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A short guide to Microsoft 365’s Bookings featureMicrosoft Bookings is not just any scheduling app; it's a powerful tool that lets you create an effortless booking experience for your customers. What sets it apart is its seamless integration with Outlook, ensuring that you have a real-time overview of your availability and simplifying the appointment booking process. In this article, we discuss some […]

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08 Sep, 2023 / by Complete Technology Resources / in 2023september8office_b, microsoft 365, microsoft bookings, microsoft features, Office, Office 365, outlook category
A short guide to Microsoft 365’s Bookings feature

Microsoft Bookings is not just any scheduling app; it's a powerful tool that lets you create an effortless booking experience for your customers. What sets it apart is its seamless integration with Outlook, ensuring that you have a real-time overview of your availability and simplifying the appointment booking process. In this article, we discuss some of the most useful benefits of Bookings.

Enhanced visibility

With Bookings, you gain access to an innovative scheduling application compatible with desktop computers. It allows your customers to choose their preferred times and dates, all in alignment with real-time availability. They just need to input the necessary contact details, and the system takes care of the rest.

No more hassles caused by cancellations

Cancellations and no-shows can leave valuable time slots empty, resulting in lost income, unless you have a system to fill those gaps. Bookings helps prevent revenue loss by allowing you to set specific cancellation notice requirements.

Moreover, Bookings automatically sends a confirmation email to customers upon booking, followed by a timely reminder just before their appointment. If customers need to reschedule or cancel, they can do so easily. They can simply click on a link in the confirmation email and select a more convenient time for them.

Seamless synchronization

Once a booking is confirmed, it seamlessly syncs to a centralized calendar, which you and your staff can all view. This allows you the flexibility to reschedule, cancel, or reassign appointments to different staff members as needed.

When it comes to reassignment, Bookings offers a handy feature called "split view." This intuitive tool displays the schedules of all staff members side by side, making it easy to see who is booked at specific times.

Furthermore, this adaptable system accommodates various calendar services, including Office 365, Outlook, and even Google Calendar. This ensures that clients and staff can use their preferred calendaring service, offering convenience for both parties.

More than just appointments

While appointment scheduling is the primary function of Bookings, it goes the extra mile by helping you expand your company's customer database. When customers input their information into the system during the booking process, it automatically generates contact entries for them. These contact cards include essential personal details such as names, addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses, all conveniently stored for future reference.

Scalability and cost-effectiveness

As your company grows, Bookings accommodates your expansion plans effortlessly. You can easily onboard more staff members and create additional booking pages at no extra cost. What's even better is that staff members don't need Office 365 subscriptions to utilize this service, making it accessible and cost-effective for your growing team.

One way to differentiate yourself from competitors is to use a comprehensive appointment management solution like Bookings. If you have any questions about this feature or need more tech tips, don't hesitate to reach out to us.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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5 Tips to work smarter in OutlookMicrosoft Outlook comes with a raft of features that make managing your busy schedule and boosting your productivity easier. If you find Outlook’s myriad capabilities a little overwhelming, don’t worry — these tips and tricks will have you using Outlook like a pro in no time. Organize your inbox Is your Outlook inbox getting a […]

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17 Nov, 2021 / by Complete Technology Resources / in 2021november17office_b, business, calendar, contacts, efficiency, email, meeting, microsoft, Office, onedrive, organization, outlook, Productivity, tasks, teams, Tips category
5 Tips to work smarter in Outlook

Microsoft Outlook comes with a raft of features that make managing your busy schedule and boosting your productivity easier. If you find Outlook’s myriad capabilities a little overwhelming, don’t worry — these tips and tricks will have you using Outlook like a pro in no time.

Organize your inbox

Is your Outlook inbox getting a little too cluttered for your liking? Use the Clean Up feature to tidy up your inbox.

From your inbox, click the Home tab and choose from one of three Clean Up options:

  • Clean Up Conversation – reviews an email thread or a conversation and deletes redundant messages
  • Clean Up Folder – reviews conversations in a selected folder and deletes redundant messages
  • Clean Up Folder & Subfolders – reviews all messages in a selected folder and any subfolders, and deletes redundant messages in all of them

Ignore conversations

Besides redundant messages, group conversations that aren’t relevant to you can clutter up your inbox. The Ignore button helps you organize your inbox and focus on relevant emails.

To activate this feature, select a message, then click Home > Ignore > Ignore Conversation. Alternatively, you can open a message in a new window and click Ignore under the Delete function. You can easily revert this action by going to the Deleted Items folder and clicking Ignore > Stop Ignoring Conversation.

Send links to files

This function is especially useful when you need to send large files to your coworkers or clients. You can send a link to the file instead of the file itself as well as set permissions to allow recipients to edit and collaborate on linked files in real time.

