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Microsoft prices high-end Office 365 E5 at $420 per user per year

Microsoft begins selling its new highest-end Office 365 business plan, E5, on December 1 for $420 per user per year. Here’s what’s included.

Ofice 365-Plans

Microsoft will charge users $35 per user per month, or $420 per year, for its new highest-end Office 365 business plan.

Microsoft officials went public with the pricing for Office 365 E5, its top-of-the-line commercial Office 365 offering, on November 30 during the company’s Convergence EMEA conference. Office 365 E5 is available to customers for purchase starting, December 1.

Office 365 E4 — the current high-end version of Microsoft’s Office 365 line — sells for $22 per user per month, or $264 per user, per year.

The Office 365 E5 SKU will include Skype for Business (Lync) with support for features including Cloud PBX and Meeting Broadcast; new analytics features, like Power BI Pro and Delve Organizational Analytics; and new advanced security features, such as eDiscovery, Customer Lockbox, and Safe Attachments.

Office 365 E4 includes Skype for Business with Enterprise Voice and unified messaging; the full suite of locally downloadable Office apps; and Power BI for Office 365 (which is being superseded by Power BI pro).

Microsoft is planning to retire E4 and replace it with E5. However, Office 365 E4 will remain on the price list till June 30, 2016, Microsoft officials have said.

The E1 and E3 versions of Office 365 will retain their current prices of $8 per user per month, and $20 per user per month, respectively.

Office 365 E1 users will get new work-management capabilities, as well as Skype for Business’s Meeting Broadcast functionality added to their plans for no additional charge. Office 365 E3 users will get those same two new features, as well as the option to purchase Equivio Analytics for eDiscovery. (Microsoft bought Equivio in January 2015.)

Skype Meeting Broadcast enables users to broadcast of a Skype for Business meeting on the Internet to up to 10,000 people, who can attend in a browser.

Office 365 E5 users get all the features that E1 and E3 users get, plus other analytics and networking functionality, including Cloud PBX and PSTN Conferencing.

The Skype for Business Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling service provides users with the ability to make and receive traditional phone calls in their Skype for Business client, and to manage these calls using hold, resume, forward and transfer.

PSTN Conferencing is initially available to 15 countries on December 1, with a phased roll out to international markets in the future. Cloud PBX is available worldwide starting December 1. PSTN Calling is available in the U.S. starting December 1, with a phased roll out to international markets in the future.

The fine print: PSTN Conferencing users may incur additional per-minute consumption charges, but customer can disable this feature to avoid additional billing. PSTN Calling is paid add-on for E1, E3 and E5. For E5 users, PSTN Calling costs $24 extra (per user, per month) for international and domestic calling, and $12 for domestic calling only. For E1 and E3, the international and domestic calling plan is $32 extra.

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Get help from IT Experts/Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner
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Office 365 – the easiest way to get the new Office.

Microsoft
Partner Network

Office 2016

Now, there’s more opportunities than ever to build your business.Office 216 is the latest addition to Office 365—taking the work out of working together. The new Office is built for teamwork. Perfect for Windows 10. Smart. Secure. Full of new features.

Consider the opportunities.

Exciting new advances in Office open new opportunities for you to deepen your role as trusted advisor and to expand your practice—and your revenue potential. Here are a few paths to consider:

  • Reach new customers by leveraging the innovative user experiences in Office 2016 apps
  • Grow your hybrid practice with cloud-inspired infrastructure in Office 2016 servers
  • Capitalize on Office 2016 launch momentum to renew or upsell Office 365

We think that Office 2016 is an important step in empowering every organization on the planet to achieve more. Action Pack and Competency partners can get started right away by using your internal use rights (IUR) benefits to download Office 365. Once you’re familiar with the new Office you can show your customers how to get the most from the new features.

Quick steps to get started:

Let’s do great work together.Your Microsoft Partner Network Team

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When should businesses upgrade to Windows 10?

Looking at upgrading your business PCs to Windows 10 but not sure when to make the leap? Here are some issues to consider.

