Getting started with Microsoft 365: Everything you need to know

For a few years, Microsoft offered its productiveness software program Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and so forth in a bundle known as Microsoft Office. In 2013, the corporate noticed the place the software program trade was heading and commenced a transition to a subscription-based mannequin.

The suite of functions and a rising set of providers continued to be known as Office 365 till 2020, when it was given its present identify, Microsoft 365. The firm wish to see all Windows customers have a subscription, and is doing its greatest to entice them with promoting in Windows. This appears pointless, because the service is likely one of the most inexpensive subscriptions on the buyer market. In this text, I’ll undergo why that is the case, what’s included, and which subscription it is best to select.

Further studying: Outlook: How to set up breaks between your meetings

Everything included in Microsoft 365

From being principally simply the three primary Office packages and some helper capabilities, Microsoft 365 has grown to include round 10 packages and a lot of providers. Some are additionally accessible as free variations with out a lot distinction, however most are considerably extra highly effective within the paid model. Here are the packages and providers which are solely included with a subscription.

Word
Microsoft’s superior phrase processing program has a whole bunch of options and may do most issues with textual content, besides probably make it look good in print.

Excel
The world of finance would stand nonetheless with out Microsoft spreadsheet software program. There are alternate options, however the Windows model of Excel is by far probably the most able to working with enormous quantities of numbers.

PowerPoint
Presentations is probably not as necessary to residence customers, nor as frequent in companies as they as soon as have been, however they nonetheless have a spot and a instrument to create them: PowerPoint.

OneDrive with 1TB of area
Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service can be utilized both like Dropbox to sync knowledge between totally different gadgets and the cloud, or as a totally cloud-based storage for recordsdata you don’t wish to offload out of your laptop. With a subscription, every account will get 1TB of area.

Outlook
Tired of webmail and like an actual e-mail program? Microsoft Outlook is likely one of the greatest, even for residence customers. Confusingly, subscribers even have elevated space for storing on the separate Outlook.com e-mail service — 50GB as a substitute of 15GB.

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

OneNote
If you’ve by no means tried OneNote, it may be exhausting to grasp what it’s for, nevertheless it’s extensively utilized in colleges and elsewhere. The program is a sort of digital bulletin board the place you possibly can acquire textual content, photographs, and different issues.

Clipchamp
Microsoft’s equal of Apple’s iMovie — a easy video modifying program that means that you can do some extra with all of the movies you report together with your cell phone. For instance, you possibly can edit a vacation movie.

Publisher
This desktop publishing program is a greater means than Word to supply printed supplies corresponding to posters, leaflets, and extra, though it’s not in the identical league as Adobe Indesign or Quarkxpress. Available solely as a Windows program.

Access
Databases. You may suppose it’s only for companies, however in reality a database program like Access can function a comparatively straightforward solution to create your personal functions. Like Publisher, Access is barely accessible as an old school Windows program.

Microsoft Editor
A brand new AI-based instrument embedded in Word and Outlook and accessible as a Chromium extension. Editor helps you write higher by suggesting language enhancements and spelling and grammar corrections.

Microsoft Forms
Helps you create and distribute surveys. Very helpful for some, utterly uninteresting for others.

Skype
Skype shouldn’t be practically as widespread in the present day because it was 10 to 15 years in the past, however in a single space it’s exhausting to beat: worldwide telephone calls. A Microsoft 365 subscription contains 60 minutes of calls to many international locations each month.

Individual or household

Microsoft 365 for customers is available in two flavors: Personal and Family . Personal prices $69.99 a 12 months or $6.99 a month, Family prices $99.99 a 12 months or $9.99 a month. Paying yearly provides a 16.7 % low cost. But see under for a tip on scale back the worth additional.

The distinction between the 2 subscriptions is that Family contains as much as six separate accounts, every of which will get 1TB of OneDrive area and 60 Skype minutes. Each account also can activate the Office packages on as much as 5 gadgets. In different phrases, you get six accounts for the worth of 1.43 accounts.

For those that don’t have a household to share the subscription with, it might sound pure to decide on Personal, nevertheless it’s not fairly that easy. 5TB extra cloud area for $30 further a 12 months is nothing to sneeze at, though it does require a bit extra fiddling to make the most of than a cloud storage service that gives all of the area in a single account.

Further studying: How to get Microsoft Office 365 for cheap

I may give a private instance that illustrates the advantage of selecting Family even for a single consumer. I exploit two of my six Family accounts solely for backing up my laptop; one account every for 2 1TB SSDs. I exploit the Arq Backup software program, which is offered as a one-off license, and the associated fee per 12 months is far decrease than with Backblaze, for instance. It gained’t work for everybody, however is unquestionably value contemplating.

Another choice is to get a Family subscription with some pals or family you don’t reside with and share the associated fee. Each account is its personal, separate account and the ‘administrator’ — the one who pays for the subscription and invitations the others — doesn’t have entry to another members’ knowledge. So nobody has to fret about being spied on.

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

Buy discounted activation codes

When you subscribe to Microsoft 365, the corporate will activate auto-renewals that every month or 12 months will deduct the common worth. But there’s one other solution to renew your subscription — with activation codes you purchase from different shops.

Activation codes are sometimes offered at a reduction, particularly round Black Friday but in addition throughout the remainder of the 12 months. You can activate for as much as 5 years, so for those who discover a actually good worth, you possibly can seize a number of codes without delay, so long as you understand you’ll need the Office packages for that lengthy.

Business subscriptions

Businesses and different organizations have a different set of Microsoft 365 subscriptions to select from:

• Business Basic – $6 monthly per consumer, net and cell variations of Office functions solely (not together with Windows or Mac functions).
• Business Standard – $12.50 monthly per consumer, identical as Basic however with the desktop packages.
• Business Premium – $22.00 monthly per consumer, identical as Standard plus superior safety features.
• Business Applications – $8.25 monthly per consumer, simply the desktop functions for Windows and Mac plus 1TB of OneDrive storage.

In addition to the above packages and providers, a lot of business-oriented options are additionally included that aren’t accessible in private subscriptions. These are primarily SharePoint, Exchange (e-mail) with assist in your personal area, the online model of the highly effective Visio visualization instrument, and the “real” model of Teams.

These costs are unique of VAT as it’s geared toward companies. In follow, there’s nothing to cease self-employed individuals shopping for a personal subscription and utilizing it at work, for individuals who don’t want their very own area for e-mail or have it in any other case, and don’t want any of the opposite distinctive options.

Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft

Standalone license – often a foul alternative

For those that refuse to pay for subscriptions, Microsoft really nonetheless sells a standalone Office package deal on license, known as Microsoft Office Home & Student. It prices $149.99 and the final replace got here in 2021 so the packages usually are not the newest variations. However, Microsoft has introduced that it plans to launch a brand new model in direction of the tip of 2024.

What is included is Word, Excel, and PowerPoint — no different packages, nor any providers. For most individuals, this can be a worse purchase than the subscription, because the packages usually are not up to date with new options and capabilities like OneDrive usually are not included. But there are conditions the place it’s nonetheless higher, for instance for a pc that gained’t have web entry and the place you need to have the ability to use the fundamental packages with out restrictions indefinitely.

Extended assist

Free customers should make do with assist paperwork and Microsoft’s assist boards, however Microsoft 365 subscribers may have entry to manned assist through chat or telephone. That could make a giant distinction if one thing goes unsuitable.

This prolonged assist applies not solely to the elements of Microsoft 365 but in addition to Windows 10 and 11, so you may get assist from a human being if Windows updates are failing, for those who’re frightened you might need been hit by malware, or anything.

Customers who purchase a standalone license for the Office packages additionally get assist through chat however not by telephone.

Stingy? What’s included in free accounts

Some of the options included in Microsoft 365 are additionally accessible free of charge to anybody who will get a Microsoft account. Here’s what’s included even for those who don’t need or can’t afford to pay.

Web and cell apps for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint
Has all the fundamental options of the three fundamental packages within the previous Office suite, however solely through an internet browser.

OneDrive with 5GB
Free accounts don’t get a number of room to maneuver round, however the Windows program to sync recordsdata and folders is included and it really works nice for individuals who, for instance, have a folder of necessary recordsdata they wish to entry on all gadgets.

Outlook on the internet and for mobiles
Microsoft has not made it straightforward to grasp the jungle of various variations of Outlook, however free of charge customers there are two utterly separate Outlooks. The net mail shopper and e-mail service Outlook.com is free and provides you an @outlook.com deal with with 15GB of area, and the Outlook cell app for Android and iOS is free and works with most e-mail providers corresponding to Gmail, Apple iCloud, and Yahoo Mail.

Skype and Teams
You don’t must pay something to make use of Skype or Teams for people, though Skype does have a bonus for subscribers.

Skärmdump

Skärmdump

Skärmdump

Options – full workplace suite or particular person packages and providers

Don’t like subscriptions, or simply bored with Microsoft’s packages? There are loads of alternate options, each free and paid packages. What’s best for you relies upon loads on what you’re really searching for. There’s a lot included in Microsoft 365 which you can’t change the entire package deal with a single choice from one other developer.

If you’re primarily searching for one thing to exchange Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, the most effective choices are free and open supply, like Libreoffice and Freeoffice.

For OneDrive, there are numerous choices, from Google Drive and Apple iCloud to smaller gamers like Shadow Drive and pCloud. You also can create your personal cloud storage service that synchronizes folders between totally different gadgets utilizing instruments corresponding to Syncthing and Seafile.

Further studying: Best cloud backup services

The smartest thing to do is to search for alternate options to the actual program you wish to change, and to consider what you want it for. If you employ Word to put in writing books, you’ve gotten very totally different selections than for those who use it to put in writing emails and wish options like Mail Merge.