Did you know that with just a few clicks in Microsoft Outlook you can share access to your calendar with your co-workers? Just remember to make sure that the people you share your calendar with only have the permissions you want them to have! Sharing your Outlook Calendar 1. Open Outlook 2. Go to your Calendar in Outlook 3. Click "Share Calendar" or "Share" Note that the share icon will look slightly different depending on which version of Outlook you are using and the view settings of your application: 4. Select the calendar that you want to share By default, you should see a calendar named "Calendar" , this is your calendar 5. Use the "Calendar Properties" window to add people and control permissions Click "Add" to add people to have access to your calendar Once added, select a user and adjust what permissions they should have The user will receive an email invitation to gain access to your calendar 6. Once the person you have added accepts their invitation, they will be able to access your calendar. You can adjust permissions as needed going forward. To remove access, follow the same process to access the "Calendar Properties" window except click "Remove" instead of "Add" There's more you can do with calendar sharing and the feature is available in all current versions of Microsoft Outlook, including the web version. Click here to learn more about using this feature. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Multi-Factor Authentication is an essential security feature for every business. While not a "cure-all" for every security risk, enabling MFA will boost the strength of your company's identity security by adding additional layers to the authentication process used by your applications and services. MFA is feature available with all of the major cloud service providers. If you are using Microsoft 365, MFA is included with all Office 365 licenses. Depending on the licensing used in your business, additional MFA and identity security features are available as well. Setting up Microsoft 365 MFA on your phone or tablet for the first time 1. Install Microsoft Authenticator On your phone or tablet you'll need to install the Microsoft Authenticator application from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. Microsoft Authenticator from Apple App Store Microsoft Authenticator from Google Play 2. Log into the Microsoft 365 Additional Security Page Go to https://aka.ms/mfasetup to access this page. When you login, use your work email and password. After you login, you should see a page like the one below. 3. Configure "How should we contact you" default verification option We strongly recommend you Set "How we should contact you?" to "Mobile App" Set "How do you want to use the mobile app?" to "Receive notifications for verifications" This setting is a requirement for many of the modern features of MFA (such as RDS MFA) and newer security features like passwordless authentication. As an alternative you have options to receive a phone call or text message if your company policy permits these methods. 4. Click "Set up" to begin the setup process Note that the exact process may vary depending on the device you are using and the configuration used by your company. Open the Microsoft Authenticator app on your phone In the app, select add account and choose "Work or school account" If this is your first time using the app, you can expect to see permissions prompts, tap allow or approve as these come up If you see an option to "Scan QR Code" select that instead Point your phone at the square QR code on your screen to scan and add the account You'll see your account added to the authenticator app to your phone You may also see a 6 digit code, this means the account was added sucessfully This code is a backup method and only needed if you selected "use verification code" instead of to receive notifications Click Next Assuming you selected "receive notifications for verifications" you will receive a prompt on your phone Make sure you select approve Click Next You may be asked to enter a phone number This is a backup method for MFA in case you lose your phone or forget to move your MFA over when changing to a new phone Done! If you experience any issues or have questions, contact your IT provider to help! How to review and modify your MFA configuration When Microsoft MFA has been configured for your account, you can expect to see a screens similar to this whenever you log into an application or service that utilizes MFA: Remember to only approve sign-ins that you know about If you are unsure of whether or not you should approve a sign-in contact your IT provider If you are expecting a prompt and not seeing one, try opening Microsoft Authenticator on your mobile device to see if that triggers a prompt to show up To test and view your MFA configuration Log into https://aka.ms/mfasetup If MFA is configured, you will be prompted for MFA After logging in you will see options to configure MFA for your account Some of the options available: You can change your default MFA verification option Strongly recommended to set "Notify me through app" You can update your phone number and backup phone number This can be used as an alternate method to grant access (if your company policy permits this) Click "Set up Authenticator App" to add a new phone or device The setup process is the same as described in the earlier portion of this post Click "Delete" to remove an old phone or device It's a good idea to get rid of older devices that you no longer have Remember to click save whenever you make any changes! What if you don't see an option for MFA or don't use MFA in your business? Well, that's a problem! At a minimum, every core identity in your business should be secured by MFA. We even wrote a post about it at the end of 2019! Contact your IT provider to make sure your account and organization has been configured to use this very important feature. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

As we near the end of 2021, there's a good chance you are using Microsoft Teams or a solution like it in your business. Sometimes you may find that you don't want to have the entire Teams interface available to you, or you want to "Pop out" a conversation into its own window to give it focus. The "Pop-out Chat" feature is here to do just that! How to use the pop-out chat feature via the chat list Select "Chat" on the left side of teams Hover over and double-click the chat that you want to pop out into its own window There are several other "Pop-Out" chat shortcuts throughout teams. You can even type in "/pop" in the command box to choose a chat to pop out. You can learn more about the "Pop-out chat" feature here. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

A new function in Excel has rolled out for Office 365 Excel users called "XLOOKUP". This is a feature we've been excited about since its announcement in late summer 2019. We're excited about an Excel feature? YUP! This is a feature that will save a lot of time for at least one person in every business. It essentially replaces the function called VLOOKUP which was difficult to train new Excel users on, and even those more experienced would have to line their Excel tables just right to use it effectively. Here's an attempt to explain why XLOOKUP is so exciting... The Scenario: You have a list with thousands of members that you maintain. You are working with a vendor that also keeps a list of your members, but in their own format You are tasked with creating a list to see who is missing from their list and who is missing on your list Since it's 2020, you refuse to manually go one-by-one to review each member. Instead you are going use Excel to help you out. Now, with Excel and the power of math, there are several ways to accomplish your objective. However, to help me write this blog post, we'll focus on using VLOOKUP and XLOOKUP to solve the problem. You've already organized you data into an Excel sheet: Your membership list in Excel Their membership list in Excel So, with that lined up, you decide to make your comparison table. Because you know the membership IDs should match on both lists, you copy membership IDs from both lists, and remove duplicates: Now, there are a lot of different ways and functions you could use to get this information. But this is a blog post intended to show off XLOOKUP, so let's show it off! When using VLOOKUP, the problem was that you needed to "Count" tables AND the first column in your table. For "Your Data", that means using column 2 to pull the name from the table: We see Columns as "A" or "B", or by their name "Membership ID" or "Full Name" VLOOKUP sees columns as 1 or 2 Column 1 = Column A = "Membership ID" Column 2 = Column B = "Full Name" We use column 2 because VLOOKUP counts columns to pull the data VLOOKUP will not work with "Their Data" without re-arranging the table or using different functions because the Membership ID is not in left-most column: VLOOKUP uses the left most column The left most column of "Their Data" is "Their ID" We need "Membership ID" since that's the number we are looking up We get a "N/A" error because of this So what do we do? XLOOKUP to the rescue! It doesn't have this limitation and will figure things out for you! Using the XLOOKUP function equates to saying: "Hey Excel, please check to see if this exists in this . If it does, pull the value from . If it doesn't then do ." For the purpose of our comparison list, we want it to say: "Hey Excel, check to see if this Membership ID exists on this list. If it does, grab the name of the person that has the Membership ID. Then do this for everything on our list." This ends up pulling exactly what we want: XLOOKUP saves the day! No data re-arranging. No risks of accidentally tampering the data from copying or moving things around! From here, you can continue with making your sheet. Since XLOOKUP is going to work without messing with any of the data, you set up your sheet with formatting so it can be used as a template for future comparisons: Pretty cool, right? We've worked with numerous people over years to help with scenarios just like this one! This is just one of many scenarios where XLOOKUP can save you time and help you do your job more efficiently. It's also an example of how having a great IT service provider can help your business modernize and evolve its processes. IT is no longer about just making sure your computers are working and that you don't have a virus (That's still important!). It's about designing, implementing, and maintaining a technology infrastructure that enables you, your staff, and your business to take advantage of new features like XLOOKUP. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

For Office 365 users, you can easily add animations to any PowerPoint presentation using the "Morph" feature: Select a slide you want to "Morph" Select Transitions -> Morph PowerPoint will shift and animate the components of your slide for you! You can learn more about morph here.

Here's a quick tip on how to easily insert pictures into your Word document. Click "Insert" Click "Online Pictures" Search for an image Select the image Insert! Save even more time by searching for "online pictures" in the search bar!

