Newsletter Archives

• All the stuff to use or ignore in Teams

  Posted on October 4th, 2021 at 02:43 Peter Deegan Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  Get a grip on Teams by exploring its “nuts and bolts,” including what to ignore, what’s compulsory, what’s possible, and why some people move away from Teams to get things done.

  Teams is confusing because Microsoft has thrown everything except the proverbial kitchen sink into it. Even people who’ve used it for a while get a little lost. Microsoft doesn’t help by making some elements compulsory — with no way to remove, hide, or even rename them. There’s a wide range of Teams apps that can be useful but also add to the confusion.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.38.0 (2021-10-04).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Collaboration, Microsoft 365, Office 365, Teams

• So many Outlooks — think you know them all?

  Posted on August 16th, 2021 at 02:43 Peter Deegan Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  If you think Outlook is one thing, you’re wrong. It’s Microsoft’s fault – the Outlook brand is beyond confusing.

  Years ago, Microsoft decided it would be “easy” to call all their email products “Outlook.” The result has been a mess of confusion and difficulty for everyone, including front-line ’softies. Microsoft doesn’t help by referring to “Outlook” without being specific about which software or service it is talking about.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.31.0 (2021-08-16).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365, Office 365, outlook

• Microsoft 365 plans revealed!

  Posted on July 26th, 2021 at 02:45 Peter Deegan Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ISSUE 18.28 • 2021-07-26

  MICROSOFT 365

  

  By Peter Deegan

  Which Microsoft 365 Business plan is best and cheapest for you?

  Yes, I said business plans. But wait – don’t go away – a business plan might be just the thing for you. Read on.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.28.0 (2021-07-26).
  This story also appears in the AskWoody Free Newsletter 18.28.F (2021-07-26).

  AskWoody FREE Newsletter, AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365, Office 365

• All storage is not created equal

  Posted on April 19th, 2021 at 01:00 Will Fastie Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  ONEDRIVE TIP

  

  By Will Fastie

  The word “drive” in the name implies that OneDrive is just like any other local hard drive or solid-state drive in your system.

  It isn’t. I consider that a bug. A serious bug.

  Read the full story in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.14.0 (2021-04-19).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365, Office 365, OneDrive

• Microsoft OneDrive: The basics

  Posted on February 1st, 2021 at 01:15 Lance Whitney Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  onedrive

  Microsoft OneDrive: The basics

  By Lance Whitney

  Want to be able to back up and synchronize your files with Microsoft OneDrive
  but aren’t sure where to start? Here’s a primer on getting started with OneDrive.

  Microsoft OneDrive is an effective tool for automatically backing up and synchronizing your documents, photos, and other files. By backing up your files to OneDrive in the cloud, you can recover them in case you accidentally delete or lose them. And by synchronizing your files, you ensure that they’re accessible from any computer or device running OneDrive.

  OneDrive is automatically included and accessible in Windows 10 and Windows 8.1. Those of you still running Windows 7 can manually download and install it. Beyond Windows, OneDrive is available for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android, so you can access it from any computer or mobile device. I use OneDrive as my primary backup and synchronization service and find it very convenient and helpful.

  But OneDrive can be tricky to set up and configure initially, especially if you’re not familiar with its various settings and options. Let’s look at the basics of OneDrive to see how you can get started and use it most effectively.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 18.4.0 (2021-02-01).

  AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365 AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365, Office 365, OneDrive

• SetUp Guides for Microsoft 365 – request for feedback

  Posted on November 30th, 2020 at 21:24 Kirsty Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Are you an IT Admin that sets up Microsoft 365 / Office 365 services? If you are, @mikebailey2000 is looking for feedback on SetUp Guides.

  Mike’s a Microsoft Program Manager. It’s great to welcome his interest in the opinion of our members.

  Please, head over to Mike’s first post here at AskWoody, wish him a very warm AskWoody welcome, and help him to improve the setup guides. He explains the limitations on accessing the documents.

