As Managed Service Providers, our support team are experts in answering Office 365 questions and for the customers that rely on us for system administration we’re only a call or email away when they need help.

We’ve collated the answers to twenty of the most frequently asked questions by new Office 365 users, (if your question isn’t on the list, let us know!)

1. How do I log in?

Go to https://www.office.com/

2. What are the differences between Office 365 licences?

Office 365 E1 – This is purely for emails. Emails can be accessed via www.office.com, or if you have already bought and paid for the office software suite you can add this onto your local Outlook. This would also include aliases, and would allow you to have virtually unlimited email addresses going to your inbox under your primary ‘.co.uk’ domain.

Office 365 Business Basic – This package will allow you full access to all Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) online only, as well as 1TB of OneDrive Storage. This licence does not allow you to download the applications locally.

Office 365 Business Standard – This will enable you to install the full Office suite on up to 5 PC’s and offers use of Word, Excel and PowerPoint online via www.office.com, as well as OneDrive storage.

Office 365 E3 – This will allow you to install the full Office suite on up to 5 PC’s and offers use of Word, Excel and PowerPoint online via www.office.com, as well as OneDrive. This licence allows for use of Office software within a terminal server environment.

3. How do I add an account?

Open Outlook, click File > Account Settings > Account Settings > New then type in the email address you wish to add and click Next, type in your password and press Done once the password has been verified. Your other mailbox will then appear on the left-hand side of your Outlook.

4. How do I change my password?

Log into www.office.com, click on your initials in the top-right, click My Account > Change Password, you will then be prompted for your old password once and your new password twice. Once filled in, click OK and this will take effect.

5. How do I enable Multi Factor Authentication (MFA)?

Your system administrator will be able to set up MFA, users will then be prompted upon their next sign in. (For more information about why it is important to use MFA read our advice here)

6. How do I set up security alerts?

Security alerts are handled by your system administrator but see our existing guide for more details.

7. How do I add new users?

This is handled by your system administrator; they will need to know the username and license requirement before the user account is set up.

8. What’s the difference between a group and a shared mailbox?

A group is essentially an email address that forwards a copy of each incoming email to other email addresses within the organisation.

A Shared Mailbox behaves similarly to a user account; however, you cannot log into this as you can with an account. You must have a fully licenced user account in order to access these emails, this can be useful if you want to grant other members of staff access to this inbox while keeping your own messages separate. Unlike a group, emails are not copied to each member. Unless otherwise duplicated, emails received by the shared mailbox are the original and only version.

9.How do I create a group or a shared mailbox?

Contact your system administrator. They will need to know the group email address and the members to be added.

10. How do I add a calendar?

Open Outlook, click the calendar icon in the bottom left, go to the top menu and click Open Calendar > From Address Book, you can then open a calendar from your organization.

11. How do I share a calendar?

There are two ways of doing this, one of which is sending an email invite to the calendar. The other is by giving the user permission to access the calendar. They can add the calendar themselves using the process above. To invite someone to a calendar: Open Outlook, click on the calendar icon in the bottom left, go to the top menu, click “Share Calendar”, enter the recipients email address and set their permissions level, click send. The recipient will then receive the invite (in an email format), they click accept, the calendar will then appear on the other users Outlook.

To give someone access to a calendar: Open Outlook, click on the calendar icon in the bottom left, right click on the calendar you want to share calendar, click “Properties”, “Permissions”, “Add” then select the user and specify their permissions level.

12. How do I access OneDrive?

Go to www.office.com, sign in, click OneDrive on the home screen, this will then present you with your OneDrive panel where you can navigate through your folders.

13. How do I set auto backup?

Download the OneDrive app, sign in with your office.com account, typically, the OneDrive app will guide you through this process, however if prompts don’t appear, you will be able to right-click on the app, click Help and Settings > Settings, in the Backup area, click Manage Backup.

14. How do I set up a search folder?

Open Outlook, click Folder > New Search Folder, you can then choose which option you would like to search automatically using the Search Folder. Once you have chosen your options, click OK and your new Search folder will appear on your Outlook.

15. How do I set up a signature?

Open Outlook, Click File> Options > Mail > Signatures, use this menu to add a custom signature or edit existing signatures. When you have multiple mailboxes and want to use a different signature for each mailbox, you can use the drop-down options under ‘Choose default signature’ to set signatures for each email address.

16. How do I blind CC?

Within the email click the tab labeled Options > Bcc this will present the BCC bar above the subject line.

Note: If you can’t see the Options tab, click the Message tab instead.

17. How do I request read receipts?

Within the email, click Options and tick the box beside Request a Delivery Receipt. This will prompt the recipient to acknowledge that they have read the email.

18. How do I request delivery receipts?

Within the email, click Options and tick the box beside Request a Read Receipt. This will prompt the recipient to acknowledge that they have received the email.

19. How do I set up rules?

Open Outlook, click File > Manage Rules and Alerts, you can then add or change rules as necessary.

20. How do I set an alias?

Contact your system administrator to set an alias.