Updated Office.com Portal Begins Rolling out for all Users

While we are all very used to using most of the Office suite of programs as stand alone software, many forget that with cloud based subscriptions the ability to work with your Office documents, email, and calendar inside of a modern web browser is a very viable alternative to separately installed software.

These web based versions of the various tools and services in Office 365 may not have all the features of their stand alone counterparts but they certainly give you access to your information when your main computing device is not nearby.

Earlier this year, Microsoft began working on a series of updates to Office.com, the default interface for Office 365 subscribers on the web, to make it more useful by incorporating easier access to recent files, folders, and other content.

These updates will now begin rolling out to all Office 365 users beginning this month thru the early part of 2017.

Some of the features that you will soon see include:

App Navigation

Image courtesy of Microsoft

The default home screen will highlight the most used apps/services by displaying them with larger tiles and other programs will have a smaller tile layout below those frequently used apps/services.

Recent Documents

Image courtesy of Microsoft

You will now have a list of your recently accessed files plus an option to pin documents you access regularly to the top of that list for easy access.

Calendar at a Glance

Image courtesy of Microsoft

Easily see what meetings and other obligations are coming up on your calendar. From this list you can jump into a Skype for Business Call or interact with co-workers in other ways.

Task Listing

Image courtesy of Microsoft

Quickly see what you need to get done, check off completed items, modify existing tasks, and add new ones from one screen.

According to the Frequently Asked Questions about this update the tile layout on the start page and the other items can not be turned off but the team is considering options to give the end users more options for customizations.

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