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Which apps are in Office 365? (Plus answers to other popular Google searches)

When you're searching for answers, Google's autosuggest feature lets you know what other people are looking for when they start with the same search terms. In this week's installment of our Google Autosuggest series, we provide some answers to the most popular queries about Microsoft's cloud-based productivity suite.
Written by Ed Bott, Senior Contributing Editor
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Image: Microsoft News

Google's autosuggest feature lets you know, sometimes with spooky accuracy, what other people are looking for when conducting queries similar to yours. So, with Google's help, we provide answers to a few of the most popular searches about Microsoft Office 365.

What's the difference between Office 365 and Office 2016?

Office 365 is a subscription service that includes a combination of online services and apps. The exact lineup varies, depending on which subscription you have.

Office 2016 is the branding for the desktop apps that run on PCs and Macs. The most popular Office 365 subscriptions include the right to download those apps on multiple devices after you sign in using the credentials associated with your subscription. No product keys are required and you can easily transfer licenses between devices.

You can also buy a perpetual license for Office 2016 as a retail package. This product doesn't include any of the online services, and you need to enter a product key and activate it before using it.

The official answer is here.

Which apps are in Office 365? Are Visio and Project included?

If you have an Office 365 Home, Personal, Business, or Business Premium subscription, you have the right to download and install a package that includes the following desktop programs: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote. On PCs (but not Macs), you also get Publisher and Access.

Microsoft Visio and Microsoft Project are both members of the extended Office family but are not included in any Office 365 subscription. You need to purchase licenses for those products and install them separately. Pay special attention to the installer technology if you want to use the Click-to-Run version of the Office 365 apps with Visio or Project. This how-to article has some useful links.

Can you use Office 365 on an iPad?

You can download and install the Office 365 mobile apps for iOS and run them on an iPad, iPad Pro, or iPad Mini.

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If you have an Office 365 subscription, you can sign in to those apps to unlock their full feature set.

Five apps are available, all of them installed individually: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. They're not the same as the full-featured desktop apps available for Windows PCs and Macs, but they do a good job of maintaining file compatibility when you edit documents on a PC that were created on an iPad or vice-versa.

Can you use Office 365 offline?

All of the Office 365 subscriptions include the ability to use web-based versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. Those web apps require an internet connection to work properly.

If you install the Office 2016 desktop or mobile apps, you can create and edit files offline. If those files are stored in OneDrive or OneDrive for Business, any changes you make will be synchronized to the cloud when you reconnect to the Internet.

Does Office 365 let you host a website?

Until recently, Office 365 Business and Enterprise subscriptions included the capability to create a SharePoint Online public website. Effective May 1, Microsoft has ended that feature, and any existing public websites will be deleted as of September 1, 2017.

For details, see this support document.

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