Office 2016 for Mac arrived this month, along with Office Mobile apps for Windows 10, a new universal iOS OneNote app, and more. For business, new compliance capabilities and IT management controls were added, along with enhancements to Yammer and Power Query. On the mobile front, Azure Rights Management is now available for Office for iPad and iPhone, there’s a new app designed for in-and-out email, and the Skype for Business Windows Phone app is here. Enterprise customers can preview the new Skype for Business capabilities, and teachers and students can now move back and forth between Office 365 and Moodle or Open edX without logging in each time. For developers, the new edition of the monthly Office 365 Dev Digest is out, Office 365 channels are live, and The Office Dev Show has begun. Leave us a comment to let us know what your favorite new feature is. If you missed last month’s updates, see What’s new: June 2015. Office 365 Personal, Office 365 Home and Office 365 University updates New chart types available in Office 2016 Preview—Now you have more ways to explore data and tell rich stories across Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Six powerful new charts help you quickly visualize common financial, statistical and hierarchical data: Waterfall, Histogram, Pareto, Box & Whisker, Treemap and Sunburst. Office 2016 for Mac is here—The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote—each with major updates—give Mac users the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac. Office for Mac is cloud-connected, for quick access to your documents on any device, and it’s available in 139 countries and 16 languages. Office 365 subscribers can get the newest version of Office for Mac today. OneNote updates for iOS and Android—Now there’s a universal iOS OneNote app that works on both iPad and iPhone. iPad users need to get the new OneNote app from the store; iPhone users already have it. With the new app, iPad users have some of the recent updates made to the iPhone app, like the Today Widget and Recent Notes. The updated OneNote for Android app introduces one of the top feature asks—the ability to move or copy pages from one section or notebook to another. WYSIWYG editing in Office Mix quizzes and polls—You’re no longer limited in Office Mix to asking questions that can be typed on a QWERTY keyboard. With WYSIWIG editing support in quizzes and polls, you can type mathematical and scientific formulas. Even if you’re not a math or science teacher, you now have a lot more freedom to include images, tables, bulleted and numbered lists, and special characters in quiz and poll questions in your Office Mixes. Office Mobile apps for Windows 10 are here!—The Office Mobile apps—Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote—give you on-the-go productivity on Windows 10 tablets and small screen devices, with full fidelity viewing. The apps are fully cloud connected, and your docs are now automatically saved for you. Plus, new features, like Tell Me, make it easier for you to do what you want. You can download and install the apps from the new Windows Store today in 190 countries. Office 365 for Business and Education updates* Preview of new Skype for Business services in Office 365—Office 365 enterprise customers can register for three technical previews of the new Skype for Business voice and meetings capabilities in Office 365: Skype Meeting Broadcast, PSTN Conferencing and Cloud PBX with PSTN Calling. Later this year, with strategic partners, direct connections to Office 365 Skype for Business customers will be delivered through Azure ExpressRoute for Office 365. Office 365 now offers integration with educational open source software—Now teachers and students can move back and forth between Office 365 and Moodle or Open edX without the need to log in each time. For example, if you’re logged in to Office 365 and working on a Word document, you can easily upload the document to Moodle as an assignment. You can also allow Moodle or Open edX to appear in the My Apps app launcher within Office 365, synchronize your Outlook calendars to a Moodle course calendar, embed an Office Mix in Moodle, and more. Compliance toolset for public folders—The Office 365 archiving and eDiscovery toolset is being extended to include public folders. You can now place public folder content on hold to preserve it for legal or regulatory requirements and perform eDiscovery functions on public folder data, including search, preview and export. Entire public folders or specific content can be preserved immutably, and all administrative activities on public folders are fully audited. Skype for Business Windows Phone app is here!—The new app includes many enhancements, including an intuitive interface, more emoticons and improved server communications. The enhanced security with at-rest data encryption means your conversation history and voicemail are encrypted by default. And your recent conversations are now synchronized across devices, whether they took place on your PC, tablet or phone, as long as you’re running the latest server software. Find out how you can upgrade. New activity logging and reporting capabilities for Office 365—The new activity logging and reporting capabilities provide even greater visibility into actions taken on your content and greater control over access to your data in Office 365. They include: the Office 365 activity report to investigate a user’s activity, comprehensive logging capability for user and admin activity events, the Search PowerShell command or cmdlet, and a preview of the Office 365 Management Activity API. Power Query for Excel updates—The recently added or improved features include: improvements to the ODBC Connector, Navigator dialog improvements, an option to enable Fast Data Load versus Background Data Load, support for Salesforce Custom environments in Recent Sources list, easier parsing of Date or Time values out of a Text column with Date/Time information, and a new Unpivot Other Columns entry in the column context menu. New IT management controls added to OneDrive for Business—The new management options to protect and control the flow of your information include: limiting file sync to domain-joined PCs, auditing all actions taken against files, setting storage quotas, and preventing unintentional sharing to "Everyone" or "All Users." Read what the new controls can do and take a walk through them with Office Mechanics to learn how to implement them. Document collaboration in Yammer just got better!—Deeper integration with Office Online makes it easier than ever to incorporate document collaboration into teamwork. Click the Edit File link in Yammer and a new browser tab opens with a full-screen view of the document. You can make changes directly in the document using Office Online, and they’re automatically saved in Yammer. You can also now share and work on files with external participants. And with integration with Office 365, the reliability and performance of document collaboration in Yammer has improved. Tips to get started using the Mobile Device Management (MDM) feature for Office 365—It’s easy to get this built-in feature up and running to manage and secure mobile devices when they’re connected to your Office 365 organization. Learn how to set up MDM for Office 365, configure Security Groups and Device policies, enroll devices, and wipe enrolled devices and run reports. Office 365 channels are live on IFTTT—When you activate the Office 365 channels—Mail, OneDrive for Business, Calendar and Contacts—you can automate what happens with your Office 365 data to increase productivity. For example, you can create Recipes to program activities, like automatically saving a photo to OneDrive for Business or sharing that a new Office 365 contact was added to your team’s Trello board or Slack team. Check out the Office 365 sample Recipes to help you get started. Introducing Send—the app designed for in-and-out email—Send is a new app built for sending your coworkers quick, brief messages—no signatures, subject lines or salutations required. The app connects to Office 365 business and school email accounts to surface your frequent and recent contacts and enables you to have all of your communications in Outlook for reference later. Send is available for iPhone in the U.S. and Canada, and is coming soon to Windows Phone and Android phones. Azure Rights Management support comes to Office for iPad and iPhone—Azure Rights Management provides an easy way to protect data by assigning a policy to the data available in Office 2013, Office 2010 and Office for Mac. Now this policy-driven protection is available in Office for iPad and on iPhone devices, so you can view rights-protected Office documents natively on your iOS devices. Windows 10 updates for Office 365 admins—IT admins can benefit from Windows, Office and Azure Active Directory integration in three areas: joining Windows 10 to Azure Active Directory for single sign-on (SSO) to Office 365 and other services, using the Business Store portal in Windows Store to deliver Office apps, and adding Windows 10 devices to Mobile Device Management for Office 365. Read the blog post and watch the video to find out how. Office 365 Developer updates Office 365 Dev Digest for July—Stay up to date with what’s new in Office 365 development. Read the digest for the latest dev news, like one-click access to third-party apps and the new Office Dev Show. Get new and updated documentation, code samples, and patterns and practices samples, plus links to podcasts, blog posts, videos about companies using Office add-ins to extend the value of Office, and upcoming events. A new way to keep up with all the Office 365 Dev news, tips and tricks—Watch The Office Dev Show, a new dedicated Channel 9 show devoted to all things Office 365 dev-related! The show, hosted by Sonya Koptyev, will include guests from the Office 365 Extensibility engineering team and key community members. It will feature new code and capabilities added for devs to customize the Office platform, including desktop, online and mobile versions, as well as a "Get Started" series on building on the platform. The show airs weekly, on Wednesdays. Office 365 channels are live on IFTTT—When you activate the Office 365 channels—Mail, OneDrive for Business, Calendar and Contacts—you can automate what happens with your Office 365 data to increase productivity. For example, you can create Recipes to program activities, like automatically saving a photo to OneDrive for Business or sharing that a new Office 365 contact was added to your team’s Trello board or Slack team. Check out the Office 365 sample Recipes to help you get started. Please note that some of the updates may take time to show up in your Office 365 account, because they’re being rolled out to customers worldwide. —Andy O’Donald @andyodonald ——————————————————————————- *Not all updates apply to every Office 365 plan; please check the individual post for specifics. The post What’s new: July 2015 appeared first on Office Blogs.

Earlier this year we announced real-time co-authoring support for Word 2016 as part of the Office 2016 Preview. For the last several months, this feature has been available to preview users co-authoring Word documents stored on SharePoint Online. Today, we are pleased to announce that real-time co-authoring is also available as a first-look for Word documents stored on OneDrive as part of the latest Office 2016 Preview release. Now when two or more users running the latest preview open the same Word document from OneDrive, they can co-author with others in real-time, which allows them to see the cursor location and text edits made by the other users automatically appear as they happen. You are encouraged to try real-time co-authoring on OneDrive today. If you are receiving regular updates throughout the preview, you should have received this functionality as an update by 11 a.m. this morning. To try out this feature, all you need is a Word document stored on OneDrive and two or more people running the latest preview. Make sure to give both users edit permissions so they can both edit the file. If this is the first time you’ve tried real-time co-authoring, you will see a prompt in the upper right corner of Word asking you if you’d like to automatically share your changes. All you need to do is click Yes to join the experience. Once both authors have clicked Yes, you’ll see a flag representing the other author’s cursor position and then you will automatically see their edits come in. Please give it a try today and let us know what you think of the experience. —The Word team The post Preview real-time co-authoring on OneDrive appeared first on Office Blogs.

