This week Microsoft opened up for a customer preview of the next major update to Office 365 – called Office 365 Preview. You can try it out here.
The Public Folders page is a new feature for Exchange Online introduced with Office 365 Preview. It provides an easy and effective way to collect, organize, and share information with other people in your workgroup or organization. It is not designed for Archiving Data or Document sharing and Collaboration.
In Office 365 Preview every public folder must live in a Public Folder mailbox. You will need to create at least one Public Folder mailbox before you can create Public Folders.
To create a Public Folder Mailbox
Navigate to the Exchange Admin Center (EAC)
Click Public Folders > Public Folder Mailboxes
Click (+) New
Enter a Name and click Save
Check the list to ensure the new Public Folder Mailbox is available
To create a Public Folder
Click Public Folders > Public Folders
Enter a Name and click Save.
Verify that the folder has been created (note - its has no subfolders and has not been mail enabled yet)
To create a Subfolder
Click on the name of the initial folder
Verify that the subfolder has been created (note its location in the hierarchy)
To Mail Enable Public Folders
Select the public folder and click Enable under Mail Settings
Click Yes at the warning.
Once the setting is saved, you can click Edit to configure the Public Folder
In the Public Folder window, note that several new options will be available, e.g:
Working with Public Folders
Open Outlook 2013 and verify that the Public Folders are listed at the bottom of the Folder Explorer
Note
UPDATE MAY 2013: New TechNet Content: "Migrate Legacy Public Folders to Exchange Online" - link
See also
Yesterday Microsoft opened up for a customer preview of the next major update to Office 365 – called Office 365 Preview. You can try it out here.
After you've provided your basic information the service starts provisioning and you are presented with the Office 365 Preview admin center (click the picture to enlarge).
Notice the links at the top blue bar (the global navigation bar); Outlook (Inbox), Calendar, People (Contacts), Newfeed (similar to Activities on MySite), SkyDrive (storage in the cloud) and Sites (SharePoint). The three dots is the More menu and the Admin menu will take you to the admin center or the individual services admin centers. The links will stay at the top of the window no mather where you are in Office 365 :-)
On top of the new simplified look and the improved navigation, there are so many new things to get excited about. For example, I’m sure you (like I do) will appreciate the new SharePoint Online and Office Web App experience. To illustrate take a look at the experience of creating, editing and printing (yes it there :-)) an Excel Web App file – without ever leaving Office 365.
Click the Sites link to open SharePoint Online
Click the Team Site tile to open the Team Site
In the Team Site click the new document link to create a new file (notice that the four Office Web App document types are there by default :-))
Provide a file name
Enter the new Excel Web App:
Create e.g. a simple table and a simple chart
If you'd like to print your Excel file or in this case a section of the file you can select the area you'd like to print
Click File to enter the BackStage and then Print (yes its there now :-))
A dialog appears asking you what to print - pick the Current Section option
Click Print and a new browser window pops up with a preview of your print and a Print bottom at the top left
And the print-out looks just fine :-)
The previewing experience
Files in document libraries can be previewed easily before opening them if needed. Hover the cursor over the three dots to the right of the file name, and you'll be presented with a series of previews to scroll through
If you click the three dots at the bottom of the preview pane you'll be presented with the options to Edit the file in the browser etc.
Stay tuned for more 'first impressions' of Office 365 Preview.
Outlook Web App now integrates the Office Web Apps into the attachment previewing experience for Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations.
When Office Web App attachment preview is enabled, users see an Open In Browser link next to the Office Web App document type in Outlook Web App. By clicking on the link...
...the user can open the attached document using the Office Web Apps to get a high-fidelity preview of the Office document in a web browser window.
Disabling the Feature
By default, this feature is enabled in Exchange Online. It can be disabled using the Remote PowerShell command Set-OwaMailboxPolicy Default -WacViewingOnPublicComputersEnabled $false –WacViewingOnPrivateComputersEnabled $false
Preventing Attachment Downloads
Administrators can block users from downloading attachments in Outlook Web App. This helps prevent users from accidentally leaving content on an unsecure machine, such as an Internet kiosk. Attachment download settings in Outlook Web App are managed through Remote PowerShell (Set-OwaMailboxPolicy Default -DirectFileAccessOnPublicComputersEnabled $false).
Office 365 is having a tremendous momentum. As a Microsoft Partner with customers looking at Office 365 this is the guide for you. It includes links to important e-learning, documentation, kits and other material intended to help you get started with your Office 365 practice.
You can access the guide here (SkyDrive).
Update log:
A lot of Office 365 customers are asking how to purchase additional SharePoint Online storage.
This is done through the Office 365 Administration portal if you are an administrator who has purchasing priveleges:
After purchasing more storage, your Sharepoint quotas should reflect this.
The Cumulative Update for Lync Server 2010 – June 2012 will include Microsoft Office 365 Lync-to-phone (Lync Online Plan 3). Office 365 Lync-to-phone is a pure-cloud calling service for those who need to work from anywhere.
With Lync-to-phone, users can make and receive phone calls to any number from their laptop or smart phone, via a calling service which is purchased separately from a qualified partner. Jajah is the first available partner (initially only in US and UK). Lync-to-phone in Office 365 includes only a subset of the full enterprise Voice and PBX capabilities of Lync Server.
Lync Online Plan 3 will be included in Office 365 plan E4. See Microsoft Online Services Use Rights for more.
Mobile devices are an integral part of the business environment. Employees are using their devices for web browsing, personal email, corporate communications and much more.
Office 365 supports the native ActiveSync features and policies of Exchange Server 2010 Service Pack 1, including:
The Exchange Active Sync protocol is licensed to a lot of licensees, including Apple and Google.
Mobile Device Management Tools by Microsoft
Should you want to extend the above with e.g. management of mobile applications from an Application Catalog consider looking into System Center 2012 Configuration Manager or the Windows Intune service. They both enable mobile device management in Office 365 via the Exchange Server connector, supported by Exchange Online (Office 365)
Third Party
In general, third-party applications can integrate with Exchange Online if they utilize the Exchange Web Services API and do not require software or hardware to be installed in the Exchange Online datacenter. Applications that uses the Exchange Server MAPI/CDO API, which is not available in Exchange Online obviously doesn’t work. Microsoft does not test or certify applications for use with Exchange Online.
See also: