Wictor Wilen

About a year ago I wrote a blog article called SharePoint Team sites are dead. An article that stirred up many feelings in the community and started an interesting (and somewhat harsh) discussion - which was kind of the point. Fast forward to May 2016 and this is a totally different ball game! SharePoint Team Sites are back! Modern team sites Jeff Teper, CVP at Microsoft, writes in the just now published The Future of SharePoint blog post: “Team sites has always been at the heart of collaboration with SharePoint”, a statement I absolutely agree with. Team Sites is what made SharePoint such a successful product. The post I wrote about how Team Sites are supposed to be dead are still true though - Team Sites are not what they used to be, they have transformed and merged with Office 365 Groups into something more powerful - the new Modern Team sites.

Updates, updates and updates. This time around there’s a great deal of clean up on the Office Roadmap. Mayhaps they are adding space for all the neat SharePoint things we expect to see next week at the SharePoint Future event. There’s also a bunch of new stuff added to the In Development category, scroll down and learn something. Also worth noticing is that the Yammer team has started to catch up on the feedback they received over the last few years. I think that in just a few weeks they made more than they actually been able to do for years. Good job - now if you only could focus on some proper integration; with identities, search, threading and stuff that matters.

Here’s some really big updates of the Office Roadmap this time around. Two major themes of this update, part from the now more or less traditional copy paste errors; Planner - the Planner team have tons of nifty and neat stuff coming our way. Edu - Microsoft is all in on school and Edu features at the moment! Check the “In Development” section - you will like it. Wonder how much more good stuff they are saving for the May 4th event!!

I’m happy to just have recieved the e-mail that informs me that I’m renewed as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP), for the seventh time. This time it’s in the Office Servers and Services category after last years change in the program. Previously I was awarded within SharePoint Server. To be honest with you, the last few years has been well…average, but this year will be epic in the history of SharePoint, Office and Office 365! Looking forward to all the continued co-operation with Microsoft and my MVP peers.

Here’s some more updates on the Office Roadmap. A couple of days late due to me being offline and chasing bunnies and chickens. Highlights of these updates are the awesomeness going on in the Office 365 Video team and also that the OneDrive sync team is back! Changes 2016-03-28 Launched Class Notebook Add-in for OneNote: The Class Notebook add-in for Onenote is released. (NEW) February Updates in Office Mobile Apps for Android devices: Android apps received some updates with auto-save and collab authoring in Word and PowerPoint (NEW) February Updates in Office Mobile Apps for iOS: And iOS got some as well with Box integrations (NEW) February Updates in Office Mobile Apps for Windows devices: And Windows Phone did too (these users can be counted on one hand nowadays); inking and Excel updates was on the menu (NEW) Office 365 Admin app - Group functionality: Group admin options in the admin app, nice but for me the UX works fine with 10-15 groups, imagine an enterprise with thousands (from in development) Office 365 Admin app - Push Notifications for Message Center: Get them push notifications from the admin app and always know when there is Office 365 issues. Great! (from in development) Office 365 Admin app for Windows 10: The Windows 10 Universal App for Office 365 is here. Currently in Beta, but (NEW) Office 365 Video - Choose Your Own Thumbnail: A great video addition (from in development) Office 365 Video - Improved upload experience: easier to upload videos, one step forward to a real video internal Youtube (from rolling out) Office 365 Video - Insert video from SharePoint edit page ribbon: use videos in your SharePoint sites (from rolling out) Office 365 Video - Upload your own subtitle files: Wow! Awesome addition to the video portal! (from in development) Office 365 Video - Video Viewer Statistics: I like this, but I’d like to see better overall statistics. Right now its a copy paste job from many sources (NEW) Office 365 Video - Yammer settings per channel: about time, and the best thing is that you can turn the Yammer integration off! (back from previously launched) Rolling out Manage Yammer licenses in Office 365: To Yammer or not to Yammer - that is no longer the question, but up to you! (from in development) Office 365 Reporting Dashboard: This new reporting dashboard is awesome! (from in development) Search on Yammer iOS app: giggles, not commenting on this one (NEW) In Development Allow/Deny list external sharing domains: long awaited feature (NEW) Bitcoin Currency Format Support: Bitcoins is back( NEW, well it was here before but disappeared for a while) Delve People Experiences - Praise: Prais feature is now back in development (from rolling out) Expiring Yammer Announcements: Instead of fixing the read item count issues (any of them) the Yammer team thinks, hey let’s focus on something else instead… (NEW) Improvements to Outlook Add-in Store: better in-Outlook experience when getting Add-ins (NEW) March Updates in Office Mobile Apps for Android devices: RTF support for Android devices and SmartArt editing (NEW) March Updates in Office Mobile Apps for Windows devices: RTF and Sway features in the WinPhone apps (NEW) OneDrive for Business Deny List of File Types for Sync: Allows admins to deny certain file types (NEW) OneDrive for Business Pause Sync: looks like the OneDrive sync team is back from the coffee break (NEW) OneDrive for Business Shared folder Sync: sync someone elses folder (NEW) OneDrive for Business SharePoint Online Document Library Sync: The end of groove.exe? (NEW) OneDrive for Business Windows 8.1 Support for Next Generation Sync Client: Anyone still on 8.1, slackers! (NEW)

I got some news for you. The Office Roadmap is updated, actually it was updated yesterday but I had other stuff to do. Let’s jump right into the changes and look at them Groups thingies!! Changes 2016-03-17 Launched Dark theme for Outlook 2016: Somehow someone thought this was important. Personally I’m not a fan of the dark theme in Office, specifically not in Outlook - it looks all weird and funky since e-mails have a white background. (from in development) Directory pictures in Outlook 2016 search suggestions: When searching in Outlook (on the desktop) you should see profile pics of people - I don’t, and I’m on the Office first release branch… (from in development) Learning Tools for OneNote: There are some new Learning tools in OneNote for people with learning needs. (NEW) Office 365 Groups: dynamic membership: Dynamic membership in groups should be rolled out. Love the feature! You configure the dynamic membership in the Azure AD portal and it also requires Azure AD premium if you wondered (from rolling out) Office 365 Groups: files quota management: File quotas for group - one of those things we waited for are here, anyone seen it by the way. The description still says “we plan to” - but it is marked as launched (from rolling out) SharePoint Online uses Exchange Web Services to send mail: SharePoint alerts and mails are no longer marked as spam (from rolling out) In Development Focused Inbox for Outlook for Windows, Mac and web: The focused inbox feature from the Outlook iOS/Android app will come to Outlook for Windows and Mac as well as web (NEW) Message Center improvements Spring 2016: some filtering features and a new weekly digest e-mail incoming for the message center (NEW) Office 365 Groups: guest access support: YES! YES! YES! FINALLY! (NEW) One-click Archive: archive your stuff in Outlook if our using Outlook for Mac with a single click (NEW) Outlook 2016 for Mac two step authentication: Modenr AuthN and two-FACTOR authentication for Outlook for Mac (NEW) Upload local Outlook attachment to OneDrive & OneDrive for Business: automatically upload your attachments to OneDrive when sending e-mail using Outlook for desktop (NEW) Moved off into the previously released list Skype for Business for Android

Ok, let me first start by saying that I might have overreacted in the last blog post about the roadmap. I still don’t think it is ok to have this kind of chaos on such an important and official document/page. But stuff happens, we all know that (I’ve done some pretty serious dumba** stuff with my blog posts over the years). So back to the good news. We have an Office Roadmap update. And this time around it looks all fine! It’s a bit long this time, due to stuff getting back to where they are supposed to be, but there are some really hidden gems in here. Have a nice read y’all.

