Below are descriptions of Office 365 features you may not have considered. You can also contact me directly to set up a free consultation to discuss your specific needs.
SharePoint is a web-based file sharing and collaboration platform with robust functionality. Typically found at https://yourdomainname.sharepoint.com, SharePoint is the storage backbone of O365. To use it, you log in with your email and regular password unless you have single-sign-on, in which case you get immediate access.
As a SharePoint administrator, click on the gear icon in the top right corner to add/remove apps. Click on Edit Page to insert apps or web parts to a web part page. Note there are wiki pages and web part pages. When you add document libraries, click Sync to have them sync to your PC under the SharePoint folder. There is a 20,000 file limit for syncing, so it’s not for total storage. EXP can also help you design and build your intranet site.
To access, go to the App Launcher in top left corner and click on Planner. Add a plan with a unique project name such as and then add internal and external members to the group to include them in file sharing, email conversations, and more. This creates several useful tools including:
Yammer is a corporate social networking application that works like Facebook for your organization. We can help you set up SharePoint to integrate with Yammer.
Similar to Slack, this team chat application includes good document collaboration and scheduling tools.
This is a basic social networking web part for SharePoint.
Since there is a lot of crossover between the above social apps, choosing the right one can be confusing. That’s why we recommend scheduling an EXP Consultant meeting to evaluate your needs and help you come up with a long-term plan.
OneNote is a note-taking app that allows you to record handwritten notes taken using a tablet and stylus. To access it, go to App Launcher in top left corner and click OneNote. Pro tip: you can make lines of text sync as Outlook tasks if working in the desktop version. You simply select the text you want and right click on it.
Try Sway instead of PowerPoint to create more dynamic presentations. In App Launcher in the top left corner click Sway. It works well if you have good images to work with, but isn’t as strong for content that is mostly text.
Located in the App Launcher, Delve is a great way to track your own work and see what colleagues are working on.
These common business apps are all now available as web applications. Generally, you will want to use the full featured local version for serious document editing, but these work well for viewing and collaboration.
Click One Drive in App Launcher to get started. This should also be on your local drive as a OneDrive for Business folder. We see the need for three types of cloud file storage at most small to medium-size companies:
Personal working files. OneDrive for Business works allows users to organize files as suits and share with other people as needed.
Team working files or project files. Ideal for O365 Groups.
Categorized departmental documents. A SharePoint team site document library is best for this type of storage. It shows up under the SharePoint sync folder on your local machine as a separate group of folders. This is useful for mostly static company documents such as templates, boilerplate, policies, and the like yet is still easy to change and sync.
MFA. For additional security, you can enable multi-factor authentication within O365 if you have an enterprise plan. To access, click on Admin in the App Launcher, go to Settings/Services and Add-ins/Azure MFA.
Link on nav bar. You can add a nav bar link to your intranet or other frequently used site. To set it up, navigate to the Settings/Organization profile and click Edit next to “manage custom themes for your organization.”
Pin apps to the nav bar. Click on the ellipsis (…) on a tile and select More/Pin to Nav Bar.
These are just some of the more popular apps, and far from a comprehensive list of O365 functionality. Please contact me directly for help leveraging the power of Office 365. We can help you design and build an intranet, provide training at your desired pace, and potentially develop custom applications that meet your business needs.
