Detailed guide for Office 365 login. This guide will help you to sign in on your Office 365 account. Microsoft Office 365 is a collection of paid Internet services, designed for business and education. It is similar to the office suite Microsoft Office and is also developed by Microsoft. The beta version of Office 365 was launched in October 2010, followed by the final version on 28 June 2011.
Office 365 login guide
To be able to use Office 365, you need to sign in on your account using your organisational account. Follow these steps to access your profile.
- Make sure that you run the latest version of Chrome, Firefox or Internet Explorer.
- First open your browser and go to login.microsoftonline.com.
- This is the login page for Office 365. Enter here your email-address and your password and click on the Sign in button.
That’s it. If you did everything right, you should now have access to your Office account.
Recover Office 365 password
You can reset your password if you can’t access your online account. You can do this by clicking on the Can’t access your account? link on the login page. Next you have to enter your user-id and the security code and click on Next. Follow the further instructions to reset your password.
Important links
| Description | URL |
|---|---|
| Product page | Office 365 Personal |
| Login page | Login.Microsoft.com |
| Word for iPhone | Download from the App Store |
| Word for iPad | Download from the App Store |
| Office for Android | Download from the Play Store |
| Office for Windows Phone | More info |
About Microsoft Office 365
The range of Internet services with Office 365 is based on existing Microsoft software. Instead of installing this software on the computers of the organization, Office 365 makes use of servers installed and operated by Microsoft. Office 365 is in the SaaS category and is a typical example of cloud computing. This Office 365 runs on any platform that supports internet (unlike Microsoft Office, which basically runs only on Windows and Mac OS X). That means that even Linux users can use Office now.
For the user it is unimportant where the servers and the data is stored as it is an internet service. The data are stored in several places and the user connects to the closest server. An American who logs on to Office 365 will be connected to a US server, a Dutch person with a server in Ireland.
Parts
The email service running on Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 and IM uses Lync. With the part SharePoint 2013, users can set up their own intranet for internal communication and communication with business partners.
With Office Professional Plus, the users has access to the online version of standard Office applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Audience
Office 365 focuses on four target groups: residential, small home, large businesses and education. There are four different editions available:
- 365 for Home: intended for home use
- 365 for small business: designed for small and medium enterprises
- 365 for Enterprises: designed for the corporate market
- 365 for Education: intended for educational institutions that can offer services to their students
The prices of these formulas are different and depending on the target audience. The main price differences are caused by whether or not installed (desktop), the storage capacity, the maximum size of emails and the presence of the integration with Active Directory Federation Services. This ensures that the active directory integration of existing IT infrastructure can be associated with the Office 365 accounts.
Implementation
Because organizations that use Office 365 do not own servers running the software, the management of such services are very different from exploiting the self of these services. Instead of installing all Office applications on the computers of users and managing servers such as Exchange or SharePoint into an existing active directory domain of Windows. The settings in the active directory determine what rights the user has in the entire IT environment: access to files stored on the corresponding local computer, accessing data stored on central computers, the mail that arrives at the Exchange Server, etc. In principle, the user can only make use of the services if he makes use of a workstation within the organization: it is not necessarily possible to make use of the data and services if the user is not in the office uses his own computer.
At an online service, such as Office 365, it is not necessary to make use of a specific computer, and also there is no need to connect to it to use with the corporate network. To use the service, the user can just as easily use his own personal computer.
Management
In the traditional concept of IT, the administrator creates a central account for all IT operations of the company. But with Office 365, an account must be created on the server of the service provider (Microsoft). Through a dedicated web portal, IT administrators can create a 365 account which and rights may be granted to the users. Often the organization will also use other software that is not in the Office 365 environment, but runs on its own servers. Think of an accounting program or a package for customer relationship management. Via BPOS it is also possible to use Microsoft Dynamics as a SaaS service.
In many cases, an organization in addition to Office 365 also have their own infrastructure based on a Windows Domain with various servers and workstations. The organization may choose only the Office 365 services accessible for use from the Internet.
Active Directory Federation Services, there are possibilities to link the Office 365 accounts to the same active directory as its own existing IT infrastructure, and this ensures that Single Sign-on is optimally used.
Support
As part of the service, users can use the Office 365 helpdesk. Support for Europe is contracted by Microsoft to Hewlett-Packard in Leixlip, Ireland for Tier 1 and Tier 2 support. Only when the specialized staff of Tier 2 can not solve the problem, the problem is communicated to Microsoft itself.
Competition
Microsoft is not the only organization that provides professional email and office applications. Google also provides similar services through Gmail and Google Docs. In addition, there are several providers of SaaS solutions.
Development
Office 365 is constantly evolving. An advantage for users of Office 365 is that they always have the latest version.