Office 365 is Microsoft's cloud based version of their popular Office software. This pay per-user and month suite provides all users with the productivity software and support they need to operate. While there is a long list of features and programs available to subscribers, one of the more useful is Office Web Apps, for which Microsoft has recently announced some updates that should make it even better.

Here's an overview of Office Web Apps and the two upcoming updates for the platform.

What exactly is Office Web Apps? Office Web Apps (OWA) is a browser based version of Microsoft Office. OWA includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote which users can access through almost any web browser. These apps are available free of charge to everyone with a Microsoft SkyDrive and most Office 365 users.

The beauty of OWA is that it allows users to open, edit, collaborate on, and store the most popular Office documents from a variety of devices. What this means is that as long as a user has a Microsoft Account and is connected to the Internet, they can access Office software without actually having it installed on their computer or device.

If you've used OWA, you know that it's great for opening Office documents, basic editing and creating basic documents. The major downside is, these web based apps are missing a number of more advanced features e.g., Find and Replace in Word. Microsoft has stated that they are committed to introducing more features, and have recently announced two that could make OWA an even more viable solution for businesses.

Real-time collaboration In the current version of OWA collaboration is possible. However a user will need to refresh the browser window to see changes made by another editor. This is hardly ideal, especially if you have more than two people working on the same document.

Microsoft aims to change this by introducing real-time editing. This means that if you and three other colleagues are working on the same document, you will see the changes as they are made; so there's no need to refresh.

This feature is currently being rolled out to PowerPoint users, and should be applied to the other OWA apps sometime in the near future (there has been no specific date set by Microsoft, but it should be by the end of the year).

Editing from Android tablets While OWA may not be the best choice for desktop users, especially since the vast majority already have Office installed on their computers, it's great for mobile users. At this time, only Windows 8 tablet and iPad users have been able to access OWA from their devices. The recently announced update will soon bring this functionality to Android tablets as well.

Microsoft has not set a date as to when Android tablets will be able to access OWA, but it should be before the end of 2013, possibly the end of the summer. They also noted that they are working to speed up the service for tablets, which will foster even more efficient collaboration.

If you are interested in learning more about OWA, Office 365 or any of Microsoft's other programs please contact us today to see how we can help.

Lists are important part of any role in any company. Many lists are now composed in a word processor like Microsoft's Word. But have you ever struggled to create a numbered list in Word? Maybe lists start from one each time you enter a new one, or the numbers continue from previous list. This can be frustrating, but luckily there is something you can do to address it.

Below is an overview of how you can set up ordered lists to either continue numbered lists from where you last left off, or start at #1 with new lists.

Set up numbering for all future lists

1. Open a new Word document.
2. Go to the Home tab (Press Home at the top of the window)
3. Press the downward-facing arrow beside the numbered list button in the Paragraph group. (it's located on the right of the bullet point button)
4. Select Set Numbered Value... from the drop-down menu.
5. Click the numbering option you want from the pop-up window.
6. Press Ok.

When setting numbered values, you have three options to choose from:

• Start new list - If you select this option, new lists will automatically start at one.
• Continue from previous list - Selecting this option will continue numbering from previous lists in the same document. For example: If you have a paragraph and then a numbered list with three points, and type another paragraph then enter a new list, the list will start from four.
• Set value to: - Lets you set what number lists will start at.

Change the number value of individual lists If you have a document with numbered lists already in it, and want to change the number values of one list, you can do so by right-clicking on the first number of a list and selecting either Restart at 1 or Continue numbering.

Note that if you have a document with a continuous list that is separated by paragraphs and choose to reset one list to start at one, all subsequent lists will be changed to reflect the new ordering.

If you were to ask business owners or managers the number one program they use on a regular basis, many would probably say the spreadsheet. This versatile program helps managers and owners keep track of various information but some spreadsheets can reach such massive sizes that they become unwieldy. Excel has a function that can help you easily pull data from a large spreadsheet - the pivot table. While useful, the pivot table isn't perfect and will usually require a some formatting.

