Me too. It would save a lot of work!

Thanks! 🙂

So, I volunteer at my church as the tech guy, and basically we use just the client apps, but I do have a question about licenses... I honestly don't know what they have for licenses, but I would like to know what the options are for something like a church, where 2 or 3 people in the pastor's family are the only ones basically, who use the applications, aside from on our projector PC... They all have some roll in the church, so it would be mostly church stuff they do with it, I'd reckon. I open an app and go to the account settings and I think it says microsoft 365, but I'm not sure, since we might not have been activated at that time, due to a reinstall. The legalities here, with so many plans, are very, VERY, murky, and I want to make sure we are covered if we ever have our licenses audited, or whatever process that might be. Oh, and as for workers, there are only 2 or 3 people who have paid positions, just to be clear

For a church, you might want to look at non-profit subscriptions as these will give you M365 licences for free or at a significant discount. I can't say whether your church will be eligible, but I do know of several in the UK that are using this. This link may help to get started with that: www.microsoft.com/nonprofits/eligibility A key point to remember is that M365 licences are for individual people. You are not allowed to share a PowerPoint licence between multiple users of a projector PC for example - each person would need their own licence. In practice if a lot of people share that role it might be easier for you to buy an Office 2019 licence for that computer instead of M365 so that anyone can use it, rather than requiring every person to have their own individual login and licence. You will need to check with whoever administers the programme wherever you're based, but last I asked here the guidance I was given was that a staff licence required the user to have a permanent role at the church (e.g. the pastor). People helping out temporarily (e.g. managing the projector on Sunday) could use a volunteer licence, which is still discounted, but not as heavily. You should direct more specific questions to whoever manages the non-profit programme in your area as the rules can vary by location and over time.

@@ProTechShow ok... We just use the one user account, but I'm not sure if it's accounts, it goes by, or actual people... Also, I don't know if location is a factor, but it's in the US... And as I said before, I don't know for sure what subscription type they have... Currently, I mean

If it's Microsoft 365 it is licensed per person (human being rather than user account). That's the first thing to look at from what you've said in terms of licensing compliance. Definitely check and see if you can use the non-profit programme in the US as it could save you quite a lot of money if you meet the eligibility criteria.

It sounds like the Business plans are probably a good fit. The Personal and Family subscriptions are not licensed for business use. I suggest signing up for a trial (check the video description for links) and taking a look at SharePoint & Teams. From what you've described you may find that SharePoint document libraries are a good fit for the way you're working. That way you have a lot more flexibility and control over permissions, document sharing, retention, etc. E.g. you could use retention policies to ensure files for old properties are retained (and can’t be deleted) for a minimum period if required. All the standard plans include email as well, so if you're paying for that elsewhere it's worth looking to move that across so you're not paying twice.

Thanks!

Thanks! Glad it's useful. 🙂

I've spoken to Microsoft's partner team several times, and most of the time they don't understand it either!

Thanks! If you want to suggest that to them... 😉

Yes, I 💯+1% agree. Even those who retail the license don't explain that. Thank you so much! :)

Glad it's still useful!

Where I've seen most confusion is the fact that people already understand "Microsoft 365" to mean "Office 365 plus other services". They've renamed some "Office" plans to "Microsoft" and haven't included those services. In the small business tier in particular, quite a few people have incorrectly thought this meant they were getting additional security services as part of their existing subscription when in fact they're just getting a change of name.

Thanks! Glad to have you. 🙂

Thanks 🙂

@@ProTechShow keep it up, more great tutorials and hacks 👍🏻

That's pretty much how they work!

Cheers!

You should be fine with the Small Business tier. A fundamental difference between the personal and business-focused tiers is the business ones have an underlying Azure AD instance to manage user identities (that's what it means by "work or school account") and security. Most of the O/M365 services are dependent on Azure AD. If there's anything you want to test before committing, you can sign up for a free trial. Just pick the tenant name with care - whilst it doesn't really make any difference, you can't change it afterwards!

@@ProTechShow Understood, I will try that. Thanks so much!

When you download Office there should be a link that says something like "other install options". From that you can choose different languages. Whilst I haven't specifically installed the family plan, I assume it is the same as the others in that you have a limit on the number of installs that can be activated concurrently, but they can be any mixture of OS / language. There's a link in the video description that should let you sign up for a one month trial if you want to test it first.

Thanks! I don't have it uploaded anywhere other than this video I'm afraid. The easiest thing to do is probably to make the video full-screen, pause it at the point you want to copy, then take a screenshot. "Print Screen" (PrtScn) button on Windows will put it in your clipboard, or Windows + PrtScn will save it to your Pictures\Screenshots folder. On a Mac, Shift + Command + 3 should do it.

Thanks! Most of them were named very similarly to those in the video last I checked, so the features should match. There is some complexity around volunteer/staff licensing though. I have a "tech for charities" video on my ideas list, although it's likely to be a few months before I get to it.

It is certainly confusing... It used to be that most of the M365 plans included Windows 10 Enterprise, but since they renamed them that's no longer true. Even so, Windows 10 Enterprise is an upgrade that assumes you already have Windows 10 Pro. I don't believe a full version of Windows 10 Pro has ever been included in any of the plans - it's assumed you got that with your computer. What you may have heard is that M365 Business Premium does include Windows 10 Pro upgrade rights. This lets you upgrade from Windows 7/8 Pro to Windows 10 Pro, although its usefulness is debatable as that was previously offered to anyone for free anyway. So, if you have Windows 7/8 Pro, and you missed the free upgrade, and you have M365 Business Premium (but not Standard), then you can use it to cover Windows 10 Pro on your existing computer.

This video is comparing the cloud services rather than the client apps. You may find this one useful to compare the subscription Vs perpetual versions of the apps themselves: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d6yClaRlmNKdmYk.html If you literally only need Excel then you can buy it standalone from the Microsoft Store. It is much better value to buy the full bundle compared to buying each app separately, but if you only need the one app then standalone is a bit cheaper. If you want the full bundle of apps (Word, PowerPoint, etc.) then you're probably after M365 Apps for Business or Office 2019 (see linked video for more info). The "Small Business" link in this video's description should take you to a page with Apps for Business. You can find Excel standalone here: www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/p/excel/cfq7ttc0k7dx

Thanks. Not sure if I've understood your question. Are you asking about deploying from the M365 Apps for Business install media, then using it with a subscription that includes Apps for Enterprise? I'm not sure I've ever tried, but Office can update from 2019 to 365 on the fly these days in many cases so given this is a smaller change I expect it would probably just switch to the Enterprise version when the person signs in or it checks for updates.

@@ProTechShow thank you for the reply. I will try to ask my question again. What is the end user missing out (features) when I deployed Microsoft 365 Apps for business to a user with Office 365 E3 licence?

Gotcha. I suspect the answer may be "nothing", because Apps for Business may well reconfigure itself to Apps for Enterprise after someone with an E3 licence signs into it, although I've not tested that. This page seems to have the full list of feature differences between the different Office editions. I'll link it rather than attempt to copy it here because it's a rather massive table! docs.microsoft.com/office365/servicedescriptions/office-applications-service-description/office-applications-service-description

Cheers!

That's a feature of PowerPoint, so it is included with any subscription that includes the client apps

When you set up the business plan (links in video description) you'll be creating a separate "work account" to log in with, so you'll end up with two OneDrives with different logins. It won't affect your original OneDrive, but it won't transfer tbe data, either. The easiest way to migrate would be to sync both to your computer then drag and drop the files from one to the other.

@@ProTechShow Thank you so much.

If you're a student you might be able to get an Office 365 subscription for free. Depending on your school/university's licence agreement, that free subscription may cover you for the Office apps on up to 5 PC/Mac, plus mobile devices. If you have an email address associated with your school/university you can try signing up here: www.microsoft.com/education/products/office

@@ProTechShow thanks for the suggestion. What would you suggest for a person with similar needs but not a student? I'm sorry if I'm bothering too much. Thanks.

It depends on the size of your iPad. If you've got one of the smaller ones (10.1" or smaller screen) then it should work fine with the free Office apps. In that case the question is do you want a subscription (365) or one-off payment (2019) for your laptop? I've done the 365 Vs 2019 comparison here: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d6yClaRlmNKdmYk.html. If your iPad's screen is larger than 10.1" then the Office apps will be downgraded to read-only unless you sign in with an Office 365 subscription that includes the client apps. Any of those subscriptions will allow you to use it on up to 5 Windows/Mac devices as well. If you need to edit on a larger iPad, then you're pretty much forced down the 365 route unless you want to pay twice.

@@ProTechShow thanks once again. Your insights really help. One last question. How does the office apps perform on an iPad and Mac OS in general. I have an iPad Air 3 and planning to get the Air 4 later this year. I mostly work on excel (heavy formulas with link between multiple Excel files) and PowerPoint. Do we get all the features and functions as on a windows pc? Since my iPad is more than 10.1", I believe office 2019 is out of the question (please advise) Thanks.

Barring the odd exception when I'm stuck, I only use the Windows version. The Mac version should be pretty close, but I don't believe it has full feature parity and I have heard it's a little less reliable than the Windows equivalent. The mobile versions are definitely limited compared to their desktop cousins. You could always sign up to a trial to test your scenario out? If you need to edit on a tablet >10.1" then you're going to need a 365 subscription. Given that will also cover your laptop, there's probably no point in buying 2019. That's assuming it's just you using the laptop... 365 is per-person, and 2019 can be per-device, so with shared devices it gets more complicated.

You're welcome ;-)

Tell me about it... Microsoft's own people don't understand it half the time. If I talk to 3 different people in their licensing team I expect to get at least 4 different answers!

Thanks 🙂

Thanks 🙂

Thanks 🙂

Cheers!

Best to go through your licensing partner as I haven't seen those sold directly (although if you Google it you will find some distributers listing them). The O365 variants are listed, though.

That depends on the app. Some are available as standalone subscriptions, others are only available as part of a package, and some can be bought as an add-on to upgrade an existing package with some of the functionality of a higher-tier package. The packages are better value overall, but if you just need one app it may be cheaper to buy it standalone. E.g. Exchange Online Plan 1 (standalone) is £3.00, SharePoint Online Plan 1 (standalone) is £3.80. M365 Business Basic (package) is £3.80 and includes both SharePoint and Exchange Plans 1, but is limited to 300 users.

Pro Tech Show many thanks 😊

Haha! You're welcome. Even the people who work for Microsoft's licensing team can't figure it out most of the time!

Thanks! I was probably a little crazy to begin with...

Thanks! You found the new version I see. 🙂