Business customers can often be years behind the state of the operating system art: right now most businesses are still running Windows 7, launched back in July 2009, having shown limited interest in Windows 8 which arrived in August 2012.Windows 10

Even when they buy new PCs, most companies today still downgrade them to Windows 7, so it’s usually home users that are first to take the plunge with the new software, whether they like it or not.

However, businesses may be significantly faster to adopt Windows 10, which arrives on 29 July (volume licensing customers will be able to download Windows 10 Enterprise and Windows 10 Education on Volume Licensing Service Center from 1 August) than previous versions of Microsoft’s operating system.

Part of the reason for the change is the huge public testing process – five million testers strong – that has preceded the arrival of Windows 10. As a result, the standard policy of waiting for the first service pack to arrive before rolling out a new OS is now longer the right one, says Stephen Kleynhans, research vice president at analyst Gartner.

However, that doesn’t mean firms should be full steam ahead with upgrades. “I’m not one who believes there is a need to rush to a new operating system. You want to let the ecosystem around the operating system mature a little bit before you jump right in,” he says.

Companies should wait until it’s clear if the line of business applications they use work happily with Windows 10, and whether they can find enough expertise to make sure any rollout is a smooth one. “All of that has to build up before you want to jump in and start running it in your production environment,” he said.

Kleynhans said businesses need to spend some time testing out Windows 10 in a controlled fashion: “Bring it into a lab, bring it into a test environment, let some folks run it for the rest of this year. Then, in 2016, get serious about it, start looking at it in a real test environment, start piloting it with some real users to see how it’s performing.”

He said that if all goes well companies should be ready to start deployments in the second half of 2016 or the beginning of 2017, depending on how large and complex their IT environment is.

“If you’re a large company nothing happens really fast. If you’re a small company the timeline is going to be a lot faster – if you’re testing with 10 people you might be testing with ten percent of the company.”

Starting the rollout a year to 18 months after the operating system is launched might seem like a long delay, but it would still be six months to a year faster than with previous upgrades.

Kleynhans said that it took most big companies 18 months of testing and remediation work before they were able to start rolling out Windows 7. In contrast, most companies will get Windows 10 testing and remediation done in less than six months.

The analyst said that some organizations are keen to get moving as soon as Windows 10 is available – such as those that are still using Windows XP or who have plans to deploy hybrid PC devices. But, for most companies, this will be too soon.

“There are pieces of the operating system targeted at the enterprise that we really haven’t had a chance to try out yet. You can’t consider significant production rollouts even in the most aggressive cases until later in the fall.”

He cited Windows Update for Business as a new tool that small and medium sized businesses will want to use, but that wasn’t part of the tech preview. There are also some other security components that haven’t been as broadly tested or available during the tech preview, he said.

As Ed Bott notes over at Tech Pro Research, other missing features will include the new unified sync client for OneDrive (the consumer cloud storage service) and OneDrive for Business (the cloud storage service for business Office 365 subscriptions). He predicts these will be wrapped up by late October, in time for Windows 10 PCs to hit the retail channel for the festive season.

Other factors to consider: at a prosaic level, the upgrade will inevitably cause disruption so don’t plan it for a busy time of year. If you’re in retail, starting the upgrade in November or December might be a career limiting decision for the CIO.

The state of your current infrastructure is another element to take into account. Gartner says that companies planning Windows 8.1 deployments should instead redirect their efforts toward earlier deployment of Windows 10.

“In almost all cases, enterprises currently planning to deploy Windows 8.1 should switch to Windows 10. Enterprises that already have Windows 8.1 deployed should continue with those deployments for the time being. Customers on Windows 7 with no plans for Windows 8.1 should begin evaluating Windows 10 for deployment in 2H16 or later,” the analyst firm said in a research note.

Equally, for some, the upgrade may never take place. David Gewirtz has no plans to upgrade any of his Windows 7 devices to Windows 10: “They work, they’re rock solid, and all their drivers are perfectly tuned to the hardware they’re running on,” he notes.

However long it takes enterprises to take the plunge, Windows 10 is likely to become widely adopted, if only because most firms will need to move off of Windows 7 eventually, while the relatively few who did move to Windows 8 will also update sooner rather than later. The pressures that forced companies to migrate off Windows XP and onto Windows 7 will eventually make them move from Windows 7 to Windows 10.

