Am a keen follower of Microsoft's SharePoint Blog and proud to provide this direct from the Microsoft Tech Community:
We are excited to share that we are releasing the new content pane in SharePoint pages and news. This feature serves as a convenient hub for various panes that support authors in crafting their publications. This centralized space now features a user-friendly toolbox that enables authors to easily explore and insert content for creating dynamic and captivating pages. Additionally, the content pane incorporates other useful panes like configuration tools and design ideas.
Within Viva Amplify, the content pane hosts more tools such as the distribution channel selection, writing guidance, and audience selection.
Crafting your pages with the content pane
After entering edit mode, you will notice new icons on the right side of the canvas that serve as the navigation for the content pane. The first icon opens a new toolbox, where you can quickly find web parts, images, and section templates.
Tip: You can click-and-drag web parts and images from the toolbox directly onto the canvas!
You can find more items for any of the toolbox categories by selecting See more/all… on the toolbox.
The second icon in the content pane navigation is a new entry point for the properties pane of web parts and sections.
Tip: You’ll notice an updated design of the “Edit properties” button on webpart toolbars. Clicking this button will also open the properties pane for the selected item.
With the introduction of the content pane, we have also redesigned the section tools. To add a section, select the plus button located on the section borders and select which type of section you want to add. All section tools (move, edit, duplicate, and delete) are now in the section toolbar at the top left of a selected section.
To see the content pane in action, watch our video on the Microsoft Community learning channel.
Frequently asked questions
When will this happen?
The feature will start rolling out to Targeted Release customers soon and will continue to roll out to all customers through September.
This message is associated with Microsoft Roadmap ID 124827.
What do you need to prepare?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare, but you can let your users know about this new experience.
What is next?
- We are planning to add other panes to the content pane (Design ideas, Page details, etc.)
- We are considering user customization, additional content types, and page content driven items in the toolbox.
Thanks for reading. Please enjoy making beautiful pages and let us know any feedback or questions in the comments.
The above is kindly provided by the Microsoft Tech Community!
Am a keen follower of Microsoft's SharePoint Blog and proud to provide this direct from the Microsoft Tech Community:
We’re excited to announce that we’ve started rolling out the ability for multiple authors to collaborate on SharePoint pages. Multiple authors will be able to edit the same page at the same time, without having to take turns. Authors can see real-time changes made by others as they happen in pages, sections, and web parts.
After an author starts editing a page, they can see if other authors are also editing by viewing their avatar in the command bar. Changes made by authors are saved automatically every few seconds. If authors want to leave edit mode, they can select Save and close.
Version history has also been improved to enhance support for collaborative authoring. To undo more changes or changes made by other users, authors can restore a prior version from Version History (under Page details).
Watch a demo:
See this experience in action with the live demo on our Community Learning YouTube channel.
Frequently asked questions
When will this happen?
We have begun rolling out to targeted release tenants and expect to complete by late July 2024. We expect general availability rollout to start in August.
Track the feature status with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 124853.
How will this affect your organization?
Before this rollout, only one author can edit a page. While an author is editing the page no other user can edit until the author publishes or saves their draft.
After this rollout, authors will have the ability to edit a page or news post while others are editing as well.
What do you need to prepare?
You do not need to do anything to prepare for this update, but you may want to let your authors know about this new capability.
The above is kindly provided by the Microsoft Tech Community!
Am a keen follower of Microsoft's SharePoint Blog and proud to provide this direct from the Microsoft Tech Community:
Examples of new Figma color variables added to the SharePoint Web UI Kit in the Figma Community.
Our SharePoint Web UI Kit in Figma has been updated with some great new additions! This update includes the exciting addition of Figma Variables and more components so you have more options when designing your SharePoint sites and pages.
What’s new in v3.0.0
- Introduced Figma Variables for color, size, spacing, corner radius, and stroke width
- Added new components: Site activity web part, Content pane
What’s updated in v3.0.0
- Themes and background colors can now be switched using modes
- Removed dark background variants from all components
- Re-factored components and bug fixes
- Updated documentation on using Figma Variables effectively
To get started with our updated UI kit, simply download the latest version from the Figma Microsoft Community website: SharePoint Web UI Kit – Figma.
Also, in case you missed it, watch our “Introduction to the SharePoint Web UI Kit” video on YouTube to watch a demo walking through how to use the SharePoint Web UI Kit yourself.
