERVICES ID, ANYWAY?

When you rst visit www.Ofce365.com, you might think the site is asking for your Windows Live ID. However, if you try to sign in using that tried-and-true user name and password, you’ll get a rather unfriendly message: You are now required to sign in at Live.com or You are now required to sign in at MSN. What does that mean, and how does it get you into Ofce 365?

The answer to the mystery is that your Microsoft Online Services ID and your Windows Live ID are two different things. To keep Ofce 365 secure (and paid for), site security is enforced by admitting only licensed users into the site. This means that the administrator of your Ofce 365 site needs to generate your Microsoft Online Services ID and password, and that’s done through the Microsoft Online Ofce Subscription website. If you don’t have a Microsoft Online Services ID, contact your administrator to get your ID and password so that you can get into your group’s Ofce 365 site.

You’ll notice also that whatever name you select, Microsoft adds “onmicrosoft.com” to the name you’ve chosen for your Ofce 365 account. You’ll also nd that the URL for the public-facing website that is part of your account has “sharepoint.com” appended to it. These name additions won’t cause you any problem, but make a note of them so that you remember how to get into your team site and nd your website easily later.



A Look Around the Ofce 365 Home Page

After you enter the necessary Microsoft Online Services ID (or create a new account), you are presented with the Ofce 365 Home page. The Ofce 365 Home page has a minimalist design, offering you primary site choices across the top (Home, Outlook, and Team Site—plus Administrator if you’re, well, the administrator). As Figure 2-2 shows, on the left side of the screen, you see categories that introduce you to the overall process and then to each of the primary Ofce 365 services:

■

 Start here walks new users through the simple tasks involved in setting up Ofce

365 for everyday use. New users learn how to set up their computers, and learn about the basics of Ofce 365. Users who will serve as administrators for the site can go to the Admin page and add new users to the account.

■

 Outlook is short for Outlook Web App, the familiar web version of Ofce 2010.

You can use Outlook to check and send email, schedule appointments and tasks, and set up email and calendar options.

20 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

■

 Lync contains the settings you congure to send instant messages, set up online

meetings, and share audio and video clips with others on your team using Microsoft Lync.

■

 Team site contains all the options you need to create a team site with Microsoft

SharePoint. You can access your team site, view documents you’re sharing with others, or create a new Word document, Excel worksheet, PowerPoint presentation, or OneNote notebook.

 Note Clicking each one of the Ofce 365 icons launches a different Ofce Web

App—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or OneNote—and opens a new docu- ment. (You’ll learn more about working with Ofce 365 Web Apps in Chapter 8, “Working with Ofce 2010 Web Apps.”)

■

 Website lists the link to your public website, which you can easily modify with the

content, pages, and pictures you want the public to see.

FIGURE 2-2 The Office 365 Home page gives you the links you need to access your mail and manage

your calendar, connect with your team in real time, and work on your Office documents.

Chapter 2 21

A Look Around the Ofce 365 Home Page

CHECKING OUT YOUR RESOURCES

On the right side of the Ofce 365 home page, you’ll see the Resources column, which includes links to more information that can help you get started using Ofce 365. At the top of the column, you see a search box, which you can use to locate help content on any topic related to Ofce 365. Just click in the box, type a word or phrase that describes the type of information you’d like to nd, and click Search. A pop-up window gives you a list of search results with links to the information you’re looking for. You can return to Ofce 365 by simply clicking the close box.

Back on the Ofce 365 Home page, the top article in the Resources area shows you how to import your contacts to your Outlook Web App address book. You can also nd out how to set up your smartphone to receive your Ofce 365 mail (which you’ll learn more about later in this chapter), and you can click the Downloads link to install additional Ofce 365 services.

At the bottom of the Resources column, you’ll see a set of Community links that display ways you can interact with other Ofce 365 users. You can ask a ques- tion in one of the Ofce 365 forums, read the Ofce 365 blog, or add your own thoughts and content to the forum, wiki, or other community efforts.

Setting Up a Prole

Your rst task, after you create your Ofce 365 account, is to tell the program a little about your preferences and interests. Your prole—similar to ones you’ve probably created on social media sites—lists the basics about who you are, where you live, and what language you use. There’s nothing fancy or too involved here, as you can see from Figure 2-3. Note, however, that the basic info about you—your name and address, for example—aren’t editable in the prole screen. That’s because the Administrator of your account is the one responsible for making changes to user accounts. You learn how to set up and edit user account info in Chapter 3, “Administering an Ofce 365 Account.”

22 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

FIGURE 2-3 Configuring your profile.

Changing Your Password

If your Ofce 365 account was created for you—which means that instead of you signing up for the service and entering the password you want to use to access your account, an administrator did this for you—you will have received an autogenerated password that you’ll most likely want to change when you log in to Ofce 365. Here’s how to do that:

1. Click My Prole.

2. Click Change Password.

3. If prompted, sign in again using your user name and password; then click Close.

4. In the Change Password window, type your old password. (See Figure 2-4.)

5. Click in the Create New Password box, and type a new password for your account.

6. Type the new password a second time.

7. Click Submit.

Chapter 2 23

FIGURE 2-4 You can change your password in your profile page.

Setting Up a Prole

WHAT MAKES A GOOD PASSWORD?

Your password for Ofce 365 needs to be at least eight characters in length. To increase the strength of the password—which decreases the risk that your password will be deciphered by someone else—use a variety of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.

The Password Strength bar shows you how strong the password you’re suggesting will be; you can revise the password as needed to make it as strong as possible.

Changing Your Prole Picture

Ofce 365 also gives you the option of adding your own photo to your prole so that others will be able to see your image—or your favorite character, animal, or place—in various places on Ofce 365. To change the prole picture, follow these steps:

1. On your prole page, click Change Photo. (See Figure 2-5.)

2. Click Browse, and navigate to the folder containing the picture you’d like to use.

3. Click the picture, and click Open.

4. Click Upload. (See Figure 2-6.)

24 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

FIGURE 2-5 Click Change Photo to begin the process of changing your profile picture.

FIGURE 2-6 Click Browse, and navigate to the folder containing the picture you want to use.

The new photo appears in your prole photo. You can change the photo at any point by repeating steps 1 through 4 and choosing a new photo.

Setting Ofce 365 Preferences

You can also change some of your preferences by scrolling to the bottom portion of the screen, where the items you can change are located. (See Figure 2-7.) You can change the language in which Ofce 365 is displayed, enter your phone numbers, update your email address, and sign up to receive more information on various topics related to Ofce 365.

If you want to change the display language, click the Language arrow and choose the language you want to use. In Contact Preferences, enter your Preferred Phone and Preferred Mobile Phone numbers if you like. You can also change your Preferred Email by

clicking in the box and typing a new email address.

In the Contact Me About area, you can indicate which (if any) of the topics interest you enough that you’d like to receive more information about the products and services listed. To remove yourself from any of the topics, click to clear the checkmarks or click the Clear All link at the bottom of the list.

Chapter 2 25

Setting Up a Prole

To save all the changes on your prole, click the Save button at the bottom of the page. You can then return to the ofce 365 Home page by clicking Home at the top of the Ofce 365 window.

FIGURE 2-7 Save your profile changes by clicking Save at the bottom of the profile page.

Tip How Do I Change Everything Else? Because Ofce 365 is set up so

that the Administrator of your site sets up and manages user accounts, some of the prole information is beyond your ability to change. If you’re also an Admin of the site, you can log in as an Administrator, click Users, choose the account you want to change, and click Settings. There you’ll be able to change some of the basic user information, such as location, address, and more.

26 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

How Does All This Work?

Getting your mind around all this cloud possibility—especially when a number of congurations are available—might feel like a lot to try to imagine all at once. Cloud

services are called that because the software and data centers appear when you need them and vaporize when you don’t, like clouds—in other words, the resources you need to use applications, store data, and enable teams to connect are there when you need them and used elsewhere when you don’t.