“Windows 7 comes to end of life in January 2020. That’s only four and half years away so you’re going to see the same sorts of pressures mount to get off of Windows 7. They need to go somewhere and they’ll go to Windows 10,” he said.

Have questions?

Get help from IT Experts/Microsofts Cloud Solutions Partner
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Office 2016 for Mac is here!

Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office Client Applications and Services team said “Today we are taking a big step forward for Mac® users—Office 2016 for Mac is now available in 139 countries and 16 languages. Based on feedback from the great Mac Office community, we’ve made major updates to each of the apps, and we couldn’t be more pleased to deliver it first to our Office 365 customers.”

Unmistakably Office, designed for Mac

The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote provide the best of both worlds for Mac users—the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac.

If you already use Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home in Office 2016 for Mac. It works the way you expect, with the familiar ribbon interface and powerful task panes. Mac users will appreciate the modernized Office experience and the integration of Mac capabilities like Full Screen view and Multi-TouchTM gestures. With full Retina® display support, your Office documents look sharper and more vibrant than ever.

Office for Mac is cloud-connected, so you can quickly get to the documents you’ve recently used on other devices and pick up where you left off. New, built-in document sharing tools make it easy to invite teammates to work on a document together. When sharing documents, you won’t have to worry about losing content or formatting, as Office for Mac offers unparalleled compatibility with Office on PCs, tablets, phones and online.

Five modern, first-class applications

Word for Mac

 

Word for Mac—Word’s powerful writing and reviewing tools make it easy to create great-looking documents. The new Design tab lets you easily apply designer-quality layouts, colors and fonts throughout your document. You can work on the same document simultaneously with your teammates and use threaded comments to have a conversation right next to the corresponding text.

 

Excel for Mac

 

Excel for Mac—The new Excel for Mac helps you visualize your information by recommending charts best suited for your data with chart previews. Familiar keyboard shortcuts, autocomplete and an improved formula builder save you time when creating spreadsheets or entering data. For deeper analysis, new PivotTable Slicers help you filter large volumes of data and discover patterns.

PowerPoint for Mac

PowerPoint for Mac—PowerPoint’s improved Presenter View gives you full control when you present by showing you the current slide, next slide, speaker notes and a timer on your Mac screen, while the audience only sees your presentation on the big screen. The new animation pane helps you design and fine-tune animations, and the latest set of slide transitions add polish to your presentations.

Outlook for Mac

Outlook for Mac—Managing your email, calendar, contacts and tasks has never been easier. The new Outlook for Mac has push mail support so your inbox is always up-to-date. The improved conversation view automatically organizes your inbox around threaded conversations, so you won’t have to hunt for related messages. And the new message preview shows you the first sentence of an email just below the subject line so you can quickly decide if you want to read it now or come back later.

One Notebook for Mac

OneNote for Mac—OneNote is the newest addition to Office for Mac. You can capture your ideas in digital notebooks and access them on any device. Find things quickly with the OneNote search engine that tracks your tags, indexes your typed notes and recognizes text in images and handwritten notes. Bold, italicize, underline or highlight notes, insert files, pictures and tables and organize your notes however you want. You can also share notebooks with friends, family or colleagues so everyone can work together on travel plans, household tasks or work projects.

Made better by Mac users

The customer participation in Office for Mac preview since its launch in March exceeded expectations, making it largest Office for Mac beta ever. Thanks to everyone who participated in the preview program and helped improve the product.

Mac preview participants provided with over 100,000 pieces of feedback. Based on this feedback, Office released seven updates in four months with significant improvements in performance and stability. Also added features like improved Mail Merge in Word, Propose New Time in Outlook and support for External Data Connections in Excel.

And the best news is that Office for Mac will continue to see ongoing improvements over time. With released updates and new features for Office 365 customers at least once per quarter.

Available today for Office 365 customers

Office 365 subscribers can get the newest version of Office for Mac today. All you need is an Office 365 subscription (Office 365 Home, Personal, Business, Business Premium, E3 or ProPlus), which includes the rights and access to use Office applications on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android devices, along with additional value in OneDrive and Skype.