This month’s Power Query update includes four new or improved features, including: Option to specify Join Type in the Merge Queries dialog. Extract first, last or range of characters from a Text column. Customize the Quote Style in Split Column by Delimiter dialog. Support for UPN credentials in the Exchange connector. You can continue reading below for more details about each feature. Option to specify Join Type in the Merge Queries dialog It is now possible to specify the type of Join that you would like to apply when merging two queries using the Merge Queries dialog. These options were previously available only by manually modifying the generated formula. Now they are much more easily accessible in the Merge Queries dialog. Extract first, last or range of characters from a Text column With this update we have added user interface (UI) support to specify how many characters to extract from a Text column, starting from the beginning, end or a specific position. This new set of transformations can be found under the Text -> Extract Group in the Transform and Add Column tabs on the Query Editor ribbon. Customize Quote Style in the Split Column by Delimiter dialog Users can now switch between the CSV Quote Style and no Quote Style when splitting a column by delimiter. This option is available in the Advanced Options section of the Split Column by Delimiter dialog. Support for UPN credentials in the Exchange connector In this update, we added support for specifying a UPN (User Principal Name) as part of providing credentials to use the Exchange connector. This option is available from the Credentials prompt when using this connector. If you have already connected to Exchange before and need to modify your credentials, you can access this option from the Data Source Settings dialog. That’s all for this month. We’re making lots of incremental improvements to Power Query and we hope that you find it better with every new monthly update. Please continue sending us feedback using our "Send a Smile/Frown" feature or by voting for what you’d like to see next. —Miguel Llopis, program manager on the Power Query team   Power Query for Excel is available with an Office 365 ProPlus subscription, Office 2010 Professional Plus with Software Assurance, Office 2013 Professional Plus or Excel 2013 Standalone. Power Query for Excel is also available in all other Excel 2013 Desktop SKUs with reduced functionality. Check out the System Requirements section on this page for more details. Download the add-in and learn more about getting started. Learn about all the powerful analytics and visualization features in Excel and take your analysis further by sharing and collaborating on business insights with colleagues using Power BI. Learn more about Power Query See all analytics and visualization features in Excel Get your Office 365 subscription Try Power BI Follow us: Facebook and Twitter The post 4 updates in Power Query for Excel appeared first on Office Blogs.

So far, we introduced you to our new chart types across Office 2016 and then dove deeper into a few of them. We showed the effectiveness of the Waterfall chart in visualizing financial statements and how hierarchical chart types, like Treemap and Sunburst, can help you explore complex data with multiple levels and categories. Now, we will take a closer look at the last group of new chart types—statistical charts. Statistical charts, which include Histogram, Pareto and Box and Whisker, help summarize and add visual meaning to key characteristics of data, including range, distribution, mean and median. There are many different approaches and opinions on how to summarize statistical data. In this blog article, we will explain how these new charts can help represent your statistical data in a way that works best for your needs. Download the Office 2016 Public Preview and try out the new charts for yourself using our sample data sets. Histogram chart illustrates the distribution of data The Histogram chart shows the distribution of your data and groups them into bins, which are groupings of data points within a given range. To show in an example, imagine we run a small bookstore and have a list of our entire selection of books and prices. The Histogram, Pareto and Box and Whisker charts can be easily inserted using the new Statistical Chart button in the Insert tab on the ribbon. The Histogram chart is the first option listed. By creating a Histogram to visualize the above table of data, we can count all the books by bins that represent price ranges. For example, notice that we have grouped all books that are above or equal to $19.95 up to, but not including, $28.95 into one bin. The next bin groups and counts all the books above or equal to $28.95 but less than $37.95 and so on. Notice this grouping as shown in the image below. In our design, we follow best practices for labeling the Histogram axis and adopt notation that is commonly used in math and statistics. For example, a parenthesis, "(" or ")", connotes the value is excluded whereas a bracket, "[" or "]", means the value is included. So for a bin that groups all the books above or equal to $10.95 but below $19.95, the axis label would look like: [$10.95, $19.95]. In the example above, the first bucket to the left has the label [$10.95, $19.95], which should be interpreted as all values between $10.95 and $19.95, inclusive. This set notation offers the cleanest layout and prevents a cluttered and verbose horizontal axis. Histogram binning algorithm In case you’re interested in how we determine the default and automatic bin sizes for the Histogram, we chose to use the widely accepted Scott’s binning algorithm, which calculates the optimal bin size as follows: If you want to specify a custom value for bin sizes or create an overflow/underflow bin that groups all the points above/below a certain value, double-click the horizontal axis in your Histogram chart and change the options in the Format Axis task pane. Gain insights through bin sizes You can gain insights by tweaking the size of the bins. For example, a bin size of 9.0 provides the bell-shaped curve or normal curve, which is seen in the example above. This curve in data is often found in nature, like in measuring the heights of people in a population, recording the IQ scores of a sample of students or determining deviations of a standardized product. At first glance, these book prices also follow a normal distribution. However, by decreasing the bin width to 6.0, the bell-shaped curve breaks down and we quickly notice that books within the price range of [$52.95, $58.95] are fewer than those books in other mid-range prices. Pareto chart highlights significant data factors The Pareto chart is useful for figuring out the most significant factors in your data and how they contribute to the entire set. Often used in quality control, the Pareto chart helps easily identify the high use cases, focusing on the big picture, rather than getting lost in the details. The Pareto chart is named after Vilfredo Pareto, most famous for his popular eponym, the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80-20 rule. His principle states that a few reasons (about 20 percent) account for a majority (or about 80 percent) of issues. The Pareto chart shares similarities with the Histogram chart in that each chart displays bins that count the frequency of occurrence. However, for Pareto, the bin is categorical and not a range of values. What also makes the Pareto chart unique is its combination of columns with a line graph, which shows the cumulative contribution of each column as you move from left to right. Looking back at the bookstore example, we have data that lists all the store returns and the underlying reason, whether it was due to defects, incorrect pricing, wrong book, or a host of other causes. Reading a Pareto chart Inserting a Pareto chart automatically groups each book return into its proper category and sorts the columns from most common to least common as you traverse left to right. The Pareto chart is supposed to be read so that left vertical axis is associated with the columns, whereas the right vertical axis (in percentage) is associated with the Pareto line. The Pareto line is the running total percentage of all the book returns to the left. For example, the Pareto line starts at the center of the Defect category and intersects the right vertical axis at 40 percent, meaning Defects account for 40 percent of all book returns. Moving along the Pareto line, the next stop is the center of Incorrect Pricing. The Pareto line at Incorrect Pricing intersects the contributing percentage axis at 70 percent, which means that the combination of Defects and Incorrect Pricing account for 70 percent of all book returns. One more category over, Wrong Product intersects the Pareto axis a little bit above 80 percent, which means 80 percent of all book returns are a result of Defects, Incorrect Pricing and Wrong Product. While the Pareto line references the total contributing percentages, the columns represent the frequency or count of the book returns, so while Defects contribute to 40 percent of all book returns, the number of defect books returned is 2,000. The number of books returned for Incorrect Pricing and Wrong Product tally about 1,500 and 750, respectively. The Pareto chart is useful for discovering areas for improvement or maximizing where the bookstore should allocate its efforts. Targeting improvements to defects and incorrect pricing are more worthwhile than adjusting prices (Cost Too Much) or variety of books (Poor Quality Content). Box and Whisker characterize the distribution of data The Box and Whisker chart is designed to quickly and easily highlight important characteristics related to the distribution of your data, by providing basic statistical details like mean, median and percentile groupings, as well as illuminating outliers that exist beyond the general clustering of your data. Additionally, this chart is useful for comparing characteristics between different sets of data. Histogram and Pareto can only provide visualization for one. To illustrate these features, let’s use the bookstore data and we’ll start with a table of book prices within each genre. How statistics are used in Box and Whisker The Box and Whisker chart (above) is helping us visualize statistical characteristics about three separate categories of books—Children’s, Romance and Mystery. Notice that each group is divided into four sections, including a rectangle (the "box") that is split into two parts and thin T-shaped projections on each end (the "whiskers"). The bottom whisker is called the "Local Minimum." Just above the whisker is the bottom of the box, which marks the "first quartile." The values in between the end of the whisker and the bottom of the box are considered part of the lowest quarter of values in the data set. In other words, any book prices found in this section of the visualization are considered part of the lowest 25 percent of the entire collection of prices for that category. The range from the bottom of the box (or first quartile) to the midline inside the box (representing the median) contains the next 25 percent of listed book prices. From the midline inside the box to the top of the box (the third quartile), there lies another 25 percent of the book prices. Lastly, the distance between the top of the box and the end of the second whisker, barring any outliers, contains the final top 25 percent of the book prices. The median and mean of each category grouping of book prices are also displayed in the chart. The mean is denoted by the "X" marker in the chart and represents the average of all the data points. The mean is calculated by summing all the data points and dividing by the total number of points. The median represents the value that is in the middle of the entire set of data, after the set has been sorted from smallest to largest. For example, take the following set of numbers: 1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 14, 15 The median is 7. If this series of numbers were visualized in a Box and Whisker chart, the line drawn in the middle of the box would be at 7. Outliers are points on the Box and Whisker chart that are displayed beyond the end of each whisker. Notice there is an outlier book price within the Romance category. For outliers, we designed the Box and Whisker chart to follow the Tukey industry standard, which states that values are considered outliers only if they lie 1.5 times the length of the box (known as the interquartile range) from either end of the box. The diagram below shows the threshold point to be considered an outlier. Calculating first and third quartiles with the median Calculating the first and third quartiles can be a little tricky, depending on how you handle the median. If we wanted to calculate the first quartile to include the median for the sample series of numbers, above, then we would have the following range: 1, 2, 5, 7; where 1 is the minimum and 7 is the included median. Calculating the first quartile would yield a value of 3.5, the midpoint between 2 and 5. If we consider the first quartile without the median, we would be provided the range: 1, 2, 5. In this case, calculating the first quartile would yield a value of 2. So, including or excluding the median as part of the first quartile can significantly impact the value we calculate. Let’s run the same calculations for the third quartile, just to be comprehensive. If we include the median in the calculation, then we have the following points: 7, 10, 14, 15. In this case, 12 is the third quartile. If the median were excluded in calculating the third quartile, then we would have only 10, 14 and 15 to consider. So the third quartile, in this case, would be 14. The median is excluded, by default, in the Box and Whisker chart in Excel 2016. Excluding the median in your calculations will always create a larger box relative to a Box and Whisker created with an inclusive mean. The result causes anyone interpreting your chart to believe there are more or less data points near the median for inclusive or exclusive, respectively. Notice in the side-by-side comparison below the different connotations of distribution when the median is excluded or included. To change these settings, double click the Box and Whisker chart to access the Format Data Series task pane. When to use each chart? All three new charts provide powerful and easy ways to visualize your data through a statistical viewpoint. However, each chart has unique values that may be useful for different scenarios. The Box and Whisker chart is useful for making direct comparisons of data. For example, teachers can plot and share student grades using this chart. In one visual, important attributes—like mean, median and outliers—stand out. Box and Whisker can compare multiple series, side by side, and draw differences between means, medians, interquartile ranges and outliers. The Histogram chart takes the Box and Whisker plot and turns it on its side to provide more detail on the distribution. Visualizing a histogram is more intuitive, especially for a normal distribution curve, because it is easy to recognize that many data points exist within a center. The Pareto chart is perfect for highlighting which categories contribute the most and by how much. Pareto is a one-click chart creation that automatically sorts the data and shows the proportion to the total. What do you think? We just went through the inner workings of each of these statistical chart types and how you can take advantage of each one. Try them out for yourself and let us know what you think. We have finished introducing each of our six new chart types. Download the Office 2016 Preview for Windows to learn more about these new chart types now. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them below. Learn more about using the Histogram chart. Learn more about using the Pareto chart. Learn more about using the Box and Whisker chart. Share your ideas for Excel chart types and other features. The post Visualize statistics with Histogram, Pareto and Box and Whisker charts appeared first on Office Blogs.

Cloud hosted apps and bring your own device (BYOD) trends enable corporate employees to access SaaS applications and data on their personal devices almost anywhere and at any time—but with that mobility and convenience comes the challenge of protecting business data while enabling users to be productive on the go. During Microsoft Ignite, Nasos Kladakis, an expert in private and public cloud solutions, provided the definitive overview on how IT departments can protect their corporate data and continue delivering the mobility and productivity benefits that employees expect and need. Managing mobile devices goes beyond mechanisms to apply policy or provision software on a device. As discussed on the show, many organizations really have the goal to protect information—which is done via controlling access, ensuring that devices are managed, and then applying rules, policies and controls to the data itself. Check out our recent Office Mechanics show to learn about three areas where IT admins can benefit from Windows, Office and Azure Active Directory integration. On today’s show, we demonstrate how built-in Mobile Device Management (MDM) in Office 365 allows you to set up conditional access to data by a specific device. We also show the resulting user experience. New MDM capabilities were introduced almost a year ago on this Office Mechanics show and are available in Office 365 now, and they get even better when you add Microsoft Intune. To learn more and see everything in action, watch the show. And if you are an admin already using Office 365, you can start testing out most of the controls today. See you next week! —Jeremy Chapman The post Beyond MDM—how to protect your data with BYOD and SaaS implemented appeared first on Office Blogs.

PowerShell has quickly become an indispensable skill for Office 365 administrators, and if you’re like me, you are starting to gather a toolbox of useful scripts. If you are new to PowerShell for Office 365, make sure you check out our PowerShell for Office 365 site with common scenarios and sample scripts available to download. But perhaps you are looking for some more advanced scenarios, or you’re thinking about how to streamline your Office client deployment process. If that sounds like you, check out our new community GitHub project for Office IT Pro Deployment Scripts. Office 365 experts from around the world are contributing to a collection of PowerShell scripts that are designed to automate various procedures that would normally require manual intervention from an IT pro. All of the scripts are stored in a repository out on GitHub and released under the MIT license. While these scripts are provided "as is," with no warranty of any kind, we have done some testing and documentation on the scripts you will find in the Master branch. Please take the time to read through the README associated with each script carefully to ensure proper use of it. The number of scripts available in the Master branch will continue to grow as we collaborate with anyone willing to help in an effort to automate tasks and add new scripts. This project is just getting started, but here are a few scripts that we’ve already completed and are available for use: Copy-OfficeGPOSettings For IT pros that are moving to a newer version of Office and want to maintain their current group policies, this is the script for you. This script automates that process to help ensure a seamless move to a newer version without a lot of manual intervention. More information can be found in the README. Check-DiskSpace We are really excited about some of the new Excel 2016 hierarchical data charts as part of the Office 2016 Preview. But, as IT pros, we know it would be much cooler to use the new charting engine to see a graphical representation of disk space utilization. This script will output a CSV file with data around disk space utilization that can be assessed in a graphical view using new charts in Excel 2016. The folder on GitHub also contains a spreadsheet that utilizes Power Query to import the data, and then a PivotTable to organize the data, so that you can display it in a Sunburst or Treemap chart. More information can be found in the README. Get-OfficeVersion This script allows IT pros to query a local or remote workstation to find the detailed version of Office that is installed. With some tweaking, this script could be used as a solution to inventory the Office versions that are currently in your environment or quickly gather data when troubleshooting. More information can be found in the README. Get-ModernOfficeApps This script should be used by IT pros interested in taking inventory of the modern apps installed across the organization. More information can be found in the README. Create-TelemetryEnvironment This script installs and enables the telemetry agent on computers. More information can be found in the README. We’re working on new scripts and ideas every day to create a more streamlined approach for IT pros everywhere. Our hope is that you will take advantage of what is out there and perhaps even collaborate with us as we look to continue expanding on what is available. Get involved! Anyone is welcome to contribute to the Office IT Pro Deployment Scripts GitHub project, but we ask that you clone the Development branch to create a feature branch where you can make changes to existing scripts or create new ones. Information on contributing to the project can be found in this README. And of course, we would love to hear your feedback and ideas on the Office 365 Network. Thank you to our community of contributors! A community project like this couldn’t be possible without a team of passionate experts from around the world. Special thanks to Josh Gringas, Fred Duarte, Ryan Sockalosky, Martin Nothnagel, Curtis Sawin, Michael O’Donovan, Amesh Mansukhani, Matt Fine, Andrew Morris, Michael Draftz, Adam Stigall, Amit Olkar and Russ Smith. —Alistair Speirs, senior operations program manager for the Office 365 Deployment and Usage team The post Introducing the Office IT Pro Deployment Script project appeared first on Office Blogs.

Shapes can be used to add interest to a presentation, to emphasize a point, or just to make your presentation look a bit more exciting. PowerPoint’s shapes are great because you can format them with colors, 3-D effects and shadows, and they always look perfect, even when you scale them really large or very small. With just a few simple tricks you can add a little variety and a unique feel to your shapes. All of the shapes below were created in PowerPoint and can be resized, copied and reused in any Office application. As you can see, they are all geometric shapes with added effects, such as shadowing. Making these shapes is simple and fun. Here, for example, is how to create the Celtic knot in the example above. Create a shape First, add a circle to a blank page. Make it fairly big, so you can work with it easily, but leave plenty of space to work. Now you’ll need a second circle of the same proportions, so simply make a copy. The quickest way to duplicate a shape is to select the circle and then drag it while holding the Ctrl key (for more keyboard shortcuts for Windows or Mac, check out our previous post 10 little-known keyboard shortcuts for editing in PowerPoint). Once you have the second circle, you want to size it down while keeping the same proportions. If you resize it by holding Shift while moving one of the corner handles, it scales it evenly, and the proportions stay the same. Next, drag the first circle over the top of the second, and use the alignment guides to align them, so they have the same center. When they are aligned the shape will look like this: Press Ctrl and click each circle to select them both (or use ⌘ if you are working on a Mac). You want to select the bigger circle first, then the smaller one. I’ll explain why in a moment, but for now let’s just see how the magic happens. Now that you have two shapes selected, the Merge Shapes under the Drawing Tools/Format ribbon tab is enabled. Click the Merge Shapes drop-down to display the five choices: Union, Combine, Fragment, Intersect and Subtract. You can move your mouse over each option to see a preview of what option each does, but for now, select Subtract. If you selected the shapes in the right order, you should have a circle with the center cut out. This is why the order you select shapes matters—the first shape you select is the part that’s kept when you click Subtract, while the second shape is cut out. If your Circle doesn’t look right, undo, click on a blank part of the slide, and reselect the shapes—making sure to select the bigger circle first, then click Subtract again. Now you have a single ring. Use the Ctrl+drag trick to make two more copies, so you have three identical rings. Move them so they overlap in a triangle, so that the overlap makes the Celtic knot shape. The alignment guides make it easy to make sure they’re all overlapped evenly. Then select the three rings and click Union from the Merge Shapes menu to make the knot. Apply effects to a shape Next, we’ll use a little shape formatting to make it unique. First, select your shape, and on the Drawing Tools/Format tab, click the Shape Outline drop-down and select an outline color (such as a golden color), and then set the Outline Weight to 4 ½ pt. Next, click Shape Fill and select a color (green for example). As a finishing touch, click Shape Effects, and under Bevel choices, select Relaxed Inset to make the outline look like a raised rim on a piece of jewelry. There you have it, a nice custom shape you can use anywhere. That’s the basics of making custom shapes. You can use the various Merge Shapes commands to trim shapes, combine them, and to make any number of useful custom shapes. Before we finish, I want to show you one more tip for making custom shapes that can be really powerful, which even some of the power users who know all about Merge Shapes miss. If you create a text box and a normal shape, you can use the Merge Shapes commands to make text into shapes. For instance, try making a rectangle and then make a text box with some text in it. You’ll probably want to change the font size so that the text is only slightly smaller than the rectangle. Drag the text box over the rectangle, select the rectangle first, then the text. If you select Subtract, you get a rectangle with the text cut out of it. If you select Intersect, you get a single shape that is shaped like the text. If you select Fragment, you get the shape with the text cut out, plus individual shapes for each letter. All of these shapes can have any normal shape formatting applied to them. I’ll bet you can immediately see some cool uses for that. Now you’re ready to go out and be a master of custom-made shapes. As a parting challenge, here’s an example of a really nice shape I made. It didn’t take me hours; in fact, it took only one Intersect operation to do. I’m not going to tell you how I made it, but I’ll give you a really big hint: there’s a font called Wingdings 2, and a choice on the Insert tab called Symbol that you can use to add a symbol to a text box. Knowing this and the tip above should be enough to get you started. There you have it—everything you need to know to create great shapes. What you can make is limited only by your imagination and patience. Have fun! —Tucker Hatfield, senior program manager for the PowerPoint Graphics team The post Make your own custom shapes in PowerPoint appeared first on Office Blogs.

These days we all live and work in a multi-device, multi-platform world, and so when building Office 2016 for Mac, one of our key objectives was to make it as easy as possible to transition from using Office for Windows to using Office for Mac and back again. That’s why you’ll notice an interface that’s consistent with what you’d expect when using Office 2016 for Windows, and why we added support for virtually all of the Windows Excel Ctrl keyboard shortcuts. So when it came to working with external data, we applied that same logic: how can we make the experience great and working cross platform easier than ever? External data in Excel 2016 for Mac We examined how we could improve external data for Excel 2016 for Mac and made the following changes: Excel 2016 for Mac comes with a pre-installed and integrated SQL Server ODBC driver, which we worked hand-in-hand with Simba Technologies to provide. Excel 2016 for Mac has a brand new Microsoft Query (MSQuery) and Connection Manager to make creating and managing all of your data connections easier and more consistent with Windows. Let’s take a deep dive into how each of these improvements can help you. Native support for ODBC data connections Excel 2016 for Mac supports ODBC data connections with SQL Server and Azure SQL Database right out of the box. This means several great things for anyone who works with external data: When creating or refreshing data connections to SQL Server, there are no third-party drivers required—everything you need is included right in the app. Connections made to SQL Server in Excel 2016 for Mac will work in Excel for Windows and vice versa. Have a workbook with ODBC data connections you’ve been using on Windows and never been able to use on your Mac? Well, now you can with cross-platform compatibility. If you want to connect to something other than SQL Server, we still have several great partners offering third-party drivers to connect to any data source you can imagine. In addition, all of the ways in which you interact with external data are now consistent between the platforms. Looking for that Refresh button? It’s on the Data tab just as you’d expect. The Data tab in Excel 2016 for Mac. A better way to work with external data connections One of the biggest improvements to working with external data connections in Excel for Windows in recent releases has been the Connection Manager. It provides a central place to see all of the data connections in a workbook, see where they are used, and modify, remove or refresh each one individually. With Excel 2016 for Mac, you now have that same Connection Manager you are familiar with from Windows. All of your connections are displayed, and you can click any of them to see where they are used in your workbook and to perform any action. The all-new Connection Manager in Excel 2016 for Mac. The Connection Properties dialog has been streamlined as well to match Excel for Windows, so that you now only see the properties that apply to your particular data connection. All of your connection properties are in one place and just like Excel for Windows. However, what good is easier management of your data connections if it’s too hard to create them to begin with? With Excel 2016 for Mac, creating a connection to SQL Server is easier than ever. On the Data tab, simply select New Database Query > SQL Server ODBC, and you are presented with a simple connection dialog. Once it’s filled out, the newly redesigned MSQuery launches. The all-new MSQuery in Excel 2016 for Mac. The new MSQuery experience is very similar to the SQL Query Analyzer that many of you have worked with. On the left is a listing of the databases and tables in your database that you can explore. At the top right is a color-coded SQL editor, and at the bottom right are the results of any query you run. Simply enter a SQL statement, click Run Query to make sure it works. Once it does, click Return Data to drop your data right back into your worksheet. And that’s it; your data is now in your Excel workbook, live and ready to use in Excel 2016 for Mac or Excel for Windows! Working with a third-party data provider works the exact same way. The only difference is that after installing the data provider, you select New Database Query > From Database and then select your data provider from the Apple iODBC manager. Now it’s your turn! We think we’ve made huge strides in making external data easier than ever in Excel 2016 for Mac and we hope you do too. Give it a try and let us know of any questions or feedback you have in the comments! The post Working with external data in Excel 2016 for Mac appeared first on Office Blogs.

In this episode, Jeremy Thake and Richard DiZerega talk to Jason Himmelstein about Power BI. http://officeblogspodcastswest.blob.core.windows.net/podcasts/EP59_Himmelstein.mp3 Download the podcast. Weekly updates office.com/getting-started Office Dev Show  Episode 6—Hackathons Boomerang for Outlook Pure CSS Burger Menu in SharePoint by Stefan Bauer Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program APIs - Onboarding Tutorial Now in public preview: The Converged Microsoft Account and Azure Active Directory Programming Model Setup your development environment for High trust Saml Claims based SharePoint provider hosted applications using OWIN and an easy to use STS—part 3  by Bas Litjen Create Yammer group as another user  by Chris O’Conner Calling video O365 Video API from Win10 UWP by Corey Roth SharePoint Tabbed web parts by Mark Rackley js Dev for .Net Developers Series  by Andrew Connell Show notes powerbi.microsoft.com John White’s blog Richard Dizerega’s blog post on Power BI Got questions or comments about the show? Join the O365 Dev Podcast on the Office 365 Technical Network. The podcast RSS is available iTunes or search for it on "Office 365 Developer Podcast" or add directly with the RSS http://feeds.feedburner.com/Office365DeveloperPodcast. About Jason Himmelstein Jason Himmelstein is a Microsoft SharePoint MVP and an ITPro Solutions Architect with more than 18 years of experience working with Microsoft and related technologies. With a passion for technology, Jason has spent the past eight years dedicated to SharePoint, becoming a recognized expert in the field. Jason has successfully architected solutions for up to 120,000 users and maintains an active speaking schedule, addressing conferences around the world. He is currently the Office 365 Advisory Services Manager for Rackspace. You can find him blogging at www.sharepointlonghorn.com and follow him on @sharepointlhorn. About the hosts Jeremy is a technical product manager at Microsoft responsible for the Visual Studio Developer story for Office 365 development. Previously he worked at AvePoint Inc., a large ISV, as the chief architect shipping two apps to the Office Store. He has been heavily involved in the SharePoint community since 2006 and was awarded the SharePoint MVP award four years in a row before retiring the title to move to Microsoft. You can find Jeremy blogging at www.jeremythake.com and tweeting at @jthake.   Richard is a software engineer in Microsoft’s Developer Experience (DX) group, where he helps developers and software vendors maximize their use of Microsoft cloud services in Office 365 and Azure. Richard has spent a good portion of the last decade architecting Office-centric solutions, many that span Microsoft’s diverse technology portfolio. He is a passionate technology evangelist and frequent speaker are worldwide conferences, trainings and events. Richard is highly active in the Office 365 community, popular blogger at www.richdizz.com, and can be found on twitter at @richdizz. Richard is born, raised and based in Dallas, TX but works on a worldwide team based in Redmond. In his spare time, Richard is an avid builder of things (BoT), musician, and lightning fast runner. Useful links Office 365 Developer Center Blog Twitter Facebook StackOverflow http://aka.ms/AskSharePointDev http://aka.ms/AskOfficeDev http://aka.ms/AskOffice365Dev Yammer Office 365 Technical Network O365 Dev Podcast O365 Dev Apps Model O365 Dev Tools O365 Dev APIs O365 Dev Migration to App Model O365 Dev Links UserVoice The post Episode 059 with Jason Himmelstein on Power BI development—Office 365 Developer Podcast appeared first on Office Blogs.

Today, we are excited to announce deeper integration between Outlook and our other key Office apps for iPhone and iPad—Word, Excel and PowerPoint—designed to make it easier than ever to collaborate on and share Office documents on the go. In many organizations, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents capture the bulk of the knowledge and experiences that information workers produce—strategy documents, sales presentations, contracts, market analyses, etc. In our personal lives, these documents contain to-do lists, travel itineraries, monthly budgets and more. This information is then frequently shared with others in email using Outlook. Outlook for iOS now opens Office documents sent as attachments directly in their respective apps, replacing the simple viewers we previously used. We’ve also streamlined the steps required to collaborate on files sent as attachments. These updates, combined with Outlook’s Focused Inbox, tight integration with calendar, customizable swipe gestures and predictive search help you get more done, even on the smallest screen. Let’s take a look at these new features. Open attachments right from Outlook Editing Office documents sent as attachments is now quick and simple. Tapping on an attachment in Outlook will open the file directly in Word, Excel or PowerPoint, ready for editing in the richest and most powerful authoring apps for iOS. If you haven’t yet downloaded the Office apps, Outlook will load a built-in viewer and provide a link to download the app in the App Store. You can tell which apps are installed by noting the Open in <app name> text underneath the title of the attachment. The Open in Word text indicates Outlook will open the file directly in Word. If an Office app is not installed, Outlook opens the file in a simple viewer and provides a link to the App Store. Collaborate with attachments in email A common scenario for many is collaborating on attachments and sending edits in email. To date, this activity was almost exclusively done at a computer, due to the many manual and sometimes confusing steps necessary when using the built-in Mail app for iOS. Outlook and the other Office apps make this process a breeze. With the latest updates, once you’ve opened a file from Outlook and finished making your changes, a single tap on the Back button closes the document and returns you to Outlook, automatically adding the now-updated file as an attachment in your reply. Sending attachments with Outlook Editing and sharing Office documents doesn’t always start from your inbox. While the best experience for collaborating on a document with others is to save and share the file from OneDrive, sometimes an attachment is necessary. Word, Excel and PowerPoint now include a "Send with Outlook" option in the "Share" menu. This button will bring up the Outlook "Compose New Email" pane with the document attached and ready to share. Productivity on the go Together, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook for iOS bring together the core tools you need to get things done, even on the smallest screen. Download the Office apps for iPhone and iPad for free today and let us know what you think of our latest updates. The teams are always hard at work making improvements, and we want your feedback to make Outlook better! Please share your comments within Outlook by going to Settings > Suggest a Feature. Frequently asked questions Q. Is this capability available for Office for Windows and Android? A. Office for Windows has had rich integration between Outlook and Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents for decades. We expect this capability to be available on Android in the next couple of months. Q. When is OneDrive for Business support coming to Outlook for iOS? A. Outlook for iOS connects to OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive and Box. We will be updating Outlook for iOS to connect to OneDrive for Business later this year. The post Deeper integration between Office documents and Outlook for iOS appeared first on Office Blogs.

This month’s Office 365 Dev Digest was written by Jeremy Thake, technical product manager for the Office 365 Dev team. Welcome to the sixth edition of Dev Digest, designed to help you—the Office 365 developer—keep up-to-date with what’s new in Office 365 development. It has been another busy month for the team, with some great strides to get new developers started with our APIs and add-ins. You can check this out yourself by navigating to dev.office.com/getting-started. From this page, you can follow the page flow, sign in with your Office 365 credentials, create an Azure application, and then download a code sample pre-filled with the client ID and secret, so you can immediately run your sample in your environment. We’ve targeted Android, ASP.NET MVC, iOS, Node.js, PHP, Python and Ruby with this first release for the API flow. The team will continue to iterate on this to make it even easier based on all your feedback. I’m really proud of the work done here because it spanned so many teams and a lot of feedback both internally and externally. We have also been working hard this month on getting more code samples out there. If you visit dev.office.com/codesamples, you will see that we’ve added new samples for the newly released Windows UWP projects along with our version 2 of our hero demo, showcased at Build and Ignite, called the Property Manager. We have had a lot of feedback from developers not knowing what you can do with the platform, so we have created a new Snack video showcase of short 3-5 minute videos. These videos help you to see what is possible through Office Store add-in demos and open sourced code samples. I encourage you all to engage with us on the Office 365 Technical Network with your questions. Dev documentation The Microsoft Content Publishing team works hard producing documentation to help developers learn our platform. Here are the key new and updated articles for this month: Office 365 APIs Authenticating with v2.0 app model preview Authenticate Office 365 and Outlook.com APIs using the v2.0 app model preview Limitations and restrictions of the V2.0 app model preview What’s new about the v2.0 app model preview Register an app to use the v2.0 authentication app model Types of applications supported by the v2.0 app model preview Scopes, permissions, and consent in the v2.0 app model preview Authentication protocols reference for the v2.0 app model preview Token reference for the v2.0 app model preview Outlook Use the Outlook REST API Outlook Mail REST API Reference Outlook Contacts REST API Reference Outlook Calendar REST API Reference Office 365 JavaScript UI controls OneDrive iOS SDK now available for OneDrive, preview for OneDrive for Business Webhooks for OneDrive personal are available in preview For more documentation check out Office developer documentation. Code samples Our team is continually on the lookout for new code samples to help you jump-start your own projects. Here is a list of the most recent new and updated samples from Microsoft as well as the dev community: OneNote REST API Explorer for Android OneNote REST API Explorer for iOS Office 365 Meeting Feedback Sample for Android Property Manager Code Sample Most recent Office 365 Dev podcasts Since joining Microsoft last year, I have been running around campus interviewing people about various dev topics. If you would like to hear me interview someone on a particular topic, please submit your suggestions in the Yammer group, and I’ll go hunt the relevant people down to interview. Here are the most recent podcast interviews: Episode 059 with Jason Himmelstein on PowerBI Episode 058 with Paul Katz on building Office add-ins for enterprise Episode 057 with Jim Epes on the App Awards Episode 056 on building products on top of SharePoint Online with Doug Ware Episode 055 on how Sunrise uses the Calendar API with Pierre-Élie Fauche For more podcasts check out dev.office.com/podcasts. Office Dev Show The Office Dev Show is our dedicated Channel 9 show focusing on all things Office 365 development-related. The show previews capabilities and features of the Office extensibility platform, as well as facilitating developers getting started building on Office 365 with a variety of technologies. Here are the episodes we’ve published to date: Episode 1—Unified API Episode 2—Getting Started Part 1 Kick-off Episode 3—Patterns and Practices Episode 4—Getting Started with PHP Episode 5—Interactive API Tutorials Episode 6—Hackathons Stay tuned to the show, publishing new episodes every Wednesday morning. Patterns and practices The Microsoft Patterns and Practices team is working hard to release samples to show the power of SharePoint add-ins. Don’t forget to join the monthly community calls to hear the updates from them directly on the monthly releases and concentration areas in the future. Thanks also for everyone who contributed in the previous release of the PnP from the community side. Your input is highly appreciated. Here are the latest updates from the team: Updated Transform page on office.com/transform Office 365 Developer Patterns and Practices (PnP)—August 2015 release details PnP August 2015 monthly community call recording at Channel 9 New training package created based on the PnP guidance at OfficeDevPnPTraining Numerous new videos in the PnP Channel 9 check at OfficeDevPnPVideos Numerous updates and new articles to PnP section in MSDN at OfficeDevPnPMSDN For more on patterns and practices check out dev.office.com/patterns-and-practices. All questions related on released materials and guidance can be added to our Yammer group at OfficeDevPnPYammer. Dev community blog posts The Office 365 dev community has been busy this month. It is exciting to see the effort people put into their posts in their spare time to share with the community. Check out these articles from the Microsoft field, MVPs and more: Office Dev Show Episode 4—Getting started with PHP Office 365 Developer Patterns and Practices—August 2015 release Office 365 API updates—OneNote OneNote API supports DELETE page by Diane Diaz Office add-in updates—PowerPoint, Word, Excel Property Manager Hero demo version 2 Ships! Connecting to Office 365 from an Office add-in by Richard DiZerega Contacts API Windows 10 Universal Windows Platform (UWP) by Richard DiZerega Connecting to Office 365 APIs from a Windows 10 UWP by Richard DiZerega Glyma for SharePoint is now open source! by Paul Culmsee The Office 365 API—OneDrive / Files API by Add-in Express How to set up a simple STS for web application development—Part 1 of 3 by Bas Lijten Configure claims-based web applications using OWIN WsFederation middleware by Bas Lijten A Worldmap list visualization for SharePoint Online by Yuri Burger Web add-ins—Coercion types in Word by Cindy Meister VBA->JS: Error handling (Syntax & Concept) by Cindy Meister My Experiences with the Office Dev PnP PowerShell Cmdlets by Daniel Laskewitz Modify Regional and Language settings with JSOM and JavaScript by Vardhaman Despande All you need to know about Azure Active Directory Applications in a few lines by Stephane Eysken’s Webcam Add-in for SharePoint by John Liu Building Apps for Windows 10 with Visual Studio 2015 Office Mobile apps for Windows 10 hit general availability Skype Group calls free Snack videos Souping up Office 365 by Andrew Connell Creating our first SharePoint 2013 Hosted App—Image Slider by Michael Koger Web Add-ins for (Word) VBA developers—Introduction by Cindy Meister Web Add-ins: Analyzing the "Hello World" JavaScript by Cindy Meister Office Web Add-ins: Developer IDE by Cindy Meister AAD Apps versus Yammer Apps to consume Yammer APIs by Stephan Eysken SharePoint Online credentials versus Azure Active Directory apps versus ACS apps by Stephan Eysken Creating Office add-ins—using ADAL JS and the Office 365 Unified API by Matthias Einig Office 365 OneNote API in Web Application by Garima Agrawal Office Tools for Visual Studio 2013 November 2014 update—Visual Studio 2013 April 2015 update breaks Add Connected Service Getting all Apps from your Tenant App Catalog using the Office 365 (CSOM) API JSOM Provisioning: Creating SharePoint artifacts without declarative XML STOP using SPDisposeCheck (or MSOCAF) with SharePoint 2013! Now! Office add-in training updates Office 365 API training updates Office Dev Show Office 365 YouTube Channel Debugging errors in SharePoint add-in development Automated testing of a Provider Hosted App with PowerShell Apply grid system to SharePoint using SUSY Office 365 Profile Angular sample JavaScript for VBA Developers—a short history Building a SharePoint Online chat room with SignalR and Azure Visual Studio 2015 ship event Caption this photo by Tobias Zimmergren Office Store Companies across the globe are extending the value of Office every day with Office add-ins. See how these solutions are making a difference at companies by watching their stories on betterwith.office.com! We are just a few days away from completing our next video, about a Seattle-area company that uses the D&B add-in for Office 365 to help track and qualify new customers. Check back in a few days! We plan to take the video program big this year, by baking in customer story videos into our developer evangelism (DX) Go-To-Market efforts with newly recruited partners. We’ll start marketing the site heavily in the coming weeks. Summertime tends to be a bit slower in the Store, but we’re still seeing a steady flow of new submissions and tons of updates to older add-ins. Several newcomers that impressed our validation team are below: LIA Publisher By Liberated Intelligence & Analysis, Inc. Empowers LIA admins and publishers to upload and publish straight into LIA from PowerPoint. Supported languages: English WealthStation Financial Planning By SunGard Business Systems, LLC WealthStation Financial Planning offers tools that provide quick assessments of retirement goals. Supported languages: English CYRIS for Outlook By Thales Communications and Security Encrypt and share sensitive files by email with CYRIS for Outlook! Supported languages: English, French KMailPrint By Keluro KMailPrint is an Outlook add-in that prints to PDF your emails. Supported languages: English, French Upcoming events There are plenty of events on the horizon…don’t miss out on these great events with Office 365 content. Our team looks forward to meeting you all at these events, so don’t be shy—come say hello at the Office 365 booth! Aug. 18-20 SharePoint Fest, Seattle Oct. 12 Unity Connect, Amsterdam Oct. 14 DevIntersection, Amsterdam Oct. 26 DevIntersection, Las Vegas Nov. 9-12 European SharePoint conference For more events check out dev.office.com/events. Until next month, please join our community discussions at www.yammer.com/itpronetwork and follow us on @OfficeDev on Twitter and on Facebook. Also, be sure to follow along with us on our daily developer mission: Jeremy Thake (@jthake), Chris Johnson (@loungflyz), Sonya Koptyev (@SonyaKoptyev), Dave Pae (@davidpae) and Jim Epes (@j_epes). —Jeremy Thake The post Office 365—monthly Dev Digest for August appeared first on Office Blogs.

"There is nothing so stable as change." —Bob Dylan One thing is certain: the advent of the Office 365 service has brought an unprecedented amount of innovation and change to our productivity and collaboration products. We’re constantly improving it, too—responding to customer demand and feedback and maintaining a tireless pursuit to reinvent productivity and provide the best set of services to help people work together. Over the past year, we released more than 450 updates to Office 365, both large and small. So many updates can be hard to keep track of, so we’re making improvements to the tools and processes you can use to keep up to speed on all these changes. During the past two weeks, we launched a new round of Wearable Productivity apps—such as Outlook and Yammer for Apple Watch and OneNote and OneDrive for Android Wear—as part of our quest to reinvent productivity on all platforms. We also announced previews of our new Skype for Business apps for iOS and Android, and real-time co-authoring for Word documents stored on OneDrive in Office 2016. In addition, we announced a new round of partner add-ins for Outlook that are designed to extend your email capabilities and help you get more done from your inbox. Last week, we also unveiled another set of innovative changes to Yammer, including a fresh new look and feel that’s designed for teamwork from the ground up. It’s all part of our ongoing mission to optimize Yammer for teams and to bring the benefits of open collaboration to teamwork. Below is a roundup of some key news items from the last couple of weeks. Enjoy! Catalent—pharmaceutical tech company boosts global efficiency, productivity with Office 365—Learn how Office 365 is helping Catalent transition from a collection of 30 semi-autonomous sites to a cohesive global organization. Newcastle City Council adopts the cloud with Office 365 and Azure—Find out how the Newcastle City Council in the UK is using Microsoft cloud services to improve collaboration and productivity, save money, and liberate IT staff. Microsoft’s Office 365 wins back Italian municipality after costly open source switch—Discover how Office 365 provides a much lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than alternative solutions. Natural Resources Wales uses Microsoft and mobile to unify departments—Learn how a new environmental organization in Wales used Office 365 and other Microsoft cloud services to merge and manage three separate government agencies. Microsoft updates Yammer Group Tools and promises deeper Office 365 integration—Find out more about Microsoft’s plans for Yammer and Office 365. Will OneDrive get you hooked on Office 365?—Discover how integration with OneDrive makes Office 365 even more appealing. The post Office 365 news roundup appeared first on Office Blogs.

We all know that online education allows for learning flexibility. Whether taking courses for professional development, continuing education, certification or credit, eLearning provides a convenient way for a student to meet their learning objectives.  The media company, Tech Cocktail, recently compiled a list of what they feel are 2014’s top projected learning trends for online universities and course creators to keep in mind in order to meet the needs of online students. "Learning on the go" - Today’s students utilize media on a variety of mediums and have become used to "instant gratification" when searching for answers, information or material.  Today’s online universities will need to provide courses and materials that are mobile friendly and that can be accessed on tablets, phones and other smart devices. "Learning at the speed of need" - Today’s students want their courses, tutorials and reading material easily accessible, whenever and wherever they might need it.  Short, quick lessons that allow a student to study and assimilate information quickly and efficiently will be most desirable.  Having the ability to access all study materials and course information right from their smart device makes learning, reviewing material and taking exams easier than ever.  "Gamification" - Learning through games will continue to grow as a trend in online education.  Companies are already developing apps that encourage students to spend time learning through play and Tech Cocktail expects this to continue to be a major eLearning trend in the future.  "Videos" - Informative videos have been shown to more fully engage a student as they provide both visual as well as auditory material.  The use of short, informative videos can enhance the online learning experience for any type of learner. Meeting the needs of today’s students and keeping abreast of new technologies and advances is paramount to the success of any online university or education company.  Ed4Online has long incorporated many of these as well as other important elements into their courses.  Our courses are self-paced and utilize a variety of learning methods and varied multi-media. We give students access to external information so that they can get connected to websites, videos, blogs, and communities that are in their field of interest. This type of learning encourages students to see their education as a portal to ongoing life-long learning about themselves, their world, and their industry. Please view our course catalog here: https://ed4online.com/ Source: http://tech.co/online-education-trends-2014-04       

A phrase caught my eye the other day, "whether you know it or not, you are marketing yourself each and every day."  How true!  We are sending messages about ourselves in everything we do - every action we take, every word we speak, every email we send. From holding the door for a stranger to how we treat the customer service representative on the other end of the phone - we are showing others who we are. The more we are aware of the image that we are projecting, the more we should try to focus on intentionally sending the right messages - putting our best self out there - and making sure that the image we are portraying is the one that we want others to see.  The three big steps in self-awareness and self-marketing: Prepare - Know your value and establish goals: 1. Who are you now? Make a list of your best qualities.  If you were to ask friends and coworkers to describe you now, what would they say?  Create a "positioning statement" about yourself.  Hone in on who you are, your strengths and your positive attributes. Identify and state what sets you apart from others. 2. What do you want out of life? Be as specific as possible.  Use both short and long term goals. 3. How will you know when you've reached your goals?  Write down the key indicators that will let you know you’ve reached your goals.  It could be landing that new job, completing a specific course, obtaining certification, or expanding your social network. Package - How people judge you Even though you may not be aware of it, people are constantly judging you and assessing your capabilities by noticing many different things about you. How?  With your eye contact, body language, appearance, speech.  You also market yourself with your quality of work.  And still others will pick up on your work ethic, sincerity, punctuality, etc. Other cues that people use when forming opinions about who you might be: Clothing / Hair / Weight / Height Jewelry / Facial hair / Makeup / Glasses Smell / Teeth / Smile Eye contact / Gait / Posture / Tone of voice / Laugh Nervous habits / Handshake / Neatness Handwriting / Spelling / Phone skills Car / Office / Home Enthusiasm / Energy level   Present and Promote Yourself - Now that you know you have a lot to offer, how will you let others know?  Create and maintain a professional resume Stay current in your field and search for ways to continue your learning and gain expertise Study a specialty niche in your field to increase your value to your company Network - in person, via social networks, at business meetings, trade shows, charity events Join clubs, professional groups and organizations Serve on committees and boards or volunteer your time Make sure that any social media channels that you post on are presenting the "you" that you want others to see.  Keep your posts professional and connect with like-minded individuals.   Once you become more aware of your value, setting goals, presenting your "best self" to others, and getting your information out there, you are well on your way to mastering the art of personal branding and marketing yourself! Ed4Online has hundreds of career and professional development courses to help you attain your goals.  Visit our website today to learn more.   Sources: http://www.boston.com/business/blogs/global-business-hub/2012/02/personal_brandi.html http://www.gmarketing.com/articles/163-guerrilla-marketing-yourself       

June is PTSD Awareness Month. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that may develop after exposure to a traumatic event. A traumatic event is something terrible and scary that you see, hear about, or that happens to you, like: Combat exposure Child sexual or physical abuse Terrorist attack Sexual or physical assault Serious accidents, like a car wreck Natural disasters, like a fire, tornado, hurricane, flood, or earthquake Anyone who has gone through a life-threatening event can develop PTSD including military troops who served in wars; rescue workers for catastrophes like the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.; survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing; survivors of accidents, rape, physical or sexual abuse, and other crimes; immigrants fleeing violence in their countries; survivors of earthquakes, floods, and hurricanes; and those who witness traumatic events. Family members of victims can develop the disorder as well. According to the National Center for PTSD, about 8 out of every 100 people (or 7-8% of the population) will have PTSD at some point in their lives. About 5.2 million adults have PTSD during a given year. This is only a small portion of those who have gone through a trauma. Women are more likely than men to develop PTSD. About 10% of women develop PTSD sometime in their lives compared with 5% of men. The National Center for PTSD  is working to raise awareness about PTSD and the importance of awareness. That is why their focus this year is to Learn, Connect and Share. Their campaign aims to encourage all Americans to educate themselves about PTSD, its signs/symptoms and treatment. Symptoms of PTSD: 1.  Reliving the event (also called re-experiencing symptoms) Memories of the traumatic event can come back at any time. People affected may feel the same fear and horror they did when the event took place. For example, they may experience: Nightmares. Feeling like they are going through the event again. This is called a flashback. They may see, hear, or smell something that causes them to relive the event. This is called a trigger. News reports, seeing an accident, or hearing a car backfire are examples of triggers. 2.  Avoiding situations that remind them of the event They may try to avoid situations or people that trigger memories of the traumatic event. They may even avoid talking or thinking about the event. For example, they may: Avoid crowds, because they feel dangerous. Avoid driving if they were in a car accident or if their military convoy was bombed. Avoid watching movies about a natural disaster if they experienced one. Avoid or put off seeking help because it keeps them from having to think or talk about the event. 3.  Negative changes in beliefs and feelings The way that they think about themselves and others changes because of the trauma. This symptom has many aspects, including the following: They may not have positive or loving feelings toward other people and may stay away from relationships. They may forget about parts of the traumatic event or not be able to talk about them. They may think the world is completely dangerous, and no one can be trusted. 4.  Feeling keyed up (also called hyperarousal) They may be jittery, or always alert and on the lookout for danger. They might suddenly become angry or irritable. For example, they may: Have a hard time sleeping. Have trouble concentrating. Be startled by a loud noise or surprise. Want to have their back to a wall in a restaurant or waiting room. Some of the treatments available: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one type of counseling. Research shows it is the most effective type of counseling for PTSD. The VA provides two forms of cognitive behavioral therapy to Veterans with PTSD: Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy. Medications have been shown to be effective. A type of drug known as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), which is also used for depression, has been found to be effective for many being treated for PTSD. In Group therapy, they talk with a group of people who also have been through a trauma and who have PTSD. Sharing their story with others may help them feel more comfortable talking about their trauma. This can help them cope with their symptoms, memories, and other parts of their life. In Brief psychodynamic psychotherapy, they learn ways of dealing with emotional conflicts caused by trauma. This therapy helps them to understand how their past affects the way they feel now. Family therapy is an important treatment option because PTSD can affect the whole family. A therapist helps them and their family to communicate, maintain good relationships, and to cope with tough emotions. The family can also learn more about PTSD and how it is treated. PTSD Awareness Day 2014 The National Child Traumatic Stress Network  invites everyone on June 27, 2014 to bring greater awareness to the issue of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  The more people know, the more they can do to help. With knowledge comes understanding; a willingness to share experiences, provide support and to reduce the stigma. Remember to Learn, Connect and Share. One way to learn about PTSD and other behavioral health topics is through Ed4Online. Ed4Online is proud to offer an extensive catalog of courses for individuals interested in learning more about behavioral health and for those who want to work as direct support professionals. Please visit our website here to learn more: https://ed4online.com/.       

"Make the most of yourself....for that is all there is of you."  ― Ralph Waldo Emerson Lifelong learning is about seeking or creating learning opportunities for both personal and professional development.  Lifelong learning is important because it applies to everything that we learn throughout our life, not just what is learned in a classroom. Learning allows us to make better, informed decisions. It enhances our understanding of the world around us, betters our social skills and our increases our personal development. Lifelong learning also assists us in becoming more successful in our careers as advances in technology require that we learn something new each and every day in order to keep our skills current in the workplace. There are many reasons for learning throughout life; two of which are personal development and professional development.  It’s important to note that these two reasons may not entirely be separate as personal development can improve your professional life and professional development can benefit your personal existence. Learning for personal development - Keeping an active and sharp mind will be of benefit your entire life.  Learning something new is a rewarding experience. Some examples of learning for personal development might include wanting to increase skills and knowledge around a pastime or hobby that you enjoy (photography, floral arranging).  You might want to brush up on computer skills and social media sites in order to more easily allow you to keep in touch with friends and loved ones.  Or maybe you will decide to take a degree course later in life simply because you enjoy the subject matter and the challenges of academic study. Learning for professional development - Employers are looking for well-balanced people with transferable skills - one key area is the ability to demonstrate that you are eager to learn and develop. Whether you currently are employed or if you are seeking employment, take advantage of training, coaching or mentoring opportunities.  Investing in your continuous development will allow you to add skills to your resume and make you more valuable and indispensable to your current or future employer. A more highly skilled and knowledgeable worker is an asset to any company and can lead to faster advancement within the company. Ed4Online is excited to announce the launch of our brand new online catalog of personal enrichment courses tailored to meet the needs of those seeking to fulfill a desire for life-long learning.  Our new expanded range of courses features an exceptional variety of core subjects, allowing for enrichment of important personal and professional skills. Structured as four-week seminars and led by Ed4Online's expert instructors, each personal enrichment course will focus on a key topic that's applicable to both personal growth and professional development. Students will be able to directly connect and interact with others taking the course, similar to a physical classroom, but with the convenience of being able to access the course from anywhere offering an Internet connection. Ed4Online's expanded catalog will offer courses in the following disciplines: Accounting and Finance, Business and Management, Coaching, College Readiness, Computer Applications, Entrepreneurship, Fitness and Health, Healthcare and Medical, Law and Legal, Marketing and Social Media, Personal Development, Teaching and Education, Test Preparation, and Writing and Publishing. Pursue lifelong learning through convenient and affordable online courses you can take anytime, anywhere. Experience the Ed4Online difference!  https://ed4online.com/personal-enrichment Sources: http://info.aiuonline.edu/aiuzine/issue31/theme1.asp http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ps/lifelong-learning.html#ixzz33TvrGqQC       

If you are an active duty or National Guard/Reserve servicemember, veteran or military spouse - have you thought about the portability an online education could offer you? Online education is a great way for servicemembers to go back to school while serving their country. Online courses and degree programs are developed specifically to provide the flexibility needed to fit the op-tempo and duty schedules of servicemembers as well as the hectic lifestyles of military spouses. How Online Education Works Online courses follow the same format as traditional college courses, with a professor, textbooks, homework, exams, etc. However online courses have a much higher degree of flexibility and usually use a combination of message boards, e-mail, chat rooms, CD-ROMs and textbooks. In a typical online course the professor will post weekly reading assignments, study questions and schedule a group online chat time. The student must post answers to the study questions and respond to at least one other student's postings by the end of that week. Online courses typically have weekly deadlines - however, your daily/weekly study schedule is completely up to you. At the end of the course or module you will have a final exam (lower level) or written essay requirement (upper level) summarizing the context of the class. Just like in traditional college classroom courses, your success comes from a willingness to commit to your coursework. On average, online students spend a couple of hours a day studying. It is also essential for you to have a strong desire to learn and remain focused on the goal of earning the college degree - it is your degree that will expand your career opportunities. There are a number of questions you should ask when choosing the right school and program for you: Does Military Tuition Assistance or the GI Bill cover the costs of the courses? Does the school grant academic credit for Military schools and experience, as recommended by the American Council on Education (ACE)? Does the media (CD-Rom, e-mail, internet, etc) fit your needs and abilities? Does the school have the program that fits your education goals? If you think "online" may be the best fit for you, we encourage you to begin looking for the school that meets your needs. Schools usually have free information packets they will mail you with answers to the questions listed above, more on tuition costs, and an application. Ed4Online offers over 600 online courses in 4 distinct areas of online education: 1) Career Training, 2) Personal Enrichment, 3) Professional Development, and 4) Health and Human Service Training. Find out more here! For more information and blog posts on Military Career Education please visit here: http://milcareered.com/       

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave".  ~Elmer Davis July fourth is a time to slow down, take stock and appreciate the freedoms we enjoy every day.  All of us at Ed4Online wish you a safe and wonderful 4th of July.   Please take a few minutes to watch this inspiring tribute:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_U1sK4s_Ek         

In many high schools across the nation, shop class is non-existent.  Consequently, so are the potential trades-people that are born out of that early exposure to tools and machinery.  What is America going to do without skilled workers who can build and fix things? According to American Job Training Investments: Skills and Jobs to Build a Stronger Middle Class, "Too many businesses can’t find skilled workers for jobs they want to fill, while too many people looking for a job may be ready to learn new skills but may not be certain that there’s a job waiting for them on the other end. Community colleges are one of the best ways to train workers with the skills they need for a job, and hands-on apprenticeships are one of the clearest paths to a good, secure middle class job. In fact, 87 percent of apprentices are employed after completing their programs and the average starting wage for apprenticeship graduates is over $50,000. " In 2011, Mike Rowe, creator of the TV show "Dirty Jobs," testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on the  ways in which skilled manual labor has been undervalued in America. "In a hundred different ways, we have slowly marginalized an entire category of critical professions, reshaping our expectations of a "good job" into something that no longer looks like work. A few years from now, an hour with a good plumber -- if you can find one -- is going to cost more than an hour with a good psychiatrist. At which point we'll all be in need of both." It’s time to reach out to a new generation of tradesmen and women and encourage them to use their skills and talents to find careers within a skilled trade that will help to pave the way to a fulfilling career and a bright financial future. Ed4Online is proud to support this effort by offering many courses in the Skilled Trades category.  Please visit our Skilled Trades Career Course Catalog to peruse courses in Medium/Heavy Diesel, Automotive and Motorcycle Technician, HVAC/R Technician, Gunsmithing and more!   Sources: http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/04/16/fact-sheet-american-job-training-investments-skills-and-jobs-build-stron http://www.forbes.com/sites/tarabrown/2012/05/30/the-death-of-shop-class-and-americas-high-skilled-workforce/ http://www.mikeroweworks.com/2011/05/mike-rowes-oral-testimony-to-the-senate-commerce-committee/         

Military life is difficult and adding going back to school can seem like an extremely daunting task. The first challenge is finding a school that is not only flexible but also offers the degree you desire and that fits with your budget. The first time I went to college it was a brick and mortar school. Online education did not really exist at the time making it the only option. I was young and had fun. I played a sport, lived in the dorms, and went to class. I had very few responsibilities, however that quickly changed. After graduating I had a degree and with it came a job and lots of bills and eventually an amazing husband which brought with it a very challenging life. The degree which I had worked so hard for was not applicable in most locations the military could send us. That was when I turned to online education. There were many hurdles in deciding which school to attend. First was the cost, then the flexibility, the ability to stop and start the program and whether or not credits earned would be transferable in case something happened and I had to transfer. While the school I was attending was a little more expensive for graduate school in Education than most state schools, I was able to apply for scholarships that helped to cover some of the cost.  Apply, apply, and apply for any and all scholarships. Every little bit helped and I was surprised at some that I was eligible for and received. Call the admissions office and the financial aid offices; there were scholarships available just for the school I was attending as well as they had knowledge of the best ways in which to apply for some of them. The program however proved to be flexible in that there were class times available in the evenings; it was inflexible in that there were set class meeting times twice a week. One major challenge I was not prepared for was the guilt of having to do homework or be "in class" while my husband was home. He was always gone at work, TDY or deployed and while he was home it was difficult paying attention to school work and "class", especially knowing that he would most likely leave again soon. Thankfully my school was flexible in letting me stop and start the program and while the program was supposed to only take 2 years it ended up taking me 3. I decided to try online education once more, hoping that an additional bachelor's degree would help to open up job opportunities. I decided to pursue a degree in Psychology. While the same challenges arose, at least with the school I chose it was a little more affordable and again I applied and kept applying for every scholarship I could find information about. While I still have the guilt of having to do homework instead of spending time with my husband when he was home, the program is more flexible in that most classes give you a week to complete assignments, which allowed me to spread out the reading and class work to complete assignments while my husband was TDY or at work. While I also work full time, I could read the textbooks on breaks and at lunch. We even PCS'ed directly in the middle of a few of my classes and with the help of Starbucks free wi-fi and the local USO, I was able to find internet connections to complete assignments. While not ideal, I was able to continue taking classes even though we had moved to a different state. Going back to college and being a military spouse has been challenging, however if you have the support of your family and you are motivated do not let anything stand in your way.            

In 2008, the U.S. House of Representatives in honor of Bebe Moore Campbell, designated July as National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. Bebe Moore Campbell was an accomplished author, advocate and national spokesperson, who passed in November 2006. Campbell advocated for mental health education and support among individuals of diverse communities.  This month, we bring awareness to the disparity in mental health treatment and access to care among minority groups in the U.S. with the hope that increased public awareness could bring about positive changes for these communities. Background Mental illness affects one in four adults and one in ten children in America. The U.S. Surgeon General reports that minorities are less likely to receive diagnosis and treatment for their mental illness, have less access to and availability of mental health services and often receive a poorer quality of mental health care. Furthermore, mental illness is a leading cause of disability; yet nearly two-thirds of people with a diagnosable mental illness do not seek treatment, and racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. are even less likely to get help, according to the National Alliance for Mental Illness. During National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month, help raise awareness in your community. Encourage your family, friends and loved ones to learn more about improving mental health and illness. NAMI and Ed4Online ask you to Take Action to raise awareness about mental health! Why is this awareness so important? According to the Office of Minority Health minority groups in the U.S. are experiencing a disparity in care and increased mental health problems as a result: African Americans and Mental Health: African Americans are less likely to receive accurate diagnoses than their Caucasian counterparts. African Americans living below the poverty level, as compared to those over twice the poverty level, are 3 times more likely to report psychological distress. African Americans are 20% more likely to report having serious psychological distress than Non-Hispanic Whites. Non-Hispanic Whites are more than twice as likely to receive antidepressant prescription treatments as are Non-Hispanic Blacks. The death rate from suicide for African American men was almost four times that for African American women, in 2009. A report from the U.S. Surgeon General found that from 1980 - 1995; the suicide rate among African Americans ages 10 to 14 increased 233%, as compared to 120% of Non-Hispanic Whites. Asian Americans and Mental Health: Older Asian American women have the highest suicide rate of all women over age 65 in the United States. Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death for Asian Americans in 2009. Southeast Asian refugees are at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) associated with trauma experienced before and after immigration to the U.S. One study found that 70% of Southeast Asian refugees receiving mental health care were diagnosed with PTSD. For Asian Americans, the rate of serious psychological distress increases with lower levels of income, as it does in most other ethnic populations. Hispanic-Americans and Mental Health: Hispanics living below the poverty level, as compared to Hispanics over twice the poverty level, are three times more likely to report psychological distress. The death rate from suicide for Hispanic men is almost five times the rate for Hispanic women, in 2009. Suicide attempts for Hispanic girls, grades 9-12, were 70% higher than for White girls in the same age group, in 2011. Non-Hispanic Whites received mental health treatment 2 times more often than Hispanics, in 2008. American Indian/Alaska Natives and Mental Health: While the overall death rate from suicide for American Indian/Alaska Natives is comparable to the White population, adolescent American Indian/Alaska Natives have death rates at twice the rate for Whites in the same age groups. In 2009, suicide was the second leading cause of death for American Indian/Alaska Natives between the ages of 10 and 34. American Indian/Alaska Natives are twice as likely to experience feelings of nervousness or restlessness as compared to non-Hispanic Whites. Violent deaths - unintentional injuries, homicide, and suicide - account for 75% of all mortality in the second decade of life for American Indian/Alaska Natives. While the overall death rate from suicide for American Indian/Alaska Natives is comparable to the White population, adolescent American Indian/Alaska Native females have death rates at almost four the rate for White females in the same age groups. In the face of these statistics, it is important to encourage increased diversity and diversity training among those who serve minority populations. Some things to consider when working with minority populations: Many minority groups tend to rely on family, religious and social communities for emotional support rather than turning to health care professionals, even though this may at times be necessary. Mental illness is frequently stigmatized and misunderstood in minority communities. Members of minority groups are much more likely to seek help though their primary care doctors as opposed to accessing specialty care. With greater understanding, awareness and education around cultural differences, we can all do our part to decrease the stigma and improve access to care for all. One important piece is education. Ed4Online offers a course on Culture, Race and Ethnicity among others to increase the cultural competence of providers of mental health services as well as to provide students with general information for working with specific racial and ethnic groups. All with a vision towards improving access and removing barriers to mental health care for all. For more information on courses offered, please visit: https://ed4online.com         

Professional Development is an ongoing process that should continue throughout one's career.  It’s necessary to stay up to date on the latest trends and information in your field in order to remain capable and competent in your position.  Many professionals find that online learning is a perfect fit for them and their development needs.  Why? Flexibility and Convenience.  Online learning can be done from your office or home at your own pace. In this flexible learning environment (wherever, whenever), you set the pace. Open scheduling also allows you to take the courses you need whenever it best suits you and your schedule. Networking.  Online courses allow you the opportunity to network with your peers all over the country. In addition to connecting with mentors via email to address concerns or questions, an online student center gives you the opportunity to interact with others through discussion boards, etc.    Accessibility. Online courses allow access to information 24/7, 365 days a year. You simply need a good internet connection and you are ready. Learn from the best. Look for courses developed by industry professionals with extensive knowledge and expertise in your area of study.     The latest information at your fingertips. For those who want to stay informed about changes in the business world or are perhaps exploring moving to a new career; there is no better way to get up to date on current trends and information.  If you are currently out of the work force; taking online courses can show prospective employers that you have worked to stay informed and are prepared. We are continuously adding to Ed4Online’s course catalog in order to give professionals the information they need to keep their skills and knowledge relevant.  We are a wonderful resource for all of your online learning needs. Continue learning with Ed4Online!         

When businesses hire military veterans, the workforce gains invaluable skills because of military training. As a veteran transitioning out of the military, you may have doubts about the type of jobs out there and whether or not you may qualify for it. Employers take on the job training such as military experience, but if you are looking in another field you have no experience in - there are options for you to obtain the training in that field in as little as 60 days and use your GI bill and tuition assistance in the process. Here are the top 4 in demand jobs for transitioning military and how you can obtain training and certification in these fields. Information Technology IT was rated one of the top jobs for transitioning military as well as military spouses because of the portability of this job. Many jobs in this field are even work from home and can fit right within your busy schedule. Medical & Healthcare The medical and healthcare field is always on the list because this is one field that will never disappear. Hospitals, medical offices and even rehabilitation centers are always looking to hire skilled medical employees. Skilled Trades What are skilled trades? Actually a large majority of military already have most of these skills, and perhaps they never thought about applying it to a job once out of the military. Mechanics and technicians are just a couple of the skilled trades out there that are in demand. Business Management Business makes the world go round, which makes this field very flexible for what you want to do and also can be applied to almost anything. Business can vary from project management, human resources, marketing, public relations and even social media. Ed4Online's career & vocational training courses contain everything a student needs to succeed in their field of choice. If you don't want or need a college degree, then career training is the perfect fit to help you find your dream job. Many military veterans already have the experience, why not turn it into a career?         

With busy lives, it can be hard to find time to volunteer.  Many know of the benefits to their community. But did you know that as a volunteer, you gain many benefits as well? Volunteering can help protect your mental and physical health; it can improve your social and even your career networks and so much more! According to Help Guide and a Harvard Study the many benefits of volunteering to you can include: Increased self-confidence. Volunteering can provide a healthy boost to your self-confidence, self-esteem, and life satisfaction. You are doing good for others and the community, which provides a natural sense of accomplishment. Your role as a volunteer can also give you a sense of pride and identity. And the better you feel about yourself, the more likely you are to have a positive view of your life and future goals. Decreased depression. Reducing the risk of depression is another important benefit of volunteering. A key risk factor for depression is social isolation. Volunteering keeps you in regular contact with others and help you develop a solid support system, which in turn protects you against stress and depression when you’re going through challenging times. Improved physical health. Volunteering is good for your health at any age, but it’s especially beneficial in older adults. Studies have found that those who volunteer have a lower mortality rate than those who do not, even when considering factors like the health of the participants. Volunteering has also been shown to lessen symptoms of chronic pain or heart disease. Gaining work experience: working in the field or a position that has transferable skills will help you become more experienced when you are looking for that job. Help with resume building: add volunteering to your resume. Businesses, either for or not for profit, want to see you that you’ve been busy, so show them how you took the initiative to volunteer at a local nonprofit and be specific of what you did. Being the leader or creating a new and helpful tool will prove to the potential employer that you are an asset to their organization. Gaining new skills: work experience is invaluable; there are some things you can’t learn in school. So by volunteering, you are in a new environment, observing people in their jobs and hopefully you are given tasks that challenge you. Volunteering gives you the opportunity to practice important skills used in the workplace, such as teamwork, communication, problem solving, project planning, task management, and organization. You might feel more comfortable stretching your wings at work once you’ve honed these skills in a volunteer position first. Helping you to spread your wings and try something new: try something you are interested in. This way, if you don’t like it, you’ll know before you take classes or apply for the job and then realize it’s not what you want to do as a career. Meeting new people: not only do you get to gain experience, but you meet people who can be a potential reference when your job hunting if you made the right impression, or they may recommend a place to apply. Let them know you are looking and ask for them to be on your list of references, after you’ve shown them what you can do! The potential of getting a new (paying) job: This may lead to a job. Nonprofits make up a large percentage of organizations in Sonoma County, and therefore many jobs are found there. Prove what you can do, and they may find funding to keep you. Improving your College application: College applications ask for community service. But since it’s getting more competitive, not only do you show your volunteer time, but you need to stand out by taking a leadership role or again, creating something new that addresses a need in the community. Making a real difference in the lives of others: Lastly, but more importantly, volunteering leads you to find the joy of serving others and helping to improve your local community. Helping others kindles happiness. When researchers at the London School of Economics examined the relationship between volunteering and measures of happiness in a large group of American adults, they found the more people volunteered, the happier they were. Volunteering is a fun and easy way to explore your interests and passions. Doing volunteer work can be an escape from your day-to-day routine of work, school, or family commitments. Volunteering also provides you with renewed creativity, motivation, and vision that can carry over into your personal and professional life, and all while helping out in your community. It’s a win-win proposition. Ed4Online offers courses in personal development, personal enrichment and even in health and human services. Learn more about courses that can help you have an edge in your journey as a volunteer or if you are interested in exploring career options in the helping professions visit our website at Ed4Online today!