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www.office.com/setup Blogs: The shrouded veil of secrecy has been lifted from the latest edition of Microsoft Office. Excitement for Office 2016 is still lagging behind the Windows 10 enthusiasm camp, but following the July 29 release of Windows 10, attention will return to the world's most popular productivity suite.When Does Windows 10 Come Out, How Can You Get It & What Happens to the Technical Preview? When Does Windows 10 Come Out, How Can You Get It & What Happens to the Technical Preview?Windows 10 is coming soon. Still confused about how the upgrade will work and wondering about the timeline? We have some answers, although more questions remain.READ MORE Office 2016, like Windows 10, has been re-designed within a revised Microsoft ethos. Office 2016 has been built from the ground-up with mobile and cloud users in mind, slotting in with the ever expanding fleet of Microsoft productivity applications. Office is, in general, a different set of tools from days gone by. We aren't confined to the five-or-so core products, and we can expand the functionality of the Office ecosystem using a massive range of add-ins and templates. Office 2016 logo - www.office.com/setup I'm using VirtualBox to preview Office 2016. Microsoft strongly suggested uninstalling Office 2013, which isn't currently viable due to work commitments. Using a virtual machine, however is a great way to explore different Office products alongside each other, without having to uninstall your current suite. I've also had a look at Office 2016 on Windows 10 Build 10130. Verdict: good times.How To Use VirtualBox: User's Guide How To Use VirtualBox: User's GuideLearn to use VirtualBox. Get virtual computers up and running inside your computer, without having to buy any new hardware.READ MORE Anyway, enough of that. Let's look at Office 2016. NEW OVERVIEW Much akin to the extended and inclusive testing phase of Windows 10, the Office 2016 preview has now accumulated over 1 million users,

Crafting the right content takes time and attention. To help you minimize the distractions, we created a Read Mode layout in Word. Read Mode is an option in the View menu that hides toolbars and menus to leave more room for the pages themselves. www.office.com/setup The best part is that you don't need to trade functionality for simplicity. The most common reading tools are built right in to Read Mode, and some helpful ones have been added in Word 2013. It's still easy to add comments, define words, copy or highlight text, change layouts, or search with Bing. But now you can also enlarge charts or images to full-screen with a double click, and you can zip around the document with the Navigation Pane. And not to show off, but Word developers even built Read Mode to remember where you stop reading. You can shut down your computer knowing that you can open the document right at the same place the next time you turn on your computer.

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Having come around to the idea that it needed different versions of Office for different kind of users, Microsoft introduced lightweight versions of Word, Excel, Power Point and OneNote that are neither as pricey or as feature laden as the main versions included in Office. iPad users were the first to get their hands on this new take on Office. With Windows 10, the free Microsoft Office Mobile apps have arrived for some Windows users. 10 Things to Love About Windows 10 (7) - www.office.com/setup Blogs Read: Windows 10 Review - A Love Affair Here's how to get that free Microsoft Office in Windows 10, and what you need to know about it why it's possible for some to take advantage and not possible for others. HOW TO GET FREE MICROSOFT OFFICE IN WINDOWS 10: WHAT IS IT? Microsoft Office is wildly successful. Everyday millions of users all open it to get work done. Millions of documents are written in Microsoft Word. Millions of budgets and sales breakdowns are created in Microsoft Excel. Everyone has created a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation at some point in their life. Screenshot (236) - www.office.com/setup Blogs Windows and Microsoft Office are synonymous. Because the two are often used together and both made by Microsoft, many assume that one comes included with the other. That's never been true. Windows device makers often included shortcuts to trials for Microsoft Office with new PCs. Some even bundled it with their PCs, passing the cost on to buyers. Microsoft Office costs $149 if purchased outright or $6.99 a month through Microsoft's Office 365 subscription service. Office Mobile is what Microsoft collectively calls the free Microsoft Office apps that are now available. Word Mobile lets Windows 10 users view documents. Excel Mobile focuses on spreadsheets. PowerPoint Mobile lets users look at presentations. Outlook is separated into to apps, Outlook Calendar and Outlook Mail. Outlook Mail and Outlook Calendar are a

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Office 365 is a subscription based package that buys you time limited access to a number of Microsoft services and software packages, including the latest desktop Office suite, an online version of Office, cloud storage, and premium mobile apps.Stop Bashing Microsoft: 5 Ways In Which They're Awesome Stop Bashing Microsoft: 5 Ways In Which They're AwesomeMicrosoft doesn't always get fair treatment. When it comes down to it, they're a pretty awesome company. There's been enough Microsoft bashing, now it's time for some love.READ MORE Office 365 follows a business model known as Software as a Service (SaaS), which has commonly been used for deploying enterprise software. With subscription-based services like Spotify, Napster, or Amazon Prime, it has found its way into the consumer software market some time ago. Does Office 365 provide enough value to be worth the money? CAN YOU STILL USE IT ON YOUR DESKTOP? Yes, absolutely! Microsoft isn't moving Office entirely into the cloud just yet. While you can access Office Online via the browser and store your documents on OneDrive, Office 365 offers many other ways to access and edit your documents. The current package of Office 365 includes the Office 2013 desktop suite (Office 2011 for Mac users). In the summer or fall of this year, you will be able to upgrade to Office 2016.Don't Pay For Word! 5 Reasons You Should Use Office Online Don't Pay For Word! 5 Reasons You Should Use Office OnlineOffice Online is the free and cloud-connected version of Microsoft Office. Limitations are compensated by features, useful even to users of desktop Office. Best of all is itsREAD MORE Microsoft Office - www.office.com/setup WHAT IS INCLUDED & WHAT IS THE PRICE TAG? The exact composition of the package depends on the Office flavor you choose. Office 365 Home, Office 365 Personal, and Office 365 University include the following software: Word Excel PowerPoint OneNote (now free for everyone) Outlook Publ

WWW.OFFICE.COM/SETUP BLOGS: SIMPLE RULES FOR BETTER POWERPOINT PRESENTATIONS www.office.com/setup Blogs: Have you ever given a PowerPoint presentation and noticed that something about it just seemed a little … off? If you're unfamiliar with basic PowerPoint design principles, it can be difficult to create a slide show that presents your information in the best light. Poorly designed presentations can leave an audience feeling confused, bored, and even irritated. Review these tips on making your next presentation more engaging. DON'T READ YOUR PRESENTATION STRAIGHT FROM THE SLIDES If your audience can both read and hear, it's a waste of time for you to simply read your slides aloud. Your audience will zone out and stop listening to what you're saying, which means they won't hear any extra information you include. Instead of typing out your entire presentation, include only main ideas, keywords, and talking points in your slide show text. Engage your audience by sharing the details out loud. FOLLOW THE 5/5/5 RULE To keep your audience from feeling overwhelmed, you should keep the text on each slide short and to the point. Some experts suggest using the 5/5/5 rule: no more than five words per line of text, five lines of text per slide, or five text-heavy slides in a row. Screenshot of Microsoft PowerPoint DON'T FORGET YOUR AUDIENCE Who will be watching your presentation? The same goofy effects and funny clip art that would entertain a classroom full of middle-school students might make you look unprofessional in front of business colleagues and clients. Humor can lighten up a presentation, but if you use it inappropriately your audience might think you don't know what you're doing. Know your audience, and tailor your presentation to their tastes and expectations. CHOOSE READABLE COLORS AND FONTS Your text should be easy to read and pleasant to look at. Large, simple fonts and theme colors are always your best bet. The best fonts and colors can va

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Microsoft Office 2016 for Windows has landed and it brings many smart new features, including co-authoring with real-time collaboration, simplified sharing, a great feature search engine called Tell Me, and much more. The Mac version of Office 2016 has actually been around for a few months already. If you have an Office 365 subscription, you can get it now for free and we show you how below.A Microsoft Office 2016 Preview: Smart & Subtle Changes A Microsoft Office 2016 Preview: Smart & Subtle ChangesOffice 2016 for Mac was just released and the Windows version will follow in the fall. We show you the new look and features of the world's most popular productivity suite. Will you upgrade?READ MORE Alternatively, you can buy it at the Microsoft store (different packages available and Microsoft has a guide for installing it) or your local retailer and if you're unsure, we have a guide for what Office suite to get. Note that if you're running Office 2010 on Windows 10, you can get a 50% discount on a one year subscription of Office 365 Home; simply use the Get Office app in Windows 10. Get Office - www.office.com/setup Before you overspend your budget, remember you can get Microsoft Word for free and you can choose from many free alternatives for the entire Microsoft suite.This Is How You Can Get Microsoft Word for Free This Is How You Can Get Microsoft Word for FreeDo you really want the entire Microsoft Office suite? If all you need is Word without the fancy features, Microsoft will give it to you for free. Here is how.READ MORE FIND OUT YOUR VERSION OF OFFICE Unsure whether you have an Office 365 subscription? You can look up your status. Open a file, any Office document, then navigate to File > Account and under you'll see whether you have an Office 365 subscription. Office 2016 Account - www.office.com/setup Here is a complete list of ways to check your version of Office from Microsoft. YOUR UPGRADE WILL BE FINAL Before you

WWW.OFFICE.COM/SETUP BLOGS: INTRODUCTION www.office.com/setup Blogs: Microsoft Word 2016 is a word processing application that allows you to create a variety of documents, including letters, resumes, and more. In this lesson, you'll learn how to navigate the Word interface and become familiar with some of its most important features, such as the Ribbon, Quick Access Toolbar, and Backstage view. Watch the video below to become more familiar with Word 2016. GETTING TO KNOW WORD 2016 Word 2016 is similar to Word 2013 and Word 2010. If you've previously used either version, then Word 2016 should feel familiar. But if you are new to Word or have more experience with older versions, you should first take some time to become familiar with the Word 2016 interface. THE WORD INTERFACE When you open Word for the first time, the Start Screen will appear. From here, you'll be able to create a new document, choose a template, and access your recently edited documents. From the Start Screen, locate and select Blank document to access the Word interface. creating a new blank document - www.office.com/setup Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn more about the Word interface: the Word 2016 interface - www.office.com/setup WORKING WITH THE WORD ENVIRONMENT Like other recent versions, Word 2016 continues to use features like the Ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar-where you will find commands to perform common tasks in Word-as well as Backstage view. THE RIBBON Word uses a tabbed Ribbon system instead of traditional menus. The Ribbon contains multiple tabs, which you can find near the top of the Word window. tabs on the Ribbon - www.office.com/setup Each tab contains several groups of related commands. For example, the Font group on the Home tab contains commands for formatting text in your document. the Font group on the Home tab - www.office.com/setup Some groups also have a small arrow in the bottom-right corner that you can click for even more option

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 BLOGS: INTRODUCTION www.office.com/setup Blogs: While there are four types of database objects in Access, tables are arguably the most important. Even when you're using forms, queries, and reports, you're still working with tables because that's where all of your data is stored. Tables are at the heart of any database, so it's important to understand how to use them. In this lesson, you will learn how to open tables, create and edit records, and modify the appearance of your table to make it easier to view and work with. Throughout this tutorial, we will be using a sample database. If you would like to follow along, you'll need to download our Access 2016 sample database. You will need to have Access 2016 installed on your computer in order to open the example. Watch the video below to learn more about working with tables in Access. TABLE BASICS TO OPEN AN EXISTING TABLE: Open your database, and locate the Navigation pane. In the Navigation pane, locate the table you want to open. Double-click the desired table. Opening a table - www.office.com/setup The table will open and appear as a tab in the Document Tabs bar. The open table - www.office.com/setup UNDERSTANDING TABLES All tables are composed of horizontal rows and vertical columns, with small rectangles called cells in the places where rows and columns intersect. In Access, rows and columns are referred to as records and fields. A field is a way of organizing information by type. Think of the field name as a question and every cell within that field as a response to that question. In our example, the Last Name field is selected, which contains all the last names in the table. Fields and field names - www.office.com/setup A record is one unit of information. Every cell on a given row is part of that row's record. In our example, Quinton Boyd's record is selected, which contains all of the information related to him in the table. Records and record ID numbers - www.office.com/setu

www.office.com/setup Blogs: All cell content uses the same formatting by default, which can make it difficult to read a workbook with a lot of information. Basic formatting can customize the look and feel of your workbook, allowing you to draw attention to specific sections and making your content easier to view and understand. Optional: Download our practice workbook. Watch the video below to learn more about formatting cells in Excel. TO CHANGE THE FONT SIZE: Select the cell(s) you want to modify. Selecting a cell - www.office.com/setup On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Font Size command, then select the desired font size. In our example, we will choose 24 to make the text larger. Selecting a font size in the dropdown menu - www.office.com/setup The text will change to the selected font size. The selected cell is a larger font size now - www.office.com/setup You can also use the Increase Font Size and Decrease Font Size commands or enter a custom font size using your keyboard. The custom font box, increase font size button, and decrease font size button - www.office.com/setup TO CHANGE THE FONT: By default, the font of each new workbook is set to Calibri. However, Excel provides many other fonts you can use to customize your cell text. In the example below, we'll format our title cell to help distinguish it from the rest of the worksheet. Select the cell(s) you want to modify. Selecting a cell - www.office.com/setup On the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow next to the Font command, then select the desired font. In our example, we'll choose Century Gothic. Selecting a font in the dropdown menu - www.office.com/setup The text will change to the selected font. The selected cell is a different font now - www.office.com/setup When creating a workbook in the workplace, you'll want to select a font that is easy to read. Along with Calibri, standard reading fonts include Cambria, Times New Roman, and Arial. TO CHANGE THE FONT COLOR: Select

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.

This website provides the reading level for text. All you need to do is type 150 of the text you are interested in, and the website will determine the readability level of the text. This is perfect for education majors trying to decide appropriate text for lesson plans.

This site is used to measure the readability of a textbook or article. You type a section of words, and the process with lead you to what grade and level that particular reading is meant for.

This site explains literacy standards in the United States. These standards assist students in all areas of subject matter and content, helping students become better learners, and teachers become more qualified to teach reading.

Crafting the right content takes time and attention. To help you minimize the distractions, we created a Read Mode layout in Word. Read Mode is an option in the View menu that hides toolbars and menus to leave more room for the pages themselves.

WWW.OFFICE.COM/SETUP BLOGS: INTRODUCTION www.office.com/setup Blogs: A chart is a tool you can use to communicate data graphically. Including a chart in a presentation allows your audience to see the meaning behind the numbers, which makes it easy to visualize comparisons and trends. Optional: Download our practice presentation for this lesson. Watch the video below to learn more about using charts in PowerPoint. TYPES OF CHARTS PowerPoint has several types of charts, allowing you to choose the one that best fits your data. In order to use charts effectively, you'll need to understand how different charts are used. Click the arrows in the slideshow below to learn more about the types of charts in PowerPoint. Slide 1 - www.office.com/setupPowerPoint has a variety of chart types, each with its own advantages. Click the arrows to see some of the different types of charts available in PowerPoint. Slide 1 - www.office.com/setup Slide 1 - www.office.com/setup Slide 1 - www.office.com/setup Slide 1 - www.office.com/setup Slide 1 - www.office.com/setup IDENTIFYING THE PARTS OF A CHART In addition to chart types, you'll need to understand how to read a chart. Charts contain several different elements-or parts-that can help you interpret data. Click the buttons in the interactive below to learn about the different parts of a chart. Book sales chart - www.office.com/setup LEGEND The legend identifies which data series each color on the chart represents. In this example, the legend identifies the different months in the chart. INSERTING CHARTS PowerPoint uses a spreadsheet as a placeholder for entering chart data, much like Excel. The process of entering data is fairly simple, but if you are unfamiliar with Excel you might want to review our Excel 2016 Cell Basics lesson. TO INSERT A CHART: Select the Insert tab, then click the Chart command in the Illustrations group. - www.office.com/setup A dialog box will appear. Select a category from the left pane, an