To do this, upload the file you wish to send to OneDrive. Then from the message box, click Attach File > Browse web locations > OneDrive.

Tag contacts

To get the attention of a specific person in a group email or meeting invite, use the @Mention function. This works particularly well for emails sent to multiple recipients or if you want to convey the urgency of your message.

In the body of your email or invite message, type the @ symbol followed by the name of the person you want to tag (e.g., @johndoe). Doing so will highlight the name in the message and automatically add it to the To line of your message.

You can also search for messages you’re tagged in by selecting Filter Email from the Home tab, and then clicking Mentioned.

Add notes to emails

With Outlook, you can add sticky notes to specific parts of an email. To add a sticky note, simply drag your cursor to highlight your chosen text in the email, and then release the mouse button to trigger a pop-up object menu. On that object menu, select Add Note. This will open a OneNote feed within Outlook, where you can add text or images to your sticky note.

Schedule a Teams meeting

Teams is Microsoft’s unified communication and collaboration platform, and it includes the Outlook add-in. This feature allows you to set up Teams meetings directly from Outlook. It also lets you view, accept, or join meetings while in either app.

To schedule a Teams meeting on Outlook, follow these steps:

  1. Switch to the calendar view on Outlook. Click the New Teams Meeting tab.
  2. Add individual participants or entire contact groups to the Required or Optional fields.
  3. Type in the topic, start time, and end time of the meeting. There’s no need to add the dial-in phone numbers and conferencing IDs to the invite, as Outlook does this automatically for you.
  4. Create a message inviting the recipients to the meeting, then click Send.

Share emails to Teams

With Outlook, you can easily share an email from your inbox directly to a specific Teams channel. To do that, follow these steps:

  1. Select the email you want to share.
  2. Click the Share to Teams button.
  3. On the Share to Microsoft Teams pop-up menu, type the name of the person or channel you want to share to. Check the “Include attachments” tickbox if you want to include the email’s attachments.

These are just some of the things you can do to improve your Outlook experience. For more on how to get the most out of Outlook and other Microsoft products, drop us a line today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Easy steps for sharing calendars on Microsoft 365Sharing your calendar on Outlook is a great way to keep your team on the same page about specific events and workflows. Fortunately, Microsoft 365 makes doing so a lot simpler. Here are the ways to share or publish your calendar on different versions of Outlook. Outlook on the web If you have Microsoft 365 […]

The post Easy steps for sharing calendars on Microsoft 365 appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

11 Aug, 2021 / by Complete Technology Resources / in 2021august11office_b, calendar, microsoft 365, Office, outlook, outlook for android, outlook for ios, outlook on the web, outlook.com, Productivity category
Easy steps for sharing calendars on Microsoft 365

Sharing your calendar on Outlook is a great way to keep your team on the same page about specific events and workflows. Fortunately, Microsoft 365 makes doing so a lot simpler. Here are the ways to share or publish your calendar on different versions of Outlook.

Outlook on the web

If you have Microsoft 365 or another email service based on Microsoft Exchange Online, follow these steps to share your calendar:

  1. Open the Calendar by clicking on the calendar icon at the bottom of the page.
  2. Once you’re in Calendar, go to the toolbar at the top of the page. Click on Share and choose which calendar you want to share. Keep in mind that you can only share calendars you own and not other people’s.
  3. Indicate whom you want to share your calendar with by entering their email address or name.
  4. Select which activities recipients are permitted to perform on your calendar. You can choose from the following:
    • Can view when I’m busy ⁠– if you want the calendar to show when you’re busy but hide certain details
    • Can view titles and locations ⁠– if you want the calendar to indicate when you’re busy, as well as key details like an event’s title or location
    • Can view all details ⁠– if you want the calendar to reveal all details about an event
    • Can edit ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to modify your calendar
    • Delegate ⁠– if you want recipients to be able to alter your calendar and share it with other users
  5. To proceed, click on Share. If you change your mind, click on the Trash icon to cancel sharing your calendar.

Alternatively, you can publish your calendar and share it with others using a URL. Here’s how you do it:

  1. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
  2. Select Shared calendars.
  3. Go to Publish a calendar and choose which calendar you want to publish and how much information is revealed to recipients.
  4. Click Publish.
  5. You will be given the choice between using an HTML or an ICS link. The HTML link can be used to view your calendar using a browser like Firefox or Google Chrome. An ICS link allows recipients to import your calendar and view it on their own Outlook calendar.

Outlook.com

Like Outlook on the web, Outlook.com allows you to share your calendar directly or publish it. The steps for sharing are exactly like those used in Outlook on the web, too, except you only have two options for how recipients can use your calendar. These are “Can view all details” and “Can edit.”