Why use the Figma SharePoint Web UI kit?
Figma is a subscription-based application that is the industry standard tool for web design. It provides an alternative to designing sites and pages outside of SharePoint. Figma does not build the pages in SharePoint, so once you finalize a design in Figma, you will need to build it in SharePoint. You should evaluate if Figma is the right solution for mocking up sites and pages for SharePoint.
Design without organizational limitations
This UI kit provides SharePoint users with another tool in their toolbox. While building a page in SharePoint is easy, we wanted to provide the ability to mockup sites and pages. It allows you to explore different design options for your site without the limitation of admin privileges and tenant restrictions, and doesn’t expose organization data.
Figma mockups provide a quick snapshot of SharePoint updates which business stakeholders can use to plan and make decisions. They can provide appropriate requirements and use this UI kit in collaboration with their design team to iterate in the life cycle of your organization’s intranet.
Share designs with ease
This UI kit provides you with page layouts and a selection of web parts to allow you to mockup and share new ideas across organizations and companies. Figma gives you the flexibility of reviewing and sharing your designs without having to spend time and resources creating it in SharePoint. Figma also allows you to download your designs into easy-to-use formats that can be used in documentation and presentations.
Learn more at https://www.figma.com/
Community feedback
Please tell us what’s missing, what doesn’t work for you, and where your biggest challenges are by leaving a comment on the Figma SharePoint Web UI kit page or by visiting the SharePoint Community.
We hope you enjoy our latest update and look forward to seeing what you create with it!
The above is kindly provided by the Microsoft Tech Community!
Am a keen follower of Microsoft's SharePoint Blog and proud to provide this direct from the Microsoft Tech Community:
There’s the thinking cap. And then there’s the deep-thinking cap. It’s time to put on the latter.
This article contains eight in-depth videos about SharePoint – now on demand and embedded below, with five more coming soon.
You’ll discover SharePoint’s capabilities and upcoming features, focusing on content management, collaboration, and leveraging AI in Microsoft 365. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of AI’s role in content creation and management. As the intranet evolves, too shall you advance along with tools to help build strategies for corporate communications. As your own brand ambassador, you’ll learn how to personalize SharePoint – to create content consistent with organizational identity. And of course, we have updated content for admins and devs – to see the latest ways to manage and extend SharePoint. Last, we added Jeff Teper’s recent keynote to give you the broadest insights on the transformative impact of Copilot in the mix with Microsoft 365, signaling a new era of AI-driven productivity.
OK, on to the show(s) (on demand)!!! All content is as it was presented during the Microsoft 365 Community Conference, presented by top product makers from Microsoft.
Note: Beyond the SharePoint content below, you can view all recorded sessions on demand now within the full Microsoft 365 Community Conference playlist on the Microsoft Community Learning channel (YouTube). You’ll find keynotes, general sessions, and numerous breakout sessions — in their entirety.
The best, recent overview of SharePoint in the era of AI
“Content Management and Collaboration for the AI Era” presented by Zach Rosenfield, Melissa Torres, Lincoln DeMaris, Ashu Rawat, and Sesha Mani. Learning how creating content in the era of AI provides you with opportunities to unleash your creativity and simplify large-scale content management. You’ll see and hear ways to enrich your content, get insights from your store of knowledge, and transform document-driven solutions with experiences across Microsoft 365. Watch below:
SharePoint powers your intranet and communicators
“The intranet of tomorrow: beautiful, flexible, and AI ready” presented by Denise Trabona and Dave Cohen. What is the intranet of the future all about? We’ll cover industry trends around content presentation, more robust authoring experiences, and what the era of AI means for your intranet. The video contains many demos and design tips and tricks throughout. Watch now:
“Planning a Corporate Comms strategy w/SharePoint News & Viva Amplify” presented by Naomi Moneypenny, Maeneka Grewal, and Dave Cohen. This transformation track session spans strategy, best practices, and product guidance. Learn how to plan a corporate communications strategy leveraging the power of SharePoint news and Viva Amplify. Watch now:
Look and feel: Make SharePoint your own.
“Branding SharePoint Sites, Clipchamp Videos, Teams Meetings, & More” presented by Cathy Dew. Learn how to take control of your authoring experience, to create rich content, easily, by your design and on brand – throughout your intranet, across applications, and consistently. Cathy brings a lot of demos, how to guidance, and best practices. Watch now:
Manage and control: Get up to speed as an admin.
“What’s New in SharePoint Admin Center, Copilot, and Beyond” presented by Dave Minasyan. Learn how you can leverage Copilot within the SharePoint admin center to discover and learn new management and control capabilities, understand the impact to your organization, and quickly implement them. Watch now:
“Plan and Deliver a Friction Free Migration to Microsoft 365” presented by Visha Chadha, Tony Mathew, and Yogesh Ratnaparkhi. Are you considering migrating to Microsoft 365? Learn about the latest enhancements in Microsoft 365 migrations and how you can seamlessly migrate your organization to Microsoft from the current productivity stack including Google Workspace, Box, Dropbox, and on-premises networks. Watch now:
A new offer for developers
“SharePoint Embedded: Build custom content apps with Microsoft 365” presented by Marc Windle and Farreltin Fan. Explore how SharePoint Embedded accelerates content-centric app development and leverages Microsoft 365’s robust security, compliance, and collaboration capabilities. Build your custom app with SharePoint built in, as your app’s primary, robust content service. Watch below:
Get the broadest view of Microsoft 365, watch Jeff Teper’s opening keynote.
“The Age of Copilots” presented by Jeff Teper, Miceile Barrett, Derek Snyder, and Naomi Moneypenny. See how innovation in Microsoft Copilot, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams – combined with the familiarity and scale of Microsoft 365 – unlocks productivity and transforms business processes for everyone across all functions and industry in this new era of AI. Watch now:
Coming soon
We’ll update this blog post with more content as soon as the below gets published.
For now, review what related session content is “coming soon”:
- “SharePoint: Maximize the value of your content with AI-powered content processing.”
- “SharePoint: Transform your content experiences in the era of AI.”
- “The Ins and Outs of Microsoft 365 Backup, Archive”
- “SharePoint Architecture: A Look Behind the Scenes”
- “Copilot for Microsoft 365: Extensibility 101”
SharePoint is the primary content services platform across Microsoft 365 apps.
Whether you’re collaborating with a project team on a Loop, watching a meeting recording via Stream, or using sites to supercharge your intranet, SharePoint is at the center of it all. This is that PB/month of content at work for you – be it a loop, a list, a file, a video, a site – it’s stored in and powered by SharePoint. This allows us to deliver a best-in-class content platform that our customers love, using apps that also abide by our trusted data security and privacy standards.
SharePoint is the primary content services platform across Microsoft 365 apps.
Thank you for your interest in taking your knowledge and depth of SharePoint to the next level. It warms our metadata-driven hearts!
Cheers, Mark “in depth” Kashman
The above is kindly provided by the Microsoft Tech Community!
A Step Forward in News Sharing and Collaboration for SharePoint
SharePoint News connector has been a valuable tool in our Microsoft Teams experience, seamlessly integrating SharePoint news into our team channels. As we strive for innovation and collaboration, we are transitioning away from the SharePoint News connector to embrace alternative, more integrated solutions.
SharePoint News Connector
Our decision to move beyond the SharePoint News connector is driven by our commitment to providing a seamless and collaborative environment. With current advancements in Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, we can leverage alternatives, ensuring real-time updates and discussions within Teams channels.
Exploring New Alternatives
We encourage you to explore our robust alternatives to SharePoint News connector, such as Teams Workflow, Viva Connections and Viva Amplify, which offer a more integrated and feature-rich news experience that continues to share SharePoint site news within your Teams’ channels.
• Viva Connections News notifications: The Viva Connections app delivers News notifications via Microsoft Teams and links users to the Viva Connections app through the notification –Learn more about Viva Connections News notifications
• Viva Amplify: Viva Amplify brings together internal communication processes in a single tool. You create content once, then publish your message through SharePoint, email, Microsoft Teams, and soon Viva Engage.- Publish a Viva Amplify publication
• Create your own workflows in Teams: Set up a Teams workflow
Timeline for Transition
The process will begin by halting the creation of new SharePoint News connectors starting July 22nd and will continue with the phase-out of configured connectors from August 26th onwards.
This change will happen automatically on the dates specified. There will no action required from admins, but it is highly suggested to:
- Notify users about this change
- Update any relevant documentation
- Share the alternative solutions to ensure a smooth transition.
Resources
We understand the importance of a smooth transition and are dedicated to providing support throughout this change. You can follow our support guidance for additional help and information.
The Microsoft 365 Commercial Support Team resolves customer support cases and provides support to help you be successful and realize the full potential and value of your purchase. Our support services extend across the entire lifecycle and include pre-sales, onboarding and deployment, usage and management, accounts and billing, and break-fix support. We also spend a considerable amount of time working to improve the supportability of Microsoft 365 services to reduce the number of issues you experience as well as minimize the effort and time it takes to resolve your issues if they do occur.
Today, we’re excited to share more about some of our supportability work with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.
In November 2023, we posted our first article on Copilot for Microsoft 365 sharing some initial insights and guidance from the customer support team’s perspective. Even though it seems like yesterday much has happened since then and we’ve continued to learn from all customers as they rapidly adopt and use Microsoft Copilot to increase their productivity, collaboration, and creativity every day.
Our published guidance and resources have continued to grow and expand too, and today we’ll share answers to some of the top questions we hear from customers along with some of our favorite resources to help you better prepare and learn more.
Plan & Deploy
Q: What are the prerequisites for my organization to use Copilot for Microsoft 365?
A: Copilot has specific licensing prerequisites and deployment requirements and most of these parallel the requirements to use Microsoft 365 Apps. Note that Copilot for Microsoft 365 is a user-based license and requires that Microsoft 365 Apps on a Windows desktop are deployed using a user-based license. More information on prerequisites here > Get started with Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn
Q: What model does Copilot for Microsoft 365 use and are there any limits on number and length of conversations or file uploads?
A: Some important updates that apply to this were recently shared on April 2. All licensed commercial customers will have priority access to GPT-4 Turbo in Copilot for Microsoft 365. Limits on the number of chats per day and the number of turns per conversation have been removed. File uploads are unlimited up to 2 GB uploads per day. More information on the recent announcements here > Bringing the latest capabilities to Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers | Microsoft 365 Blog
Q: Are there any special considerations when using Microsoft Purview information protection capabilities with Copilot for Microsoft 365?
A: Yes. Before deploying Copilot, take time to get familiar with information protection considerations and ways to strengthen your data protection solutions when using Microsoft Purview. More information on deploying with Microsoft Purview here > Considerations for deploying Microsoft Purview data security and compliance protections for Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft Learn
Q: How does semantic index work with Copilot and what are the supported content types? Is there anything I can do as an administrator to prepare and manage the sematic index?
A: The semantic index enhances Microsoft Copilot and search results in the Microsoft 365 applications, SharePoint Online, and Microsoft Teams by creating two indexes, one for user-level content and data, and one for tenant-level content and data. Each supports different file types with the latest illustrated here:
There are optional steps that administrators can take if they wish. More information on semantic index here > https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftsearch/semantic-index-for-copilot
Q: Is there anything special I need to think about with network planning and endpoints?
A: Copilot services connect to endpoints within the Microsoft 365 Endpoint taxonomy. As with other Microsoft 365 services, it’s recommended to align networks with the Microsoft 365 Network Connectivity Principles for optimal performance and security.
Q: Where can I learn more about Copilot for Microsoft 365 privacy and security and how our data is handled when my users interact with Copilot?
A: In early March, additional data residency capabilities were announced here. Full details on data, privacy, and security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 can be found here > Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn
Q: Does Microsoft have a playbook or set of resources to help me plan and implement Copilot for Microsoft 365 for my organization and drive successful adoption?
A: Comprehensive resources are available to assist in discovering, planning, and implementing Copilot for organizations of all sizes. This includes guidance for working across leadership, IT, and end users. A full set of adoption resources can be found here > Copilot for Microsoft 365 – Microsoft Adoption
Manage & Use
Q: What level of controls are available to IT Admins for Copilot for Microsoft 365?
A: By using the Copilot page in the Microsoft 365 admin center, IT Admins can manage how users in their organization interact with Copilot for Microsoft 365. More information on Copilot management capabilities here > Manage Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 with the Copilot page | Microsoft Learn
Q: What languages does Copilot for Microsoft 365 support?
A: Support for an additional 16 languages was recently announced. Details on Copilot supported languages here > Supported languages for Microsoft Copilot – Microsoft Support
Q: I assigned a Copilot license to a user but it’s not showing up for them. What should I do?
