Microsoft 365 Explained
What is Microsoft 365?
Formerly called Office 365, Microsoft 365 is nothing more than a subscription-based way of paying for access to the Microsoft Office product line and featuring automatic updates. Its an online service accessed via your choice of internet browser (BUT you can still download full versions of the dekstop apps). Subscribed components are easily managed via a user-friendly online portal at www.office.com.
The products and software suite can be used during the life of your subscription, and includes cloud-based products for home and for business environments with services such as hosted Exchange, Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive. Microsoft allows unlimited personal cloud storage for qualifying plans with subscriptions of five or more users, otherwise it’s 1 TB per user!
What applications and services are included?
It will vary according to the Office 365 plan you subscribe to. Subscription Options, Pricing, Features.
Are the applications I use the most “online” only?
No, this is a common misconception about Microsoft 365. Any plan beyond the “Business Basic” tier includes the desktop version of all apps on Macs or PCs.
How do I use it?
Once subscribed, you’ll sign into the Microsoft account that’s associated with your subscription. You’ll likely see your Microsoft 365 “Home Page” – here, you can install or activate Office applications as you need them. You can also access online versions of Outlook and Word (if you want!) and the files you have saved on OneDrive, Teams or Sharepoint.
Microsoft Links
Office Help & Training from Microsoft
New Office Mobile app for iOS and Android