Microsoft Office Live Small Business was a useful extension of the popular Microsoft Office suite. One of the biggest features was that it was one of the first office suites to integrate the cloud into the software. Earlier this year, Microsoft discontinued the service to focus on its replacement - Office 365. Many companies have moved over, but the migration hasn’t been easy.

With the release of Microsoft Office 365 last year, Microsoft said that they would not be supporting Office Live Small Business (OLSB) and users would have to migrate over to Office 365. If your company used OLSB, you already know that your website was taken offline and all data was inaccessible as of April 30.

Microsoft hasn’t left businesses without a solution, they offer OLSB users a six-month free trial to Office 365. The major problem with many cloud services emerged at this point however, businesses had to get their data off OLSB and onto Office 365, not an easy feat, especially for small business owners lacking the required technical know-how.

If a small business owner chose to do the migration themselves, Microsoft had a 21 page help walkthrough for the migration process. Any migration is a daunting when you also have to focus on running a business, one with a 21 page document can be downright dreadful.

We’re not saying you shouldn’t use Office 365, it’s a great office suite for small businesses that offers many improvements over OLSB and many businesses have been happy they switched over. The issue is that when it comes to your business and its documents, the migration needs to be done right the first time, no mistakes. How do you ensure this? By contacting us, we will be able to help with your migration, and have you up and running an a newer and better system in no time.

Small business owners are always looking for ways to improve their efficiency, be it dealing with customer inquiries or developing reports. One tool that’s helped improve efficiency is the office suite, more specifically Microsoft Office 365. The word processor, Word, is an invaluable tool with many timesaving features including custom templates.

Believe it or not, everytime you start a new blank document, you’re actually using a template. Word offers a number of pre made templates to choose from, but they’re not really designed for business users. Instead, you can create your own custom templates. Here’s how.

How to create a template based off a current document If you’ve created a document and would like all other similar documents to have the same layout and styling, you can turn the document into a template by:

1. Opening the document in a new window. Be sure that you’ve saved the changes to the final document.
2. Making changes to the document so that in the future, you can easily add missing information. Note: don’t save the document, as any changes will be made to the original version.
3. Clicking File followed by Save As. Be sure to save the document in the Documents subfolder of the Libraries directory. This can be found on the left side of the Save As window.
4. Naming the document as you like. It’s a good idea, but not necessary, to put template in the title.
5. Selecting Word Template from the Save as type field.

Your template will show up as a selectable template when you start a new Word document. Click on My templates to access it. Be aware that whatever you have in the document when you create the template will be in every new document you open using the template.

If you realize you’ve made a mistake, open the template, make the changes and select Save As. Instead of entering a new file name, locate the original template, and click on it. Word will automatically apply the name of what you’ve clicked. Press Save and confirm the overwrite. You can use this method to any template, including the premade ones. If you do make changes to a premade template, the updated version will be located in the My templates section.

There are many ways you can tweak Word to meet your needs, and templates are a great way to ensure similar documents will look the same, while saving you time. If you’d like to learn more ways you can customize Word, or any other program in the Office 365 suite, please contact us.

Microsoft 365, the cloud version of its popular office suite has some great features that help small business owners boost their communication effectiveness. This is especially true for Outlook. One useful feature is the ability to conduct polls via email. Want to know what day of the week is best to have a meeting? Add a poll.

Here’s how you can create polls and votes in your emails using Microsoft 365’s Outlook.

1. Open Outlook, and click New Message. If you have an email you’d like to attach a poll to, and forward it to others, open the email and click Forward.
2. Click on Options, located at the top of the window you compose the email in. From the drop-down menu, select Tracking.
3. Click Use Voting Buttons.
4. Choose from the options.

If you choose Custom, you’ll be able to customize the names of the buttons. This is done by:

1. Follow steps 1-4 above, and select Custom.
2. A window called Message Options will open, under Voting and Tracking Options select Use voting buttons.
3. Delete the default names and enter the name of the buttons you’d like to use. Be sure to separate them with a semicolon, with no spaces e.g., Choice One;Choice Two;Choice Three.
4. If you want a read and delivery receipt sent to you, press the two respective boxes below Use voting buttons.
5. Click Close. You’ll notice the buttons show up in the area where you compose your email. Compose the rest of your email, and click Send.

