Tag: office

Project Manage With Microsoft Planner

Post author By Jonathan Arnott
Post date December 8, 2017

Do you manage groups of people but have a hard time keeping track of everything? Well, Microsoft has the tool for you! Microsoft Planner is a great application that is part of the Office 365 offering. It is a work in progress from Microsoft but none the less, Planner is a vast improvement from a simple to do list that you may use in Outlook. If you are managing internal projects across several employees with a lot of moving pieces but don’t have a need for a fully fledged project management software, then Planner will be great for you!

Make the most of your Office 365 investment by trying Planner to see if it is a good fit for your organization. You can create projects, assign tasks and checklists under that project to members of your team. Planner lets you attach and share files that are relevant to the project and you can get a birds-eye view of the progress across all of your employees from the Planner dashboard. Microsoft Planner can be accessed on a web page, local desktop application or mobile app and the best part is that it stays synced across all of your devices to keep you on track while you’re on the move.

In this video, we will show you where you can find Microsoft Planner in the Office 365 portal. From there, we will show you how to set up your account, create projects and assign tasks to the team members in your organization. Keep your team on track and get your project completed on time with Microsoft Planner.

Technology Training

Microsoft Teams For Beginners | Office 365

Post author By Jonathan Arnott
Post date November 17, 2017

Are you looking to improve office efficiency and cut down on the amount of email you send internally? Microsoft Teams is a great application that allows your company to communicate internally through chat. Teams is part of the Office 365 offering and, like the rest of the Microsoft products, is integrated with the applications from Microsoft that you know and love.

Microsoft Teams really stands out as one of the best workplace collaboration tools, taking the place of email for internal work communication. Rather than sending copious emails to your colleagues, Teams allows for a much more natural conversation between groups of people or direct communication between individuals. Even better, Teams improves workplace efficiency by making it easier to ask a quick question, schedule invites or send files.

In this video, we will walk you through accessing Teams in your Microsoft Office 365 portal. Once downloaded we will show you how to set up teams, message individuals, attach files and add team members. After implementing Teams you will find that this program will drastically cut down on internal email and will allow your staff to get more done with their day.

Technology Training

Get Started With Skype For Business

Post author By Jonathan Arnott
Post date October 27, 2017

Skype for Business really brings into question the need for a physical phone in the business world, especially for small companies. Skype for Business is another value-add in the Microsoft Office 365 offering and it works seamlessly with other Microsoft Office apps.

In this video, we will walk you through accessing Skype for Business on Windows 10. Once you have the application installed and opened, we will show you how to set up your microphone, headphones, and webcam. After you’ve gone through the setup process, it is relatively straightforward. You can open up a chat session, have a voice call or start a video conference with anyone in your contacts list. The great thing about Skype for Business is that you can talk to anyone around the world no matter if they are using Skype for Business or not.

Skype for Business is a great tool that will allow you to not only talk to friends and colleagues around the world but you can also attend virtual meetings with Skype for Business conferencing. Skype for Business also has many great built-in features such as screen sharing in case you need to show something to a colleague on your computer. The best part of all this is that you have Skype For Business built into your Office 365 subscriptions.

Microsoft Office 365 is changing the way that business communicates by creating one platform that encompasses email, voice, chat, conferencing and a whole lot more. What is great about what Microsoft has created is that you can get all the basics of business communication, hosted by Microsoft, for a low monthly cost. No more Exchange servers, PBX boxes or PRI’s to pay for and maintain.

If you haven’t looked into what Microsoft has to offer through Office 365 we strongly recommend that you do. If you already use Office 365 and are still paying to maintain a phone system then you may want to consider Skype For Business to help minimize and consolidate expenses.

Technology Training

Microsoft OneNote for Beginners

Post author By Jonathan Arnott
Post date September 15, 2017

Are you aware of all the applications that come with your Microsoft Office 365 subscription? Most people think of Office 365 as a hosted email service but don’t realize that it is much more than that. Depending on the subscription that you have, almost every Office application that Microsoft offers will be included and is accessible in the Office 365 portal.

