Microsoft 365 folder colors

365 OneDrive, Teams and Sharepoint folder colours

Use colours to help you find important or frequently used folders in OneDrive for Business, Teams, and Sharepoint.

365 customized folder colours

This option can help you pick out folders rapidly in long lists. Also, you can colour-code files to distinguish between content.

Click on the headers below to find out how to use this option for OneDrive for Business and Teams/Sharepoint.

Change a folder's colour in OneDrive
  1. Open OneDrive for Business
  2. Right-click on the folder you want to modify
  3. From the drop-down list, click on <Folder Color>
  4. Choose from the available colours.

change folder colors in OneDrive

Changing a folder’s colour in OneDrive for Business will only be visible to you. This is because OneDrive is designed to store your own working files. So, even if you share a folder to another user, only you will see the modified colour.

To change a folder’s colour so that the modification is visible to shared users, your folder would need to be stored in Sharepoint or Teams.

 

Change a folder's colour in Teams and Sharepoint

Microsoft 365 Teams libraries are housed in Sharepoint. So, you can change a Teams folder colour by switching the library into Sharepoint layout. The steps below explain how to do this. Remember that you need to own a folder to be able to change its colour.

Using Sharepoint

In Sharepoint, navigate to the folder where you want to make changes. Then, follow the list below.

Using Teams

To change a folder’s colour in a Teams Library:

  1. Open the <File> tab in your Group or Channel
  2. Click <Open in Sharepoint> along the tab bar above the folder list. You might need to click down the three dots to find the option.
  3. Right click on the folder you want to change or click the three dots in the folder’s row
  4. From the drop-down list click on <Folder color> and choose your new colour.

change Sharepoint folder colour

 

Summary

Customizing folder colours is a great way to help you and others find content easily, especially in large folder lists. Remember, you can also “favourite” a folder to help find your content faster.

Changing a folder’s colour in OneDrive will only be visible to you.

Changing a folder’s colour in Sharepoint will be visible to users who you share it to.

Since Teams stores folders and files in Sharepoint, Teams administrators can change folder colours by opening a Teams’ file library using <View in Sharepoint>.

Lastly, Sharepoint’s broader capabilities means that advanced users can automate folder properties including folder colours.

 

Outlook templates

Resend Message tool for email templates

<Resend message> is an easy method for creating and managing email templates in Outlook.

Template tools are not intuitively easy to organize in Outlook and require detailed knowledge. One option is to use Signatures to manage templates. Signatures can be inconvenient too when you want to save a longer of standardised emails this way.

Instead, use <Resend Message> to build a library of standard form emails to improve efficiency.

Click on the headers below to find how to use this option.

About Resend message utility

To use <Resend message> in Outlook open a previously sent email. Then, using <Resend message> Outlook strips the email headers from the original email leaving you with a draft email and subject header which only needs a new email address adding to it. before sending or scheduling as normal.

You can copy emails that you want to save as templates this way to a folder which you could, for instance, call Templates. Also, you could use Outlook Categories to tag emails in Sent Items as templates.

Use Resend Message in Advanced Options

To use the <Resend message> option see screenshot below and follow this workflow:

  1. Open the e-mail you want to send again
  2. Click down the three dots towards the upper right of the editing window
  3. Click <Advanced Options>
  4. Click <Resend message>
  5. Edit the e-mail as necessary
  6. Send as normal

Using Advanced options to resend email

 

Use Resend Message using More Options

Often, <Resend message> is available on Outlook message editor toolbar. Click on the three dots for <More options> and select <Resend message> from the drop down menu. At time of writing, <Resend message> cannot be added to the toolbar with a button.

Resend message using More options in Outlook toolbar

 

Summary

Outlook can be difficult to use at face value for some tasks like templates. Partly, this is because larger organizations rely on IT deparatments to automate functions like templates at a server level so that staff have ready-made presets.

Those same tools are available in smaller business that use Microsoft 365/Exchange/Outlook. In smaller businesses, staff tend to have to do more for themselves because server level presets are not usually deployed.

Using <Resend message> is the simplest of Outlook’s desktop options for creating and managing templates.

Change Office 365/email password

Office 365 help series – Changing passwords using OWA

Password security

It is good practice to change email passwords occasionally. Sometimes, ComStat may ask you to change passwords if we suspect that a third party has compromised your account. If you have forgotten your password, we can force a password change.

Users are responsible for their passwords at all times. If we force a password change, users should log in to their email accounts and overwrite forced password changes with passwords of their own. Good passwords include:

  • 8-15 characters
  • Capital letters
  • Numbers
  • Special characters

Email passwords cannot be changed using your desktop version of Outlook. To change your email account password, login to your Office 365 online control panel with your email address and existing password with a web browser like Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome.

There is more than one way to change passwords in Office 365. For instance, users can log into http://portal.office365.com and locate settings from the portal home page. Users are familiar with Outlook Web Access, so the tutorial here should be a convenient method.

Read this article first before you begin. Click open each step below to understand the steps you need to follow. If you need to contact us to force a password for you, get in touch with your usual network administrator or contact us using the information on our contact page.

Office 365 Home Page

Using your web browser, login to Office 365’s control panel at http://mail.office365.com.  Login with your email address and existing password. Your Office 365 home page looks like this:

 

Open OWA settings

Click open the settings icon on the right side of the toolbar at the top right corner of your screen. The seettings icon looks like a cog.select office 365 settings

Change password

Follow the 3 steps in the illustration below:

  • Click open Office 365 settings
  • Click on Password
  • Change your password and click submit in the last screen

screenshots for changing your password

Remember, you need to know your old password to create your new password, so you may have to ask us to force a password change for you. Also, changing your password will mean you need to update settings on any devices that connect to your Office 365 account, including desktops, laptops, tablets, or mobile phones. Lastly, you may be asked to authenticate your password change by verifying your mobile phone number and inputting a short code which your server will text you, so your mobile phone should be available.

Change Office 365 credit/debit card information

Office 365 help series – Updating credit/debit cards

Updating Office 365 credit/debit card details

This article explains how to edit or change the credit/debit card details used for paying for Office 365 subscriptions.

Office 365 subscriptions are paid direct to Microsoft on a monthly or annual basis by credit/debit card. Occasionally, card information needs to be updated, for instance when a card is nearing its expiry date. Sometimes new card information needs to be lodged with Microsoft if a card has been replaced.

Click open the sections below to find out how to manage your Office 365 payment arrangements with Microsoft.

1 - Log into Office 365

Information about your Office 365 account is kept in the “Billing” section your Office 365 admin center dashboard. In Billing, you can keep track of Office 365 licenses, payment history, and payment information which includes your active credit/debit card details.

Follow the steps below to find your way to the Office 365 Admin Center dashboard. If you use Outlook Web Access (OWA) to manage your email, and you already know how to login to services, you can go straight to the second image. If you do not know your password, you will need to contact us to help you reset your password.

Sign in to Office 365

Log into your dashboard my pointing your web browser to either:

  • https://portal.office.com
  • http://mail.office365.com

The landing page will look similar to the screenshot below. Enter your email address and password and click Sign In

owa_sign_in

Open the Office 365 Admin Center

Click open the pull down the tile menu at the top left of the page (see below) and click open Admin. If you have logged into Outlook Web Access (OWA) you will land on your email inbox, but the same tile menu is at the top left of your screen. If you have logged in using the portal.office.com, the page will look more like the example below. The example shows a fully featured Office 365 account. The tile menu will look different depending on the services you are subscribed to, however you will still have an Admin tile.

credit card2

Click open the next section to learn how to navigate to your Billing section.

2 - Navigating Office 365 Admin Center

The Office 365 Admin Center manages all your services in one dashboard. Information about your account with Microsoft is handled under Billing.

Click on Billing, and then click on Subscriptions to manage your credit/debit card information. Go to the next section for guidance on changing your credit/debit card details.

credit card3

 

3 - Update Credit/Debit Card Details

The Billing > Subscriptions page summarizes information at a glance about your account with Microsoft, including the licenses you are subscribed to, payment frequency, status, and forthcoming payments.

To modify your card details, click “Change payment details” and click “Edit” on the right hand sidebar which subsequently opens.

  • If you have a brand new card, click “add a card” to replace your old card.
  • If your new card uses the same account number, you may only need to change the expiry date. In this case, click “edit existing card” and make the changes.
  • Click “Save“.

This completes the process for updating an existing credit/debit card or setting up a new card.

credit card 4

 

Exchange Email – EOP antivirus/spam

With effect from September 1st, ComStation.co.uk is providing support network administration for EOP security tools for email.

EOP (Exchange online Protection) is a Microsoft solution for managing virus, spam, phishing and other malicious formats. Critically, the service is managed at the data centre for incoming AND outgoing email. Managing incoming email in this way reduces the risk of contaminated email reaching users’ machines.

Microsoft estimates that over two thirds of email transiting the Internet is junk, spam, or malicious. In the field, ComStat devotes significant time to repairing customer equipment compromised by users inadvertently opening suspect email.

EOP includes control panels for customising filtering, IP blocks, domain name blocks, and more. EOP also integrates with ComStation.co.uk tools for data leakage protection, enabling organisations to manage senstive information in outgoing email which might include regulated personal data, credit card numbers, other company information, etc. Invoking data policies in thi way helps organisations to educate employees. Systems can be configured to allow users to override system recommendations while logging user decisions, and also unilateral suppression of sensitive information (e.g. credit card numbers, passwords, etc.)

EOP does not manage over PC security, however is a game changing solution for end users because it minimizes risk of costly damage to buiness networks and machines. Also, because the security process is managed at the data centre, ComStat is able to deliver “clean” email not only to user workstations, but also to the user’s connected devices like mobile phones, laptops and tablets.

EOP was orginally developed to support Microsoft Exchange, and is more than anything else specialised software that deals with email. In this respect, EOP’s email protection services are often more comprehensively tooled than conventional Anti Virus applications, and is used widely by the world’s largest businesses.

EOP is included in ComStat’s subscription email services for business users. EOP can be provided as a standalone solution (£2.00/mo per user account, £20.00 annual) for services provided by third party data centres.

 

 

Reset Office 365 password expiration policy

Office 365 help series – Password expiration policy

Office 365 Security

This guidance applies to Office 365 Enterprise, Office 365 Business Essentials or Office 365 Business Premium.

User passwords expire on a regular basis in Office 365. This setting is a default established by Microsoft when tenancies are established. If you are a Global Admins you can change the number of days before users are notified of password expiration. Password expiration policies can also be set so that passwords never expire.

  1. Sign in to Office 365 with your account
  2. Go to the Office 365 admin center
  3. Go to <Support > PSecurity & Privacy>
  4. Find Password policy section and click <Edit>
  5. If you want user passwords to expire, type the number of days before the password should expire. Choose a number of days from 14 to 730.
  6. Type the number of days before users are notified that their password will expire, and then click <Save>. Choose a number of days from 1 to 30.

See Microsoft Office 365 Support page

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