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What is Microsoft Visio used for? Diagrams. That's what Microsoft Visio does, and it does it better than any other app I've seen yet. From flow charts to floor plans, there isn't much it can't handle. Now, being honest, I didn't know much about Visio until recently. But that changed when I decided to take it for a test drive - right out of the latest Microsoft Office. Visio Templates Office 2013 - www.office.com/setup Microsoft Visio can be used to create simple or complicated diagrams. It offers a wide variety of built-in shapes, objects, and stencils to work with. You can also make your own shapes and import them if you're willing to do all that extra work. The driving idea behind Visio is to make diagramming as easy as possible for the user. I think Visio is on the right track for that! Note: Click images below to open them at Full Size. The Visio 2013 welcome screen features a dozen different templates to get you started. Each template equips you with the appropriate menu and objects already open and ready for use. Even more templates can be found in specific categories within the application, or from Visio's online download page. visio welcome screen - www.office.com/setup Visio's primary clientele have been Enterprise users at the corporate level. If you think about it, it's not too often that the home user needs to write up professional diagrams. Usually, a paper and pen will suffice because a home user's diagram isn't being sent out to an entire department. That's why Visio has always been considered a program for "serious" diagrams. But it doesn't have to be. table chart with live data - www.office.com/setup Visio can be used to create 3D map diagrams, though the built-in tools for this are limited. It works well for simple maps that you might print on a brochure or campus directory. visio map - www.office.com/setup Another thing Visio can do is pull in live information from an external source, such as an Excel shee

Small businesses have enough to focus on without having to spend time and energy worrying about email, data storage or backup servers. In fact, most small businesses don't know or understand what a server is. The good news is that in today's technology environment, they don't need to. This is because more small businesses are rapidly moving from outdated technology solutions to Web-based solutions to power their company, also known as "moving to the cloud." By moving to cloud solutions like Office 365, small businesses find they can concentrate their resources on growing their business rather than trying to solve technical issues.

A few weeks ago, I gave a talk at the Microsoft Community Summit about communities of practice - their business value, how they are different from other internal and external communities, and strategies for success in starting them up and growing them in a sustainable way. I invite you to view the presentation embedded below; here are some main points.

We're excited to announce a major upgrade for our Outlook.com app for Android devices that overhauls the entire user interface and provides a number of new features. You can get the latest app here.

When FHI 360 wanted to move to cloud-based business productivity services, the organization decided to implement a Microsoft cloud-based solution. We recently spoke to Douglas Wilkins, Director of IT Infrastructure at FHI 360, to learn how the company is benefiting: FHI360 logoQ: Please tell us about FHI 360. Douglas Wilkins: FHI 360 is a nonprofit human development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. Our staff includes experts in health, education, nutrition, environment, economic development, civil society, gender equality, youth, research, technology, communication, and social marketing-creating a unique mix of capabilities to address today's interrelated development challenges. FHI 360 serves more than 60 countries and all US states and territories. Q: Why did you want to move to cloud-based services for messaging and collaboration? Wilkins: We had a diverse IT infrastructure. Employees in the US had different IT toolsets and Internet access than staff in countries like Mozambique. Subscribing employees to a single, cloud-based solution was the most expedient way to ensure that everyone had the same IT tools, to work efficiently regardless of location. Migrating our communication and collaboration technologies to the cloud reduced much of the time required by our IT staff to manage divergent IT infrastructures and connectivity options found around the world. Q: What criteria did you use to select Microsoft as your vendor for cloud-based business productivity services? Wilkins: We wanted a vendor that demonstrated a real interest in our mission and goals, and that offered online business productivity tools tailored for the enterprise space. The capabilities of the Microsoft Services Consulting team, and the work of Intellinet, the partner Microsoft introduced us to, provided us with that. We migrated our 4,300 staff members around the world from diverse platforms to a Microsoft Offi

Guest blogger Emily Warn is co-owner of Two Pens, which provides blogging services and teaches business how to write content that grows a social media following. My writer friends think I'm a geek. You can do what?! I can create a spreadsheet with book sales numbers that can be sorted by name and number. I know that is only the first rung of Excel Geek-dom, and unlike my compatriots, I aspire to climb into the ranks of those who know how to create snazzy charts and perform other formatting feats. Perhaps I'll be able to brand myself as a writer who plays with numbers.

Whether you are a novice user of Microsoft Project 2013 or you want to learn about IT Professional or developer topics, please consider our new quick start training for Project 2013-it's free and available on demand! www.office.com/setup You get over 9 hours of content divided into 13 modules. Don't have much time? Don't worry, each module is broken down into individual videos so you can go at your own pace.

Stay updated on your Yammer network as new messages come into the feed. Our new integration with The Social Radio provides Yammer users a unique offering: to listen to their Yammer messages, read aloud through The Social Radio interface. The Social Radio reads new Yammer messages, polls, events and praise as they come through the feed, while you simultaneously listen to music. To use, just sign in to The Social Radio using your Yammer credentials and The Social Radio will begin reading your Yammer messages. If you hear something worth checking into - pop over to your Yammer feed to read more about it or join the conversation. www.office.com/setup The Social Radio's team participated in Yammer's Hackathon last year and built the first prototype of the integration. Since then it's been onward and upward! "We launched our first app 1 year ago, and we've been focusing on Twitter because we wanted to do only one thing to make it great. Building the integration with Yammer was really challenging for us because it's not just 140 characters. We choose Yammer to be our second social network because it's would be huge to allow employees to be updated while they can focus on what they are working on" says Roberto Gluck, CEO of The Social Radio. The main goal is to allow users to experience Yammer, and stay updated on their feed, while they are working on something else. The app is available in 6 languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and German with male and female voices. Currently, the Yammer integration is only available on the web, but support for mobile apps is coming soon.

Yana Terukhova is a Product Marketing Manager on the Microsoft Visio team. Visio offers over 60 types of professional templates to build compelling diagrams, and organization charts are among most the frequently created. Visio organization charts are simple and visual, but what if you want to connect them to key business indicators tracked by your organization, such as sales by region, budget by department, vacation status, or training progress? Sometimes this information is located in another source, like Excel or a complex database. Data-linked diagrams let you add data to Visio diagrams-no code required-and anyone in an organization can quickly create such dashboards to get better insights into data using Visio Professional 2013 or Visio Pro for Office 365.

Today's post was written by Howard Kourik, Director, Information Systems, San Diego County Regional Airport Authority The San Diego County Regional Airport Authority manages operations at one of Southern California's busiest regional airports, San Diego International. We were created to serve the public and have a mandate from the state of California to address the local area's long-term transportation needs.

Last week, we welcomed Brian Solis, Altimeter principal analyst, thought leader and book author, to Yammer HQ to give a fireside chat, followed by signing of his new book: "What's The Future of Business?" I was thrilled to interview Brian, and we covered a variety of really meaty subjects - just check out the video below!

Today's post was written by Jacob Guttman, IT Manager, Menchies It's hard to believe it when you look at our rapid growth, but Menchies is still a very young company. We were founded in 2007 with a single store in Valley Village, California. Now, we have more than 300 franchise locations around the world. Maintaining connections between Menchies headquarters, the franchise community, and our guests is critical to our success.

Microsoft Office allows you to add more functionality through add-ins. Many modern add-ins also work with Office for iPad, Office Online, and Office for Mac-not just traditional desktop versions of Office for Windows. Add-ins are available for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project, and SharePoint. They allow you to do everything from translate text or search the web to schedule a meeting at Starbucks and call an Uber. You can get add-ins in one of two ways. In a Microsoft Office application, you can click the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click the "Add-ins" icon on the bar, and select "Store". While we're showing Word 2016 for Windows in the screenshot here, this option is available in the same place in other Office applications and Word for other platforms, including Word for iPad, Word for Mac, and Word Online.

Actress Felicity Huffman has a lot going on. She's got her website Whattheflicka.com, family activities and responsibilities, television and movie projects, publicity details, and of course her own bucket list. According to Felicity, "If Office 365 is like having your office travel around with you, OneNote is like having an office assistant combined with my own personal tutor right there in my big Mom bag that I carry around everywhere."

Every couple weeks, we round up industry news and articles you might have missed. We hope you enjoy our latest selections. Microsoft: Office 365 Cloud Now $1 Billion Business. Office 365 is now a $1 billion business; one in every four enterprise customers now have cloud seats with Microsoft. Office 365 Review. Office 365 "is still the best productivity suite on the market." Its comprehensiveness and the ability to stream a full version of programs give it the edge over Google Apps.

Today I am going to talk about Microsoft sway in Office 365. Sway is a presentation program and its part of Microsoft since from August 2015. Sway allows users who have a Microsoft account those can combine text and media to create a presentable website, it is very easy to do this. We can copy or open the information from local system and make use for social sites and others. Sway is online and browser based where PowerPoint is primarily as a desktop with Office 365 we can get some limited features.

Believe it or not, proficiency in Microsoft Word ranks among the top 20 skills required for positions that have the highest growth and wage potential between now and 20201. This finding is part of an extensive IDC study, which also found that core skills such as communication and presentation will be in high demand among employers regardless of industry. That said, being just so-so at Microsoft Word won't boost your chances at landing a high-paying job or at getting promoted. To become more productive, more efficient, or more creative at using Microsoft Word, you can check out and unleash dozens of add-ins that are designed to augment Word's already powerful features. So here's a list which includes more than 50 of the best Microsoft Word add-ins to get you started.

Office 365 for business allows small and large companies to use the power of SharePoint Online. In this week's webinar, you'll learn some of the basics and we'll answer your questions. Can't view this video? Watch it on Microsoft Showcase. Need a sneak peek? Here's a 30-seocnd trailer. What you will learn at Tuesday's webinar Logging on the first time What's that there? A look around Where can I put my stuff? Sites: for your company and your customer References for this webinar Office 365 for business (includes SharePoint) Video training courses for SharePoint What is SharePoint? (article) Get started with Office 365 business (video) Start using SharePoint sites, SkyDrive Pro, and Newsfeeds (video & links) Set up Office 365 for your business (site) What's new with SharePoint, a top 10 (blog post) New SharePoint mobile offerings (blog post) Sample SharePoint consumer site SharePoint Online for small businesses (index of articles) SharePoint Online for midsize/enterprise (index of articles) NEW: SkyDrive Pro App

Microsoft Project is a flexible tool for project portfolio management (PPM) and daily work, delivered through Office 365. The first place in this category of products is held by Wrike which has a total score of 9.8/10 and is the winner of our Best Project Management Software Award for 2016. You can try out Wrike for free here. You can also compare Microsoft Project with Wrike and see which one is better for your company. Microsoft Project enables businesses to get started, manage project portfolio investments, and deliver successfully with the intended business value. Microsoft Project Professional gives businesses a powerful, visually enhanced way to efficiently manage a wide range of their projects and programs. From meeting important deadlines, to choosing the right resources and empowering your office teams, Project Professional delivers new as well as intuitive experiences to plan, manage, and collaborate with various individuals, teams, and the enterprise.

WHAT IS MICROSOFT PROJECT? www.office.com/setup Blogs: Microsoft Project is a flexible tool for project portfolio management (PPM) and daily work, delivered through Office 365. The first place in this category of products is held by Wrike which has a total score of 9.8/10 and is the winner of our Best Project Management Software Award for 2016. You can try out Wrike for free here. You can also compare Microsoft Project with Wrike and see which one is better for your company. Microsoft Project enables businesses to get started, manage project portfolio investments, and deliver successfully with the intended business value. Microsoft Project Professional gives businesses a powerful, visually enhanced way to efficiently manage a wide range of their projects and programs. From meeting important deadlines, to choosing the right resources and empowering your office teams, Project Professional delivers new as well as intuitive experiences to plan, manage, and collaborate with various individuals, teams, and the enterprise. OVERVIEW OF MICROSOFT PROJECT BENEFITS Arguably one of the best among the currently available project management tools, Microsoft Project is the tool for any company that is tired of trying to boost productivity with whiteboard scribblings, post-it notes, as well as scraps of paper. The tool deals with complexity in a very simple manner. While the tool has an impressively huge range of capabilities, it is relatively easy for any user to get it to do exactly what he or she needs. Microsoft Project is designed by people who have managed real-life projects and know that some things and processes are always changing. Thus with this tool, adding new tasks or revising the organization of a project midway through will be an easy thing to do. It is extremely intuitive and offers great balance of usability and complexity. Project is used in various industries including manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, construction, retail, financial services, government, a