An email, texting, or sending a chat message are great ways to communicate. However, sometimes nothing can beat the power or efficiency of actually talking to someone with your voice. The phone system used by your business is the core pillar for communication. If you have an older system, you are likely going to encounter limitations keeping you from evolving your processes and is potentially very expensive compared to more modern options. Here are a few signs that you have an old phone system: You are paying too much A modern phone system is going to cost $15 to $35+ per user, per month. That's it. Basic vendor support is typically included, but real business support from a provider can add to that cost. The variables there are the number of people in your business and the types of phones/features you plan on using. Modern phone systems use a technology called "Voice Over IP" (VOIP). This technology essentially uses networking to handle phone calls instead of physical lines running into your office. Since the introduction of VOIP many years ago, phone systems have become more affordable. As phone systems have become more IT focused, the cost to support them have come down greatly! Take a look at your phone bill, if you think you are paying too much, you likely have an old phone system! You need to be next to your phone to answer a call The way we work is changing. More often, there are people in a business who are not tethered to their desk. All modern phone systems are designed to help your business embrace mobility. This means having features that allow a phone call to "ring" your desk phone, an app on your cell phone, or even your actual cell phone number, all at the same time. It also means that your phone won't be tied to a VPN or piece of bridging hardware to function. This enables modern workplace habits. It makes it easier to setup home, branch, and temporary offices. It allows you accommodate special circumstances with staff as well as unique situations with your various teams. If your phones only work while you are in the office, good chance you have an old phone system! It takes a long time to make changes Older systems are more complicated to work with. In some situations, your phone vendor might not even be able to remotely make changes. They might need to come physically to your office to update settings or configure how your system works. In a modern system, most configuration changes take a few minutes and can be done in the cloud. And, while your support team handling these changes makes things easier, some settings you can do yourself with little to no training! By design, this reduces the costs to support the system. If you find changes in your system are taking too long or your support team is struggling to fulfill requests, good chance you are on an old phone system! Your phone system is in your office A typical business doesn't need to have physical phone servers or phone hardware in their office, yet, if you have an older phone system, you likely have at least a few pieces of equipment. Most modern phone systems are based in the cloud. Your website is probably in the cloud. Your email is in the cloud (or it should be!). You hopefully have cloud backups as part of your IT backup strategy. Your phone system should be in the cloud too. No server hardware in the office that needs to be maintained or backed up. Whether the internet or power in your office is working, your customers/clients can still call the system. If you have a phone system physically in your office, good chance you have an old phone system! But wait, aren't you an IT Services Company? Aevo is not a phone system company, so why are we talking about phones? Our focus is IT, and the definition of IT is changing. Collaboration in a business is greatly enhanced by great technology solutions. As phone systems have modernized over the years, new systems integrate with your identity and technology workflows. In a modern business, phone systems are not in a silo away from your IT solutions and team, they are incorporated into your greater infrastructure and solutions design. And that's before even considering all the cool features (video meetings, screen sharing, calendar syncing, e-faxing, and more!) that only come from a modern communication solutions! Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

One of the largest challenges with adopting modern communications into your business is helping people build the habits of actually using it. There are several tools within Microsoft Teams to help you build those habits and bridge communications between email and chat. You may have read our post about sharing an e-mail from Outlook to Teams, but did you know you can share from Teams to Outlook? This feature lets you send an email notification to someone to invite them to participate in a conversation in teams. It puts that person a "click away" from being able to respond. How to share to Outlook from Teams 1. In Teams, move your mouse to the top right of a conversation Select the "..." in a conversation 2. Select "Share to Outlook" 3. Fill out the email prompt with who you want to share the conversation with 4. Click "Send" to share the conversation 5. An email will be sent to the recipient with a copy of the conversation and a link to the conversation inside of Teams. (Note that they must be a member of the team in order to join the conversation!) What does the recipient see? The recipient receives an email that looks like this: If they click "Go To Teams" on the bottom right, it will open Teams and take them directly to the conversation: Pretty cool right? This is a feature that you should have available to you today, if you don't see it, contact your IT support to have it enabled. Also, you can learn more about this feature here. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Built into Microsoft Word is a way to quickly add filler text into your document. This can be very useful when you are testing out layouts or want to see how formatting could look when you are putting together a template. Adding random filler / placeholder text into Word Select an area where you want to add text Type in "=rand()" Press Enter You can also use =lorem() for different filler text. Adding a number in between the parentheses ( e.g. "=rand(5)" ) will adjust the number of paragraphs that are generated. Not using word? Here's a quick and easy way to generate text to use in any application. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Microsoft Quick Assist is very helpful and often forgotten remote support tool built right into Windows 10. Quick Assist lets you set up a secure and temporary screen share and remote control session from one computer to another. Ever get a call from your Grandma at 7 AM on a weekend because she is having problems printing a coupon from her email for a local grocery store and she needs to print it out "ASAP" but she can't find the email on her computer and you can't talk her through searching for "Mariano's Sale" because she can't find "The Google" ? Quick Assist to the rescue! It can also be used by IT professionals as a way to provide remote support when a more robust tool is not available. Very useful if you find yourself in a pickle! How to provide support using Quick Assist Run "Quick Assist" (Click start and type "Quick") Select "Assist another person" You might be prompted to sign in with a MS/365 account if you haven't already A code will be generated, give this code to the person you want to connect to How to share your screen with Quick Assist Run "Quick Assist" (Click start and type "Quick") Enter the code provided by your helper Click Share Screen Verify that the person connecting is your helper, then click "Allow" On the top center of your screen you can control and disconnect the session Pretty cool right!? To learn more about Quick assist, click here. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Almost a year ago we wrote an article about the future of task management in your business. In that article we talked about some of the challenges related to managing the various tasks that might be on your plate as well as how technology might help you overcome those challenges using Microsoft 365. Well, it's 2021 now and several of the features that were coming now exist! Let's talk about some of the features designed to help you keep your tasks organized. So what's a Task? The Webster definition of the word Task is "a piece of work to be done or undertaken". The scope of a task can range drastically in size, but it's ultimately a reminder to get something done. In the Microsoft 365 universe, at a minimum, a task has a title or subject and is saved into a task list. That task list might be your own private list, or it might be a list you share with others in your organization. A Task at its core, is like a Post-It and the Task List is where you decide to stick your Post-It. However, unlike a Post-It, you can see your tasks wherever you are. And, when needed, you can do a whole lot more by adding reminders, notes, and even checklists to your task. Once you build the habit of using them, Tasks enable you to organize chaos in a very efficient and scalable way. Tasks are accessible via Outlook, Teams, and To-Do. Apps to view these tasks exist on PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, and the web: Creating a task for yourself In your task list With recent updates to Microsoft 365, a task now synchronizes across your preferred application. Want to be able to use everything in one app? Use Teams! Do you live inside Outlook and don't want to use anything else? Use Outlook! Want to have a separate application that focuses purely on Tasks? Use To-Do! You can use one or all of them, the task itself is synchronized and saved so you have the same task lists regardless of what app you prefer to use. Keep in mind that some of the newer features of Tasks don't currently work with Outlook, but the core components of a task will sync without issue. We are huge fans of Microsoft Teams, so we will use Teams in our demo: Select "Tasks By Planner and To Do" in Teams (If you don't see this, select "..." to see the option to open Tasks in Teams) Select Tasks Select New Task or "Add a Task" Enter a Name for Your Task Once your task is created, you can select the task to add more details if desired: The end result is that you have a task created in your task list, with notes that matter to you, and a reminder set so you don't forget. At any time, with just a couple of clicks you can see all of your tasks in front of you and make edits as needed. You can even pull up your tasks on your mobile device, so they are with you wherever you go. What if you wanted to share tasks with others? Built into Tasks in Microsoft 365 is the ability to share tasks with ease using Microsoft Planner. When you create a Team, that Team also has a Planner. It's been there for a while now and you might not have even seen it! Microsoft Planner is basically a Task List for your Team. When you create a task in Planner, the task has additional features enabled that let you organize that task amongst your fellow Team members. Anyone that belongs to the Team can view the list, its tasks, and collaborate: When inside planner, the task itself adds new components that can be utilized by the team that don't exist in a task saved to your tasks list. Several new components are added: Ability to organize tasks into "buckets" for better organization Add additional attachments such as files, pictures, and links to other content Add comments to tasks that are visible by everyone in the team Set Start and End dates to show in the Planner Calendar for that Team Show progress statuses for individual tasks Assign users to a task so you can track who should be working on which task Add labels to categorize different types of tasks There are tons of other features, you can read more here Using Planner transforms a basic task into a tool to organize your Team. This could be as simple as a group "To-Do List" to help with different tasks that pop-up throughout the week. Or, it could be a tool to organize small projects, ideas, and/or objectives for your department and team. Cool. What are some use cases for this though? Much like OneNote , there are seemingly unlimited use cases for Tasks and Planner. To help, here are a few different use cases we have recently seen. A few use cases for tasks: Shopping and Gift Lists Routine Business Tasks Tracking personal and company objectives Reminders about Flagged Emails or Follow-ups Literally any time you would otherwise create a post-it :) Use cases for using tasks with Planner: Organizing ideas for the company amongst the executive team Putting together a high level project plan Managing department or team objectives and goals Evolving task delegation within your company Event Management and Task tracking Streamlining internal progress meetings So what's the downside here? With all these features, you'd think the cost would be the main downside. Good chance you are already paying for it as everything we just talked about is included in most 365 licenses. The real downsides from from the challenges that come from introducing new technology to your workflow. We've seen two main challenges with introducing Tasks (or really anything) into your company workflow: 1. Change is difficult It takes time to build new habits. We've seen some people takes months to break the "Post-it" habit while others moved on within days. Training is an essential component to evolving your team's workflow. Learning how to use Tasks is easy, but deciding on how you and your business will use it can sometimes add more to the conversation. Gotta just use it! This may sound silly, but it's one thing to see the benefits and decide to move forward, and another to actually using the new technology. The more you use it, the easier it is to build habits that let you benefit from it. 2. Your IT Infrastructure needs to support a great experience Your Microsoft 365 environment and processes needs to align with your business. This is a combination of configuration, training, and design that lines up with what you expect from technology in your organization. The network in your environment needs to be secure and efficient. This enables a safe and fast experience with the cloud components of the 365 service. Reliable and capable computers are an essential part to any great IT experience. If your machines aren't up to date, secured, and maintained, that could cause issues while trying to introduce any new technology. Wrapping up This entire post is really about evolving how you manage tasks so that you can do more. Modernizing task management enables you to be more efficient, more organized, and more in sync with your workflow. It's a key component to your Digital Transformation. Everything we talked about in this blog post is available for you to test out today. If a feature isn't available, contact your IT support to have it enabled! While we think Microsoft 365's task management tools are going to be an excellent solution for most organizations, it might not be an option for you. You'll find plenty of alternatives out there (Using Google Workplace? Check out Google Tasks!) that can help you evolve task management in your organization. Depending the business software used in your environment, you might even find a good fit with your ticketing system or ERP. Remember, using every feature isn't a requirement to take steps forward, the best solution is typically easy to use, aligns with your business goals, and integrates with your IT infrastructure. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request at www.aevotec.com or email info@aevotec.com.

Microsoft recently announced a new way to view changes made to your excel sheets on the web. The new feature lets you identify changes to your worksheet, including calculations! Using "Show Changes" in Excel for Web: Click "Review" Select "Show Changes" Use the "Changes" pane on the right side to view and navigate or Search for "Show Changes" in the Excel Search Bar Use the "Changes" pane on the right side to view and navigate Microsoft recently announced a new way to view changes made to your excel sheets on the web. The new feature lets you identify changes to your worksheet, including calculations! You can even click the filter icon to help you locate what you are looking for. Just remember, you'll only be able to see changes made in the last 60 days, otherwise you'll need to reach out to your IT resource to restore from a backup! To learn more about this feature, including videos on how to use it, click here! Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request or email info@aevotec.com.

Connecting to a conference call or webinar only to find out nobody can hear you (or you can't hear anyone) can be frustrating! As your device could be connected to any number of speakers, microphones, TVs, projectors, and wireless headsets, it's not uncommon for your conferencing application to not be sure which device should be used. Did you know there is a quick and easy way to test your audio built right into Microsoft Teams? Making a Test Call In Microsoft Teams Open Teams Select your profile picture on the top right Click Settings Click Devices Review your Speaker and Microphone settings Make sure your speaker is set to the device you want audio to come out of Make sure your Microphone is set to the device you will be speaking into Click "Make a test call" In a test call, once connected, you can speak and then within seconds hear what you said played back to you If everything sounds great, you are good to go! If not, make sure you have the right speaker and microphone set. Also, make sure your devices are turned on and are not muted. Click here to learn more about Teams Test Calls and Device Settings. Interested in having a conversation about technology in your business? Send in a contact request or email info@aevotec.com.