We’ve heard your feedback – creating multiple users with the same settings can be frustrating and time-consuming. I am pleased to announce the addition of templates to the active users page in Microsoft 365 admin center. We hope that this feature will streamline your work and help you achieve more.
You can now create and use a template to save time when adding multiple users. Templates are particularly useful if you have users who share many properties, like those who work in the same role and the same location.
Example: I have a large group of engineers starting at the company. I know that they are all users with no admin role, located in the Redmond office in the United States, using Microsoft 365 Business, members of the Engineering department, and have the title Engineer 1. I can save all these values to a “Redmond engineer” template. When I create the users, I can use this template to populate all these values.
You can personalize multiple templates to speed up the work of adding different types of users. And you only have access to the templates you create as an admin; others cannot access your templates.
Getting started with templates
You have two ways to create a template. After adding a user, you have the option to create a template from the confirmation page. Or, you can create a template, as well as manage your templates, within the active users page.
Figure 1. Option to save a new user’s settings as a template.
Figure 2. Add or manage user templates within active users
The following settings can be saved in the template:
- Domain name
- Password settings option (admin-generated or auto-generated)
- One-time password choice (option to require the user to create a new password after their first sign in)
- License location
- License choices (for example, Microsoft 365 Business or Office 365 E5)
- Application choices (for example, Microsoft Teams or PowerApps for Office 365)
- Role (for example, User with no admin center access, or Helpdesk admin)
- Most profile information, including job title, department, office, office phone number, and street address
Figure 3. Template details
The following information is user-specific and isn’t saved in the template:
- First and last name
- Display name
- Username
- Choice to send the password in email and who the password email is sent to
- Mobile phone number
We have started rolling out this new user template capability to tenants this month, and the rollout will continue over the next few months. Try it out and let us know what you think of this feature by submitting feedback on this blog post below or in the Microsoft 365 admin center!
