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Clean IT up: Emails, chats, and files in one appIt can be overwhelming to have several windows open to manage your company email, chats, and any cloud storage just to perform your daily tasks. Microsoft Teams helps streamline the basic necessities of office work to help you overcome the challenges of multitasking. The convenience of chat apps has enabled workers to cut time spent […]

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Clean IT up: Emails, chats, and files in one app

It can be overwhelming to have several windows open to manage your company email, chats, and any cloud storage just to perform your daily tasks. Microsoft Teams helps streamline the basic necessities of office work to help you overcome the challenges of multitasking.

The convenience of chat apps has enabled workers to cut time spent chatting with colleagues and spend more time doing their tasks. What’s more, work-related software is increasingly becoming more mobile- and user-friendly, with apps like Microsoft Teams bringing together several different platforms. Here’s how you can use that to your advantage:

Use SharePoint to store and share files

You might already be using SharePoint to store files and collaborate with your teammates. But did you know that in every Teams channel, you can click the Files tab to share files from SharePoint with team members? You can also access SharePoint files already shared in the channel and use Office Online or Office Desktop to collaborate on those files.

Forward emails into a channel

You get countless emails every day, many of which might be buried in your inboxes. Fortunately, Microsoft makes it easy to forward any email message from Outlook to a Teams channel so they show up in both platforms.

To do this, click the ellipsis (...) next to any channel name and select Get email address. This generates an email address for the channel, which you can copy and use to forward files, documents, and messages.

Stick with a few groups

While you can create as many groups within your organization as you like, going overboard can result in a cluttered messaging interface that overwhelms team members. Instead, you can create groups based on the number of projects and team members involved ー you can always add more if necessary.

Set up audio conferencing

Teams lets you host voice meetings with groups or with just one team member. This is particularly useful when communicating with remote workers or clients, in which case you can give them guest access to your Teams channel. Guest access ensures they’re able to communicate with someone but unable to view private information.

Test communication strategies

Just because some of the features in Teams overlap with other Microsoft platforms, such as Yammer and Skype for Business, doesn’t mean they’re all redundant. Think of it as a chance to test different communication strategies to find out what works best for you. For instance, if most of your clients have a Skype ID, you can use Skype for client calls.

Share conversations with new team members

Teams makes onboarding new hires easy. Rather than forwarding numerous emails and documents to new employees, use Teams to share past conversations and projects with them. This enables everyone to catch up without having to deal with cumbersome documents.

Microsoft Teams and other Office solutions are equipped with plenty of useful features that can take some time to master. But by taking advantage of these tools, you’ll be able to save time and maximize efficiency without having to spend a dime. If you have any questions about Microsoft Office and how it can benefit your business, don’t hesitate to give us a call.

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

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Maximize your efficiency with these Outlook tipsCountless companies prefer Microsoft Outlook over other web-based email and calendar services because of its ease of use and convenience. Aside from being handy for managing business communications and setting up meetings, it can be used for coordinating projects and organizing contacts as well. Here’s a quick guide to making the most out of these […]

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Maximize your efficiency with these Outlook tips

Countless companies prefer Microsoft Outlook over other web-based email and calendar services because of its ease of use and convenience. Aside from being handy for managing business communications and setting up meetings, it can be used for coordinating projects and organizing contacts as well. Here’s a quick guide to making the most out of these and other nifty Outlook features.

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. You can also do this by opening a message in a new window and clicking 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.

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 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.

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.

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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Microsoft 365: New Office 365 features for the same priceOn April 21, Microsoft rebranded its Office 365 (O365) Home and Personal plans asMicrosoft 365 (M365) Personal and Family subscriptions. The company’s officials describe the new bundles as "the subscription for your life to help you make the most of your time, connect, and protect the ones you love, and to develop and grow." But […]

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Microsoft 365: New Office 365 features for the same price

On April 21, Microsoft rebranded its Office 365 (O365) Home and Personal plans asMicrosoft 365 (M365) Personal and Family subscriptions. The company’s officials describe the new bundles as "the subscription for your life to help you make the most of your time, connect, and protect the ones you love, and to develop and grow." But Microsoft isn’t just changing its marketing, it’s also boosting its apps with new capabilities. Here’s what you can expect.

#1 Microsoft Editor

Powered by artificial intelligence (AI), this new editing feature helps you write better by providing advanced grammar and style refinements. It will alert you if you’re using a word too often or constructing overly complex or unclear sentences. It can also make language and style suggestions, rephrase full sentences, and check for plagiarism.

Microsoft Editor is now available in 20 languages in Word and as a browser extension in Outlook. Soon, you can also install it as a Microsoft Edge and Chrome plug-in so you can always submit great writing anywhere on the web.

#2 Presentation Coach and updated Designer

Create better presentations using the AI-driven Presentation Coach feature that helps you avoid filler words, grammar mistakes in your speech, and a monotone pitch that may put your audience to sleep.

What’s more, the enhanced PowerPoint Designer gives you access to over 8,000 images and 175 looping videos, 300 new fonts, and 2,800 new icons. It also has the capability to convert text into a timeline and suggest potential slide layouts whenever you add an image.

#3 Money in Excel

If you use Excel to manage your personal or family budget, then you’ll love the upcoming new feature called Money in Excel that lets you link your bank and credit card accounts and import your data into your spreadsheets. You can also track your transactions line by line, categorize your expenses, and create a monthly spending chart so you can analyze your habits.

#4 Integrated personal and work calendars

Outlook now allows you to look at just one interface for both your personal and work calendars. This prevents your coworkers from setting meetings with you during your blocked personal events. You can also import your child’s school calendars so you’ll be alerted of their conferences, plays, and other academic events.

#5 Teams for consumers

Microsoft Teams will soon have new consumer-centric features that let you connect and collaborate with your friends and family. So if you already use Teams for work, you will be able to connect it with your Teams personal account and easily switch between those two accounts, just like in Outlook.

#6 Family Safety app

Aside from adding new features to their existing apps, Microsoft will also roll out its new Family Safety app for iOS and Android later this year. Similar to Apple’s Screen Time, the app is made to keep your family safe in both the digital and physical worlds.

It lets you see what your children are doing on their Windows PCs, Xboxes, and Android and iPhone devices, and give you an analysis of their time spent on each device, so you can manage their screen time. You can use it to set limits for apps and content filters by age and even block specific websites and games on Xbox. The Family Safety app will also provide you with location sharing and driving reports.

Despite all these new features and upcoming new app, the M365 consumer bundles are still priced identically with its O365 counterparts: M365 Personal at $6.99/month or $69.99/year for one user, and M365 Family at $9.99/month or $99.99/year for up to six users.

To stay updated with the latest Microsoft news and see how these changes can help improve your business, get in touch with our IT experts today!

Published with permission from TechAdvisory.org. Source.

The post Microsoft 365: New Office 365 features for the same price appeared first on Complete Technology Resources, Inc..

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