Enabling Office on Demand in SharePoint Online

Office on Demand is a new feature in SharePoint Online on Office 365. Straight from the link, from the horses’ mouth so to speak:

Office on Demand is a feature that provides online access to full rich Office desktop applications, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, when you’re using a PC that doesn’t have the latest version of Office installed locally. Office on Demand is available to anyone who has an Office 365 subscription that includes the Office application suite. Office 365 subscriptions that include the Office applications let you install on up to five devices for use both online and offline. Office on Demand is a helpful option if you want to use your Office applications on an additional device or on a device that you don’t own, such as when you’re logged in as a guest using someone else’s computer.

This also works in environments where thin clients are used such as a Citrix or kiosk based setup where users cannot install software, and license management can become quite the hassle if multiple users are using the same server to do their work each day.

To enable or disable Office on Demand

Go into your SharePoint Online Admin Center

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and select Settings from the left-side navigation

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And then scroll down to the Office on Demand header to enable or disable the functionality.

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Managing External Sharing in SharePoint Online

A question I frequently hear from clients when moving to Office 365 and SharePoint online, is how can I manage external sharing?

Maybe an organization does not want to allow content to be shared with external users, or allow users direct access to documents without first having an account and logging in. There are many different situations and requirements which may need to have the external sharing settings tweaked.

To do so, go into your SharePoint Online Admin Center

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and select Settings from the left-side navigation

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And then once there (and currently it is the second header down on the right side of the screen), choose one of the options which firs your requirements.

  • Don’t allow sharing outside your organization
  • Allow external users who accept sharing invitations and sign in as authenticated users
  • Allow both external users who accept sharing invitations and anonymous guest links

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SharePoint Online is…Helpful!

In many cases when working with SharePoint, you do not always know “what happens next” when do perform an operation in SharePoint. Microsoft is working to change that, especially with SharePoint Online and Office 365. Now, when performing actions, things have been re-worded, or additional information and confirmations have been added to the screens, since it is not just us SharePoint nerds managing deployments anymore with SharePoint Online.

Example: Deleting a Site Collection

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See what they did there? Big red letters, stating that you can no longer access SharePoint anymore if you delete the root/main site collection in SharePoint online. It’s not wordy, and its in RED. You should hopefully not gloss over it. This will hopefully save some headaches and confusion.

How Do I Upgrade My Trial Office 365 Subscription to a Subscription Plan?

It is very cool, you get a 90 day trial for Office 365 to really test out the system and see what works, what doesn’t, and plan for your move to the service. 90 days, and you can even ask for extensions to make sure that this is the right solution for you. Not many services offer that even by a long shot. Microsoft wants you to make the right decision.

So, now that you’ve decided to go with Office 365, how can you keep all of your work and get properly licensed? It’s quite simple. Go to the Office 365 Admin Center

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Select Purchase Services from the left-side navigation

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You will see your current plan, listed as Currently in trial

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Click the handy Buy now link…

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And complete the process from there.

HOWEVER….. make sure you have your licensing trued up first. If you have licensed all 250 trial users you can have, and you only need 30… that first bill is going to be awfully painful.

Updated New England SharePoint (and Office 365) Community List

Good morning everyone, just a quick post to let you know that I have updated the New England SharePoint (and Office 365) Community List.

Is your group or event missing, anything need correction? If so, please drop in a comment below and let me know!

New England has a fantastic community around SharePoint and Office 365. Lots of opportunities to learn and network with some great people from around the area.

See you at a SPUG soon!

Office Now Available on the iPad

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No more do you need to use other word editors, excel-like programs, and slideshow apps, and more on your iPad. Microsoft announced Thursday 3/27 via the Office Blogs website that the Office Suite is now available for you iPad users (I am one too, so I am psyched about this!)

Your Office 365 subscription not only gets you the Office for iPad apps installed on up to 5 tablets, but also 5 copies across Office for your PCs and Macs.  With one subscription all of your devices are covered, so you can work the way you want.

This is awesome news.

Also to note from the article:

Office Mobile for iPhone and Android phones free

Just like Office Mobile for Windows Phone, we are making Office Mobile for iPhone and Android phones free for everyone. With Office Mobile, you have the ability to view and edit your Office content on the go.  Office Mobile is available in the App Store and Google Play.

Even more awesome news. I’m an Android user.

You can expect a tablet like interface to the familiar interface you are already familiar with in office, now across all of your devices. Go on, be productive.

Quote sources: http://blogs.office.com/2014/03/27/announcing-the-office-you-love-now-on-the-ipad/

Office 365, SharePoint Online and SharePoint 2013 On-Premises Feature Matrix

Andrew Connell released an updated Excel Spreadsheet today, which shows the (filterable) differences between Office 365 plans, SharePoint Online, and SharePoint 2013 on-premises. This is a great resource to keep handy, and keep you honest 🙂

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Read more at http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/office-365-sharepoint-online-and-sharepoint-2013-on-prem-feature-matrix-updated#RLqeQWPtJtHiWVwi.99

Northeast Best of SharePoint Conference 2014!

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Wondering what to do tomorrow? Miss out on the SharePoint Conference in Las Vegas at the beginning of the month? Then have no fear. Tomorrow, hosted at the One Cambridge Center Microsoft Office, will be an all day, free event, giving you the best sessions you missed, or want to see again from the Microsoft SharePoint Conference. Details and registration information is below!

The Northeast SharePoint Community is presenting you with a local, free event that delivers SharePoint Conference content and presenters so you can learn what is new and exciting with SharePoint 2013!

Presenting some of the most well-received session leaders of the SharePoint community, Best of SPC 2014 is your source for the news on SharePoint 2013 and the hot topics from Vegas.

Choose from a variety of sessions, including: (See full list on registration page!)

  • Leverage What You Already Know About SharePoint as You Move Into 2013, with Scott Jamison (Jornata)
  • When Should We Use SharePoint Out-Of-The-Box, Add Third-Party Apps or Build Custom Solutions, with Richard Harbridge (Microsoft)
  • Overcoming Barriers to Achieve Social Business Success and Adoption, with Sue Hanley (Susan Hanley LLC)
  • The Strategy Behind Building a Successful Social Intranet, with Joel Oleson (ViewDo Labs)
  • SharePoint On-premises, in the Cloud, and Everything in Between, with Christian Buckley (Metalogix)
  • SharePoint Online Management and Control, with Chris Bortlik (Microsoft)
  • SkyDrive Pro and Mobility: Access Your Files While on the Go From Any Device and Platform, with Kieran Gupta (Microsoft)
  • Complex Problem Solving with the New HTML5 APIs, with Scott Hillier (Scott Hillier Technical Solutions, LLC)
  • Developing Future-focused, On-premises Solutions, with Bob German (BlueMetal Architects)

And don’t forget to join us afterwards for our SharePint at Champions just around the corner!

Make sure you catch the Keynote from the Microsoft SharePoint Engineering team! You will hear how their team participated in the development of SharePoint 2013/Online and the product roadmap and vision going forward!

If you have any questions, please contact: northeastbestofspc@microsoft.com

Agenda

When: Wednesday, March 26th, 2014

Registration: 8:30am

Keynote: 9:00am

Event Sessions: 9:30am – 4:30pm

SharePint at Champions: 4:30pm – 6:30pm

Where: Microsoft Corporation One Cambridge Center Cambridge, MA 02142

REGISTER HERE!

March 2014 #CollabTalk TweetJam – Takeaways from #SPC14

Join me, and a host of other SharePoint experts on Thursday, March 27th at Noon EST for a TweetJam to discuss takeaways from the 2014 SharePoint Conference.

Below is a re-post from Christian Buckley’s blog:

imageFor an event that many believed would be lacking any real content, the SharePoint Conference earlier this month actually packed quite the punch – and many attendees have been saying it was one of the better conferences they’ve attended. I would have to agree. I went in with a number of questions, and goals for specific partner and Microsoft conversations, and the end result far surpassed my goals. You expect to drink from the networking fire hose at an event like this, but I think what caught many SharePoint experts off-guard was the increase in communication and openness coming from the product team around the roadmap.

In this installation of the monthly #CollabTalk tweetjam, our panelists and folks from the community will be sharing their key takeaways from #SPC14 in Las Vegas: what they expected, the hits and the misses, and where they think the SharePoint platform is going from here. The one-hour tweetjam will be held this Thursday, March 27th at 9am PDT / noon EDT.

If you’re new to the tweetjam model, it’s fairly simple: using Twitter and a shared hash tag, a panel WP_20140305_012discusses a series of questions over the course of the hour, with other members of the community jumping in and joining the conversation in real-time. You can follow along with the tweetjam on Twitter by following the #CollabTalk hash tag, or you can go to http://twubs.com/CollabTalk to watch live or browse through comments. Following the event, I will publish the full conversation using Storify, and wrap things up with a summary blog.

The questions we’ll be discussing this month include:

  • In your opinion, what was the biggest news out of the conference?
  • What was the best session you attended, and why?
  • What was the most underrated topic at SPC?
  • Based on SPC, what is your take on the current on prem vs hybrid vs cloud messaging?
  • How much has/will what you’ve learned at SPC change your strategy for 2014?
  • What was the most interesting takeaway from the exhibit hall?
  • What SharePoint events are you most looking forward to in 2014, and why?

Joining our panel for this event are the following experts:

  • Geoff Varosky (@gvaro), cofounder Boston Area SPUG, managing consultant at Jornata
  • Chris Beckett (@teknirvana), SharePoint MCM, founder and principal at Obeflow
  • Kanwal Khipple (@kkhipple), SharePoint MVP and consultant
  • Jason Himmelstein (@sharepointlhorn), SharePoint MVP and senior technical director of SharePoint at Atrion
  • Jeff Willinger (@jwillie), director of collaboration at Rightpoint
  • Michael Hinckley (@michealhinckley), senior program manager at Tangram Resources
  • Nick Kellett (@nickkellett), SharePoint MVP and cto of StoneShare
  • Ruven Gotz (@ruveng), SharePoint MVP and director of collaboration, Canada OU Lead, at Avanade
  • Adam Levithan (@collabadam), senior consultant, collaboration and enterprise social, at Portal Solutions
  • Dan Barker (@barkingd), global product manager and evangelist at Dell Software
  • Marc Anderson (@sympmarc), SharePoint MVP and consultant at Sympraxis Consulting
  • with myself moderating (@buckleyplanet), chief evangelist at Metalogix and SharePoint MVP

As you can see, a great lineup of people who are not shy to share their opinions, with many more planning to join in real-time. If you’re never participated in a tweetjam, the content may fly past at a furious pace, but you’ll always get great insights into the topic. Please join us, and share your opinions and experiences. Hope to see you online on Thursday the 27th!

– See more at: http://www.buckleyplanet.com/2014/03/march-2014-tweetjamtakeaways-from-spc14.html#sthash.XJHHjowV.dpuf

Boston Office 365 Users Group coming in May!

With Microsoft’s focus on Office 365, and it being the largest product in history for them (surpassing SharePoint on-premises licensing), a few great minds here in the Boston area started talking a few months ago, about creating an Office 365 users group (not just covering SharePoint Online, but Lync, Exchange, Yammer, and whatever else gets tossed out onto the buffet line that is Office 365!).

Well, we have done just that, and are having our inaugural meeting on Thursday, May 22nd, at the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center (N.E.R.D.) from 6pm to 8pm. We will have Chris Bortlik, a Microsoft Office 365 Technology Specialist, kicking us off with his session “Introduction to Office 365”. See below for an abstract and bio for the session.

We will be having regular monthly meetings on the third Thursday of each month, so stay tuned for more as we build out our schedule of great speakers and topics going forward!

Our website is up (work in progress), but please sign up for our mailing list to be notified about future meetings and information about the group! http://www.bostono365usergroup.com/

Abstract

Office 365 is the fastest growing product in Microsoft’s history. Come to this session to learn what Office 365 is and how your organization can get started leveraging it today. During this talk we will cover the following topics:

  • Office 365 functional overview, focusing on Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Yammer, Lync Online, Office Online, mobile applications, and Office 365 ProPlus
  • Office 365 architecture fundamentals, including identity management, authentication options, browser, and device requirements
  • Office 365 admin center
  • Office 365 service descriptions
  • Staying up to date with Office 365 service announcements and updates
  • Office 365 FastTrack deployment model
  • Key Office 365 training links and resources

Bio

Chris Bortlik works at Microsoft as an Office 365 technology architect. He works with Enterprise customers and partners in the Northeast in a technical role focused on SharePoint, Office, Exchange, Lync, Yammer, and other parts of Office 365. Chris is an “Insider” within Microsoft and works closely with the Office 365 product team. He holds the SharePoint MCITP and MCTS certifications. Chris speaks frequently at Microsoft events (including the SharePoint Conference); is a contributing author of the "Essential SharePoint 2010" book; and a coauthor of the “Essential SharePoint 2013” book. Chris also blogs regularly on TechNet: http://blogs.technet.com/cbortlik  Prior to joining Microsoft in 2008, Chris was a customer for 14 years working in technical IT architect, development, and management roles – primarily leading .NET and SharePoint related projects. You can follow Chris on Twitter @cbortlik

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