This enables businesses of all sizes to get access to the programs and services they need through a web-based service model. And it means that small businesses—who have the need for reliable technology but might not have a robust IT staff to support

it—can benet by having guaranteed access to technology that is hosted, supported,

and deployed from the service provider (in this case, Microsoft Online Services). And the

icing on the cake is that the cloud approach is better for the environment because data

centers share resources and services, which also reduces the systems and servers your

own company needs to have to support the work you do.

When you think of all the different services required to keep your business or team

running efciently and effectively and put them in a cloud, the whole conguration

might look something like this simplied diagram:

Online meetings

Shared documents

Guaranteed up-time

Data storage

Collaboration

Email management

Security

Team sites

Real-time communication

Chapter 2 27

What’s Your Service? Different Setups, Different Services

Ofce 365 is available in three different versions that are designed to give you just what you need—no more, and no less. Here’s the quick rundown:

■

 Ofce 365 for Small Business (which is the focus of this book) includes access to

Ofce Web Apps, up to 50 user accounts, a 25-GB mailbox for each user, mobile support, the ability to stay in touch with instant messaging, presence technology, audio and video, and team sites with SharePoint Online. The subscription cost for Ofce 365 for Small Business is $6 per user.

■

 Ofce 365 Enterprise includes all the features of Small Business as well as the

full Ofce Professional Desktop software and pay-as-you-go pricing options. Enterprise users can also add kiosk plans that offer access to email, documents, and team sites in Ofce 365. Enterprise users can choose from two different subscriptions: existing Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) customers pay $10 per month; enterprise users who want to purchase the pay-as-you-go Microsoft Ofce Professional Plus 2010 service pay $24 per month.

■

 Ofce 365 for Education provides students with access to the Ofce 365

services—Ofce Web Apps, instant messaging, audio and video, and team sites— plus the latest version of Microsoft Live@edu, an online community of thousands of schools. Pricing for Ofce 365 for Education is $10 for educators and staff; the service is free for students.

IS OFFICE 365 THE NEW OFFICE LIVE SMALL BUSINESS?

In a word, yes. If you previously used Ofce Live Small Business (OLSB) for web creation and hosting, email, marketing, and more, you might be wondering how that service might overlap with Ofce 365. Ofce 365 includes all the greatest features of Ofce Live Small Business, and in late 2011 or early 2012, Microsoft plans to offer existing OLSB users a free transition to Ofce 365 for three months. After the initial free period, you can continue with your Ofce 365 for Small Business account for only $6 a month.

28 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

Getting Ready to Use Ofce 365

After you set up and log in to your Ofce 365 account, you need to do a few more things

to get all the services ready to use. Specically, you need to

■

 Download and install Microsoft Lync so that you can use instant messaging to

contact others on your team, share audio and video, and hold online meetings.

■

 Get ready to use your existing Ofce programs.

■

 Set up your mobile phone to work with Ofce 365.

This section walks you through those tasks so that you can begin to arrange your cloud

experience just the way you want it.

Installing Microsoft Lync

Microsoft Lync 2010 is the service that enables you to send instant messages to any

member of your team who is available for contact. You can see the online presence of

team members, share audio and video les, and schedule online meetings, phone calls,

and more. Lync Online is the utility that connects your team in real time, whether you

have something important to discuss or just want to ask somebody a quick question.

Begin the process of downloading and installing Microsoft Lync by clicking Install Lync

2010 in the Lync category of the Ofce 365 Home page. On the Downloads page (shown

in Figure 2-8), choose your version (32-bit or 64-bit) and click Install.

FIGURE 2-8 Install Microsoft Lync 2010 to add instant messaging, presence, audio, and video to your

Office 365 capabilities.

Chapter 2 29

Tip Not sure whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit system? Here’s how to nd

out: Click the Windows Start button and, on the right side of the Start menu, right-click Computer. Click Properties. In the System settings on the right side of the screen, you’ll see whether you have a 32-bit or 64-bit system by looking at the System Type value. Note that if you have a 64-bit version of Windows, you can install either the 32-bit or 64-bit version of Lync. Microsoft recommends that you use the 32-bit version unless you have a specic need for the 64-bit version.

Getting Ready to Use Of ce 365

After you click Install, the File Download – Security Warning dialog box appears so that you can choose whether you want to run or save the Lync install le. It’s OK to go ahead and run the installation utility directly from Ofce 365 (unless your business has a policy to the contrary—in which case, you can click Save and save the le to your desktop, where you can launch it after downloading by double-clicking it).

It will take a few minutes for Lync to download; then you might be prompted to restart your computer. (Not all computer installations require this, however.) If prompted, restart your system normally, and Microsoft Lync 2010 should start automatically. If it doesn’t, follow these steps to launch Lync 2010:

1. Click Start.

2. Click All Programs.

3. Click the Microsoft Lync folder.

4. Choose Microsoft Lync 2010 to start the program.

After Lync launches, it displays the window shown in Figure 2-9. As you can see, it resembles an instant messaging client such as Windows Live Messenger. There’s one big difference, though—where are your contacts? Because Ofce 365 is built to be secure and enable your work with your team, only team members who are part of your Ofce 365 group appear in your Lync window, unless you use Lync for logging on to other domains as well. Within Ofce 365, your administrator is the one who adds user roles and permissions so that others will appear in your Lync window, ready for contact. You’ll nd out more about setting up user accounts in Chapter 3.

30 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

FIGURE 2-9 Microsoft Lync enables you to reach your colleagues instantly and set up online meetings.

 SeeAlso You’ll nd all kinds of step-by-step procedures for using Microsoft Lync

2010 in Chapter 11, “Talking It Over with Microsoft Lync.”

HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR HAPPY LYNCING

One thing you’ll notice throughout Ofce 365 is that the services are designed to be

exible. Almost nothing about this program is a one-size-ts-all answer. And that

springs directly from the idea of the cloud—use what you need, and leave the rest for

somebody else to use. Toward that end, the hardware requirements you need to run

Lync 2010 depend on what you plan to do with the software. Understandably, sharing

video or hosting online meetings in real time requires more bandwidth and processing

power than simply sharing data or making a phone call now and then. The following list

shows you the recommended hardware requirements so that you can see whether your

system has what it takes to Lync successfully:

■

 Display Super VGA 800x600 [recommended: Super VGA 1024x768 or higher]

■

 Operating system Windows 7 or Windows Vista 32-bit, (64-bit for the 64-bit

version of Lync); Windows XP SP2, or Windows 2000 Professional SP4

Chapter 2 31

■

 Microprocessing power For just data and voice: Intel Pentium 500 MHz or

Getting Ready to Use Of ce 365

higher; For video: 1 GHz or higher; For online meetings 1.8 GHz or higher

■

 Memory 512 MB RAM

■

 Hard-disk space 1.5 MB

■

 Video card memory 64 MB RAM

■

 Audio Microphone and speakers, or headset with microphone

■

 Video Video camera or webcam

■

 Bandwidth For data only: 56 kbps (kilobyte per second); For data, voice, video,

and online meetings: 350 kbps

Tip If you work with team members all over the world—no problem. The

early version of the Ofce 365 Beta was available for users in Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Spain, United Kingdom, and the United States, but as the program goes to wider release, support for additional countries will be added.

Getting Ready to Use Ofce 2010

Ofce 365 offers you different ways to work with the Microsoft Ofce 2010 applications, depending on what you need to do with the various programs. As part of Microsoft Ofce 2010, you can access and work with Ofce Web Apps:

■

 Word Web App

■

 Excel Web App

■

 PowerPoint Web App

■

 OneNote Web App

Additionally, Outlook Web App enables you to receive and send email, set up meetings, assign tasks, and perform the most common tasks you use in your desktop version of Outlook 2010.

