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MyAnalytics, the fitness tracker for work, is now more broadly available

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MyAnalytics, the fitness tracker for work, is now more broadly available

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MyAnalytics -the fitness tracker for work-will be available to everyone using Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Business suites that include Exchange Online. Previously, MyAnalytics was only available with an Enterprise E5 plan or as an add-on to E1 and E3 plans.

Via a personal dashboard, an Outlook add-in, and weekly emails, MyAnalytics summarizes how you spend your time at work, then suggests ways to work smarter-from cutting unproductive meeting time to reducing time spent working after hours. It even uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help you stay on top of your to-dos by flagging commitments you've made in email.
The MyAnalytics dashboard.
New insights give a more complete picture of how you spend time at work

As we continue to evolve the product, today we're also making MyAnalytics insights more well-rounded. MyAnalytics currently provides insights based on time spent in Outlook emails and meetings, and Skype for Business calls and chats. This month, we're adding new insights based on your Microsoft Teams calls and chats, as well as signals from documents you're working on that are saved in OneDrive and SharePoint. With 329,000 organizations and 87 of the Fortune 100 using Teams, this takes us one step closer to providing you with a more complete picture of how you're spending time at work.
MyAnalytics Outlook add-in and weekly email.
A recent Gallup study found that two-thirds of full-time employees say they experience burnout at work. Multiple factors are contributing to burnout-such as the increased pace of work, a rise in collaborative work like chats, emails, and meetings, and the continuing trend of technology blurring the lines between work and life. Our customers tell us they're looking for ways to address these challenges by helping employees find time to focus, improve work-life balance, build better meeting habits, and create deeper connections with their colleagues. By making MyAnalytics features more broadly available to our millions of customers, it is our goal to make work days around the world a little more balanced and fulfilling.

Availability: MyAnalytics insights from Microsoft Teams and documents saved in OneDrive or SharePoint will begin rolling out to existing customers with MyAnalytics in January 2019. With today's updates, MyAnalytics features will be available for Microsoft 365 E3, Business, and Office 365 E3, E1, Business Premium, and Business Essentials plans. MyAnalytics functionality will roll out in phases, beginning with the Outlook add-in. Beginning February 12, 2019, MyAnalytics licenses will be assigned and activated; however, users will not be able to see any MyAnalytics functionality. The add-in functionality will begin rolling out on March 12, 2019.

Note: Today, we're also announcing new security and compliance packages for our enterprise customers. Please read Introducing new advanced security and compliance offerings for Microsoft 365 to learn more.

Editor's note 1/28/2019:
This post has been updated to reflect the most current availability of MyAnalytics features.

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MyAnalytics, the fitness tracker for work, is now more broadly available - Microsoft 365 Blog

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MyAnalytics -the fitness tracker for work-will be available to everyone using Office 365 and Microsoft 365 Enterprise and Business suites that include Exchange Online. Previously, MyAnalytics was only available with an Enterprise E5 plan or as an add-on to E1 and E3 plans.

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Introducing new advanced security and compliance offerings for Microsoft 365

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Introducing new advanced security and compliance offerings for Microsoft 365

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When we first introduced Microsoft 365 bringing together Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), our vision was two-fold: 1) deliver a great experience for customers to empower employee creativity and teamwork, and 2) provide the most secure and easy to manage platform for a modern workplace. We've been thrilled with the response, as customers like BP, Gap, Walmart, and Lilly have contributed to triple-digit seat growth since its launch.

A big driver of customer adoption of Microsoft 365 is the need for security and compliance solutions in an age of increasingly sophisticated cybersecurity threats, as well as complex information protection needs due to regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). To help address these needs, we are introducing two new Microsoft 365 security and compliance offerings that will be available for purchase on February 1, 2019.

Identity & Threat Protection-This new package brings together security value across Office 365, Windows 10, and EMS in a single offering. It includes best of breed for advanced threat protection services including Microsoft Threat Protection (Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), Windows Defender ATP, and Office 365 ATP including Threat Intelligence), as well as Microsoft Cloud App Security and Azure Active Directory. This offer will be available for $12 per user per month.*

Information Protection & Compliance-This new package combines Office 365 Advanced Compliance and Azure Information Protection. It's designed to help compliance and IT teams perform ongoing risk assessments across Microsoft Cloud services, automatically protect and govern sensitive data throughout its lifecycle, and efficiently respond to regulatory requests leveraging intelligence. This offer will be available for $10 per user per month.*

All the value in these new offers remains available as part of the full Microsoft 365 E5 suite, which also includes business analytics and our enterprise grade phone system and audio conferencing. The full Microsoft 365 E5 suite includes not only security and compliance capabilities, but also offerings in business analytics featuring Power BI, and communications with audio conferencing and advanced phone system value. Additionally, customers can continue to purchase security and compliance components on a standalone basis.

There are no price increases or service impacts associated with any of these changes. The new Identity & Threat Protection and Information Protection & Compliance offerings are designed to provide customers with simpler purchase, deployment, and adoption of these security and compliance workloads.

As we speak to customers about the future of work, we know security and compliance are some of the highest organizational priorities and we hope these new offerings will help them achieve their security and compliance goals.

*Pricing for Microsoft 365 E3 customers before volume discounts.

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Introducing new advanced security and compliance offerings for Microsoft 365 - Microsoft 365 Blog

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When we first introduced Microsoft 365 bringing together Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), our vision was two-fold: 1) deliver a great experience for customers to empower employee creativity and teamwork, and 2) provide the most secure and easy to manage platform for a modern workplace.

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Cloud Migration Accelerate your journey to Office 365

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Cloud Migration Accelerate your journey to Office 365

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Microsoft Tech Community Resource Center

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The collaboration landscape has changed

When you hear digital transformation you probably think it's a long, arduous, and expensive process - but it doesn't have to be, with Known Folder Move, the SharePoint Migration Tool, and Microsoft FastTrack you can be up an running with Office 365 in no time.

The nature of work continues to evolve as does the technology the powers it. The path from the industrial revolution, starting with the invention of the steam engine and the rise of industrial manufacturing, successive waves of technological innovation have provided new capabilities, tools, and power to make work more efficient and productive. These have always been times of great disruption as old ways of operating became obsolete and new models of work emerged.

Adapting to change in periods of rapid technology transformation is never easy for organizations or the people who work in them. Businesses and industries are challenged to reinvent processes, develop new markets and partnerships, and invent new business models. At a personal level, people are often challenged to let go of old ways of doing things so they can learn new skills and adopt new ways of working, thinking, and being in the workplace. The companies that thrive are those that understand the forces driving change as well as their impact on people and implications for the workplace.

Know before you go with the SharePoint Migration Assessment Tool

A successful migration is knowing what you have before you go. Through understanding your content and potential problematic sites you can streamline your migration to Office 365. The SharePoint Migration Assessment Tool is a simple command line executable that scans the contents of your SharePoint farm to help identify the impact of migrating your server to SharePoint Online with Office 365.

Accelerate adoption of SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams with the SharePoint Migration Tool

The SharePoint Migration Tool is designed to simplify your journey to the cloud through a free, simple, and fast solution to migrate content from on-premises SharePoint sites and file shares to SharePoint, OneDrive, and Microsoft Teams in Office 365. The SharePoint Migration Tool allows you to accelerate your journey to Office 365 overcoming obstacles typically associated with migration projects. With the SharePoint Migration Tool you can evaluate and address the information that matters the most to your organization, the Libraries, Lists, and Sites that form the foundation of the SharePoint experience.

Based on the learning and experience from Microsoft FastTrack, using the SharePoint Migration Tool from Microsoft with a few simple clicks you can begin to bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365.

Quickly deploy a modern desktop experience with Known Folder Move

Moving users' files and settings to their new or refreshed PCs is a critical process.

If your users are on OneDrive or you are adding OneDrive in as part of this deployment, OneDrive "Known Folder Move" can help accelerate the deployment of a modern desktop experience. Using the cloud to synchronize user files, Known Folder Move feature provides a level of flexibility not possible with local network-based file migration options. If enabled prior to migration, it provides secure access on new or refreshed PCs and, it eliminates the need to create temporary migration stores on your own servers. It is also has the potential to be completely transparent to the user.

If you're already using OneDrive, you will know that users can select the folders and locations they would like to sync from OneDrive or SharePoint to their device, but that effectively puts the burden on the end user to set it up. With Known Folder Move, you can target the Documents, Desktop and Pictures folders within a user profile and protect it all on OneDrive. A user can do this themselves or, importantly for this scenario, you can enforce this using Group Policy settings.

With Known Folder Move, users don't change their workflow - everything looks the same before, during and after synchronization with OneDrive is complete. Through Group Policy you can even choose whether or not to notify users that their documents, pictures and desktop are protected in OneDrive. If you choose not to, it all happens silently in the background. The users will only be aware when they take delivery of a new PC or their PC is refreshed. As soon as they sign in to their OneDrive account, these files will be available again, and will be restored to their new PC. And of course, OneDrive means they will also their files securely at any time from their phones and other devices.

Move confidently to the cloud with Microsoft FastTrack

Microsoft FastTrack helps you deploy Microsoft cloud solutions. If eligible subscriptions to Microsoft 365, Azure, or Dynamics 365 you can use FastTrack at no additional cost for the life of your subscription.

FastTrack is a Microsoft service included in your subscription cost that provides you with a set of best practices, tools, resources, and experts committed to making your experience with the Microsoft Cloud a great one. OneDrive onboarding guidance, migration benefits, and adoption guidance are included in the benefit offering.

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Cloud Migration | Microsoft Tech Community Resource Center

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When you hear digital transformation you probably think it's a long, arduous, and expensive process - but it doesn't have to be, with Known Folder Move, the SharePoint Migration Tool, and Microsoft FastTrack you can be up an running with Office 365 in no time.

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Kick start the new year and your cloud migration with new SharePoint Migration Tool improvements

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Kick start the new year and your cloud migration with new SharePoint Migration Tool improvements

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We're excited to announce new improvements to the SharePoint Migration Tool for the month of January.

Designed to be used for migrations ranging from the smallest set of files to a large scale enterprise migration, the SharePoint Migration Tool will let you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365.

Improvements this month include:

A new, updated UI aligned with the Office 365 user experience

This release of the SharePoint Migration Tool includes improvements to the user interface with a new, simplified control service more aligned to the visual themes of SharePoint Online.

Ability to start new migrations without having to restart the SharePoint Migration Tool

Now in this release of the SharePoint Migration Tool you can start new migrations without having to restart the migration tool.

Improved interaction flow including simplified setting review experience

More easily access and view the settings needed to support your migration scenario with a new simplified interaction flow and review experience.

The SharePoint Migration Tool is designed to simplify your journey to the cloud through a free, simple, and fast solution to migrate content from on-premises SharePoint sites and file shares to SharePoint or OneDrive in Office 365. The SharePoint Migration Tool allows you to accelerate your journey to Office 365 overcoming obstacles typically associated with migration projects. With the SharePoint Migration Tool you can evaluate and address the information that matters the most to your organization, the Libraries, and now Lists that form the foundation of the SharePoint experience. Using the SharePoint Migration Tool you can start your migration today and take advantage of the full suite of features and security capabilities that Office 365 offers.

Keep reading to learn more about the SharePoint Migration Tool or download the latest version now at https://aka.ms/SPMT.

You can download the SharePoint Migration Tool at http://aka.ms/SPMT. Through this version of the SharePoint Migration Tool you'll have available to you the innovation we're delivering to help you bring your information to the cloud and take advantage of the latest collaboration, intelligence, and security solutions with Office 365.

Through continued innovation across migration scenarios we'll be adding more capabilities over time to the SharePoint Migration Tool, including support for more SharePoint versions, site structure migrations, and more. Subscribe here to stay up to date on future announcements for SharePoint and Office 365.