Spring is closing in, astronauts are returning from a year in space, the US has an election going on and there’s update on the Office Roadmap. The roadmap mess saga continues…with Microsoft making even more fools out of themselves!!! Changes 2016-03-01 Launched No new things are rolling out…instead they are rolling them back! Rolling out All of the following was previously Launched but are now rolling out instead. Microsoft, you need to think about how you update this page. The last month or so has been ver unreliable. Please, if you need help in managing a proper list of changes you have my contact details. Actually in Sweden there is a law that what you publish on your web site is what is included in the service/product/offering (not exactly the legal text) at the time of purchase…

Updates! Updates! Updates! Yup, that would happen if Stevie B was still in the house rocking the Office Roadmap. Another round of updates, this time it looks like a fixup of the mess that happended last time. So some things are reported as NEW in here, but they aren’t really new, they just disappeared for a week or two… Changes 2016-02-13 Launched Apps for Project Pro for Office 365 write support: If you’re building Apps, sorry Add-ins, you can now do write back for Project Apps/Add-ins (from Rolling out) Auto Generated Project IDs in Project Online: more control of the ID’s generated in Project (from Rolling out) Cloud PBX in Skype for Business: Enterprise voice is now live (from In Development) Data Loss Prevention (DLP) in SharePoint Online: DLP features in SPO is now Launched, from Rolling out Designer: The new Designer feature in PowerPoint should be in your desktop application by now (from rolling out) DLP in SharePoint - Policy Management: It says private preview only and public in september 2015, we’re already way beyond that, so I guess nobody bothered update the text. Anyways - this is a great feature that allows you to control DLP and actions, triggers, reports etc for SharePoint Online and OneDrive. (from ROlling out) Events from email: Exchange Online will now automatically detect flight information (just like Cortana) and automatically block the time in your calendar (from In development). Note: this feature is ON by default but can be turned off. FastTrack | Data migration to OneDrive for Business from File Shares: File share to OneDrive FastTrack is live. (from in development) FastTrack | Data migration to SharePoint Online Team Sites from File Shares: File share to Team Sites is also live (from In development) FastTrack | FastTrack Center services coming to smaller customers: Great change for smaller customers, minimum number of seats are now 50 for FastTrack, instead of 150. (NEW) FastTrack | Office 365 ProPlus Upgrade Assistance: FastTrack for Office (from in development) First Release: Select People support for SharePoint & OneDrive for Business: SPO and OD4B is now first release enabled (from rollingout) Mobile offline files (read-only) for iOS: Offline support for the OneDrive app (from rolling out) Mobile PDF annotation support for iOS: Another great feature on IOS and not on Windows Phone (I’m just waiting for Satya to can this huge failed experiement). (from rolling out) Morph for iOS: Support for the new Morph PowerPoint animation on IOS (and not Windows Phone) (NEW) Multiple timeline bars in Project Pro for Office 365: I think this is one of the things that changes every time on the roadmap, it’s probably a huge deal for the Project people. (from rolling out) Next-generation OneDrive for Business sync client (PC & Mac): NextGen (LOL) sync engine is now fully launched. I sure hope they don’t think that this is a finished product!!! (from rolling out) Office 365 Groups: dynamic membership: Dynamic memeberships for Office 365 Groups. This is really awesome. It requires Azure AD premium though. (from Rolling out) Office 365 Groups: files quota management: support for file quota managment for the Office 365 Groups SPO sites (from In Development) Office 365 ISO 27001 and 27018 Audit Report: Some new reports in the Service Trust Portal, I’m not sure if they are new or just updated. Not that descriptive information (From Rolling out) Office 365 local datacenter in India: The 365 datacenter in India has opened its doors for tenants. Check your Message Center for information about when you are being moved (from In Developemnt) Office 365 Video - Yammer settings per channel: This new settings allows you to specify a Yammer Group for the Video Channel or even better you can disable it. (from rolling out) Office Online multi-user coauthoring in Yammer: Co-authoring in Yammer! When will they implement a feature that allows you to NOT store documents in Yammer? Prolly never. (from In Development) OneDrive for Business Web UX refresh: New UX in OneDrive for Business. It’s a great addition and I’m looking forward