Microsoft continues to push out new features and updates as we head into the final leg of 2022. The recently concluded, first ever Microsoft Power Platform Conference, had some excellent announcements around both future offerings and immediate impact news. We will be digging into quite a few of these over the coming weeks:
There are bound to be even more great announcements coming from Microsoft Ignite, which runs from October 12th – 14th, but let us get to the task at hand and discuss some of the updates from the Message Center from the past month!
At Ignite 2020, we got the word that Stream (on SharePoint) was coming. Then, at Ignite 2021, we received more details about the Stream on SharePoint experience, along with some documentation to go along with it. One of the key things that was missing from that documentation was that the Migration Overview omitted any details about the migration tool. If your tenant doesn’t have tons of videos a manual migration may work. However, if you have lots of videos and metadata, you have probably been awaiting this announcement. By the end of October, the public preview of the migration tool will have rolled out worldwide with projected general availability in Q1 of 2023.
Highlighting this one, as we received an internal support request on it when one of our sales folks was collaborating with another organization and saw it firsthand, then wondered why they didn’t have that option. With “Excel Live”, you can share and collaborate with Excel workbook in a meeting. This will be useful when you want to get work done with your colleagues during a call, as it seamlessly turns the meeting window into an Excel workbook collaboration. That way users do not have to switch back and forth between various windows and screens. Rollout is starting in October and expected to be generally available worldwide by late November.
We suggest people keep an eye on this one, as it’ll impact almost everyone using Microsoft 365 and Office on Windows devices. Currently when you click Save, you’re presented with your list of recent sites and account locations (OneDrive/SharePoint) along with your “Other locations.” For you, this either works great, or is a horrible experience depending on what your day-to-day work entails. As someone that is bouncing around between various locations frequently, it’s not an ideal experience, and I often sync libraries via OneDrive just so I can use the Browse functionality under “Other locations.” This workaround ensures I can easily get to where I want to save something.
Starting in October those of us on Targeted Release will get to start using the Quick Access feature (like the experience in OneDrive for Business on the web) instead. If this works as planned, it will make our lives a lot easier, and I’m sure lots of folks are in the same scenario. Provided there’s a smooth rollout, this will hit Standard Release by late January 2023.
People either love or hate the People Card web part in SharePoint Online, so this enhancement may really excite or be a hard pass. Regardless of your feelings about it there is going to be a new option moving forward. The “Medium” people card will enable folks to fill in up to 50-character descriptions with general availability by end of October. All 3 options that will be available below:
On 9/9/2022 we received a notification that Microsoft will again be extending the window for disabling the SharePoint app bar. If you’re not familiar with that, it’s likely disabled within your organization. Microsoft though, very much wants it enabled. This is the second time an extension has been granted on disabling this functionality and more than likely the last. Per the most recent message, organizations have until 3/31/2023 and then your clock starts ticking. After this date, your app bar can remain disabled for a period up to one year. Once this timeframe has elapsed, unless you have chosen to enable it sooner, the app bar will become available within your tenant.
As always, there are a lot of things happening in Microsoft 365, so be sure to check out the Tech Community Blogs and the Microsoft 365 Roadmap for more of what’s new.
