Sep 18 2017 01:22 PM
THe new app launcher looks great, but has anyone thought about the following scenario.
You are presenting to an audience or working with a group of people or IT tech support. You go into office 365 and access the launcher.
Document titles that maybe private or highly confidential maybe unintentionally exposed. I doubt there is anyway to block that other than to advise people to make obscure titles to these types of documents....
For a presentation open you apps ahead of time and hope nothing crashes.
Thoughts?
Sep 18 2017 03:10 PM
Interesting point. Just to be clear, it's the changes as mentioned in this discussion. I could see that scenario you mentioned happening but if planning ahead, either use a dedicated test account that won't reveal anything unintentional or do a quick check beforehand. Even so, it will probably catch someone out sooner or later, if in a rush.
Sep 18 2017 04:32 PM
Sep 18 2017 10:57 PM
Sep 19 2017 12:39 AM
Additional license costs and complexity just to avoid something like that. I'm not sure that will go down well with smaller organisations.
Still it will take for a major blunder for someone to reconsider this.
It is convenience over security, which should be balanced.
Sep 19 2017 01:02 AM
Good point and I do agree. Basically, what we are saying is that Documents area in the new App launcher should be configurable and users can opt out of it if they have any need to do so (or have a presenter mode or something)?
This is certainly a benefit of Microsoft announcing changes well in advance, with a video no less, we can collectively get our feedback in early and see if things can be changed. On the support article, they are asking for feedback via the Was this information helpful? option. This is what I submitted (there is limited space allowed, so couldn't put too much):
"Great to have info in advance, allows us to prepare for changes. How about making the Documents area configurable? Scenario is the user is giving presentation/webinar and unbeknown to them, they reveal information simply be showing the app launcher."
Sep 22 2017 11:45 AM
SolutionThanks all for the feedback and discussion. If there are documents that you do not want to show in your recent documents section in the new Office 365 app launcher, you can go to www.office.com and use the "remove from list" action on a document that is in your Recent online documents, and it will also remove the document from the app launcher document section, as the services are integrated.
We also released a blog article today that includes a more in-depth video on the new experiences of www.office.com and the Office 365 app launcher that you may be interested in:
Sep 22 2017 12:17 PM
Dec 05 2017 06:30 AM
I'm a little late here, but we just got the new launcher and I just found this thread. It's good that there is at least removal process for individual items, but this seems unrealistic, cumbersome and not terribly intuitive to most users who, in my experience, use only the 'fly-out' app launcher, not the main page.
I have posted a suggestion on uservoice to allow users to remove/disable the recent documents feature of the app launcher (https://office365.uservoice.com/forums/264636-general/suggestions/32521006-remove-recent-documents-f...), but is there any down-side to such a request that I am missing (aside from not having my recent documents pushed to me)?
Also, is the recent documents SOLELY my own documents or does it also integrate results from others I have been working/sharing with, a la Delve?
Thanks for your time.
Dec 05 2017 10:45 AM
Thanks for the feedback. The documents in the new App Launcher includes any recent Office Online document you have opened, regardless of whether you authored it or not. It is the first three documents in the Recent Documents list you will see on www.office.com.
Dec 05 2017 10:54 AM
Thanks, Katie. That helps. So if I understand you correctly: If I share File A with someone, then go and open a dozen other documents, THEN the other person opens File A, that file will NOT then appear at the top of my recent documents, correct?
Also, any info on whether there are options for hiding the recent documents altogether?
Dec 05 2017 11:17 AM
Hi Bill, yes your understanding is correct. The documents module in the new App Launcher will only show the last three online documents you opened. However, on www.Office.com the Documents section of the page has an activity view and additional filters like "Discover" to help you keep track of activity from others on documents you care about--regardless of whether you've opened them or not. The Discover tab in particular is what you will find on Delve.
As of now, there is not a way to remove the documents module all together from the new launcher. We will continue to monitor feedback and usage however, to see if we need to make changes in the future. So I fully understand, is your concern from the document module primarily around the visibility of your documents to others--as indicated at the beginning of this thread? Or something else?
Dec 05 2017 12:50 PM
Dec 05 2017 10:23 PM
The docs module was added to the launcher in an effort to help users get back to or get started with their work in Office documents more efficiently. We saw through the recent documents on office.com that many users started to utilize their recent document list more frequently than the app tiles in order to navigate to our Office online apps. We will continue to solicit feedback and watch usage on this new area to determine if it is successful in accomplishing this intent. Thanks again for engaging and the feedback.
Dec 06 2017 06:00 AM
Dec 07 2017 12:25 PM
Most users edit the doc, but we see other behaviors as well. Our intent is to help facilitate navigation to the next spot a user wants to go in Office 365 as efficiently as possible.
Dec 07 2017 06:38 PM
I'm familiar with confidential content, but not confidential file names. Can you give me some real world examples of when this would be an actual security or compliance violation?
Dec 11 2017 07:37 AM
Dec 11 2017 08:20 AM
Dec 22 2017 12:41 AM
Sep 22 2017 11:45 AM
SolutionThanks all for the feedback and discussion. If there are documents that you do not want to show in your recent documents section in the new Office 365 app launcher, you can go to www.office.com and use the "remove from list" action on a document that is in your Recent online documents, and it will also remove the document from the app launcher document section, as the services are integrated.
We also released a blog article today that includes a more in-depth video on the new experiences of www.office.com and the Office 365 app launcher that you may be interested in: