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Joel Rollins

Microsoft 365 Updates for the Week of April 6th.

WolfPack, this week, VR comes to SharePoint, and many quality of life updates for SharePoint and Teams

New Feature: SharePoint Spaces
Building a space is similar to building a SharePoint modern site.  First, a user creates the space and chooses options such as structure, background, and theme.  Next, add web parts for 3D objects, 360 images and videos, and 2D images and text.
 
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  • Site owners must enable Spaces on the Manage site features page for users to be able to create 3-D experiences.
  • Once enabled, users will see a new option in the site’s New menu to create a SharePoint Space
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New Feature: SharePoint File Delete Lockout Override
After feedback from UserVoice and other sources, Microsoft is introducing the ability for a user to delete a file that is currently locked.  This document could be open in another tab or on a different computer, or because someone else had it open and forgot about it.
This feature allows you to override that lock and delete an Office file (such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint) when you or someone else has it open, whether intentionally or not. The new functionality will be available to people who want to delete items from their own OneDrive, and to all members of a document library who already have permission to delete files.
People who try to delete a file that is open in another location will see a message asking them if they are sure they want to delete the file even though someone else may be editing the file.

They may then proceed with the delete action or close the message and allow other users to continue editing uninterrupted.
Here is an example of the error banner in Word:
People who are actively editing a file when someone else deletes it will see a message explaining that they no longer have access to the file, and in some cases, advising them to save a copy of the document so that work isn’t lost.
This feature will be gradually rolling out to Targeted Release customers in early April with the roll-out schedule to be complete by the end of April.


New Feature: Create a SharePoint List from an Excel Table
Microsoft is giving users a way to create a SharePoint list by importing an Excel table
To use this new feature, users will need to choose a table from an Excel spreadsheet, then click import. SharePoint creates a new list with all the data and structure from Excel
 


Awareness of Microsoft 365 Temporary Feature Adjustment - Update:
OneDrive
  • Customers who use OneDrive Files On-Demand and choose to "display items by using large thumbnails" in Windows Explorer or Mac Finder will see generic icons instead of thumbnails for a subset of file types, such as PDF and video files. Photo file thumbnails (jpeg, jpg, png, etc) are not affected by this change.
 
SharePoint
  • Updated (in bold) to provide additional clarity: Microsoft is rescheduling specific backend operations to regional evening and weekend business hours. Impacted capabilities include migration, DLP, apps that scan the service, and delays in file management after uploading a new file, video or image.
 
Previously announced:
 
OneNote
  • OneNote in Teams will be read-only for commercial and education tenants. To edit, please use OneNote for the web or the OneNote desktop app.
  • Download size and sync frequency of file attachments has been changed.
  • You can find details on these and other OneNote related updates as http://aka.ms/notesupdates
SharePoint
  • We are rescheduling specific backend operations to regional evening and weekend business hours. Impacted capabilities include migration, DLP and delays in file management after uploading a new file, video or image.
  • Reduced video resolution for playback videos.
  • The following blog is now available with some additional information about these temporary changes: Awareness of temporary adjustments in SharePoint Online
Teams
  • Frequency of Presence checking.
  • Interval we show when the other party is typing.
  • Reduced video resolution.
Stream
  • People timeline has been disabled for newly uploaded videos. Pre-existing videos will not be impacted.
  • Meeting recording video resolution adjusted to 720p

Teams Meeting Experience Improvements
Microsoft has announced 3 new improvements for Teams to improve user’s meeting experience:
  • Background effects in Teams meetings. Users will be able to select Microsoft provided background images prior to or during a video call.
    • Rolling out beginning in mid-April
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  • New experience for launching instant channel meetings. Users will now see the Meet Now button in the Channel header in the top-right corner.
    • Rolling out beginning in late April
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  • Improved Teams meeting join launcher experience. When launching a Teams meeting from a link, users will be provided with clearer options for how they would like to join the meeting.
    • Rolling out beginning in late April
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    • New Feature: Raise a Virtual Hand in Teams Meetings
      The new raise hand feature in Teams allows meeting attendees to identify that they wish to speak by toggling the hand icon in the meeting control bar, making it easier to actively participate in meetings. Raise hand will be available initially for PC, Mac, and web-based clients. Support for mobile applications will follow.
       
    • This is how it will work in the app: when a meeting participant has raised their hand, an icon will appear next to their name in the roster view as well as their profile picture or video on the main meeting stage. Participants can lower their hand, and any presenter can lower individual hands in the meeting.
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    • Targeted Release clients can look for this feature beginning gin mid-April with all others in late-May
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