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Microsoft 365 Insights

Updates from the
Simply Office 365 laboratory

Microsoft 365 Insights - Oct 2020

5/10/2020

 
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Something for everyone this month.

There are more updates to the new Microsoft Lists functionality, with templates (yes!) and new formatting features for lists in SharePoint, and - long overdue - the ability to easily create calendar views from lists in modern SharePoint (yes again!).

Microsoft also continues to enhance the meetings experience in Teams and we've also highlighted useful new features coming to the Teams Shifts app and to Microsoft Forms.

Making it easier to share Teams meeting recordings with external guests

MC222640

Category

Teams


What is this all about?

Whenever you record a Teams meeting, the recording is automatically stored in Stream enabling it to be easily accessed and viewed by your internal staff. But if you have external participants in the meeting then they are not able to access the recording. With this change, you will have the option to save Teams recordings on your OneDrive or SharePoint, and then be able to easily share it with the external participants.

How does this affect me?

Meeting Storage
Non-Channel meetings will be stored in the OneDrive of the person who clicked the record button in a special folder labelled “Recordings” – that sits at the top of the recorder’s OneDrive. Channel meetings will be stored in a folder labelled “Recordings” under a folder named after the channel, under the Team’s document library.

Permissions
All meeting invitees - except for external users – in non-channel meetings will automatically get a shared link to access the meeting recording. External users will need to be explicitly added to the shared list by the meeting organiser or the person that clicked the record button. For Channel meetings, permissions will be inherited from the owners and members list in the channel.

Feature Gaps
There are some feature gaps when compared to recordings stored in Stream. These gaps will be addressed in future releases:


  • Ability to block download of the video by meeting participants
  • Ability to view and edit the transcript in the player, but closed captions will be present
  • Non-English language transcripts/captions
  • Variable playback speed in video player

What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
​

Early October (October 5, 2020)
You can enable the Teams Meeting policy to have meeting recordings saved to OneDrive and SharePoint instead of Microsoft Stream (Classic).

End of October (October 31, 2020)
Meeting recordings in OneDrive and SharePoint will have support for English captions via the Teams transcription feature.

Early to mid-November (rolling out between November 1 -15 , 2020)
All new Teams meeting recordings will be saved to OneDrive and SharePoint unless you delay this change by modifying your organisation’s Teams Meeting policies and explicitly setting them to “Stream”

Q1 2021
No new meeting recordings can be saved to Microsoft Stream (Classic). All customers will automatically have meeting recordings saved to OneDrive and SharePoint even if they’ve changed their Teams meeting policies to "Stream”






More great features coming to Microsoft Lists

MC222586

Category

SharePoint
Lists


What is this all about?

​If you have read our previous Insights, then you will know that there has been a number of long awaited investments from Microsoft in enhancing the capabilities and use of SharePoint Lists. This latest set of enhancements adds more out-of-the-box formatting capabilities. So time to get formatting and bring your SharePoint lists to life.

How does this affect me?

The features apply to lists and libraries, both in and out of Quick Edit mode.
People Columns

Items with a Person column will appear using the new "pill" design format when a person's photo is displayed. Select one or more people to add to a Person column quickly, and the entry will display an updated look.

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Choice Columns

Items within a Choice column will support single, multi-choice, and manual fill as you add items. You'll see updated formatting right away and can update and remove choice fields and formatting selections previously applied.

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Yes / No Columns

Items with a yes/no column will appear with a check mark when the value is selected.

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What do I need to do to prepare for this change?
​

Nothing, this change is rolling out during October and should be completed by early November.





Create SharePoint Lists from pre-defined templates

MC222600

Category

SharePoint
Lists


What is this all about?

List creation from SharePoint sites will get a visual refresh and you will get the additional capability to create lists from eight built-in templates. These updates are already part of the Microsoft Lists app and Lists in Teams rollouts and Microsoft are bringing the same goodness to SharePoint sites too.

How does this affect me?

Two changes are part of this feature rollout.

  • You will now be able to create lists from eight built-in templates from SharePoint sites (from Site Contents or from the site homepage).
 
  • Existing list creation flows will be visually refreshed to align with the updates that users are already seeing as part of the Microsoft Lists app and Lists in Teams.
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When will this happen?
​

This change is rolling out now and should be completed by the end of October.





