Tag Archives: Office 365

Office 365

Office 365 Poster : Learn which product to use when

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Office 365 has lot of apps. It can be confusing to know which app to use when. Here is the solution. To solve the problem I designed the Office 365 Poster.

It is simple, action oriented poster. First column lists common activities all of us perform and second column shows the recommended app and feature to be used.

You can download the PDF file from here. Use it, Print it, Share it with colleagues and friends… just spread the word.

The PDF is protected. Only printing is allowed. Of course, you can take a screenshot as well. But editing and copying is not permitted.

Have an idea to improve the poster? Post a comment.

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Note that all the latest icons have been incorporated as on 15 Nov 2019. As and when new icons are released, I will keep the poster updated.

OneDrive

OneDrive No Entry Sign

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OneDrive No Entry Sign is one of the icon states of OneDrive / OneDrive for Business on Windows 10. (Reading time 3 min).

It looks like this OneDrive No Entry Sign

It means your OneDrive account is not active – for some reason. You can’t access the files unless you resolve the issue. Here are the possible reasons:

OneDrive No Entry Sign

Account expiry is probably the most common reason. Check your subscription status and renew it. Sometimes, you think the subscription is active but the associated credit card may have expired.

Some Promotions give you extra space. Promotion expiry also leads to a frozen OneDrive account. For example, Samsung mobile purchases have / had a 100 GB OneDrive space promotion. This is limited to a one-year period. After this period, your files using the extra space will be considered as exceeding the quota.

Other option is that you are using more than the quota. OneDrive allows you to exceed the allotted quota temporarily – but after 3 months, it will freeze the account.

The files will not be deleted. But you must act on it and streamline the account either by increasing the quota or deleting unwanted files. Otherwise, after some time the files will be deleted. Exact time for which files are kept is shown in the OneDrive account.

Therefore, OneDrive No Entry Sign should be noticed as soon as it appears and you must act on it quickly.

OneDrive No Entry – buy Office Home

If you are just using OneDrive personal and run out of space, the logical option is to buy more space. But there is a better option. Buy Office Home. It comes with OneDrive…

If you buy the entry level Office Home edition, it gives you 6 TB of space – at just 500 INR (9.99 USD) per month.

Yes – you read it correctly.  See for yourself – India site , US site.
This is as on Sept, 2019.

In addition to this, you get  full Office Pro Plus – for 6 PCs / Mac and Mobile devices. Unbelievable value for money.  When  you compare this to other pure storage vendors, there is simply no comparison. The OneDrive integration with devices (Windows, Mac, Mobile devices) and Office is absolutely top-class. Nothing comes close to it.

The only shortcoming I have seen is that on many occasions, the latest OneDrive client is not installed. Or worse still, the old and the new version coexists. In these cases, OneDrive does not work well. The solution is easy. Just use Windows 10 and make sure you have all patches updated.

Related : OneDrive Knowledge Pack (10 articles as of Sep 2019)

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Office 365

Office 365 Usage Scenarios

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O365 contains a lot of tools. Most users do not even know about all the tools available. Even if you know the tools, the next question is – which tool to use when? Most people take this decision either randomly or based upon their habits. Both approaches are wrong. I created a set of 5 videos to illustrate some common Office 365 Usage Scenarios.

Office 365 Usage Scenarios

This is a playlist in YouTube. Each video is about a common business need. For each business need, the video demonstrates the best suited tool. As you know, efficiency is a two step process… step 1 is to know what is available and step 2 is to use the right tool in the right place.

You can view the playlist here.
These videos have a British voice because I created these videos for global consumption.

Here are the videos. Each one is just 5 minutes long. Continue reading Office 365 Usage Scenarios →

OneDrive

Move to OneDrive option

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Small but useful enhancement for OneDrive. When you have the latest version of OneDrive for Business installed (it updates automatically along with Windows Update), you should see a Move to OneDrive option on right clicking any file or folder in Windows Explorer.

Move to OneDrive option

Choose between all the locally configured OneDrive accounts.
Business as well as Personal.

Importance of Move to OneDrive option

Without this option, most users COPIED files and folder to OneDrive. This had two side effects…

  1. The original files stayed on the local drive as a separate copy. This means the same file is occupying space twice.
  2. Often users got confused about which file they are editing / opening – the local copy or the OneDrive based file. This leads to lost changes and further confusion.

Best Practice: Move to OneDrive

The best practice is to MOVE rather than COPY local files to OneDrive. But even if you mention that as a best practice, moving itself is a cumbersome task. Even though everyone understands the difference between Copy Paste vs. Cut Paste, people feel more safe to do a Copy Paste first.

Why? Because they are worried about what happens if the Cut Paste (Move) fails. The reality is, even if a bulk Move fails, only the file which was being moved will get affected. Other files will be either in the source or destination. So there is no real danger of losing all the files in case of a failed Move operation.

Nevertheless, having a direct option for Move to OneDrive is more authoritative and reassuring.

Make sure you include this option in your training material and best practices documents.

Bonus : New OneDrive logo

Hope you have noticed the new OneDrive logo… here it is.

This one is modern and is implemented as an SVG file rather than a raster icon. It uses a more vibrant colour scheme. All Office logos have changed to make it visually consistent.

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OneDrive

Change filename while the file is open

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Hope you have noticed this handy feature. If your Office files are stored on OneDrive, Teams or SharePoint, you can change the file name WHILE you are editing the file.

It is so simple, but extremely useful. From the title bar, open the dropdown next to the file name. The filename textbox is editable. Change the name and press ENTER. That’s it.

Change file name dialog

What else can you do here?

  1. See Version History
  2. Open the file on web location (OneDrive, SharePoint or Teams)
  3. Share a file (this can be done more easily using the Share button in the ribbon)

Rename not possible with older file formats

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This is an XLS file. It opens in Compatibility Mode. Live Rename is not possible.

Teams

Minimize button in Teams Screen Sharing

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Small but useful feature added to Teams. During Teams meetings when the desktop is shared, the communication option windows used to stay on the screen. This windows often overlapped important areas of the screen. The only way to avoid that interference was to manually move it to the bottom right corner (or some such inconspicuous area).

Now the problem is solved. There is a nice Minimize button. The window disappears. Job done.

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How to get it back? Look at the Taskbar and click on the Teams app icon. There is another window visible. Click on it to get the window back.

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This applies to the Desktop Teams App only.

OneDrive

Difference between save to This PC and Browse

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While saving files we see these two options: This PC and Browse. What is the difference?

If it is a local file, Save or Save As – there is no difference. It opens the standard file save dialog showing local PC files.

If this is a OneDrive, SharePoint or Teams file, there is a difference. For saving these files for the first time, we choose OneDrive or Sites (Teams). Therefore, the Browse and This PC does not come into picture.

However, when you are saving a copy of such files, there is a difference. Note that for online files, there is NO Save As option, it is a Save a Copy option.

If you choose This PC, it will still show the standard File Save dialog showing the default folder (typically Documents).

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But if you choose Browse, it browses the current file save location – which is OneDrive or Teams or SharePoint.

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