Whether you're looking to migrate from file shares on-premises to SharePoint or OneDrive or from on-premises versions of SharePoint, the SharePoint Migration Tool is designed to support the smallest of migrations to large scale migrations with support for bulk scenarios.

Learn more about migrating to Office 365 at https://resources.techcommunity.microsoft.com/cloud-migration/.

Learn more about the SharePoint Migration Tool at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Introducing-the-SharePoint-Migration-Tool-9c38f5df-300b-4ad....

Prepare your environment for migration using the SharePoint Migration Assessment Tool by learning more at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53598.

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Kick start the new year and your cloud migration with new SharePoint Migration Tool improvements

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We're excited to announce new improvements to the SharePoint Migration Tool for the month of January. Designed to be used for migrations ranging from the smallest set of files to a large scale enterprise migration, the SharePoint Migration Tool will let you bring your information to the cloud and ...

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Updated: Yammer Adoption Resource Center

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Updated: Yammer Adoption Resource Center

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Microsoft Tech Community Resource Center

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Yammer Adoption Resources | Microsoft Tech Community Resource Center

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These resources provide examples, templates and ideas for your strategy using Yammer.

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Announcing the new cloud-based policy management service for Office 365 ProPlus

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Announcing the new cloud-based policy management service for Office 365 ProPlus

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Today we are pleased to announce the preview of the Office client policy service to help administrators manage policies for all Office 365 ProPlus users in their organization, from an easy-to-use, Internet-based portal focused on Office 365 ProPlus management.

Office 365 ProPlus allows users to access full Office experiences from multiple Windows devices. These may be managed or MDM-enrolled devices, but are often also personally-owned and unmanaged. Now with the Office client policy service, you can define and enforce Office client policy without the infrastructure or MDM services traditionally required.

The Office client policy service allows administrators to define policies for Office 365 ProPlus and assign these policies to users via Azure Active Directory security groups. Once defined, policies are automatically enforced as users sign in and use Office 365 ProPlus.

Build a policy configuration that includes the policies you want to enforce, configured as needed for your organization's needs. The service is always up to date and includes the latest policies as they are released.

Target a group of users by assigning the policy configuration to a specific AAD security group.

Policies automatically enforced as users sign into Office 365 ProPlus.

This service is now available as a preview for all organizations with Office 365 ProPlus. If you are an administrator, you can start using this service by signing into the Office client management portal and creating policy configurations. As you evaluate this preview, please provide feedback using the feedback button (in the upper right corner) to help us improve the service.

For a guided walk-though of this new service, take a look at a this which also includes a deep dive into the Office Customization Tool.

For additional documentation on how to use this new policy service and its capabilities take a look at this .

FAQ:

Does the Office client policy service replace Group Policy management options?
No, this service complements Group Policy-based management as another option. Group Policy management enforces policies on Windows PCs joined to an Active Directory domain, while the Office client policy service only requires Azure Active Directory sign-in as part of Office 365 ProPlus.

What are primary differences between the types of policies I can enforce using Office client policy service compared to Group Policy?
Office client policy service manages user-based policies for Office 365 ProPlus. Group Policy can manage both user-based and machine-based policies.

How does the Office client policy service compare with the Office Customization Tool for Click-to-Run's application preferences settings?
The settings configured as part of Office installation using the Office Customization Tool for Click-to-Run - as well as previous OCT versions - are based on 'preferences', meaning that a user can change them. Office client policy service settings are enforced, similar to Group Policy enforcement.
Is an Intune subscription required?
No. It is not required that the tenant have an Intune subscription. This is a feature of Office 365 ProPlus and only requires that the tenant have a subscription that includes Office 365 ProPlus.
Does this work with all Office Click-to-Run products?
No. This is a feature of Office 365 ProPlus and only works with the Office apps that are deployed as a part of the Office 365 ProPlus suite.
Does this new policy service support all the policies from the Office ADMX templates?
No. Currently this preview is limited to a subset of the user based policies defined in the ADMX templates. All machine based policies are not included.
Which admin roles are allowed access to configure policies?
Only the Global Admin, Security Admin or Desktop Analytics Admin (private preview) roles are allowed access to create or view policy configurations.

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Announcing the new cloud-based policy management service for Office 365 ProPlus

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Today we are pleased to announce the preview of the Office client policy service to help administrators manage policies for all Office 365 ProPlus users in their organization, from an easy-to-use, Internet-based portal focused on Office 365 ProPlus management. Office 365 ProPlus allows users to ac...

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Empower your Firstline Workers with new capabilities in Microsoft Teams 

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Empower your Firstline Workers with new capabilities in Microsoft Teams 

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Firstline Workers are more than two billion people worldwide who work in service- or task-oriented roles, across industries such as retail, hospitality, travel, and manufacturing. And today, we are announcing the general availability of Shifts, in addition to three new features in Microsoft Teams to help Firstline Workers achieve more. Read the full blog .

Plan and create schedules with Shifts
With Shifts, your schedule management tool now available in Teams, managers can easily plan and create shift schedules, and team members can review schedules and make shift requests from their mobile devices, all in real time. Check out support documentation here.

Availability: Shifts is available today.

Customize your mobile Teams experience and leverage new mobile features
With the new customizable mobile experience available today, Firstline Workers can customize their navigation menu to have the features most important to them at their fingertips. In addition, Firstline Workers can leverage new mobile features such as: location sharing (mobile only), record and share audio messages (mobile-first) and smart camera (mobile only). The Smart camera experience has been built with Microsoft's Office Lens functionality. Smart camera can interpret different image types such as a document, whiteboard or business card, and utilizes auto crop for easy consumption. Firstline Workers handle a lot of tasks that are image heavy. And they'll begin a task by taking a picture and then posting it into a chat. Smart camera is valuable because images taken from smart camera are not stored on the device. Lastly, IT administrators can now also give each employee role-based access to the primary Teams features they need. Check out support documentation here.

Availability: The customizable mobile experience and new mobile features are available starting today. Location sharing-GA; smart camera- GA; record and share audio messages- this quarter.

Integrate your workforce management system with Teams using a Graph API for Shifts
The Graph API for Shifts, the schedule management tool in Teams, is the first of a set of new APIs that enable organizations to integrate their existing workforce management systems with Teams. Available in public preview, the new API makes integration between Shifts and enterprise scheduling systems possible, enabling seamless access to workforce management systems for managers and employees, right from Teams.

Availability: The Graph API for Shifts will be in public preview this quarter.

Celebrate your team with Praise
The new Praise tool, rolling out this quarter, gives managers and employees a simple way to recognize co-workers, right in the Teams app where the whole team can see it. Taking steps to engage and recognize employees can go a long way to improving their satisfaction, and reducing turnover.

Availability: Praise is rolling out this quarter.

Please visit our Teams for Firstline Workers page to learn more about how Teams can empower your Firstline Workforce. Also, check out support documentation here.

Let us know what you think!

Try the new features and provide feedback using the feedback link in the lower left corner of Microsoft Teams. If you have suggestions on how to make Teams better, please submit your idea via or vote for existing ideas to help us prioritize the requests. We read every piece of feedback that we receive to make sure that Microsoft Teams meets your needs.
-Keara James, product marketing manager Microsoft Teams

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Empower your Firstline Workers with new capabilities in Microsoft Teams

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Firstline Workers are more than two billion people worldwide who work in service- or task-oriented roles, across industries such as retail, hospitality, travel, and manufacturing. And today, we are announcing the general availability of Shifts, in addition to three new features in Microsoft Teams to...

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3 new ways Microsoft Teams empowers Firstline Workers to achieve more 

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3 new ways Microsoft Teams empowers Firstline Workers to achieve more 

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Today, we are announcing three new features in Microsoft Teams to help Firstline Workers do their best work. Firstline Workers are more than two billion people worldwide who work in service- or task-oriented roles across industries such as retail, hospitality, travel, and manufacturing.

We're expanding Teams with new capabilities to digitally empower the Firstline Workforce. Today's news includes: a customizable mobile experience with mobile-only features such as location sharing, a Graph API for the Shifts scheduling tool, which provides integration between Teams and workforce management systems, and the new Praise feature that makes it easy for managers and employees to recognize their coworkers right within Teams.

Here's a look at what's new:

Enable Firstline Workers to communicate and collaborate effectively with a customizable Teams mobile experience and new mobile features

For Firstline Workers, such as retail associates, flight crew members, and field service workers, being mobile is the nature of the job. Because these employees often need to share information with others inside their organization, many have resorted to using unsecure consumer chat apps to communicate with coworkers. But this poses security and compliance risks, as well as process inefficiencies. Today, we are announcing a new customizable mobile Teams experience that gives Firstline Workers the tools they need to communicate and collaborate effectively on the go. It's simple, familiar, and secure, with several new mobile-only features that have particular relevance for Firstline Workers, including location sharing and smart camera, as well as the ability to record and share audio messages. The customizable mobile experience is available starting today.

Workers need different capabilities depending on their role. While some might need access to private chats, calendars, and calls, others may only need access to teams and channels. IT administrators can now give each employee role-based access to the primary Teams features they need. This capability can be used for employees in any role, with the option for IT to create a custom policy or use the newly available Firstline Worker configuration policy template. Employees can further customize their experience by pinning the modules they need most from their module tray to their navigation bar.
Customizable mobile Teams experience and new mobile features: Keep all conversations in one place (left), share location and record audio messages (middle), and customize the navigation menu (right).
Integrate workforce management systems with Teams using a new API

Many companies rely on workforce management systems to handle important operational tasks related to their Firstline Workforce, such as shift scheduling, payroll, benefits, time, and attendance. We're working on a set of new APIs that enable organizations to integrate their existing workforce management systems with Teams.

The first API is the Graph API for Shifts, the schedule management tool in Teams. With Shifts now available in Teams for all customers, the new API makes integration between Shifts and enterprise scheduling systems possible, enabling seamless access to workforce management systems for managers and employees, right from Teams. The Graph API for Shifts will be in public preview this quarter.
With Shifts, managers can easily plan shift schedules, and team members can review schedules and make schedule change requests, all in real time.
Keep your Firstline Workers engaged and motivated with new Praise feature

Firstline Workers such as retail associates play a key role in representing a company's brand, but this segment of the workforce experiences some of the highest turnover rates. Taking steps to engage and recognize employees can go a long way to improving their satisfaction and reducing turnover. The new Praise tool, rolling out this quarter, gives managers and employees a simple way to recognize coworkers, right in the Teams app where the whole team can see it.
With Praise, share badges to celebrate every success, communicate your appreciation with your team members, and foster greater comradery.
Next week, members of the Microsoft team will be at NRF 2019, the annual retail industry conference. Visit us in booth #3301. Also, please visit our Teams for Firstline Workers page to learn more about how Teams can empower your Firstline Workforce.

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3 new ways Microsoft Teams empowers Firstline Workers to achieve more - Microsoft 365 Blog

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Today, we are announcing three new features in Microsoft Teams to help Firstline Workers do their best work. Firstline Workers are more than two billion people worldwide who work in service- or task-oriented roles across industries such as retail, hospitality, travel, and manufacturing. We're expanding Teams with new capabilities to digitally empower the Firstline Workforce.

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2019 is the year to make the shift to a modern desktop

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2019 is the year to make the shift to a modern desktop

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At the outset of 2019, we all have personal goals, but most of us also have professional goals for the year ahead. For those of us in IT, this is a time to think about how you deliver the modern, empowering workplace for your business in a cloud-connected world.

With Windows 7 end of support coming in one year-January 14, 2020-and Office 2010 close behind, there's an opportunity right now to be proactive about what's next. Changes and upgrades in technology are inevitable, and there's never been a better time to start putting in motion the things you need to do to shift your organization to a modern desktop with Microsoft 365. As you think about this upgrade, this is a time to consider how your approach can set you up for the future to deliver an incredible experience for your users that is empowering and secure.

