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This tutorial on using conditional formatting to highlight dates is brought to us by MVP Frédéric Le Guen, with special acknowledgment and thanks to Ken Puls for assistance with translation from French to English. Date functions in Excel make it is possible to perform date calculations, like addition or subtraction, resulting in automated or semi-automated worksheets. The NOW function, which calculates values based on the current date and time, is a great example of this. Taking this functionality a step further, when you mix date functions with conditional formatting, you can create spreadsheets that display date alerts automatically when a deadline is near or differentiates between types of days, like weekends and weekdays. THE BASICS OF CONDITIONAL FORMATTING FOR DATES To find conditional formatting for dates, go to Home > Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cell Rules > A Date Occuring. www.office.com/setup You can select the following date options, ranging from yesterday to next month: www.office.com/setup These 10 date options generate rules based on the current date. If you need to create rules for other dates (e.g., greater than a month from the current date), you can create your own new rule. Below are step-by-step instructions for a few of my favorite conditional formats for dates. HIGHLIGHTING WEEKENDS When you design an automated calendar you don't need to color the weekends yourself. With the conditional formatting tool, you can automatically change the colors of weekends by basing the format on the WEEKDAY function. Assume that you have the date table-a calendar without conditional formatting: www.office.com/setup To change the color of the weekends, open the menu Conditional Formatting > New Rule www.office.com/setup In the next dialog box, select the menu Use a formula to determine which cell to format. www.office.com/setup In the text box Format values where this formula is true, enter the following WEEKDAY formula to determ

Bella Engen is a Technical Writer on the SharePoint User Content Publishing team, focused on search-driven experiences. Cross-site publishing is a new publishing method in SharePoint Server 2013 that can help streamline the publishing process in your organization, and at the same time reduce costs associated with maintaining and updating your website. By combining cross-site publishing with SharePoint search features, you can reduce the number of pages needed to maintain your website, and gain flexibility in how content is presented to your customers. In a nutshell, cross-site publishing simplifies the authoring experience by separating the process of how content is authored from the process of how content is displayed. SharePoint search features enable you to add user-specific behavior to your website, such as displaying different content to different customer groups, or displaying recommendations based on user behavior. In a blog series on the SharePoint IT Pro blog, you can learn how you can use SharePoint Server 2013 to set up a website that is based on product catalog data. The blog posts describe the different functionalities that are involved when setting up such a site, and show you step-by-step how the features are configured. To demonstrate how it all comes together, data from a fictitious company is used. The blog posts use several screenshots and diagrams to explain everything from how the cross-site publishing feature works, to how you can use search features to influence how product data is displayed to visitors on a site. To give you an idea of what type of site this blog series describes, here are a few screenshots of the final website:

The new Excel offers a rich set of charting capabilities that make creating and customizing charts simpler and more intuitive. One part of the fluid new experience is the Formatting Task pane. - www.office.com/setup Until now, precise adjustments to chart elements were made in the Format dialog box. The box sometimes obscured a portion of the chart, changes entered in the box were not visible until you closed it, and you had to select the exact element on the chart in order to see the options that were the best fit for the job. In the new Excel, the Format dialog box is replaced by the Formatting Task pane. The pane aligns neatly with the right or left side of the screen, so it's less likely to obscure the chart, and changes happen in real time, so you can immediately see how your choices affect the chart. The Formatting Task pane also offers an element selector so you can jump quickly between different elements without having to select one to modify. The new Formatting Task pane is the single source for formatting-all of the different styling options are consolidated in one place. With this single task pane, you can modify not only charts, but also shapes and text in Excel. USING THE FORMATTING TASK PANE The fastest way to open the Formatting Task pane is to double-click a chart element. You can also use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+1 while a chart element is selected. There are two other ways to open the task pane: The first way: On a chart, select an element. On the Ribbon, select the Chart Tools Format tab, then click Format Selection. - www.office.com/setup The second way: On a chart, select an element. Right-click, then select Format where is the axis, series, legend, title, or area that was selected. - www.office.com/setup Once open, the Formatting Task pane remains available until you close it. Since it always stays on the right or left side of the screen, the pane remains unobtrusive as you concentrate on other tasks. The

WWW.OFFICE.COM/SETUP BLOGS: HOW TO CREATE FORMS IN WORD www.office.com/setup Blogs: If you've ever used Microsoft Word, you've probably spent a lot of time customizing different options to get your document to look exactly the way you want. But have you ever created a document for other people to use? For example, let's say you're organizing a field trip and want everyone to send in their permission forms electronically. To simplify the process, you could create a form in Microsoft Word. A form allows you to create placeholders for different types of information, such as text, dates, yes-no questions, and so on. This makes it easier for everyone to know what type of information to include, and it also helps ensure all of the information is formatted the same way. We'll use Word 2013 to show you how to create a form, but this should work the same way for Word 2010 or Word 2007. You can also download our example file if you'd like to follow along. STEP 1: TURN ON THE DEVELOPER TAB Before you create form elements in a document, you'll need to activate the Developer tab on the Ribbon. To do this, click File > Options to access the Word Options dialog box. Select Customize Ribbon, then click the check box for the Developer tab. Screenshot of Microsoft Word - www.office.com/setup The Developer tab will appear on the Ribbon. Screenshot of Microsoft Word - www.office.com/setup STEP 2: ADD CONTENT CONTROLS Now you're ready to add the different parts of the form, which Word calls content control fields. To add a content control field, place your cursor in the desired location, then choose a field from the Controls group on the Developer tab. You can hover your mouse over the fields to see the different options. In this example, we're adding a text field so users can type their first names. Screenshot of Microsoft Word - www.office.com/setup The content control field will appear in the document. Screenshot of Microsoft Word - www.office.com/setup You can add severa

WWW.OFFICE.COM/SETUP BLOGS: INTRODUCTION www.office.com/setup Blogs: If you're new to PowerPoint, you'll need to learn the basics of working with text. In this lesson, you'll learn how to cut, copy, paste, and format text. Optional: Download our practice presentation. Watch the video below to learn more about the basics of working with text in PowerPoint. TO SELECT TEXT: Before you can move or arrange text, you'll need to select it. Click next to the text you want to select, drag the mouse over the text, then release your mouse. The text will be selected. www.office.com/setup Blogs COPYING AND MOVING TEXT PowerPoint allows you to copy text that is already on a slide and paste it elsewhere, which can save you time. If you want to move text, you can cut and paste or drag and drop the text. TO COPY AND PASTE TEXT: Select the text you want to copy, then click the Copy command on the Home tab. www.office.com/setup Blogs Place the insertion point where you want the text to appear. Click the Paste command on the Home tab. www.office.com/setup Blogs The copied text will appear. TO CUT AND PASTE TEXT: Select the text you want to move, then click the Cut command. www.office.com/setup Blogs Place the insertion point where you want the text to appear, then click the Paste command. www.office.com/setup Blogs The text will appear in the new location. You can access the cut, copy, and paste commands by using keyboard shortcuts. Press Ctrl+X to cut, Ctrl+C to copy, and Ctrl+V to paste. TO DRAG AND DROP TEXT: Select the text you want to move, then click and drag the text to the desired location. www.office.com/setup Blogs The text will appear in the new location. www.office.com/setup Blogs FORMATTING AND ALIGNING TEXT Formatted text can draw your audience's attention to specific parts of a presentation and emphasize important information. In PowerPoint, you have several options for adjusting your text, including size and color. You can also adjust the alignment of the

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Forgetting a password to your office folder can be annoying. Halting the work because of the password loss may cause immediate monetary loss. Then how to control over your own documents even if there are protected with a password. Office Password Recovery recovers and removes instantly passwords protecting or locking files created with Microsoft Office 2016. Actually it can unlock documents created with all versions of Microsoft Office from the ancient 97 to the latest 2016, and supports recovering passwords for Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint, Money and all OpenOffice applications and Hangual Office suite. HOW TO RECOVER THE MICROSOFT OFFICE PASSWORD 2016 WITHIN 3 STEPS? Office Password Recovery is the most professional and powerful office documents password recovery software. Before you start, you have to make sure you have downloaded and installed it on your computer. Then you can easily crack and remove MS Office 2016 passwords. Step1. Run the program and click "Office Password Recovery". Then click "browse" in the main window to import protected Office files. click browse to import office files - www.office.com/setup Step2. Here are 3 types of attack available. Choose anyone from them in accordance with your real situation. 1. Brute-force Attack: If you can remember nothing about your password at all. It will try all possibilities to find your password. It is the default for password recovery. 2. Brute-force with Mask Attack: If you can remember anything about password such as customize number, symbols or characters. You can try this way to find your password. Click "Settings" to define the sets such as Min Length, Max Length, Character Set etc. 3. Dictionary Attack: If you have a dictionary already that is a text file listing character combinations such as a, ab, 123, 4, AB etc. Click "Settings" to use the default dictionary to recover. choose attack type - www.office.com/setup Step3. Finally, click "Recov

