BCUG Guest Speaker

Zuzanna Bickel 
of the Microsoft Store

"How Are We Doing – Micosoft Office 365 and Other Products"

MEETING DATE: January 17, 2014

Zuzanna is the Community Development Specialist at the Microsoft store located in Freehold. We knew from the start that she would be the perfect person to speak to us this month. We are going to start the new year with enough information about new Microsoft products to understand how cloud technology can work for us.

You have heard about Microsoft Office 365 (MSO365) and the trend towards cloud computing. You may have even won a copy of this great product during the December meeting. Either way, it is a subscription-based service and is conducted entirely online, if the user chooses. Another great thing about MSO365 is that the subscriber, you, has the ability to download and install a copy of each available MS Office program on up to five computers. Not only that, but MSO365 will run on all platforms, so someone with a MacBook can work on something and have it synchronize with their Windows or Linux machine. This makes it useful for those of us who need to make edits or create documents on the go, at meetings or away from home, on any Internet-connected computer, and have the files waiting when we return home.

In addition, the new versions are very fast and intuitive. I had heard about how the major changes were the applications’ ability to use contacts from FaceBook, and always smile when a friend’s familiar face shows up in an email message. I've been using Outlook for a long time, and it is an important communication tool for me. Another great feature is the Outlook calendar, which automatically synchronizes with my SkyDrive calendar, and keeps track of friends’ birthdays as well as my appointments.

My copy of MSO365 includes Publisher, which I've missed as a graphics tool, and I’m able to quickly and easily create flyers, booklets, and other items. I can then save them as a *.pdf and send them to others or use them elsewhere. This is a handy program!

Zuzanna will answer our questions and get us started using SkyDrive. There are many articles written about SkyDrive, but once I started using it, migrating from DropBox as I gained confidence with its interface, I have come to understand it better. Like anything else, I had to use it to learn it. SkyDrive is free to anyone, and even if you don’t use Microsoft products, you can use it.

Zuzanna lives locally and attends Brookdale Community College. As the Community Development Specialist, she supports local Non for Profits, EDU and Small Businesses by hosting workshops, camps, awareness campaigns as well as other events in the store and around the Monmouth/Ocean/Middlesex county area. and is looking forward to our continuing association at BCUG. Let’s come out and meet her and keep the momentum going as we learn more about Microsoft’s cloud services.