Note: September 2018 – Microsoft Whiteboard is now available for iOS and for commercial preview on web. Learn more here.
Today we are pleased to announce the general availability of the Microsoft Whiteboard app for Windows 10. Whiteboard gives teams a freeform, intelligent canvas for real time ideation, creation, and collaboration. Since releasing a preview of the app in December, more than 200,000 customers have helped us fine tune the feature set and end user experience. Based on their feedback we’ve added a number of new features, including text notes, the ability to add and manipulate images, enhancements to shape and table recognition, accessibility improvements, compliance with various global standards, and more. In addition, the Whiteboard app for iOS and preview on the web will be coming soon. These releases will mark an important milestone in our journey to make Whiteboard the best tool for freeform collaboration across platforms and form factors.
Create freely, work naturally
Whiteboard provides an infinite canvas where imagination has room to grow. Draw, type, or add images. Use sticky notes to organize ideas. Stack things up and move them around. Designed for pen, touch, and keyboard, Whiteboard allows you to share your ideas naturally. Intelligent ink recognizes shapes and makes creating tables a snap. And because the canvas expands along with your creations, you never have to worry about running out of space.
Work together in real time, wherever you are
Whiteboard brings a team together* – and gives them space to create. Teammates can huddle around a large touchscreen in the same room or work together on their own devices from around the world+. And, avatars on the canvas help you keep track of who is doing what and bring a natural rhythm to the interaction.
Save automatically, resume seamlessly
Forget taking photos of conference room whiteboards or marking them with “Do Not Erase.” With the Whiteboard app, your brainstorming sessions are saved automatically to the Microsoft cloud, so you can pick up where you left off, whenever – and wherever – inspiration strikes next.
To start using Whiteboard on your Windows 10 device, download the app for free at the Microsoft Store and log in with your Microsoft account (Outlook, Hotmail, Live, Xbox, etc.) or Office 365 account (work or school).
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* Whiteboard currently supports collaboration within Office 365 tenants for commercial customers, and across personal accounts for customers with a Microsoft account. Collaboration across multiple Office 365 tenants is planned for future release.
+ Microsoft Whiteboard is available as an app for all users on Windows 10 devices. For commercial users, the Whiteboard app will be coming soon to iOS devices and will be accessible from other devices via the Whiteboard web client (preview).
For more information, see the FAQ.
Today I’m pleased to share three exciting changes to Office 365 consumer subscriptions.
Office on all your devices
The Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal subscriptions currently include device install limits. Home limits subscribers to 10 devices in total (across five users) and Personal limits subscribers to one PC or Mac and one tablet. Starting October 2, subscribers can install Office on an unlimited number of devices—and be signed into their accounts on up to five of those devices at the same time.
Six licenses rather than five
The Office 365 Home subscription is already an incredible deal. For just $99.99 a year, five people can get their own licenses to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote—plus 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage and other valuable apps and services. Starting October 2, we’re increasing the number of licenses in a Home subscription from 5 to 6. That’s right: we’re adding an additional person to the subscription with no change in price. To be clear, that’s 6 people with their own license and 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage each—for a total of 6 TB. We’re also integrating the Home subscription more deeply into the Microsoft family service, so your subscription will automatically be shared with the people you’ve set up as members of your family.
Everything you need in one place
Since launching the Office 365 consumer subscriptions in 2014, Office.com/MyAccount has been the starting point for all account management. We’re pleased to announce that you can now manage your Office 365 subscription directly on the Microsoft Account portal. —the single place to manage all your Microsoft subscriptions, redeem your Microsoft Rewards, and access other Microsoft benefits.
If you’re already an Office 365 subscriber—thank you! Your subscription is about to get even more valuable. And if you’re not, buy today!
For more information about these changes, please see our detailed FAQ or our updated terms and conditions.
Amendment (9/24): For more information about sharing your Office 365 Home subscription, please see our sharing article and our detailed sharing FAQ.
[Originally published for the preview on 4/2/2018 and updated on 7/6/2018. Updated for GA on 9/5/2018]
Announcing: The IP Address and URL web services are generally available from 5th September, 2018.
Microsoft recently published a set of connectivity principles for Office 365 which provides concise guidance on the recommended ways of achieving optimal performance and connectivity to Office 365. The first of these principles is to Identify and differentiate Office 365 network traffic using Microsoft published endpoints. Endpoints include IP Addresses and URLs that are used to connect to Office 365.
The primary benefits of using these web services are that they share the endpoint categories which significantly simplify network perimeter configuration, they are fully automated including automated validation testing them, they can be loaded directly into network devices, and they help automate change management to avoid change related outages. The endpoint categories identify a vital few key network endpoints in the Optimize and Allow categories for Office 365 for which we recommend direct Internet egress.
We use web services because they are easier for customers scripts and network devices to call than web pages. Specific scenarios where you might need this data include:
- Updating your perimeter firewall to allow Office 365 network connectivity.
- Updating your enterprise proxy server to allow connectivity to Office 365 URLs.
- Edit PAC files on your users computers to bypass proxy servers.
- Bypassing an SSL decrypting network device for Office 365 network traffic.
- Bypassing a CASB service for Office 365 network traffic.
- Selecting endpoints for bypassing proxy servers and routing for direct internet access at a branch office user location.
These web services directly offer Office 365 IP Address and URL data in JSON, and CSV format for all five Office 365 service instances including Office 365 worldwide commercial, Office 365 operated by 21 Vianet, Office 365 Germany, Office 365 U.S. Government DoD, and Office 365 U.S. Government GCC High. We also generate HTML pages from the data and RSS feeds are available from the web services to help with change notification.
Here’s a few quick links to the web services you can access right in a web browser. These links are provided for the worldwide Office 365 commercial instance as examples only.
The current XML file and the old RSS feed will be available until October 2nd, 2018. If you have automation that uses the XML format, you should update that to use the JSON format data. If you are using the old RSS feed you should either move to the new RSS feed, or use the sample Microsoft Flow we have published for getting emails on changes. Developer usage documentation for the IP Address and URL web services are detailed in Managing Office 365 Endpoints – Web Service.
The web services include three categories for Office 365 network endpoints as attributes of this data which can be used to simplify management of perimeter network devices:
- Optimize for a small number of endpoints that require low latency unimpeded connectivity which should bypass proxy servers, network SSL break and inspect devices, and network hairpins. Direct Internet access, such as with SDWAN, is recommended for these endpoints.
- Allow for a larger number of endpoints that benefit from low latency unimpeded connectivity but do not require it. It is required to bypass SSL break and inspect on these endpoints and to avoid proxy authentication. Although not expected to cause failures, we also recommend bypassing proxy servers entirely, network hairpins, and other network intermediary devices on these endpoints. Good connectivity to these endpoints is required for Office 365 to operate normally.
- Default for other Office 365 endpoints which can be directed to the default internet egress location for the company WAN.
Use of these categories, how they simplify connectivity to Office 365, and what actions you can take to make use of them is detailed in Office 365 Network Connectivity Principles.
The web services and data contained in it are supported by Microsoft. However, you do not need to connect to these web services in order to use Office 365. Keep a local copy of the data and just call them again to check for changes. If you are ever unable to connect to the web services, just use the data you have previously downloaded. When a change is notified, you should have 30 days to make updates.
Documentation links:
Traditional enterprise network architecture revolves around the pre–cloud world. A world where data, services and applications generally live within the corporate walled garden and thus connectivity is simply from the user locations to where the data/services/applications are hosted. To exit this network we have a centralized, strict security stack to protect the corporate environment from the unknown, untrusted external world.
As the data & applications/services move to the cloud, this network model becomes less effective and thus network transformation needs to be at the heart of a company’s digital transformation to cloud based services such as Office 365.
As adoption and reliance on cloud services continues to grow, and as employees work from diverse locations around the world, legacy approaches to managing network traffic, such as backhauling and centralizing for inspection & egress creates latency and a leads to a poor end user experience and additional cost for enterprises.
This Pre-Day course is being hosted by Microsoft’s network architecture team and consists of hands-on labs on how to optimize network connectivity in the cloud era, with a specific focus on Office 365. You will hear the pros and cons of each connectivity model (Proxied, Direct and ExpressRoute), how Office 365 workloads connect, steps to improve network connectivity and performance by transforming the network model to the cloud era. We’ll also look in detail at the new method due to go live in October which Microsoft will use to publish the URLs/IPs for the service, allowing for greater automation and simplified usage. The day includes various labs of the topics discussed so you can gain first hand experience of what you’re learning.
Topics include:
- Office 365 Connectivity Principles
- Datacenter Infrastructure & your data
- Connecting to Microsoft’s network infrastructure
- Understanding & using the new RestAPI based URL/IP Publishing method
- Understanding & Troubleshooting Routing
- Understanding & Troubleshooting Latency
- Enterprise Connectivity Options
Connecting via a Proxy
Direct Connectivity
ExpressRoute
- Bandwidth Planning & Estimation
- Scoping & Data Gathering for Troubleshooting
- Major Workload Connectivity – Including Labs
- Exchange Online
- SharePoint Online
- Skype for Business Online
- TCP Connection Establishment
- Proxy Authentication – Including Lab
- Using OneDrive for Performance Baselining
How to register:
Add this Pre-Day Workshop to your registration for $500. Visit the Microsoft Ignite registration website and sign in to your registration record and select Pre-Day Workshop
We’ll give a Surface Laptop to one lucky attendee, so be sure to sign-up!
Office 365 gives you the latest updates and features as early as possible so you can continue doing your job productively. For Office 365 services, updates are run in the background as soon as they become available, instead of bundled updates scheduled months apart.
Shifting from a static Office suite to an evergreen one that enhances user productivity, creativity, and collaboration requires us to provide visibility into the updates that are coming for your users – you need the resources to navigate and guide these changes throughout your tenant. From the Office 365 Roadmap to the Message Center, Microsoft provides the information you need to stay on top of change.
Note: While Office ProPlus client apps are updated every six months, there is also the option to sign up for earlier releases to receive them sooner. See Targeted release section for more details.
Roadmap
The Office 365 Roadmap gives you a snapshot of upcoming changes as early as possible. Product groups post upcoming updates for features and services on the roadmap in one of several stages: in development, rolling out, and launched. The roadmap is designed to give a wider view into the future of Office 365 changes to come, so admins can get excited for new features, plan appropriately with Targeted release, and keep on the lookout for the Message Center post as the update nears its ship date. Visit the roadmap to get the first view of exciting updates and keep up-to-date on applications and services across Office 365.
Message Center
Message Center is the hub where we post official announcements about upcoming changes to your tenant as well as any actions required by admins to proactively manage the change. You can access the Message Center as a card on the admin center home dashboard or under Health in the left-hand panel.
Each post gives a summary of what’s changing, how it may affect users, and additional links to help you prepare your tenant. Message Center posts also provide important information on preventing and fixing issues in your tenant. Because not all admins may need to see all posts, each admin can set preferences to control which posts are displayed on Message Center. You can also opt in to receive a weekly digest of posts in email format delivered right to your inbox.
Change that is considered a major update is communicated at least 30 days in advance for those who have not opted in to early release opportunities. These announcements are highlighted at the top of Message Center as they are the most impactful to your organization. Major updates are defined as:
- Changes to daily productivity such as inbox, meetings, delegations, sharing and access
- Changes to the themes, web parts, and other components that may affect customized features
- Increases or decreases to visible capacity such as storage, number of rules, items or durations
- Changes to product branding that may:
- Cause end user confusion,
- Result in changes to help desk processes and reference material, or
- Change a URL
- A new service or application
- Changes requiring an admin action (exclusive of prevent or fix issues)
- Changes to where your data is stored
Click here for more information on Message Center and here for guidance on setting preferences in Message Center.
Targeted Release
Targeted release is an early release ring for select users within a tenant who will receive certain changes prior to the rest of their organization. For Office 365, new releases are first tested and validated by the feature team, then by the Office 365 team, and finally, by all of Microsoft. After internal validation is complete, customers can set individuals in the organization or the entire organization to receive available updates on Targeted release to see the latest updates and help provide early product feedback.
You can manage how your organization receives updates by utilizing Targeted release in many ways. Targeted release allows admins or anyone responsible for managing Office 365 changes within an organization to prepare by letting them:
- Test and validate new updates before they are released to all the users in the organization.
- Prepare user notification and documentation before updates are released worldwide.
- Prepare internal helpdesk for upcoming changes.
- Go through compliance and security reviews.
- Use feature controls, where applicable, to control the release of updates to end users.
For Office 365 ProPlus client applications, updates are deployed every January and July on the Semi-Annual Channel. However, admins can opt to deploy some of their users on Semi-Annual Channel (Targeted) for the opportunity to receive updates a few months earlier every March and September. Additionally, admins can set certain users to receive more frequent updates on the Monthly Channel to further test the newest features available before deployment on the other channels.
For more information on Office 365 ProPlus update channels, see here.
We strongly recommend enabling Targeted release for admins to manage change within their tenants. However, keep in mind that there’s an option to set specific users, as opposed to entire tenants, to Targeted release. This functionality allows administrators and selected users to experience the new change earlier than the rest of the organization, giving them enough time to prepare the tenant before the change rolls out broadly.
You must be a global admin to set yourself and other users to Targeted release. If you choose not to opt into Targeted release, you will receive updates when they are release broadly in Standard release. For more information on Targeted release and setting it up for your organization, click here.
In addition to the resources above, check out the official Microsoft 365 blog here and continue engaging here in TechCommunity. Be on the lookout for posts on the Microsoft 365 TechCommunity blog, as we will be announcing news there as well. As always, feel free to provide feedback in the admin center dashboard or in the comments below, as we love hearing from you and finding out ways to improve the Office 365 experience!
Following the success of last year, Global Office 365 Developer Bootcamp now becomes an annual event. It is a free, one-day, hands-on training event led by Microsoft MVPs with support from Microsoft and local community leaders. Developers worldwide are invited to attend the bootcamp to learn the latest on Office 365 platform including Microsoft Graph, SharePoint Framework, Microsoft Teams, Office Add-ins, Connectors and Actionable Messages and apply what you learn to your future projects.
Watch the video to hear from Jeff Teper and Microsoft MVPs on 2018 Global Office 365 Developer Bootcamp.
Global Office 365 Developer Bootcamp will take place between October 1 and November 30, 2018. New bootcamp events are being added every week at http://aka.ms/O365DevBootcamp. Check it out and register for a bootcamp in your region today!
Update: The rollout of these enhancements for Premier and Unified Support customers is expected to reach completion in August 2018. Once this rollout has completed, if you attempt to open a support ticket outside of the Office 365 Admin Center, you will be redirected to the Office 365 Admin Center to open that support request.
As an Office 365 customer, it’s important that you have reliable support from Microsoft that is flexible to your needs so that you can focus on your business. In September, we launched a new support experience for Office 365 customers to provide this service. After hearing initial customer feedback, we’re rolling out improvements to the support experience in admin center for all customers and to extend the enhanced experience to Premier customers as well. For Premier customers, we also understand the importance of being routed to Microsoft’s Premier-specific engineers for the most critical issues and have added features to deliver Premier tickets to the correct teams right away.
The new support experience will begin rolling out to Premier customers in the beginning of April and will be available to all Premier customers by July. Other non-Premier specific improvements made to the overall support experience are currently rolling out to all customers.
The updated support experience includes the following improvements:
Quick access to support – With Office 365 admin credentials, customers can quickly open a support ticket with Microsoft by accessing ‘New service request’ under ‘Support’ on the left side panel or simply clicking ‘Need help’ at the bottom right of the admin center. Both options will open an in-product fly-out to create your ticket.
Intelligent self-help solutions – We understand that some support issues can be resolved quickly with the right self-help solutions. The new support experience uses machine learning to classify the information you enter about your issue and surfaces any relevant information that may help you easily resolve the issue yourself, from current advisories in the Service Health Dashboard to specific solutions pulled from applicable support sources.
Flexible support tailored to you – If you want to request support from Microsoft directly, you can easily do so in a way that makes most sense to you, as different issues may require different types of support. In the ‘Let us call you’ tab, you can add relevant attachments and notes to your support ticket and we’ll get in touch over the phone as soon as possible at a time that is convenient for you.
Based on customer feedback, we’ve also added the option to receive support via email. Under ‘Email us’ you can opt to be contacted via email to communicate and receive support from Microsoft.
While the experience currently supports attachments up to 5MB, we have heard your feedback that bigger file size is needed for more efficient support. We are currently working to bring you larger attachments for support tickets soon.
Comprehensive view of ticket statuses and history – Once the ticket has been submitted, you will be able to view the status and history of all tickets, with the most recent tickets at the top of the list. Customers can quickly see the status of each ticket and click each one to see specific details of service.
Once tickets have been submitted, you can provide additional information by submitting notes or updating attachments. However, ticket details such as description of issue, email address, and person of contact for the ticket cannot be altered.
Specialized support for Premier customers – As a Premier customer, you expect more focused support for your most critical issues. We recognize this need in the Premier community and have added the ability to indicate an issue as Critical, directly in-product as you create the ticket. Critical designation allows Microsoft to provide the most efficient support that is focused on your issue. When you indicate a ticket as Critical, we will route the ticket to a Critical Situation management team that will manage your incident communications from beginning to end as it is being resolved by Premier engineers.
Let us know what you think!
Your feedback is crucial to improving the Office 365 experience. We read every piece of feedback that we receive to make Office 365 support meet your needs for better productivity. Provide feedback on the updated support experience using the feedback link in the lower right corner of the admin center or give us feedback on an individual ticket experience when you’re prompted after the ticket has been resolved.
