Organize content your way with the Preview of Project Moca
Published Aug 28 2020 07:09 PM 93.3K Views
Microsoft

Editor's note:

1. Moca will now become part of the Outlook calendar board view in Outlook on the web. Read more about it at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2168321 

2. We removed the email address for assistance in the FAQ. 

 

Project Moca is now available for public preview for commercial customers! To enable it, admins can run a PowerShell command as shown below.

 

The way you work is complex and the streams of information keep increasing, constantly demanding your attention. Your projects, your team’s projects, and the information you need to do your work are stored across multiple applications, forcing you to constantly switch between them and then re-focus and regain context. That constant switching and the inevitable distractions add up quickly – and your productivity plummets.

 

Keeping things organized is one step to being productive. Having everything in one place will save you time and being able to quickly find what you need will make you more effective. Imagine a dresser, with unlimited drawers, and each drawer with unlimited organizers in them.

 

To help you achieve that, we are introducing the preview of Project Moca in Outlook on the web. With Project Moca, you can simplify your workflow so you can focus on what matters. Add tasks, goals, notes, files from OneDrive and other cloud storage providers, links, contacts, and even emails and events, all into one dynamic space. Each space has a flexible canvas so you can customize and view your content your way.

 

Space in Project MocaSpace in Project Moca

 

Find Project Moca in the module switcher in Outlook on the web. If you can’t see it, click on the overflow “…” menu.

 

Access Project Moca from the module switcherAccess Project Moca from the module switcher

 

You can start a space from scratch or you can use one of the templates provided; either way you can organize, customize, and move things around to meet your way of working.

 

Create a new space from scratch or from a templateCreate a new space from scratch or from a template

 

Once in there, click on “Bucket” to create one of those “drawer organizers” and then start adding content to it.

 

Create a bucketCreate a bucket

 

Keep track of specific goals or set due dates on any kind of content in your space to get reminded about the things that matter. Your goals will also show up on your Outlook calendar.

 

Create a goalCreate a goal

 

View your goals on your calendarView your goals on your calendar

 

Create tasks to track your progress and they will sync automatically across Microsoft 365. See and manage them in Outlook, Microsoft To Do, or Teams.

 

View your tasks in Microsoft To DoView your tasks in Microsoft To Do

 

Need to keep track of several documents? No problem. Bring in all your PowerPoint decks, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets from OneDrive.

 

Add files from OneDriveAdd files from OneDrive

 

Write a quick note and see it sync as a Sticky Note.

 

Notes in Project Moca are saved as Sticky NotesNotes in Project Moca are saved as Sticky Notes

 

Add emails to a space directly from your Inbox in Outlook.

.

Add an email to a space via the ellipsis menuAdd an email to a space via the ellipsis menu

 

Add the email you added from your Inbox into your spaceAdd the email you added from your Inbox into your space

 

You can also add emails and events within Project Moca via the Activity Pane.

 

Add emails and events from the Activity PaneAdd emails and events from the Activity Pane

 

Planning a trip? Add location and weather cards to your space.

 

vacation.png

 

 

With Project Moca, you can keep things organized, simplify your workflow, and find what you need quickly without worrying about details scattered across multiple apps – so you can stay focused on what matters.

 

Project Moca is available for Microsoft 365 consumer subscribers, commercial customers, and EDU customers as a preview and is shipped off-by-default. Admins can enable it through PowerShell with the Set-OwaMailboxPolicy OwaMailboxPolicy-Default -ProjectMocaEnabled $true parameter. You can learn more about PowerShell cmdlets at: https://docs.microsoft.com/powershell/module/exchange/set-owamailboxpolicy.

 

We hope you try it and share your thoughts with us. Please send us feedback through the feedback button in each space to let us know how we can improve!

 

Give feedback via the feedback button in the bottom left cornerGive feedback via the feedback button in the bottom left corner

 

 

FAQs:

Q: How do I enable Project Moca as a commercial or EDU customer?

A: Admins can enable Project Moca via PowerShell command as described above. 

 

Q: Will there be support for Project Moca?

A: There will be no support offered for Project Moca for the time being. Please send us feedback or report bugs through the feedback button as shown above.


Q: What are the release plans for Project Moca?

A: We do not have further release plans to share at this time.

 

Thanks,

Lydia and the Project Moca team                                                                                                                

24 Comments
Silver Contributor

It's an interesting idea. Just don't like the fact that overflow is introduced when this is enabled and then users won't be able to quickly access tasks with one click. I think it would be better as another button on the top toolbar/footer. I haven't used OWA for a while, so maybe you can customize sidebar buttons same as in desktop version and disable what you don't want to see. But most users don't know that.

Deleted
Not applicable

The UI looks like Cortex Topic cards the difference being they are created by humans rather than AI.

Brass Contributor

I do like the layout, but i'm missing te reason why it is added as OWA functionality and makes me wunder where the information is stored. As SharePoint entry point would feel much more suitable since you can use Retention Labels for archiving. Or as an enty point in Teams?

These days I usaly set up my project workspaces in Teams where I use the underlaying SharePoint for storing my lists and files. And of course Planner.

I would prefer a better integration between all modules in SharePoint, Planner, Outlook and Teams. Like the calendar integration which is demoed here, would be great if a taks in Planner would show up in the end user's Outlook Calendar.

Als i'm missing OneNote integration for adding Project Notes.

Brass Contributor

Seems really cool but we can't get it working

What about integration with Office/Microsoft 365 Groups feature? Regarding the permissions/shareing etc. Also What about Teams integration etc?

Brass Contributor

I feel like this is what Planner was supposed to be. Very Trello-like. I'm just getting so confused with all the options and when to use what service. 

Copper Contributor

I would like to pilot this with some users.  I know I can have multiple OWA Mailbox Policies.

 

I have...

  1. Created a new OWA mailbox policy and set ProjectMocaEnabled to true.
  2. Applied this new OWA mailbox policy to some specific users
  3. Logged on as one of the specific users

However, the module switcher does not show Project Moca.

 

Is this just available in the "OwaMailboxPolicy-Default" policy object?

Iron Contributor

Hi @Lydia_Utkin I have tried to enable this but we must not be one of the 'Select Commercial customers' as the parameter -ProjectMocaEnabled is not found when running to command.

 

Is this likely to roll out to more tenants or can we request that it's added to tenants?

 

I have tried this in my personal account and looks useful - but my use case is unfortunately not on a personal account. 

Copper Contributor

Activation via PowerShell - can you link a guide, with the steps? Thanks

 

Brass Contributor

@Lydia_Utkin  we have activate it (through the default Policy) since three days but still no see any options to open it

Mela1984_0-1599125424886.png

also if I go directly to "space" (not sure if this the right address) is showing us "under construction"

Mela1984_1-1599125482932.png

 

Mela1984_2-1599125490959.png

Is there a O365 Licenses or something we are missing?

 

Best regards

Copper Contributor

@Mela The problem is this: Project Moca is available for Microsoft 365 consumer subscribers, EDU customers, and select commercial customers as a preview and is shipped off-by-default.

 

@Fritz Bischof:

$USERCREDENTIAL = GET-CREDENTIAL
$SESSION = NEW-PSSESSION -CONFIGURATIONNAME MICROSOFT.EXCHANGE -CONNECTIONURI HTTPS://OUTLOOK.OFFICE365.COM/POWERSHELL-LIVEID/ -CREDENTIAL $USERCREDENTIAL -AUTHENTICATION BASIC -ALLOWREDIRECTION
IMPORT-PSSESSION $SESSION
 After you connected to the Exchange Online Powershell you have type this:
Set-OwaMailboxPolicy OwaMailboxPolicy-Default -ProjectMocaEnabled $true
Brass Contributor

Is this Outlook Spaces or something else?

Iron Contributor

@Mr_Beacher yes this is Outlook Spaces 

Copper Contributor

Good idea to have a digital workspace for all apps but afraid that this is another half-done MS project.

The really needed thing is Kanban view for outlook to organize workflow. This would be the greatest achievement for MS. 

 

Also  - in this article, I did not see HOW TO RUN IT IN OFFICE. 

Similar issue as some others, I enabled it a week ago and it still isn't showing up in my commercial tenant.

@Lydia_Utkin are there any troubleshooting resources available?

Brass Contributor

I am as confused as a confused thing. Again.

A break-down on what I see so far:

  • this is a personal view of my stuff - like Planner - It is not a team-tool or platform like Trello.
  • its using the same design canvas as Microsoft Lists, but only half-the-features in play
  • its sat on OWA, so integrates my calendar and my Todo (but not to Planner! Really?!)
  • it is rolling-up other services - some of which are hosting content in Exchange Online (its using OWA), or OneDrive.
  • its piggy-backing off other OWA services to present in MS Teams. Not native experience.
  • it does not conform to Microsoft's own paradigm for a O365 release it believes in:  webapp, mobile app and/or desktop app/add-in.

I'm sorry but painting it pretty colours and adding a webpart for recent documents does not make this a Trello compete:

  • the UI does less than Planner - which has a Kanban board, reporting and basic tasks mgt. This does not.
  • It doesn't integrate with the other MS project coordination tools - Excel, Project plan, or SharePoint tasks (now with MS Lists UI )

So I have questions:

Q: why yet another attempt to get back in to task-management that doesnt start in the right place i.e. tasks being 1:1 distributed, not communal

Q: will Microsoft seek to improve on existing options or collapse the (6) other task management tools it currently has?

Q: will there be integration to the primary task mgt tools in market i.e. Excel, Project?

Q: where are the basic information mgmt tools? Retention - extension of Exchange? Or OneDrive? Sensitivity/DLP - same question?

Come on MS - play the game.

Copper Contributor

I totally agree with @Bongolo previous comments, and :

- Planner is not really a team tool - you cannot secure tasks (anyone can erase it - which is an issue). When you work as a guest on another company tenant, you cannot have notifications when someone assigns you a task - hard to understand why. Waiting for the new version of Planner (Tasks)

- No integration with professional tools like MS-Project that we use for all project. The Online version is so poor that nobody uses it. MS Project is the industry standard - why not do a real plug-in to that and rework the Online version so it fits the capabilities on the desktop version

- Lists might do the job for me, once it is fully implemented - which is just partially implemented for now. Only because it is customizable

- All these tasks management tools on MS 365 seems more oriented toward small businesses and not toward medium or large size

- Tasks based on Word and Excel @mentions will be great once fully implemented in a reworked Planner (you need to have a dashboard of what you've sent to others - otherwise useless)

 

Brass Contributor

As a "power" home user without connections to other systems as others have mentioned, I'd like to try this in earnest.

However, I use Gmail.  I have configured outlook.com to include my Gmail emails, but Spaces does not have access to them.

 

Should I look for a way to import my Gmail into Outlook every day?

Brass Contributor

@Lydia_Utkin  we have enabled this in tenant using the flag couple of weeks ago. However we are still not seeing this. Can you shed some light on this.

Set-OwaMailboxPolicy OwaMailboxPolicy-Default -ProjectMocaEnabled $true

Bronze Contributor

This is a competitor to NOTION not Trello. Notion is a swiss army knife personal and small team productivity tool where you add widgets. That is what this is like. Weird that it is not native to Teams.

Iron Contributor

Добрый день! Лидия, а когда дата официального развертывания?

Copper Contributor

Sharing Projects? Please can we? I was testing it out for a current small project and I realized I cannot share it.

NNNnnnnnooooo.....
;)

Copper Contributor

Hi,

 

This was very useful. May I please ask you whether you have a workaround for a -very frustrating issue- that I have with Project Moca, please?


I used to use Trello, Asana, ClickUp, etc. but eventually, I realised that for my needs (I'm doing a PhD) I wanted a simple interface with no distractions. Project Moca provides that. However, when I create a Task in Project Moca with various subtasks, sometimes I need to edit a subtask and if by mistake I press the backspace or delete key more than once, the whole task with all subtasks disappears!


I haven't found a way to undo this action or to simply lock the task/sub-tasks until further notice. Either option would be nice.
I have noticed that they still show on my To do in Outlook, but I can't see an option to show them on Project Moca again (there is "copy" or "Move" option but they work within To Do and not in Project Moca).


Your help would be invaluable.
Thank you!

 

Copper Contributor

Exciting! Can't wait to try it out.

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