to see this new concept coming to other parts of SPO PowerPoint Designer - Desktop: This is exactly the same feature as above “Designer”. (from rolling out) PowerPoint Morph - Desktop: The Morpth animation on the desktop edition of PowerPoint. I actually like it (from rolling out) Preview_Office 365 Customer Security Considerations Refrence Guide: I’m not 100% sure on what this exactly is, but it’s a new “Security Consideration Guide” linked to the Service Trust Portal. Gotta find it and read it (from Rolling out) PSTN Calling in Skype for Business: US only, call real phones from Skype. (from in development) PSTN Conferencing in Skype for Business Online: conferencing dial in option, US only so far (from in development) Real time presence for PowerPoint: You can see in real time who’s editing the same doc as you in PowerPoint (I guess this is for online, and the next one for desktop). (from in development) Real Time presence in PowerPoint for desktop: see above (from in development) Red Alert Autoposting: automatic detection of issues in Office 365, about time (from rolling out) Set an expiry date for a guest share: This one has jumped back and forth from rolling out and launched. But I have yet not seen it in any tenant! SharePoint Online uses Exchange Web Services to send mail: SharePoint e-mails should no longer be spam (from rolling out) Skype for Business One-time search notification: First time a user does a search in S4B they will get a help message (NEW) Skype Meeting Broadcast: Skype Meeting Broadcast is launched! Love it! (From in development) Sway recycle bin: Get yer Sways back (from in development) Task Notifications in Project Online: notifications from project, title says it all (from rolling out) Rolling out Embedded video in Universal app: When pasting a YouTube, Vimeo or Office Mix Video in OneNote (the Universal app only) you can directly in OneNote check out the video. Sounds cool, couldn’t verify since it doesn work… (NEW) Manage Yammer licenses in Office 365: I’m should just shut up on this one since there are to many sensitive people that would sacrifice their kids for this emabarrasing service. You knwo what, you can unassign licenses now for Yammer and it just removes the Tile from the Waffle. Users can still go to Yammer. Epic failure!!! (from in developemnt) Office 365 Groups: multi-domain support: One more of my requested features for Office 3365 Groups are now being rolled out (from in development) Office 365 ProPlus Consumption Reports: awesome reports for Office, including Visio and Project, activations (NEW) Office 365 Reporting Dashboard: the new admin portal will contain a highly customizable reporting center (from in development) Search on Yammer iOS app: No comments… (NEW, well it was there, then it wasn’t and now it’s back) In Development Allow/Deny list external sharing domains: white/blacklisting of external sharing domains. A welcome addition (NEW) Bitcoin Currency Format Support: fire up your Azure VM’s to mine some bitcoins (NEW) Delve People Experiences - Praise: This is one of the features that is actually being rolled back from In development. This is a good thing. I hope they add features so that you can control the Praise experience; that is turn it on/off, and also that you can delete Praises from an administrative side (from rolling out) Expiring Yammer Announcements: This should reduce the number of unread items in your Yammer inbox (NEW) FastTrack | Expanded language support: the additions of simplified chinese, Thai and Vietnames to the FTC (NEW) Improvements to Outlook Add-in Store: an in-client experience for finding Apps/Add-ins for Outlook. Great new feature (NEW) Intune Mobile Application Management and Conditional Access for Skype for Business: More control of Skype for Business on mobile devices (NEW) Office 365 Groups: guest access support: My number one feature I’m waiting for for Groups. When finally launched I see no single reason whatsoever to use Yammer. (NEW) Office Delve updated profile experience: The profile part of Delve will be improved over the next few months (NEW) Removal of Delivery Reports from Outlook on the web: Delivery Reports will no longer be a part of Outlook on the web (who uses that anyways!?) (rolled back from Rolling out) Skype for Business Cloud Connector Edition: Connect your on-premises Skype for Business to the PBX/PSTN in Office 365! (NEW) Yammer service on by default: I complained about this stupid idea previously and now they moved it from Rolling Out to In Development! Not going to do a sarcastic comment this time, but if that is true that someone reconsidered this change it is a good thing for all enterprises that would like to control what their users use and what not to use. (From Rolling out) Cancelled Azure departmental template availability: Yup, it’s being cancelled over and over again (from in development)