Teams meetings, end of meeting notification

MC222346

Category

Teams


What is this all about?

When you are in a Teams meeting, you will soon receive an alert when there are five minutes remaining in a scheduled meeting.

How does this affect me?

Once available in your tenant, Teams will alert you and other meeting participants when there are five minutes remaining during any scheduled private or channel meeting. The notification will appear on screen for 10 seconds and disappear without any user action.
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When will this happen?
​

This change is rolling out now.





Microsoft Forms introduces a responder progress bar

MC221880

Category

Forms


What is this all about?

If you use Microsoft Forms to send your staff quizzes, then you now have the option to show them a progress bar when you create a multi-page (multi-section) form and quiz.

The progress bar improves usability by providing responders with a visual indicator of their status within the survey, e.g. "Page 1 of 3".

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How does this affect me?

This feature is off by default on new forms and quizzes. However as a Form owner you can choose to enable / disable this optional setting.

When will this happen?
​

This change is rolling out now.





Introducing shift conflict alerts in Microsoft Teams Shifts app

MC221471

Category

Teams
Shifts


What is this all about?

If you use Microsoft Shifts, then soon you will see a new feature which will alert managers of scheduling conflicts.

How does this affect me?

If you are a manager that use shifts to manage the allocation of your staff, then today you must manually cross-check each shift to make sure the schedule is conflict-free. With Shifts schedule assistance, you will see an alert icon when there are conflicts anywhere in the schedule. You will also see conflict warnings when reviewing schedule change requests.
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This feature will save you time and reduce inaccuracies that can lead to employees not showing up for their shift.

When will this happen?
​

This change is rolling out mid-October and should be completed by end of November.





Obtain more information about meeting participants in Teams

MC221432

Category

Teams


What is this all about?

Since June you have been able to view a report listing the participants in your Teams meetings including join and leave times. This enhancement will provide improved functionality including additional participant data in the report.

How does this affect me?

There are two areas of improvement:

Download point changed from roster view
As a Teams meeting organiser, you can download the Attendance Report from the meeting chat once the meeting is over.

Only the meeting organiser will see the Attendance Report. The recording, transcript and participant list will be grouped together in chat if the meeting is recorded. Otherwise, only the participant list will be available in chat.

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New participant data
The report will now include these data points: duration, email address, meeting start time, and meeting title.


When will this happen?
​

This change will be available in mid-October.





New ability to print a blank Microsoft Form

MC221300

Category

Forms


What is this all about?

One of the great limitations of Microsoft Forms has been the ability to print a blank form. Either to keep the print as an audit trail or to provide it to people who do not have electronic access and need to complete the form manually. With this update, a Forms owner will be able to print a blank form for any respondent who is unable to complete the form online.

How does this affect me?

As a Forms owner, you can print any form or quiz on paper or as a PDF if you choose PDF printer using the browser print dialog. You can then distribute the printed version as needed. Perhaps you need to administer the form in an area with no computers / internet or to a student who can't use a computer for some reason.
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When will this happen?
​

By the time you read this Insight, the change should be available in your environment.





Calendar view on Microsoft Lists and SharePoint Lists

MC222826

Category

SharePoint
Lists


What is this all about?

One great feature that was lost during the SharePoint refresh to the modern look and feel was the ability to easily view list data as a calendar. Yes, you could use the classic calendar feature but this was not supported in SharePoint modern and therefore somewhat hidden and difficult to find. This enhancement will enable you to finally view list content in a modern calendar view.

How does this affect me?

The SharePoint "view" list has a new new option, Create new view, which gives users the option to view as a list or as a calendar.
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When will this happen?
​

This new feature will be available during October.





Add an Organisation web part to a SharePoint modern page

MC223018

Category

SharePoint


What is this all about?

Microsoft is introducing a SharePoint web part that allows you, as a page author, to generate an organisation chart centred on an individual.

How does this affect me?

When creating or editing a SharePoint page,  the new Organisation web part can be accessed in the web part toolbox when a page is in edit mode. You will be able to determine how many levels of the hierarchy to display.
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For this to work correctly, it will require you or your Administrator to correctly define your organisation in M365 Active Directory.

When will this happen?
​

This new web part is rolling out now and will be available by the end of October.

Author: SO365 Insights

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