How, exactly, can you do this?

First, it goes without saying that consumers and enterprises change at different speeds. Because of this, we got an early start helping IT pros prepare, whether you're a small to midsize business or a large enterprise. In the past, IT management has been tedious, manual, and time-consuming, but shifting to a modern desktop with Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus is a streamlined process that brings with it the most productive and most secure computing experience driven through cloud intelligence.

This shift is already well underway in thousands of organizations around the world. In fact, more than half of all commercial monthly active devices are already on Windows 10. You can see the results in companies like Hendrick Automotive Group, Anheuser-Busch, Fruit of the Loom, City of Corona, and Rogers Communications. Each of these-and many others-are already benefitting from the improved security and productivity offered by a modern desktop. Curious about how you can benefit from a modern desktop with Microsoft 365? Check out the Microsoft 365 Modern Desktop ROI Estimator developed by Forrester Consulting and commissioned by Microsoft. It is an interactive model that helps you determine the economic impact on your specific environment of moving to Microsoft 365.

Right now, security concerns are the top reason organizations are making the shift to a modern desktop. Putting the right technology in the hands of users can prevent some of the most common security threats, such as compromised credentials. For example, Windows 10 provides security features like Windows Hello, which enables companies to eliminate passwords, as well as support for FIDO2 security keys, which enables organizations to better secure their data and devices. Check out this Gartner report for more on Windows 10 security benefits.

When it comes to security in Office, Office 365 has powerful, built-in features to help you protect sensitive data, stay in control in the cloud, and meet your compliance needs. For example, Office 365 Message Encryption helps protect sensitive data without sacrificing productivity. Office 365 Data Loss Prevention (DLP) tools help protect content such as HIPAA-related and General Data Protection Regulation-related (GDPR) data.

If you are still encountering blockers as you make this shift, there are some great resources available right now. Here are some new tools and insights delivered from the cloud that can help you move forward with confidence faster.

Getting started

As you get started, here are the top three resources you can use to make the shift to a modern desktop.

1. Build confidence in application compatibility with Desktop App Assure

We've heard loud and clear that one of the most important considerations for shifting to a modern desktop is application compatibility, and we've done a massive amount of work to ensure that Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus are now the most compatible upgrades ever. To work around any unforeseen barriers to upgrading, we created the Desktop App Assure program. If you aren't familiar with the Desktop App Assure team (which we were very excited to announce in my keynote at Ignite 2018), take a minute to read this overview of the remarkable work they can do for you.

Keep in mind, however, that the Desktop App Assure team doesn't exist because there are a lot of apps in need of remediation. Instead, the Desktop App Assure team was created to be a part of this better-than-ever compatibility, so you can have confidence when you upgrade. So far, out of 41,000 applications within their estates, customers have come to us to evaluate 7,000 applications for potential compatibility concerns. However, when the Desktop App Assure team dug into it, they found that only 49 apps required assistance. That's a 197 percent difference between perception and reality. Another way to look at this is that only 0.1 percent of all the apps that customers who have worked with the Desktop App Assure team to evaluate have had a compatibility issue. That is incredible work by the Windows team to ensure compatibility! The Desktop App Assure team has already fixed many of these apps (and many were fixed during that first call with the customer), and I'll detail everything else we've learned in a future post.

Building on this great momentum, we're excited to announce today that Desktop App Assure is available globally. To get started with the Desktop App Assure team, simply contact FastTrack and a Microsoft engineer will follow up to work with you until the issue is resolved. Also, check out this site that details the entire range of services offered by the Desktop App Assure team-and if you want to get started right now, visit Desktop App Assure.

You can also see a more detailed discussion with a leader on the Desktop App Assure team in this section of my Endpoint Zone 1810 video.

2. Be a hero to your users with Office 365 ProPlus

The world is changing in dramatic ways driven by higher levels of mobility and technology access. In their personal lives, users are exposed to the latest apps that make them more productive, and they want the same in their work lives. Office 365 ProPlus, a fundamental component of the modern desktop, gives your users just that. Office 365 ProPlus enables users to collaborate in real time, across their devices, anywhere they are, and use AI-powered features like Designer in PowerPoint that help create beautiful presentations in minutes, or the new placeholders in Word that help users stay in the flow while writing. So we strongly encourage you-deploy the Office 365 ProPlus apps that are powered by the cloud now and give your users the gift of productivity.

For IT, Office 365 ProPlus brings exclusive security value and ease of deployment. For instance, it is really simple to shift from Office perpetual to Office 365 ProPlus with the new Office Customization Tool. We know that many IT teams use Configuration Manager to deploy Office, and therefore this functionality is also available natively in the Configuration Manager (Current Branch). Using this, you can now easily manage your on-premises infrastructure and the cloud together. You can also simply toggle one control to clean out MSI deployments of Office perpetual editions when you migrate to Office 365 ProPlus Click-to-Run. More information is available in Overview of the Office Customization Tool for Click-To-Run. Plus, here is a brand-new video that walks you through the step-by-step process.

3. Improve your security and reduce complexity with co-management

This shift to the modern desktop is an extension of what many organizations are already doing today-and there are many ways to get started. For example, you can cloud-connect many of the tools and processes you're already familiar with, like Configuration Manager and Active Directory.

Connecting your infrastructure to the cloud not only reduces the complexity, but also gives you the power of Microsoft's cloud-driven intelligence that you can apply to countless aspects of your job, such as productivity, security, and management. By enabling co-management with just four clicks, you can unlock even more features that help you to manage your devices even better, such as conditional access. If you are using Configuration Manager Current Branch, you are modern, because Configuration Manager Current Branch is cloud-connected and continually updated. Co-management in which you attach Intune to your Configuration Manager deployment enables new scenarios and brings more cloud power to your environment.

Co-management is so important that we just launched an incredibly detailed new site with everything you need to know about how to make the case for co-management and how to unblock anything standing in your way.

Learn more

Don't forget that you can now use the consolidated Microsoft 365 Admin Center to have a comprehensive view of all of your admin dashboards and tasks in one place. Many of the features we announced at Ignite are now live and ready for you to use right here.

We are 100 percent committed to helping you make the shift to a modern desktop because we believe it is legitimately the most secure, productive, and cost-effective solution.

If you need more step-by-step guidance on how to get started, just check out our Modern Desktop Deployment Center to see recommended steps, tools, and guidance for your shift to Windows 10 and Office 365 ProPlus. I think you'll be really excited to see all the ways that you can leverage your existing tools and processes, while adopting modern management approaches along the way.

As you manage your overall migration journey and shift to the cloud, we also have other resources for you-for Windows Server 2008/2008 R2, SQL Server 2008/2008 R2, Exchange Server 2010, or Windows Embedded 7.

Let's make the shift together. We are here for you every step of the way.

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2019 is the year to make the shift to a modern desktop - Microsoft 365 Blog

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At the outset of 2019, we all have personal goals, but most of us also have professional goals for the year ahead. For those of us in IT, this is a time to think about how you deliver the modern, empowering workplace for your business in a cloud-connected world.

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In 2016, we introduced a new "modern" experience for SharePoint, bringing extensibility, accessibility, and responsive design to a complete overhaul of the user experience. Since then, modern has been the center of innovation in SharePoint and OneDrive, although classic mode remains supported and available.

We're making it easier for users to get to our latest feature updates. Starting April 1, 2019, it will no longer be possible to restrict an entire organization (tenant) to classic mode for lists and libraries. Lists and libraries may still use classic mode using the granular opt-out switches that we provide at the site collection, site, list, and library levels. Additionally, lists that use certain features and customizations that are not supported by modern will still be automatically switched to classic mode.

After April 1, lists and libraries that are in classic mode as a result of tenant opt-out will automatically be shifted to modern. Users will benefit from enhancements and new features such as attention views, PowerApps integration, Flow, column formatting, and the filters pane.

If you still wish to restrict users to the classic experience, you have several tools to help you:

Identify the impact. The SharePoint Modernization scanner identifies sites and lists that have customizations that are not supported by modern UI. Although many of these lists will automatically remain in classic mode even after this change, you may wish to keep some sites running entirely in classic to avoid users switching between different experience modes within a single site.

Disable modern experience for specific site collections. Administrators can use a PowerShell script to enable or disable the modern experience for a single site collection or for a list of site collections as provided by the SharePoint Modernization scanner. Alternately, users can still use the "return to classic" option on modern views of lists or libraries to temporary return to classic, and list owners can use List Settings to configure that list to use the classic experience for all users.

Frequently asked Questions

What lists in my environment will be affected by this change?

Today, a list or library might appear in classic mode for any of these reasons:

1. The list is in a tenant that has opted out of modern lists via the tenant setting.

2. The list is in a site collection or site that has opted out of modern lists via PowerShell.

3. The list itself has opted out of modern lists through the list advanced setting.

4. The list has an unsupported template or customization that causes it to fall back to classic mode. For example, if the list is a Calendar or Task list, or if the list has a JSLink customization applied.

5. The user has chosen "return to classic" from inside the modern view.

This change will only affect lists that are currently in classic mode as a result of #1 - because of the tenant opt-out switch. Lists that have overlapping reasons will not be affected either. For example, a calendar list in a tenant that's opted out has reasons #1 and #4. This list will not be affected by this change.

When will Microsoft remove or deprecate classic mode?

There are no plans to remove classic mode. We'll maintain the current feature set for classic lists and library experiences, but all our new feature innovation will be going into the modern interface.

Are there any other changes to user experiences as a result of this change?

This update is only a change to the administrative settings, not the user interface. It makes it simpler to deploy modern experiences to more users, while providing enhanced tools to identify and manage lists and libraries that need to stay classic.

I'm still using a calendar list that is only available in classic mode. Why aren't you modernizing these lists?

We've already modernized many classic scenarios, such as document sets. At the same time, we've also released new modern-only features, such as Microsoft Flow integration. Modernization is an ongoing process. We evaluate many data sources to help set priorities - including usage data, customer meetings and UserVoice. Features with the greatest impact and usage are updated before features with less usage or demand.

More modernizations will come. We do recognize that individual needs may vary from collective priorities. Microsoft is committed to updating all critical classic scenarios to the modern experience.

I'm going to use my classic publishing portal for a long time because of features and investment. Is that going away?

Classic publishing remains a critical scenario for many customers. Although we are not delivering new features, we are actively updating and optimizing performance for classic publishing features.

We've also released many updates for publishing modern pages and communication sites. You can see examples of pages and sites in our new SharePoint lookbook. More details about modern intranets are available on the TechCommunity Resource Center .

What other updates can we expect to modern experiences?

As mentioned earlier, we have already announced plans to release column totals and modern document sets early in 2019. Expect to see many more updates announced here on the TechCommunity throughout 2019.

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In 2016, we introduced a new "modern" experience for SharePoint, bringing extensibility, accessibility, and responsive design to a complete overhaul of the user experience. Since then, modern has been the center of innovation in SharePoint and OneDrive, although classic mode remains supported and av...

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New interactive video features and deeper integrations with PowerPoint  

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New interactive video features and deeper integrations with PowerPoint  

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New interactive video features and deeper integrations with PowerPoint

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It's easier than ever to create more visual and immersive experiences for training, learning and communicating. Beginning this quarter, expanded features in Microsoft Stream give teams a new way to seamlessly add quizzes, forms or polling into training videos. The Forms integration into Microsoft ...

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Two years ago we introduced the next generation of Skype Room Systems, a center of room control with one-touch join, to add the best audio and video to your meetings. We started with one hardware partner and now work with six leading device manufacturers, to deliver the best quality experiences for both Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams meetings. To date, customers have conducted more than 130 million minutes of meetings through Skype Room Systems. In light of this momentum, and to mark our commitment to making Teams a complete meetings and calling solution, we are rebranding Skype Room Systems as Microsoft Teams Rooms.

