Forum Discussion
Insider build information
Hi David -
I'm sorry about the delay here. Thank you for being an Insider, by the way. :-)
I just published what amounts to lightweight release notes for Office Insider Fast (Windows Desktop). See Update history for Office Insider for Windows desktop. This article will tell you if you're on the latest bits and a little bit about what's in recent builds. I'm interested in hearing what you think of this article and what more you might need from us to effectively participate as an Insider. Feel free to tell me here, through File > Feedback in an Office app, or by leaving a comment on the article. I'll be watching all channels. Note that this is a first step on the path to Win32 release notes for Fast--we're working on a process for compiling better notes for the Fast audience.
Thanks!
Anneliese
I think this would help potential Insiders with joining and knowing what they are getting into. I found the 'Changes to Slow/Fast level names for Office Insider for Windows desktop' article useful as well - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Changes-to-Slow-Fast-level-names-for-Office-Insider-for-Windows-desktop-055ee4f9-9ce3-4fb8-8a9a-ca6745867d52
Full release notes would be welcome but I can understand that is going to take a lot more work.
Thanks a million for the feedback, Cian, and for promoting this article to your people, whomever they are. :-) Yes, release notes seem like a no-brainer, right? But they're surprisingly challenging to compile across teams, especially for these Fast updates. Moreover, Fast notes can be compiled into Slow notes and ultimately result in better production notes for Office 365 admins. So definitely worth the effort.
By the way, the Outlook for Mac team has done a great job at systematically delivering release notes for their weekly Fast updates. That pilot was so successful that the other apps have followed along. We recently published the following articles on support.office.com, and these should be fully localized each week within 48 hours. Some of the notes are a little sparse at this point, but we'll start fleshing them out soon.
Please feel free to share:
Release notes for Insider Fast builds of Office 2016 for Mac
No problem, I shared the link https://twitter.com/Office365Ninjas/status/896030711110660099, where it got a bit of attention and I have also added the resource to the https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/37821.office-365-change-management-survival-guide.aspx, along with the Mac release notes.
I think any energy put into this endeavour is well spent, keeping customers informed of changes, also as you pointed out, these can go upstream as these updates make their way into the mainstream channels. Thanks again for your work on this.
BTW, Cian - My compliments on the survival guide. That is an amazing resource and I've bookmarked it for my own reference.
I also wanted to say, if you have any thoughts about what admins might need as far as content and training for these earliest update channels--namely, Monthly Channel (Targeted) and/or Insider, I'm all ears. I'm also curious about how/if these channels are commonly used by orgs who have most of their end users on Monthly Channel. I know a little about this subject, but I'm interested in knowing more.
Cheers!