Great news! We launched the new benefit for faculty, staff and teachers.  If your education institution is eligible, you can now provide the Office 365 ProPlus offering to your faculty and staff.

Here is a quick FAQ on the announcement:

Where can I send teachers, faculty and staff?

Send them to this link to download and install Office:

http://office.com/teachers

When can I order this benefit for my faculty/staff from my reseller?

This will be available for use on December 1st. Please ask your reseller for ordering.

Can I use this if my faculty and staff are already on Office 365 Education?

Yes, you can certainly complement your existing Office 365 deployment using the link above. 

Key note: If your Office 365 login/UPN (e.g.  samaccountname@school.edu) does NOT match your primary SMTP address (e.g. firstname.lastname@school.edu)   there may be a mismatch or creation of a duplicate identity.  The solution to this is during the sign up page tell your faculty/staff to use their Office 365 login name (UPN login) and do not use the primary email address. This will ensure a UPN softmatch of the existing Office 365 identity and avoid duplicate account scenario.

screenshot for existing Office 365 users – use their UPN/Office 365 login address on this page and not their SMTP address (in case they are different)

What is included with the Office 365 ProPlus benefit?

Faculty and Staff can now install the following 5 copies on any machine additively on 5 tablets of their choice (home machines/tablets, personal, work):

• Office 2013 Professional Plus
• Office 2011 for Mac  (and new Office for Mac when it comes out next year)
• Outlook for Mac (next generation)
• Office for iPad (full featured)
• Office for iPhone (full featured)
• Office for Android tablet (when it comes available)

See the Office 365 ProPlus benefit FAQ here for more information.

See my other blog posts on the topic here and here.

Where do I grab the new Outlook for Mac?

From your Mac, grab the new Outlook for Mac bits here. (note: PCs will show PC Office versions)

What are some new features?

• Better performance and reliability as a result of a new threading model and database improvements.

• A new modern user interface with improved scrolling and agility when switching between Ribbon tabs.

• Online archive support for searching Exchange (online or on-premises) archived mail.

• Master Category List support and enhancements delivering access to category lists (name and color) and sync between Mac, Windows and OWA clients.

• Office 365 push email support for real-time email delivery.

• Faster first-run and email download experience with improved Exchange Web Services syncing.
• Shibb/SAML 2.0 support

Does this work with my E3 license or the Office 365 ProPlus benefit?

Yes, the new version of Outlook for Mac is available with E3 plans and the Office 365 ProPlus benefit. It will not be available with an E1 only license.  See here on new Office 365 ProPlus benefit.

Can I run this side by side with my existing version of Outlook for Mac 2011?

Yes, however it is recommended to remove the older version of Outlook for Mac. See here.

Where can I find more information?

There are setup instructions for Outlook for Mac here.

I am having trouble activating Outlook for Mac or other install issues?

1) Check to make sure you have the locale set properly:

System Preferences -> Language & Region -> New preferred language “English” as default -> Region “USA” –> Reboot

2) If you have ADFS for Office 365 authentication, ensure that your ADFS server is properly patched. See here

3) Open a ticket with Office 365 support or visit Outlook for Mac support site here with your questions.

This is a popular topic I get with education customers.  I put together a quick scenario guideline for you:

What does Shared Computer Activation (SCA) provide me with Office 365 ProPlus benefit?

SCA allows you to install the Office 365 ProPlus bits on a machine/instance which is leveraged by multiple fac/staff or students.  e.g. student labs, RDS (Citrix/Remote Desktop) instances, classroom carts. See here on how to enable it.

Can Office 365 ProPlus benefit work with lab computers?

Yes, per the product use rights you are allowed to run the OPP bits on school lab computers.

Can Office 365 ProPlus benefit work with classroom carts?

Yes, per the product use rights you are allowed to run the OPP bits on school lab computers.

Can Office 365 ProPlus benefit work with Citrix/Terminal Services/VDI?

Yes, with the new Shared Computer Activation you can run the OPP bits on Citrix, RDS, VDI instances.

What should I use Office on volume license or Office with Office 365 ProPlus (OPP)?

There are various scenarios I put together where you might have to choose which version of Office to use:

1) If your institution has Office via volume license and OPP benefit then for dedicated lab machines use Office on volume license or Office 365 ProPlus bits with Shared Computer Activation flag enabled.

2) If your institution has Office via volume license, E3 SKU and OPP benefit then for lab machines use Office on volume license or Office 365 ProPlus bits with SCA flag enabled.

