Posts from the ‘Microsoft Office 365’ Category

Feb 20

New Office 365 2013 Preview: PowerPoint

Like other Microsoft Office 2013 products, PowerPoint 2013 uses the same basic ribbon command structure, but it has been optimized for tablet use. The simplification of the interface also makes it more phone ready.

PowerPoint’s built-in themes now have a variation feature which makes them more customizable than the original.

More Choices from the Start

The starting sequence of PowerPoint is different. Rather than opening to a default blank PowerPoint presentation, a starting screen offers you the option of using templates to start off with, open a recent file, and of course, the option of starting with a blank presentation.

More Ways to Start

The slide show view known as Presenter View now automatically adjusts to the projection setup in place by scanning the hardware in use and adapting the presentation to it.

Presenter View

Presenter View can now be used on a single monitor.
Clicking the magnifying glass allows the user to zoom in on a single slide.
Moving or jumping to any slide is possible within this interface.
Easy set-up: PowerPoint automatically detects hardware configuration and optimizes the presentation for the available audio-visual equipment.

For more help with Microsoft Office or any other computing issue call the experts at the Web and I at 646-853-0573

Feb 17

1 Comment

New Office 365 2013 Preview: Microsoft Excel

Microsoft is known for two things: being the provider of software which is the industry standard for business, and for being extremely innovative. Microsoft may not be the first company to come up with some innovative features, but Microsoft would rather be the first company to come out with those features executed correctly rather than the first chronologically. Microsoft Office 2013 is no exception. The first major goal of Microsoft Office 2013 was to clean up graphic effects to make the interface cleaner, smoother, and easier to operate. The second goal with the 2013 Edition was to make Microsoft Office tablet friendly.

The immediate impression that Excel 2013 users have is that the interface is a lot cleaner and more intuitive. It still does use the Microsoft Office Ribbon that users have trained and gotten used to from Microsoft Office 2010. This familiarity serves to lower the amount of necessary training time. The simplification of the ribbon improves functionality both on the desktop and for tablet uses.

Office Templates are something usually associated with Microsoft Word, but in Excel 2013, there is a rich collection of templates that provide both visual interest and functionality. With templates, you can concentrate on the data and leave the design to Microsoft. For the users that want more control, there are more design tools, and those tools are far easier to use.

Another new feature is the Quick Analysis feature. Just put the data into a spreadsheet and highlight it. Very quickly you can make charts and graphs to help you visualize patterns in the data. Because of tight integration with the rest of Microsoft Office, you can easily take the data, charts, and graphs and quickly copy and paste them right into your Word, Publisher, or PowerPoint document.

Sometimes data requires columns to be filled in either identically or incrementally based on rules. The new Flash Fill feature allows missing cell data to be filled in quickly just by dragging the cursor across the column. In most cases, Flash Fill can figure out the pattern of the data you are trying to fill, making completion a breeze.

Different types of data are better represented visually with different types of charts, and if you do not like the recommended chart type, it is easy to flip back and forth between different chart styles, colors, sizes, and tables.

Sometimes, you may not wish to use the full set of data you entered to analyze, or you may wish to take out parts or limit the range using different parameters. This is very easy to facilitate using the new Slicers feature, which also allows for complex pivot functions.

In earlier versions of Microsoft Office Excel, you could open up more than one workbook at a time, but they would all be in the same window, in the same instance of Excel. Now with Excel 2013, you can have one window per workbook. This can prove very valuable when you are working with two different workbooks and want to see them both side-by-side. with this new feature, that scenario is now possible.

Saving and sharing files online is much easier with Excel 2013. It is optimized for the cloud and easier to save documents to SkyDrive or SharePoint on Microsoft Office 365.

Sometimes, webmasters want to display data, charts, and graphs, but in the past that had to be re-coded for the Web to share on public sites. Now with Excel 2013, sharing data on the Web is as easy as copying and pasting.

New programs and new features in Microsoft Office including in Excel 2013 sometimes require training. For an informal and enlightening conversation about Microsoft Excel 2013 or any other computing issue, contact the professionals at the Web and i at 646-853-0573.

