Ask the experts about Microsoft Office 365 during our live Facebook event

Microsoft first introduced Office almost 30 years ago. That means Office has been around for a very long time. Personal computing would not be the same without it. Learning how to use a computer was pretty much equivalent to learning how to use those initial office applications Word, Excel and PowerPoint. However, the current version of Office is far more than just those three fantastic and ubiquitous applications.

I have used office throughout university and, of course at work (this article was written in the current version of Word). At home I have a subscription to Office 365 that I renew each year. I love that I can have 5 computers on my one account, so my kids can each have Office 365 on their computers too.  Unfortunately, that is about the extent of how my knowledge of Office 365 has evolved. I have not kept up with the newest features.

These features include:

1. The latest constantly updated version of their great applications: Word, Excel and Powerpoint
2. Outlook: I’ve been using outlook for decades, and love how it seemlessly works with the other applications in Office.
3. Great newer applications like OneNote: I used this at work for the first time this year for a collaborative project and learned that it is amazingly powerful at organizing big projects involving many people. It was so easy to get ideas from everyone in real time so we all could add our solutions to the problem. It really made working together on a project much easier.
4. Skype: I haven’t used any of the free minutes that come with my account, but my kids have used it for meetings with teachers of distant education courses they were taking. The teachers asked if the kids had Skype to do meetings and they knew they did because they have Office!
5. Cloud storage with OneDrive: again another feature I have yet to use, mostly because I have not learned much about it yet.

Obviously there is much more to Office than I have been using. Office is such a great value, though, so even with the limited set of features that I use I feel like I am getting so much from what I pay.  Yet I know that I could be getting so much more if I just took the time to learn more about Office.

I am not alone: there are many people not getting all the great value from Office 365 that they could be. To help us all learn more about all of the great features in Office 365, Microsoft and Best Buy will have a live Facebook event. You can listen to the discussion about Office and learn from the experts. You can also ask questions to get expert answers. That is really fantastic, but as an added bonus, everyone who asks a question during the live event will be eligible to win one of the many fantastic prizes that will be given away. The grand prize will be a Surface Pro 4 laptop preloaded with Office 365. This powerful computer that can be used as a tablet or a laptop, will boost your productivity from the moment you turn it on.

How to enter the contest

This contest is really easy to enter. Participate in the live Facebook event on July 5^th between 9 AM and 9:30 AM (Pacific) by posting a question about Office 365 on Facebook.  A panel of judges will choose the winners from all comments that are posted on Facebook during the live event.

What you can win

Judges will select 3 people to win a copy of Office 365. They will also choose one person to win a Surface Pro 4 with an Alcantara Signature Type Cover Keyboard Case and Office 365 preloaded.

This contest will run for the entire duration of the live Facebook event: begins at 9 AM (Pacific Time) on July 5^th 2016

Remember comments on the blog are always welcome, but they will not qualify you for this contest.

Good Luck