A: After assigning a Copilot license to a user, it can take up to 72 hours for the background refresh of the license to take effect and for Copilot to show up in applications. Administrators can force a refresh by applying the File > Account > Update license button (located directly under the Microsoft 365 Apps for Enterprise logo).
More information here > How to find and enable missing Copilot button in Microsoft 365 apps – Microsoft Support
Q: Ok, so Copilot still doesn’t show up in Excel, OneNote, PowerPoint, and Word… what now?
A: This will happen if Connected Experiences have been turned off in your organization (which enables analyzing of content for Microsoft 365 apps) including when users are using Windows Information Protection or Microsoft Defender Application Guard. To enable Copilot in this scenario, policy settings for connected experiences will need to be turned on. The following are indications that Connected Experiences are disabled:
- Office Cloud policy for “Allow the use of connected experiences in Office that analyze content” is disabled.
- Office ULS log shows “Data.IsPrivacyEnabled”:false” in the Office.AugLoop.Client.Liblet.StartRuntimeAttempt event.
- Either of these registry keys are enabled:
- HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftoffice16.0commonPrivacyusercontentdisabled
- HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftoffice16.0commonPrivacydisconnectedstate
More information on connected experience settings here > Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Learn
Q: My users are getting mixed results when working with large documents and Copilot in Word. Any tips?
A: When referencing documents with Copilot in Word, try to limit your document size to 20 pages and 15,000 words or less. This is the sweet spot for Copilot to work effectively. More information on working with Copilot in Word here > Keeping it short and sweet: a guide on the length of documents that you provide to Copilot – Microsoft Support
Q: My users are really excited about the email summarization, drafting, and coaching capabilities with Copilot in Outlook but are running into occasional issues. Any limitations to be aware of?
A: Copilot scenarios in Outlook are only available on a user’s primary mailbox and not with shared, archived, group, or delegated mailboxes. With Coaching by Copilot, a user’s email draft needs to be at least 100 characters to use the Coaching capability. There’s no limit on prompt length when using Draft with Copilot. More information on working with Outlook here > Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Outlook – Microsoft Support
Q: Users are bumping into some latency issues when working with Copilot in Excel. Any suggestions?
A: Copilot in Excel works for Excel tables of up to 2 million cells. Skills like formula column suggestions, highlight, sort, and filter do not have data limits. Keep in mind that it can take some time to get a response when working with large tables. Note that Copilot in Excel only works with files that are hosted in OneDrive or Microsoft 365 SharePoint locations and have Autosave turned on. More information on working with Excel here > Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Excel – Microsoft Support
Q: What are some things my users can do to get better performance when using Copilot in Microsoft Teams?
A: Limit questions to topics covered in the chat or meeting. When conducting meetings and calls, speak or chat in supported languages. With chat scenarios, keep in mind that Copilot can only process as far back as 30 days from the last message sent. This may be further limited by retention policies that are set within your organization. More information on working with Microsoft Teams here > Frequently asked questions about Copilot in Microsoft Teams – Microsoft Support
Q: Some of my users are seeing issues or missing results when retrieving files to reference in Copilot with Word Online, PowerPoint Online, and Excel Online. What’s causing this?
A: For Copilot to work with Office web applications like Word Online, PowerPoint Online, and Excel Online, third-party cookies must be enabled. Blocking third-party cookies will result in a failure when retrieving files to reference. More information on requirements here > https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-requirements
Q: I have users that aren’t seeing relevant documents or information, including personalized content (fx. suggested meeting hours) when using Copilot. Is there a way to fix this?
A: This may be related to semantic index. Check and make sure Enterprise Search is enabled in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center. And then make sure Item insights are enabled. Having Item or People insights turned off will reduce the Microsoft Search and semantic index experience. More information here > https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoftsearch/semantic-index-for-copilot
Copilot, Your Support Assistant
Finally, keep in mind that you can always use Copilot as your support and troubleshooting assistant and even ask it to provide suggested prompts to use for ways it can help with different scenarios. Below is a quick example using Copilot in the browser. There’s a great mobile app (powered by GPT-4!) too.
As with any scenario, make sure to use good prompting techniques to help Copilot provide the responses and results that you want. This includes:
- Providing complete details and sufficient context about the scenario or issue.
- Instructing on any specific information sources that Copilot should use when responding.