  Office Microsoft 365, Office 365, Setup Guides

• Office 365 becomes Microsoft 365: Less here than meets the eye

  Posted on April 13th, 2020 at 01:15 Tracey Capen Comment on the AskWoody Lounge
  

  WOODY’S WINDOWS WATCH

  By Woody Leonhard

  Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that, as of April 21, the “rented” version of Office known as Office 365 will henceforth be known as Microsoft 365.

  Other than a bewildering array of new names and vague promises of future features, very little will actually change on that day.

  Mostly, if you’re currently subscribed to Office 365, you’ll soon be seeing (and paying for) Microsoft 365.

  Read the full story in AskWoody Plus Newsletter 17.14.0 (2020-04-13).

  Office News AskWoody Plus Newsletter, Microsoft 365, Office 365, Office subscriptions

• Microsoft backtracks on Office search changes

  Posted on February 11th, 2020 at 08:12 joep517 Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  According to Mary Jo Foley, Microsoft has backed off its plans to change the search engine to Bing for its Office 365 Pro Plus customers. See Microsoft backtracks on ‘Bing-jacking’ Chrome with its Microsoft Search extension for more details.

  Office News Office 365, Office 365 ProPlus

• Office 365 global outage is now fixed

  Posted on November 20th, 2019 at 07:49 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  A tale in three tweets…. (all times are US Central)

  There was a global outage of Office 365 for several hours, but thankfully Europe was in bed. https://t.co/feIGv0TZNm

  — Kevin Beaumont (@GossiTheDog) November 20, 2019

  We've identified that multiple Microsoft 365 services are affected and we're actively looking for the swiftest means of restoring access. Please refer to https://t.co/AEUj8uAGXl for details, or MO196220 in the admin portal, if accessible.

  — Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) November 20, 2019

  We've confirmed restored access and functionality for all Microsoft 365 services. Please see MO196220 in the admin dashboard for final details of the event.

  — Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) November 20, 2019

  Of course the Microsoft Office Status site requires a logon with an active Office 365 account.

  Office News Office 365

• Office 365 ProPlus to get support on Windows 7 after January 14, 2020

  Posted on October 7th, 2019 at 17:25 joep517 Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Microsoft has decided to give Office 365 ProPlus users running Windows 7 some grace time after Windows 7 goes out of support on January 14, 2020. Office 365 ProPlus users will continue to get security updates for Office 365 ProPlus until January 2023. According to Microsoft this is to transition to a “support operating system”.

  See Windows 7 end of support and Office 365 ProPlus for details and more information.

  Microsoft News, Office News, Security Office 365, windows 7

• Microsoft removes non-subscription SKUs from Home Use Program

  Posted on August 9th, 2019 at 17:18 joep517 Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away. This may not affect many but is a nice perk if you work for a large company using Office. Here’s an article by Mary Jo Foley describing the details of the changes – Microsoft removes Office 2019 from its Home Use Program benefits.

  Office News Office 2019, Office 365

• Of course you don’t want to buy Office 2019

  Posted on February 7th, 2019 at 07:45 woody Comment on the AskWoody Lounge

  Nice of Microsoft to reinforce that point.

  Microsoft is saying more about its customers than its products with the three new ads. MS obviously doesn’t think its customers are savvy enough to figure out the “tests” are rigged to use features in Office 365 that aren’t in Office 2019. They aren’t Challenges. They’re feature demos.

  Of course the products are different. The feature sets are different. And, of course, reliance on the internet is different — when Microsoft’s servers go down, you can take your fancy cookie-cutter resume building program and stick it where the sun don’t shine.

  I guess that’s something good to know if you need to list the population of every state in a spreadsheet. Except it’s, you know, old data.

  I recall vividly that you couldn’t even get Excel to show updated stock quotes until a year ago. I moved to Google Sheets for that very reason. Never looked back.

  UPDATE: Still confused about the differences between Office 2019 and Office 365? Gregg Keizer at Computerworld just published an in-depth look. Suffice it to say the landscape’s changed greatly, and it’ll no doubt change again.

  Office News Office 2019, Office 365
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