This rebranding signifies the continued delivery of features being built to enhance Teams meetings experiences. Our goal is to extend Teams meetings into every space from small huddle rooms to large conference rooms.

We've recently announced and delivered several capabilities that enhance the Teams Meetings experience in meeting rooms:

Proximity detection (coming soon), makes it easy to discover and add nearby, available Microsoft Teams Rooms to any meeting.

Companion experiences with mobile, to join your devices in content-only mode.

Support for dual screen rooms.

And it's important to note that Microsoft Teams Rooms still work with Skype for Business calls and meetings.

Meetings Simplified

Meetings are easy to schedule, simply use Microsoft Outlook or Microsoft Teams to invite your conference rooms to a meeting just as easily as inviting your colleagues.

One touch-join
Instantly start your meeting from the center of the room control with one touch.

Proximity based meeting join, for an available Microsoft Teams Room, the Microsoft Teams client on your PC (and soon from mobile) has a proximity sensor that detects the room and you can add the room easily to the meeting.

Inside the meeting room, the front of the room display and console will show that you are trying to add the room, and simply accept the incoming invitation on the console to bring the room into the meeting.

Microsoft Teams will automatically join the meeting in content-only mode from your PC, allowing the room to provide audio and video into the meeting without echo and feedback generated by the other clients in the room.

Learn more about how Microsoft has deployed Microsoft Teams Rooms internally, in more than 2,400 Meeting Rooms around the globe to make meetings better.

Additionally in our phones business, we recently added our first native Teams Phones from Yealink, the , , and . These desk and conference room phones all have a touch screen and existing customers can now instantly upgrade to Teams as they migrate their platform.

Look for more exciting announcements from our partners at Integrated Systems Europe in February, and please visit office.com/teamsdevices to learn more about our portfolio of Teams certified devices.
Let us know what you think!
Try the new features on your Microsoft Teams Rooms and provide feedback via or vote for existing ideas to help us prioritize the requests. We read every piece of feedback that we receive to make sure that the Microsoft Teams Rooms experience meets your needs.
- Christian Schacht, senior product marketing manager Microsoft Teams Rooms

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Two years ago we introduced the next generation of Skype Room Systems, a center of room control with one-touch join, to add the best audio and video to your meetings. We started with one hardware partner and now work with six leading device manufacturers, to deliver the best quality experiences for...

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January 2019 SharePoint Modernization News

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January 2019 SharePoint Modernization News

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We've been continuing to update and modernize user experiences throughout OneDrive and SharePoint. And as we noted earlier this month, we're making it easier than ever to share these updates with more and more users. Today, we're happy to share news about modern features coming to SharePoint this quarter. Some of these are updates to classic features, while others are brand new. Let's look.

Bulk check in/out

Coming in February 2019. We had previously released the ability to make bulk edits to documents in a library. Now, you'll be able to check in and check out multiple files at the same time from the command bar in the document library. When you check out a file you have exclusive edit control until it is "returned" (checked in).

Signals

Coming in February 2019. Sharpeyed readers may notice some new icons next to the filenames in the screenshot above. These are - visual cues about the status of a file. Here's what we're rolling out:

Signal
Summary

Comments

Personal checkout

This file has been checked out to you.

Shared

The file has been shared with additional people.

Over time, we'll be adding more signals to give you visual indicators about items and documents in lists and libraries. We'll also be extending them beyond SharePoint's native views, in services such as OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, and the Office clients.

Column Totals

Coming in February 2019. Custom views allow you to add calculated fields, such as totals or averages, to the footer of a group or the entire list. Now, totals will display in the modern view without forcing users back to the classic interface. Totals will also show in the modern web parts for lists and libraries.

Sticky Headers

Coming in March 2019. Libraries and lists can get extremely large - up to 30 million items in a single list. Soon, as you scroll down through ever-larger lists, SharePoint keeps the column headers pinned at the top of the scrolling window. This helps you identify list values as you move vertically and horizontally through the view. Column headers will also remain in place inside the list/library web parts.

Add Columns in between columns

Coming in February 2019. Those column headers are also getting additional capabilities. Soon, you'll be able to add a column in place between other columns in a view, without adding them at the end and moving them separately to your preferred location. Just hover your mouse on the border between two columns to open up the column creation dialog.

Column Drag and Drop

Coming in February 2019. If you need to move a column around in a list or library, that's also getting simpler. You can drag the column header to a new location to tailor the view to match your needs.

Document sets

Coming in March 2019. Document sets group related documents together with shared metadata, routing and visual experiences. They've been available in classic mode, and now you can work with them from the modern experience as shown below.

As a reminder, document sets require you to activate the site-collection scoped "Document Sets" feature in site settings. Then you can add Document Set as a content type to the library. We'll have more updates for modern document sets in the future.

Our modern interface offers significant advantages in speed, simplicity, accessibility and responsive design. And we're not done. We're making it simpler to extend modern experiences of lists and libraries throughout Office 365, including OneDrive, Microsoft Teams, and the Office clients. Microsoft is committed to updating all critical classic scenarios to the modern experience.

Please share your feedback here on the Tech Community or on . Thanks.

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January 2019 SharePoint Modernization News

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We've been continuing to update and modernize user experiences throughout OneDrive and SharePoint. And as we noted earlier this month, we're making it easier than ever to share these updates with more and more users. Today, we're happy to share news about modern features coming to SharePoint this q...

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Office 365 for Mac is available on the Mac App Store

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Office 365 for Mac is available on the Mac App Store

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Office empowers everyone to achieve more on any device. And Office loves Mac. We're committed to delivering the power and simplicity of Office in an experience designed specifically for Mac, and we continue to make significant investments in the platform. Today, we're excited to announce that Office 365 is now available on the newly redesigned Mac App Store. With one click, Mac users can download the cloud-connected, always-up-to-date version of the Office suite-including full installs of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive.

Office 365 provides experiences tailored to the Mac and macOS, like Dark Mode, Continuity Camera, OneDrive Files on Demand, and Touch Bar support on the MacBook Pro. And it's connected to the cloud, so you can access your content from any device, coauthor with anyone around the world in real-time, and use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to create more impactful content with less effort. The result is an experience that is unmistakably Office but designed for Mac.

"We are excited to welcome Microsoft Office 365 to the all new Mac App Store in macOS Mojave. Apple and Microsoft have worked together to bring great Office productivity to Mac users from the very beginning. Now, with Office 365 on the Mac App Store, it's easier than ever to get the latest and best version of Office 365 for Mac, iPad, and iPhone."
-Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing

You can view Apple's announcement on today's news in their Newsroom.

Download Office 365 from the Mac App Store.*
*It may take up to 24 hours for the app bundle to appear in all regions on the Mac App Store.

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Office 365 for Mac is available on the Mac App Store - Microsoft 365 Blog

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Office empowers everyone to achieve more on any device. And Office loves Mac. We're committed to delivering the power and simplicity of Office in an experience designed specifically for Mac, and we continue to make significant investments in the platform. Today, we're excited to announce that Office 365 is now available on the newly redesigned Mac App Store.

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Designed to be fast - The Outlook on the web user experience gets simpler and more powerful

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Designed to be fast - The Outlook on the web user experience gets simpler and more powerful

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We encountered some issues with Files which prevented it from being released. We expect it to be coming soon.
Starting next week, if you are a Targeted Release customer who wants to try the early version of the new Outlook on the web, simply click on the "Try the new Outlook" toggle on the top right corner of your inbox. When you click the toggle, you'll see all new Outlook on the web modules for Mail, Calendar, and People. Opt-in and out as often as you want.

Find the toggle on the top right of your inbox
Let's look at some of the new features you can try when you opt in to the early version of Outlook on the web.

Search - No time to search? Outlook anticipates what you'll need based on recent conversations and people with whom you work the most.

Updated search for Mail, Calendar, and People

Files (Files is coming soon) - Trying to find a file in your inbox can be a time-consuming exercise, to help you with that we have added a Files module that will show you all the files that you received or sent in your inbox.

Pro tip: Use Favorites to make sure you always find files from important people. Coming soon.

Use Files to find all the files and docs in your inbox
Suggested replies - The new Outlook brings intelligent technology to your inbox to save you time. Focus on what matters more and let Outlook help with you the rest. Use suggested replies when you need to respond with a short message, just a couple of clicks and off you go.

Select a response, edit it if you need to, and send!
Simplified event creation - You can now quickly add events to your calendar with updated event icons, so you can quickly identify events and see location suggestions to get address details.

Updated event icons let you quickly identify events
Smart room suggestions - Intelligent technology in Outlook now helps you find the best room for your meetings based on the attendees, time, availability, and your preferences.

Outlook will recommend rooms for you
Simplified add-in experience - We've simplified the way you access add-ins while giving you more control. Outlook add-ins bring your favorite apps right to your inbox, so you can accomplish tasks faster-including saving an email directly to your notebook, translating emails on the fly, or paying your friends. You can access popular apps and and services like Boomerang, Evernote, GIPHY, Gfycat, Microsoft Translator, MojiLaLa, PayPal, Trello, and more right from your inbox.

If you were using add-ins in the classic Outlook on the web experience, they will show up pinned next to mail actions or in the drop-down menu once you open an email in the new experience. You can also install more add-ins from the Office Store-simply open an email, click the drop-down menu, and select Get Add-ins. Once installed, add-ins will show up in the drop-down menu. You can also choose to pin frequently used add-ins.

More ways to use and manage groups in Outlook - Group-based collaboration, powered by the Office 365 Groups service, is an integral part of working in Outlook. We received a lot of valuable feedback on groups in the past and based on that we are excited to announce we have improved existing features such as faster and simpler group creation, richer group card, more efficient group email triage, and we are also introducing new features such as group Files view that focuses on the latest file activity and group management in the People module.

See a list of all your groups, take membership actions, or favorite a group - all in one place

Favorites makes things front and center - Many things at work are important and then there are the ones you can't miss like an email from your manager or a project's requests and updates. Favorites is perfect for those times, just add specific folders, people, or categories to your Favorites to keep them only a click away.

Add the things you can't miss to Favorites
More ways to keep up with your groups - Groups cards can now be used from anywhere inside Outlook to view membership information, and group owners can take membership actions as well, or navigate to group apps or group resources such as Files, Planner, and SharePoint site.

See group information and membership with group cards
Take these features for a spin, and tell us what you think in our UserVoice channel.

Stay tuned to additional enhancements that will come over the next few months, including new and updated features. Based on your feedback, we'll iterate, improve, refine, or discard them. To stay up-to-date, follow us on Twitter or keep an eye on the Office roadmap to see what is coming. But wait, there is more! We're also rolling out updates in Outlook for Windows.

Thank you!

Gabriel.
FAQ
Q. Who will see the toggle?

A. Organizations in Targeted Release who have not blocked the toggle

Q. Can I block the toggle?

A. Yes, if you are an Office 365 administrator you should have received a Message Center post with instructions

Q. How long will the opt-in toggle stay in Targeted Release?

A. We are driven by quality rather than a timeline, so we will release the opt-in toggle broadly when it's ready

Q. Will I find all the classic experience features in the early version of the new Outlook on the web?

A. No. Since this is an early version of the new Outlook on the web, there will be some features not yet available on 9/10. You can read this article to learn more.

Q. What if you are missing a feature I really need?

A. You can always switch back to the classic Outlook on the web as many times as you need. You should also let us know in our UserVoice channel.

Q. Where can I learn more about the changes?

A. This support article is a good place to start.

Q. How do I join the Targeted Release program?

A. You can start here.

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Designed to be fast - The Outlook on the web user experience gets simpler and more powerful

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Edit 2/8/19: We encountered some issues with Files which prevented it from being released. We expect it to be coming soon. Starting next week, if you are a Targeted Release customer who wants to try the early version of the new Outlook on the web, simply click on the "Try the new Outlook" toggle...

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Updated IT Pro and Admin documentation  

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Updated IT Pro and Admin documentation  

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Hello Teams community,

We've been hard at work looking for ways to improve our Teams documentation for admins and IT pros . Today we released the first set of improvements. We'd love for you to take it for a spin and share your feedback.
Highlights of the January 28 release
1. New landing pages that provide a guided path to your Teams rollout, through key decisions and actions.

We recommend you start with How to roll out Teams and follow the guided experience from there.

2. Simplified table of contents, reflecting the guided rollout path and (hopefully!) making it easier to find the information you need at every stage of your Teams journey.

3. We've also included links to some of our new readiness training videos. Look for the TIP box at the top of articles that include these resources.

The January 28 release is just the beginning - we'll keep working on the Teams technical documentation over the next few months to keep improving it.

If you want to give us feedback, please reply to this blog post letting us know what is working and what you would like to see changed.

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Hello Teams community, We've been hard at work looking for ways to improve our Teams documentation for admins and IT pros. Today we released the first set of improvements. We'd love for you to take it for a spin and share your feedback. Highlights of the January 28 release 1.

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Introducing new features in Microsoft 365 to help prepare for the next wave of privacy regulations 

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Introducing new features in Microsoft 365 to help prepare for the next wave of privacy regulations 

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Since the enactment of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we're seeing two fundamental changes in the world that require organizations to think about privacy. First, GDPR started a global wave of countries and regions implementing their own privacy laws-starting with California, Brazil, and more to follow. Second, we've seen a shift in consumer attitude towards privacy and protecting personal data. For example, according to a recent survey published by Forrester, 43 percent of U.S. consumers are likely to cancel an online transaction if they read something in the privacy policy that they don't like.

Today, we're sharing details of several new Microsoft 365 features to help you get ahead of these trends and deliver on privacy and compliance commitments in a simple, integrated, and intelligent way.

Simplify compliance and privacy management with the new specialized workspace

For compliance professionals, who need to protect and manage their organization's data privacy risk, we're announcing a dedicated workspace called the Microsoft 365 compliance center.

In the Microsoft 365 compliance center, you can easily access solutions to help you assess your compliance risk through Compliance Manager, protect data through features like Data Governance, and respond to regulatory obligations like Data Subject Requests. Along with the new Microsoft 365 security center, these specialized workspaces are designed for security and compliance professionals to centrally manage Microsoft 365 services with a unified experience and insights powered by artificial intelligence (AI).
Microsoft 365 compliance center shows actionable insights to help improve your GDPR and ISO compliance.
We'll gradually roll out the new experience starting today. Read the Tech Community blog to learn more.

Safeguard sensitive data consistently across Mac, iOS, and Android

To help protect sensitive data consistently across various platforms, we're announcing new Microsoft Information Protection capabilities that enable users to classify content and apply labels to documents and emails directly from Office apps on Mac (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook) and Office mobile apps (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel on iOS and Android). For example, a user working on a Mac can assign a "Highly Confidential" label while working on an important Word document. This results in the application of the appropriate protection policy, such as adding encryption and access restrictions or adding visual markings. Learn more about new labeling capabilities in Office apps that help you protect sensitive information.
Classify content and apply labels to add encryption, access restrictions, or visual markings to documents and emails directly from Office apps on Mac, iOS, and Android.
Manage data governance processes with insights and granular controls

We're also releasing expanded label analytics capabilities that enable customers to analyze and validate how sensitivity and retention labels are being used across both Office 365 data and non-Office 365 data. The new label analytics capabilities in the Microsoft 365 compliance center are currently in preview.
View Office 365 and non-Office 365 data classification and policies together from the new label analytics dashboard in the Microsoft 365 compliance center.
Other enhancements in Advanced Data Governance include the file plan manager, which helps customers migrate governance policy configurations. With the file plan manager, you can map complex retention schedules from your existing records management solution or on-premises repository into Office 365.

Read more about all these new updates in Advanced Data Governance.

Reduce risks with built-in eDiscovery capabilities

During litigation- and investigation-related tasks and workflows, keeping more content in place can help reduce costs and risks associated with handling sensitive data. New capabilities in Advanced eDiscovery can help you communicate with custodians (for example: employees related to a case or investigation), isolate case-related contents for processing within a static set, and use the new review and redact capability to modify sensitive portions of documents before exporting them as part of a legal matter. Watch our video and read more about these updates to Advanced eDiscovery.

Streamline compliance requirements for regulated customers in Microsoft Teams

Regulated industries, such as financial services, need the ability to monitor and audit communications for specific roles in their organization. Now, Supervision includes Microsoft Teams content and additional capabilities to flag sensitive data types and offensive language classifiers. Learn more about these updates in the Tech Community blog.
Monitor Teams content in the new integrated supervisory review experience.
To help regulated customers meet specific immutability and retention requirements, we're also announcing the availability of a new SEC 17a-4 regulation compliance assessment completed by Cohasset for Exchange-based storage, including email, groups, chats, and other communication types. Learn more about updates to Advanced Data Governance in the Tech Community blog.

Learn more about the Microsoft cloud

Privacy and compliance are deeply ingrained in the culture at Microsoft and embedded in the practices that are at the core of how we build and deliver our products and services.

Watch Microsoft executive leadership and a leading privacy analyst from Forrester Research share their insights on how organizations are investing in privacy as a differentiator with their customers.

Read our online e-book on how Microsoft runs on trust.

Learn more about the new Information Protection and Compliance offering in Microsoft 365 today.

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Introducing new features in Microsoft 365 to help prepare for the next wave of privacy regulations - Microsoft 365 Blog

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Since the enactment of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we're seeing two fundamental changes in the world that require organizations to think about privacy. First, GDPR started a global wave of countries and regions implementing their own privacy laws-starting with California, Brazil, and more to follow.

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New to Microsoft 365 in January—compliance, productivity, and Microsoft Teams updates to help you enable a modern workplace

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New to Microsoft 365 in January—compliance, productivity, and Microsoft Teams updates to help you enable a modern workplace

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More organizations are embracing a modern workplace, and new features for Microsoft 365 help you meet compliance obligations, empower Firstline Workers, and enrich your Office app experience.

Here's a look at what's new in January.

New capabilities to help organizations address compliance-related challenges

Today, we announced new information protection and compliance solutions to help organizations meet their privacy and compliance commitments in a simple, integrated, and intelligent way.

Access your compliance and privacy tools in a specialized workspace -The Microsoft 365 compliance center is now available, providing your privacy and compliance teams a specialized workspace with easy access to features including Compliance Manager, sensitivity and retention labels, and tools to help respond to regulatory requirements like GDPR, to deliver a unified experience with actionable insights.

Simplify the eDiscovery process with new integrated capabilities- New capabilities in Advanced eDiscovery help you efficiently manage discovery workflows with new features to notify custodians or employees related to a case or investigation, isolate case-related contents for processing, and use the new built-in review and redact capability to modify sensitive portions of documents before exporting them as part of a legal matter.

Meet communications monitoring compliance obligations for regulated industries -The Office 365 Supervision feature for communications monitoring requirements now includes Microsoft Teams content as well as expanded policy configuration, data classifications, and integrated review to simplify the employee communications review process.

These new capabilities will be available to all Microsoft 365 E5 or Information Protection and Compliance SKU subscribers.

Empowering Firstline Workers to achieve more

This month, we announced new capabilities in Teams to empower Firstline Workers, including the ability to securely communicate while on the go, provide peer recognition, and have visibility into shift scheduling.

Enable Firstline Workers to communicate securely -A new, customizable Teams mobile experience lets Firstline Workers securely communicate and effectively collaborate from anywhere. This new mobile experience is a simple and secure, with several new mobile-only features that specifically benefit Firstline Workers, including location sharing and smart camera. Additionally, IT admins can now apply a prepackaged policy or create a custom policy to give employees role-based access to the Teams modules they need. The customizable mobile experience is now available for all Office 365 subscribers.

Manage schedules directly in Teams with Shifts -Managers can create shift schedules and team members can update their availability, review schedules, and request time off directly in Teams. You can now integrate Shifts with your existing workforce management system through the Graph API for Shifts, available in public preview later this quarter.

Boost motivation and team morale with new Praise tool -The new Praise tool, rolling out this quarter, gives managers and employees a simple way to recognize coworkers, right in the Teams app where the whole team can see it.

Updates to help you easily access Office 365 and your files on Mac and deliver better content

New, integrated features bring more ways on Mac to improve productivity, deliver engaging content, and enhance learning.

Download the Office 365 suite with just one click on the Mac App Store-This month, we announced that that Office 365 is now available on the newly redesigned Mac App Store. With one click, Mac users can download the cloud-connected, always-up-to-date version of the Office suite-including full installs of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive.

Free up space and easily access your files with OneDrive Files On-Demand for Mac-Files On-Demand is now also available for Mac, making it easier to access all of your files in Office 365 directly in Finder without taking up valuable storage space on your device. You can take files offline for when you're without an internet connection and free up storage space when you no longer need a local copy of the file. Files On-Demand is now available to all customers running MacOS Mojave.

Engage employees with new interactive visuals and features-Microsoft Photos now makes it easy to create videos with music and narration, text and filters, and even add 3D effects. In February, customers will be able to enhance PowerPoint content by adding Microsoft Stream videos into presentations. And coming soon, teams will have a new way to seamlessly add Microsoft Forms quizzes and polling directly into Microsoft Stream videos.

Other updates

The Office Cloud Policy Service is now in public preview to help administrators manage policies for all Office 365 ProPlus users in their organization.

New improvements to the no-cost SharePoint Migration Tool will help you accelerate your migration to SharePoint Online, OneDrive, and Teams.

Office 365 now saves new documents to OneDrive or SharePoint Online by default, helping provide users access to their files from anywhere and start collaborating with ease.

Integrate conversations from any Yammer group, topic, user, or home feed into any SharePoint page, news article, or site with the new Yammer conversations web part.

Microsoft Forms is now available to Office 365 U.S. Government GCC and GCC High environments.

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New to Microsoft 365 in January-compliance, productivity, and Microsoft Teams updates to help you enable a modern workplace - Microsoft 365 Blog

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More organizations are embracing a modern workplace, and new features for Microsoft 365 help you meet compliance obligations, empower Firstline Workers, and enrich your Office app experience. Here's a look at what's new in January. Today, we announced new information protection and compliance solutions to help organizations meet their privacy and compliance commitments in a simple, integrated, and intelligent way.

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Microsoft Teams meetings and calling news roundup: The latest features and new upgrade tools

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Microsoft Teams meetings and calling news roundup: The latest features and new upgrade tools

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Over the past year, Microsoft Teams has expanded with new messaging, meeting and calling capabilities that make it the primary client for Intelligent Communications in Office 365. Today we are pleased to share several updates, including:

New meetings and calling features in Teams

Updates to the Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams roadmap

New tools in the Admin Center for IT administrators to upgrade to Teams-Only mode

New Microsoft Teams features and functionality

Microsoft Teams continues to grow as the hub for teamwork in Office 365. We are continually adding new experiences, including those previously found in Skype for Business, as well as features new to our online meetings offering, such as background blur.

Now Teams includes several features previously available only in Skype for Business Server: Group Call Pickup, Additional Voice Features for the New Year Call Park, Shared Line Appearance, and Location-Based Routing (public preview). These features give organizations flexibility in how calls are handled and routed in Microsoft Teams. Learn more about these features in the Microsoft Teams Blog post, .

We've also released enhancements to Cloud Recording, Outlook Meeting Scheduling for OWA, and Surface Hub Support. You can see the latest updates in the Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams capabilities roadmap . For additional roadmap updates, please visit the . Microsoft 365 Public Roadmap

Teams-Only mode available in Microsoft Teams and Skype for Business Admin Center

Today, we are pleased to announce that " Upgrade to Teams-Only mode" functionality is now available for all tenants. Tenant administrators can now easily upgrade specific users or their entire tenant to Teams, with a few clicks in the Teams Admin Center . This new functionality makes the technical elements of the upgrade easier.

That said, it's important to keep in mind that the move from Skype for Business to Teams is much more than a technical upgrade. A successful, user-centric rollout begins with educating users and encouraging adoption of Teams' collaboration and communication capabilities, often through a period of coexistence of both Skype for Business and Microsoft Teams . We encourage you to make the move to Teams-Only mode after validating Teams meets your needs by monitoring the , initiating Teams pilots within your organization, and driving Teams usage to 100% saturation with your user base. Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams capabilities roadmap

We have published a rich set of online resources including and to help with Teams adoption as well as upgrade planning and management. These resources have been Get Started on Your Skype for Business to Teams Upgrade to incorporate learnings from real customer engagements and community feedback. You can also refer to our sessions from Microsoft Ignite 2018 on the planning, change management, and technical sides of the Skype for Business-to-Microsoft Teams upgrades. (See session recordings: recently updated and ). Designing your path from Skype for Business to Teams: Start Here! Planning a seamless migration from Skype for Business to Teams for IT Admins

Automated and assisted upgrades from Skype for Business to Teams

In August 2018, we began offering Microsoft-driven automated upgrades to our smaller customers who may not have the dedicated staff or resources to upgrade their Skype for Business Online tenants. Tenants that are selected to participate in the automated upgrade process are notified through the Office 365 Message Center and email to the IT administrator. Customers who receive an offer for automated upgrade do have the option of performing the upgrade on their own, or to defer the automated upgrade. Details of the process and next steps are provided in the communications to tenant admins.

Larger Skype for Business Online customers and those with complex implementations may also be eligible for upgrade assistance. If your organization has already adopted Microsoft Teams and you are interested in upgrading from Skype for Business, reach out to your representative or your Microsoft account team to continue the journey to Teams. You can also leverage the expertise of Microsoft partners to help map and navigate the journey to Teams.
Introducing Microsoft Teams Rooms
Last week we announced we are rebranding Skype Room Systems to Microsoft Teams Rooms. The new name comes on the heels of recent improvements to the meeting room experience, including proximity detection for Teams meetings, and dual-screen support to optimize content and video for rooms with dual displays. Learn more in the blog post Introducing Microsoft Teams Rooms.
Expanding Teams capabilities and experiences
Keep watching the Microsoft Teams Blog to stay up-to-date on the latest Microsoft Teams news.
Resources:

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Microsoft Teams meetings and calling news roundup: The latest features and new upgrade tools

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Over the past year, Microsoft Teams has expanded with new messaging, meeting and calling capabilities that make it the primary client for Intelligent Communications in Office 365. Today we are pleased to share several updates, including: New meetings and calling features in Teams Updates to the Sky...

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Use Supervision to monitor email, Microsoft Teams, manage risk, meet regulatory requirement and more

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Use Supervision to monitor email, Microsoft Teams, manage risk, meet regulatory requirement and more

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Use Supervision to monitor email, Microsoft Teams, manage risk, meet regulatory requirement and more

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The volume and variety of today's electronic communications are causing many organizations to struggle to meet their communications monitoring and compliance obligations and we've heard your concerns about the need to simplify and streamline compliance tools in the modern workplace. Today, we're rol...

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The Microsoft Power Platform – Empowering millions of people to achieve more

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The Microsoft Power Platform – Empowering millions of people to achieve more

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There has been a lot of energy surrounding Microsoft's Power Platform lately.

A couple of weeks ago during a presentation he gave on campus, Satya Nadella talked about the importance of the Power Platform and how it serves as a core offering for our customers.
Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and the Power Platform on top of what we're doing with Azure is the core of what we are doing as a company vis-à-vis I would say our commercial customers - businesses of all sizes, whether it's small business, large business, whether it's in an emerging market or in a developed market.
The Power Platform is today comprised of three services - Power BI, PowerApps and Flow. While each of these services is best-of-breed individually, their combination as the Power Platform is a game-changer without equal for our customers.

I wanted to spend some time today introducing you to our vision for this platform and, more importantly, to highlight some of the people and organizations leveraging it to bring that vision to life.

An introduction to the Power Platform

Now more than ever, organizations have embraced the value of using data to drive business outcomes. They've adopted the cloud to store mass quantities of data and have become more efficient at harnessing data and signals coming from a multitude of sources such as web traffic, social media and business systems such as CRM/ ERP applications. But once they've implemented the infrastructure for harnessing data, how can they make that data work for them most efficiently? They need a layer atop that data that lets all workers, regardless of technical ability, leverage it in a straightforward way to drive business impact.

That's what the Power Platform does. It is a system that enables users to do three key actions on data that help them drive business: Analyze, Act, and Automate. We do this with Power BI, PowerApps, and Flow, all working together atop your data to help EVERYONE, from the CEO to the front-line workers, drive the business with data.

While we believed what we were doing would make a positive business impact for our customers, none of us fully anticipated the impact it would have on the lives of those it touched.

Empowering a community of millions (and growing daily)

Last year Satya said something about those who come to Microsoft that really resonated with me.
"You join here, not to be cool, but to make others cool."
More than anything else, this is power of the Power Platform.

For several years now our teams have been quietly developing and working with a community that has swelled to millions of monthly active users globally. We've been guided by a belief that magical things are possible when technology is made approachable and accessible to those in the best position to identify transformative applications - those who work on the front lines of a business.

There is a growing community of people who have discovered the Power Platform, leveraged it to drive transformational change for their organizations and in the process completely changed the trajectory of their careers and lives.

I've been fortunate to meet and to get to know some of these amazing people:

Nick Gill, a training specialist at the American Red Cross, who with no formal IT background taught himself how to use Power BI, PowerApps and Microsoft Flow then used them to transform a process that over 650 First Aid and CPR instructors use to order training class supplies. Nick has since been promoted to Manager of Logistics for the Preparedness, Safety, and Services department for the entire country. You can learn more about Nick and his work on the PowerApps Blog.

Ashley Culmsee, a psychology student with no IT experience learned to use PowerApps and Flow. With her father she built "the universal audit app" - allowing people across many industries to perform inspections and audits. Ashley's story about how she got into building these apps is pretty amazing and inspiring. Growing up she suffered from anxiety and social phobia and in the Power Platform found an outlet and built a passion for technology. Today she works with her dad Paul Culmsee running hackathons and building Power Platform-based solutions for mining and engineering companies worldwide. Here is a blog from her dad that speaks to the impact the Power Platform has had on his daughter.

Martin Lee, was a dispatcher at AutoGlass, and built his first app to automate the process field technicians use to update their job status while out repairing chipped and broken glass on autos. As a dispatcher, Martin saw firsthand the inefficiency of their old process. In the summer of 2017, he taught himself PowerApps, built and deployed his first app into production within one month. By October 2017 he had singlehandedly deployed eight apps used by more than 1,500 technicians. Martin has since moved from his role as dispatcher to a dedicated technology role. He has since built 50 more apps and deployed them across the business to more than 3,000 employees. You can learn more on Martin by watching this video.

Brian Dang, was a third-grade teacher in Southern California who discovered PowerApps and used it to build some pretty stunning applications for his students, other teachers and for the school district. When I first met Brian we were preparing for an upcoming PowerApps technical review with Bill Gates. Knowing Bill's passion for technology and education I invited Brian to join us in the meeting to show off his great work. My colleague Sameer Bhangar interviewed Brian when he came up for that meeting. A couple weeks after this video was produced Brian moved to Redmond and joined the team at Microsoft! Over the last year he's helped thousands of others across the globe discover and master the Power Platform.

Each of these individuals is deeply engaged in the Power Platform community, helping others succeed as they have. To celebrate and recognize these champs, our Power Platform "Customer Success Team" created a set of trading cards. My growing collection hangs just inside my office door and helps me start each day focused on what really matters - the people we're empowering to achieve more.
My growing collection of Power Platform champs trading cards as of January 2019. Meeting up with some of our Power Platform champs in July 2018.
The "Triple-A Loop": Analyze, act, automate

Our vision for the Power Platform started from the recognition that data is increasingly flowing from everything, and a belief that organizations that harness their data - to gain insights then used to drive intelligent business processes - will outperform those that don't.

We also recognize there aren't enough programmers, data scientists and tech professionals to go around. So our goal was to build a platform not targeting these technology experts but for people like Nick, Ashlee, Martin and Brian - and the millions of other frontline workers who see opportunities every day to create something better than the status quo, but who've never been empowered to do anything about it.

Our guiding vision was a framework we called the "Triple-A Loop" - a closed-loop system allowing users to gain insights from data (Analyze) used to drive intelligent business processes via apps they build (Act) and processes they automate (Automate).

The Microsoft Power Platform implements this vision via three cloud-based services: Power BI, PowerApps and Flow.

Let's look at each component:

Microsoft Power BI

Power BI is a self-service business intelligence solution that makes it easy to connect, analyze and gain insight from the data that runs your business - wherever that data may be: in the cloud, or in your own data center; in an Excel spreadsheet or SharePoint list, an Oracle database or in an SAP or Salesforce application; or in any of the hundreds of other systems with built-in support by the Power Platform. Power BI was the first Power Platform service delivered, entering preview in January 2015.

In just four short years, Power BI has been adopted by tens of thousands of companies and millions of users. Every single month the service has been updated and improved.

Some of the service metrics today are just stunning: Power BI is available in 43 languages and used across 18,000 cities spanning the globe. Nearly 10 petabytes of data are uploaded to the service each month with more than 10 million report and dashboard queries executed against that data every hour (!) on behalf of users.

But insights without action are little more than idle chatter, so, while we were busy pushing toward general availability with Power BI we were simultaneously creating the services that would make Power BI's insights actionable: PowerApps and Flow.

Microsoft PowerApps
Selection of PowerApps built by London Heathrow Airport
PowerApps is a "citizen application development platform" - allowing anyone to build web and mobile applications without writing code. The natural connection between Power BI and PowerApps makes it effortless to put insights in the hands of maintenance workers, teachers, miners and others on the frontline, in tailored and often task-specific applications that supercharge their productivity and make their work perhaps a little less tedious.

Like Power BI, PowerApps connects to hundreds of business systems and databases, making it easy to connect workers with the existing processes and data that makes the business tick. And all the data captured in PowerApps can make its way right back to those very systems for further analysis in Power BI creating a closed-loop process for continuous improvement. Additionally, PowerApps comes with a built-in, fully-managed, enterprise-grade datastore called the Common Data Service (CDS) for those applications that generate data not destined for a legacy system - and Power BI and Flow have deep connections to CDS making it that much easier to get even more value from data stored there.

I can remember like it was yesterday a meeting that really cemented for me that PowerApps was going to be a game-changer for our customers. In the Spring of 2016 I met with Integrated Power Services - a company that traces its roots to 1904. Sitting in a conference room in building 44 on our main campus IPS told me how they'd built a PowerApp that transformed their core business process - inspecting and repairing large electric motors and generators from a variety of manufacturers. Turns out there's not "an app for that" and before PowerApps the technical hurdles to build such a solution put it far beyond their reach.

I've never had a customer so completely energized and excited by one of my products. For them PowerApps was like magic - they'd transformed an error-prone collection of manual processes into a tablet-based app their repair professionals could use to fix motors faster, with fewer errors and while keeping their customers informed of the process in a way never before possible. And they built the app right on the shop floor at one of their depots, with the repair personnel who now use the app.

Microsoft Flow

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is garnering a lot of interest and attention in the market - with pure-play vendors raising enormous sums of money at astronomical valuations. By automating simple tasks, RPA solutions promise to lower costs while reducing errors. Microsoft Flow is an intelligent process automation service that goes beyond simple task automation, allowing non-technical users to automate complex business processes and workflows without a complex IT deployment.

