This week marks the one year anniversary of the release of Office 365 Home Premium. Since the release more than 3.5 million people have subscribed to the service. This means that more than 3.5 million people are using Office to its full advantage. They are saving their documents to the cloud via OneDrive (formerly known as SkyDrive). They are keeping track of their thoughts and ideas using OneNote. And they are creating documents using Microsoft Word. The Microsoft Office name has been with us since 1990 when the first version was released. Since then “Office” has been a household name in word processing, spreadsheets, and just about all office work. Through the years there have been over 15 releases. Each release has added more features and improvements to allow us to do more. Office 365 is the latest release that adds cloud functionality to allow us to keep our documents with us wherever we are. It also allows us to read and process documents from our mobile devices, and online.
As previously mentioned I supported MS Office in my full-time job. I like to think that I know it in and out. 🙂 This can be good, and bad. 🙂 But, over the past year my relationship with Office has changed. I am no longer working in a support role thank goodness. LOL! So, instead of knowing Office in and out as a job, I’ve been learning more about using it to keep myself productive and on track. Over the past year I have been focused on getting more organized. It is a needed step in running a business. There are always meetings, documents, and conference calls. Oy! However, we can’t work all the time, do we? We can use our tech skills for fun as well. That is where Office 365 can help.
5 Fun and Interesting Things to Do with Office 365
Share Photos with Your Family
Are the grandparents on you about getting updating photos of the kids? Using OneDrive (formerly known as SkyDrive) you can instantly share photos with family all over the world. Photos from your Windows Phone can automatically upload to your OneDrive folder. You can also manually add photos from your Windows or Mac computers. Not using a Windows Phone? Download the OneDrive app to your iPhone or Android and upload photos directly from your Gallery.
Create a Valentine’s Day Card
Did you know that Office includes a great program for creating graphic publications? Microsoft Publisher includes dozens of templates to get you started. With Valentine’s Day just around the corner why not create a personalized Valentine’s Day card for your sweetie? And you know how kids love to take Valentine’s Day cards to their school friends? Let them create cute, unique cards instead of picking up the cookie cutter cards at the drug store.
Make a Live Action Photo Slideshow
When we think about PowerPoint we think about meetings and presentations. But how about using it for something fun? Using PowerPoint you can create an awesome family slideshow complete with graphics and catch phrases to be shown at your next family event. These are a hit at family reunions, birthday parties, and wedding receptions.
Create a Media Kit for Your Blog
A media kit is a must for any blogger in business. Your media shows your experience, your expertise, your blog statistics, and your rates. Microsoft Publisher is a great tool for creating a media kit. You can customize a template, or start from scratch. There are several elements, borders, clipart, and more to help you make it unique and attractive.
Plan Your Wedding
Working on planning a wedding? Using OneNote you can create folders for each aspect of your wedding. You can then make notes and capture images of everything from wedding dress ideas to delicious wedding cakes.
These are just a few ideas that I came up with to help you do something fun with Office 365 when you are not using it for work. The full Office 365 Home Premium suite includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, and Publisher. There is an application to help you with most things that you need to get done.
How are you using Office 365?
Disclosure: This post is part of my involvement in the compensated Office 365 program. All opinions are my own.
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