This page is part of The Toolbox by Danny Smith.
Although most remote companies avoid email for internal communication, we still need email for external communications. The vast majority of companies use either Google Workspace or Microsoft Office 365 as their main email and office systems.
The Office 365 Apps
Office 365 comes with a variety of apps, moist of which are available as both browser-based web apps and downloadable desktop apps. The most commonly used apps are:
- Outlook - Email and calendar system.
- Teams - Chat and videoconferencing systems.
- Word - Document editing.
- Excel - Spreadsheets.
- PowerPoint - Presentations.
Setting up your Microsoft 365 Account
It's worth spending some time configuring your Microsoft 365 account properly. As a minimum, you should:
Ensure you have a strong password set and configure 2FA as required.
Update your profile to include your full name and a profile picture showing your face,
Download the desktop apps (Outlook, Word, Powerpoint and Excel) and sign in to them.
Working with Documents
How to create and store documents
- Always create new docs/slides/sheets using your work Office 365 account, and always save them to the cloud not to your local machine. This means they can be shared with others just by sharing a link.
- Share your documents with others by clicking the Share button and choosing āPeople in <your company> with the linkā¦ can editā.
- Name your documents so they can be found. Think about yourself searching for a document your team member mentioned 6 months ago; you would not want them to have named it Discussion. Instead, name in a descriptive way. For example: Migrating all task management from Trello to Notion Q2 2020.
- Default to saving docs within a shared area of OneDrive or Sharepoint, rather than your own personal space in OneDrive. This sets default sharing and editing permissions so that anyone in the company can see and edit the document without having to ask you specifically.
Using Word for collaboration
Cloud-based work docs are great for real-time and asynchronous collaboration.
- Use comments to give feedback and small suggestions.
- Use comments to highlight when and where you want input on longer discussions.
- To make sure your collaborators see and respond to your comments, use
@NAMEto tag them (triggering an email notification) and/or message them on Slack. - Resolve comments when the issue/feedback is resolved.