Publishing your calendar on Outlook.com requires you to::

  1. Click on the calendar icon to open the Calendar view.
  2. In Calendar, go to Settings and click View all Outlook settings.
  3. Go to Calendar and select Shared calendars.
  4. In “Publish a calendar,” select which calendar you’re publishing and how much information it contains.
  5. Click Publish and choose to use either an HTML or ICS link.

Outlook on iOS and Android

If you’re using a mobile version of Outlook, these are the steps for sharing your calendar:

  1. On your Outlook app, click the hamburger button at the top-left corner and select Calendar.
  2. Go to Share and tap on Add People to indicate your calendar’s recipients.
  3. Input each recipient’s name or email address. Once you’re done, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.
  4. You will see a list of recipients. Tap on a name to edit their permissions and how much information they’re allowed to see. As with Outlook on the web, available options are “Can View,” “Can Edit,” “Delegate,” “Only When I’m Busy,” “Only Titles and Locations,” and “All Details.”
  5. To remove a user from your recipients, tap on Remove at the bottom of the page.
  6. After you’ve set permissions, tap on the Check button at the top-right corner of the page.

The Outlook calendar is an excellent feature for managing your team’s events and workflows and can help boost your efficiency and productivity. If you have other questions and concerns about Microsoft 365, get in touch with us today.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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What are the different Microsoft 365 plans and what are their features?Microsoft 365’s plan segmentations are complicated, so here’s a simple primer on what to expect with each suite. This article should provide you with enough information to decide which Microsoft 365 plan is ideal for your business. Information workers or frontline workers? Microsoft 365 is the obvious choice if you’re running cloud-based business systems, but […]

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12 Apr, 2021 / by Complete Technology Resources / in 2021april12office_b, business, business premium, e3, e5, enterprise, microsoft 365, Office, Office 365, outlook, sharepoint, skype, skype for business category
What are the different Microsoft 365 plans and what are their features?

Microsoft 365’s plan segmentations are complicated, so here’s a simple primer on what to expect with each suite. This article should provide you with enough information to decide which Microsoft 365 plan is ideal for your business.

Information workers or frontline workers?

Microsoft 365 is the obvious choice if you’re running cloud-based business systems, but the main question is which suite will serve your needs best. Microsoft has packaged their Microsoft 365 offerings to fall under two types of bundles: Information Worker plans and Frontline Worker plans. Both of these plans will give you access to Office 365 and file hosting service OneDrive, but there are significant differences between the two.

Under the Information Worker suite, there are two Microsoft 365 plans you can customize as per your needs: E3 and E5. You can expand said suite with specific service sets your business needs, such as a standalone Office 365 system, Enterprise Mobility + Security tools, and even sets of the Windows 10 operating system. Meanwhile, the Frontline Worker suite (F1, F3, and F5) is more compact, with Office 365 F3 being the only available add-on.

Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 plans have unlimited archive and mail storage space. They also come with advanced analytics tools such as Delve, MyAnalytics, and PowerBI, all of which are unavailable on the Frontliner plans. Information Worker plans also include access management, threat protection, endpoint management, and other advanced tools absent in the Frontline Worker suite.

In terms of SharePoint, a collaborative platform and document and storage system, Frontline Worker plans are short on enterprise search, Excel services, and Visio — a diagramming and vector graphics app — features. Frontline Worker plans also do not have unified communications.

With these points in mind, it may seem like Information Worker subscriptions are superior — and in many ways, they are — but Frontline Worker plans are more suited for smaller companies running on a tight budget. Microsoft 365 F1 and F3 cost $2.25 and $8 per user per month, respectively, while Office 365 plans E1, E3, and E5 cost $8, $20, and $35 per user per month, respectively.

As a general rule, only consider subscribing to the Information Worker plans when your employee headcount exceeds 50 people and users require more storage space solutions and advanced analytics. Otherwise, Frontline Worker plans should suffice.

E3 or E5

Once you’ve decided to go for the Microsoft 365 Information Worker plans, you need to choose which plan (E3 or E5) suits your business requirements.

E3 offers basic solutions, such as Outlook, Word, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Excel for $32 per month. It also provides access to SharePoint Team sites, video conferencing, and Yammer for social media for businesses.

E5, on the other hand, provides all E3 features together with unified communications, PowerBI, Microsoft Defender, Application Guard, and Safe Documents. It also comes with more cloud security tools, risk-based conditional access, privileged identity management, and both automatic and machine learning-based sensitivity labels. E5 costs $57 per month.

Small- and medium-sized businesses often select E3 and subscribe to third-party applications for their cloud security and VoIP needs. But for more robust data management and security requirements, the E5 plan is the way to go.

Migrating to Microsoft 365 is not an overnight task, and if you’re still undecided about which plan to opt for, contact us today. We won’t just provide Microsoft 365; we’ll also assess your business to find the best plan that fits your budget and business goals.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

The post What are the different Microsoft 365 plans and what are their features? appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

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