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Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365)

This article is for FHDA employees and students. Microsoft 365 (formerly called Office 365) is the district's suite of online productivity software — Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and OneDrive cloud storage, all usable from a web browser on any computer. Employees also get their district email and calendar through it. Here's what's included, how to sign in, and where to find real training when you want to go deeper.

What you get

  • Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote in the browser — create and edit documents from any location without installing software.
  • OneDrive cloud storage that you can access from anywhere. Students get up to 1 TB; [confirm current OneDrive storage allotment for employees — the old ETS page says "unlimited," which Microsoft no longer offers].
  • Sharing controls — share documents with people inside and outside FHDA and control who can view or edit each file.
  • Outlook email and calendar for employees (see Accessing your Employee Email) and for students who have requested a college email address (see Student College Email Accounts).
  • Your account may include additional Microsoft apps such as Teams and Viva Engage. [Confirm which apps are enabled for district and student accounts.]

Sign in — employees

  1. Log in to MyPortal and go to your staff applications.
  2. Click the Office 365 tile. Your Microsoft 365 home page opens with your apps.

You can also go directly to microsoft365.com and click the sign-in or profile icon at the top right. When Microsoft asks for your email, enter your campuswide ID followed by @fhda.edu (for example, [email protected]) — not your regular email address — and you'll be redirected to the FHDA login page to enter your MyPortal ID and password.

Sign in — students

Current De Anza students automatically have a free Microsoft 365 subscription — there's nothing to request unless you also want a college email address, which is a separate step.

  1. Log in to MyPortal with your 8-digit CWID and password.
  2. Find the Collaboration Tools card and click Microsoft 365.
  3. If you don't see the tile, sign in at microsoft365.com instead, entering your CWID followed by @fhda.edu at the Microsoft sign-in box to reach the MyPortal login page.

[Confirm whether Foothill students receive the same Microsoft 365 benefit — the source page is De Anza–specific.]

Keeping your student access

  • You must be currently registered as a student, taking at least one course.
  • Access continues through breaks as long as you're registered for the next quarter.
  • If you don't register for the next quarter, your license expires after the second week of the following quarter, and with it your access to the apps and your OneDrive storage.

Back up your files before your account ends. When a student license expires — or an employee leaves the district — everything stored in OneDrive becomes unreachable. Copy anything you need to your own storage device or personal cloud account while you still have access.

Find your way around

  • The app launcher (the grid of nine dots at the top left) switches between Word, Excel, Outlook, OneDrive, and your other apps from anywhere in Microsoft 365.
  • The home page shows your recent documents and files shared with you, with a search bar at the top that finds files, people, and content across your account.
  • Click Create (or an app's New button) to start a blank document, workbook, or presentation — it saves automatically to your OneDrive as you work.
  • To share a file, open it and click Share at the top right, then choose whether recipients can view or edit.
  • Your profile icon at the top right is where you sign out or switch accounts.

Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) notifications

The district's Viva Engage communities carry announcements and group discussions. If you aren't receiving email notifications when someone posts, adjust your notification settings: open Viva Engage from the app launcher, click the Settings gear at the top right, choose Edit settings, open the notifications section for the Foothill DeAnza CCD network, check the events and communities you want email for, and click Save. [Confirm these steps against the current Viva Engage interface — the source guide shows the retired Yammer layout.]

Go deeper: training resources

This article covers the basics; for real training, use these:

Get help

Employees: submit a ticket at helpdesk.fhda.edu or call the ETS Call Center at (408) 864-8324 (x8324), and leave a callback number.