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Forgetting a password to your office folder can be annoying. Halting the work because of the password loss may cause immediate monetary loss. Then how to control over your own documents even if there are protected with a password. Office Password Recovery recovers and removes instantly passwords protecting or locking files created with Microsoft Office 2016. Actually it can unlock documents created with all versions of Microsoft Office from the ancient 97 to the latest 2016, and supports recovering passwords for Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, PowerPoint, Money and all OpenOffice applications and Hangual Office suite. HOW TO RECOVER THE MICROSOFT OFFICE PASSWORD 2016 WITHIN 3 STEPS? Office Password Recovery is the most professional and powerful office documents password recovery software. Before you start, you have to make sure you have downloaded and installed it on your computer. Then you can easily crack and remove MS Office 2016 passwords. Step1. Run the program and click "Office Password Recovery". Then click "browse" in the main window to import protected Office files. click browse to import office files - www.office.com/setup Step2. Here are 3 types of attack available. Choose anyone from them in accordance with your real situation. 1. Brute-force Attack: If you can remember nothing about your password at all. It will try all possibilities to find your password. It is the default for password recovery. 2. Brute-force with Mask Attack: If you can remember anything about password such as customize number, symbols or characters. You can try this way to find your password. Click "Settings" to define the sets such as Min Length, Max Length, Character Set etc. 3. Dictionary Attack: If you have a dictionary already that is a text file listing character combinations such as a, ab, 123, 4, AB etc. Click "Settings" to use the default dictionary to recover. choose attack type - www.office.com/setup Step3. Finally, click "Recov

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Over the last month, the Office 365 team has continued to introduce new security features and capabilities. Here is a roundup of some key security and compliance news from the last month: Applying intelligence to security and compliance in Office 365-To stay ahead of the evolving threat landscape, companies need the ability to analyze and learn from that data to identify, intercept and respond to threats. Office 365 provides unmatched security intelligence to help customers protect, detect and respond to threats. Read about the new security and compliance capabilities of Office 365 that were announced at the Microsoft Ignite conference. Security engineering evolution in Office 2016 for Mac-Security is a critical component in all our products at Microsoft. To help you get a better idea of how we build security into Office 2016 for Mac, the engineering team discusses how we think about it from a development and testing perspective, including the latest updates. Get updates on Office 365 Security & Compliance Center-The Microsoft Office 365 Security & Compliance Center is the central place to view and manage your data. Find out how the experience is improved by centralized security controls, including the ability to view and manage security and compliance for your cloud services. Accelerate your eDiscovery analysis workflow with one click-Does your legal department often complain about how long it takes to run an analysis for eDiscovery investigations? We released two new features for Office 365 Advanced eDiscovery-Express Analysis and Export with analytics to Excel-to make it easier and faster for organizations to quickly find, analyze and review relevant information related to investigations, legal matters and regulatory requests. How can my organization achieve intelligent compliance with Office 365?-Organizations are facing significant data overload with the amount of electronic data not only exploding but also gettin

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

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

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Andy Wolber shows you how to edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents stored on Google Drive from your desktop or mobile device. Office and Drive - www.office.com/setup Many organizations that rely on Google Apps also use Microsoft Office applications. Mass conversion of highly formatted documents, complex spreadsheets, or animated presentations may not always be practical. As a result, people still open and edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents after a move to Google Apps. Microsoft Office files, however, no longer need to be stored on your local computer, server, or even on MIcrosoft's OneDrive. Google Drive stores Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files much like any file server. And Google encrypts the files when you upload them to Drive, and it stores the files in an encrypted state, too. Google also offers several ways to edit Microsoft Office files stored on Google Drive. Edit capabilities vary by operating system. Here's a look at the options as of August 2015. EDIT WITH MICROSOFT OFFICE The most full-featured way to edit a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file stored on Google Drive is with Microsoft Office, of course. People who use Office on Windows may open Office files from Google Drive with a plug-in. Simply install the Google Drive plug-in for Microsoft Office, and Google Drive will display as a file storage location in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint (Figure A). From within your Office app, open a file on Google Drive, make your changes, then save the file back to Google Drive. Figure A Figure A - www.office.com/setup OPEN MICROSOFT OFFICE FILES STORED ON GOOGLE DRIVE WITH A GOOGLE-CREATED PLUG-IN. You can also open an Office file stored on Google Drive from your Chrome browser-on either Windows or a Mac. First, install the Google Drive app for your system. Next, start Chrome and browse to your file on Google Drive (http://drive.google.com). Right-click (or, [Ctrl]+click) on a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint documen

