Office Products on Staff Computers
New staff computers will no longer come with Office 2013 installed. Instead, all Office products such as Word, Excel, and Outlook (email) will be available to staff through an online service called Office365. The desktop version of Microsoft Teams will remain installed on staff computers as it provides a better voice and video calling experience for groups utilizing Teams.
What is Office365
Office365 can be thought of a web-based version of all popular Office programs such as Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. You may already be familiar with Office365 if you have previously logged into your Ranch email on a computer or through a web browser on your cellphone.
These online Office products have near identical functionality to their Office 2013/2016 counterparts. The difference in using Office365 will be in how you open, create, and save documents. These differences will be explained in more detail below.
Logging into Office365
To log into Office365 visit https://www.office.com/ in any web browser, such as Google Chrome. You may see one of the two sign-in pages below depending if someone else was recently logged in. If you see another staff member’s email on the login page, select “Sign in with another account” to have the opportunity to enter your own account credentials.
During this sign in process you may be asked if you wish to stay signed in. On shared staff computers please check off “Do not show this again” and click No to ensure your account does not remained signed in.
Once successfully signed in you will see a list of Office apps you can open on the Office365 homescreen. Clicking “All apps” will show you all the apps you have access to in case something you are looking for is not shown to you on the below screen.
To log out of Office365 and keep your account secure, click the circle containing your initials or profile photo in the top right corner and then click Sign out.
Using OneDrive for your Files
OneDrive is an Office365 app that gives you a virtual space to save your documents. Rather than saving documents onto a shared staff computer you can save them to your OneDrive folder where only you will be able to access them. You will have access to all your files in OneDrive regardless of the computer you are signed into Office365 on. By default, any new documents you create in Office365 will be saved into your OneDrive folder. As you work on documents saved in your OneDrive folder any changes you make are automatically saved.
Upon opening the OneDrive app in Office365 you will see a list of all your documents you have uploaded and saved/created in Office365. You can create folders within your OneDrive space to keep items organized.
Within OneDrive, you can share documents you have made with other staff to make collaborating on and accessing resources easier. When you share a document with another staff member, they will receive an email containing a link to open the document through their own OneDrive account.
Creating a New Document
There are several ways to get started on a new document in Office365. The first is to open OneDrive and click the New button, which will allow you to select what kind of file you want to start.
Alternatively, from the Office365 homescreen you can click the app you wish to start a new file in. Once you have opened the app a “New” category will appear at the top of your screen with several new document templates for you to get started with. Clicking the first icon will open a blank copy of the type of file you are trying to create.
When you create a file in Office365, a new tab will open in your Internet browser where you can begin working on your file. The name of the file will be displayed at the top of your screen. Click this name to open a box that will allow you to change the title of your document at any time.
Saving a Document
Anytime you are working on a document in Office365 a “Saved” message will appear next to the title of your document at the top of your screen to remind you changes are being automatically saved. When finished working on a document you can close out of your web browser tab/window without having to manually save the item you were working on. The document will be saved in your OneDrive app in Office365 for you to re-open later.
You will still have the ability to save your Office365 documents onto a staff computer rather than your personal OneDrive folder. To do this, click “File” from the upper left corner of your document, click “Save As” on the side menu that appears, and then click “Download a Copy”.
After clicking “Download a Copy” a box will appear with a Download button to click. Your document will then appear in the Downloads folder on the staff computer.
Opening an Existing Document
If the document you want to open is already saved/located in your OneDrive folder, all you need to do is click the file name and it will open in a new web browser tab for you to view and edit.
If the document you want to open is saved on a staff computer you will need to upload the file to your OneDrive folder first. You will then be able to view the file as you would any other file in OneDrive by clicking its name. To upload a document or an entire folder of documents to OneDrive you can use the Upload button provided.
You can also drag and drop files into your OneDrive folder to upload them as well.