- Guiding how Copilot responds by telling it to act like a certain role or expert (e.g. “act like a technical expert on Exchange Online” or “act like a solution architect specializing in Teams meeting rooms and calling”).
- Consider the sequence and order of the context, example, and instruction details in your prompts. Experimenting with the order and when specific sources are referenced can have an impact on the quality of responses.
- Focusing on positive instructions and telling Copilot what to do (versus what not to do) often generates the best results.
There’s a ton of great learning and resource material out there on prompt engineering. If you need a starting point, take a look at these resources > Learn about Copilot prompts – Microsoft Support and Copilot Lab (cloud.microsoft).
Hope you found this helpful, and we’ll continue to share updates from our Copilot journey here in Microsoft 365 commercial support!
Brian Stoner is a Director in the CSS Modern Work Supportability Team where he leads a team of technical and business program managers.
The CSS Modern Work Supportability Team delivers innovative self-help solutions and diagnostics, in-service enhancements, and support programs to help customers get maximum value from their Microsoft 365 commercial subscriptions and create an easy-to-use, connected support experience.
In the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center you can monitor your Microsoft 365 Apps health as well as leverage update validation during your monthly patching rollout. Both of these powerful tools are available in the Apps Admin Center. The prerequisite for seeing this data is enabling Office Diagnostic Data (ODD) to allow us to collect your usage and patching signals and then return them to you in a way that allows you to really see what is happening in your environment from an Apps health perspective. Additionally, sending diagnostic data to Microsoft allows us to better track the quality of the builds we release, identify potential issues faster and deliver a better product to you.
What is Office Diagnostic Data?
Office Diagnostic Data (ODD) is a set of diagnostic signals that are collected by the Microsoft 365 Apps on your device and include details of how the M365 Apps are functioning, including signals related to App reliability, App performance, and versioning information, among other things. Microsoft can use this data to keep our applications updated, safe, and working well. Microsoft gives customers control over what type of ODD is sent to Microsoft, including the ability to turn it off almost completely.
How can I tell if I am sending Office Diagnostics Data to Microsoft
To ensure your devices in your tenant are sending diagnostic data you can check the tracker in the Apps Health section of the Apps admin center. Under the Overview page, in the Insights section, click on “See details” to show the flyout of how many devices are sending data. If you are not seeing the number of devices sending data you think you should, check to make sure you are configured to send data, your network is not blocking the traffic and that your devices are in support.
Picture of the Microsoft 365 Apps health page in the Apps admin center showing number of devices configured to send optional diagnostic data.
Why: Value of enabling ODD
We encourage customers to enable Office Diagnostic Data (ODD) to provide visibility into the health of their M365 Apps. With ODD enabled, both Microsoft and the customer’s tenant admins can proactively address issues that may impact the user experience. When Microsoft engineering receives detailed diagnostic signals from your devices, we are able to monitor for major issues and can take steps to mitigate reliability and performance problems—and even alert you to actions that you may need to take to resolve issues.
If ODD is disabled (set to the lowest level of “Neither”), Microsoft engineering has no visibility into your user’s experiences, and your tenant’s issues will not be considered when prioritizing bug fixes.
For customers, Microsoft has created a separate admin portal called the Apps Admin Center (config.office.com). If a tenant has ODD enabled, the admin can access M365 App health data and act on recommendations from Microsoft (through Config.office.com). Additionally, if Microsoft identifies an issue that is not within our control to resolve, we will often reach out to advise the customer on how to fix the problem.
To summarize, by sending ODD to Microsoft, you can benefit from the following:
- Access health dashboards in the Microsoft 365 Apps admin center that show you the relevant app health data.
- Influence the development and prioritization of new features and bug fixes.
- Benefit from the latest security updates and patches that are intended to improve your user experience.
- When relevant, receive proactive guidance and recommendations from Microsoft on how to improve the performance and reliability of your Microsoft 365 Apps.
- Experience proactive resolution of issues and bugs.
We have customers from all over the world and from various industries, including government and security, who have enabled ODD (Office Diagnostics Data). This allows us to collaborate more effectively and keep a proactive eye on their health and experience. Enabling ODD can help us partner better and improve our customers’ experiences.
What is collected?
The level of diagnostics data you choose determines what type of data is collected by ODD. To enable us to process your app health trends and provide proactive support, we recommend that you set ODD to at least the Required level. This level collects the minimum amount of data needed to identify and fix issues. If you set ODD to Neither, you are essentially disabling it and preventing Microsoft from proactively improving your user experience. This means that you will be left alone in dealing with your tenant issues and user escalations reactively, without any proactive help from Microsoft engineering . Please refer to the following table for more information on the different levels of ODD.
Level
|
Description
|
Required
|
The minimum data necessary to help keep Office secure, up-to-date, and performing as expected on the device it’s installed on. Includes version of Office and information about crashes.
|
Optional
|
Required + Additional data that helps us make product improvements and provides enhanced information to help us detect, diagnose, and remediate issues. Includes performance info such as how long it takes to save a document.
|
Neither
|
No diagnostic data about Office client software running on the user’s device is collected and sent to us. This option, however, significantly limits our ability to detect, diagnose, and remediate problems your users may encounter using Office.
|
How to enable ODD?
There are a number of ways to configure Office Diagnostic Data on your devices, the method you use will depend on how you manage your devices. The following are the primary methods used by most customers.
Cloud Policy:
Use the “configure the level of client software diagnostics data sent by office to Microsoft” in the apps admin center(config.office.com)
Levels:
If policy is not configured, optional diagnostic data is sent to Microsoft.
*Minimum recommended
Picture of Microsoft 365 Apps Cloud Policy page showing policy to configure the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft.
Use policy settings to manage privacy controls for Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise – Deploy Office | Microsoft Learn
Control Setting via GPO (for Windows)
Configure the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft (admx.help)
Control privacy settings by editing the registry.
Use the following information to configure privacy settings directly in the registry
Picture of the description of the policy setting for configuring the level of client software diagnostic data sent by Office to Microsoft.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoftofficecommonclienttelemetry] “sendtelemetry”=dword:00000002
How to view the Data sent to Microsoft
Use Diagnostic Data Viewer
- Go to Start, select Settings>Office data settings
- Enable toggle for Office diagnostic data viewing on
Picture of the Office data settings data viewer toggle
Picture of the Diagnostic data viewer data events
Diagnostic Data Viewer Overview (Windows 10 and Windows 11) – Windows Privacy | Microsoft Learn
How can an admin monitor M365 Apps health?
Microsoft 365 Apps health takes the diagnostic data you send to Microsoft and gives it right back to you in an easy to read and understand section within the M365 Apps admin center. Apps health tracks things like load time, crash rates and file open time to give you a holistic view of the health of the devices in your organization.
You can drill into each individual application, focus on a specific servicing channel or monitor the health of your add-ins all from Apps health inside the Apps admin center.
Picture of Microsoft 365 Apps health application metrics page
Picture of Microsoft 365 Apps health Add-in overview page
Privacy:
What is included in Office Diagnostic Data?
Depending on the level of control you have set up, the information that will be sent to Microsoft will be different. For Microsoft to help you keeping your tenant healthy proactively, we it is sufficient enabling ODD at the “Required” level. For a full list of Office Diagnostic data sent to Microsoft when “Required” level is set up, please refer to: Required diagnostic data for Office – Deploy Office | Microsoft Learn
How does Microsoft keep our data private?
Microsoft is the industry leader in protecting customer data and will only use your data to provide the services that you have purchased from Microsoft. Read more about how we protect & manage your data here.
How long diagnostic data stored?
For commercial customers, our typical engineering practice is to retain diagnostic data from Microsoft 365 Apps for up to 18 months. If an enterprise subscription expires or is terminated, Microsoft holds for 90 days and then deletes data within the next 90 days, as outlined in the DPA.
Is user data collected?
With Office Diagnostic data no user content or personal information (such as usernames or email addresses) is collected. Data that we received is pseudonymized. Diagnostic data also does not include any file content or information about apps unrelated to Office.
Where is data stored?
Office Diagnostics Data for EU customers is now stored within the EU, aligning with our commitment to regional data residency. The rest of the data continues to be securely stored in the United States, ensuring comprehensive data management and privacy.
Network
Office Diagnostics Data is transmitted to Microsoft through Office 365 endpoints, utilizing the devices’ network. This process typically involves a low volume of data, which is unlikely to impact network performance. Additionally, the data is secured both during transit and while stored, ensuring its confidentiality and integrity.
What is the impact in my Network?