Feb 13

2 Comments

New Office 365 2013 Preview: Microsoft Word

New Microsoft Office Word 2013 allows you to do more than you could with previous versions of Microsoft Office including Microsoft Office 2010. some of the new things you can do is add an online video to your Word document, use Word to open and edit *.PDF documents, and use it easier on tablet computers. For those working on team documents, editing and annotating with comments is easier in Word 2013 than in previous versions.

There are different features to make reading as pleasant as creating documents as well. There is a reading mode, a feature to zoom in easily on images, text, and graphs, plus the capability to click and define words and search the Web right from within Word. If you are reading a document and close it and re-open it later, Word will ask you if you want to pick up where you left off, or start in a new place.

Word 2013 Web Application, available for Enterprise Microsoft Office 365 versions will have additional features as well, making it more like the desktop version. Another great version for Office 365 users is that if you are using a computer that is not yours and does not have office you can do a quick temporary install of one or all of your apps, which will then disappear from the host computer when you are done.

When making any technology decision, you need to talk to people who know what you want to do. Call us any time at 646-853-0573.

Feb 11

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What to Expect from the Office 365 2013 Edition Overhaul

Office 365 2010 Edition and Office 365 2013 edition are quite different not only in their outward appearance but also in their functionality. Little-known difficulties with Office 2010 are now making Office 2010 an attractive target for hackers, according to Kaspersky Labs. In the past, the most common files to exploit were Adobe Flash and Adobe Acrobat. Adobe has come up with a more aggressive update policy and they have changed their code to help prevent these exploits. Office 2013 has been completely re-written from the ground up to be safer and to avoid these troubles for businesses who rely on Microsoft Office. Other alternatives exist, such as Google Docs and others, but they do not provide the same look, the same features, or the same document compatibility. In fact with Google Docs, it is almost impossible to save a document sent to you on a hard drive, or have someone else open it without sharing your Google login credentials. In fact this author printed out one Google document as a favor, and now my Google account was hacked and an Indonesian bartender has taken over a facebook profile he made with my Google account. I have reclaimed my Google account, although facebook refuses to remove the page. All of this is reason enough to not go with cheap imitation software. Only Microsoft Office, with the latest versions and updates, is the industry standard. That will provide you with the most functionality and the greatest protection.

One of the new things that are available are public folders. SharePoint has its place for sharing and storing archived material, but it is too complex for some users to actually adopt and collaborate with, and the most important change that can happen in the workplace because of enterprise software is collaboration. So with Office 365 we can expect a lot more collaboration in businesses everywhere adopting the new Office 365.

Another good thing is that Lync and Skype will have improvements in video chat and collaboration. In Lync multiple faces can be seen when meeting with multiple persons in a “Brady Bunch” configuration. Skype users will have an easier time-sharing files because Skype will be federated to the user’s Skydrive account.

For tablet users, Office 365 has great news! Office 2013 is optimized for the Windows 8 tablet. All commands are touch-enabled, and pages can be flipped in a document just like flipping pages in a book.

For users who have mixed Mac and PC environment, users can install Mac or PC version of office on up to five computers even if they are not of the same kind, such as one on Mac and three on PC’s and one on a PC Notebook. Users who may be stuck on someone else’s computer occasionally, can use Office On Demand. With this feature, you can quickly sign in and use the office application that you wish to use, and when you leave that computer you leave no trace of the application or the work that has been done there. This feature is great for people on the go. A Windows 8 on a USB Key is also available, though it must require careful preparation. With it, users can use their own environment on someone else’s computer with no trouble at all.

Desktop Office 2013 has become a whole lot cooler too. You can now embed web parts such as bing maps directly into excel spreadsheets and word documents, and the interface has just gotten a whole lot less cluttered.

For help in deciding on, implementing, and training your employees with new technology you need to go to the Microsoft Experts. We have been with Microsoft since DOS was released the operating system that existed before Windows. Call us for an informal chat at any time at 646-853-0573.

