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Microsoft Planner is a great tool. But, for those of us that would like to create a template plan that can be reused across project or client teams then it is painful. However, a recent Planner update now enables you to take any plan and to create a copy. For those in the know, this also creates a new Office 365 Group.  OK, that's a good start. But, I still cannot go to an existing or new Team and import that plan as a template. Microsoft say they are working on this, but as usual there is no commitment on delivery date. The only way to currently create a new client or project Team using a “template plan” is as follows. Beware, this needs some careful coordination and planning!
A somewhat painful exercise, but it does achieve the desired outcome. We really need Microsoft to provide a better way to achieve this.  You might be thinking that in Teams you have the option to create a Team from an existing Team, so perhaps I create a template Team, with my Planner and default tabs and then use that when creating a new Team. Well, guess what, although your Planner tab appears in the new Team, there is no Planner behind it, and you have to start from scratch. If you want to follow Microsoft’s progress with template plans, or post your own comment to them, then go here and vote: https://planner.uservoice.com/forums/330525-microsoft-planner-feedback-forum/suggestions/11332998-provide-the-ability-to-create-plan-templates-with Author: Chris Kaye  Configure Microsoft Teams to provide your users with quick access to the apps they need MC202761 Category Teams What is this all about? When you open Teams, the left rail App bar has a standard set of quick access icons such as Activity, Chat, Calendar, etc. Any Apps not showing are accessible by clicking the three dots under the last icon. Microsoft has now provided each user with the ability to pin and unpin the Apps they need access to. So, for example, Shifts might be a standard App on the rail bar, but not all departments use Shifts. Users in those departments can now individually decide to unpin Shifts so it does not clutter the bar. In the same way, they may decide to pin Planner as this is an App they use daily. How does this affect me? You will be able to personalise the left rail App Bar in their Teams clients should your admin choose to leave the feature enabled. What do I need to do to prepare for this change? This feature is turned On by default so you will want to review your settings to ensure they are appropriate for the experience you require. If you wish to turn this feature Off, visit Teams Setup policies in the Microsoft Teams admin centre and change the "Allow user pinning" toggle from On to Off. More from Microsoft https://docs.microsoft.com/microsoftteams/teams-app-setup-policies New capabilities in Teams Shifts app MC204292 Category Teams What is this all about? As part of building scheduling capabilities into Microsoft Teams, they are adding three new capabilities to the Shifts app for Teams on the desktop and online. How does this affect me? The following three new features make it easier for everyone to better manage schedules.
What do I need to do to prepare for this change? Microsoft's Shifts documentation will be updated as the features become available to help you become acquainted with the new features and update your user training and documentation. Microsoft will begin rolling these features at the beginning of March and the rollout will be completed by the end of March. New single mobile app to access all Office features MC204208 Category Office Products What is this all about? On Android and iPhones, Microsoft has released a new combined Office app, which bring together Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other productivity features into a single app. How does this affect me? Anyone can download the Office app and connect to Office 365 just as they would with the existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint mobile apps. The new Office app has all the capabilities of the existing Word, Excel, and PowerPoint apps and requires significantly less phone storage than installing all three apps. In addition, the Office App:
What do I need to do to prepare for this change? Let your users know about the release of the combined Office App so that they can benefit from the new features and at the same time clean up clutter on their phone and release space. If your IT department manages your company mobile, then discuss and coordinate the release of the new feature with them. More from Microsoft https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/microsoft-365/mobile?rtc=1 Feature Update: Tasks powered by To-Do generally available MC203853 Category Outlook, To-Do What is this all about? As announced in July 2019, the new Outlook on the web is generally available. As Microsoft continue to evolve the experience they are announcing that the new Tasks experience powered by To-Do is now generally available. As part of this change they will be retiring the opt-in toggle for classic Tasks. How does this affect me? When this change is implemented, users will no longer be able to see the classic Tasks experience in Outlook on the web. The new Tasks experience is powered by To-Do, so users will see all their tasks as well as lists of tasks they have created, any flagged emails, and tasks and lists the have created in the To-Do app. What do I need to do to prepare for this change? Consider updating your documentation and training as appropriate. More from Microsoft https://support.office.com/article/Use-Tasks-in-Outlook-on-the-web-f8d35330-64e4-4a7b-bcdc-8d85906e7a24 Improved SharePoint Tab and new SharePoint Pages Tab in Teams MC204986 Category Teams What is this all about? Microsoft are making improvements to the "SharePoint tab" in Teams to help users easily find the pages and lists that they want to easily access or make available to other Team members. You can also paste a link to a page or list from any team-site to tab it in your channels. This will help Team Owners and Members to provide quick and easy access to specific news pages or lists right from within a specific Teams Channel. Microsoft are also introducing a new "SharePoint Pages" tab in Teams specifically focused on allowing users to find pages and news posts or paste a link to them from any team-site in order to tab them in Teams. This feature has no impact on page or list permissions. Users who did not have access to that page/list before it was added as a tab will continue to be unable to access it in Teams. How does this affect me? Using the original SharePoint app that is available by clicking the "Add a tab" in any Teams Channel you can now create a tab that references a page or list from any team site. What do I need to do to prepare for this change? Nothing except communicate the availability of the feature to your other colleagues. Microsoft will be gradually rolling this out in early March 2020 and the rollout will be completed by early April. More from Microsoft https://support.office.com/article/add-a-sharepoint-page-or-list-to-a-channel-in-teams-131edef1-455f-4c67-a8ce-efa2ebf25f0b Improved management of unhealthy sharing links in SharePoint and OneDrive MC205044 Category SharePoint, OneDrive for Business What is this all about? It is possible for end users to unknowingly break sharing links so that the links no longer grant access to the files that were originally shared (causing broken, "unhealthy" links). Individuals attempting to access these files would then encounter errors because the links would not work. However, these errors did not show up in Manage Access. How does this affect me? Microsoft are now including these "unhealthy" links in Manage Access. In addition, they are informing the user that the link is broken and must be deleted and recreated. This change applies to files shared from both SharePoint and OneDrive. What do I need to do to prepare for this change? Nothing, Microsoft will be gradually rolling this out to Targeted Release customers in early March 2020 and the rollout will be completed by the middle of April. Author: SO365 Insights |
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