The bandwidth consumed by Office Diagnostic Data varies as it depends on user interaction with Office Apps. While “Required” events typically upload once per session, user-driven events differ. To estimate data upload, enable diagnostics on a few devices and monitor connections to diagnostic endpoints via your firewall. For individual device data, use the Diagnostic Data Viewer on a ‘typical’ user’s device.
We are excited to announce that Microsoft 365 and its associated data residency offerings – Advanced Data Residency (ADR) and Multi-Geo capabilities – are now available for commercial customers in our new cloud region in Madrid, Spain.
With the availability of Microsoft 365 will now offer Multi-Geo and ADR add-ons to provide customers provisioned in Spain with greater control over the location of their cloud data.
Multi-Geo allows customers to configure in which geographies their Microsoft 365 user data is stored at rest, on a per-user basis and within a single tenant. Exchange Online, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams are available for Multi-Geo configuration.
ADR provides guarantees that certain customer data will be stored at rest (in this case, in Spain) for several core online services, including Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, Copilot for Microsoft 365, Exchange Online Protection (EOP), Office for the Web, Viva Connections, Viva Topics, and certain Purview products.
ADR and Multi-Geo include data residency commitments for Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers as of March 1, 2024. For information about data residency and Copilot for Microsoft 365, see Data Residency for Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365.
This new cloud region will provide artificial intelligence (AI) and other cloud services to contribute to the digital transformation and the development of the AI economy in Spain.
“We are committed to supporting Spain, by making investments, forging business partnerships, and creating programs that ensure broad access to cloud and AI services that empower organizations and individuals to develop and use technology in ways that will serve the public good. We do so by delivering a data center infrastructure that provides the most innovative cloud and AI services, offering the highest levels of reliability, security, privacy and data residency. Proof of this is the high-level certification within the National Security Scheme, obtained by the new cloud region.” — Alberto Granados, Country Manager, Microsoft Spain
This is the second new cloud region we have launched this year, continuing a series of datacenter launches that include Poland, Italy, and Mexico in the last 18 months.
Learn more about empowering your organization with Microsoft 365, ADR, and Multi-Geo.
— Microsoft 365 Datacenter and Data Residency Teams
Am really keen on exposing PowerApps / Flow news - this was provided from Microsoft Flow. You can read out the full post available on this link:
https://powerautomate.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/may-2024-update-of-power-automate-for-desktop/
Power Automate for desktop comes a new addition in 2024 May’s release, the introduction of Microsoft Dataverse connector actions!
Am a keen follower of Microsoft's SharePoint Blog and proud to provide this direct from the Microsoft Tech Community:
We are excited to share that we are releasing video page templates in SharePoint Pages and News. With this feature, we’re enabling authors to create video centric page content. These templates are available in both SharePoint and Stream, making it easy to showcase video with a customized and branded pages experience from either application.
Creating a video page from Stream Web App
This feature enables the creation of Pages and News outside of the SharePoint platform. Navigate to a video on the Stream Web App. Under the share dropdown, you will see a new entry point: Create video news post.
Tip: This entry point is only available when the video is stored on a SharePoint site where you have editing permission. If you are not seeing the entry point, try copying the video to another site.
Within the template picker, select your template type, page type, and any related documents you want to include on your page.
Tip: Video metadata, such as the title and description, is copied to the page so make sure it is up to date.
After finalizing your selections in the template picker, go to the canvas for editing. Edit your video page like other SharePoint Pages, then publish and share when you are ready!
Create a video page from a SharePoint Site
The video page templates surface in the Page and News template pickers within a SharePoint site.
Choose a video page template, then add your video to the Stream web part and edit the rest of your page before publishing.
Features and capabilities mentioned in this blog post, are demonstrated in the following video with Katelyn Helms (Microsoft) and Vesa Juvonen (Microsoft).
Frequently asked questions
When will this happen?
The feature has rolled out to Targeted Release customers and will continue to roll out to all customers through the end of June.
This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 124823.
What do you need to prepare?
There is nothing you need to do to prepare, but you can let your users know about this new experience and guide them to make video pages with a few examples.
What is next?
- We are planning to create more video page templates that include the latest and greatest features.
- We are considering an updated template picker experience and support of custom templates.
Thanks for reading. Please enjoy making beautiful pages with videos and let us know any feedback or questions in the comments.
The above is kindly provided by the Microsoft Tech Community!