Part of the thrill of working for the Office Division is the opportunity to tackle thorny business issues on behalf of our customers while providing them with a road map for the future. That may be why an interesting article caught my attention this week. In it, the author examined some of the investments Microsoft is making in the unified communications space. While I didn't agree with all of the conclusions it contained, the article certainly underscored the interest in communications and collaboration and how to make people more productive. Communicating and collaborating with others is really at the heart of what we do every day. Whether at work or at home, people have the need to make meaningful connections with one another. Compounding that need are the realities of the world we live in where instant access to information is expected, friends and coworkers are scattered across geographies and many adults are juggling multiple mobile devices. At Microsoft, we believe technology isn't the problem to these complexities, it's the answer. We're committed to providing capabilities that help people make sense of it all and to do so in a way that is intuitive, barrier free and agnostic to the devices on which we rely. We're incredibly proud of the fact that our long term-term vision for communications and collaboration not only marries the best of the cloud and the desktop, it's a holistic approach that spans "from the living room to the boardroom" placing people at the center of everything we do. Our communication and collaboration vision comes to life utilizing client and cloud assets, including Lync, Skype, Yammer, Outlook and SharePoint. These tools are enabling enterprise social capabilities, HD video conferencing and document collaboration as part of a highly secured, reliable and extensible platform. At the risk of looking geeky, I have to admit that I have a soft spot for Lync and it's comforting to know I'm not alone. More than 90% of

Remember the vintage game "Pull the Rug Out?" It is a board game where players stack different items on top of a rug. Eventually, one of the players tries to pull out the rug without tumbling the pieces stacked on top of it. Google's recent announcement that it is phasing out several additional services, including the highly popular Google Reader, reminded me of this game, as I recall that the stack most always toppled to the ground. Google introduced Google Reader, gradually built up its popularity, and then pulled the rug out with little warning, causing its customers to stumble. As one Google customer put it: "Google spends millions of wasted dollars on pet projects, then kills one of their best products on a whim." Google's most recent spring cleaning brings the total number of services it has discontinued to 70 in just a year-and-a-half. That's right-a whopping 70 services that have been shut down in just 18 months. Among the services Google will discontinue with little warning is Google Cloud Connect, introduced with a lot of fanfare just two years ago. Cloud Connect is a plug-in that enables Google users to share and edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files. To continue collaborating with Microsoft Office, Google users have just four weeks to uninstall Cloud Connect and install Google Drive. Companies that can't get to it by April 30 will be out of luck, leaving them without a way to collaborate on Office documents used by millions of employees, partners, and customers. But of all the services Google is discontinuing this time, the one that's drawing the biggest backlash is Google Reader, a service used by hundreds of thousands of users to keep track of their favorite websites and blogs via RSS feeds. The news of Google Reader's shut down drew outrage from users, who put together a petition demanding that Google reinstate the service. "Our confidence in Google's other products - Gmail, YouTube, and yes, even Plus - requ

Remember the vintage game "Pull the Rug Out?" It is a board game where players stack different items on top of a rug. Eventually, one of the players tries to pull out the rug without tumbling the pieces stacked on top of it. Google's recent announcement that it is phasing out several additional services, including the highly popular Google Reader, reminded me of this game, as I recall that the stack most always toppled to the ground. Google introduced Google Reader, gradually built up its popularity, and then pulled the rug out with little warning, causing its customers to stumble. As one Google customer put it: "Google spends millions of wasted dollars on pet projects, then kills one of their best products on a whim." Google's most recent spring cleaning brings the total number of services it has discontinued to 70 in just a year-and-a-half. That's right-a whopping 70 services that have been shut down in just 18 months. Among the services Google will discontinue with little warning is Google Cloud Connect, introduced with a lot of fanfare just two years ago. Cloud Connect is a plug-in that enables Google users to share and edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel files. To continue collaborating with Microsoft Office, Google users have just four weeks to uninstall Cloud Connect and install Google Drive. Companies that can't get to it by April 30 will be out of luck, leaving them without a way to collaborate on Office documents used by millions of employees, partners, and customers. But of all the services Google is discontinuing this time, the one that's drawing the biggest backlash is Google Reader, a service used by hundreds of thousands of users to keep track of their favorite websites and blogs via RSS feeds. The news of Google Reader's shut down drew outrage from users, who put together a petition demanding that Google reinstate the service. "Our confidence in Google's other products - Gmail, YouTube, and yes, even Plus - req

