THE DAYS when Microsoft would let you simply pay once for an Office app and then use it day after day, week after week, without requiring you to pay any extra are an increasingly fading memory. Microsoft now encourages Office users to switch to its subscription-based package, Office 365.

However, the trade-off is that Office 365 packs an exciting wealth of features for the money. If you run a business, you could find that, the more you explore Office 365, the more you get out of it.

Allow audit logging of Office 365 mail

Naturally, we hope that your email systems are never used fraudulently - but, if a security lapse does result in this happening, you would be grateful for having first set up Office 365 in a way enabling it to audit log how an email was accessed and when.

Reassuringly, since the start of February, Office 365 has audit-tracked mail reads by default. However, in case it isn't activated in your case, CSO shows you how you can change that setting.

Make a PowerPoint presentation by itself - well, sort of

Who better to ask for details of Office 365's hidden tips and tricks than Microsoft itself? Business Insider obviously thought the same, and the Redmond corporation shared a few overlooked gems with the news outlet, which has also added some of its own to a comprehensive list.

You might not have realised, for example, that dropping an image into a PowerPoint presentation allows the PowerPoint Designer feature to quickly show you possibilities for best using that image.

Let you mark up Office documents with the iPad and Apple Pencil
Office 365 seems a very apt name for this productivity software suite, as it can indeed feel as though it is absolutely everywhere you need it: installed on your computer's hard drive, safe and snug in the cloud, and even on your iPad, thanks to the iPad versions of Office apps.

With those apps, you can use the in-built "ink" feature to digitally doodle with various colours by putting Apple Pencil to iPad screen as though you were using a Microsoft Surface tablet instead.

Enhance Outlook with add-ins

As a business, you naturally want to feel as though a huge wealth of functionality is at your fingertips. The Outlook piece of the Office 365 pie could go especially far towards making you feel that way, thanks to the pleasing choice of add-ins available for this email application.

These add-ins include the Starbucks offering, letting you speedily schedule meetings at Starbucks outlets, while the PayPal add-in means that you can send work colleagues money via email.

Form the core of your business intranet

Remember what we said about Office 365 being seemingly everywhere? You could even weave it into your corporate intranet system thanks to AddIn Internet, a form of modern Office 365 intranet by AddIn365, a company which can seamlessly implement this product on your firm's behalf. Once in place, that intranet would let you speedily share updates and information.