This week we have created a video that will walk you through one of the included applications, OneNote. Like the name would suggest, OneNote is an application that keeps all of your note taking in one place. No matter if you are in a meeting, a trade show or conference, or even if you’re still in school, OneNote is a great application for all of your note-taking needs.

To help get you started, we will show you how to access and download OneNote from your Office 365 portal. Once installed, we will show you how to set up the program so that it is customized to your liking. Although the program is pretty straightforward, there are a few features that you should know about and we go over them in this video.

Once you watch this quick overview you will be able to take notes and insert pictures, videos, and sound recordings like a pro. Need a table, graph or chart? We’ll show you how to use those as well. When you’re all done taking notes, you can share them with colleagues and friends making OneNote a great tool to help your team collaborate. If you are used to using other Office products like Word or Excel then you will pick up OneNote quickly since many of the features and functionality are set up the same way.

If you haven’t already, we would encourage you to take a closer look at your Office 365 portal to see what applications are available to you. From the beginning, Microsoft has packed a lot of value into the 365 offering and since then they have done an excellent job of adding in more applications and features. To help you get the most out of your subscriptions, we will be making a series of how to videos that will debut what Microsoft has to offer and how to use each application.

Technology Training

Import and Export Contacts in Outlook 2016

Post author By Jonathan Arnott
Post date March 24, 2017

If you use Outlook for work, at some point you may need to import and export contacts from your account. Though it may seem complicated, it is actually an easy process if you use the tricks we lay out in this video.

Have you ever tried to import something into Outlook, only to have your file rejected, or your data imported incorrectly? If you are trying to import contacts into Outlook from a file that isn’t using the same data fields that Outlook needs, you will get bogged down trying to make sure that your data is mapped correctly. If for example, your ‘first name’ data gets mapped to the ‘last name’ data field, your data will flow into Outlook incorrectly.

Before you import anything into Outlook, you will need to know what Outlook wants. Outlook considers a lot of data fields during the import process, and it can be difficult to determine which fields are necessary, or how to get them in the right format. For this reason, it is easier and more reliable to import data into Outlook using the spreadsheet it gives you.

To fix this problem, start by exporting a CSV file out of Outlook. This will give you a spreadsheet template with all of the fields that Outlook requires. Once you have exported a CSV file, you can begin entering the data you have regarding your contacts. If you carefully input your data into the correct fields, you will have a complete data set that is ready to be imported back into Outlook.

Importing is the same process as exporting. You will need to select the updated CSV file from your computer. Outlook will want to verify that the data fields match up, and this won’t be a problem since you are now using Outlook’s template. Now, you should be ready to start importing your contacts into Outlook.

If you follow these steps, you will soon be a master at importing and exporting contacts in Outlook!

To shortcut the export process, you can use this Excel Contacts Template that has all of the data fields that Outlook requires for contact import.

Training

How to get Gmail to work with Outlook 2016

Post author By Jonathan Arnott
Post date March 17, 2017

Are you using both Outlook and Gmail? Maybe you want to separate your work life from your personal life. You may also want to access both accounts from one dashboard. This is possible but you need to get Gmail to play nice with Outlook and vice versa.

Gmail considers Outlook to be an insecure application, meaning that Gmail will not export mail to Outlook unless you give it express permission. This will require you to go into your Gmail settings and give permission to “allow less secure apps”. By doing this, you are telling Google that it is okay to export mail to another application that it deems less secure than Gmail.

Once you have this feature turned on, you can access your Outlook account and add in Gmail. After completing these steps you will be able to see your mail from your Gmail account in your Outlook dashboard. You can also choose to see these two mailboxes separately or together if you have a preference. For detailed instructions on how to make these mail application work together, watch our how-to video.

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