We built Microsoft 365- a complete IT solution including Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security- to enable organizations to create and work together securely. In that same spirit, our goal is to offer a unified toolset to manage and protect those organizations. In March, we announced the Microsoft 365 admin center as your central location for managing and monitoring applications, services, data, devices, and users across your Microsoft 365 deployment.
Today, we are expanding this integrated and intuitive admin experience to users of Office 365. Users of both Office 365 and Microsoft 365 will now have access to the new Microsoft 365 admin center. For Office 365 admins, this means a simpler experience that easily integrates with you other Microsoft services – all without giving up capabilities or control.
What to expect
If you’ve used the Office 365 admin center before, the experience will feel very similar. The navigation is the same, and you’ll have the same granularity of control over your environment. There will be no change to your Office 365 subscription or billing. As you add new apps and services like device management, those will light up in your left navigation pane. Most importantly, you’ll receive all the latest admin center updates and features as they become available.
New URL, same great experience
To access your new admin center experience, point your web browser to admin.microsoft.com. This is your new front door for managing and monitoring all your Office 365 and Microsoft 365 services. Your new admin center still includes links to all your specialty admin tools for services like OneDrive and SharePoint conveniently linked in the left navigation pane. If you’ve previously created bookmarks for the Office 365 admin center or any of the specialty admin centers, those will continue to work.
Over the next few weeks, we will be updating the admin center links across Office 365 to use the new admin.microsoft.com address.
More to come
In the coming months, we’ll continue to evolve the Microsoft 365 admin center to provide a consistent and intuitive experience across all your Microsoft 365 products. As more information becomes available, we’ll post it here on Microsoft Tech Communities. In the meantime, join the conversation on the Microsoft 365 Tech Communities forums and Twitter.
We built Microsoft 365- a complete IT solution including Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security- to enable organizations to create and work together securely. In that same spirit, our goal is to offer a unified toolset to manage and protect those organizations. In March, we announced the Microsoft 365 admin center as your central location for managing and monitoring applications, services, data, devices, and users across your Microsoft 365 deployment.
Today, we are expanding this integrated and intuitive admin experience to users of Office 365. Users of both Office 365 and Microsoft 365 will now have access to the new Microsoft 365 admin center. For Office 365 admins, this means a simpler experience that easily integrates with you other Microsoft services – all without giving up capabilities or control.
What to expect
If you’ve used the Office 365 admin center before, the experience will feel very similar. The navigation is the same, and you’ll have the same granularity of control over your environment. There will be no change to your Office 365 subscription or billing. As you add new apps and services like device management, those will light up in your left navigation pane. Most importantly, you’ll receive all the latest admin center updates and features as they become available.
New URL, same great experience
To access your new admin center experience, point your web browser to admin.microsoft.com. This is your new front door for managing and monitoring all your Office 365 and Microsoft 365 services. Your new admin center still includes links to all your specialty admin tools for services like OneDrive and SharePoint conveniently linked in the left navigation pane. If you’ve previously created bookmarks for the Office 365 admin center or any of the specialty admin centers, those will continue to work.
Over the next few weeks, we will be updating the admin center links across Office 365 to use the new admin.microsoft.com address.
More to come
In the coming months, we’ll continue to evolve the Microsoft 365 admin center to provide a consistent and intuitive experience across all your Microsoft 365 products. As more information becomes available, we’ll post it here on Microsoft Tech Communities. In the meantime, join the conversation on the Microsoft 365 Tech Communities forums and Twitter.
Microsoft 365 partnered with the American Association of Inside Sales to bring sales end-users content focused on key priorities for sales professionals.
Getting Organized with Outlook
Spend less time drowning in administrative tasks and focus on what’s important: building relationships with your customers, garnering insights, and delivering superior client services. Learn how you can spend more time on selling using Outlook effectively.
Enable Seamless Collaboration with SharePoint
The partnership between marketing and sales is essential. Learn how you can ensure you always have the most up to date content from marketing using SharePoint.
Draw Insights Across Your Organization with Yammer
Learn how to leverage the power of your co-workers: they have worked in similar industries, have similar customers and comparable challenges. Reach across your organization, to find best practices and experts using Yammer.
Strengthen Customer Relationships with Microsoft Teams
Don’t just become an email address for your customer. Create a connection using video calls in Microsoft Teams.
Optimize Sales Performance with PowerBI
Learn how to leverage data visualization to uncover industry and customer insights. You will make smarter business decisions using powerful analytical capabilities within PowerBI.
Discover content to empower effortless sales achievements in the Sales Innovation Hub: https://www.aa-isp.org/sales-innovation-hub
