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MICROSOFT 365

By Peter Deegan

Fast Account Switching lets you quickly “change hats” between work, home, and other Microsoft accounts in Microsoft 365, Office 2021 and 2019, and now the browser-based Office.com apps.

Most of us have more than one online life, usually a work account — and a personal account and possibly more for other work or voluntary commitments. For Office users, that means separate Microsoft accounts and switching between those accounts to see recent documents and online storage related to that part of your life. In the past, and still in Office for Mac, changing accounts meant reopening the Office app.

Fast Account Switching (FAS) lets you change Microsoft accounts without restarting the app. It has been in the Windows version of Office 365 for about two years, and in Office 2021 and Office 2019 since their respective releases — but not, so far, in Office for Mac (naughty, Microsoft). Account switching isn’t in Outlook because you can open multiple mailboxes — in effect, it’s always been part of Outlook.

Now FAS is in the browser-based Office apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Visio) and in Office.com. As ever, Teams looks a little different but still has FAS.

Let’s see how Fast Account Switching works in Office for Windows, with some twists to make it easier to know what account you’re signed in to. Then, we’ll look at the small variations that apply in the browser-based apps.

At the top-right corner of Word, Excel, or PowerPoint for Windows, there’s a sign-in button. It’ll show either a small image or initials for the currently signed-in Microsoft account.

Figure 1. Microsoft account selector at top-right corner of Office for Windows apps

A Microsoft account sign-in is required for Microsoft 365 apps. For Office 2021/2019, it’s not needed — but Microsoft encourages it.

Once you’ve signed in to a new account, the previous account is now listed at the bottom for fast switching (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Office account selector, with another account ready for quick switching

Each Office app can use a
different Microsoft account. Here are Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for Windows — each open with a different Microsoft account.

Figure 3. Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, each using a different sign-in.

Microsoft has “fast account switching” or “fast user switching” in both Windows and modern Office. If you’re looking online for help, make sure the advice applies to the correct software.

The main benefit of switching accounts is seeing different Recent, Pinned, and Shared with Me documents in the File pane. Other settings, such as Connected Services, are also saved on a “per account” basis.

Figure 4. Recent, Pinned, and Shared with Me lists change for each sign-in.

The Quick Access Toolbar buttons can change for each account, but not ribbon customizations.

It’s easy to get mixed up about which Microsoft account you’re logged in to, so let’s look at the obvious changes in app appearance that can help out — changing the profile picture, the Office theme, and/or the background pattern.

The Office theme and Office background settings (at File | Account) are saved for each Microsoft account, which means you can have varying backgrounds (Figure 5) as visual clues to which account you’re signed into.

After years of being maligned as the most useless Office feature, the background pattern at the right end of the ribbon has finally found a purpose! In addition to the profile picture, you can have a different pattern for each account.

Figure 5. Office background pattern (Underwater is shown) is linked to a Microsoft account.

There’s a problem when more than one account uses the same name but different email addresses (e.g., home and work). Quite often, each account has your same initials in the profile picture, making the accounts hard to tell apart.

That’s easily fixed by changing the Microsoft account profile photo. From the desktop apps, choose My Microsoft account from the account list, which opens a browser window. Or go to the https://account.microsoft.com/ profile directly. Choose Add a photo. (See Figure 6.)

Figure 6. Microsoft account setting for changing photo at Your Info

In the browser apps, it’s even easier. Click on the existing image/initials to change it (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Change photo option at Office.com webpages.

Upload any photo you like. There are nice options to position and zoom the image.

Figure 8. Add/Change Microsoft account photo.

As you can see from my examples, it’s not necessary to use photos of yourself. But keep in mind that the same image will appear in Teams and in collaborated documents, too.

To remove the current signed-in account from the switch list in Office apps, choose Sign out from the top-right corner of the account box. For other switchable accounts, click the three-dots button, then Sign out. (See Figure 9.)

Figure 9. Remove user from Fast Account Switching.

In the browser-based apps, it’s the same — except for being labeled Sign out and forget.

Microsoft has just added Fast Account Switching to Office.com and to the online Office apps Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Visio, and Teams. If you’ve used FAS in the desktop apps, the online version has no surprises.

The account button is at the very top-right corner of the browser window.

Figure 10. Fast Account Switching at Office.com

There’s no Office background pattern option–online, so the profile picture is usually your only quick reminder of which account you’re signed in to.

There are a few limitations to the combination of Office apps, tabs, and accounts that can work together.

One account per Office online app

You can open lots of, say, Word documents/tabs in your browser, but they must all use the same Microsoft account.

You can’t open two app tabs (e.g., two Excel sheets) with different Microsoft account logins. If you try, the other app windows will change to the new signed-in account. You’ll get the warning message “Account switched. You recently switched to xxx@yyy.com. Click refresh to update.”

The workaround is to open the same online app (Word, Excel, etc.) in an InPrivate/Incognito window or in a different browser.

Each Office online app can use a different account at the same time.

For example, you can open various Word online documents with your work account while working on PowerPoint decks using your home account in other browser windows.

Fast Account Switching isn’t available in InPrivate/Incognito/Private

Office online apps work fine in those privacy modes, but FAS doesn’t.

Fast Account Switching is an overdue change in Office, but few understand the flexibility it gives — especially between different apps. Microsoft needs to prioritize implementing FAS on Office for Mac.

Join the conversation! Your questions, comments, and feedback about this topic are always welcome in our forums!

Peter Deegan is the author of Windows 11 for Microsoft Office Users, Microsoft 365 for Windows: Straight Talk, Eye-Catching Signs with Word, Christmas Cheer with Office, and others. He is the co-founder and editor in chief of the Office Watch site and newsletters since they started in 1996.

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