Am a keen follower of Microsoft's SharePoint Blog and proud to provide this direct from the Microsoft Tech Community:
We are thrilled to announce that authors will now have the option to remove the title area, which is no longer mandatory at the top of a page. This title area is being rebranded as a Banner web part with new layouts, allowing you to add one or more banners to any column of a page, including a full-width section.
Now, with this flexibility, you can choose to have no banners, one banner, or multiple banners on a SharePoint page. If you decide to remove the title area, you can choose a Banner to restore the title.
New Banner Layouts:
We’ve added two new layouts for Banner: Author and Fade. It works in each type of section, including Full-width section, One column, Two columns, Three columns, and One-third.
New layouts:
Banner in Full-width Section and Three column section:
Title on the command bar
The first banner at the top of the page (in a full-width section) is considered as the title (H1), which automatically synchronizes to the page Title on the command bar at the top of the screen. Additional banners will function as headings in the page. The page Title on the command bar is visible in edit mode only.
Note: You must enter a page title in the first banner or on the command bar before you can Save and close or Publish the page.
Features and capabilities mentioned in this blog post, are demonstrated in the following video with Tina Chen (Microsoft) and Vesa Juvonen (Microsoft).
WCAG 2.1 Compliance:
How do you meet WCAG 2.1 criteria without a visible H1 title? If you opt not to have a title on the page, a hidden H1 element in HTML will ensure accessibility, with the H1 content derived from the page title on the command bar.
The title area in existing SharePoint page templates has been updated, meaning when you create a new page from a SharePoint page template, you will see a Banner at the top. In some situations, the old title area will not rename automatically, but you can still select new layout options from the toolbox:
When you edit an existing page with a title created before this rollout, you can remove or keep the Title Area.
When you make a copy of an existing page with a title created before this rollout, you can remove or keep the Title Area in the copied page.
When you create a new page using a custom template with a Title Area, you can remove or keep the Title Area in the new page.
General Availability (Worldwide, GCC, GCC High and DoD): We began rolling out in early July 2024 and rollout was completed by the end of August 2024. This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 386904.
How will this affect your organization?
With this update, SharePoint Page and News authors can set section background color or image, making it an appealing experience.
What do you need to prepare?
This rollout will happen automatically by the specified dates with no admin action required before the rollout. You may want to notify your users about this change and update any relevant documentation as appropriate.
How does it look in emails?
The pre-rollout title areas and Banners will be supported in email. When users send a Page or News as email, the layout will change slightly: the banner image will appear above the banner text.
What is next?
The new Banner is available in Design Ideas Private Preview.
Enhanced page templates experiences with new capabilities like Banner new layouts, Section Background and more.
Thanks for reading. Please enjoy making beautiful pages and let us know any feedback or questions in the comments.
In an earlier blog, we showed you how the Microsoft Customer and Partner Solutions (MCAPS) organization is optimizing internal processes using Copilot for automation and process mining in Microsoft Power Automate. In this blog, we explore how another Microsoft division is using the same tools to get similar results.
Streamlining security access requests
Microsoft Customer Experience & Success (CE&S) is one of the largest customer support teams in the world. With over 17,000 employees worldwide, CE&S is responsible for shaping the strategy, design, and implementation of Microsoft’s end-to-end customer experience.
For one of their projects, CE&S focused on their Just in Time (JIT) security process used to grant access to resources. “Leveraging the process mining capabilities in Power Automate, we wanted to explore ways to improve our responsiveness – without compromising on security,” says Kirk McNesby, Senior Business Process Manager at Microsoft.
In just one week, CE&S successfully deployed process mining and began gathering insights. “With process mining in Power Automate, we were able to easily input data and immediately jump behind the wheel to do meaningful exploration,” says Kirk. “We had no prior knowledge or training. We were ingesting data and learning how to use the tool – all at the same time.”
To begin using process mining, over 14GB of event log data (consisting of SR events and JIT security logs) was loaded into the tool. The team was particularly impressed with the easy-to-use interface. “We liked the out of the box presentations. Variances were presented in a clear, visual format and filtering worked really well with our data,” says Kirk.
The team used the filtering capabilities within process mining to quickly segment access requests by type and looked for patterns that would contribute to optimization. This strategy revealed bottlenecks in a specific access request for users acting as backup support on cases when the main support engineer was unavailable.
By automating approvals for this scenario, the team estimated that they could automate up to 54,000 approval requests per year, saving users 13,200 hours of wait time. As Kirk adds, “The process mining capabilities in Power Automate were critical to achieving insights this quickly.”
Am a keen follower of Microsoft's SharePoint Blog and proud to provide this direct from the Microsoft Tech Community:
We are excited to introduce new SharePoint design ideas feature with AI powered suggestions for improving the structure of your SharePoint content. With this feature, authors can now use Design Ideas in Microsoft SharePoint to rearrange and reformat their image section, text section, and banner webpart.
Design ideas identify the text and webpart content of the section you are currently authoring, and suggesting new layouts, backgrounds, text formatting, and image webparts to enhance your section. The author then clicks on the suggestions to try and apply different ideas.
When you click into a new section with one blank text webpart, Design ideas will offer you formatting options you can add to get started.
Once your section has additional content, Design ideas will then summarize your text to provide appropriate image webpart and background suggestions, along with basic text formatting.
When you first start an editing session, a red dot will appear in the design ideas content pane pivot to let you know it has ideas available. Click on this pivot to open the design ideas panel.
Upon this first release, Design Ideas will only be available for the following sections containing:
1 Banner webpart
1, 2, and 3 text webparts
1, 2 and 3 text and image webparts
1 blank text webpart
Features and capabilities mentioned in this blog post, are demonstrated in the following video with Sara Cummings (Microsoft) and Vesa Juvonen (Microsoft).
Frequently asked questions
When will this happen?
The feature starts rolling out to customers in August 2024 and will be available gradually worldwide by end of September.
We are excited to announce the Public Preview for exporting your Sync Health Reports data! This feature allows you to seamlessly integrate with other datasets like Azure Active Directory (AAD), Exchange, and Teams to create actionable insights and to automate your workflows.
What are the OneDrive Sync Health Reports?
When managing the health and data of hundreds or thousands of desktops in your organization, it can be challenging to know if your users are syncing their content to the cloud and that their data is protected. That’s where the Sync Health Reports come in.
The OneDrive Sync Health Reportsdashboard provides insights into the health of the devices in your organization so you can proactively maintain your organization’s information and data. These health reports contain information for individual devices including if important folders are being backed up, if any sync errors have occurred, and if there are any health issues or advisories that need attention. These insights can help you easily address issues and ensure your users’ files are protected and synchronizing with the cloud.
How does export work for the OneDrive Sync Health Reports?
The data is exported via Microsoft Graph Data Connect, enabling seamless integration with other datasets such as Azure Active Directory (AAD),Exchange, and Teams data. This integration opens the door to actionable insights and automation that can transform how you manage OneDrive sync health across your organization.
Some of the valuable questions you can answer using the exported data are:
How many devices have opted into Known Folder Move (KFM)?
Which folders are most selected for Known Folder Move (KFM)?
What is the breakdown of unhealthy devices by OS version?
What is the breakdown of unhealthy devices by OneDrive Sync client version?
Is the device for user X reporting as healthy?
How many devices are showing errors?
Which types of errors are making most devices unhealthy?
Which devices are showing a specific error?
What are the errors occurring on a specific device?
Benefits at a Glance
Comprehensive insights and actionable data: Get a holistic view of sync health across all devices and also join with other datasets for in-depth analysis and actionable insights.
Enhanced monitoring: Detect spikes in errors, monitor Known Folder Move (KFM) rollout, and more.
Automation potential: Leverage the power of automation to streamline your OneDrive sync health management.
Getting Started
Ready to dive in? Here’s how you can get started with the new OneDrive Sync Health Data Export feature:
Set up the OneDrive sync health dashboard: Configure the devices in your organization to report device status. Learn more.
Set up Microsoft Graph Data Connect: Ensure you have the necessary permissions and setup for Microsoft Graph Data Connect.
Configure your Azure storage account: Make sure your Azure storage account is ready to receive the data.
Initiate the export: Use the OneDrive admin center or PowerShell to start exporting the sync health data.
Analyze and act: Once the data is in your Azure storage account, you can begin analyzing it and integrating it with other datasets for deeper insights.
We hope this new feature empowers you to manage OneDrive sync health more effectively and keep your organization’s data secure and synchronized. As always, we appreciate your feedback and look forward to hearing how you’re using this new capability.
Am a keen follower of Microsoft's SharePoint Blog and proud to provide this direct from the Microsoft Tech Community:
Kick off your journey with SharePoint Embedded. At the SharePoint Embedded for Enterprise Apps events, you’ll explore best practices for your projects, glimpse the future of SharePoint Embedded, and learn to integrate Copilot into document-centric apps. We’re eager for your feedback and experiences; your creations shape ours.
The SharePoint Embedded product team is coming to New York Cityand London in September! Come join us for an all-day event to learn how SharePoint Embedded can deliver Copilot, Collaboration, Compliance, and Core Enterprise Storage for your document centric apps. Specifically, you’ll have the opportunity to do the following:
Learn about SharePoint Embedded, a new way to build file and document centric apps.
Get hands-on coding experience with this new technology and learn how to build your own custom app.
Take a deep dive into critical features, like compliance, collaboration and copilot.
Hear from others who have implemented SharePoint Embedded solutions.
Get insight into the SharePoint Embedded roadmap
New York City, US Date: Thursday, September 12th, 9AM-7PM (times are approximate, including social hour) Where: Microsoft Offices NYC Times Square London, UK Date:Thursday, September 26th, 9AM-7PM (times are approximate, including social hour) Where: Central London, UK (Exact location TBD) RSVP Details (Please note that this event is only open to certain countries and the following will not be accepted: Russia, Belarus)
21+, free event, no registration fees
First come, first served (limited seats)
1 RSVP = 1 person
NDA required (if your company does not have an NDA on record, one will be sent)
NDA must be signed to attend event
Event will be IN PERSON ONLY and will not be recorded
Bring your own device for coding portions (tablets and smartphones will not work)
