Instructions to Office 365

Instructions to Office 365

June 2015

Upgrading the current email system to improve communication, and address the academic and business needs of all employees has been identified as a priority in the 2014-2015 Aim System Plan.

Information and Technology Services has been working on an upgrade of our email system from an on premise Exchange system to a cloud based email system using Microsoft Office 365. In April 2015, the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board began a pilot project which included selected Education Centre departments and school based staff. Although Office 365 offers many features, the focus of the pilot is on administrative email storage and a new Outlook Web Access for non-administrative staff.

ACCESSING OFFICE 365

Users can access the new Outlook Web Access (Office 365) by going to the board homepage, under “Employees” and go to Office 365. Alternatively you can go direct through a browser of your choice by going to: https://login.microsoftonline.com 

Overview – Office 365 E-mail

The look of the new Office 365 Webmail program is updated to best support and align with today’s browsers and online applications.

At the top-left corner of your screen is your Office 365 Portal icon to access the many other features of Office 365. Office 365 offers online versions of the major Microsoft applications including Word Online, Excel Online, PowerPoint Online, OneNote Online and OneDrive for cloud storage.

What’s New with the Office 365 E-Mail?

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Users can now store up to 50 Gigs worth of e-mail.

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Users of Outlook Web Access can now access shared calendars

 One-click access to filter messages. You can select all, unread, to me, and flagged with a single click.  Inline compose. In addition to reading your mail in the reading pane, you can now compose replies

and forwards in the reading pane. You still have the option to open your response in a new window.

 Drag and drop to add an attachment. In some browsers, you’ll be able to add an attachment to a

message by dragging it from the desktop to the message form.

 Find drafts quickly. You don’t have to go to your drafts folder or open a conversation to find your drafts. Conversations that you have started a new message in will be clearly marked in the list view.

 Refine search results with a click. You can quickly refine your search results by selecting an option to change the folders included in the search and the time period searched.

Navigating the Email Screen

The Alerts Icon

The alert icon is icon will be visible with a number advising that you have current setting alerts. For example, you may have an automatic reply setup to send when emails received. The calendar alert icon is a reminder icon for scheduled appointments in your Outlook calendar.

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The Settings Icon allows you to change Display or Theme settings, as well as automatic replies.

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Online Help – click the question mark to access online help for the various Office 365 applications.

Personal Information Icon– It’s all about you! The Personal Information section provides an area to include additional information about yourself, like work phone number and a profile picture.

Also use this icon to Sign Out of Office 365 when you are finished.

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Clicking MORE will open up all  your folders 

This will collapse your folders

By clicking on the various folders-you can view the emails that are in that folder.

You can filter your Emails by Date, Flagged, Subject, etc. by clicking on this down arrow.

Below this you can see some quick sorts that are used most often– All, Unread, To Me and Flagged

When you hover your cursor above the time your email arrived—this will allow you to ‘flag’ this email for follow-up. Right click on the flag for reminder alert options.

Use the trash can to delete the email.

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Depending on your Display settings, under the Setting Icon, this Message pane view can change :

-Senders name on Top Or

-Subject on Top

The Message Pane 

By default your message pane is displayed in ‘Conversation’ view. This groups all messages by subject. This is handy to track all the replies to a message.

The reading pane is where messages are displayed. You not only can read messages in the reading pane, but also can respond to them without opening a new window.

Use the “Display Settings” to change the location of the reading pane or hide it entirely.

The Reading Pane 

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Depending on your Display settings, under the Setting Icon, this reading pane view can change :

-Senders name on Top Or -Subject on Top                    

Using Categories

Categories can be assigned to email messages and calendar bookings to visually colour code messages and appointments. More than one category can be used.

Managing Categories

Using the “more actions” icon select “categorize” from the menu and then go to Manage Categories.

Select Add New Category

Enter the name of your new category and select a colour.

When viewing the message, the category is displayed at the top of the message.

Other Office 365 Features

Office 365 offers a host of online Microsoft programs that can be used without installing the Microsoft Office Suite. Office 365 apps can be used on smart phone and iDevices as well.

At any time click the Apps icon to toggle between programs. Documents can be shared with colleagues within our district.

Use Word Online to create or edit Microsoft Word documents. Most features of the full MS Word 2013 program are available.

Use Excel Online to create or edit Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Most features of the full MS Excel 2013 program are available.

Use PowerPoint Online to create or edit slideshows. Features of the full MS PowerPoint program are available including slide transitions.

Other Office 365 Features

Microsoft OneDrive is your cloud-based storage space. With Office 365 you receive up to 1 terrabyte of space available in the cloud. It’s like an extra hard drive that’s available from any of the devices you use. You no longer need to email files to yourself or carry around (and possibly lose) a USB flash drive. Instead, whether you’re on your laptop and working on a presentation, sharing documents with staff or need to access work or school documents from multiple devices or locations, you can get to your files in OneDrive.

OneDrive apps are available for iDevices as well as Windows based computers.

Folders can be setup on your OneDrive just like file folders on any computer or network drive.

Documents can be shared with other board colleagues.

Setup Email on your Smartphone or Tablet

If you already have board email setup on your iPhone or iDevice, you will first need to delete the existing account. Don’t worry! It does not erase your email from the server. Go to Settings…..Mail, Contacts, Calendars…..

Exchange Select Delete Account

Then click Delete from my iPhone

Add New Exchange Account

Go back into Settings…Mail, Contacts, Calendars….Add Account.