Microsoft 365 Updates - April Edition

Welcome to the April 2024 edition of our Microsoft 365 update. This month, we're excited to introduce new features hand-picked from our technical wizards to enhance your collaboration and productivity in Microsoft 365. Our insights, direct from the Microsoft roadmap, focus on better ways to work with your colleagues and ultimately improve your day-to-day workflow.

Let’s dive in and discover what these updates can do for you.

SharePoint  

New heading level options for Web Parts

SharePoint is rolling out interface enhancements to improve content display and structure on pages. These updates include new heading size options for web part titles, for better formatting and information hierarchy. Key changes are:

- Heading 2 will be adjusted from 28 to 24.
- Heading 3 will change from 24 to 20.
- Heading 4 will be reduced from 20 to 18.

These updates will help create a clearer, more organised heading hierarchy within SharePoint sites, affecting both new and existing pages and news posts.

‍Availability
Expected from late April to late May 2024.
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New SharePoint page templates for Stream videos

SharePoint and Stream will introduce new video page templates to enhance digital content creation. In SharePoint, you'll find these templates in the site template menu, available for both pages and news. On the Stream web app, you can create a video news post by selecting a template from the 'Create video news post' button located under the Share dropdown menu.

Availability
Expected from mid to late June 2024.

Microsoft Teams

New ‘Meet Now’ experience coming to Teams group chats

Teams group chats will soon benefit from a new 'Meet Now' feature, which simplifies starting ad-hoc meetings without the need for a traditional call set-up. This feature will launch an instant, ringless meeting directly within the chat thread, allowing users to have more seamless communication and collaboration with their team members on chat. ‍

Availability
Expected from mid to late May 2024.

Meeting recap and artifacts in chat

Gone are the days of having to search through meeting chats looking for files or notes. Coming to Microsoft Teams, a post meeting summary will automatically share a detailed recap message in the meeting chat. This includes:

- A link to the meeting recap page for a comprehensive overview.
- Access to various meeting artifacts such as transcripts, recordings, shared files, collaborative notes and whiteboards, providing a centralised home of meeting content.

‍Availability
Expected from late April 2024.

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Consolidated settings for meeting options

Microsoft is making it easier to navigate Teams meeting otions by introducing categories within the settings. This update groups related settings together, such as those for meeting access and roles, streamlining the process of setting up and managing meetings.

Availability
Expected from late April to late May 2024.

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Stream

Interactive video tools such as survey, poll, or quizzes  

Microsoft Stream now allows creators to make videos more engaging by embedding interactive elements like surveys, quizzes, or polls at specific points within the video. This feature not only engages viewers more deeply but also provides creators with valuable feedback, enhancing the educational impact of the content.

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Stream Classic has been deprecated

As of the 15 April 2024, Stream (Classic) has been fully retired and automatically disabled. Users and Administrators are no longer able to access or use Stream (Classic). Any remaining content in Stream (Classic) that was not migrated will be deleted. As background, Microsoft is retiring Stream (Classic) and replacing it with Stream (on SharePoint) as part of its video service in Microsoft 365.

The next key date is 15 February 2025, whereby Stream (Classic) links and embed codes will redirect to the migrated videos on OneDrive and SharePoint until this date.

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Microsoft Outlook

Outlook and To Do integration

The integration of Microsoft's 'To Do' app within Outlook mobile simplifies task management by allowing users to handle their tasks directly within the email application. This seamless integration will create an easily accessible place to add tasks, reducing the need to switch between multiple apps and helping users stay organised.

Users will need to update the Outlook app to the latest version, tap the Apps tab in the navigation bar, and then go to All Apps to tap 'To Do'. To pin the 'To Do' app to the navigation bar, users can reorder the apps. ‍

Availability
Expected from late April to early May 2024.

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Copilot

AI assistance coming to Microsoft Forms

Copilot in Forms integrates AI assistance into form creation within Microsoft 365, simplifying the process of designing and customising forms. This advanced tool leverages AI to streamline form creation, making it not only quicker but also more intuitive.

By automatically detecting and correcting common design errors and biases, such as leading questions or ambiguous wording, Copilot helps to build forms and surveys that are both clear and effective in gathering more meaningful form submissions. In addition to this, it will also enhance the overall look and feel of surveys. It suggests themes and layouts that are visually appealing and appropriate for the target audience.

‍Availability
Expected from late April 2024.
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That’s a wrap!

And that's it for our latest updates on Microsoft 365 and SharePoint this month! If you've got questions or need more info, don't hesitate to get in touch.  Email us at support@sope.com.au or just reply to this email.  

Thanks for reading.

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