Feb 8

2 Comments

New Office 365 2013 Preview: Interface

The new Microsoft Office 2013 and Office 365 2013 Editions have in common a new interface by Microsoft originally called Metro. This interface is named Metro after the system of signs on many Metro train systems where the typography is uniform and clear, and people can see universally what each sign means. There are less distracting graphic effects like the glass effect so popular under Windows Vista and Windows 7 and suddenly absent with Windows 8. Inspiration for the simplicity of the designs and the emphasis of content over graphic effect or, “chrome” was a combination of traditional Swiss graphic design and the signs of the Kings County Metro System in Washington, which have served to inspire Microsoft engineers in their creation.

Metro Bus Signs

The actual commands on the interface are the Microsoft Office Ribbon in this new iteration are almost the same as the Microsoft Office 2010 Ribbon that users have already had a few years to get used to. When they took away much of the graphic effects, the reading, navigation, and use became much clearer.

Metro Windows Explorer

Metro Word 2013 Interface

Microsoft Office 2013 is not the only product that uses this same interface with the bright white or gray ribbon at the top of windows with all of the menu controls. Windows Explorer on Windows 8 and most Windows 8 applications will have this feature. Microsoft Office 365 will have this feature as well including its’ use in Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Outlook Web Access, Microsoft Project Server and eventually Microsoft Dynamics CRM. The progress with some products is faster than with others but Microsoft always works in a definite direction for a definite purpose. The purpose with the Metro Interface is to make clearer ways to navigate all kinds of devices, to have navigation on all devices happen the same way, and to get the world ready for the advantages of touch-screen technology while also improving the capabilities of the interface for the traditional keyboard and mouse.

There is a great deal of user resistance to the new user interface. We have understood that people may unhappy with losing the start button The good news is that an aftermarket programmed start button can be added on. Eventually, however, users have to realize that the start screen is an enlarged and more useful start button which is infinitely customizable to suit the user. Right now people do not see the close similarity between their start screen as they are used to it in Windows Vista and Windows 7 and the Windows 8 Start Screen.

Once users accept the design, we feel it will be well accepted. The Windows Metro interface is a work of genius, and sometimes the value of genius takes a while to be appreciated by the public.

For help with new technology from Microsoft call upon the experts at the Web and I at 646-853-0573.

Feb 6

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New Office 365 2013 Preview: Security Recommendations

GLEN COVE, NEW YORK

Premier Microsoft Office 365 cloud services consultant, the Web and I, is releasing our latest security recommendations for your Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and related products soon to be released. Soon to be released will be Microsoft Project Server, Microsoft Dynamics GP Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

From our experiences in professional installations and the security considerations we have had as well as our experiences with the new Office 365 to be released to the public on February 27 (or here from us at the Web and I today!).

There are several types of administrators for Office 365 and related products, and it is clear to see their intended roles. Whoever manages the credit or debit card associated with payment, probably the owner or the accountant will be assigned the Billing Administrator position. The implementation I.T. consultant will have the Global Administrator role The Global Administrator can make changes to the Exchange, Lync, and SharePoint servers.. The Service Administrator is someone who has the permission to go and check the status of the cloud service health on a dashboard provided by Microsoft Office 365. The User Management Administrator can add and remove users and re-set passwords. The company HR person or IT person who works with the HR department are the natural choices for User Management Administrator. Since User Management Administrators are not always from a technical background it is vital to explain to them the importance of not duplicating users and stressing the permanence of deleting users.

Permission	Billing administrator	Global administrator	Password administrator	Service administrator	User management administrator
View company and user information	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manage support tickets	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Reset user passwords	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes; with limitations. He or she cannot reset passwords for billing, global, and service administrators.
Perform billing and purchasing operations	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Create and manage user views	No	Yes	No	No	Yes
Create, edit, and delete users and groups, and manage user licenses	No	Yes	No	No	Yes; with limitations. He or she cannot delete a global administrator or create other administrators.
Manage domains	No	Yes	No	No	No
Manage company information	No	Yes	No	No	No
Delegate administrative roles to others	No	Yes	No	No	No
Use directory synchronization	No	Yes	No	No	No

Security in SharePoint

SharePoint has its own set of security roles which can be user defined, and access can vary from site to site, from site collection to site collection. Companies can store all of their information on SharePoint and selectively share it with employees, clients, and consultants to any extent needed. Security in Enterprise-grade SharePoint such as in the S2, E1, and E3 plans have 256 bit encryption and it makes as safe and compliant an area for intranets and extranets as those used by online banking.