You can review the results by opening the email you sent, usually found in the Sent Items folder on the left-hand side of the Outlook window. In the open email, press the Message tab followed by Show and Tracking. If there haven’t been any responses the Tracking option will be grayed out, and you’ll be unable to click on it.

Being able to include a poll in your emails is a great feature of Office 365 that can be used for many situations. If you’d like to learn how to use other features of Office 365 please contact us.

In order for a company to stay open they need to adapt to, and change with business environments. This includes updating their computer systems to at least stay somewhat current. As it’s expensive to update systems, many companies have been turning to cloud solutions to be able to do more with what they currently have. Microsoft’s Office 365 is one such solution and there are some positive benefits that go along with adopting it.

There are four main benefits to using a cloud based office suite like Office 365.

Prevent save disasters. One thing every employee has done is get caught up in their work and forget to save, only to have the program or computer crash resulting in the loss of their work. By using Office 365, changes are automatically saved and synced with the cloud, so if something does happen, you probably won’t lose any of your work.

Access from more devices. As Office 365 is browser based, you can access it on a tablet or smartphone. This means you don’t have to be on your computer to access and edit documents. If you give lots of presentations and have a tablet with a data connection, you could ditch the laptop all together.

Eliminate forgotten documents. It can be embarrassing to show up to an important meeting only to realize that you’ve forgotten an essential document back at the office. If this happens, you can just log into Office 365 and access the document.

More storage. With computers, there’s generally a fixed amount of storage available, when it’s used up, you have to free up space by deleting old files. This can be a problem, especially if you have to keep files and information due to legal requirements. Office 365 has plans that allow your company to have as much storage as you need.

These are just four of the benefits to using Office 365 in your business. If you’re looking to move your office suite into the cloud, or would like to learn more about Office 365, please contact us.

The pointing device, or mouse, is one of the integral parts of our computer platform. Without it, we would have a tough time navigating today’s complicated software. While the mouse is useful in office suites like Microsoft Office 365, there are times when it seems like it’s a waste of effort. Microsoft agrees, and as such, has implemented keyboard shortcuts to make some operations more efficient.

If you use Office 365, you probably spend a large percentage of time using Outlook. Here are some time saving Outlook keyboard shortcuts. These will work with both Windows and Mac operating systems.

Control + 1: Pressing this will switch to Mail. If you’re using a Mac, press command + 1.

Control + 2: This shortcut will switch to your Calendar. On the Mac press command +2.

Control + 3: This shortcut will open your Contacts. On the Mac press command + 3.

Control + Shift + M: This shortcut will open the compose a new message window. You can press this from anywhere in Outlook. On the Mac press command + Shift + M.

Control + Shift + A: When you press this, you’ll be able to set a new appointment. You can press this from anywhere in Outlook. On the Mac press command + Shift + A

F3: This shortcut will open the search pane. On the Mac you can press command + F3

Control + , or .: With a current message open you can press control + , (comma) to switch to the previous message in your Inbox, or press control + . (period/full stop) to switch to the next message in your Inbox. Pressing command + , or . will do the same thing on a Mac.

Control + Enter: When you have an email message open, pressing these keys will send the email. The Mac shortcut for this is command + return.

F4: If you press F4 Office 365 will close. To close the program on a Mac press command + Q

These are the most common shortcuts for Office 365. If you’d like to learn more Office 365 shortcuts or time saving tips, please contact us.

The pointing device, or mouse, is one of the integral parts of our computer platform. Without it, we would have a tough time navigating today’s complicated software. While the mouse is useful in office suites like Microsoft Office 365, there are times when it seems like it’s a waste of effort. Microsoft agrees, and as such, has implemented keyboard shortcuts to make some operations more efficient.

If you use Office 365, you probably spend a large percentage of time using Outlook. Here are some time saving Outlook keyboard shortcuts. These will work with both Windows and Mac operating systems.

Control + 1: Pressing this will switch to Mail. If you’re using a Mac, press command + 1.

Control + 2: This shortcut will switch to your Calendar. On the Mac press command +2.

Control + 3: This shortcut will open your Contacts. On the Mac press command + 3.

Control + Shift + M: This shortcut will open the compose a new message window. You can press this from anywhere in Outlook. On the Mac press command + Shift + M.

Control + Shift + A: When you press this, you’ll be able to set a new appointment. You can press this from anywhere in Outlook. On the Mac press command + Shift + A

F3: This shortcut will open the search pane. On the Mac you can press command + F3

Control + , or .: With a current message open you can press control + , (comma) to switch to the previous message in your Inbox, or press control + . (period/full stop) to switch to the next message in your Inbox. Pressing command + , or . will do the same thing on a Mac.

Control + Enter: When you have an email message open, pressing these keys will send the email. The Mac shortcut for this is command + return.

F4: If you press F4 Office 365 will close. To close the program on a Mac press command + Q

These are the most common shortcuts for Office 365. If you’d like to learn more Office 365 shortcuts or time saving tips, please contact us.

Companies no longer operate in a local only location, with technology they can reach customers all over the planet. The same goes for their employees, they can be anywhere with an Internet connection, and still be a contributing and productive member of a team. This is made possible by software like Microsoft Office 365.

If you use Office 365 in your company, you can have online meetings through Microsoft’s messaging tool, Lync. Here’s how to start a meeting, and some features that make face-to-face meetings unnecessary.

How to start a meeting In Outlook’s calendar, schedule a meeting and invite the participants. When it’s time for the meeting, simply log into Lync, go to your calendar and select the meeting. You’ll have the option to Join online meeting, click it and the meeting will start. If a colleague is online and you would like them to join the meeting, click on their name and drag them over to the meeting window.

Features you can use during the meeting There are a number of useful things you can do in the meeting including:

• Video calls. If you and the attendees have webcams, you can turn the meeting into a video call by pressing the webcam button beside the attendees’ names.
• Share and share alike. Press Share (beside video) in the meeting window to get a dropdown menu with a number of things you can share with the participants. Say you are going to do a demonstration on your screen, you can share it with the attendees by selecting Main Monitor. You can also share presentations or programs.
• Change the presenter. If an employee would like to show something from their screen, or is going to present something, you can give them presenter status by right clicking on their name and selecting Make a Presenter.
• No interruptions. If one person is presenting, and another has a question, they don’t have to stop the presentation to ask a question, they can simply select IM and type the question. All participants will see it, and the presenter can answer the question when they are finished.

If you’re looking for an alternative to physical meetings, Office 365 has a great set of products that will allow you to do just that. To learn more about Office 365 or any of Microsoft’s other products please contact us, we’re ready to assist you.

One business tool that’s been slow to keep up with technology is the business card. If you were to look around your office there’s a high probability you have an abundance of them. A problem starts to arise when we get too many, it becomes easy to lose an important card. Users of Microsoft Office 365 have a solution: they can use Outlook to store and create electronic business cards.

Here’s how to create and share an electronic business card:

Create an Electronic Business Card

1. Open Outlook and select Contacts followed by Home. Click on New Contact.
2. When the Contact window opens, press Business Card and the Edit Business Card window will open.
3. You will be able to enter contact information into the relevant areas under the Fields box.
4. If you want to add an image or change the layout of the business card, press the Layout button located in the right side of the screen.
5. When you have entered the information, press Ok and the business card will be saved as a .vcf file which is readable by most email clients.

Add an Electronic Business Card to an Email If you have saved a contact’s information as a business card, you can easily attach the card to an email.

1. In a message select the Contacts pane and search for the business card you would like to attach. When you find it, click it.
2. Select the Home tab, followed by Forward Contact. A drop-down menu will open, select As a Business Card.
3. You will see the business card as an attachment in the email.

Add a Business Card as a Signature You can add a business card to your signature in any email.

1. When you create an email message click Signature and select Add signature.
2. Select the signature you would like to use, if you have one. If not, press anywhere in the white space below Edit signature.
3. Click Business Card beside the paragraph alignment buttons in the Edit signature field.
4. Select the contact name you use and press Ok. Your contact information will show up at the bottom of the email as a downloadable .vcf file.

If you’re a user of Office 365 and would like to learn more, or would like more information on Office 365 or other products, please give us a call.