Through a simple and intuitive interface, users can create automated workflows that can be triggered by insights from Power BI, leveraged via apps built with PowerApps (e.g. a user action in a PowerApp might kick off an approval process) and integrated with events from any of the hundreds of systems the Power Platform natively supports. The workflows run completely in the cloud and are fully managed and secured by Microsoft.

The power of three = The Power Platform

Power BI, PowerApps and Flow each represents best-of-breed solutions in their individual categories, but their combination as the Power Platform is a game-changer without equal for our customers.

Power BI unlocks insights and intelligence, PowerApps converts that intelligence into action through transformative applications built in record time, and Flow makes business process orchestration an easy point and click exercise ... with further feedback to Power BI creating a powerful system of continuous improvement.

Putting this power to "analyze, act and automate" in the hands of individuals who know their business best, with built-in connectors to all the systems and sources of data in an organization, creates previously unimaginable transformation opportunities for our customers.

SNCF operates France's national rail service and is a global leader in passenger and freight transport services. With 270,000 employees spread across 120 countries, it aims to become the benchmark for mobility and logistics solutions in France and worldwide. SNCF is a great example of a customer that has gone "all in" with the Power Platform. As with many customers, initial adoption was grassroots in nature - starting in some places with Power BI and others with PowerApps. They quickly realized the potential the platform represented for their business and has built a company-wide center of excellence to educate, train and support the thousands of employees now using the platform to help shape the future of SNCF.

Here is a short video that highlights the great work they're doing at SNCF.

What's Next?

It has been an exciting journey for all of us on the team. In so many ways we are just getting started.

As we look forward to the year ahead, we are planning to deliver some really special product developments. These will come together across all of our offerings - from Dynamics 365 to the Power Platform - as part of our April 2019 release. You can get ready for that now by checking out the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform, April 2019 release notes.

I would also welcome you to join us for our Virtual Launch Event in April, where we may have a few added surprises.

And lastly, to our community of makers and creators - thank you for being on this journey with us. Your dedication, energy, and ingenuity inspire me. Your passion literally has me running up the stairs every day when I come to work. Thank you. Hope to see you all soon!

James.

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The Microsoft Power Platform - Empowering millions of people to achieve more

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There has been a lot of energy surrounding Microsoft's Power Platform lately. A couple of weeks ago during a presentation he gave on campus, Satya Nadella talked about the importance of the Power Platform and how it serves as a core offering for our customers.

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Organize your SharePoint sites with megamenu navigation and new “change the look” options

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Organize your SharePoint sites with megamenu navigation and new “change the look” options

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It is time to further organize your modern intranet - building with SharePoint and Microsoft 365 - to enhance employee engagement and change the look of your sites so they work for you. Sites (portals) help bring together people and information that reflect your organization. It's about getting things done - finding where you need to go-with effective navigation and common page elements.
"Megamenu and header layouts will make sites more appealing to groups that have diverse needs for pages and site navigation. It will really make my life easier in many ways as a solution architect for my company. While it's a look and feel update, these are the features that the end users really notice and makes a big impact." - verbatim cloud admin feedback sent to Microsoft in reply to the corresponding message center post.
Site owners can now use:

Megamenus to better organize and showcase their site's navigation items.

Updated "Change the look" edit pane consolidates all modern site look & feel options.

Site headers allow adjustment of layout options, logo and background choices.

Site footers allow logo, text and links to be added to the bottom of pages.

Site settings > Site designs to view any applied site designs and apply additional ones.

We will first begin rolling out these new "change the look" features in February 2019 to Office 365 customers that have opted into the Targeted Release program. And then in March 2019, we will begin roll out to Office 365 customers on Standard Release, followed by rolling out to our sovereign data centers (like Office 365 for government (known as GCC)).

Let's dive into the details and screenshots of each new and updated "change the look" options - all important additions for site owners to configure a more-engaging SharePoint site - a more modern intranet.

The most effective SharePoint sites (and web sites in general) help visitors find what they need quickly so that they can use the information they find to make decisions, learn about what is going on, access the tools they need, or engage with colleagues to help solve a problem. Even when search is available, most visitors start their web experiences by navigating.

Now you can change the navigation style to increase the value of your site navigation. The new Megamenu options allow for multiple levels of hierarchy at once - no cascading fly-outs needed. This will enable you to better organize and showcase the content and sites. And of course, for sites that don't need the megamenu look and feel, you can still use the Cascading option. You simply go into the Change the look edit pane, click on Navigation and choose between Megamenu and Cascading. You then add and adjust your navigation items inline as you had before - now with a new megatastic look if you choose.

Navigation should always be planned from the perspective of the user of information - the visitors to your site. And why not present them with a beautiful, organized megamenu. Note: the megamenu navigation layout is only available for horizontally oriented navigations and allows for a panel display of links up to three levels.

Learn how to customize the navigation on your SharePoint site. And review the Microsoft guidance on planning navigation for the modern SharePoint intranet.

We have consolidated several look & feel site settings into an updated Change the look edit pane - including where you go to turn on the megamenu option. The Change the look edit pane provides access to site settings for theming, header, navigation and footer options.

Adjust the header of your sites
Site owners control the header portion of a site with a few simple configuration choices. First, they choose between two layout options: standard and compact. Second, choose a site logo. And third, modern site headers support backgrounds to make it easier to see the distinct header section and adds visual variety at the top of the site; you'll see four distinct background options.

Adjust the footer of your sites
When site owners change the look of their site, they can now add a site footer to showcase common information at the bottom of your site - like a logo, text and hyperlinks. If site owners choose not to use a logo image file, they can still add text that will appear on the bottom left. Text with links will appear on the bottom right.

Note: configuring the footer is only available in pages and news articles in SharePoint communication sites. It will not appear at the bottom of SharePoint lists or document libraries within these same communication sites, and it will not available in SharePoint team sites. You will also be able to turn off footers from the "Change the look" panel after this feature rolls out to you. When this feature rolls out, all existing communication sites will get a basic site footer. If you want to turn off the footer control before its rolled out to you, please follow these instructions to turn off footer using PowerShell.

Learn more how to adjust the look of your SharePoint site footer. Learn more how you can "change the look" of your SharePoint site in Office 365.

We are providing a new site setting to view any applied Site designs and apply additional ones - from within the sites themselves. The new site setting option is for site owners to display a new site design information panel. If any site designs have been published to the tenant, they will be displayed in the picker. Only site owners and site collection administrators have access to invoke this panel - and it respects any additional scopes on the published site designs, so only those available to the viewer will be displayed. If any sites designs have been applied to the site, they will also be displayed and can be selected to view what changes were applied.

Learn more about working with SharePoint site design and site scripts.

Build your modern intranet on SharePoint in Office 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 and welcoming nature of your intranet.

In all, we encourage you to build out and organize your sites, your intranet - the way you want them to be consumed in context of your content. As you progress year over year, keep creating and sharing structured, easy-to-navigate experiences to your audience.

We want to empower you and every person on your team to achieve more. Let us know what you need next. We are always open to feedback via and continued dialog in the SharePoint community in the Microsoft Tech Community -and we always have an eye on tweets to @SharePoint. Let us know.

-Mark Kashman, senior product manager for the SharePoint team
Q: When is this all being released in Office 365?
A: Our goal is to release all the items to Targeted Release customers in Office 365 by the end of February 2019, with release to all Office 365 productions customers by the end of March 2019.
Q: Is this the same set of features Office 365 cloud admins were notified about via the message center - two message center posts: MC165552 and MC 172503?
A: Yes. Microsoft first sent MC165552 ("Updated feature: we're rolling out new SharePoint Online site branding and navigation features), and then we paused roll out. Recently, we sent the follow up MC172503 ("Updated Feature: New site branding and mega menu navigation features are rolling out") to indicate that we were moving forward to release this set of features.

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Organize your SharePoint sites with megamenu navigation and new "change the look" options

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It is time to further organize your modern intranet - building with SharePoint and Microsoft 365 - to enhance employee engagement and change the look of your sites so they work for you. Sites (portals) help bring together people and information that reflect your organization. It's about getting thin...

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Introducing the new Microsoft 365 security center and Microsoft 365 compliance center

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Introducing the new Microsoft 365 security center and Microsoft 365 compliance center

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In the past few years, we have been heavily investing in the security and compliance areas to help organizations safeguard their digital estate and achieve compliance. According to recent customer research, we heard that while security and compliance are both top of mind areas in data protection, most organizations have different teams working in these two spaces. To empower your security and compliance professionals to work more efficiently in dedicated platforms, we are excited to announce the availability of Microsoft 365 security center ( security.microsoft.com) and Microsoft 365 compliance center ( compliance.microsoft.com).

The new specialized workspaces enable your security and compliance teams to have centralized management across your Microsoft 365 services, bringing together Office 365, Windows 10, and Enterprise Mobility + Security (EMS), with several Azure capabilities.

In both specialized centers, you can easily find actionable insights, alerts, and scores to help you understand your security and compliance risks and leverage artificial intelligence to strengthen your security and compliance posture. You can find more details about each center in the following paragraphs.
Microsoft 365 security center
The new Microsoft 365 security center provides security administrators and other risk management professionals with a centralized hub and specialized workspace that enables them to manage and take full advantage of Microsoft 365 intelligent security solutions for identity and access management, threat protection, information protection, and security management. With it they'll gain the visibility, control, and guidance necessary to understand and act on the threats that their organization is facing today, have faced in the past, and may face in the future.

This new workspace is organized around the products that make up Microsoft Threat Protection by rendering them in a completely new way, one that's focused on the entities that our customers must secure across their entire digital estate. We have consolidated the experience across Microsoft 365 products and designed around the concepts of Identity, Endpoints, User Data, Cloud App and Infrastructure, and not the underlying products that help secure them. This enables end-to-end security insights and management and paves the way for a comprehensive Microsoft 365 security solution.

In addition, the Microsoft 365 security center enables organizations to reduce security risks by providing them with the tools necessary to assess their current and historical security postures and to determine the appropriate set of actions to take to mitigate future risks. These tools consist of rich dashboards, reports, and interactive experiences like Microsoft Secure Score, each of which are designed to provide security administrators with the visibility, controls, and guidance they need to drive maximum security posture improvements. Microsoft 365 security center also provides experiences for security operators (SecOps) through the integration of incident response capabilities such as a centralized alerts view and hunting capabilities which can be used to perform ad-hoc investigations.
Microsoft 365 compliance center

The new Microsoft 365 compliance center is a specialized workspace for your compliance, privacy, and risk management professionals. In the new center, you can assess your compliance risks through Compliance Manager, protect and govern your data with sensitivity and retention labels, respond to regulatory requests like Data Subject Requests, and access to more other compliance and privacy solutions.

The new experience helps you reduce compliance risks and protect your digital estate more easily and effectively with three new insights:

With the Compliance Manager integration, Microsoft 365 compliance center provides you with visibility into your compliance posture against key regulations and standards like the GDPR, ISO 27001, NIST 800-53, and more on the homepage. You can then perform risk assessments and follow step-by-step guidance to enhance your compliance and privacy controls.

Additionally, to help you label data more accurately, the new Microsoft 365 Label Analytics preview can enable you to analyze and validate how sensitivity and retention labels are being used beyond your Office 365 workloads.

We also brought in the Microsoft Cloud App Security (MCAS) insights into Microsoft 365 compliance center to help you identify compliance risks across applications, discover shadow IT, and monitor employees' non-compliant behaviors.

We will be gradually rolling out the new experience from the end of January, and the rollout will be completed worldwide by the end of March. Once this new experience is rolled out, you can access it by visiting security.microsoft.com or compliance.microsoft.com or from the Microsoft 365 admin center.

