I know when we got the upgraded MS licences in 2020 we got desktop outlook, which I had been using. Now however my desktop outlook seems to be read-only and keeps harping on about upgrading my licence, has anyone else had its issue/ know how to fix it? I get emails through, just cant respond to them from my desktop
The RAFAC Licence upgrade allows us to connect our RAFAC accounts to Outlook Desktop, however does not include a licence for any desktop applications, which you need to be able to use MS Office on a desktop.
Desktop MS Office is available as either a 1 Time Purchase or an Annual Subscription - Microsoft 365 for Home
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Thought the one-off payment route had stopped. Saying that I signed up for the subscription O365 version, five licenses, all with 1Tb of storage. Does me!
You can still get office 2019 as a OTP. Home and Business is Ā£249.99. (ninja edit as I just saw that you can also get 2019 Home and Student for Ā£119.99 OTP)
I just pay the yearly 365 fee as the biggest advantage for me is that then works (and syncs nicely) across multiple devices without paying for multiple licences.
Iām lucky enough to work for an organisation whose licence covers staff use on personal devices 
I get free access to a lot of the Autodesk suite on my personal laptop which is nice, but I cover my own office stuff 
Autodesk is less useful day-to-day tho
Autocad is the bane of my life at the moment
I havenāt tried to send any for just over a week but mine hasnāt complained about anythingā¦
If a reboot doesnt magically fix it Iād remove the account and then re-add it.
Looks like desktop outlook might be on its way out in the future anyway:
Most new-fangled type apps (things like Slack, and even Teams I think) are written in a subset of JS, or electron, so theyāre basically already just a webpage in a package that runs as a native app.
Iām familiar, itās how they quickly port them to also be mobile apps.
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If they can improve the āweb appā so that it works like the desktop application thatāll be fine.
If they stick with what they have though then, wellā¦ My displeasure knows no bounds. Because the web app sucks!
The problem - so I am told - is no one can make money out of a desktop mail app these days. Itās seen as basic infrastructure and bundled with the OS & in Microsoftās case given free to Exchange users / seen as a way to sell Exchange seats.
Then there is a tendency for companies to use proprietary features to tie you in, so 3rd party apps become lowest common denominator only.
I use Exchange and Google Workspace for work and my ispās imap mail and thereās no one app that gives me full control of them all.
Hopefully Microsoft and others will put proper functionality in the web app or allow 3rd parties to develop desktop apps if they wonāt.
Iām thinking about Thunderbird for mail, would be interested in others thoughts. And the name is cool.
Maybe OT but the worst thing about web apps (Teams being a good example) is background updates that move change or delete features without notice!
Iāve tried Thunderbird a few times over the years. Most recently again when we switched to O365 and old desktop outlook (2007) stopped working with RAFAC mail.
Iāve never really gotten on with it. At that time I went with eM Client. Itās not bad and is not badly priced for ācorporateā use.
Now though Iām back with Outlook 2016 and much happier.
The benefits in design and usability of desktop outlook are still a far cry away in the web app.
Not least of all the benefit that the desktop application doesnāt look as though it was designed by Duplo.
Iām in a bind because ānew outlookā doesnāt support on premises Exchange. In Microsoft speak that is any Exchange not on hosted Azure (mine is hosted with a 3rd party).
Oddly it supports Google Mail just fine.
Does anyone have a handy guide for how to set up Outlook for Mac? Iāve searched here and Sharepoint to no availā¦
Iāve got it working on Outlook for Mac on Catalina
Outlook Menu > Preferences > Accounts > + > New Account
And just enter your email address. Because itās a O365 service, Microsoft will automagically configure it and it should redirect you to the RAFAC O365 login page
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Iāve got Outlook for Mac desktop, thankfully my employers have licenses which allow us to have the desktop versions for home use as well.
Been very easy to install and run, presently have my work, private and RAFAC email all on the app. I am still on the āold versionā though as it tells me, as my private Yahoo account is not compatible with the new version, and I canāt be bothered to run another mail app.