Understand Microsoft 365's Services

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Understand the different types of accounts available in Microsoft 365 and which services and applications are part of each plan. 

Quick reference

Understand Microsoft 365's Services

Understand the different accounts and plans available in Microsoft 365. 

Instructions

There are several types of accounts available to Microsoft 365 users. The type of account that we choose determines the tools and services we have access to. 

Microsoft 365 Personal

This is perfect for individuals looking to use the Microsoft Office suite at home for personal projects. It's a license for one person only and the account can be used on 5 devices simultaneously. This account also comes with 1TB of cloud storage. 

Microsoft 365 Family

If you have multiple people in the same household that all require access to Microsoft 365, choose the family option. This subscription can be used by up to 6 people and each person can use their account on up to 5 devices simultaneously. This account comes with 6TB of cloud storage (1TB per person). 

Business Accounts

There are several different Microsoft 365 business accounts to choose from: Business Basic, Apps for Business, Business Standard, and Business Premium. 

Which one you choose will depend on your needs. Microsoft 365 business accounts come with additional apps and services such as Microsoft Teams, OneDrive for Business, SharePoint, and Exchange Server. 

It's worth comparing all plans side-by-side to determine which one is best for you. 

Enterprise Accounts

There are 3 Microsoft 365 Enterprise accounts: E3, E5, and F3. 

Enterprise accounts are targeted toward organizations that need to deploy Microsoft 365 apps and services to large numbers of employees. They offer 'best in class' productivity applications along with core security and compliance capabilities. 

Sign In to Microsoft 365

Once we have purchased a Microsoft 365 subscription or been assigned a license by our IT Team, we need to sign in using the email address associated with our account. That will be the email address we used when creating our Microsoft 365 account or our work email address. 

  • Open a browser and go to www.microsoft.com or www.office.com
  • Click the Sign In link in top right-hand corner
  • Type in your email address
  • Type in your password
  • Click Sign In

Hints & tips

  • If you have signed into Microsoft 365 previously, you will automatically be signed in the next time you go to www.microsoft.com
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  • 00:04 When you're working in Microsoft 365,
  • 00:06 there are many different types of account that you can have, and the type of account
  • 00:11 that you have really determines the tools and applications that you have access to.
  • 00:16 For example, if you have a personal Microsoft 365 account,
  • 00:20 then you're going to have access to tools such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
  • 00:25 and Outlook, but you won't have access to some of
  • 00:28 the enterprise applications like Teams and SharePoint.
  • 00:32 And the reason why is because these are more geared to business.
  • 00:36 Now if you jump onto the Microsoft website and go to the products page,
  • 00:40 you're going to be able to see a big long list of all of the different subscriptions
  • 00:44 available for personal and also for business use.
  • 00:47 You can see a direct comparison between all of the different types of
  • 00:51 subscription, as well as what applications those subscriptions are going to give you
  • 00:56 access to.
  • 00:57 You'll also be able to find information about enterprise subscriptions on this
  • 01:01 page as well.
  • 01:02 Just click on the Enterprise link to check those out.
  • 01:05 Now, we're going to be looking at many of these applications throughout the balance
  • 01:10 of this course.
  • 01:11 But I will say right at the beginning here that this course is very much geared
  • 01:16 towards business, enterprise, or education accounts that allow people
  • 01:21 to collaborate together online using Microsoft 365 applications.
  • 01:26 Now, if you're looking through these different types of subscriptions and
  • 01:30 maybe you're looking at the personal or the family account,
  • 01:33 you might be surprised to see Outlook and
  • 01:35 Teams as two of the applications that you can access based on what I said earlier.
  • 01:40 One thing you need to remember is that with personal and family accounts,
  • 01:44 the version of Teams and the version of Outlook that you get are very different
  • 01:49 from the ones that are available in the business and enterprise packages.
  • 01:53 Now Microsoft 365 is set up and managed by your organization,
  • 01:58 usually somebody in your IT team.
  • 02:00 And you and your co-workers will have accounts that are linked together within
  • 02:05 your organization which in turn facilitates collaboration.
  • 02:08 Now if you already have a Microsoft 365 account, now is the time to sign in.
  • 02:14 So you can go to www.office.com and sign in there.
  • 02:20 Note that I have been signed in already this morning and
  • 02:23 if you have been signed in previously, then your browser will recognize that, and
  • 02:28 the process of signing in is a lot easier.
  • 02:30 For the purpose of this demonstration to make it more realistic for users signing
  • 02:34 in for the first time, I'm going to click on the link in the top right-hand corner.
  • 02:38 All we need to do here is select our account and then we will be prompted for
  • 02:42 a password.
  • 02:43 Again, note mine has directly signed in without requiring a password and
  • 02:48 that is because I've been signed in previously already this morning.
  • 02:52 It remembers me.
  • 02:53 Now another point that's worth noting is if you have multiple accounts like I do,
  • 02:58 for example, I have a business account but I also have a personal account as well.
  • 03:03 If you do have multiple accounts, you're going to see those listed
  • 03:07 in the top right-hand corner as well when you click on your profile photo.
  • 03:12 So it makes the whole process of switching between your different accounts
  • 03:15 super simple.
  • 03:15 You can just select the one you want to sign in as from that drop down and
  • 03:20 then enter in the password to switch accounts.
  • 03:23 And of course, you also have your sign-out link in the same spot as well.
  • 03:27 Now once you do sign into your Microsoft 365 account,
  • 03:30 you are going to be taken to the portal or the hub, or the homepage, or
  • 03:34 the start screen, whatever you want to call it.
  • 03:37 And this is where you're going to access all of your online applications.
  • 03:42 Notice over on the left-hand side, we have a menu bar that shows
  • 03:45 a number of different icons, this is where our applications live.
  • 03:49 Now, in that menu bar, we can just see some of the most common.
  • 03:53 If you want to see all of your applications,
  • 03:55 you can click on the app launcher in the top left-hand corner.
  • 03:59 From there, you'll see a wider selection of commonly used applications.
  • 04:03 And if you want to see the absolute full list of everything that you have
  • 04:07 available, then you can click on the All Apps link to see everything.
  • 04:12 And we're going to be working with many of these tools throughout the balance
  • 04:16 of this course.

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