You can learn more about the new Microsoft 365 security center and Microsoft 365 compliance center in our technical supporting document.

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Introducing the new Microsoft 365 security center and Microsoft 365 compliance center

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In the past few years, we have been heavily investing in the security and compliance areas to help organizations safeguard their digital estate and achieve compliance. According to recent customer research, we heard that while security and compliance are both top of mind areas in data protection, mo...

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SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: January 2019

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SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: January 2019

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The SharePoint team has been hard at work with great new updates rolled out in January 2019. This is the comprehensive recap for all things SharePoint and related technology, plus the Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop: January 2019 episode - a bonus monthly audible companion to help answer, "What's rolling out now for SharePoint and related technologies into Office 365?" It's all about supporting good change management based on feedback from you, our listeners/readers - so thank you.

and scroll below (info, links and screenshots) to stay informed on how the SharePoint team kicks off 2019 - plus a few teasers of what's to come:

In this podcast episode, I, too, talk with Tejas Mehta ( | ), principal program manager on the SharePoint engineering team who focuses on all things SharePoint + Microsoft Teams integrations - better together (thanks to Tejas).

All the features listed below began rolling out to Targeted Release customers in Office 365 as of January 2019 (possibly early February 2019). "Buckle up! 2019 is gonna be a rip-roaring roadmap ride!" - Me. 😉
Events web part now rolls up event items from numerous source sites Microsoft Stream mobile app is now available for Android & iOS
Can be configured to show content from various source sites - with choices ranging from "This site" to "Select sites" and "All sites in the hub" etc. This update enables you to choose where the event items come from (one site or many) and how they are to be displayed (Filmstrip or Compact). You can additionally refine how they appear by either entering a category name to filter by and/or selecting a date range - as simple as "All upcoming events" to "Next two weeks" to "Select date range" (where you choose the exact range).
Office 365 group-connected team site logo themes appear correct in SharePoint home and SharePoint mobile app
This is a great mobile app to watch your org and team videos on the go - and even take them offline with you when you're traveling. Get started with the Stream mobile apps for iOS & Android by visiting the and Google Play.

You've been asking for this to get updated. This is a color fix for Office 365 group-connected team site logos, and how they are then consistently represented beyond the site itself. When going to change the look and picking a new color for a group with an un-customized logo, the logo color will (NOW PROPERLY) first update on the next page refresh or visit. And then, here comes the real magic of the fix -- it is THE same, consistent color selection that shows in SharePoint home in Office 365 and the SharePoint mobile app; that's the visual coherence people have been asking for.

Mac Files On-Demand (FoD) becoming generally available (GA) (aka, the OneDrive sync client for Mac)
No longer be possible to restrict an entire organization (tenant) to classic mode
First off, Mac Files On-Demand (FoD) works the same way it does on the PC. Now, what is it? This helps you access all your files in OneDrive without having to download all of them and use storage space on your device. And by ALL files, we mean files from your personal library in OneDrive as well as shared libraries in SharePoint in Office 365. New files created online or on another device appear as online-only files, which don't take up space on your device. The feature will be on by default for new users on macOS Mojave. This feature will be ramped on for existing users over the coming months. Admins continue to have the ability to disable or enable this feature via a preference.
Office 365 for Mac is available on the Mac App Store
Starting April 1, 2019, it will no longer be possible to restrict an entire organization (tenant) to classic mode for lists and libraries. Lists and libraries may still use classic mode using the granular opt-out switches that we provide at the site collection, site, list, and library levels. Additionally, lists that use certain features and customizations that are not supported by modern will still be automatically switched to classic mode. This lays the foundation for numerous features rolling out next month - of which I tease below "What's coming in February 2019 teasers" section below.
"We are excited to welcome Microsoft Out of box Flow templates in OneDrive Office 365 SharePoint Migration tool updates to the all-new Mac App Store in macOS Mojave. Apple and Microsoft have worked together to bring great Office productivity to Mac users from the very beginning. Now, with Office 365 on the Mac App Store, it's easier than ever to get the latest and best version of Office 365 for Mac, iPad, and iPhone." -Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.
We're committed to delivering the power and simplicity of Office in an experience designed specifically for Mac, and we continue to make significant investments in the platform. We're excited to announce that Office 365 is now available on the newly redesigned Mac App Store. With one click, Mac users can download the cloud-connected, always-up-to-date version of the Office suite-including full installs of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, and OneDrive.

Easily create and run out-of-box Flow templates directly from OneDrive. Just select a document and click on the Flow button in the command bar. You'll automatically have the options for the Copy as a PDF and Request sign-off Flow templates. Run the Flow, and with one click, you can create a copy of any document for a PDF or send off an approval.

Designed to be used for migrations ranging from the smallest set of files to a large-scale enterprise migration, the SharePoint Migration Tool will let you bring your information to Office 365. This update brings an improved user interface with a new, simplified control service aligned to the visual themes of SharePoint in Office 365. It, too, gives you the ability to start new migrations without having to restart the SharePoint Migration Tool. Finally, you can more easily access and view the settings needed to support your migration scenario with a new simplified interaction flow and review experience.

Updated Office 365 suite header experience for OneDrive and SharePoint

If a user or company has not customized the Office 365 suite header, they will see that the default app color has changed to be "communication blue." This is important to communicate to customers who have not branded their header. This update also brings a new help experience - a panel that has a search box, a tip at the top, featured topics in the middle and additional tips. And the SharePoint site settings drop-down is now a right-hand panel. These new experiences just started rolling out to Targeted Release customers.

New icons (including the new teal SharePoint icon) are coming to the Office 365 app launcher

The existing functionality with the Office 365 app launcher and Office.com will remain the same. The only difference will be the icons for Outlook, OneDrive, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, SharePoint, Teams, Yammer and Skype will get updated to their new redesigned icons.

Yammer Adoption Resources has a new look and updated content

Take your network to the next level with helpful adoption resources. Plan your strategy, prepare for launch, communicate a launch moment, training members, ongoing engagement, and ultimately measure success - these are all the resources available to you as your company grows and expands the business, with everyone connected and working together.

Thing 1 - SharePoint lists & libraries get more modern features:

Thing 2: Microsoft Stream can have quizzes & polls within the video playback - this is due to integration with Microsoft Forms to seamlessly add quizzes, forms or polling into training videos. Make your videos more engaging and interactive for learners, while giving trainers a way to understand how well the information is being comprehended.

Thanks for tuning in and/or reading this episode/blog of the Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop - January 2019 ( blog/). We're open to your feedback in comments below to hear how both the Roadmap Pitstop podcast episodes and blogs can be improved over time.

We had a lot to share and more to come next year - happiest of new years to you and yours. Please stay engaged. Ask questions. Push us where you want and need to get the best information and insights. We're here to put both our and your best change management foot forward.

Stay safe out there on the roadmap -- and thanks for listening and reading.

Happy now and future trails,

Mark

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SharePoint Roadmap Pitstop: January 2019

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The SharePoint team has been hard at work with great new updates rolled out in January 2019. This is the comprehensive recap for all things SharePoint and related technology, plus the Intrazone Roadmap Pitstop: January 2019 episode - a bonus monthly audible companion to help answer, "What's rolling ...

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OneDrive Message Center Updates January 15th to January 31s

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OneDrive Message Center Updates January 15th to January 31s

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Hi everyone,

Here are the latest updates to the OneDrive service! We're finishing off January of 2019 with some great new features including The File Hover Card is now available for all file types, the new Office 365 navigation bar is rolling out, and some great improvements to Scan on mobile. As always, feel free to leave your feedback, comments or questions below.

File Hover Card is getting smarter and is now available for all file types!
Rolling out in February
The File Card is great at giving you a quick peek at your most important files, and it's getting even better. Starting in February, we're adding File Card support for almost all file types, not just core Office files. If you find yourself sharing a txt file, log file, or whatever file type you live in, you'll get the same experience across them all.

We're also adding support for including external and guest user views into the card. Invite someone from outside of your workplace to collaborate on a file? Now view and viewer counts will reflect external and guest users who viewed your files as well.

Lastly, we've incorporated important lifecycle events like file popularity and creation events to help you identify documents getting significant attention or that you recently worked with. All to help you be as efficient as possible.

New Office 365 Navigation Bar
Rolling out in February
The Office 365 Navigation Bar provides shared UX and capabilities that transform a collection of individual apps into "Office 365" in order to drive growth, user engagement, retention, and satisfaction with Office 365.

Over the last year, the team has re-invented the O365 Navigation Bar by moving to a modern platform, creating an extensible integration model that balances consistency with app contextual awareness, and leading the introduction of our new Fluent design language across the "silhouette" of Office 365.

OneDrive and SharePoint will see a bold new suite header that is aligned with what you see today in Outlook.com and Office.com. This consistency in look and functionality brings together apps and simplifies your interaction with the header.

The work that you've done to brand OneDrive and SharePoint will remain. If you haven't rebranded, you'll notice that the default color for OneDrive and SharePoint have changed.

The help pane in OneDrive and SharePoint has a new look. You'll see updated sections that highlight key, contextual help. If you added custom links, these are still available in the pane.

Scan Improvements in OneDrive Mobile
Rolling out in February
We're rolling out some great new improvements to the Scan experiences on our Mobile apps. First, based on feedback from you, we will now offer the ability to choose the save location from anywhere in your OneDrive or SharePoint Sites for new scans. We've also improved the performance of scan uploads, particularly on lower-end Android devices. These changes should start rolling out to all OneDrive mobile users in February.

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OneDrive Message Center Updates January 15th to January 31st

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Hi everyone, Here are the latest updates to the OneDrive service! We're finishing off January of 2019 with some great new features including The File Hover Card is now available for all file types, the new Office 365 navigation bar is rolling out, and some great improvements to Scan on mobile.

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OneDrive Message Center Updates January 1st to January 15th

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OneDrive Message Center Updates January 1st to January 15th

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Hi everyone,

Here are the latest updates to the OneDrive service! We're excited to kick off 2019 with Mac Files On-Demand becoming generally available and OneDrive Sync Client Mass Delete. As always, feel free to leave your feedback, comments or questions below.

Mac Files On-Demand is now generally available
Rolling out in January
OneDrive Files On-Demand helps you access all your files in OneDrive without having to download all of them and use storage space on your device. When you turn on Files On-Demand, you'll see all your files in Finder. New files created online or on another device appear as online-only files, which don't take up space on your device. When you're connected to the Internet, you'll be able to use the files like every other file on your device.

Initially as Files On-Demand for Mac rolls out, the feature will be on by default for new users on macOS Mojave. This feature will be ramped on for existing users over the coming months. Admins continue to have the ability to disable or enable this feature via a preference.

For a device to be eligible for Files On-Demand for Mac, you will need to be on the latest macOS 10.14.2 or higher, and OneDrive version 18.240.1202.0001 or higher.
NOTE: As of 1/28 Mac Files On-Demand is fully rolled out and generally available.

OneDrive Sync Client Mass Delete Prompt
Rolling out in February
Coming this February, whenever someone deletes more than 200 synced OneDrive or Team Site files at once from their device, the OneDrive sync client will prompt the user to confirm it was intentional. If it was accidental, the user can tap Restore Files to bring them back, otherwise tapping remove will delete them as usual. If a user wants to skip the new behavior, they can select the Always remove files box before tapping Remove to skip the prompt for future mass deletes.

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OneDrive Message Center Updates January 1st to January 15th

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Hi everyone, Here are the latest updates to the OneDrive service! We're excited to kick off 2019 with Mac Files On-Demand becoming generally available and OneDrive Sync Client Mass Delete. As always, feel free to leave your feedback, comments or questions below. Mac Files On-Demand is now generall...

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Now do more with Advanced eDiscovery in Microsoft 365

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Now do more with Advanced eDiscovery in Microsoft 365

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Now do more with Advanced eDiscovery in Microsoft 365