Here are a few different ways to get Office 2016 for Mac today:

  • Already an Office 365 customer? On your Mac, just browse to your account page (office.com/myaccount), sign in and follow the installation instructions. If you have Office 365 through your organization, go to portal.office.com/OLS/MySoftware.aspx.
  • Are you a student? You may get Office 2016 for Mac for free or at a substantial discount. It takes only 30 seconds to find out at office.com/student.
  • Otherwise, go to office.com/mac or buy an Office 365 subscription at your local retailer.

Office 2016 for Mac will become available as a one-time purchase option this September.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about the new Office for Mac. It’s one of many important releases this summer. “We released Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android phones just two weeks ago, which join Outlook and OneNote for Android phones, and we are just weeks away from delivering Office Mobile apps for Windows 10.” said Kirk Koenigsbauer

Have questions?

Get help from Microsoft’s Cloud Solutions Partner.
Call us at: 856-745-9990 or visit: https://southjerseytechies.net/

South Jersey Techies, LLC is a full Managed Web and Technology Services Company providing IT Services, Website Design Services, Server Support, Network Consulting, Internet Phones, Cloud Solutions Provider and much more. Contact for More Information.

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How to reserve your free copy of Windows 10

A new notification prompts Windows 7 and 8.1 users to reserve an upgrade to the upcoming OS, due to debut July 29.

Microsoft is now pushing Windows 10 via a notice suggesting you reserve a copy. On Monday, the software giant announced thatWindows 10 will officially roll out July 29. That means it will be available on any PCs you purchase as of that date — and as a free upgrade to your existing Windows 7 or 8.1 tablet or PC.

Microsoft has a lot riding on Windows 10. The new OS has the task of erasing the bad experiences people had with the touchscreen-focused Windows 8, which ultimately failed to catch fire among PC users. Windows 10 comes packed with new features, such as a redesigned Start menu, the Cortana voice assistant and a new browser called Edge, all designed to win over jaded Windows users. The new OS will also offer a more unified experience among PCs, tablets and smartphones as a way to convince consumers to go the Windows route for all their devices. As such, the company wants to make sure that current device owners know they can now get in line to pick up Windows 10.So how can you now reserve your free copy of Windows 10?

Windows 10 Free Upgrade

You can now reserve your free copy of Windows 10, if you meet the necessary requirements.

First, you must be running Windows 7 Service Pack 1 or Windows 8.1, and you must have installed a March the Windows update dubbed KB3035583, according to blog site VentureBeat. That update will already be on your PC as long as you have Automated Updates enabled.

Peek at your Windows system tray in the lower right corner, and you should see a new icon displaying the Windows logo. Hover over it, and the popup messages says: “Get Windows 10.”

Click that icon, and up pops a window that explains how the free upgrade works. Once it’s available, Windows 10 will automatically download onto your PC. You’ll receive a notification after the download is complete so that you can choose an appropriate time to install it.

You can scroll through the various screens of the Get Windows 10 window to read more about the new OS.

When you’re done, simply click the button to reserve your free upgrade.

The reservation screen asks for your email address so you can receive the notification. Enter your email address and click the Send confirmation button. You can now close the Get Windows 10 window.

Should you change your mind and wish to cancel the reservation, just click the Get Windows 10 icon again.

Click the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner to display the menu and click the link for View confirmation.

Then click the link to Cancel reservation and click the button for Cancel reservation to confirm your choice.

Windows 10 is a free upgrade. The upgrade offers the full version of Windows 10, not simply a trial or limited version. It also ensures that you can run Windows 10 on your specific device for free “for the supported lifetime of your device,” according to Microsoft.

But there are some caveats. The free upgrade applies only to Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1. So if you haven’t upgraded Windows 7 to SP1 or Windows 8 to 8.1, you’ll have to perform those tasks first. Also, you have one year from July 29 to upgrade your PC to Windows 10 for free. After that year is up, you’ll have to purchase Windows 10 yourself.

Those of you running Windows RT or RT 8.1 are out of luck. Microsoft has excluded Windows RT and RT 8.1 from the free upgrade offer.