Ofce Web Apps are available to you as part of Ofce 365 no matter which version you are using. These Web Apps are great for creating, editing, sharing, and reviewing

32 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

content. What’s more, you can work collaboratively on documents with Word Web App,

partner on presentations with PowerPoint Web App, and co-edit in the same worksheet

with Excel Web App. You’ll nd out more about the capabilities of the Web apps—and

get the play-by-play on how to accomplish different tasks—in Chapter 8.

Tip Ofce 365 Enterprise users also receive access to the latest version of

Microsoft Ofce 2010 Professional Plus, which they can use on a pay-as- you-go basis. When Enterprise users click to use an Ofce application, Ofce 365 checks to ensure the user has been assigned a license for the software. The administrator of the Ofce 365 account handles this task and ensures that users have the necessary licenses. The cost for the license is included in the Ofce 365 package the organization selects.

Running Ofce 365 Desktop Setup

You can set up your desktop Ofce 2010 applications to work seamlessly with Ofce 365

by clicking Downloads in the Resources area on the right side of the Ofce 365 Home

page, which takes you to the Downloads page. Click the Set Up button in the Set Up And

Congure Your Ofce Desktop Apps area. Click Run (shown in Figure 2-10) to install and

run the utility.

FIGURE 2-10 The Office 365 Desktop Setup utility connects Office Web Apps to your Office 2010 desktop

applications.

After you run the Ofce 365 Desktop Setup utility, you’ll be able to open and work with

les from Ofce 365 in your Ofce 2010 applications. You’ll also be able to sign in to

Chapter 2 33

Getting Ready to Use Of ce 365

your Ofce 365 account by using your Microsoft Online Services ID directly in your Ofce 2010 programs. So it’s a convenience issue, but it also enables you to smooth out any wrinkles your desktop applications might encounter when you go to save or access les you’ve saved in Ofce 365.

In the Microsoft Ofce 365 Desktop Setup dialog box, click Continue to set up your applications and download any necessary program updates. (See Figure 2-11.) Click Continue. You will be asked to review and access the Ofce 365 user agreement, and then the utility begins searching for and downloading any available updates.

FIGURE 2-11 The Office 365 Desktop Setup utility configures the applications and downloads any

available updates for your programs.

You can get more information about what’s being downloaded by clicking the Show More Details link toward the right end of the status bar. The program items being updated are listed in the center column of the dialog box, and the link wording changes to Hide Details. (See Figure 2-12.) When the process is nished, click the Restart Now button to close all applications and reboot your computer so that the changes can take effect.

34 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

FIGURE 2-12 You can view the changes being made by clicking Show More Details and reviewing the list

of updates in the center of the dialog box.

Setting Up Outlook 2010

When all is said and done, your computer restarts and pops back up with one more

conguration screen, most likely telling you that a little manual work is required on your

part. You need to create an email account in your desktop version of Outlook so that the

Ofce 2010 Outlook Web App can interact seamlessly with your desktop version of the

program. The process is simple:

1. Open Outlook 2010.

2. Click on the File tab, and click Add Account.

3. Outlook might add your information automatically in the Auto Account Setup

page. Change the entries if necessary, and click Next.

Tip Check with your administrator if you are unsure about the settings you

need to enter here.

4. Outlook searches for your Exchange Online settings and prompts you to enter

your email address and your use name.

5. Click Finish to complete the process.

Chapter 2 35

Getting Ready to Use Of ce 365

 Note If you have trouble setting up your Ofce 365 email in Outlook 2010,

return to your Ofce 365 account and type the phrase Connect Outlook to this account to nd more help on this topic.

Now your desktop versions of Ofce 2010 applications are ready to work with your Ofce 365 account. You’ll nd out more about this—and all the related how-to tasks—in Chapter 6, “Posting, Sharing, and Managing Files.”

Setting Up Your Mobile Phone

Ah, now we get to the fun part. Who wants to be stuck at a desk all day working on some ho-hum report or trying to get some worksheet numbers to balance? Why not do it at the coffee shop, on the train, or while you’re waiting for the movie to begin? You can set up your mobile device to access and work with Ofce 365 data in a number of ways. After you connect your phone, you can check and send email, check your calendar, schedule appointments, and update your contacts information. You can also use Ofce 2010 Mobile Apps—for Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote—to carry on the work you started in Ofce 365.

To set up your mobile phone to work with Ofce 365, follow these steps:

1. On your Ofce 365 Home page, click Setting Up Email on Mobile Phones in the

Resources column on the right side of the window.

2. In the window that appears, click Mobile Phone Setup Wizard.

3. Begin by clicking the arrow and choosing your mobile phone operating system.

(See Figure 2-13.)

4. Finally, choose what you want to be able to do with your phone.

 Note The options displayed in the What Would You Like To Do? list depend

on the capabilities of the phone you selected and also on the account type you have with Ofce 365. For example, if you chose Windows Phone as your mobile operating system, your choices are Set Up Microsoft Exchange Email On Your Windows Phone and Set Up POP Or IMAP Email On Your Windows Phone. However, if you choose a BlackBerry device, your only choice is Set Up POP Or IMAP Email On A G1.

36 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

FIGURE 2-13 Begin by choosing your service provider in the Mobile Phone Setup Wizard.

Setting Up POP and IMAP Email

If you want to check your Ofce 365 email by using a POP or IMAP email account (which

is the default if you don’t use Microsoft Exchange), you can easily set up the account on

your phone by following these steps (note that these instructions were written for the

Windows 7 HTC HD 7 and might change slightly for different phones):

1. On your phone, tap Settings.

2. Tap Email & Accounts.

3. Tap Add An Account, and tap Other Account.

4. Enter your Ofce 365 email address and password.

5. Click Sign In.

The new account opens, and Windows 7 Mobile checks all your settings. After a moment,

the email is synchronized and you will be able to check and send email from your mobile

phone.

How Ofce 365 Meets Small Business Needs

In the chapters that follow, you’ll see all sorts of ways you can use the various Ofce

365 services to collaborate with team members, accomplish tasks, create projects, look

up data, and share what you know. The key to all this is exibility, creativity, and us-

ing just what you need. As you log in—from wherever you log in—and work with les,

messages, sites, and more, you’ll discover that you really can get in and out quickly and

complete the tasks you want to complete. And you can do all this without the huge

Chapter 2 37

overhead of servers, desk space, ofce rent, and transportation costs. And it’s supportable even without a highly trained IT department (because the Ofce 365 IT group has you covered).

In essence, Ofce 365 does what many of us have been waiting for a long time. It offers us the worry-free, easy-to-afford, and easy-to-support option of using our software to do what we need to do without having to struggle through all the technical details required to install and maintain it. This section takes a look at how Ofce 365 might fulll some of your critical business needs. The idea here is to provide some common examples to spark ideas in your mind and inspire you to try things that work in your unique situation.

How Ofce 365 Meets Small Business Needs

The Big Picture: Online and Off

Remember the days when you felt like you had to rush from home to ofce because you were afraid you were going to miss an important email message? Because email has become a common feature on most phones, that particular anxiety has dissolved for many of us. But often, reading and even responding to email on the phone can be limited. What if you need to look something up in a document you just created? What if another team member has the answer to the question the sender asked? You still need to wait until you get to the ofce to pull together the information for a satisfactory answer.

Ofce 365 makes it simple and seamless to stay in touch with your team and your les no matter where you are. You can easily move from your desktop computer to your laptop to your phone or even to a kiosk in the hotel lobby—looking up report information, checking your notes, or sending along a le that a teammate needs to review. You can easily move online and off, knowing that your les are stored in a place you can access them easily on any device that has web access.

Email, Calendars, Meetings, and More

Being able to access and send email is nothing new; chances are that you’ve been doing it by phone for a while now. But having your email easily connected to your schedule, group calendars, appointments, tasks, and more is a plus that helps you stay organized and synchronized with your team.

In Ofce 365, you can easily get to your inbox and calendar right from the Home page by clicking the appropriate links under the Outlook category. Outlook Web App enables you to check and compose email, manage contacts, set up meetings, arrange appointments, and create and track tasks, all in a single webpage. (See Figure 2-14.)

