Basic Office 365 Training for IT Support
Microsoft provides users of its ubiquitous Office software with a wide range of different packages to choose from, with different pricing structures and features. While this means that there"s a version of Office for almost everyone, it can make working out which one you need something of a challenge.
We"ve taken a look at three different versions of Microsoft Office: Office 2016, Office 365 and Office Online. The latter provides free, cut-down, browser-based versions of the popular Office apps. It"s Microsoft"s answer to Google Docs, and also allows Office 365 subscribers to easily collaborate with users who don"t have a subscription of their own.
Office 365 is subscription-based. This means that, in the case of most of its subscription packages, it guarantees that you and your team will always have the latest desktop version of all the office software you"ve subscribed to. Those desktop versions will stop working if you dont keep paying your subscription fees though. Finally, a stand-alone copy of Office 2016, whether bought as a single-user license or as part of a volume licencing deal, is yours forever, but lacks the cloud-based features of Office 365, including Skype for Business, real-time collaboration and extra OneDrive storage.
Jump to:
Latest news
21/06/2016:Microsoft has announced a series of updates to its Office 365 Education offering that it claims will help increase collaboration and development in professional learning community (PLC) groups.
To do this, Microsoft has developed a customised Office 365 Groups function for PLC groups, where they can share files through OneDrive, access and create shared calendars, and have shared OneNote files and conversation spaces that are exclusive to group members.
Another update is to content sharing platform, Docs.com. This platform is normally tipped as a way for Office 365 users to share their creations with the world. However, Microsoft said that feedback indicated this was not ideal in an educational setting and that "keeping things a little more private sometimes makes students and teachers feel safer about distributing their work".
In response, Microsoft is introducing an Organisation Visibility feature, which lets users decide who can see their work, such as only those with an Office 365 School account or only those working within the same organisation.
Finally, Microsoft has updated Forms, a feature exclusive to Office 365 Education that allows teachers to manage classes, collaborate and share information about students, and also set up quizzes for students to take.
With this update, Microsoft Forms now features auto-grading, allowing teachers to mark assignments without needing any additional add-ons as they had in the past, and also real-time, personalised feedback, which enables teachers to provide students with instant feedback on quizzes for each question and answer.
Office 365
5/5
PRO Always have the latest versions of Office
PRO Accessible online, on mobile and on the desktop
PRO Collaborative working and communication
Details
https://products.office.com/en-gb/business/compare-office-365-for-business-plans
https://products.office.com/en-gb/business/compare-more-office-365-for-business-plans
Price
Office 365 Business Premium, 7.80 per user, per month (annual commitment)
Office 365 ProPlus, 10.10 per user, per month (annual commitment)
System requirements
Windows 7 SP1/8/8.1/10/Server 2008 R2/Server 2012 R2/Windows 10 Server, 1GHz x86 or x64 processor, 2GB RAM, 3GB disk space, 1,280x800 resolution display
Mac OS X 10.10+, Intel-based Mac, 4GB RAM, 6GB disk space, 1,280x800 resolution display
Internet connection
Office 365 is Microsoft"s flagship product for both home and business users. Its subscription model has obvious advantages for Microsoft, but also means that some companies that would normally only upgrade their software every other generation end up spending more on Office than they would otherwise.
However, the deal has potential benefits for your business, too: your staff will always have the latest version of all Office software, everything is securely backed up to the cloud by default, and the monthly fee can be classed as an operating expense, as opposed to the large one-off capital expenditure of buying software licences, which some businesses may prefer to avoid having to budget for.
While perpetual Office 2016 licences are sold on a per-computer basis, Office 365 subscriptions are per user. Each of your users can install Office on up to five PCs, five tablets, and five phones, making it easy for them to work between their office desktop, home PC, laptop, tablet, phone and any other devices they might regularly use. The only exception is the online-only Office 365 Essentials subscription, priced at 3.10 per user, per month, which only gives you access to the online versions of the Office apps plus some extra cloud communication, storage features and a proper business user licence that free Office Online users don"t get.
Side-by-side comparison of Word desktop and Word online editing interfaces
Office 365 has some features that are only possible because it is a cloud-based service, most notable of which are VoIP telephony and video conferencing through Skype for Business, an email server for your domain that gives each user 50GB of inbox storage, 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage per user, and desktop, mobile, and web apps that are all linked to the same user account, making it easy to ensure that your staff don"t lose track of their files between multiple software installations.
For European Office 365 users, Microsoft"s data centres are located in Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and Finland, which means that you"ll be compliant with EU data protection Directive 95/46/EC if you need to store customers" personal data. Additionally, for large enterprises with similarly large budgets, bespoke hybrid on-site/remote cloud storage options are available.
The most useful aspect of Office 365 for many businesses is likely to be its collaboration and co-authoring capabilities. Word, PowerPoint and note-jotting app OneNote all support real-time collaboration on the same document, regardless of whether users are accessing it via the web or a desktop application. Sadly, the desktop version of Excel doesn"t yet have this feature, but Excel Online supports multi-user real-time collaboration.
Online collaboration via Office 365 can feel a little sluggish compared to rival Google Apps for Work, but a wider range of features, such as a real-time word count in Word Online and some surprisingly capable charting options in Excel Online, as well as the familiar ribbon interface, mean that the online and mobile versions of the apps provide users with a powerful and approachable set of tools.
You can invite people to edit your Excel workbooks, but if you have it open in Excel, they won"t be able to editing using Excel Online
Although Access comes as standard with both Home and Personal subscriptions of Office 365, which aren"t licenced for business use, enterprise subscribers only get Microsoft"s database suite if they subscribe at ProPlus level or above.
Word clearly shows you who"s contibuting which changes to your shared documents
A dizzying array of subscription options are available, but the most useful for a business that wants to move its key services to the cloud is Office 365 Business Premium, priced at 7.80 per user, per month if you opt for an annual commitment (month-to-month contracts cost 9.40 per user).
This gets you all the Office applications, except Access, plus email and plenty of storage. If you need Access, the ProPlus version of Office 365 costs 10.10 per user, per month, while larger enterprises can spend more to get features such as unlimited email storage, archiving services in compliance with finance industry standards and advanced cloud-based IP telephony systems.
Office 2016
5/5
PRO Allows you to independently decide when to upgrade
PRO Outstanding office and productivity suite
CON Stand-alone installations don"t benefit from collaborative working options
Price
Office Home & Business 2016, 163 ex VAT
Office Professional 2016, 275 ex VAT
Details
https://products.office.com/en-gb/buy/compare-microsoft-office-products
System requirements
Windows 7 SP1/8/8.1/10/Server 2008 R2/Server 2012 R2/Windows 10 Server, 1GHz x86 or x64 processor, 2GB RAM, 3GB disk space, 1,280x800 resolution display
Mac OS X 10.10+, Intel-based Mac, 4GB RAM, 6GB disk space, 1,280x800 resolution display
Microsoft"s current version of Office, 2016, is what you"ll be using regardless of whether you get a new perpetual licence or subscribe via Office 365 at the moment. There are a number of different perpetual licence versions available, both individually and through volume licencing (VL).
Unlike an Office 365 subscription, you"ll have to choose at the time of purchase whether you want a copy for Mac OS X or Windows. Each licence only covers you for a single computer and, although a number of server and cloud integration options are available for VL customers, you don"t get any online storage, syncing or collaboration features by default.
For UK businesses buying individual licences, Office Home & Business 2016 is priced at 195 inc VAT and Office Professional 2016 costs 330 inc VAT. Both come with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, but only the Professional version gets you Publisher and Access.
Compared to previous versions of Office, the most notable changes you"ll see in Office 2016 include searchable tools and features via the "tell me what you want to do" bar, Bing integration, powerful new web app development features in Access, and some major updates to Excel"s data importation and handling features. These include new chart styles, updated pivot tables and improved forecasting tools.
Office 2016 desktop applications look and feel much like Office 2013
Typical perpetual licence users won"t be able to advantage of the collaboration and co-working features that represent some of the biggest changes between Office 2013 and 2016. Larger enterprises that require collaboration features and don"t want to rely on externally hosted cloud services may wish to consider on-premises installations of SharePoint 2016 (currently in beta) and Office Online Server (currently available as a preview version) as alternatives to Office 365.
Microsoft Office remains the industry standard, and with good reason. Excel, in particular, is the jewel in Office"s crown: other spreadsheets seem very lightweight and lacking in features by comparison. Office 2016 hasn"t made any radical changes to the basic formula of 2013 - a good thing, as it means that upgrading won"t require you to retrain staff - but presents a range of small improvements. If you"re currently running Office 2013 perpetual licences, however, there"s no compelling reason to upgrade for most businesses.
Office Online
3/5
PRO Free
PRO Works on almost any browser or mobile device
CON Not designed or licenced for business use
Price
Free
Details
https://www.office.com/
Office Online is a free, surprisingly comprehensive web-based office suite, comprising the same cut-down versions of most of Microsoft"s standard Office applications that you get as part of the Office 365 web interface. It"s explicitly aimed at home users and provides a free, quick and easy way to work with Microsoft"s default document formats without being tied to a particular computer.
Web users can share links for quick real-time collaboration or viewing
Office Online includes browser-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook. There"s also a Calendar, the People contact book, Docs sharing and Sway, a relatively recent "digital storytelling" app that lets you quickly assemble presentations, photo slideshows and newsletters. It"s a simple PowerPoint alternative, but the results are better geared for sharing on the web, and you can easily embed content from social media.
Office Online includes web presentation maker Sway
All your documents are automatically saved to a free 5GB OneDrive account - users who"ve had their Microsoft account for a long time may have more space available to them. You can use this to sync files to any Windows PC that you"ve connected to the same Microsoft account. Files are saved in standard Office 2016 formats (DOCX, XLSX, etc.), so you"ll be able to open them using any compatible software. By comparison, Google Apps for Work uses a proprietary format and requires you to export files if you wish to use them with other software.
Unlike Google Apps, you can"t enable any kind of offline editing mode for Office Online - if your internet connection goes down, so does your ability to work. If you want to work offline, you"ll need to subscribe to Office 365 at a level that provides desktop versions of the software. At least Chrome users get an extension that lets you quickly open and create files via a browser button.
As in Office 365"s Online apps, the free version of Office Online allows you to collaborate in real time with other users: the feature is supported in Word, PowerPoint, OneNote and Excel. Your free Office Online account can also be used to sign in to the mobile apps on Android, iOS and Windows Phone, giving you on-the-go access to your files.
The mobile version of Word fits plenty of features into a compact screen
The mobile versions of the apps have most of the same features as their browser equivalents, although they"re first and foremost set up for quick viewing and text entry. Tablet users get the familiar ribbon interface laid out almost identically to that of Office Online. If you"re on a phone, everything"s by necessity a bit more compact, but all the same options for formatting and reviewing your documents are available via a menu.
Conclusions
Office 2016 is a worthy update to the venerable productivity suite, although, with the exception of some specialist upgrades to Excel and Access, most perpetual licence users will find little to justify an immediate upgrade from Office 2013. Mainstream support doesn"t end for Office 2013 until October 2018.
For small businesses in particular, the Office 365 Business and ProPlus subscription options have plenty to commend them, most notably the licence for users to install Office software on multiple computers and devices and the ability to collaborate with colleagues in real time.
The competing Google Apps for Work is, at 3.30 per user, per month, a cheaper and entirely realistic alternative for businesses that want to have their document editing, mail server and storage on a Software as a Service basis. Even so, Microsoft"s powerful desktop applications are a strong justification for the 7.80 monthly cost per Office 365 Business Premium licence.
Office Online isn"t designed for use in business, but if your business doesn"t regularly use Microsoft software, the free service provides a useful alternative to expensive licence or subscription fees if you just want to occasionally check the formatting of an XLSX file before sending it to a client.
Source: http://www.cloudpro.co.uk/collaboration/5868/office-2016-vs-office-365-vs-office-online-what-s-the-difference-1