Office365 – IT Connect

Studying for MOS Certification? Don’t Update Office!

If you are currently working towards a Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification and studying on your personal computer, make sure that Microsoft Office does not update automatically just yet!

Office 365, the Office subscription service provided to you by SMU, normally updates automatically on your computer. Since Office 2019 is now being introduced, some students have reported that after updates were applied their MOS practice exams in GMetrix no longer work! This is because the exam focuses on Office 2016 and is not compatible with newer versions.

Here’s how you can stop automatic updates so you can continue practicing for your Office 2016 exam: Continue reading Studying for MOS Certification? Don’t Update Office!

Duo Two-Factor Authentication Coming to Office 365

After the successful launch of Duo two-factor authentication for my.SMU, OIT will be moving forward with the next step in our effort to safeguard student and employee accounts. That next step will be to improve authentication for access to student email and other Office 365 services. We will do this by enabling two-factor authentication for Office 365. Starting at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, July 23, 2019, Duo two-factor authentication will be required to access Office 365. Continue reading Duo Two-Factor Authentication Coming to Office 365

Office for 2016 is Here! Learn About New Features.

The wait is over for both Windows and Mac users for the latest version of Microsoft Office: Office 2016. Along with a new look to better match Windows 10, it also has a few handy new features that Office 2010 and 2011 were lacking.

If you’re worried about getting a solid understanding of Office 2016’s new features and how they can help your work/study processes, we’ve got you covered. Through our partnership with Lynda.com, SMU students, faculty, and staff can access in-depth tutorials on the changes in this new version for both Windows and Mac. Just click on the links below, log in with your SMU ID and password, and you’re ready to go! Continue reading Office for 2016 is Here! Learn About New Features.

O365 and “Clutter”

o365-720p Last summer, Microsoft introduced a new feature for email accounts hosted in Office 365. The feature, known as Clutter, helps manage your inbox by filtering out the low-priority email. The email server keeps track of the messages you read and the ones you don’t. It then begins routing emails you are most likely to ignore to a “clutter” folder. While this seems like a nice feature to have, many important SMU emails for students are being overlooked since they are not in the inbox.

As a result, OIT will disable the clutter feature for all SMU accounts in Office 365 on April 27 at noon. Students who want this feature enabled can turn it back on. However, they should also make a habit of reviewing items in their clutter folder daily. To re-enable this feature, do the following:

Login to Outlook via webmail (office.smu.edu)
Click on the Application launcher and select Mail
On the navigation bar, go to
Settings > Options > Mail > Automatic processing > Clutter
Select “Separate items identified as Clutter.”
Click Save

If you enable Clutter, there are ways to help Microsoft learn what is important to you and what is not. Similar to using the Junk Mail rules in the Outlook client, simply right-click on the message in your inbox that is junk and click “Move to Clutter“. If a message is sent to your Clutter folder incorrectly, right-click and choose “Move to Inbox.” A review of the clutter folder should be conducted on a daily basis, however, to ensure you aren’t missing important messages.

Elevating Inside.SMU to SharePoint in the Cloud

As part of OIT’s efforts to improve services across campus, Inside.SMU, our internal collaboration platform, will be moved to Microsoft’s SharePoint in the Cloud service.

Sharepoint Online This change allows us to offer the latest version of SharePoint (the underlying software that ran Inside.SMU) to campus. It also provides you with additional features and a more reliable means of file storage and collaboration.

In the coming weeks, departments across campus will receive information on when their department’s data within Inside.SMU will be moved to the cloud. Usually, no action is needed on your part. If action is required, you will be notified by an OIT representative.