38 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

FIGURE 2-14 Outlook Web App makes it easy to access and work with your email, schedule, and contacts,

and complete tasks all from a single interface.

Tip Ofce 365 Enterprise users have access to Exchange Online, which

functions as a back end to manage communications while Outlook Web App is the front end. Exchange Online synchronizes received and sent messages, completed tasks, and more between all the different email access points you might use—desktop, Web, and phone. In functionality, Exchange Online is based on Active Directory services, which enable Enterprise users to access the global directory with all the contacts available in the organization.

Creating a Team Workspace

One of the challenges of working with a remote team is that there’s no common space

to share les, gather for meetings, or brainstorm about new ideas. Now Ofce 365

enables you to create a shared site where you can keep in touch with your team mem-

bers, create workows to track your projects, add project resources, schedule meetings,

and much more.

Chapter 2 39

How Ofce 365 Meets Small Business Needs

The team workspace capability is built on SharePoint Online. As you can see from Figure 2-15, you can customize your team site by adding all sorts of tools, web parts, media, and more. You can also create document libraries so that your team members all have access to the les they need, and you can add pages and content related to the projects you are creating.

FIGURE 2-15 Your team site in SharePoint Online enables your team to stay in touch, share documents,

schedule events, and much more.

Sharing Documents with Your Team

You can easily open, edit, and share the documents you save in your team site in SharePoint Online. When you choose to work with a le—a Word document, for example—it opens in Word Web App. You can choose to edit the document if you like, which opens the le in your version of Word while still keeping the le on the SharePoint server. You can also choose to edit the le in the Web App if you like.

You can then share the document window with another person on your team if you want to collaborate on the project in real time. When your other colleagues are working with the same le, the Ofce Web App you are using lets you know. (See Figure 2-16). The program locks areas where others are editing and then syncs all the changes so that the most recent changes to the document are preserved. In this way, you can collaborate on important les without fear of overwriting another team member’s changes or losing an important change.

40 Chapter 2 Getting Started with Of ce 365

FIGURE 2-16 You can easily work collaboratively in Office 365.

Instant Messaging, Calls, and Web Meetings with

Microsoft Lync

If you use instant messaging to get anything done—for business or for fun—you know

the benet of being able to communicate in real time, either one-to-one or one-to-

many. Microsoft Lync Online, available as part of Ofce 365, provides all the real-

time connection you need by offering an instant communications client with instant

messaging, social media tracking, easy-to-use phone and video calls, and even features

for setting up and hosting meetings. Figure 2-17 shows a Lync Online window in which

two contacts are having a one-to-one conversation.

FIGURE 2-17 You can easily send instant messages to your team members, initiate audio or video calls, or

host meetings with colleagues.

Chapter 2 41

By default, Lync Online is set to offer as contacts only those included in your Ofce 365 team, but your administrator can set up your group so that you can communicate with others inside or outside your organization. What’s more, others outside your group can be invited in for the meetings you host, so access and permissions don’t pose a problem (while at the same time giving you the security you need to protect your information).

How Ofce 365 Meets Small Business Needs

Behind-the-Scenes Support: Security and Reliability

Ofce 365 meets all kinds of needs for small businesses, but perhaps none is more important than this: you are working in a completely secure cloud, designed to provide multiple layers of protection so that your les, conversations, and collaborative efforts are safe. Ofce 365 services use 128-bit SSL/TSL encryption, which means that if communication is intercepted by an outside party, the le will be unreadable. Additionally, Microsoft Trustworthy Computing initiatives are in full force; antivirus signatures are continually updated, and Forefront Online Protection for Exchange protects and lters messages.

Tip You can take a closer look at the security measures Microsoft uses

for its Online Services by reading the “Security Features in Microsoft Online Services” paper available at the Microsoft Download center (www.microsoft.com/downloads).

Reliability is another promise Ofce 365 keeps well for small businesses. Because all services are in the cloud, you need to have guaranteed access to Web services to work reliably and productively. To help ensure that your work is always accessible to your team, many data centers all over the world host redundant network congurations. So if one data center is unavailable, another one takes its place so that your work can continue uninterrupted.

What’s Next

In this chapter, you got the roadmap for creating your account, setting up your prole, and downloading the software you need to get started. You also had a chance to think through some of the tasks you want your teammates to be able to accomplish using the various Ofce 365 tools. If you will be administering the site—that is, managing user accounts and permissions—the next chapter offers the how-tos for managing Ofce 365 from the administrator side of things.

CHAPTER 3

Administering an Ofce 365 Account

IN THIS CHAPTER:

■

AreYouanAdministrator?

■

AnOverviewofYour

AdministrativeTasks

■

FirstThingsFirst:KeyTasks

toComplete

■

AddingandManagingOfce

365Users

■

ViewingDomainProperties

■

SettingUpandManaging

OutlookandExchange

■

SettingUpSharePointOnline

■

ConguringLyncOnline

■

ManagingYourSubscriptions

■

GettingHelpwithOfce365

■

What’sNext

IT C A N B E LONELY at the top. If you’re the person responsible for

setting up or at least managing the Ofce 365 account, you have a whole

set of tasks and decisions to make that will affect the way your team

interacts in the space. But don’t worry—the choices are pretty simple,

and they’re easy to change later if necessary. And what’s more, there’s a

community of administrators (and Microsoft MVPs) who are waiting in

the wings to answer your questions if you get stuck along the way. Nice!

As you think through the way you want your team to interact in the cloud, you’ll need to make decisions about who will have access (and what kind of access they will have), which services you want to use, how you want to manage your email, and how the various services will be set up to work for your team. This chapter walks you through all those choices and more so that when it’s time to get everybody moving, you can hit the cloud running.

Are You an Administrator?

Administrator is an important-sounding word, and what it really means is this: you get to make decisions about your Ofce 365 account and get things set up the way you want them. With that glory comes responsibility, and this chapter will help you determine

44 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

which items are important for your group and which are not. Specically, you are an

administrator if

■

 You are creating and managing the account.

■

 It is up to you to add and manage users in the site.

■

 You assign and administer the different licenses your teammates use in Ofce 365.

(I’ll say more about that in a minute.)

■

 You are charged with setting up the various services the way you want them.

■

 You have been charged with a specic goal you’ll be helping your group to

achieve.

■

 You are the visionary behind the whole virtual team plan, and you want to see it

work.

■

 You’ll be designing, updating, and managing the SharePoint team site in your

account.

You might be taking on one or more of those tasks—or perhaps your role is bigger or

smaller. No matter—in Ofce 365, you can have more than one administrator, so if you

want to share the wealth of features all the better. Just to keep things simple, though,

it’s generally a good idea to have one person in charge of things such as user accounts,

permissions, and licenses. And if you have more than one administrator in the site, be

sure you communicate about big-picture decisions such as whether you want to migrate

email accounts so that other accounts combine with Ofce 365 mail or whether you want

to allow members to include external contacts in Lync Online. Orchestrating those types

of management choices helps you not duplicate—or undo—each other’s efforts.

Tip This is a philosophical consideration, but one great benet of being an

administrator is that you can think through the kind of team experience you want your members to have. How collaborative will it be? What types of projects will you be working on? What, ultimately, will a suc- cessful group look like? Thinking through those questions will help you make choices consistent with that vision when you set up the services in Ofce 365.

Chapter 3 45

An Overview of Your Administrative Tasks

So you already know you’re a special person because you’ve got the keys to the kingdom. When you log in to your Ofce 365 account, if you’re an administrator you’ll see the Admin link at the top right side of the choices at the top of the screen. When you click Admin, the Admin Overview page appears, as you see in Figure 3-1.

FIGURE 3-1 The Admin Overview page gives you access to the various ways you can administer the

Office 365 account.

When you rst click Admin after creating your Ofce 365 account, the Admin page shows the Get Your Team Started area at the top. This special group of links gives you what you need to know to begin setting up your site for your team. Specically, you can

■

 Watch a video clip about the administrative tasks in Ofce 365.

■

 See a video of user tasks and learn about Ofce 365 services.

■

 Add new users to your account.

■

 Add and verify the web domain you want to use with the account.

46 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

The Admin Overview page is divided into three main areas. On the left side are links you

use to manage the users and domains that are part of your Ofce 365 account. Here you

add and remove users, set permissions, enter and change passwords, and update user

properties and licenses. You can also view information about the various domains you set

up to use with Ofce 365, manage your service subscriptions, and check the status of the

system, get help, and review any existing technical support requests you created.

Tip What’s a domain? The domain of your website is the name of the space

online where your Ofce 365 account is stored. For example, in the examples in this book, the domain is wideworld.onmicrosoft.com.

The area in the center of the page lists the various services available to you in Ofce 365.

Clicking the various links under each of the service names, you will be able to

■

 Use the Admin Shortcuts to accomplish common tasks you will likely need to do

regularly—such as reset user passwords, add users, and assign licenses for working with Ofce 365 services.

■

 Set up Outlook to work as you’d like for your computer, complete with email

defaults and group usage.

■

 Prepare Lync for your team, and choose whether users can use Lync to

communicate with groups external to your team.

■

 Work with your team sites, set user permissions for the site, and create new sites

and pages.

■

 Create, design, and edit the public-facing website that is part of your Ofce 365

account.

The column on the right side of the Admin page offers links that provide more

information about administering your Ofce 365 site, connecting a mobile device,

accessing release notes, and downloading the utility you need to connect Lync Online

and the Ofce Web Apps with your desktop applications.

First Things First: Key Tasks to Complete

As you can see, that’s a lot to do! The good news is that you don’t have to tackle it all

at once—you can grow into the features as you get familiar with the services. The most

important thing when you’re starting out if you’re a small business is to accomplish the

following tasks:

Chapter 3 47

■

 Make sure team members have the permissions and licenses they need to log on

Adding and Managing Ofce 365 Users

and access Ofce 365 services.

■

 Make sure email is working the way you want it to for all your team members.

■

 Get started on the team site to provide access to the information your team needs.

■

 Set up Lync Online to allow le transfer and audio and video transmission if you

want your group to have access to those features.

■

 Know how to get help, create service requests, and check system status.

In the sections that follow, you’ll nd out how to do each of these core tasks and prepare Ofce 365 for the happy arrival of your colleagues.

Adding and Managing Ofce 365 Users

Your rst and perhaps most important task as the administrator of the Ofce 365 account is to make sure that your team can access the site. Click Users in the Management area to open the Users page. (See Figure 3-2.) In the Users screen of the Admin view, you can add and delete new users, edit permissions, and reset user passwords.

FIGURE 3-2 Click Users to add, edit, and update user information in Office 365.

48 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

Adding Users

After you click Users, the listing of team members already added to the site appears in

the work area. If you’re the only one who has accessed the site so far, yours might be

the only email listed. You can add users one by one, if you’re working with a small list, or

you can add many users using a slightly different process. Here are the steps for each—

choose the one you need.

Adding Users One at a Time

If you’ll be working with a small team, or you’ve already created a team and just want

to add a new user or two, the task is as simple as clicking the mouse and typing in a few

pieces of information. Here are the steps:

1. Click New in the Users screen and click User.

2. In the New User Properties screen, add the name, display name, and email address

you want to create for the new user

3. Click Additional Properties if you’d like to add additional information about this

user in the site. (See Figure 3-3.)

4. Click Next.

FIGURE 3-3 Adding a user is as simple as entering a display name and an email address.

Chapter 3 49

Adding and Managing Ofce 365 Users

 Note You don’t have to enter the person’s rst and last name, but you do need

to enter a display name that will be visible to others in the site. Also, note that at this point you cannot add an existing email address outside of your site domain. Later if you’d like to connect an existing email address to this account, you can do so. See the section, “Migrate Your Email,” to nd out more.

Tip Other users will be able to view this information in the user’s prole, so

if you’re working with a large team, ll in as much information as you have. This helps team members feel they know each other and begins the process of creating a more connected group experience.

After you’ve specied the basic properties for the new user account, you still need congure additional settings and permissions that control the way the new user will interact with Ofce 365 services. For more about how to do this, see the section, “Setting Permissions, User Location, and Sign-In Status,” later in this chapter.

Adding Multiple Users at Once

If you have a number of users to add all at once—perhaps a department manager at work sent along a le of all the contact information for your team—you can simply upload the data le directly into Ofce 365 and create users that way.

To add multiple users all at once, follow these steps:

1. Click New, and choose Bulk Add Users.

2. In the Bulk Add Users page (shown in Figure 3-4), click the Browse button to open

the Choose File To Upload dialog box.

3. Navigate to the folder containing the CSV le you want to use, click it, and click

Open.

Tip What’s a CSV le? CSV stands for comma-separated values, and this

common le format is used to store data from tables, worksheets, or databases. So a CSV le that includes information for your team might include information that looks like this: User name, First name, Last name, Display name.

 50 Chapter3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

FIGURE3- 4 Add many users all at once by importing a CSV file.

After Ofce 365 uploads the le, the user names are veried to ensure that all informa-

tion is ready to use. The verication screen shows you which information passed muster

and which produced errors.

You can view any errors produced by clicking the View link in the Log File category. If

you need to make a change to the data le, click the Back button at the bottom of the

screen and then return to the data le, make any corrections, and upload the CSV le

once again.

CREATEANDUPLOADACSVFILE

If you have user information you’d like to enter for everybody at once, you can down-

load the sample CSV le Ofce 365 makes available for you, ll in your own data, and

upload the le as described in the previous section. Alternatively, you can download

a blank CSV le, add your own contact information, and upload the le to Ofce 365.

Here’s the process for creating your own CSV le for your team:

 1. In Admin Overview, click Users.

 2. Click New, and choose Bulk Add Users.

 3. Click Download A Blank CSV File.

 4. Click Open. This opens an Excel worksheet so that you can copy and paste or type

your team information into the le. (See Figure 3-5.) Be sure to include the user’s full email address in the User Name eld.

Chapter 3 51

5. Save the le to your Documents library (or another folder where you store

Adding and Managing Ofce 365 Users

team-related les).

6. Return to the Bulk Add Users screen, click Browse, navigate to the CSV le you

just created, and add the le normally.

7. Click Next. Ofce 365 veries the addition of the new users to make sure the

information has been entered correctly.

FIGURE 3-5 When you click Open, Office 365 displays an Excel file with fields already set up to

record user information.

Setting Permissions, User Location, and Sign-In Status

The next step in the process depends on whether you are adding a single new user or are bulk adding new users. If you are adding only a single new user, the Settings screen is where you assign permissions and a location to the user. For the Permissions option, you can choose whether the user is to be an Ofce 365 administrator or not. To set the user location for an individual user, click the Select A Location arrow and choose the user’s country from the displayed list. Ofce 365 is available in a number of countries around

52 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

the world, but not all countries have access to the same services. Select the user’s country

for the displayed list, and click Next.

If you are bulk-adding new users, however, the Permissions option is replaced with a Set

Sign-in Status option, where you choose to allow or block access to Ofce 365 services

by the user. If you bulk-add new user accounts before employees are ready to use these

accounts, you can choose Deny to keep the accounts inactive. Then when an employee is

ready to use an account, you can change the sign-in status from Blocked to Allowed. In

addition to conguring sign-in status, you must also specify a location when bulk-adding

users.

Assigning Licenses

The next step involved in getting your users set up to use Ofce 365 involves assigning

them the licenses they need to use the services in the site. Depending on the version

of Ofce 365 you are using, you might have two different sets of licenses available, as

Figure 3-6 shows.

FIGURE 3-6 Click the license you want to assign to the new users you are adding.

Select the check box of the services you want the new user to be able to access. Ofce

365 shows on the right side of the screen the number of licenses you can assign to your

various team members. When you are satised with your selections, click Next.

