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SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: November 2023

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Mark-Kashman
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Nov 30, 2023

November blended public Ignite disclosures and rollout news, sure to tempt your aromatic tech nerve center.

 

Below and in The Intrazone podcast episode, we cover the following: Stream: Videos 'in Outlook', Stream: Collaborative notes in Teams meeting recordings, Microsoft 365 Archive: Public Preview, SharePoint: Out-of-the-box document library templates, Offline mode in OneDrive for Web, OneDrive: Add Individual File Shortcuts, Loop components in Channels, Teams: Files app updating to OneDrive app, and more. I also cover five top highlights from Microsoft Ignite 2023.

 

 

In the podcast episode, you’ll hear from Jeff Teper (X | LinkedIn) introducing “SharePoint Premium” for the first time from the Ignite stage in Seattle, WA. He clearly states the value and intent behind the advanced content management and experiences platform to bring AI, automation, and added security to your content experiences, processing, and governance.

 

Jeff Teper, President of Collaborative Apps and Platforms – Microsoft | Intrazone guest

All features listed below began rolling out to Targeted Release customers in Microsoft 365 as of November 2023 (possibly early December 2023).

 

Inform and engage with dynamic employee experiences

Build your intelligent intranet on SharePoint in Microsoft 365 and get the benefits of investing in business outcomes – reducing IT and development costs, increasing business speed and agility, and up-leveling the dynamic, personalized, and welcoming nature of your intranet.

 

Stream videos can now be recorded in and watched 'in Outlook'

You’re going to love the new Stream integration with Outlook on the web and the new Outlook for Windows. When someone pastes a Stream video link in a supported Outlook app and sends it to you, you will be able to watch it directly in your inbox. Note: Recipients outside your org, and those not using the new Outlook or web, will see a link to the video which they can watch in the Stream web app (depending on the organization’s file sharing settings).

 

Microsoft Stream videos now playback inline "in Outlook".

We, too, are introducing the ability to record and insert Stream video recordings in Outlook. You will be able to record a video of yourself, your screen or both, directly from Outlook and insert the recording in your email - again, with the same inline playback experience.

 

Record Microsoft Stream video messages directly "in Outlook"

Create, share, and know your videos will have the greatest reach and impact - esp. with the higher viewing rates seen when people view content within the email itself - not losing your recipient's focus or context.

 

Microsoft Stream: Collaborative notes in Teams meeting recordings

You'll be able to view and edit collaborative meeting notes while watching Teams meeting recordings in Stream. Collaborative notes allow meeting attendees to co-create and collaborate on their meeting agenda, notes, and action items.

 

For Teams meeting recordings you can now see and update the Loop component with the meeting notes while watching the recording.

Since Collaborative notes are a Loop component, it is always in sync regardless of how many places they live in. Assigned tasks in collaborative meeting notes automatically sync with To Do and Planner.

 

The goal is seamless note taking, and ease of use and sharing no matter the entry point of each individual person. You can now see and update the Loop component with the meeting notes while watching the recording.

 

Microsoft 365 Archive: Public Preview

Microsoft 365 Archive enables you to save on costs of storage exceeding the quota limit by archiving inactive sites in SharePoint. You can extend SharePoint Premium policies for out-of-date content to move older sites to Microsoft 365 archive storage. Archive preserves the full richness of OneDrive and SharePoint content with versions, metadata, and security. It transfers the file at rest to multiply redundant storage inside the Microsoft 365 trust boundary.

 

Note: SharePoint admins and Global admins can choose inactive sites from within the SharePoint admin center and via PowerShell -- and archive them.

When archived, the storage occupied by the site is deducted from active storage, and it will then be charged as a part of archived storage, which is charged based on consumption. If a site is archived, the content in the site cannot be accessed without IT assistance to reactivate the site.

 

Teamwork updates across SharePoint team sites, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams

Microsoft 365 is designed to be a universal toolkit for teamwork – to give you the right tools for the right task, along with common services to help you seamlessly work across applications. SharePoint is the intelligent content service that powers teamwork – to better collaborate on proposals, projects, and campaigns throughout your organization – with integration across Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Yammer, Stream, Planner and much more.

 

SharePoint: Out-of-the-box document library templates

Like site templates and list templates, we are bringing the goodness of templates to SharePoint document libraries. Creating document libraries will now be a breeze with our ready-made templates with scenario relevant structure, metadata, and content types - all to save you time and maintain broader consistency across your content management organization. 

 

Create a new SharePoint document library using one of the out-of-box templates.

We are rolling out a brand-new SharePoint document library creation experience that will be available in two locations: 1) SharePoint Home > New > Document library, and 2) SharePoint Site > Site contents > New > Document library.

 

With the new experience you will be able to create Document libraries in different ways: 

  • Blank library: this experience will replicate the current library creation experience where a document library will be created with the basic columns of Name, Modified and Modified by.
  • From existing library: this experience will allow you to choose any document library from a site you have access to, and replicate the structure, formatting, metadata and content types in a new document library. Note: Data will not copy over, only the structure will
  • From templates: we have three brand new templates for you: Media library, Invoices and Learning. Each template will come with a pre-defined schema, formatting, views etc. to kickstart your content management journey! 
  • Flows packaged into the out-of-the-box-templates: the Media Library and Invoices templates also come with pre-packages Flows that can be skipped or completed depending on the user's needs.

Note: You can disable the out-of-the-box templates by running the following PowerShell command, while connected as a Global Administrator or SharePoint Administrator: Set-SPOTenant -DisableModernListTemplateIds '<template ID>'

 

Offline mode in OneDrive for Web

OneDrive Offline mode lets you work on OneDrive when offline in the browser, OneDrive PWA (Progressive Web App), and Microsoft Teams - this improves performance and helps alleviate throttling related to working with large file collections.

Soon, on Windows and macOS devices running the OneDrive sync app, we will enable a new feature called “Offline mode” that will allow you to continue working with the OneDrive web app in your browser, OneDrive PWA (Progressive Web App) or Microsoft Teams even when you are offline.

 

Continue working with the OneDrive web app even when you are offline or lose Internet connection with the help of OneDrive Offline mode.

This feature will be on by default and gives you the ability to view, rename, move, copy their files, and create new folders when offline. You can open files that are available offline on users’ device in a native app directly from inside OneDrive on the web. All the metadata changes users make offline too. Files in the browser will be automatically synced back to OneDrive when Internet connection is restored, and to resolve conflicts, if there are any.

As an administrator, you’ll be able to control various aspects of Offline mode using Group Policies outlined in here.

 

Add Individual File Shortcuts in OneDrive Web

With this one, 'Add to OneDrive' gets more granular. Users will see an 'Add Shortcut' command in the command bar and context menu for a file. This command will be available across all OneDrive file lists (Home, My files, Shared, Favorites, etc.). It will also be available for SharePoint document libraries within Teams Files tabs. 

 

Add shortcuts to individual files in OneDrive for work or school, bringing a reference of them into your My files or other locations.

When a user selects a file and clicks Add Shortcut, they will see two options for where to add a shortcut to: My files and Other locations. 

  • If the user selects My files, a .url file will be created within their My files list in OneDrive.
  • If they select Other locations, a file picker will launch for users to choose a location for their file shortcut within their OneDrive as well as document libraries they have access to.

 

Loop components in Channels and Loop Embed Mode in Teams

The collaborative Loop components you love from Teams chats are coming to channels – and rollout has begun! You can create, share, and edit components to collaborate synchronously and asynchronously on ideas without leaving the context of your conversations. You can now copy and paste Loop components between channels, chats, Outlook emails, and other supported Microsoft 365 apps.

 

Microsoft Loop component in a Teams channel post (which then gets stored in the group-connected SharePoint team site).

Loop components created in Teams channels are stored in the channel's SharePoint site allowing people in the channel to access the component and making the component easy to find later. If a component is created and sent within the channel, you can access it in the Files tab.

Note: If your organization has previously disabled Loop components, those settings will be still be honored.

 

Create new Loop Components in Microsoft Whiteboard

This is what happens when a flexible content type meets a flexible content canvas.

You can now create live Loop components starting with task lists, tables, voting tables, progress trackers, and checklists can now be added and used within Whiteboard for the web, Whiteboard app in Teams, and Whiteboard for Windows.

 

Create a Whiteboard and add Loop components within.

A Loop'ified Whiteboard is a more collaborative Whiteboard. Try this one to get a feel for what's possible, and see it come alive - especially during your next team brainstorming session.

 

Related technology

Announcing the general availability of new Teams on web for Edge and Chrome

Beyond the availability of New Teams, Microsoft announced the general availability of new Teams on web for Edge and Chrome. Our goal for the new Teams web app is to bring a near-identical experience to our new Teams desktop app. Both the new Teams web client and desktop clients share the same underlying infrastructure built to improve load times, improve channel and chat switches, and reduce memory usage.

Note: We'll keep you updated as this update rolls out to more tenant types - notably as of this past month, this Teams web update is not yet available for our Education customers.

 

Microsoft Teams: Files App Updating to OneDrive App Experience in Teams

The Files app on the left side of the Teams desktop client will be updated with the new OneDrive app experience, bringing performance improvements, more views, and the latest features of OneDrive to both classic and new Teams. All existing features of the Files app will also be available via this new OneDrive app experience. 

 

The Files app on left side of the new Teams desktop client becomes the OneDrive app.

As part of this change, Files app on left side of the new Teams desktop client becomes the OneDrive app. Note: Currently, there is no change in the name of Files app in either classic Teams desktop or Teams mobile.

 

FYI #1 | Power Virtual Agents, now part of Microsoft Copilot Studio

We're delighted to share that as of November 15th, Power Virtual Agents capabilities are now part of Microsoft's new product, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft's conversational AI platform to customize Microsoft Copilot and to build your own custom copilots. As a result, the Power Virtual Agents name will no longer be used. You can learn more about the recent announcements here.

 

FYI #2 | App name changes for Microsoft Project for the web, Project Teams tab, and Project Power app to “Planner (Project)”

We're in the midst of the name change, in preparation of the new Planner app in Microsoft Teams arriving in early 2024. The new Planner app will bring together your to-dos, plans, and projects into a single unified experience which is simple, flexible, scalable, and intelligent.

So, Microsoft is updating the app names for Project for the web, Project Teams tab, and Project Power app to: “Planner (Project)” – all existing functionality across these apps will remain the same. We, too, are updating the app name for the “Tasks by Planner and To Do” app in Microsoft Teams to “Planner” – all existing app functionality will remain the same. You can find out more information here: https://aka.ms/thenewplanner

 

Five top Ignite 2023 highlights

I encourage you to review the Ignite 2023 "Book of News" that's like a map to all the news and announcements with depth articles awaiting your perusal. Here are five announcements I saw that are closely related to this here SharePoint world, or simply surfaced a little higher in the tech zeitgeist that was November 15, 2023 - aka, Ignite 2023, Day one:

 

Ignite item #1: Throwback to early in the episode, where Jeff announced SharePoint Premium - Microsoft’s new AI-powered solution to transform content management, content experiences and get content ready for Microsoft Copilot. It's a set of tools that help people achieve more using AI, is now in preview and will be generally available early next year. And there was a ton of content released: The Announcement blog, Jeff's breakout session (now on-demand), its new Adoption Center page, and more.). We'll go deeper on a future episode of The Intrazone for sure; for now, lots of "what is it" resources to digest.

 

Ignite item #2: Microsoft Loop (GA) - The Microsoft Loop app is now generally available for the web and mobile (iOS and Android) for commercial customers. The Loop mobile app (iOS and Android) is generally available for consumer customers as well. Full functionality is available to business customers as part of their Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard and Business Premium Licenses.

 

Ignite item #3: Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 is an AI assistant at work. It automatically inherits an organization’s security, compliance, and privacy policies for Microsoft 365. Data is managed in line with Microsoft’s current commitments. It’s integrated into the Microsoft 365 apps millions of people use every day —Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams and more.

+ Microsoft Copilot Dashboard, powered by Microsoft Viva, will help leaders answer how copilot is affecting their organization and changing the way people work.

 

Ignite item #4: Microsoft Copilot Studio is an end-to-end conversational AI platform that empowers users to create and customize copilots using natural language or a graphical interface.

 

Ignite item #5: Azure infrastructure - Microsoft Azure Maia is an AI Accelerator chip designed to run cloud-based training and inferencing for AI workloads, such as OpenAI models, Bing, GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT.

 

BONUS: Microsoft is bringing together Microsoft To Do, Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Project for the web into a single, unified experience called Microsoft Planner. This experience will first be available in the Planner app in Microsoft Teams in spring 2024, followed by web experiences later in 2024. Powerful, collaborative, scalable and assisted by next-generation AI, the new Planner will help everyone effectively manage their work and achieve their goals.

 

December 2023 teasers

Psst, still here? Still scrolling the page looking for more roadmap goodness? If so, here is a few teasers of what’s to come to production next month…

 

  • Teaser #1: OneDrive: Open in App [Roadmap ID: 124813] 
  • Teaser #2: Stream: Add a survey, poll, or quiz to a video at specific times [Roadmap ID: 180796]

 

… shhh, tell everyone.

 

Helpful, ongoing change management resources

  • Follow me to catch news and interesting SharePoint things: @mkashman; warning, occasional bad puns may fly in a tweet or two here and there.

 

Thanks for tuning in and/or reading this episode/blog of the Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop – November 2023. We are open to your feedback in comments below to hear how both the Roadmap Pitstop podcast episodes and blogs can be improved over time.

 

Engage with us. Ask those questions that haunt you. Push us where you want and need to get the best information and insights. We are here to put both our and your best change management foot forward.

 

Stay safe out there on the road’map ahead. And thanks for listening and reading.

 

Thanks for your time,

Mark Kashman – senior product manager (SharePoint/Lists) | Microsoft)

 

The Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop - November 2023 graphic showing some of the highlighted release features.

Updated Nov 30, 2023
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