- Here I am in Microsoft Outlook,
and if I look at the navigation pane,
folder list on the left-hand side,
below my folders, I have an expandable item called Groups,
that lists Office 365 Groups that are accessible to me.
There are a few that I've used more recently listed.
If I click More it will expand to an entire list,
and I can create new Groups right here in Microsoft Outlook.
So what is an Office 365 Group?
Office 365 Groups are easy to create groups
that work with more than 22 Office applications.
Not only are they easy to create, they're easy to use
and they're easy to administer.
Office 365 Groups have shared resources,
for example, if I look at this Group,
the Administrative Professionals Group in Outlook,
this Group has a team site, it has a file share,
it allows me to connect applications.
It has an inbox, a calendar, a document library,
it has its own SharePoint site, a OneNote notebook
and this particular Group also has a planner.
Not every Group has all of these resources,
but this was a Group that was created
in one of the applications, that I can use
to create Office 365 Groups, that is, Microsoft Outlook.
But I can also create Office 365 Groups in Planner,
I can create a Group in SharePoint Online,
I can create Office 365 Groups in Yammer.
And I would choose to create a Group in,
Outlook for example, if this was a Group where we spent
a lot of time working with email, with calendar.
If I wanted to create Group that was
primarily going to focus on sharing documents,
I'd probably create it in SharePoint Online.
Office 365 Groups are easy to administer
because we don't manage permissions independently,
we manage the members.
When we add someone to a Group and give them the ability
to create items in our Office 365 Group,
they then have access to the applications
that that Group is resourced with.
And I choose where to create my Group, Outlook, Yammer,
Outlook for example, Planner, SharePoint,
based on the intended use.
For example, if I have a Group that's really going to be
focused on email and calendar, I'd create it in Outlook.
If I have a Group that's going to focus
on creating documents together,
that would push me a little more toward SharePoint.
Because when I create the Group in the right place,
most of the resources I need are added automatically for me,
but I can add others as well.
As with Teams and SharePoint, there are different types
of workgroup spaces that I can create.
In Office 365 I can create private Groups,
available only to the members,
or I can create public Groups.
In Office 365 Groups,
the default is to create Groups that are private.
Office 365 Groups were created after Microsoft SharePoint
and before Microsoft Teams.
Even if your organization uses Teams and SharePoint,
you may still have a need for easy to create,
easy to manage, easy to use Office 365 Groups.