Chapter 3 53

Tip If you nd that as your group grows you’re worrying about the number

of licenses you have available, you can remove user accounts that are no longer needed to reclaim their licenses so that they can be assigned to other new users.

Adding and Managing Ofce 365 Users

Sending an Invitation Email

Next Ofce 365 will walk you through the process of sending an email message to the new team member that includes an autogenerated password. By default, Ofce 365 enters the email address of the administrator who is creating the account. For security purposes, this email should generally be sent to an administrator and not to the new user account that is being created. The admin should then communicate the temporary password to the new user. This is especially true when creating bulk users because you don’t want each new user to know the temporary password of every other new user being created.

Click Create. Ofce 365 generates and sends the message, and then displays a report so that you can see that the message is on its way to the new user. (See Figure 3-7.) Click Finish to close the Results window and return to the Users window.

FIGURE 3-7 Office 365 lets you know that the email has been sent successfully.

54 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

That’s the whole process for adding users to Ofce 365. At any time, you can add users

individually, add another set of bulk users, or update properties for individual users

as needed. You need to keep an eye on the number of licenses you have available, of

course, but the process itself is a simple one.

Changing Passwords

The users you added will be able to access your Ofce 365 site and log in using the

temporary password that was generated for them when their account was created.

Depending on the security systems in place in your particular business, however, users

might not receive the email or might have trouble logging in. And, of course, some

users—including yours truly—just lose stuff from time to time (which is another reason

to have the temporary password emailed directly to you as the admin).

Ofce 365 knows that as an admin, managing passwords might be one of your biggest

headaches. Luckily, it’s one that can be healed easily. When you get a request to change

a user’s password and help that user access the site, you can do it in ve simple steps.

Here’s how:

1. Log in to Ofce 365, and click Admin.

2. In Admin Shortcuts, click Reset User Passwords.

3. Select the check box of the user whose password you want to change.

4. Click Reset Password. (See Figure 3-8.)

5. Again, your email address as the administrator will appear in the text box. Click the

Reset Password button to email yourself a copy of the new password, which you can then pass along to the user.

Chapter 3 55

FIGURE 3-8 You can easily reset the password in the Users screen of Admin view.

Viewing Domain Properties

Another part of your responsibilities as administrator involves keeping an eye on the domains that are part of your account. Depending on how complex your needs are, this might be super simple: you might have only one domain registered with Ofce 365. This enables you to track your team, create a team site, access the services you’ve sign up for, and so on.

But if your scenario isn’t quite so simple and you are managing multiple domains and many different sites, being able to display the domain information will be helpful. You can view the domains in use with your account by clicking Admin and then clicking Domains in the links on the left side of the Admin Overview screen. (See Figure 3-9.) The Status column on the right shows you whether the site is currently active or inactive. You can display the properties of a selected domain by clicking the domain’s radio button to the left of the domain name and clicking View Properties.

56 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

FIGURE 3-9 View the domains included on your account by clicking Domains in the Management area of

Admin view.

Adding a Domain to Ofce 365

When you sign up for your Ofce 365 account, you are assigned a default domain name

of the form yourcompany.onmicrosoft.com, where yourcompany is a name you specify during the signup process. This domain name is then used to set up your services, set up email, and more. You can also add a domain name you already have to your Ofce 365 account if you’d like. If your domain name is registered, you can add it to Ofce 365 by using the Add A Domain link in the top left column of the domain listing.

 Note You must own the domain name you choose to add to the Ofce 365

domains. At any point in the process, you can purchase a domain name from a domain registration site, such as Network Solutions, and click Add A Domain to assign it to Ofce 365.

On the Specify Domain screen, click in the text box at the bottom of the page, type

the domain name you want to add (for example, wideworld.com), and click Check

Domain. Ofce 365 displays the information found about that domain in the Domain

Conrmation screen. (See Figure 3-10.)

Chapter 3 57

FIGURE 3-10 After you add the domain name and click Check Domain, Office 365 displays the

information found about your pre-existing domain.

Viewing Domain Properties

Click Next to continue the process. In the Verify Domain window, if you’re ready to transfer the domain to your Ofce 365 account, follow the instructions provided to create a subdomain, edit the DNS settings, and complete the necessary permissions. You might need to involve your domain registrar in this process.

Finally, click Verify to nalize the process and make the domain available to Ofce 365. The entire operation might take up to 72 hours to complete. In the meantime, your added domain will appear as Pending Verication in the domain table in the Domains window.

Setting Up and Managing Outlook and Exchange

Now that you’ve got your users set up in the site, you’re ready to begin setting up your services. Let’s start with Outlook and Exchange, which you can use to create new mailboxes, create groups, set up calendars, and more.

58 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

Begin the process by clicking Admin and, in the Admin Overview window, click General

Settings in the Outlook area. The Exchange Online screen appears (shown in Figure 3-11),

where you can set up defaults for a number of features, including the following:

■

 Add mailboxes

■

 Create distribution lists

■

 Set up external contacts

■

 Add other email accounts to Exchange Online

Tip The Exchange Online settings you enter control the settings available

in other aspects of Ofce 365 as well, including the way email works for your user accounts and the types of lists and contacts that are available in the Outlook Web App and in Lync Online.

FIGURE 3-11 Exchange Online enables you to set up the way you want email to work in Office 365.

The Mailboxes features in Exchange Online follow steps similar to the ones you’ve already

taken to set up your users in Ofce 365. You can click New in the Mailboxes screen to

Chapter 3 59

Setting Up and Managing Outlook and Exchange

add a new user or click Import Users to upload a CSV le. The list of current users in your Ofce 365 account are displayed in the table at the bottom of the screen.

` Tip One neat feature in the Mailboxes area is the ability to create a Room

Mailbox. This feature is intended for times when you need to sched- ule a real, physical location, like a conference room, training room, or lunch room. You can set up a Room Mailbox and then, when you send out meeting requests to the team, simply include the room mailbox on the To list. The room is then scheduled automatically, and others in the organization know it is no longer available during that time. This, of course, isn’t a resource you would use if your team members are all working in the cloud from remote locations, but it’s a cool feature if you occasionally get together for face-to-face meetings.

Create a Distribution List

You can create a distribution list in Exchange Online to control the ow of outgoing communications. If you regularly send out status updates from the site, for example, or you publish a list of site changes on a weekly basis, you can create a distribution list to make sure that all the users who need to receive that information get the message. To create a distribution list for your users in Exchange, follow these steps:

1. In the Outlook area of the Admin Overview page, click Distribution Groups.

2. Click New on the Distribution Groups tab.

3. Enter a name, alias, and description for the distribution list.

4. If you want the group to be secure so that people can join the group only by

requesting to be added to the secure list, select the Make This Group A Security Group check box. (See Figure 3-12.)

5. Click the Membership area, and click Add; then click the user or users you want to

add to the list. Click Add at the bottom of the dialog box and click OK.

6. Choose any additional options—or add other users as owners of the list—and

click Save.

60 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

FIGURE 3-12 You can create a distribution list to send specific communication to selected users.

Add External Contacts

One of the great things about your Ofce 365 account is that you can create a

completely secure space in the cloud where your team can collaborate and focus on

specic tasks at hand. But part of your work is sure to require correspondence with

contacts outside your happy little group, whether they are customers, contractors, or

other colleagues who aren’t part of your Ofce 365 team.

You can set up external contacts to allow users outside your organization to receive

email from and send email to your team. The users you add will actually appear in your

team’s address book, but they won’t be able to access your site. To add an external

contact to your list, follow these steps:

1. In the Admin Overview page, click General Settings in the Outlook area.

2. In the Exchange Online screen, click External Contacts.

3. Click New.

4. Enter the name, alias, and email address of the external contact.

Chapter 3 61

5. Click Save. The external contact is added to the list at the bottom of the External

Setting Up and Managing Outlook and Exchange

Contacts screen. (See Figure 3-13.)

FIGURE 3-13 You can create a list of external contacts who will be able to communicate with your

Office 365 team.

The external contact will show up in your address book so that you can send messages to and receive messages from the person you’ve added to the list.

Migrate Your Email

As you lead your team into the cloud, you might be considering migrating your email from your traditional server-bound conguration to a new cloud address at Ofce 365. This enables you to keep all your messaging—address books, rules and alerts, messages, and more—available online from any point of access, anytime. You can easily move your existing mailboxes to Ofce 365, or you can keep the mailboxes on the server and use your Ofce 365 mail alongside the server-based setup.

Ofce 365 enables you to coordinate your various email accounts in a couple of different ways. If you’re using POP accounts, you can use Connected Accounts in Outlook Web App to add access to those accounts to your Ofce 365 account. (You’ll learn more about this in Chapter 10, “Email and Organize in Ofce 365.”)

62 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

For other types of email accounts such as IMAP accounts , you can use the Email

Migration tool to move your email accounts to the mailboxes in Ofce 365. Here are

the steps:

1. In the Admin Overview screen, click General Settings in the Outlook category.

2. Click EMail Migration.

3. Click New.

4. Select the type of email account you’ll be migrating, and click Next.

5. Specify the account information as requested.

6. In the Start Migration page, click Run.

After the migration is complete, Ofce 365 sends you a status email giving you

information about the migration—how many mailboxes and distribution groups

migrated successfully, whether any errors were produced, as well as a report providing

mail in Ofce 365 after the account has migrated, so be sure to save this information.

Users will change the password after their rst login to the migrated account.

Setting Up SharePoint Online

You will use your SharePoint site to stay in touch with your team, share documents,

assign tasks, post questions, provide updates, and more. You can also use SharePoint to

create your own public website, giving your customers or clients a professional-looking

site where they can nd up-to-date information about your products or services.

As an administrator, your rst task is to make sure all your team members can get into

the SharePoint site and that the basics are in place so that people can begin creating

the team experience you want them to create. This section focuses on setting up users

and permissions, and the rest of the customizing experience (as well as all the how-tos

for basic SharePoint Online tasks) is covered in Chapter 5, “Creating Your Team Site with

SharePoint Online.”

Adding Users for SharePoint Online

Your rst task involves adding users to your SharePoint team site. Even though you have

already set up user accounts in Ofce 365, those users aren’t automatically added to

Chapter 3 63

Setting Up SharePoint Online

SharePoint—you need to do that yourself. To add your team members to the SharePoint site, follow these steps:

1. In the Admin Overview page, click Manage Team Sites in the Team Sites And

Documents area.

2. In the Team Site Settings screen (shown in Figure 3-14), click People And Groups in

the Users And Permissions area.

FIGURE 3-14 SharePoint Online offers a whole world of settings you can use to tailor the way your

site looks and acts.

3. Under Groups in the navigation area on the left side of the screen, click Members

and click New.

4. Click Add Users. The Grant Permissions dialog box appears. (See Figure 3-15.)

5. Enter the email addresses of your team members, separating them with semi-

colons.

6. In the Personal Message box, type a message you want your team members to

receive.

7. Click OK. The new users are added to the Members list.

64 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

FIGURE 3-15 Add your team members to the Users/Groups field by typing their email addresses,

separated by semi-colons.

Assigning User Permissions

Now that you’ve added people to the site, you can set the user permissions so that your

team members can perform the tasks you want them to accomplish in the site. You can

do this in one of two ways in SharePoint Online, and it’s just a bit confusing if you’ve

never worked with SharePoint before.

SharePoint enables you to assign permissions for specic individuals, or you can assign

permissions by groups, and make sure that individual team members are part of the

group you want to have the necessary access level. For example, you might give some

team members the ability to view and change content, while others have only the

permissions they need to review content posted in the site.

SharePoint offers six permission levels: View Only, Enhanced Contribute, Read,

Contribute, Design, and Full Control. Table 3-1 denes each of these permission levels.

Chapter 3 65

TABLE 3-1 User Permission Levels in SharePoint Online

Setting Up SharePoint Online

Permission Level Permitted User Action

View Only View content but not edit it

Read View and download content

Contribute View, edit, add to, and remove content

Design View, edit, add to, remove, approve, and customize content

Full Control Has full control of the SharePoint site

Enhanced Contribute View, edit, add to, and remove content, and approve items and

manage lists

The simplest way to work with permissions for your team members is to begin with the basics: each new member you add to SharePoint is given Member privileges, which means the new member can read all content on the site and contribute to that content (through editing, adding, or removing material). So if you’re ne with everyone being able to read and edit the site, you’re good—no changes are required.

If you want to change the default permission for a specic user—either limiting the permission so that the user can only read the information, for example, or granting full control so that the team member can make all kinds of changes on the site (including adding and removing user accounts), you need to know how to modify permissions. Here’s how to do that:

1. On the Admin Overview page, click Manage Team Sites in the Team Sites And

Documents category.

2. On the Team Site Settings page, click Site Permissions in the Users And Permissions

area.

3. Click Grant Users Permission Directly (shown in Figure 3-16), and then click the

permission level you want to assign to the team member.

4. Type the text for the email message if you want to send one, and click OK. The

team member is assigned the permission level you selected.

66 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

FIGURE 3-16 Click Grant Users Permissions Directly to choose individual permissions for the users

you select.

GROUP TYPES AND PERMISSIONS IN SHAREPOINT

If you’re working with large teams or coordinating the activities of more than one team, you might nd the group method easier because you can simply assign team members to the specic group and then manage the permissions for everyone all at once. The groups SharePoint sets up by default are these:

■

 Members, who can read content and contribute to the content on the site

■

 Owners, who have full control of the site

■

 Tenant Users, who are given the permissions you assign to your domain group

■

 Viewers, who can read all content on the site

■

 Visitors, who can read the content on the site when they are granted access

■

 Website Designers, who are assigned design privileges

You can use these groups or create a new group with the permissions you want to provide to your team members by using the controls in the Users And Permissions area of the SharePoint Settings screen.

Chapter 3 67

Conguring Lync Online

Your nal task for setting up Ofce 365 for the rest of your team involves making sure Microsoft Lync Online is ready to help members communicate the way you need it to. Depending on the types of projects you work on and the ways in which you want your colleagues to connect, you might choose to turn on various features to help les and messages ow a little more smoothly.

Set External Communications

Begin in the Admin Overview page by clicking General Settings in the Lync area. The Lync Online Control Panel appears, as you see in Figure 3-17, providing options for you to allow or disable external communications (meaning that people outside your organization will—or won’t—be able to contact your team in Ofce 365). In addition to setting up external communications, you can tailor the settings and permissions you’ve assigned to each user.

FIGURE 3-17 The Lync Online Control Panel enables you to set contact preferences, user permissions, and

dial-in conferencing settings.

68 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

Modifying User Information

To change the settings for a particular user, click User Information in the Lync Online

Control Panel. This link takes you to a page listing the various users on your account.

Select the check box for the user with the information you want to change and click Edit

User. As you can see in Figure 3-18, Lync Online displays a window showing the user’s

information so that you can change the settings that do the following:

■

 Allow the user to send les using Lync.

■

 Enable the user to hear audio and watch video.

■

 Let the user communicate with others outside your Ofce 365 team.

By default, all these options are enabled; to disable the capabilities, simply deselect the

check box of the item you want to change.

FIGURE 3-18 You can set program capabilities for individual users in Lync Online.

Setting Up Dial-in Conferencing

In the bottom half of the Lync Online Control Panel, you’ll see information about dial-in

conferencing. This feature enables team members to join an online meeting by call-

ing in. Before you can set up dial-in conferencing in Lync, you need to have an account

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Conguring Lync Online

established with an audio-conferencing vendor. You can then add the information the vendor provides you—such as the call-in number and password—to each user account so that your team members can join audio conferencing when you host online meeting using Lync.

To enter the dial-in conferencing information, click the Manage link. The Edit DialIn Conference Settings window appears. (See Figure 3-19.) You can add the dial-in conference information to a user account by clicking the user name and following these steps:

1. Click the Provider arrow, and choose the name of your provider from the list.

2. Type the call-in local number.

3. Type the call-in toll-free number.

4. Type the passcode for the account.

5. Click Save.

FIGURE 3-19 Enter the audio-conferencing access numbers and passcode for each user who will

participate.

NOTE Ofce365cautionsyouthattheinformationyouenterforvarioususersmustmatch

exactlytheinformationprovidedbyyouraudio-conferencingvendor.Otherwise,theuserwon’tbeabletojoinintheconferencewhenthetimecomes.

70 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

Managing Your Subscriptions

One of the beautiful things about Ofce 365 is that it’s built on a model of efciency. You

can purchase only what you need—for only the team members you need—and keep

your costs down and your support load light while moving toward the business-critical

goals on your horizon. To help you manage who uses what and when they use it, Ofce

365 gives administrators the means to review, manage, and change the subscriptions to

the services their teams use.

You’ll nd the tools you need for reviewing and managing subscriptions in the

Subscriptions area on the left side of the Admin Overview page. Each of the three links

offers you a different way to survey your Ofce 365 subscriptions:

■

 Manage provides you with a listing of all current subscriptions in use by your

team.

■

 Licenses shows the number of licenses you have available (and are using) as part

of your subscriptions.

■

 Purchase enables you to instantly add to the subscriptions you already have.

To view your team’s subscriptions in Ofce 365, click the Manage link. The table shown in

Figure 3-20 will appear. (Your subscriptions might look a bit different, of course.)

FIGURE 3-20 In the Subscriptions area, you can review the subscription and licenses available in your

Office 365 account.

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Getting Help with Ofce 365

 Note The image in Figure 3-20 was captured during the beta program, which is

why “No cost” appears in the Cost column.

When you click Licenses, Ofce 365 shows you the number of licenses currently in use by your team members, as well as the total number of licenses available to you. You can give users access to services by returning to the Admin Overview page and clicking Assign User Licenses in the Admin Shortcut area in the top center portion of the screen. Then click the user name and either select the check boxes of services you want to add or clear the check boxes of services you want to remove.

Tip If you need to pick up a few more licenses, remove user accounts you’ve

assigned that you no longer need.

Finally, the Purchase window enables you to add to the subscriptions and licenses you have available in Ofce 365. This enables you to add on to what you need in real time, without requiring you to leave the site, purchase or download software, or jump through any of the hoops that installing new programs often requires. Nice!

Getting Help with Ofce 365

Even though Ofce 365 is built on what are likely to be some of your favorite and most familiar applications, learning the whole lay of the land—and creating the kind of setup you want—does involve a learning curve. Knowing this, Microsoft has created an engaged and active support community to help you get the help you need.

You’ll nd access to help throughout Ofce 365, whether you’re working in the Admin area or not. For general help needs, you can click in the search box at the top of the right-most column and type a word or phrase that reects what you’re looking for. You can also click any of the links on the right—including the Community links—to nd additional how-tos, ask a question in the forums, or read the Ofce 365 blog.

On the Admin Overview page, you also have the option of displaying the Support Overview page, where you can search for help in the community, see what people are saying in the forums about the different services, and get a bird’s-eye view of your billing and service requests. (See Figure 3-21.)

72 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

FIGURE 3-21 The Support Over view page gives you, as an admin, a big-picture look at various help

offerings.

Other help tasks that fall to you as the administrator involve creating service requests for

those times when you need professional assistance with the site, and checking over-

all system status to ensure there are no interruptions in service. These tasks are very

important when you’ve got people logging in from all over the world and the web is

your primary means of connection.

Creating Service Requests

Anyone who has ever spent time on the phone with technical support knows this

universal truth: it is not fun.

First, you’re probably frustrated because the software isn’t working the way it should.

Second, you probably have a deadline hanging over your head, which adds pressure.

Third, as an administrator, you’re at least in some capacity the one who has to gure this

stuff out. So when you’re having trouble with a program or you have a question you or

your team members can’t nd the answer to, what do you do?

Begin by clicking Admin in Ofce 365 to access the Admin Overview page. Then click

Service Requests in the Support area on the left side of the screen. In the Service

Requests window, click New Request. (See Figure 3-22.) This opens a new Service Request

Chapter 3 73

Getting Help with Ofce 365

window so that you can ll in the information you need in order to communicate your problem clearly to tech support.

FIGURE 3-22 You can start a new service request by clicking Service Requests in the Support area of the

Admin Overview page.

Here are the steps to get started lling out the service request form:

1. In the Identify Issue window, identify the problem as clearly as you can. Click the

Service arrow, and choose the service you are having trouble with (Exchange, Lync, or SharePoint).

2. Click the Service Area arrow, and choose the category that reects what you’re

having trouble with.

3. Click the Problem Description arrow, and choose your questions or issue from the

list.

4. Click Operating System, and choose the operating system running on your

computer. Similarly, choose the Ofce version and browser you use.

5. Click Next.

74 Chapter 3 Administering an Ofce 365 Account

6. Enter a title that gives the technician an idea of the problem you’re having.

7. Click in the Description area, and describe the problem fully.

8. In the Error Message area, provide any error messages you receive.

9. Click the arrow to the right of Have You Reproduced This Problem On More Than

One Computer?, click either Have Not Tried, No, or Yes to let the technician know whether the problem exists on only one system or throughout your site.

10. Click Next.

It’s often helpful for tech support personnel to see what you see when they are

evaluating a problem you’re having. You can capture a screen shot of any error message

or problem you see on-screen and send the image to the technician. To capture the

image, you can simply press Prt Sc while the problem is displayed on the screen and then

paste the picture into your favorite image editor (such as Windows Paint); then save the

le. Attach the le to your service request in the Attach File page by clicking the Attach

A File link. Navigate to the le you want to attach, click Open, and when prompted, click

Yes to afrm that you do want to attach the le.

The le appears in the center of the File Attachments page. You can remove the

attachment if you’d like by clicking the Remove link that appears to the right of the

attached le.

Tip Of course, you aren’t just limited to capturing a screen shot of the

problem—you can use Problem Steps Recorder in Windows 7 to record the steps that reproduce the problem and then upload the le along with your service request.

Finally, send your service request to Microsoft by clicking the Submit button. Ofce 365

displays a Conrmation window, providing a summary of your request and providing a

reference number. Click Finish to return to the Service Requests page.

Checking System Status

When you depend on a web-based service to provide connectivity to your team

members and access to your programs and les, making sure the service is up and

running correctly is a major concern. Recognizing this, Ofce 365 keeps you clued in about challenges and updates in the Ofce 365 system. If you’re having trouble accessing a service, for example, your rst step in solving the problem is to check the status of the overall system to make sure there aren’t service glitches somewhere along the way.

Chapter 3 75

Getting Help with Ofce 365

To check the system status of Ofce 365, follow these steps:

1. Click Admin to display the Admin Overview screen.

2. In the Support area on the left side of your screen, click Service Health. The Service

Health screen shows you the status of all the different services running in Ofce

365. (See Figure 3-23.)

3. Scroll down the list to check the status of all services.

4. Click the blue-and-white information icon to display the details about a particular

service interruption.

FIGURE 3-23 Check the system status of Office 365 to make sure that all services are up and run-

ning properly.

If you want to nd out when the software will be going through planned maintenance upgrades, click Planned Maintenance on the left side of the screen. You’ll be able to see when the next maintenance activities are scheduled, read details about the activity, and see the date and time the event is scheduled. This information will help you avoid scheduling site events that might be affected by the changes. For example, you might want to avoid scheduling an online meeting using Lync at the precise time the Lync service is set to undergo program maintenance.

Microsoft Office 365 Personal User Guide

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual