Getting started with Microsoft 365: Everything you need to know

Ed Hardie

Ed Hardie

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Everything included in Microsoft 365

From being basically just the three basic Office programs and a few helper functions, Microsoft 365 has grown to consist of around 10 programs and a number of services. Some are also available as free versions without much difference, but most are significantly more powerful in the paid version. Here are the programs and services that are only included with a subscription.

Word
Microsoft’s advanced word processing program has hundreds of features and can do most things with text, except possibly make it look good in print.

Excel
The world of finance would stand still without Microsoft spreadsheet software. There are alternatives, but the Windows version of Excel is by far the most capable of working with huge amounts of numbers.

PowerPoint
Presentations may not be as important to home users, nor as common in businesses as they once were, but they still have a place and a tool to create them: PowerPoint.

OneDrive with 1TB of space
Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service can be used either like Dropbox to sync data between different devices and the cloud, or as a fully cloud-based storage for files you don’t want to offload from your computer. With a subscription, each account gets 1TB of space.

Outlook
Tired of webmail and prefer a real email program? Microsoft Outlook is one of the best, even for home users. Confusingly, subscribers also have increased storage space on the separate Outlook.com email service — 50GB instead of 15GB.

Microsoft

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OneNote
If you’ve never tried OneNote, it can be hard to understand what it’s for, but it’s widely used in schools and elsewhere. The program is a kind of digital bulletin board where you can collect text, images, and other things.

Clipchamp
Microsoft’s equivalent of Apple’s iMovie — a simple video editing program that allows you to do a little more with all the videos you record with your mobile phone. For example, you can edit a holiday film.

Publisher
This desktop publishing program is a better way than Word to produce printed materials such as posters, leaflets, and more, although it’s not in the same league as Adobe Indesign or Quarkxpress. Available only as a Windows program.

Access
Databases. You might think it’s just for businesses, but in fact a database program like Access can serve as a relatively easy way to create your own applications. Like Publisher, Access is only available as an old-fashioned Windows program.

Foundry

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Microsoft Editor
A new AI-based tool embedded in Word and Outlook and available as a Chromium extension. Editor helps you write better by suggesting language improvements and spelling and grammar corrections.

Microsoft Forms
Helps you create and distribute surveys. Very useful for some, completely uninteresting for others.

Skype
Skype is not nearly as popular today as it was 10 to 15 years ago, but in one area it is hard to beat: international phone calls. A Microsoft 365 subscription includes 60 minutes of calls to many countries every month.