Security in E-Mail, Exchange, and Outlook

The Global Administrator can load the global address book or change user E-mails. Users with the Global Administrator status can also turn on and off features like mailbox archive and litigation hold. Nobody but the Global administrator can touch Exchange settings which serves to protect the E-Mail of the company by putting the responsibility squarely in the hands of Global Administrators only.

E-Mail is scanned for viruses as it arrives, and this helps prevent costly infections and having corporate information compromised.

We at the Web and I are ready to help you with your Office 365 Security plans. Please call us for an informal discussion at any time at 646-853-0573.

Feb 6

1 Comment

DuPont Announces Complete Commitment to Office 365 in the New York Times

PARLIN, NEW JERSEY

According to the New York Times, other news sources, and Microsoft themselves, the DuPont corporation is using Microsoft Office 365 to provide productivity and communications software for their considerable roster of 59,000 users. DuPont has employees worldwide, and they feel that they can foster a better atmosphere of collaboration by having one connected cloud system that serves as the glue that binds their offices worldwide.

Everyone is on the industry standard E-Mail software Microsoft Exchange with Outlook. Outlook now of course has ties to Lync for video meetings and video chat, as well as social monitoring of your contacts for their activities on LinkedIn and the like.

With Microsoft SharePoint, Lync, and Office Web Apps, a group of DuPont employees in various locations on the globe can have a video meeting where all participants are simultaneously editing the same document in real-time while also meeting face-to-face.

Executive management is satisfied with the high compliance standards of Office 365. Boasting a financially backed service level agreement, Microsoft has met the standard for ISO 9000 computing which includes 99.97% uptime and continual backup at multiple redundant facilities. Larger companies like DuPont can not only lower IT costs but have the potential to lower the rates on their regular business liability insurance. DuPont has healthcare and medical divisions as well. Some healthcare activities including the testing of their products require Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) Privacy and Security Rules compliance. Microsoft Office 365 is the only cloud productivity software that has met that high standard. With new updates that are coming into effect February 27, 2013, incredible new functionality will be added as well.

Office 365 works with every mobile platform and the Apple Mac, making it a universal software. Employees will be able to take advantage with a license to install the software on up to five devices. That is why Office 365 is the most flexible and dependable cloud productivity suite in the World. That is why DuPont and other Fortune 500 companies are selecting Microsoft Office 365 time after time.

Like all Microsoft Office 365 clients, DuPont will enjoy significant I.T. cost savings. Many larger companies have been able to make massive I.T. staffing reductions at the same time paying lower licensing costs and no equipment or power costs for traditional server-based products. Businesses of all sizes can enjoy the benefits of Microsoft Office 365. The possibilities are endless. For information about starting right away, call us at any time at 646-853-053.

Feb 2

5 Comments

New Office 365 2013 Preview: Installing and Configuring Office 2013

At this point you will have successfully signed up for Office 365. If not please visit here to start. For a table of contents of the New Office 365 series, please visit here.

After signing up, the first thing that you will be asked when you sign in again is to enter your mobile number, capable of receiving text messages. It is a vital to link your account to a stable mobile account if it is for production and not testing purposes. This is used for easy password recovery.

Add Your Mobile Number For Account Recovery

Afterwards, the next most important process is filling out your profile, creating your users, and filling out their profiles. The user name you created when you signed up for your account is a global administrator. It is a bad idea to use an administrative account for daily use in a private setting, and if you own a business that is a C-Corp, S-Corp, LLC, or PLLC, your business and your conduct are subject to the Sarbanes Oxley Act, which requires among other things a separate technical and functional administration team for your enterprise software, as well as a disaster management and recovery plan. Microsoft has in place the technical team and the disaster management and recovery plan. The Sarbanes Oxley Act states that the end users can not be on your technical or functional teams. members of the technical team cannot be on the functional team as well. For small businesses adopting Office 365, a functional team is either a hired cloud consultancy such as the Web and I, or an internal computer specialist who has no end-user duties and is purely an I.T. employee. The head of the functional team is the proper user of the administrative account, referred to as the global administrator account by Microsoft. Again if this is just a test account, these details are not important. For licensing, the global administrator account only needs a SharePoint account in order to program and customize your SharePoint sites. If possible, however, allow a full license or at least an E1 license for your administrator, for $8 per month.

The first place to go to start filling in the profile information is by clicking the Settings Button in the upper right hand corner and clicking the link that pops up underneath, Office 365 Preview settings below.

Click Settings To Begin

Then you will be taken to the Office 365 Preview settings screen, where you should make sure to have a valid mobile number, an address, and then click save.

Office 365 Preview Settings

After filling this information out, be sure to click “Save” before taking the next step.

The next step is to click on your name at the top and then click “About Me” from the drop-down menu. This is where your profile is edited.

The first step is to mouse over the icon image and select the link for changing your image. Follow the directions as follows. This image will prove useful by creating avatars used in other areas of Microsoft Office 365.

Here is the way to edit the basic profile screen:

Edit Profile Details

After editing and saving basic profile details, it is important for your SharePoint settings to edit the language and time zone settings. Click the dots at the end of the menu as shown below to access these settings:

Click Language and Region

here is what the screen looks like for Language and Region Settings:

Language and Region

The time zone and the language should match and these should also match the time zone settings in your computer for proper operation.

After saving these settings, click Admin in the upper right hand corner to get back to the main administration screen to download software. To download software click here:

Click on Software to download software

On the install software page, it is important to select the 32 bit software (already selected by default) for the greatest functionality with SharePoint and Lync.

Click to install

Then click on Desktop Setup to configure Microsoft Office 2013 to work with Microsoft Office 365 2013.

Click Desktop Setup

For desktop setup, click set up and then click Run on the pop-up screen that follows:

Set Up Desktop

Then sign-in to Microsoft Office 365 on the screen that follows:

After signing in, leave all options selected and click continue to install.

Click Continue and Leave All Options Checked

Then your system will generally require a reboot, and then a success message will be shown. You will need to configure Outlook and Lync separately.

Admittedly this is a tedious and complex process. When you need help, we are there with the answers and you can call us at 646-853-0573.

Jan 20

5 Comments

New Office 365 2013 Preview: Introduction

REDMOND, WASHINGTON

Elegant. Simple. A revolution is coming to Microsoft. Its name? Microsoft Office 365 2013 Edition.

The features of the new system make it the best cloud productivity solution in the Industry.

Microsoft Office 365 with Office 2013 is a software suite that works equally well on the Mac as it does on a Windows PC.

One Microsoft Office 365 account can be installed on up to five computers, so multiple users can share Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac data.

Mobile computing works great on every kind of phone. The new version may even boast live video chat on mobile, which we will test out in this series.

Anything a business wants to accomplish can be completed with these tools.

Influential think tank Forrester Research says that the Office 365 cloud model provides a far lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) when compared to a traditional on-site installation of the same options.

Microsoft Office 365 2013 Edition is user-friendly whether you have a PC, Mac or Phone.

From a compliance standpoint, Office 365 services offers a 99.97% Financially-Backed Uptime Service Level Agreement (SLA).

New Office 365 2013 Preview Table of Contents

Starting with this introduction, there are three more sections which will showcase the most salient aspects of the new technology in a logical format. We are testing this new system out starting today, and the categories below will fill up as we complete our testing and research and fill in the categories. As of today we are starting with expected archetypal categories, but as we learn more these will change and grow from time to time.

Installation and Account Creation for Trial

Microsoft Office

Word, Excel,Access, Publisher, PowerPoint, and One Note

Microsoft Office Desktop Edition 2013

Installation
New Interface
New Features
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Publisher (Expected February 22, 2013)
Microsoft Visio (Expected February 23, 2013)
Microsoft Project (Expected February 24, 2013)
Microsoft One Note (Expected February 25, 2013)
Navigation (Expected February 26, 2013)
Custom Settings (Expected February 27, 2013)
Licensing Options (Expected February 28, 2013)

Email, Calendars, and CRM

Exchange Server 2013

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Microsoft Exchange 2013

E-Mail (Expected March 23, 2013)
Calendaring (Expected March 24, 2013)
Social Networking (Expected March 25, 2013)
E-Mail Merge (Expected March 26, 2013)
Fax (Expected March 27, 2013)
Lync Interoperability (Expected March 28, 2013)

Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Interoperability with Office 365
Advantages (Expected March 29, 2013)
CRM For Mobile (Expected March 30, 2013)

Website

Public-Facing SharePoint Features

CSS (Expected March 1, 2013)
Other Coding (Expected March 2, 2013)

Office Web Apps

Speed and Efficiency on Slower Machines (Expected March 31, 2013)
Mobile and Specialty Cases
Simultaneous document Editing (Expected April 1, 2013)

File Sharing and Project Management

SharePoint 2013

SharePoint Server 2013

Intranets (Expected March 3, 2013)
Extranets (Expected March 4, 2013)
Share Point Project Management Solutions for Small Businesses (Expected March 5, 2013)
New Extensibility and Coding Options (Expected March 6, 2013)

Microsoft Project Management Server on Office 365

Introduction (Expected March 7, 2013)
Local Installation (Expected March 8, 2013)
Project Management in Information Technology
Project Management for Law Firms
Project Management for Medical Practices (Expected March 9, 2013)
Project Management for Education and Government (Expected March 10, 2013)

Instant Messaging, Presence, and Conferencing

Microsoft Lync 2013

Lync 2013

Enterprise Instant Messaging (Expected April 2, 2013)
Lync Mobile (Expected April 3, 2013)
Audio Conferencing (Expected April 4, 2013)
Telephony (Expected April 5, 2013)
Universal Messaging (Expected April 6, 2013)
Video Teleconferencing (Expected April 7, 2013)
Video “Brady Bunch Style” Tiled User Meeting (Expected April 8, 2013)
Audio / Visual Meeting with Simultaneous Document Editing by Multiple Users (Expected April 9, 2013)

Mobility

Windows 8 Phone

Installation with Windows Synch: Zune (Expected March 11, 2013)
Office 365
Loading Music (Expected March 12, 2013)
Synchronizing Contacts (Expected March 13, 2013)

Microsoft Office 365

SharePoint (Expected March 14, 2013)
Exchange (Expected March 15, 2013)
Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Security and Trust

Compliance and Risk Management

99.97% Guaranteed Uptime Financially Backed Service Level Agreement (SLA) (Expected April 10, 2013)
Financially Backed Service Level Agreement (SLA) (Expected April 11, 2013)
ISO 9000 Compliance (Expected April 12, 2013)
Sarbanes Oxley Act Compliance (Expected April 13, 2013)
HIPAA Compliance (With hybrid on-site compliant servers on-site) (Expected April 14, 2013)

Economic Considerations

Cost Calculator (Expected March 16, 2013)
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) (Expected March 17, 2013)
Return on Investment (ROI) (Expected March1 8, 2013)
Adoption by Fortune 500 Businesses (Expected March `19, 2013)
Adoption by Foreign Governments (Expected March 20, 2013)
Acceptance by US Government Accounting Office (GAO) and use in U.S. Government (Expected March 21, 2013)
Use in State Government (the Web and I is a registered and licensed state vendor) (Expected March 22, 2013)

Contact the Web and I, Inc. today to get started at 646-853-0573!

The Best Ideas for Websites, Software, and Cloud Computing in Long Island, New York

Posts from the ‘Microsoft Office 365’ Category

New Office 365 2013 Preview: PowerPoint

New Office 365 2013 Preview: Microsoft Excel

New Office 365 2013 Preview: Microsoft Word

What to Expect from the Office 365 2013 Edition Overhaul

New Office 365 2013 Preview: Interface

DuPont Announces Complete Commitment to Office 365 in the New York Times