And what will Windows 10 cost you if the miss the free upgrade window? On Monday, Microsoft revealed the various prices. Windows Home will retail for $119. Windows 10 Pro wil sell for price of $199. And the Windows 10 Pro Pack, which lets you upgrade from Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro, will cost you $99.

Have questions?

Our Upgrade Assistants and IT business team is here to help.
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Windows 10’s features

The new Windows 10 notifications will follow you everywhere

Windows 10 has a new notifications center for your apps — even the ones from your Windows Phone.

When you’re poking around Windows 10, you’ll notice something new: A small taskbar button that, when clicked, reveals a sidebar full of app notifications.

Welcome to the new notifications center, which is basically the Windows 10 version of the Action center in Windows Phone 8.1. The notifications center is part of Microsoft’s dream of “Windows everywhere” — it’s a universal notifications center that will pop up your app notifications across multiple platforms. Because who doesn’t want to be alerted about new Twitter followers on their phone, tablet, and now PC?

The new notifications center consists of two parts: The notifications area at the top, and the “quick actions” bar at the bottom. In the notifications area you’ll see notifications from various apps, including Twitter, Facebook, and your email account, as well as notifications from phone apps (e.g. alarms) if applicable.


Mouse over notifications and click the ‘X’ to dismiss them.

You can dismiss notifications three different ways: You can mouse over the app name (e.g. Twitter) and click the ‘X’ next to it to dismiss all notifications from that app. You can also mouse over each individual notification and click the ‘X’ next to it to dismiss that specific notification. Or you can click Clear All in the upper right corner of the notifications center to dismiss all notifications from all apps. Because this is a “Windows everywhere” feature, notifications you dismiss in the notifications center will also be dismissed on your other Windows devices, such as your phone.

In the quick actions bar, you’ll see four quick-access buttons as well as an Expand link. Click Expand to see all quick actions. Actions include things like a Tablet Mode toggle button, a link to the Display settings, a link to all settings, and toggle buttons for Location and Wi-Fi. Tap a quick action button to toggle a setting (tablet mode, location, Wi-Fi) on or off, or to go directly to the settings menu so you can configure your display, connection, or VPN.

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Pick your quick access quick actions from the Settings menu.

To choose which quick actions appear above the break, go to Settings > Notifications & actions > Choose your quick actions. Here, you’ll see four small buttons that you can click on to swap out actions. If you’d prefer to have your Wi-Fi toggle on hand whenever you open the notifications bar, you can switch it for the Display button. Of course, you’ll always be able to see all of the quick actions by clicking Expand in the notifications bar.

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In the Settings menu, you can also choose which apps’ notifications to display.

Here, you can also pick and choose which app notifications you’ll see in the notifications bar. If you want to turn all notifications off, you can simply click the toggle next to Show App Notifications. You’ll no longer see pop-up banner notifications, nor will you see app notifications when you open the notifications center.

If you’d prefer to just turn off notifications for specific apps, you can do that, too — find the app in the list and click its toggle to Off. Next to each app in the list you’ll see a link to Advanced notifications settings for that app. Go into Advanced to turn off specific notifications for that app — either banner notifications (pop-ups in the lower right corner of your screen) or notifications in the notifications center.

Want to turn your clock off? You can do that, too.

In the Notifications & Actions section, you can also clean up your taskbar by clicking “Select which icons to appear in the taskbar” (you can turn on and off things like the Network icon and the Volume icon), or by clicking “Turn system icons on or off.” In “Turn system icons on or off,” you can turn off the clock, input indicator or action center — in other words, you can turn off all system tray icons and have a completely icon-less system tray, if you so choose.

Have questions?

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Hello World: Windows 10 Available on July 29

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From today, Windows users will be able to reserve their upgrade to the new operating system, which has seen its icons revamped by Microsoft.

Microsoft’s next operating system will be available for PCs and tablets from 29th July – with existing Windows users able to reserve their upgrade from today.

Windows 10 will be available both on new PCs and as a free upgrade for those running Windows 7 and 8.1. Owners of these operating systems will see a Windows icon in their taskbar that will allow them to “reserve” their upgrade. The 3GB file can be downloaded from 29th July.

