Service Updates for Office 365 for professionals and small businesses (English)
Welcome to the Service Updates wiki for Office 365 for professionals and small businesses. Here you will find information about the latest features and improvements to Office 365.
2013:
2012:
2011:
February
Office 365 Service Descriptions
[
Office 365 Service Descriptions](http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj819284.aspxDescriptions are now being published on TechNet to help customers understand the technical differences between the different Office 365 offers (SKUs) and limits or boundaries of the service. The service descriptions also provide short feature descriptions to help customers understand the breadth of capabilities in the service and link to more detailed how-to content. The old service descriptions on the download center will not be updated going forward and will eventually be removed.
New Service Settings in Admin Portal
New pages within the Office 365 admin portal give small business administrators an easy way to manage common service settings for IM, conferencing, passwords, and mobile access. Administrators can discover and manage key settings without leaving the Office 365 portal.
Additional information
For more information on the settings available, click the “Learn More” links associated with each setting in the portal.
January
No updates
back to topDecember
Recipient Rate Limit Increase to 10K for Office 365 and Exchange Online
In response to feedback from our customers, we have increased the recipient rate limit within Office 365 Professionals and Small Businesses (P1) to allow users to send email to up to 10,000 recipients per day. Previously, the recipient rate limit for users of these plans had been set at a maximum of 1,500 recipients per day.
Recipient rate limits exist to discourage users from sending large volumes of unsolicited commercial email, commonly referred to as spam. These limits protect our online service from becoming a source of spam and, as a result of these protections, keep our customers’ email messages flowing. Datacenter enhancements have allowed us to increase this limit while maintaining the same level of protection.
These limits apply both to email messages sent within an organization and those delivered to external organizations. The best way to avoid exceeding the recipient rate limit is to use distribution groups when sending messages to large numbers of recipients. Distribution groups stored in the shared address book are counted as a single recipient toward the recipient rate limit.
Additional Information:
For more information, see Strategies to Support Bulk Email. Office 365 customers who need to send legitimate bulk commercial email — such as customer newsletters – should continue to use third-party providers that specialize in these services.
If you would like more information on recipient rate limits, see Bulk Email and Daily Recipient Rate Limits. We made this change because of your feedback. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, and please keep it up!
November
No updates.
back to topOctober
New Office Web Apps features in SharePoint
With the latest SharePoint Online update, you’ll get new Office Web Apps features: more editing and formatting controls, co-authoring support across the web apps and expanded device support, including editing from tablets.
Using web-based versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote you can view, edit, and work together on Office documents from nearly anywhere. Here is a highlight of the new features across each Office Web App:
Word Web App Update: See graphics, images, and layout with excellent fidelity, including new support for viewing and adding comments. Format and design documents right from a browser with commonly used features from Word on the desktop, including new page layout tools, picture tools and word count. New co-authoring and comment support in Word Web App makes it easier to work together on the web.
Excel Web App updates: Get essential spreadsheet features, such as merge cells, context menus, auto-fit columns, formula assistance, fill handle and AutoSum. Manipulate and visualize data for deeper insights with support for high fidelity charts including 3D, improved Query Table and Data Validation support, Slicer functionality and Pivot Chart interactivity.
PowerPoint Web App updates: Presentations look like they do on the desktop, with high-resolution slides, full transitions, and viewable comments. Audio and video playback is now supported, even from a tablet or phone. Drag and drop support makes for easier layouts. While the ability to insert images, apply transitions and animations, or add a pre-designed theme make polished presentations from a browser possible. And new co-authoring and comment support in PowerPoint Web App improves collaboration in the cloud.
OneNote Web App updates: Users can find what they need more easily with the ability to search on a page or within a section. And new support for ink viewing makes more information accessible from the web. Just click-to-type anywhere on the page to add a note, picture or a tag. And notes can now be shared as a URL, viewable on a phone, PC or tablet through a browser.
If you would like to learn more, we recommend the following blog post by Mike Morton, Group Program Manager of the Office Web Applications, which describes the coming Office Web App enhancements.
Note: Office 365 will be ending support for Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) on October 1st, 2012. The upcoming Office Web Apps update does not support IE7. Please review the Office 365 system requirements page here.
Additional Information:
To read more on Web Apps go to this Technical Blog article.
Admin Ability to Set Password Expiration and Notification Policy
Admins in our P offers are being provided the ability to set password expiration policy for their users. Password expiration notifications for P customers are automatically set to 14 days prior to expiration.
PDF Viewing within your browser
We are pleased to announce that you can now view PDF files directly in your browser - you no longer have to download PDF files to your desktop to view them. Adobe Reader is required to install the proper browser plug-in. Once the plug-in is installed, you can open any PDF file that is stored in a SharePoint Online document library or PDFs embedded as attachments within list items directly in your browser.
Additional Information:
For more information read the Office 365 SharePoint blog post
Streaming large MP4 files
We are pleased to announce that MP4 video files stored in a SharePoint Online library will begin streaming much faster without downloading the full file first. Full download of the file would at times cause delay and/or unwanted buffering. This new feature enhancement will greatly improve the playback of MP4 files.
Additional Information:
For more information read the Office 365 SharePoint blog post
September
Password Expiration Notifications in Outlook
Outlook 2007 and 2010 now provides users with password expiration notifications. These advance notifications will be shown in a pop-up message within a certain period of time as configurable by the administrator. They will also include links (URLs) to the Microsoft Online Portal where users can change/update their passwords. Outlook will quit if the user clicks on ‘No’. The user will still be able to access his inbox, but Outlook will show a “need password” notification and no new mail will be synced. For users whose passwords have already expired, Outlook will flash an error message.
Screenshots Added to Domain Verification Guides
To use a custom domain with Office 365, administrators must edit DNS records to verify ownership of the domain. The Office 365 portal walks administrators through this verification process, explaining the specific steps to perform at popular domain registrars. These steps now include screenshots that illustrate the exact place in the registrar’s web site to perform each task.
back to topAugust
No updates
back to topJuly
User Soft Delete Functionality
Office 365 administrators now have the ability to recover deleted users from a simple list within 30 days after deletion. This is significant, because it means that scenarios such as the accidental deletion of a user or the re-hiring of an employee can be easily handled by your Office 365 administrator.
Additional Information:
To learn more, please read the community blog
For details on how to delete or restore users with a Microsoft Office 365 for Professionals and Small Businesses account, please read the article Delete or Restore Users
User Name Sync-to-SharePoint Online Improvement
You may have seen extra characters showing before your name where it appears on various SharePoint Online sites (My Site, Team Sites, company portal, etc.); it often looks like this: i:0#f|membership. This user name sync improvement increases the likelihood of when a user's name will appear without extra characters.
Lync-to-phone*
Lync-to-phone users can make and receive phone calls to any number from their laptop or smart phone via a calling service which is purchased separately from a qualified partner. Jajah, a subsidiary of Telefonica, is the first available partner. More than just phone calls, Lync-to-phone provides a ‘single work number’ experience across the laptop, smartphone and tablet (via Lync clients on these devices). With Lync-to-phone, calls become an integrated component of a unified communication experience alongside instant message, presence, video calling and web conferencing.
*This update will initially be available to our US and UK customers only.
Additional Information:
To learn more, read the Help article Connect Lync Online to the telephone network
See here for a list of fully supported Lync-optimized PC peripherals like speakerphones or headsets
June
Lync 2010 for iPad 1.5
The Lync 2010 for iPad mobile client has been updated to provide collaboration capabilities within Lync Meetings. This update enables Lync 2010 for iPad users to view uploaded Microsoft PowerPoint presentations within a scheduled Lync Meeting, view the meeting participants list, and receive notifications about other content types being shared within the meeting. This update is now available in the iTunes app store.
Additional Information:
For more information and to download Lync 2010 for iPad, please visit the iTunes Preview page Microsoft Lync 2010 for iPad
To learn more, please read the blog Lync for iPad - Version 1.5 is here!
Office 365 Global Availability: 46 New Countries
Office 365 is now commercially available in 46 new countries: Algeria, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Guatemala, Iceland, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, UAE, Ukraine, Uruguay, and Venezuela.
Office 365 Global Availability: 11 New Languages
We have added language support for Bulgarian, Croatian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Serbian (Latin), Slovak, Slovenian, Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian.
back to topMay
No updates
back to topApril
No updates
back to topMarch
Office 365 Shared Mailboxes Tool
Shared mailboxes can now be created and configured using a new GUI-based Office 365 Shared Mailbox Tool by downloading the Office 365 Mailbox Tool, creating a security group and adding members, and running the tool to create and configure a shared mailbox. PowerShell was previously required to create and configure shared mailboxes.
Additional Information:
To learn more and download the tool, please read the article Create Shared Mailboxes with GUI-based Tool
Office Subscription multi-tenant language packs
Customers can now download free multi-language packs for their Office Subscription, making it easier for users to switch to their preferred languages for Office Subscription. They also reduce network overhead and user installation time. Look for the “Download Language Packs” link under Resources section on the Downloads page.
Office 365 Support for POP and IMAP Connections to Outlook 2003
Office 365 now supports POP and IMAP connections to Outlook 2003. However, please note that customers connecting to Outlook 2003 via POP or IMAP will experience the following limitations: no calendar support, no free/busy information, no Global Address List, no push email and when connecting via POP, all messages will be downloaded to the client, and there will be no synchronization between multiple computers or devices (such as between a laptop and a phone).
Additional Information:
For more information, please read the blog Office 365 will now support POP and IMAP Connections to Outlook 2003
February
External Sharing: invite by business email
External users can now use their business email address to authenticate when invited into a site collection. The Windows LiveID allows external users to associate their business email address (ex: user@contoso.com) to the LiveID system. Office 365 customers can invite their partners and clients to external sharing sites using their primary email account. If this email has been associated to the LiveID system, then the external user can sign in with their primary user name and password.
*This update will roll out to customers over the next several months. We expect that all customers will receive the update by May 2012.
Additional Information:
To learn more, please read the SharePoint blog SharePoint Online: Service Update
To learn more about how to use external sharing, go here for Office 365 for enterprises or here for Office 365 for professionals and small businesses
To associate a business email user name to the Live ID system, start at https://idsignup.live.com/, select "Use existing email address" and fill in the easy creation steps
January
Lync Client-side Recording
Tenant admins can now enable or disable client recording. When enabled, users can record Microsoft Lync 2010 conversations or meetings, and capture the audio, video, instant messaging (IM), application sharing, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, whiteboard, and polling portions of Lync 2010 sessions. Recordings can be saved in Windows Media Format, and played back just as they were experienced during the Lync conversation or meeting.
Lync Online Control Panel improvements
The Lync Online Control Panel now provides administrators with additional control over their Lync Online environment, including presence privacy mode, mobile phone notifications, and dial-in conferencing settings.
Additional Information:
To learn more, refer to the Help article Lync Online administration - what's new in this release
For more information, please read the blog Update to Lync Online Control Panel
SSAE 16 (Statements on Standards for Attestation Engagement) Type I Compliance
AICPA (American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) has replaced SAS70 with SSAE16.
Additional Information:
Visit the Trust Center now to learn more
Sign up for Compliance Notifications and receive email updates to help you to meet changing requirements
Microsoft Exchange PST Capture
PST Capture now helps users discover Outlook Personal Folder (.pst) File Format files and then import them into Exchange Server and Exchange Online. PST Capture helps an organization gain more control over their email data repositories by placing them into Exchange. With the option to install PST Capture Agents on target machines, administrators can now determine where .pst files are located and who their file owner is via the PST Capture Console. Then, they can be directly imported into the primary mailbox or associated archive mailbox.
Additional Information:
To learn more, read the blog post .PST, Time to Walk the Plank
To download Microsoft Exchange PST Capture, visit the Microsoft Download Center
For implementation details, read the TechNet article
RSS for the Service Health Dashboard
The new Service Health Dashboard RSS feed provides Office 365 administrators real-time access to information about service incidents and planned maintenance events. The RSS feed is updated anytime a new event is added or an existing event is updated. To subscribe to the RSS feed, go to the Admin page. Then in the left pane under Support, click Service Health. Next, click the RSS subscription link on the Service Health Dashboard.
Additional Information:
For information on how to access and use the Service Health Dashboard, please read the blog Keep an eye on everything with Service Health
Customer-level Status for the Service Health Dashboard
The accuracy of the data provided through the Service Health Dashboard has been improved. Information about Lync Online and Exchange Online published to the Service Health Dashboard now targets specific customers directly impacted by service incidents or events.
Additional Information:
To learn more, read the blog post The Office 365 Service Health Dashboard Now Supports Per-Tenant Service Status
For information on how to access and use the Service Health Dashboard, please read the blog Keep an eye on everything with Service Health
December
Lync Mobile Clients
Microsoft has added Lync support for some mobile clients that deliver instant messaging, presence, single-touch audio conferencing and calling features across Windows Phone, iOS, Android and Nokia Symbian. Lync 2010 for Windows Phone is now available in the Windows Phone Marketplace, and Lync 2010 for Android is available now in the Android Market. Lync mobile clients for other platforms have been submitted to their respective mobile application marketplaces and should be available soon.
Additional Information:
Administrators can learn more about setup by reading the article Set up Lync mobile devices (for administrators)
Read the blog announcement Introducing Lync Mobile Clients
View the video announcement Lync 2010 Mobile Clients
To learn more about availability on your device please visit Mobile Clients for Microsoft Lync
Visit the Windows Phone Marketplace
Visit the Android Market
Lync Online Web Scheduler
A new browser-based tool for scheduling online meetings with proper access rights and roles is now available.
Additional Information:
Users can access the Lync Online Web Scheduler at https://sched.lync.com/
To learn more about using web scheduler please read the article Lync Online Web Scheduler
Updated Trust Center
Based on customer feedback, we have simplified the language of the Trust Center to make it easier to find in-depth information about our privacy and security practices and understand our practices for handling and securing data on Microsoft Online Services.
Additional Information:
To learn more please read the blog Trust but Verify
Visit the Trust Center
EU Model Clauses support for all EU customers
Office 365 is the first and only major cloud-based productivity service to contractually commit to the EU Model Clauses, a set of stringent data protection requirements for the European Union. We are also including additional requirements from individual EU member states in the Office 365 data processing agreement.
Additional Information:
Visit the Microsoft Online Services portal to get this agreement added to your Office 365 contract
Recipient Rate Limit increased to 1,500 for professionals and small businesses customers
The recipient rate limit for professional and small business (Plan P) customers has been increased from 500 to 1,500.
Additional Information:
To learn more, please read the Help article Message and Recipient Limits
For more detail on Recipient Rate Limits, refer to the Office 365 for professionals and small businesses Service Description
Exchange enhancements to email migrations
Two new enhancements to migration features will bring greater efficiency to email migrations.
- Enhanced Management Capabilities: The new Exchange Online migration dashboard helps to improve administrative efficiency during a cutover Exchange migration, a staged Exchange migration, or an IMAP migration. Tenant administrators can schedule multiple migration batches, obtain migration status information for migration batches, view per user details, and see skipped items. Improved reporting and diagnostics tools also improve the troubleshooting experience.
- Number of Concurrent Migrations: Administrators can now use Exchange Management Shell to increase the value for a migration batch to as high as 50.
Additional Information:
To learn more, refer to the EHLO Blog Exchange Online December 2011 Service Update
For more detail on email migrations, refer to the Help article E-Mail Migration Overview
Exchange retention policy and tag management
We have improved the mailbox retention settings so it is easier to manage user mailboxes in an organization. Users can now use the mail control settings in Exchange Control Panel to create and manage retention tags and policies.
Additional Information:
To learn more, refer to the EHLO Blog Exchange Online December 2011 Service Update
For more detail on retention policies, refer to the Help article Set Up and Manage Retention Policies in Exchange Online
Exchange group naming policy
Administrators can now standardize and manage the names of distribution groups—also known as public groups—created by users in their organization. They can require that a specific prefix and suffix be added to names for distribution groups when created, and block specific words from being used. This feature helps to minimize the use of inappropriate words in group names.
Additional Information:
To learn more, refer to the EHLO Blog Exchange Online December 2011 Service Update
For more detail on setting up a group naming policy, refer to the Help article Create a Naming Policy for Distribution Groups
Exchange high availability architecture enhancements
We have extended the high availability architecture for Exchange Online across additional sites to provide greater resilience in the event of network failures. Administrators and end users may notice changes to server names in URLs and in protocol settings, although bookmarks for Outlook Web App should not be affected. The connection for client applications and devices, including those configured to connect directly to server addresses, will automatically redirect when the mailbox is migrated to the latest software. A very small percentage of mobile devices are not 100 percent compliant and may need to be reconfigured to connect to a changed pod address.
Additional Information:
Refer to the Help article Mobile Phone Setup Wizard for connection procedures
To learn more, refer to the post Exchange ActiveSync changes may affect a small number of users
To learn more, refer to the EHLO Blog Exchange Online December 2011 Service Update
Outlook Web App in Internet Explorer 9 App Mode
Outlook Web App can now be pinned to the task bar using Internet Explorer 9 App Mode. This feature gives users the ability to launch Outlook Web App with one click and run it with fewer distractions because it is separated from other browsing sessions. It also keeps users informed of incoming email and IM when minimized or hidden, and offers quick access to common Outlook Web App commands from the taskbar.
Additional Information:
To learn more, refer to the EHLO Blog Exchange Online December 2011 Service Update
Sender photos in Outlook Web App
Users can now match faces to names in their organization with photos displayed next to sender information in emails. The display of photos is enabled by default, but administrators can modify the settings of Outlook Web App mailbox policy to disable this feature.
Additional Information:
To learn more, refer to the EHLO Blog Exchange Online December 2011 Service Update
Administrators can refer to the Help article Control Sender Photo Settings in Outlook Web App
Users can refer the Help article Add or Change your Picture
User Name Self-Update for Admins
Admin users now have the ability to update their own alias after adding a domain. Previously, Admins required another Admin user to make this change or they needed to create one in the case of a single-user account. To complete this task, sign in to Office 365 and go to the user management experience. Select your username and click edit. In the edit experience, you can change your username from yourname@yourcompany.onmicrosoft.com to yourname@yourcompany.com. After you have clicked save, you will need to sign out and sign back in to complete the change.
Microsoft Online Services ID moniker changing to user ID
We have changed text in the product and in the sign-up pages from "Microsoft Online Services ID" (MOS ID) to "user ID" to reduce confusion around what the MOS ID is.
November
Office 365 Global Expansion: 22 New Countries
Office 365 trials are available in 22 new countries: Argentina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Egypt, Estonia, Iceland, Indonesia, Kuwait, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Malta, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and UAE.
Office 365 Global Expansion: Russia and Korea
Previously only available through enterprise agreements or our syndication partners, Office 365 trials and commerce are now available directly from Microsoft in both Russia and Korea.
Admin self-serve password reset
Administrators now have the ability to reset their own password through text (SMS) message and an alternate email address. For the administrator password reset to work, you must have already provided a phone number on which you can receive a text (SMS) message and an alternate email address. The email address must be different than your Office 365 email address. (If you can’t sign in to your Office 365 account, you can’t retrieve email sent to that address.) If you haven’t entered this information already, navigate to the user management area by clicking Admin, and then under Management, clicking Users. On the Settings tab, enter the email address in the Alternate email address box. On the Properties tab, enter the mobile phone number in the Mobile phone box.
Additional Information:
Learn more about this feature by reading the blog post What was that password?
For enterprises, see Reset your administrator password
For professionals and small businesses, see Reset your administrator password
Lync client for Mac
Customers who own Office for Mac 2011 Standard and have usage rights for Lync for Mac 2011 can now have the ability to download Lync for Mac from the download section of Office 365. Lync for Mac 2011 enables Mac users to see their colleagues’ online presence while working in Outlook or collaborating on Office documents. It also enables them to quickly send an instant message, start a video chat, or schedule an Online Meeting from within Outlook for Mac 2011.
Additional Information:
Learn more about Lync for Mac licensing here
See the blog post Mac Users: Download Lync for Mac 2011 Today
Mac unified downloads page
A unified downloads page is now available to give Mac users a single location to download Office for Mac desktop setup configuration software and Lync for Mac 2011. To get these downloads, log into your Office 365 account and visit the download section.
Additional Information:
To learn more about how to set up your Mac for Office 365, see Set up your Mac for Office 365 for professionals and small businesses or Set up your Mac for Office 365 for enterprises
Official support for OS X Lion added
We have added to Office 365 official support for the OS X Lion operating system.
Improvements to the “Add a Domain” experience
We have improved the Add a Domain user experience by clarifying the domain re-delegation process and providing in-context links to relevant Help articles.
Additional Information:
To learn more about adding your domain to Office 365, see Add your domain to Office 365—Office 365 for enterprises or Add your domain to Office 365—Office 365 for professionals and small businesses
Client access control improvements
We have improved client access controls so that Office 365 administrators can block external access to Office 365 based on the IP address of the external client. This action blocks all external access to Office 365 except Exchange Active Sync; all other clients such as Outlook are blocked. It also blocks all external access to Office 365 except for passive browser based applications, such as Outlook Web Access or SharePoint Online.
Additional Information:
Read the Microsoft TechNet article here
Read the support help article here
For more information about AD FS 2.0 RTW, see: General information about AD FS 2.0 RTW
Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Troubleshooting support tool
The new Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Troubleshooting support tool is a comprehensive, self-help solution that helps customers solve questions or issues they may have with the Office 365 suite of services. The Troubleshooter pinpoints key technical support issues and provides immediate solutions so customers do not have to post questions to the community or submit a support request ticket. It features hundreds of possible help and support Office 365 assets (i.e., help topics, articles, videos, wikis, blog posts, etc.). As you move through a list of troubleshooting options, the tool dynamically displays funneled-down content to lead you towards the answers you need. This free tool is available in the "Troubleshooting" section of http://community.office365.com/.
Additional Information:
Read the blog announcement Support Made Simple
Use the DIY Troubleshooting Tool now
SharePoint Online access for external users via a Windows Live ID
Microsoft is helping to support the many scenarios in which you work with others, particularly those who are not part of your company, such as vendors, trusted business partners, customers, and clients. Windows LiveID now adds external sharing capabilities in SharePoint Online so companies can invite external users in to view, share, and collaborate on their sites. The feature is turned off by default, but a company’s SharePoint Online Administrator can enable external sharing for the whole company. Then each individual site collection owners can decide if they wish to share externally. Every Office 365 SharePoint Online customer at the tenant level, (not per subscription) includes 50 Partner Access Licenses (PALs) that can be used for external sharing. Customers are not currently required to obtain additional PALs for external sharing beyond 50 users and can have up to a maximum of 1,000 PALs until the next major update of the Office 365 service at which time Microsoft may choose to make it available as a paid add-on.
Note: Microsoft supports invited external users signing in to the service using a Microsoft Online Services ID and/or a Windows Live ID, which includes @Live.com, @Hotmail.com and @MSN.com user names, plus regional derivations of LiveID user names.
Additional Information:
To learn more, please read Share a Site with External Users for midsize businesses and enterprises or Share the Team Site with External Users for professionals and small businesses
To learn more about all the November SharePoint Online updates, read the blog post What’s New in SharePoint Online: November 2011 Update
SharePoint Online support for IE 9 and Chrome
In addition to earlier versions of Internet Explorer and Firefox, SharePoint Online now officially supports Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome. Just launch your favorite browser and then visit your favorite SharePoint Online team site or intranet company site, use work with the Office Web Apps, and more.
SharePoint Online mobile rendering of public websites
Users will no longer be prompted for credentials when viewing their public website pages. This improvement addresses the issues some of our small business users experienced when viewing public websites on mobile devices.
Office 365 Global Expansion: Brazil
Office 365 trials and commerce are available in Brazil as of November 8, 2011.
Office 365 Global Expansion: New language support
We have added new language support for Portuguese-Portuguese.
October
Exchange Online Enhancements to Connected Accounts
Users with Connected Accounts can currently synchronize their mailboxes in Outlook Web App (OWA) by simply clicking the refresh button. During an active OWA session, the frequency with which a mailbox syncs has been increased. Additionally, user mailboxes will automatically sync when they log into OWA.
Additional Information:
To learn more please read the blog announcement New Sync Capabilities for Connected Accounts
Office Web Apps Improvements
We are pleased to share with you many improvements to Microsoft’s popular Office Web Apps, including:
- ODF support: View and edit ODF 1.1 documents in Office Web Apps
- New Browser support: Use Office Web Apps with Chrome and IE9 in native mode
- Print from editor: Print Word document from edit mode, in addition to view mode
- Excel Support: Insert charts from within Excel Web App
- Copy and Paste in Excel: Copy and paste values and formulas by dragging the fill handle
- Additional Print Capabilities: Print presentations directly from PowerPoint Web App
- Edit text in more shapes: Edit text in more shapes instead of only placeholder shapes
- Enhanced theme options: Pick a presentation theme when creating a new document
- Clip-art support: Insert clip art from within PowerPoint Web App
Additional Information:
To learn more, read the post Setting the pace in cloud productivity
Outlook Web App attachment preview with Office Web Apps Improvements
Outlook Web App now integrates Office Web Apps into the attachment previewing experience for Microsoft Word documents, Microsoft Excel® spreadsheets, and Microsoft PowerPoint® presentations. When Office Web App attachment preview is enabled, users see an Open in Browser link next to the Office Web App document type in Outlook Web App. By clicking on the link, the user can open the attached document using the Office Web Apps to get a high-fidelity preview of the Office document in a browser window.
Additional Information:
Read the blog posting Office Web Apps
Read more about this feature on EHLO (The Exchange Team Blog)
June through September
SharePoint Online ability to connect to lists and document libraries with the Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” update
Windows Phone 7.5, codenamed “Mango,” now enables both small business and enterprise Office 365 customers to access SharePoint Online lists and document libraries from their Windows Phone.
Additional Information:
View this video to see how easy it is to connect your WP7.5 to your Office 365 services
Office 365 Global Expansion: Chile
Office 365 trials and commerce are available in Chile as of September, 7 2011.
Office 365 Global Availability
Office 365 is initially available in 38 countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad & Tobago, United States, and UK.