Here's four ways you can modify Excel 2013 for Office 365's pivot tables to meet your needs.

Make your tables look good

When you first create a new pivot table you may notice that the numbers aren't formatted properly, or the table didn't pull the format from the base spreadsheet. They may have too many decimal places, or are lacking currency figures. You can make edit this by:

1. Selecting any of the numbers in the Value field.
2. Clicking on the Analyze tab from the tabs above the table.
3. Pressing on Field Settings in the Active Field group.

This will open the Field Settings panel and allow you to edit the whole Value field, which means that if you change numbers, location, etc, the formatting will stick. Pressing Number Format will bring up the Format Cell window where you can apply numbers, currencies, decimal places, etc. Pressing Ok will apply the formatting you have selected to the whole field.

You can also apply color schemes or styles by pressing the Design tab and selecting the theme that looks good to you. This will not usually change the layout, just the color and style.

Change the name of the table and fields

If you are going to be sending the table to clients or colleagues, you may want to change the name of the table and fields to something a little more user-friendly. You can change the names by:

1. Clicking on the cell/name you would like to change.
2. Pressing on the Analyze tab.
3. Looking at the Active Field area of the Analyze tab and double clicking on the cell's name. You can also click on the box beside Pivot Table Name if you want to change the table's name.
4. Entering a new name.

Add gridlines for easier viewing

If you need to separate the information in the cell, the easiest thing to do is to add gridlines. This can be done by:

1. Clicking on a cell in the table
2. Selecting the Design tab and choosing any style aside from the first one.
3. Looking at the PivotTable Style Gallery and ticking the box that says Banded Rows.

Change blanks to 0s

There may be an issue where the data that's used to create the table leave blank spaces when they should be 0s. This isn't a big deal, but it would be a good idea to ensure that, for consistency, blank cells are represented as a 0, especially if other related cells are numbers. You can force Excel to fill blank cells with a 0 by:

1. Right clicking on the table.
2. Selecting Options followed by Layout & Format in the pop-up window.
3. Entering 0 beside the box that says For empty cells show
4. Pressing Ok.

Excel and the pivot table bring some excellent functionality to the spreadsheet, and having a properly formatted pivot table could go a long way in ensuring the information shown is easier to read. If you would like to learn more about how Excel or any of the other Office 365 programs can help, please contact us today.

In late February, Microsoft announced, and subsequently rolled out, the newest versions of Office 365 for Business. This latest offering integrates the newly released Microsoft Office - Office 2013 - and brings some great new features that businesses can take advantage of. With the release comes a number of versions that companies can use.

Here's an overview of the four new versions of Office 365 for business that small to medium sized companies will be able to subscribe to.

Office 365 Small Business This can be considered the simplest new version of Office 365, and is for businesses with a maximum of 25 users. This version costs USD$6.00 per month or USD$72.00 per user per year. Supported services include Exchange, Lync, SharePoint and Office Web Apps. The desktop version of Office 2013 does not come with this package.

Office 365 Small Business Premium This option is for small businesses with 10 or fewer employees and costs USD$12.50 per user per month, or USD$150 per user per year. Users have access to: Excel, Word, PowerPoint, InfoPath, OneNote, Outlook, Publisher and Access. Supported servers include; Exchange, Lync and SharePoint.

With this version, you get five installs per user - meaning you can install Office on up to five computers - share calendars, 25GB of email storage with virus and spam protection and are given 10GB cloud storage per user.

Office 365 Midsize Business This offering is for businesses with more than 10 people, but under 250, and costs USD$15 per user per month, or USD$180 per user per year. Users have access to the same software and server support as the Small Business Premium Version, but will also be able to use: Exchange Online, Lync Online and SharePoint Online. Further, each user can install Office on up to five devices.

Beyond that, you will also be able to access the same cloud storage options as Small Business Premium. There are easier administration tools and a web-based admin console which make this version easier to manage.

Office 365 ProPlus ProPlus is a new offering from Microsoft, and is for companies with 10 to 250 users. It costs USD$144 per user per year, or USD$12 per user per month. Users have access to Excel, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook, InfoPath and Publisher. Server support for Lync, Exchange and SharePoint is also included.

Users are not given access to cloud storage or the online versions of Lync, Exchange and SharePoint.

These new versions of Office 365 are available to subscribe to now. If you would like to upgrade, or subscribe please contact us today. We can work with you to find the plan that best suits your business.

Mobile phones can do many things. Since the inception of the smartphone, many people have switched from voice calls to SMS/texts as the main way they communicate. This heavy adoption of text messaging has given companies like Microsoft a new way to keep people integrated with their services. One example is a little-known feature of Office 365 that allows users to turn their phones into a mobile notification center.

Did you know that Outlook for Office 365 can send you text message alerts? To achieve this you need to first establish a rule for Outlook Web Access/App (OWA) - Office 365's webmail (browser) version of Outlook.

There are two classes of notification you can set up: Notifications for calendars, or notifications for email. When you create a rule, you will receive a text message whenever the rule's parameters are met.

Here's how you can set this feature up:

1. Open Outlook Web Access in your browser. The standard address is usually: https://mail.yourcompanydomain.com/owa. It's important to note that you need to go to Outlook Web Access.
2. Log in using your Office 365 username and password.
3. Select Options - located in the top-right of the window - followed by See All Options.
4. Click Phone from the list on the left side of the window and then Text Messaging.
5. Pressing Turn on Notifications, selecting your Locale: and finally your Mobile Operator.
6. Press Next and enter your phone number with the area code, and without the country code.
7. Click Next again and check your phone. You should get a pass code in a text message that you will need to enter. After you receive this, press Finish.

Setting up rules After you have set up OWA to send you text messages, you can look into the two different types of alerts. As mentioned above, the first are calendar alerts. Pressing Set up Calendar notifications will allow you to establish rules related to your calendar. For example, you can create a rule where you will receive a text message when you have a meeting scheduled with a specific client or employee.

If you would like to receive text message alerts for your email, you can click on Set up email notifications using an Inbox rule. You have many different rules you can set up. For example: You can make a rule to receive a text whenever you get an email that contains the words: Update.

To get the most out of these features we suggest you play around with them and come up with something that works for you. Don't go overboard though, as you probably don't want to be receiving text messages every few minutes. Also, it's important to be aware of how your mobile carrier charges for texts. If you get charged for incoming texts, this feature could cause your mobile bills to skyrocket. Interested in learning more about what Office 365 can bring to your business? Give us a shout, we can help.

Google is a massive company, and while many of the services are free, they are a business and want to make money. Google Apps is an integral part of the profit structure, and Google has recently increased the cost which has more than a few small businesses worrying. Microsoft has responded by announcing an enticing change to Office 365.

After Google's announcement on December 7, Microsoft jumped in quickly and announced they would be extending their free-trial period by 60 days. When a new user signs up for, or is interested in, Office 365, they are now given a trial period for 90 days.

This extended trial period works in two ways: Firstly, businesses that buy a copy of either Microsoft Office Home & Business 2010, or Microsoft Office Professional 2010 and activate it will get a 90-day free trial of Office 365 Small Business Premium, with support for up to five users.

The other way businesses can take advantage of the offer is by going to the Office 365 website and signing up for the 90-day trial. If businesses choose this route, they will be able to download Office 365 Small Business with support for up to 10 users and be able to try it out for three months.

It's pretty clear that this new offer is largely aimed at Google users who are unhappy with the recent price changes. Office 365 is a great alternative that can help many companies grow. If you are interested in switching over to Office 365, please contact us, we may have a solution for you.

As with almost anything related to tech, the office suite has become an advanced piece of software. While integral to businesses of all sizes, many components are often unused by most workers. There are a number of components that are used however, including security features. If you use Office 365, Microsoft's cloud based office suite, you know that there are some robust security features, including the option to change your password every 90 days. This is a great way to help keep your work secure.

Here's how you can change your password and update it on all your devices and programs.

Before the password expires

1. In a Web browser of your choice go to your Office 365 portal. You should be able to access it by navigating to portal.microsoftonline.com.
2. Log in and click My Profile which is located in the top-right of the screen near your name.
3. Click Change password and follow the onscreen prompts.
4. Sign in to your Web based email app and ensure that you can connect to your account. You will be asked to type a new password when you navigate to the website.
5. OPTIONAL: Navigate to the email account settings on your mobile device and select your Office 365 account. From there you should be able to change your password to the one you entered in the portal above. If you don't use Office 365 on your mobile device, you don't have to do this step. If you do, it's recommended that you change the password on all devices you use to connect to Office 365.

If you have set up Office 365 to prompt you to change your password on a regular basis, it should be changed. You will get reminders to do so, but sometimes you may miss the update notification. If you do, your password will expire. When this happens you will have to go to portal.microsoftonline.com and try to log in with your username and password. You should be given a message saying that your password has expired, along with a prompt to update it. Follow the steps to update your password, and be sure to follow steps four and five above.

There are many great features offered by Microsoft Office 365. If you are looking to update from an older version of Office and are interested in a great office software suite, please contact us, we can help.

Think about this: At the last presentation you attended, the presenter wasn’t wearing any pants. Kind of funny right? Well, what if we told you that this could actually happen? If you use Office 365 and Lync, you can give PowerPoint presentations from the comfort of the office, or even your own home. You know what that means: Professional top, relaxed bottom, sounds like a good life.

Here’s how you can share a PowerPoint presentation using Lync.

Before you share your presentation, you should ensure that your PowerPoint slides are presentation-ready. This means going through and fixing as many mistakes as possible, ensuring the slides are readable and ensuring that all media is in place. When you are ready, schedule a meeting with participants, and either the day before or an hour before the presentation at least, conduct a dry run using all the materials, to ensure it works. You should also decide if participants can collaborate, present or just view the presentation.

On presentation day:

1. Start a new conversation on Lync.
2. Click Share - located above the IM Chat window - and select PowerPoint Presentation.
3. Navigate to the folder you have placed the folder in. We recommend saving a copy on your desktop to make it easier to find.
4. Select the presentation and wait for it to upload. The bigger the presentation, the longer it will take.

Once uploaded, the presentation should show on the right-hand side of the Chat window. Most presentations will show up with no restrictions, meaning anyone can make changes. You can adjust this by:

1. Clicking Join Information and Meeting Options located at the top-left of the chat window beside your picture.
2. Select Meeting Options.
   1. Select who can enter directly and who will wait in the Lobby before the start of the presentation.
   2. Chose who can be a presenter.
   3. Set restrictions for content.

After you’ve established your presentation options you can start. Basically whatever is showing on your screen is what the other participants will see. During the presentation you can navigate between slides by clicking the up or down arrow on the lower-right side of the presentation. Pressing the TV icon beside the arrows will put the presentation into full-screen mode, which is great if your participants are viewing the presentation on a large screen. To exit full-screen mode, move your mouse to the bottom of the screen and when the presentation menu bar pops-up hit the TV button again. Alternatively, you can press Escape.

One of the keys to giving a good presentation is to be able to review it. With Lync, you can record your presentations by clicking the two little arrows in the chat window located below the telephone icon. You will see a More Options drop-down menu, scroll down to Start Recording. You can control the recording from the bottom left of the window. If you need to take a break, hit Pause Recording, and click it again to continue. When you are finished hit the stop button and save the recording.

Being able to give presentations over Lync is a great way to connect with people and share important information without having to leave the office. If you’d like to learn more about using Lync in your organization, please call us.

Have you ever worked with someone who has absolutely terrible penmanship? It could even be you. It’s painful to watch someone either try to decipher a handwritten report or ledger. For written materials, Microsoft’s Office makes your life and work far easier. In November, Microsoft will release a new version of Office that could change the way you utilize the software in your company.

Microsoft will have two delivery methods for Office 2013. The first being the traditional method of Office, referred to as perpetual license; the second, a new subscription based Office, similar to current versions of Office 365. In truth, the subscription versions of Office are new versions of Office 365.

Perpetual license Office Perpetual license software, like Office 2007, Office 2010, etc. are programs that, when purchased, can be used for as long as you like. If you use older versions of business oriented Office, you likely purchased licenses to use the program. This meant you bought one product, and could install and use it on a set number of other systems.

If you were thinking of upgrading your version of perpetual Office, you should be aware that the price has been increased by 10-17%. If you use the student version of Office, the new version will cost USD$140, a near 17% increase over the previous version. Office Home & Business will cost USD$220, while Office Professional will cost USD$399. While these prices aren’t a massive jump, it’s the fact that Microsoft axed multi-licensing for these products that has caused more than a few raised eyebrows.

In previous versions, Office Student edition came with three licenses, while the other versions came with two. Office 2013 will now be one product, with one license.

Subscription Office Why would Microsoft raise prices and risk driving off business? They aren’t. Prices were increased to push customers to the subscription version of Office, more commonly known as Office 365. At launch, there will be two versions available: Office 365 Home Premium and Small Business Premium. Both of these versions will include Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher and cloud storage. Small Business Premium users will also receive Lync and more cloud storage space.

The cost for Home Premium will be USD$99 per year and Small Business Premium will cost USD$139 a year. The bonus, especially for users with more than one computer, is that Home Premium can be installed on up to five computers and Small Business Premium can be installed on up to five devices per user. This breaks down to about USD$8.00 and USD$12 a month for five users or devices, respectively.

It certainly seems like the subscription version will be the way to go for many users, and many users will save money. If you’d like to learn more about the new version of Office 365 and upgrading your company, please consider calling us.

One of the most useful software suites in the office is the office productivity suite of which, Microsoft Office is the most well know. Last year, Microsoft released Office 365, a cloud based version of Office that is aimed at organizations and businesses. It’s been just over a year since the release, and it’s time to look back at the last year, and forward to what the next few years will bring for the program.

Microsoft Office is arguably the most widely installed program in the world. School children use it to do their homework, University students use it to draft term reports and companies use it for just about everything. To make Office a little more “modern”, Microsoft has launched Office 365, a cloud based version of Office specifically for small to medium businesses. It’s been slightly over a year since the release, so how has it held up? And what does the future look like for the program?

Office was developed as a replacement and solidification of a number of different business oriented Office programs into one platform that utilizes the cloud to deliver services. While Microsoft has touted it as the next step forward, some experts are underwhelmed by the offering and have noted that Microsoft can do better.

While no official metrics on exactly how many companies are integrating the software have been released, it has noted that more than 90 percent of Office 365 users are small businesses with less than 50 employees.

Office 365 is popular with this segment due to the fact that it offers productivity and collaboration software, along with a solid email platform that meets both needs and budgets. The other draw to this suite is the generally high level of support and management offered by vendors, which means overall IT costs are considerably lower compared with the company hosting similar services themselves.

Office 365 has proven to be a viable solution for small businesses. However, companies with more than 50 employees have generally been slower to adopt Office 365 due to concerns over how well the migration to a cloud based suite can be executed. Users of Microsoft's now defunct Office Live Small Business would say that the migration could have gone smoother, especially if they chose to migrate without the help of vendors.

Despite a slightly complicated migration process, a number of universities and high-profile companies and government bodies have decided to integrate Office 365 and reports have been more than positive towards the platform.

Office 365 going forward For companies that have been reluctant to integrate a cloud based office solution, Microsoft has made the choice for you: integrate, or be left behind. This decision comes with the impending release of Office 2013, a new version of Office with heavy cloud integration, regardless of version. The business based versions will all use Office 365 as a platform to deliver and manage the suite, with the option to stream specific Office programs as you use them.

If your company is looking forward to integrating Office 2013, you will doubtless be integrating Office 365, or a modified version of it. From early reports, the platform and delivery works quite well and users will find little to no change to the overall feel of the program. We are confident that Office 365 systems, coupled with new versions of Office will be the tipping point for integration into companies.

If you’re looking for a cloud office solution, we recommend contacting us, we can work with you to find a solution that works for you and your office.