Things You Need to know about Office 365.

By: Umar Faeooq.
Dated: 01-Nov-2015
Email: hideurself_00@live.com

"Office 365" refers to subscription plans that include access to Office applications plus other productivity services that are enabled over the Internet (cloud services), such as Lync web conferencing and Exchange Online hosted email for business, and additional online storage with OneDrive and Skype world minutes for home.

What can I use it on?

The good thing about the Office 365 subscription is that it's one payment that covers whichever device on whichever platform you want to use it on.

Office now has a presence on every major platform. There are desktop apps for Windows and Mac, there are mobile apps for iOS and Android as well as Windows Phone.

We also now have the touch office apps that are available on Windows 10 which will, in some cases (like on 10+inch devices), require Office 365. Likewise to get full functionality out of the Android and iOS Office Mobile apps you'll need a subscription.

With the final release of Microsoft Office 365 (Home Premium), Microsoft has taken bold steps to change its game. The latest office suite is radically different from previous versions of Microsoft Office, from how it's distributed to what's included to how it's priced.

The good news is most of the changes are extremely positive, a large reason Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium edition remains an Editors' Choice here at PCMag. Even though change is good in this case, there's still a lot you need to know before deciding to buy or install the suite. Here are ten of the most important facts about the new Microsoft Office 365.

License good for five devices Paying a subscription fee for Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium does have one huge advantage: You can install Office on up to five devices, and these can include both Windows machines and Macs. Microsoft says you'll be able to install the suite on additional, select mobile devices "when available," which is a cryptic way of not promising apps for the big two mobile OSes, while still dangling the carrot.

Operating systems You can install Microsoft Office 365 on machines running Windows 7 or 8 (but not Vista or XP). When you install the software on a Mac running OS X (10.5.8 and higher), you'll actually get Office 2011 (full version), rather than Office 365.

Apps included The Home Premium version of Office includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Publisher, OneNote, and Access. OneNote is not included in the Mac version, however.

Free Skype minutes. One neat perk that's easy to overlook is that Home Premium subscribers get 60 free Skype minutes per month to call landlines in supported countries. Skype-to-Skype calls are always free, but for times when you need to dial an international landline number, you can use your free Office minutes.

Price and subscription model Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium is now being sold in the subscription model, and it costs $99 per year for an entire household to install (more details below). Some of the other versions of the suite are sold as a "perpetual" license, meaning one copy of the software is licensed to only one machine, but that license is good for life.

Must install all apps You cannot customize your installation of Office 365 Home Premium by choosing not to install some of the apps. The whole suite gets installed despite whether you plan to use, say, Microsoft Access or Publisher.