The free upgrade will be available until July next year and those choosing to switch to Windows 10 can cancel their reservations at “at any time”, according to Microsoft.

While Windows 7 Enterprise, Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise and Windows RT/RT 8.1 releases can’t be upgraded in this way, Microsoft has said that “Active Software Assurance customers in volume licensing” will be able to “upgrade to Windows 10 enterprise offerings outside of this offer”. Microsoft are yet to clarify when users of Enterprise versions of Windows will be able to move to Windows 10 Enterprise.

Microsoft is betting Windows 10 will win over users with its ability to run on a variety of platforms, allowing users to use the same cloud services and software as they swap between fixed and mobile computers.

“We designed Windows 10 to run our broadest device family ever, including Windows PCs, Windows tablets, Windows phones, Windows for the Internet of Things, Microsoft Surface Hub, Xbox One and Microsoft HoloLens-all working together to empower you to do great things,” said Terry Myerson, VP of Microsoft’s operating systems group in a blog post.

Features such as Continuum mode will detect when mobile Windows 10 devices are docked with a mouse, keyboard and monitor and reorient the UI to suit – for example switching from tap-friendly tiles to smaller icons suited to a mouse pointer – whileUniversal Apps will tailor their interface to the device they are being used on.

Myerson is keen to stress that “Windows 10 brings back the Start menu” familiar to Windows 7 users, following the backlash against Windows 8’s fullscreen Start menu.

Microsoft is also hoping users will take to Cortana, the built-in virtual assistant that users can talk to in order to set appointments, search for information and answer rudimentary queries, and which should become more capable as it learns more about you.

Windows 10 will include the free anti-malware software Windows Defender, which will have free updates for the lifetime of the OS, as well as its new faster and more capable Edge web browser.

While the operating system will launch on PCs and tablets in July, it is expected tolaunch on phones, small tablets, Xbox, and Hololens at unspecified later dates.

Microsoft said it had refined the OS using feedback from more than four million Windows Insiders testing early builds of the OS.

The firm revealed a new, or at least slightly tweaked, look for Windows 10, in its latest Build 10130, which has just been made available via the Windows Insider programme.

The update overhauls the rather plain icons present in earlier builds and replaces them with what Microsoft describes as “more modern and lightweight” alternatives. The revamp means that app icons will also be more consistent between desktop and mobile in apps such as Word and Excel.

While the new icons may not look vastly different, Microsoft said extensive work had gone into the redesign.

“Between the legacy aero-style icons and new app icons, several thousand icons were designed and redesigned. We explored Swiss graphic design, Dutch product design, and modern architecture (among other design fields and styles) to inform and inspire the design process. The icon evolution will continue as we push more consistency and better functionality,” according to a blog post.

Other improvements in the latest build include the ability to customise the Start menu, a new look for Jump Lists on the Taskbar, new swipe shortcuts for Tablet mode, the addition of a Favorites pane and other features to the Edge browser, Taskbar settings for Virtual Desktops, a Cortana keyboard shortcut, Print to PDF feature and fullscreen playback for the Movies & TV app.

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Microsoft overhauls Outlook with move to Office 365

Th new tweaks include 13 new themes, Clutter and search U

Microsoft has announced a new-look Outlook.comas it prepares to move the service to its Office 365 productivity suite.

Microsoft is taking personalisation seriously in this update, adding 13 new themes for the email application and learning what you want to see and what you don’t.

“Your inbox is part of your daily routine. It’s where you keep in touch with family and friends, check the shipping status of packages and find deals from your favourite companies. These new inbox features are aimed at creating a richer and more engaging inbox, while maintaining the same look and feel you love,” the company said in a blog post.

This first new feature is called Clutter and it will sort your inbox into the emails you normally ignore (the clutter) and those you want to read, which it will surface in the main inbox. Any emails it thinks are clutter will be moved into a separate folder. You can move emails you want to see out of the clutter and in time, the machine will get to know exactly what should be in each mailbox.

Search has also been boosted in the latest iteration of Outlook. If you start searching for a particular email, the application will highlight emails from the people you email most often when searching for content. Refiners helps you filter out the irrelevant content by allowing you to search based on sender, folder, date, and attachments.