WWW.OFFICE.COM/SETUP BLOGS: USE THIS HELPFUL FEATURE TO QUICKLY VERIFY FACTS AND FIND ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AS YOU WORK. www.office.com/setup Blogs: Among all of Office 2016's useful new features, there's one in particular you'll definitely want to take the time to master: Smart Lookup. In short, it serves as a digital research assistant, pulling in information from the Web to enhance your work or help you decipher unfamiliar content. If you're an Office regular, Smart Lookup holds the key to a more powerful workflow. WHERE TO FIND IT Smart Lookup is just one right-click away in any Office 2016 app. Highlight a word or phrase you want to research, right-click, and select Smart Lookup from the context menu. You can also get to this feature by launching Review > Smart Lookup and entering a query. smart lookup word - www.office.com/setup Right-click on a word or phrase to launch Office's Smart Lookup tool. Smart Lookup works similarly in both Windows and Mac versions of Office 2016. When you launch the tool, a sidebar appears on the right side of the screen that displays the results of your query. Here's the really cool thing about Smart Lookup: It takes context from the words around the one you're searching for in order to provide you with the most relevant results, because so many words and terms have multiple meanings. There's a reason it's called Smart Lookup! Smart Lookup proves its value in many scenarios. Here are some examples. BE A WORD NERD Living up to its name, Smart Lookup will find a definition, synonyms, and the parts of speech for any word you highlight. smart lookup definitions - www.office.com/setup Find definitions and other information to assist with writing. Select the Explore tab to get word-usage information, or scroll down the page for entries from Wikipedia or Bing search results. Click on Define for a word's meaning and to hear how it's pronounced. PULL IN RESEARCH FROM THE WEB The most useful feature for me on a day

www.office.com/setup Blogs: If you are still using Microsoft Office 2003, you should be aware that Official support has long ended. If you are using Office 2007, support is due to end in 2 short years. Microsoft Office 2016, the latest Windows-based version of the major technology company's application suite, is scheduled for a release sometime in spring, 2015. However, we already know quite a bit about the product, thanks to a preview and testing program that Microsoft has been running. Here are 6 details to look forward to, ahead of the product's mainstream release: 1. Better Security Microsoft Office 2016 will emphasize the value of better security parameters. In addition to a file-level encryption functionality, new data loss protection tools inside of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint will warn users when they attempt to save confidential files to unsafe locations. Microsoft Outlook will also be more secure, thanks to a multi-factor authentication feature. Similarly, the application suite will have stronger information rights management tools that let you limit what people can do with your documents or emails after you've shared access with them. For example, you can allow access to a certain document to expire after a set period of time, and prevent it from being forwarded. These tools will also stop people from copying and pasting information out of Microsoft Office 2016 applications. 2. Business Intelligence Features Microsoft Excel lives up to its name in Microsoft Office 2016. The latest version of this application features a built-in business intelligence tool called Power Query. This tool can dramatically change the way that you approach your data. Using it, you can quickly combine your own numbers with figures from public databases like Data.gov and Microsoft Azure Marketplace. After doing this, the application has another tool that lets you create detailed visualizations of the combined data. The data analysis tool

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expects to save $12 million over four years. The City of Chicago anticipates saving $1.3 million over the same length of time. And the State of Minnesota expects to save at least $800,000. Governments of all sizes are finding ways to reduce IT costs while improving efficiency. What's their secret weapon? With public sector budgets shrinking in many places around the globe, smart governments are making taxpayer dollars stretch further by migrating from an on-premise environment to Microsoft Office 365 in the cloud. By moving to Office 365, governments can reduce both their capital and operating costs. And by saving money, they can make taxpayer dollars go further during a time when budgets are tight and there's often less revenue to work with. So how exactly can Office 365 save governments money? First, governments can cut back on the capital cost of investing in more computer servers. Second, they can reduce the administrative cost of having to maintain an IT environment. Third, they can lower their energy costs by reducing the size of their data centers. And they can also reduce costs using the many tools within Office 365 that improve employee efficiency. According to a study conducted by Forrester Consulting, Office 365 delivers an ROI of 321 percent with a payback period of two months for a composite midsize organization. That translates into huge value for public sector organizations! Among the government agencies that anticipating money saved by implementing Office 365 is the Environmental Protection Agency. The agency expects to save $12 million over four years by moving to the cloud and Office 365. Some of those savings will be in energy costs as the agency relies on Microsoft to operate its data centers. "The EPA will continue to lead the pack on environmental stewardship, and moving an IT environment to the cloud is a natural part of that," says Greg Myers, vice president of Microsoft Federal. "There

www.office.com/setup Blogs: YES. Microsoft has some FREE help with the NEW Office 365. One of the places that I send people to first is the Ignite Online training center. How to configure federated identity sign-in model for Office 365 OFFICE 365 GUIDES Exploring the Office 365 Administration Center - In this guide, you will become familiar with the Office 365 Administration Center and learn how to perform key administration tasks. Office 365 Overview for IT Administrators - See how the new Office 365 Administration Center provides improved ease-of-management for IT professionals. There is also a great three part series on how to setup Identity Management. 1. Installing and Configuring Active Directory Federation Services - Learn how to prepare for and install AD FS, which is a preliminary step for the Office 365 federation and hybrid scenarios. 2. Configuring Active Directory Federation Services and Verifying Federation - In this guide, you will learn how to add and verify federated domains in Office 365. 3. Installing and Configuring Active Directory Synchronization - Learn how to install and configure Active Directory Synchronization in Office 365, which is a preliminary step for the Office 365 federation and hybrid scenarios.

In order to be taken seriously, small businesses need to convince customers of their professional ability and their value. Small businesses can punch above their weight by taking the time to go to market with a professional set of business documents, templates and content to ensure customers aren't dismissing them before they have a chance to pitch the value of their product or service. But how can small businesses deliver a professional image when they don't have the same resources as big businesses? Web-based solutions, also known as 'cloud solutions,' help small businesses maintain professional-looking documents even while collaborating and editing with employees in real-time from different locations. Gone are the days where employees hoped documents maintained proper spacing and margins; small businesses can now create materials in confidence and showcase their professional ability to customers. Below are just a few of the ways small businesses can ensure they are maintaining a professional appearance when it comes to the business communications: MAKE THE FIRST IMPRESSION A PROFESSIONAL ONE An email newsletter is often a small business' first connection with a potential customer; they can keep it professional by registering a business email domain (johndoe@yourbusiness.com) and sending all communications to customers and potential customers from there. Most cloud solutions offer a cost-efficient and easy way to customize emails with basic client information - small businesses should take the time to add a personal touch to connect with their customers. Messages should be short and to the point to ensure their email will bring value to potential customers. Email signatures should be simple, clean and professional, and employees shouldn't forget to run a spell-check before hitting send. CREATE CUSTOMER-READY DOCUMENTS Whether creating documents on an office desktop or on-the-go on a mobile or tablet device through Office Mobile Apps in Office 3

www.office.com/setup Blogs: Microsoft Forms is a new part of Office 365 Education that allows teachers and students to quickly and easily create custom quizzes, surveys, questionnaires, registrations and more. When you create a quiz or form, you can invite others to respond to it using any web browser, even on mobile devices. As results are submitted, you can use built-in analytics to evaluate responses. Form data, such as quiz results, can be easily exported to Excel for additional analysis or grading. WHAT YOU'LL NEED An Office 365 Education subscription. If you're not sure you have this, please contact your IT administrator to verify. An organizational or school ID account for yourself with permissions to use Microsoft Forms. Screenshot showing monitor with form open - www.office.com/setup Create forms in minutes Screenshot showing three people sharing a form - www.office.com/setup Send forms to anyone Screenshot of a monitor displaying charts for a form - www.office.com/setup See results in real time Why can't I log in to Microsoft Forms? Microsoft Forms is available only to Office 365 Education subscribers using a school or organization ID account. GET STARTED QUICKLY Clipboard Bring together teachers and students. Get more done! Create a form or quiz with questions, define settings, share your form, and check the results-in a few easy steps. Step 1: Sign in and create a new form or quiz Step 2: Adjust settings for your form or quiz Step 3: Send your form or quiz to others and collect responses Step 4: Check your form results or quiz results Are you an admin? Learn about security and privacy, Microsoft Forms data storage, and how to turn on or turn off Microsoft Forms in your organization. ADD PICTURES AND VIDEOS TO YOUR FORM OR QUIZ People Enhance your quizzes and forms with pictures and videos. Want to add a logo to your form or display pictures or videos next to quiz questions? You can do all of these tasks quickly in Microsoft Forms. Add a picture