I’ve been giving them some small tutorials, and thought I would take a little of the lesson and put it here. This is, as far as I am concerned, the basics of what you should teach your daughters (or sons) about Microsoft Word. Lots of these features are part of the web version of Word that comes in OneDrive – only a few of them are parts of Google Docs (yuck) some of their classes use.
Well, the new Office means new Office 365 service, Office 2013 clients, SharePoint 2013, Exchange 2013, Lync 2013, Project 2013, and Visio 2013! That’s a boat load of new, awesome products in the basket of Microsoft offerings this season.
In an article by Richard Hay:I recently transitioned our household to hosted email accounts with Office 365. My wife and I are both Outlook users and like the benefits of working in that interface locally on our desktop and laptops.
The option we are now using, hosted Microsoft Exchange e-mail accounts under Office 365, gives us max flexibility and allows us to pick up our email on either machine without having to think about them being synched or copying the files back and forth. It will work whether we are on the road visiting somewhere with our laptops or accessing the account using Outlook Web Access. Everything stays perfectly in sync on all systems without any thought on our part and that is probably the nicest aspect of it all.
The accounts do cost $60 per year each but give us all these features:
Many will ask why not just do this with the Microsoft Office Outlook Hotmail Connector, a free Hotmail account and accessing our current POP3 accounts through Hotmail to consolidate everything…
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Well, I was sure confused – a little. When I heard a comment saying Office 365 was just the rebranding of BPOS and not simply HTML-version of Office, I freaked.
Well, it turns out that’s partly a perfect description, it is indeed the rebranding of BPOS (Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Services) in the cloud. But it is also the HTML-based Office, and optionally a desktop license of Office 2010 Professional Plus (with the E3 pricing plan).
How does it differ from the Free Office Tools from SkyDrive?
That’s what I asked, too. I can already create Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote documents with SkyDrive and SkyDrive is free. Why would I want to pay for Office 365?
The truth is, the free stuff from SkyDrive is great and there’s barely a difference. What’s different is Exchange as your email. It’s not Windows Live Mail (which is arguably 90% as good), it’s Exchange. But you also get SharePoint, the world’s most superior online portal server. And remember when I said the HTML-based Office is almost 100% the same, the difference is that you access your SharePoint document libraries instead of random SkyDrive folders. That’s valuable.
As an aside, I would like to add that only 365 supports tools like Integro’s IEM to extend Exchange with an enterprise-level archiving and retention solution. There’s a REAL advantage to using an Exchange server and only 365 gives you those options along with the benefits of the cloud.
Should I get 365 then?
Probably not if it’s just you. 365 is geared to businesses. If you are a large business the prospect of off-loading storage, management, and backup are awesome savings. But if you are small business, you can get your business off the ground for pennies, compared to purchasing servers and Office licenses yourself, up front. But if you are a tiny business (you & your wife) you might consider playing with Windows Live – it’s bound to get you far for a while until you feel the pain and want to upgrade to 365.
This is the most simplified pricing web page I have found yet, see for yourself here. Here’s a snapshot of the grid you will see that steps you through the pricing options, E1, E2, E3, and E4. What’s the E for?
A recent discussion reminded me of an old UI/usability principle that users prefer a layout they already know.
The idea is that users don’t want to learn your product. They want your product to be like products they have already learned.
For this reason, developers often feel the urge to copy the Office look and feel. And, why not? MS spent $Ms on usability testing.
Applications that look like Outlook are a dime-a-dozen, but that doesn’t mean they’re bad. It means users understand them.
There’s more you can copy for success. Windows has familiar layout. Consider the windows explorer, users already know it.
Remember, when you are designing your application, don’t try to be too original. Crazy layouts and stupid colors are your vanity and not a favor to the user. Be creative, yes, but be familiar, too.