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Evernote and OneNote are two of our favorite tools, but both have changed substantially since we last compared these two apps-in some ways, not for the best. Here's where these two stand today. www.office.com/setup LIFEHACKER FACEOFF: ONENOTE VS. EVERNOTE Now that Microsoft OneNote is free for Mac and Windows, the price and cross-platform barriers to…Read more WHAT'S NEW IN EVERNOTE In the last year, Evernote introduced a new pricing plan, redesigned its webapp, and added new features for its Android and iOS apps. THE FREE PLAN LOSES A FEATURE, BUT NOW THERE'S A MORE AFFORDABLE PAID PLAN Let's talk price first with Evernote, since it's the biggest change in the last year. The free plan no longer lets you email notes to Evernote, something most users enjoyed and used often prior to that change. Although you can get around this limitation with an IFTTT recipe, you won't get the full flexibility of Evernote's email-to-notes feature, such as specifying your destination notebook in the email subject line. So that's a bummer. On the positive side, however, Evernote introduced a new, more affordable paid plan called Evernote Plus. For $25 a year, you get offline notebooks for Evernote's mobile apps and the ability to lock the app on your phone with a PIN. Both of these used to require Evernote's Premium plan, which used to cost $45 a year. Finally, Evernote's Premium plan now costs $50 a year. But in return for those five extra bucks, you get larger upload limits: 10GB a month, instead of the previous 4GB data cap. With Evernote Premium, you can search attachments, scan business cards, view previous note versions, annotate PDFs, and use the new note presentation mode. EVERNOTE'S USER INTERFACE KEEPS EVOLVING www.office.com/setup Last year, Evernote took its redesigned, minimalist web client out of beta. Though slicker and easier on the eyes, the makeover also made the webapp less functional. You can't order

This is a site that teachers share their lesson plans for reading and writing they found successful.

The Reading Rockets website is designed to help students and teachers with tips for teaching struggling readers.

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

Today's post was written by Nick Portello, Network Manager, Steve Moore Chevrolet. Read more Office 365 customer stories here. Office 365 Customer Steve Moore Chevrolet_Nick PortelloWhen I joined Steve Moore Chevrolet as the sole IT staffer six months ago, the dealership was in dire need of new technology. Employees coped with aging PCs, an outdated POP3 email service, a poor mobility experience, data loss, and no collaboration tools. Then I heard about Microsoft Office 365, which gives you the latest version of Microsoft Office, plus a suite of cloud-based communication and collaboration tools that solved all our problems. Unlike Google Apps, the UI was familiar to our employees and Microsoft offered a flexible subscription-based payment option, which is ideal for our fluctuating workforce. Now that our documents are stored in Microsoft SharePoint Online and SkyDrive Pro, we have easy access to collaboration tools with robust security. I no longer worry about falling out of compliance with Chevrolet auditors, losing important financial data, or having to pay fines that could reach $250,000. I can also find data on-demand for Chevrolet auditors and use my mobile device to look up information, which saves about 40 percent of every day-I'm no longer running between my computer and the sales, service, and administration departments. I can focus on what I really need to do. Thanks to Office 365, we are all able to get on with our work! Learn more about Steve Moore Chevrolet and Office 365 by watching the video below and reading the case study.