For those who are sent lots of videos or richer content, Microsoft has implemented a link preview function that will show a snippet of the link’s content when yu open the email. If you send a lot of images, you can now just copy and paste these directly into the body of an email.

Messages can be popped out in a new windows, to make it easy for you to compose more than one email at once and add-ins allow you to see information while you’re writing an email so you don’t have to keep switching whole apps.

You can also now pin the most important of your emails to the top of your inbox so they’re always there when you need them and flags mean you can mark messages for following up later.

Microsoft also announced the ability to switch between email and Skype easily if you want to take a conversation into IM mode and better sharing with OneDrive.

The Outlook update has been rolled out to select users as a preview already, but made available to others in the coming weeks, the company said.

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How to Resolve Microsoft Office 365 Activation Hassles

Imagine you are a customer of Microsoft’s Office 365 service, including a subscription to the Office desktop applications like Word, Excel and Outlook.

One day you click on the shortcut for Word, but instead of opening, it just shows a “Starting” splash screen which never progresses.

Being smart, you try to start Word in safe mode by holding down the Ctrl key, but the exact same thing happens.

Annoying, when you want to do your work. What is going on?

We took a look at a case like this. Two things you should do (after the usual reboot):

1. Look in the event viewer. Here, we found a clue that the issue is related to software activation, specifically Event 2011 “Office Subscription Licensing exception”:

2. For all things related to Office licensing, open a command prompt, go to (for example) C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office16, and type:

cscript ospp.vbs /dstatus

In this case we got the following:

This told us that Windows thinks TWO product keys for Office are installed. One has expired, the other is fine.

The guilty party may (or may not) be the trial version of Office typically pre-installed with a new PC. Or it could be a consequence of changing your Office 365 subscription. Neither would be the fault of the user, who is fully licensed and has done nothing other than follow Microsoft’s normal procedures for installing Office 365.

Solution: we reinstalled Office from the Office 365 portal, and attempted to remove the dud product key with:

cscript ospp.vbs /unpkey:<Last five characters of product key>

as explained here. All is well for the moment.

Activation and subscription license checking is for the benefit of the vendor, not the user, and should never get in the way like this.

Further, cannot Microsoft find some way of informing the user when this happens, and not have Word simply hang on starting? How difficult is it to check for licensing and activation issues, and throw up a message?

Dictate By Microsoft Lets You Type With Your Voice

Dictate with your voice in Office

This feature is available to Office 365 Subscribers only.

 

Dictate in Word or PowerPoint

1) Turn on your microphone and make sure it works. Troubleshoot microphone settings

2) In Word 2016 or PowerPoint 2016, select Home > Dictate.

3) Wait for the icon to turn red.

4) Start talking. As you talk, text appears in your document or slide.

5) Speak clearly and conversationally. Insert punctuation by saying the name of the punctuation mark you want to add.

6) If you make a mistake while dictating, move your cursor to the mistake and fix it with your keyboard. No need to turn off the microphone.

7) When finished, select Dictate again to stop typing.

 

Dictate in Outlook

1) Turn on your microphone and make sure it works. Troubleshoot microphone settings

2) Open a new email message and select Message > Dictate.

3) Wait for the icon to turn red.

4) Start talking. As you talk, text appears in your email message.

5) Speak clearly and conversationally. Insert punctuation, by saying the name of the punctuation mark you want to add.

6) If you make a mistake while dictating, move your cursor to the mistake and fix it with your keyboard. No need to turn off the microphone.

7) When finished, select Dictate again to stop typing.

 

Troubleshooting

I don’t see Dictate, or it’s not working

If Dictate isn’t working, make sure you’re connected to the Internet.

You can enable or disable Dictate by going to File > Options and look for Office intelligent services on the General tab.

 

Important information about Dictate

Dictate is one of the Office Intelligent Services, bringing the power of the cloud to Office apps to help save you time and produce better results.

Your speech utterances will be sent to Microsoft to provide you with this service, and may also be used to improve speech recognition services. For more information see, What are Intelligent Services?

Office Dictate is not HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant.

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