3) If your institution has Classroom Computer Carts and Office via EES and OPP benefit use Office on volume license or Office 365 ProPlus with SCA flag enabled.

4) If your institution has Classroom iPad Carts and Office via EES and Office 365 ProPlus benefit use student login with steps to switch Office logins for each student. Note: iPad does not currently have native user profiles therefore unique Office logins are required.

5) If your institution has Terminal Services or Citrix for labs or student/teacher daily use and Office via EES, E3 for faculty, and OPP benefit - use on volume license or Office 365 ProPlus with SCA flag enabled.

6) If your institution has only E3/OPP Office for faculty and OPP benefit for students then for dedicated lab machines use Office 365 ProPlus bits with SCA flag enabled.

I get asked by a lot of customers around what I can do with changing the password in the cloud via Office 365.  It is pretty confusing with all the different variables and it took me a bit to parse through the scenarios myself. I wrote a quick FAQ to help with your understanding:

Can I change my password in Office 365 if I know my password?

This depends on many factors such as where is the password sourced. If you have a cloud only account (e.g. Dirsync only with no password sync) you can change your password in the cloud as long as you know your existing password.

You will receive this when you want to change your password in OWA with a cloud only identity:

If you have an ADFS or Dirsync with Password sync identity it will not allow you to change your password in the cloud. You will receive:

Can I change my password in Office 365 if I forgot my password?

Currently, only Office 365 administrators can conduct self-service password reset (SSPR) on forgotten passwords for cloud only identities (note: it’s a good best practice to have admin cloud only identities in case ADFS or something occurs locally).You will receive an option such as this as an administrator:

If you attempt to change your forgotten password as a standard cloud only (managed identity) account you receive this screen:

The only option for standard cloud only accounts to change a forgotten password is to call into their IT helpdesk for a password reset.

If you attempt to change your forgotten password as an ADFS or Dirsync with Password sync active directory identity you will receive because the password is sourced in your local AD:

Is there a way I can change my local AD password in Office 365 and have it change my local AD password also?

Yes, if you purchase Azure AD Premium there is a new two-way password sync option available to you. This will allow password changes to occur in the cloud and then sync those password changes down to your local AD so the passwords are in sync.

See here for a feature matrix on Azure AD Premium vs. Azure AD free (comes with Office 365).

See here for guidance on how to enable Two-way password sync with Office 365 and Azure AD Premium.

Two way password reset in action with Azure AD Premium:

How do I change my password in Office 365 if I know it and I have ADFS or Dirsync with Password sync?

For this scenario, IT will have to provide an on premises mechanism to change your local AD password (e.g. ADFS in 2012 R2 now has password change page for workplace joined devices, change directly on a domain joined workstation, leverage a web page for self service, helpdesk call, etc)

new ADFS 2012 R2 password change web page

Alternatively, if you obtain an Azure AD Premium license you can enable two-way password sync (see above for enablement steps) from cloud to on prem Active Directory.

How do I change my password in Office 365 if I forgot my password and I have ADFS or Dirsync with Password sync?

For this scenario, IT will have to provide an on premise mechanism to change your local forgotten password (e.g. leverage a web site for self service reset such as with FIM 2010 R2 or help desk call).

FIM 2010 R2 SSPR on site option

Alternatively, if you obtain an Azure AD Premium license you can enable SSPR and two way password sync (see above for enablement steps) from cloud to on prem Active Directory.

Can I change the brand the password Login page for Office 365/Azure AD and the Self Service password reset page?

If you have a cloud only identity or a dirsynced with password synced identity you can brand the login page with a custom color/logo and contact information using Azure AD Basic or Azure AD Premium license. See here:

If I have an ADFS login for Office 365, you can also brand the ADFS login page. See steps here:

ADFS with Windows Server 2012 R2 custom branded login page

Can I use my local Active Directory Password to access Office 365 services? 

Yes, you can if you have enabled Dirsync with Password sync or if you enable ADFS federated login.  Both scenarios will allow you to log into Office 365 with a local Active Directory Password. One is a password copy in the cloud and one is a federated identity using local AD for authentication.

See here for more information on Dirsync with Password sync.

There is a name change currently being rolled out to all Academic tenants where we are changing the A2, A3, A4 SKU display name to E1, E3, E4 respectively. The good news is there is no impact to PowerShell scripts or anything functionality or capability wise so this is just a change in name only within your academic tenant. 

These are also the new names when you are ordering from your reseller.

Please see the SKU display name changes in the table below: