Word/PowerPoint are not suitable replacements for Publisher
I’m writing following the guidance that Word and PowerPoint can be used as replacements for Publisher. This feedback is based on completing a real production document, not theoretical use Having just completed a fairly complex, layout-heavy technical document, I thought it only fair to share how that works in practice. In theory, I can see the logic: Word handles documents PowerPoint handles layouts Therefore, between the two, everything should be covered Unfortunately, in reality, this appears to be more of a theoretical exercise than a practical solution. Publisher was clearly designed for: Fixed, page-based layouts Precise positioning of objects Efficient alignment of mixed content (text, images, tables) Producing consistent, professional multi-page documents By comparison: Word is admirably committed to reminding you that it would prefer everything to flow freely, regardless of whether you want it to or not PowerPoint, while better behaved, does seem to assume every page is a standalone slide rather than part of a structured document Both tools can, with enough persistence, be persuaded into doing the job. However, this involves a level of manual intervention, workaround, and general negotiation with the software that feels somewhat at odds with modern productivity software. To put it simply: They are not replacements in any meaningful, real-world sense. The end result can be achieved, but the process is unnecessarily time-consuming, fragile, and prone to unexpected layout changes—particularly when precision actually matters. Replacing a purpose-built publishing tool with two applications that were never designed for that role gives the impression that this use case has been… optimistically simplified. I would strongly encourage Microsoft to either: Provide a genuine page-layout solution within the Office suite, or Enhance existing applications so they can support fixed-layout publishing without constant workarounds At present, the gap left by Publisher is very noticeable for anyone producing structured documents beyond basic text. I appreciate the direction of Microsoft 365 overall, but in this particular area, the experience feels less like an evolution and more like working around a missing tool. Regards AndyModel Mondays S2E10: Automating Document Processing with AI
1. Weekly Highlights We kicked off with the top news and updates in the Azure AI ecosystem: Agent Factory Blog Series: A new 6-part blog series on designing reliable, agentic AI—exploring multi-step, collaborative agents that reflect, plan, and adapt using tool integrations and design patterns. Text PII Preview in Azure AI Language: Now redacts PII (like date of birth, license plates) in major European languages, with better accuracy for UK bank entities. Claude Opus 4.1 in Copilot Pro & Enterprise: Public preview brings smarter summaries, tool assistant thinking, and "Ask Mode" in VS Code.Now leverages stronger computer vision algorithms for table parsing—achieving 94-97% accuracy across Latin, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean—with sub-10ms latency. Mistral Document AI in Azure Foundry: Instantly turn PDFs, contracts, and scanned docs into structured JSON with tables, headings, and LaTeX support. Serverless, multilingual, secure, and perfect for regulated industries. 2. Spotlight On: Document Intelligence with Azure & Mistral This week’s spotlight was a hands-on exploration of document processing, featuring both Microsoft and Mistral AI experts. Why Document Processing? Unstructured data—receipts, forms, handwritten notes—are everywhere. Modern document AI can extract, structure, and even annotate this data, fueling everything from search to RAG pipelines. Azure Document Intelligence: State-of-the-art OCR and table extraction with super-high accuracy and speed. Handles multi-language, complex layouts, and returns structured outputs ready for programmatic use. Mistral Document AI: Transforms PDFs and scanned docs into JSON, retaining complex formatting, tables, images, and even LaTeX. Supports custom schema extraction, image/document annotations, and returns everything in one API call. Integrates seamlessly with Azure AI Foundry and developer workflows. Demo Highlights: Extracting Receipts: OCR accurately pulls out store, date, and transaction details from photos. Handwriting Recognition: Even historical documents (like Thomas Jefferson’s letters) are parsed with surprising accuracy. Tables & Structured Data: Financial statements and reports converted into structured markdown and JSON—ready for downstream apps. Advanced Annotations: Define your own schema (via JSON Schema or Pydantic), extract custom fields, classify images, summarize documents, and even translate summaries—all in a single call. 3. Customer Story: Oracle Health Oracle Health shared how agentic AI and fine-tuned models are revolutionizing clinical workflows: Problem: Clinicians spend hours on documentation, searching records, and manual data entry—reducing time for patient care. Solution: Oracle’s clinical AI agents automate chart reviews, data extraction, and even conversational Q&A—while keeping humans in the loop for safety. Technical Highlights: Multi-agent architecture understands provider specialty and context. Orchestrator model "routes" requests to the right agent or plugin, extracting needed arguments from context. Fine-tuning was key: For low latency, Oracle used lightweight models (like GPT-4 Mini) and fine-tuned on their data—achieving sub-800ms responses, with accuracy matching larger models. Fine-tuning also allowed for nuanced tool selection, argument extraction, and rule-based orchestration—better than prompt engineering alone. Used LoRA for efficient, targeted fine-tuning without erasing base model knowledge. Live Demo: Agent summarizes patient history, retrieves lab results, filters for abnormals, and answers follow-up questions—all conversationally. Fine-tuned orchestrator chooses the right tool and context for each doctor’s workflow. Result: 1-2 hours saved per day, more time for patients, and happier doctors! 4. Key Takeaways Here are the key learnings from this episode: Document AI is Production-Ready: Azure Document Intelligence and Mistral Document AI offer fast, accurate, and customizable document parsing for real enterprise needs. Schema-Driven Extraction & Annotation: Define your own schemas and extract exactly what you want—no more one-size-fits-all. Fine-Tuning Unlocks Performance: For low latency and high accuracy, fine-tuning lightweight models beats prompt engineering in complex, rule-based agent workflows. Agentic Workflows in Action: Multi-agent systems can automate complex tasks, route requests, and keep humans in control, especially in regulated domains like healthcare. Community & Support: Join the Discord and Forum to ask questions, share use cases, and connect with the team. Sharda's Tips: How I Wrote This Blog Writing this recap is all about sharing what I learned and making it practical for the community! I start by organizing the key highlights, then walk through customer stories and demos, using simple language and real-world examples. Copilot helps me structure and clarify my notes, especially when summarizing technical sections. Here’s the prompt I used for Copilot this week: "Generate a technical blog post for Model Mondays S2E10 based on the transcript and episode details. Focus on document processing with Azure AI and Mistral, include customer demos, and highlight practical workflows and fine-tuning. Make it clear and approachable for developers and students." Every episode inspires me to try these tools myself, and I hope this blog makes it easy for you to start, too. If you have questions or want to share your own experience, I’d love to hear from you! Coming Up Next Week Next week: Text & Speech AI Playgrounds! Learn how to build and test language and speech models, with live demos and expert guests. | Register For The Livestream – Aug 25, 2025 | Register For The AMA – Aug 29, 2025 | Ask Questions & View Recaps – Discussion Forum About Model Mondays Model Mondays is a weekly series to build your Azure AI IQ with: 5-Minute Highlights: News & updates on Mondays 15-Minute Spotlight: Deep dives into new features, models, and protocols 30-Minute AMA Fridays: Live Q&A with product teams and experts Get started: Register For Livestreams Watch Past Replays Register For AMA Recap Past AMAs Join The Community Don’t build alone! Join the Azure AI Developer Community for real-time chats, events, support, and more: Join the Discord Explore the Forum About Me I'm Sharda, a Gold Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador focused on cloud and AI. Find me on GitHub, Dev.to, Tech Community, and LinkedIn. In this blog series, I share takeaways from each week’s Model Mondays livestream.
SharePoint Video Playback Quality Defaults to 480p – Horrendous
I manage multimedia training for over 600 locations and two distribution centers, supporting nearly 10,000 team members. We have made a significant investment in producing high-quality training content through professional equipment, structured scripting, and dedicated production and editing time. However, once videos are uploaded to SharePoint, the default playback quality often degrades the experience to what appears to be approximately 480p. As a result, professionally produced content can look noticeably poor on initial playback. Many of our store-level team members are not in a position to manually adjust playback settings, so the default experience matters. The source files are high resolution, but the default playback does not reflect that quality. This also creates issues when leadership reviews training content, because the playback quality can reflect poorly on the production even though the original video is clear. We moved away from third-party hosting due to ad exposure during onboarding and the need for a controlled internal platform. We are intentionally using SharePoint and Stream as part of our existing Microsoft 365 ecosystem for scalability, governance, and centralized access. Introducing additional paid hosting platforms or external streaming solutions is not a direction we are pursuing. From an enterprise training standpoint, defaulting to low-resolution playback undermines engagement and credibility. Are there plans to allow administrators to define a default playback resolution for SharePoint or Stream videos? Are there recommended encoding settings that influence the initial playback quality more reliably? Are there roadmap updates around improving adaptive streaming behavior or default resolution selection? Any guidance or insight would be appreciated.
PnP Template Error: "Invalid field name {guid}
Hello, I'm trying to apply a site template from one SharePoint Online site to another using PnP PowerShell. I have custom lists, some of them with a specific dependency chain: List X has a lookup to List Y. List Y has a lookup to List Z. All libraries/lists have "Allow management of content types" enabled. The cmdlets I run: Export: Get-PnPSiteTemplate -Out template.pnp -Handlers All -IncludeAllClientSidePages -PersistBrandingFiles Import: Invoke-PnPSiteTemplate -Path template.pnp The Error: During the Invoke process, I get: Invoke-PnPSiteTemplate : Invalid field name {guid} targetsharepoint site What I’ve tried: I attempted to manually remove the ID="{guid}" attributes from the XML inside the .pnp package, but that just makes the template schema invalid. Verified that I am connected to the target site with owner permissions. How can this issue be fixed? Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Disable incessant nagware popups
I don't know about everyone else, but I am sick and tired of the nagware pop ups in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, etc. Every single product harasses me with pop ups trying to tell me "hey, did you know this feature was here?", "you can do this if you click that", "let me hold your hand through using products you've used for decades even though you don't want daddy Microslop to do that". This is a prime example. I keep getting the same ones again and again and again and everything I've read indicates they should only appear once. But they don't. They keep coming back like a psychotic stalker ex who wants alimony even though you were never married. How do I get this nagware to stop?!Help me to fetch All drive id from sharepoints
Help me to fetch All drive id from sharepoints I am using to fetch drive id using Graph API (GET call) https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/sites/f17253bc-a4f6-4bab-990d-ab627c6bb319/drives?$select=name,driveType,id But I am getting only below response { "id": "b!vFNy8fakq0uZDXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXsMU6nTErdZmNJLuIx_z-RrDQxfSsIyx4", "name": "Documents", "driveType": "documentLibrary" } But In SharePoint below drives is present but out of those I am getting only one Could you please help me to fetch all drive id
Sharepoint Sync Onedrive - Long File Name issues
I need move some file from sharepoint to onedrive . i have add sharepoint folder to shortcut one drive . but when update on this device. , prompt up file long file name , need rename shorted after can sync . a lot of files. I tried using PnPShell to try search long file name files . but the scripts does not work .Pls share other solution to solve out the isseus.NEW! SharePoint Lists & Libraries: Default Approvers for Configure Approvals Explained
🚀 New SharePoint Feature Alert! Microsoft has just introduced a super useful capability in SharePoint Lists and Document Libraries: the option to set Default Approvers when configuring approval workflows. This small but powerful enhancement removes repetitive manual steps and makes approval automation more consistent across teams using SharePoint + Power Automate. In my latest YouTube video, I walk through how this feature works, how to set it up, and why it can significantly streamline your approval processes. 🎥 Watch the full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/Xxn-IrKVh6E 👍 If you find it useful, let me know in the comments! #SharePoint #Microsoft365 #PowerAutomate #Productivity #M365 #SharePointOnline #Automation #DigitalTransformationTrimming SharePoint Version History - Minor Versions
Hello, I am a SharePoint Admin at my organization and I have been asked to reduce our total storage usage by reducing the number of versions and minor versions in our environment on all SharePoint sites. I have written a simple PowerShell script that loops through a csv file with site addresses, and runs this command per site -> New-SPOSiteFileVersionBatchDeleteJob -Identity $site.siteURL -MajorVersionLimit 100 -MajorWithMinorVersionsLimit 5 It was my understanding that for all sites in the csv file, for all document libraries on the site, and for all files in the libraries this command will reduce the file to the last 100 Major versions, and the last 5 minor versions of each major version. Unfortunately, this command is not actually reducing the minor versions. It is working with the Major versions just fine, but all minor versions are being retained for each major version retained. Is my understanding of this command wrong, or is it not working? Are there other factors to consider? Does anyone know of an alternative that can fit my needs? The overall plan is to trim the current version history, then apply the automatic version setting to each library in our tenant. Here is the MS guide I referenced, maybe I missed something -> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/tutorial-queue-a-trim-job Any help is greatly appreciated, CamSyntex not processing files
48 hours ago, Syntex stopped processing files in our libraries, across several SharePoint sites and models. Processing Status is currently “In Progress” for over 36 hours in some cases. No errors are shown in the “Processing status” column. We've tried removing the models and applying again, adding new files, manually choosing to Classify & Extract. This occurred 3 months ago, and Microsoft had a SharePoint service degradation issue at the time, but current nothing showing on 365 Health. Anyone else experiencing this or have ideas? We logged a support request but current they cannot find an issue.
