 The headline news for September is the launch of the new Lists App for Teams, which brings the benefits of SharePoint records management into the Teams collaboration space, and does so in a really accessible and compelling way. It supports - and comes with - templates too. We think it'll prove to be incredibly useful. This month we've also chosen to highlight some other updates to Teams, such as the attendee Spotlight feature for video meetings (which we'll be making full use of ourselves), and also have some news on useful updates to SharePoint and the Office Apps. Not forgetting a great update that we'll definitely be using here - the new Excel Online scripting. If you're a big Excel user, it could save you a lot of time and effort. Simplified way to manage your Teams notifications settings MC220702 Category Teams What is this all about? You have control over the number and types of alerts and notifications that you receive when using Microsoft Teams. These setting allow you to stay focused on things that are important to you. Microsoft has now simplified and streamlined the management of these notifications to make is easier to use. How does this affect me? If you do need to customise and manage the alerts and notifications you receive from Teams then the new enhancements will make that easier for you. The new settings can be accessed by selecting the profile picture at the top right corner of Teams, and then selecting Settings > Notifications.   What do I need to do to prepare for this change? Nothing, this enhancement is rolling out in early September 2020 and should be completed by mid-September. Warning: Microsoft 365 support for Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) is being retired MC220490 What is this all about? If you are still using IE11 to access Microsoft 365 services then you should consider changing to a newer browser as Microsoft is stopping support for this release. Not only will there be no further security updates, certain applications such as Microsoft Teams will no longer work with this browser. How does this affect me? You will run increased security risks or find that you can access certain Microsoft 365 services if you continue to use IE11. What do I need to do to prepare for this change? To address these announcements, upgrade to the new Microsoft Edge prior to the dates indicated or the latest version of a Microsoft 365 compatible browser such as Chrome. The new Lists App for Microsoft Teams has launched MC220295 Category Lists Teams What is this all about? Microsoft Teams is great at managing documents and helping you to collaborate on them, but sometimes you also need to track and manage lists of data and doing this in an Excel spreadsheet is not always ideal. Microsoft has now launched the ability to create different lists within a Team for you to capture, organise and collaborate on such information. The new Lists App comes with prebuilt templates that you can use and customise or you can just start from blank and build your own lists. How does this affect me? If you are a member of a Team or Teams that need to track lists of records then you can now add the new Lists App to your Team and then configure the list to meet your Teams requirements. Maybe you need to track incidents or you have an HR team that needs to track new employee onboarding, then there might be an out-of-the-box template that you can use or you can simply build and customise your own.  When will this happen? This new feature ships default ON and will be pre-installed and made available directly in the tab gallery of every team and channel. The new feature is rolling out now and will be completed by the end of October 2020. More from Microsoft https://aka.ms/MSLists Move your SharePoint files and easily keep sharing MC220127 Category SharePoint What is this all about? If you share a file or document with a colleague or external party and then you need to move the document to a different SharePoint / Team site or to your OneDrive, the sharing link will break. With this enhancement you will have the option to keep sharing and existing links will still work. How does this affect me? Move and keep sharing is a new feature that allows you to easily re-share a file with all the direct collaborators (e.g., the users who had previously received a share for that file) should it be moved. If you choose to do so, Microsoft 365 will automatically provide direct collaborators with the new link or with direct permissions that match those that they had at the source location. Microsoft 365 will also send collaborators an e-mail that notifies them that the file has been moved should the owner reshare the file location. When you move files across site collection boundaries, you will see this new option. It is unchecked by default.  When will this happen? Microsoft began rolling this out to production in mid-August and expect to complete that rollout by early September. Receive automatic notification of comments added to your document MC221211 Category Office What is this all about? If someone else edits an Office document you created and leaves a comment, then you as the document creator will be automatically notified so that you can review and reply if necessary. How does this affect me? Once available, this update will notify you of new comments that other people have left in a document that you have created. The experience will match the current experience for @mention notifications in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint as well as for notifications you receive when other people reply to your comments.  When will this happen? Microsoft will be gradually rolling this out in early September and the rollout will be completed by mid October. The feature when rolled out will be automatically available. Spotlight an individual video participant for all attendees in a Teams meeting MC221195 Category Teams What is this all about? If you hold Teams video meetings then you will be aware that the currently spotlighted individual is the person who is currently talking. This can sometimes be distracting if you have a main presenter and you want to keep the focus on the presenter rather than other attendees when they ask questions. With this new feature you will be able to spotlight a specific person and keep the focus on them. How does this affect me? Once available, as a Teams meeting organiser, you will be able to put someone in the spotlight:
 When will this happen? The rollout will begin mid September and finish end of September. Automate repetitive Excel commands MC221139 Category Excel What is this all about? Microsoft is releasing a new feature in Excel Online that enables you to automate repetitive tasks. With this enhancement you will be able to record your actions, then replay them whenever you want. You can also edit your scripts as your workflow changes. Office Scripts are stored in the cloud, so once created they are available in any Excel workbook that you open. How does this affect me? If you use Excel Online (in a browser) and you regularly open Excel workbooks and then need to apply the same set of actions to the workbook, then now you can record your actions with the Action Recorder, and a script is created that is then available to you in any other Excel workbooks. These actions can include entering text or numbers, clicking cells or commands on the ribbon or on menus, formatting cells, rows, or columns, formatting data as Excel tables, and so on. What you see when you’re done is a clean task pane that displays a descriptive list of all the steps you just took. You don’t need any coding experience to record and run Office Scripts. If you choose to edit your actions, you can do so from the Code Editor, where you can edit the script’s TypeScript code. When will this happen? This enhancement is rolling out now and should be completed by the end of October. When available the feature will be switched on by default. Author: SO365 Insights |
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