Walkthrough 2: E-Mail, Calendar, and Contacts


Microsoft designed Office 365 to work with the functionality of your desktop version of Outlook e-mail, calendar, and contacts. You can set up your Office 365 e-mail to be accessed through your Microsoft Outlook 2007 SP2 or 2010 desktop application or through Microsoft Outlook 2011 for Mac, or Microsoft Entourage 2008 for Mac, Enhanced Web Services edition [need to verify these product names].

1.       In Outlook 2010, open the File tab and click on the Add Account button.


2.       This opens the Add New Account dialog box.

3.       Enter your e-mail address and password, and click on Next. When the account is done auto-configuring, click on Finish.

Office 365 gives you anywhere access to your e-mail, important documents, contacts, and calendar on nearly any device — including iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile phones. Office 365 also automatically updates your e-mail, calendar, and contacts across supported devices. For assistance, read the help article Use email on your mobile phone.


Microsoft Outlook Web App is a Web-based version of Outlook that provides the familiar, rich functionality and experience you are accustomed to from the desktop version of Microsoft Outlook. If you are limited by low bandwidth, Outlook Web App is optimized so it minimizes data and bandwidth use. Cross-browser support for Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer ensures that wherever you are connected to the Internet — at home, at the office or on the road — you can access your e-mail once you’ve followed the steps above to add your account.

Log in to Office 365 and click on Outlook at the top of the screen to access Outlook Web App or launch your Outlook desktop application.
Share Calendars Through Outlook or Outlook Web App and Send a Meeting Request
Sharing calendars with colleagues makes scheduling easier with the ability to see colleagues’ availability from your Outlook calendar. When you set up a meeting request in Outlook or Outlook Web App, you can use the calendar to see your schedule and to find times that your colleagues are available as well. You can choose to share only whether you are available or not, or the details of your calendar appointments. You can send a meeting request to anyone, including those outside of your organization, but you won't see that person’s free/busy information unless he or she is using Microsoft Exchange and has shared their calendar with you. 

In Outlook or Outlook Web App, create a new meeting request. You will be able to view the calendars of any users that you have created in Office 365 by adding them to the meeting request and clicking on 
Scheduling Assistant




Edit the new user’s settings, and reset the user’s password


1.       On the Admin page, click on Users under Management on the left side of your screen. Locate the user that you want to manage.

2.       Click on the user's name to make changes to properties, licenses and other settings. To make the user an administrator, go to the Settings section, click on the Yes radio button under Assign permissions and confirm the e-mail address for service notifications.

3.       To add details such as an office phone number, click on Properties.
4.       When you're done making changes, click on the Save button at the bottom of the page. 








Add a new user to your account



1.       On your Admin page, click on Users under Management on the left side of your screen.

2.       Now click on the New button and select User.



3.       Next enter the name, display name, and user name for the account you're creating.

4.       Optionally, you can add any of these Additional properties by clicking on the blue arrow to expand the entry fields list.

5.       When you are done, click on Next to review Settings.

6.       Leave Assign permissions set to No unless you want to grant this user administrator privileges. At minimum, you need to select a user location here and then click on Next to review Licenses.

7.       To provide the new user with access to e-mail, SharePoint and Lync, you must check the box next to Microsoft Office 365 Plan P1 to assign licenses. Here you can also provide users with access to Microsoft Office Professional Plus if you have purchased a subscription. Click on Next to assign a password.
8.       Here you can enter up to five e-mail addresses to send the new user's temporary password. By default, your e-mail address is prepopulated so that you will receive a copy to provide to the user. Add any additional e-mail addresses separated by semicolons (up to five recipients), make sure the Send e-mail box is checked, and click on Create. This will open a summary page confirming that the account was created and showing you the temporary password. 


Note: If you have a number of users to add, you can use the Bulk add users option. This will prompt you to download and populate a comma-separated values text file containing all your user data that you then upload and configure.







Office 365 Recommended Downloads


IMPORTANT: Read all three notes below before installing.

1.       Microsoft Office Professional Plus (recommended optional paid subscription; if you are using this subscription, you must install this before the next two installations) 
Microsoft Office 365 (Plan P1) is designed to work seamlessly with Microsoft Office 2010 and 2007. For the best experience, we recommend installing Office Professional Plus, which is available for purchase through the admin portal.  The admin portal can be accessed through the links at the top of your screen after you have logged into your account.
·         It is not required to uninstall versions of Office before Office 2010, such as Office 2007 or 2003, before installing Office Professional Plus. Office 2010 will need to be uninstalled to use the Office Professional Plus full product
·         Office Professional Plus (with the exception of Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint Workspace) can co-exist with previous versions of Office by selecting that option from within the Customize menu. Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft SharePoint Workspace cannot co-exist with previous versions, so you will need to select one version of the program to have installed on your computer
·         Before installing Office Professional Plus, please be sure you have the CD-ROMs/DVDs and product keys necessary should you later choose to reinstall your current version of Office
·         Please note that some of the walkthroughs involve using Office applications with Office 365
·         Please review Microsoft Office Professional Plus system requirements
·         See additional information in our Frequently Asked Questions

2.        Set up and configure your Office desktop apps
For the best experience with Office 365, a set of required components and updates must be applied to each workstation. To simplify the installation and maintenance of these components and updates, Microsoft provides an installable piece of software — called Office desktop setup — at no charge.  The software checks your PC for required updates and configures your Office desktop apps to work with Microsoft Office 365.  After setup, you will be able to:
·         Send email from Outlook 2007 or 2010
·         Save files directly to SharePoint Online from your Office desktop apps


3.       Microsoft Lync
With Lync, you can exchange instant messages, initiate audio and video web conferences, and see presence information for your colleagues. You can also set up Lync to enable users to communicate with others outside your organization who use Office 365 or Windows Live Messenger.


The Office 365 Admin page will help you navigate many of the important administrative functions of the service. The Home page, available to both admin and non-admin users, will help you navigate many of the services included in Office 365. Please familiarize yourself with these pages because they are the starting point for completing many common tasks in the service.

Log on to the Office 365 service, and click on the Admin and Home links at the top of your screen:

Note: If the Outlook and Team Site links are dimmed as shown above, these features are still being configured. Check back or reload the page in a few minutes. For a complete list of known issues, please view the Release Notes for Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (English).

Access your new Microsoft Office 365 e-mail inbox in your browser through the Microsoft Outlook Web App, a Web-based version of Microsoft Office Outlook. In Walkthrough 2 (below), you will learn how to access your Office 365 
e-mail through your Outlook desktop application. All users will have a free non-custom e-mail address (e.g., joe@contoso.onmicrosoft.com). Customers will have the option to use their existing domain name to create professional e-mail addresses (e.g., joe@contoso.com). 

1.       Click on Inbox on the Home page:




2. You will be prompted to select your language, time zone, and whether you want to use accessibility features.





3.       Make your selections, and click on OK to access your Inbox.

Team site

The Office 365 Microsoft SharePoint Online-based team site makes collaboration easier with a password-protected portal to share large files both inside and outside your organization. Please verify that you can access your team site from within the Web browser.

Click on Team Site on the Home page. 

Note: If the Team Site link is dimmed, this feature is still being configured. Check back or reload the page in a few minutes.

Microsoft Lync
With Lync, users can send and receive instant messages, conduct PC-to-PC audio and video calls, conduct online meetings with up to 50 participants, and view presence information for their colleagues.

Launch the Microsoft Lync 2010 desktop application, and sign in to the service. Please note: If you have not installed Lync, please follow the instructions in Office 365 Recommended Downloads above.










Walkthrough 1: Sign Up and Get Started With Your Office 365 Account


Sign Up and Access Your Account
Sign up for your Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (Plan P1) subscription by visiting Office365.com. If you have more than 25 employees and/or have advanced IT needs, Office 365 also has a variety of enterprise subscriptions to suit the needs of organizations of all sizes.

Office 365 gives you the option to sign up for a 30 day trial period or directly for a paid subscription. The trial is a free period so you can experience Office 365 without having to purchase a subscription. The trial provides the full functionality of Plan P, with the exception that it is limited to 10 users and customers cannot point their custom domain to a trial account. 

To begin, enter your country or region, language, name, organization name, e-mail address, and the name you want for your new subdomain on the Office 365 service:

Click on Check Availability to confirm that your preferred subdomain name is available. Office 365 also enables customers to add a professional domain (such as cohovineyard.com) that they own. The professional domain can be used with e-mail and Web addresses. You may consider this a temporary address.

Next, enter a name for your Microsoft Online Services ID and select a strong password:


You will be prompted to enter verification text from a picture depicting numbers and/or letters. Next, decide if you want to receive offers from Microsoft and Microsoft partners and then click on I accept at the bottom of the page to create your account.


After you successfully sign up, you will land in your new Office 365 account.  You will also receive a welcome e-mail that will tell you how to access your Office 365 account.

Office 365 Trial Guide : Overview of Services Provided by Office 365 for professionals and small businesses


-Mail, Calendar, and Contacts

Office 365 (Plan P1) provides you access to email, calendar, and contacts from virtually anywhere at any time on desktops, laptops, and mobile devices—while helping to protect against malicious software and spam. 
· Easily manage your email with 25-gigabyte (GB) mailboxes and send emails up to 35 megabytes (MB) in size 
· Work from almost anywhere with automatically updated email, calendar, and contacts across devices you use most, including PCs, Macintosh computers, iPhone, Android phones, Blackberry smartphones, Microsoft Windows Mobile®, and Windows® Phones 
· Connect with Microsoft Outlook 2010 or Office Outlook 2007 and use all of the rich Outlook functionality you already know and use, whether you are connected to the Internet at home, or in the office, or you are working offline 
· Access your email, calendar, and contacts from nearly any web browser while enjoying a rich, familiar Outlook experience with Outlook Web App 
· Use your existing domain name to create professional email addresses powered by Exchange Online (for example, mark@contoso.com) 
· Easily schedule meetings by sharing calendars and viewing them side by side, seeing your colleagues’ availability, and suggested meeting times from your calendar 
· Help protect your organization from spam and viruses with Microsoft Forefront® Online Protection for Exchange, which includes multiple filters and virus-scanning engines

Team Sites and Public Websites

Powered by Microsoft SharePoint® Online

SharePoint Online helps you create sites to share documents and information with colleagues and customers. It lets you:
· Work together effectively by sharing team documents and tracking project milestones to keep everyone in sync· Keep your team’s important documents online so the latest versions are always at hand· Provide all team members with online access to critical business information whenever and wherever they need it· Easily protect critical business information by controlling who can access, read, and share documents and information· Market your small business using a simple public-facing website with a custom domain name (for example, www.contoso.com)· Publish, share and edit Access database applications on your Team Site 
Off


Hosted on Microsoft SharePoint Online

Office Web Apps are convenient online companions to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote® that offer you an easy way to access, view, and edit documents directly from your web browser.

· Work with others simultaneously in Excel spreadsheets and in OneNote notebooks while seeing who is editing what parts of the document

· Access and view Office documents from your mobile device

· Ensure that viewers experience great fidelity between documents viewed with the Office Web Apps and those viewed in the desktop Office applications

Instant Messaging and Online Meetings

Powered by Microsoft Lync Online 

Microsoft Lync™ Online helps you find and quickly connect with the right person from within the Office applications you already use. 

· Find and connect with colleagues and customers from virtually anywhere via rich presence, instant messaging (IM), audio/video calls, and online meetings 

· Use the Presence indicator to see when coworkers and partners are online and available 

· Make PC-to-PC audio and video calls with colleagues and customers 

· Conduct rich online meetings—including audio, video, and web conferencing—with people both inside and outside your organization 

· Share your desktop, online whiteboards, and presentations with colleagues and partners inside and outside of your organization 

· Click-to-Communicate with other users of Office 365, Microsoft Windows Live™, and MSN® Messenger

Customers who purchase Microsoft Office 365 for professionals and small businesses have the Microsoft Office 365 Community (www.community.office365.com) available as the primary way to have technical and billing issues resolved. Telephone support for any technical questions is not provided in the cost of the subscription.

The Microsoft Office 365 Community is a single destination for self-help support information and community discussion. The Microsoft Office 365 Community has the latest information to help customers find answers to a variety of technical, billing and service questions via support forums, wikis, and blogs.

The Office 365 Community is a public website (www.community.office365.com) and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The support forums are staffed and moderated by Microsoft Support Agents. Anyone can view and read the support forums, wikis, and blogs related to Microsoft Office 365. 

Office 365 Trial Guide : Why Office 365 for Your Organization


Virtually Anytime, Anywhere Access

Office 365 helps you access your e-mail, important documents, contacts, and calendar on nearly any device from almost anywhere. It frees you to work where and when you choose, allowing you to respond to important requests right away, no matter where you are. Because you can use your mobile device to access e-mail and documents, you won’t have to hurry back to the office (or look for a Wi-Fi hot spot if you are using your computer). When traveling, you can access your e-mail and even edit online documents from most popular Web browsers.

Easy to use

Improved Collaboration

With Office 365, you can create a password-protected portal to share large, hard-to-email files both inside and outside your organization, giving you a single location to find the very latest versions of files or documents, no matter how many people are working on them.

Security and Reliability

Powerful security features from Microsoft help protect your data. Office 365 is backed with a 99.9-percent uptime, financially backed guarantee. Office 365 helps safeguard your data with enterprise-grade reliability, disaster recovery capabilities, data centers in multiple locations, and a strict privacy policy. It also helps protect your email environment with up-to-date antivirus and anti-spam solutions.