Office 365 provides the full Office Suite for all of your systems with single sign-on and synchronization with Active Directory.
Office 365 USGS Support
Office 365 Suite with Office apps is the new supported standard Microsoft Windows applications suite for computers running Windows 7/8.1/10 Enterprise. Science Centers and Offices should include the Microsoft Office 365 Suite with Windows 7/8.1/10 Enterprise deployments, as the standard implementation. A decision has been made to transition to a single supported version of the Microsoft O365 Collaboration Suite within USGS. This standard will include the Office Suite (the current branch of Access , Excel , Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word), Visio, and Project software. Visio and Project require an additional license. USGS considers Microsoft Office 365 (x86) the standard version for all OS’ in our environment. The x64 bit version of O365 is only needed to support unique application requirement.
Office 365 for Windows is available to USGS offices as part of the DOI Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (DOI MS EA). Under that agreement, USGS may use or upgrade to Office 365 on all Windows-based computers at no additional cost.
Licensing
The Office downloads on the BWTST and BUTST web pages are for installation on government furnished equipment (GFE) only, and require activation using your @usgs.gov email address. REMINDER: This should be done by the user of the system, not the SA/COUA/IT Specialist and the system must be on the DOI network or connected to VPN to activate. See Microsoft Enterprise Licensing.
As of October 1, 2019, the USGS is licensed to provide Office 365 to all employees including Emeritus, Volunteer, and Associate categories.
The USGS is licensed through the DOI Microsoft Enterprise Agreement to install Microsoft Office 365 Professional Plus (Government E3). With this Office 365 license, you can install Office on up to 5 PCs or Macs, 5 tablets, and 5 smartphones. If you are looking for Microsoft Office for Home Use, please see the following page: http://tst.usgs.gov/applications/productivity-software/microsoft-home-use-program/
See Office 365: Activation for more information.
There is a Visio 2016 Viewer. It is not included, but it is available as a free download:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=51188
There is no read-only viewer for Microsoft Project. For more information on Visio and Project, click here.
O365 Add-Ins
While Departmental approval is required for new add-ins, Bureau-level approval is required as well. The department is developing a list of approved O365 Add-Ins at O365 Add-Ins (sharepoint.com)
To request that a new O365 Add-In be submitted for approval, send in a ticket to the BWTST through the Service Desk.
Guidance on using approved Add-Ins is available at: Office 365: Add-Ins – USGS Technical Support Teams
Training
Some training videos have been put together by DOI. Please follow this link to access them. You will need to authenticate with your o365 account.
Microsoft e-learning courses are also available, click here for more information.
Evolve365 training: a complete learning solution for Office 365
o365 Learning Hub Sharepoint
Skillsoft courses are available in DOITalent, search for 365.
Things to consider before deploying Office 365
- Upgrading Visio and Project – All versions of Visio and Project before 2013 must be updated or removed before migrating to O365. Information on licensing can be found here. All Visio and Project will be converted to O365 Click to Run during the upgrade process and needs to be properly licensed.
- Using MECM to upgrade Visio and Project to Click-to-Run O365 for systems already on O365 – All Visio and Project will be converted to O365 Click to Run during the upgrade process and needs to be properly licensed. Applications can be found in MECM under \Software Library\Overview\Application Management\Applications\_DOI\Tier 1\Office 365 in the Project or Visio folders.
- Using MECM to upgrade to O365 for systems on older Office versions – Applications are available to deploy O365 to all systems running older versions of Office. All Visio and Project will be converted to O365 Click to Run during the upgrade process and needs to be properly licensed. Applications can be found in MECM under \Software Library\Overview\Application Management\Applications\_DOI\Tier 1\Office 365\ProPlus. If these applications are deployed to computers with O365 installed, the system will report into MECM as “Requirements Not Met”. Once a computer is successfully updated to O365 it will also change to the “Requirements Not Met” status. The reason for this classification is that a requirement of the application is that it is NOT O365. This is accurate and expected behavior.
- Default “Save As” path – The default Save-As location for O365 products is the users personal OneDrive location. The default location can be changed to the local PC manually (Open Office Application, Navigate to Options -> Save, and Select “Save to Computer by default”) or by applying the GPO “BWTST – Office- Save to computer by default – enforce” to your Users OU.
- Office 365 Deployment Tips
- The installation of the Office 365 application can be disruptive to users. Microsoft Office applications must be closed when the software installations take place. Please communicate with your employees and give them guidance on keeping Office closed during the installation. It is recommended that the application be deployed as “available” to allow users the flexibility of when to install the software. If deployed as “required” please schedule after hrs and ask that users close out of all Office software and log out before they leave that evening.
- The MECM team has created three Collections to assist sites in evaluated very old Office installations and all Visio and Project installations in their environemtns
- Office less that 2010 installed – Please review this list of systems as a reference to possible unique Office requirements within your environment “\Assets and Compliance\Overview\Device Collections\GS\ePatching\Applications\GS-ENT-Enterprise Microsoft Office Less Than 2010 Installed”
- Project installations – Please review this list of all Project installations in the environment to assure that systems have correct licensing before updating them to O365. This collection can be used to exclude systems with Project installed if needed “\Assets and Compliance\Overview\Device Collections\GS\ePatching\Applications\GS-ENT-Enterprise Microsoft Project Installed”
- Visio installations – Please review this list of all Visio installations in the environment to assure that systems have correct licensing before updating them to O365. This collection can be used to exclude systems with Visio installed if needed “\Assets and Compliance\Overview\Device Collections\GS\ePatching\Applications\GS-ENT-Enterprise Microsoft Visio Installed”
For information on and troubleshooting issues with the Mandatory Office STIG, click here.