Category: Tips & Tricks

Cloud Productivity, Collaboration, Document Collaboration, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace, Tips & Tricks, User Adoption

“Project Channels” in a Team is a bad idea

I don’t know how many times I’ve seen people create a new team channel for a new project. I can understand that you do it because you quickly get started with creating and saving files and having dialogue via posts in the “project channel”. The idea and ambition are good, but I believe it is wrong to use Teams in this way. Below in this post, I’ll show you some of my arguments for why I think it’s wrong and finally, finish with a tip on what you should do instead.

Continue reading ““Project Channels” in a Team is a bad idea” →
Cloud Productivity, Collaboration, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Lists, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams Apps, Modern Workplace, No-Code, Problem Solving, SharePoint Online, Tips & Tricks

How to create a simple event calendar in a Team

It is not uncommon for me to be asked how to create a calendar in a Team in Microsoft Teams. Most of the time, the need is about just wanting an overview of what will happen in the coming days.

  • Should you use the group calendar in the Team’s M365 group?
  • Is it perhaps better to use a channel calendar?
  • Is there possibly an even better and easier way to solve this?

Below I will show you some different options.

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Cloud Productivity, Collaboration, Document Collaboration, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Modern Workplace, Office 365, SharePoint Online, Tips & Tricks

Make your Office templates available to all users

Most companies and organizations have a good ambition that everyone should use the company’s standardized Office templates. The templates must follow the correct graphic profile and have the correct outline. Unfortunately, few companies and organizations succeed in this.

Wrong file types

A common misunderstanding is that an Office template is a “Reusable Office file” with the file extension .docx .xlsx or .pptx that you copy and change. Nothing could be more wrong.

“Real” Office templates have the following file extensions:

  • Word = .dotx
  • Excel = .xltx
  • PowerPoint = .potx

Stored in the wrong place

Sometimes the templates are on a file server, hopefully, the templates are at least stored somewhere on the company’s Microsoft 365 tenant (sometimes in a document library in SharePoint, sometimes they are even in a Team or spread across several Teams and channels.)

Sometimes you might even have your Office templates stored in an external solution that users have to log into and download the templates from. This often means that you miss when a new version has arrived and you continue, blissfully unaware, to work with your locally stored downloaded outdated templates.

Wrong Access rights

An interesting detail is that when you store these “Reusable Office files” (that are not valid template formats), in an area where most users have editor rights, it is guaranteed that sooner or later someone has been inside and changed one or more of these files.

A good way to avoid these problems is to create “real” Office templates and store them in an area where only a few people have editor rights while all employees have read rights.

But is there an easy way to make these templates available to all users directly from Word, Excel and PowerPoint? The answer is a resounding YES! Keep reading to find out how.

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Image by Alexa from Pixabay
Cloud Productivity, Collaboration, Document Collaboration, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace, Tips & Tricks, User Adoption

Make yourself seen and heard in Microsoft Teams

You may wonder why it takes so long to hear back from your colleagues. Sometimes it is perhaps so bad that you don’t get an answer at all?

It is a fact that Some people are better at following along, listening and being interested and following what is happening, while others do not react until you tap them on the shoulder. Sometimes the reason may be that it is you yourself who does not work in a way that makes you sufficiently visible. In this case I’m thinking of what it’s like when you communicate in Microsoft Teams.

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Automation, Cloud Productivity, Digitalisation, Microsoft 365, Modern Workplace, No-Code, Power Automate, Tips & Tricks, Viva Engage, Yammer

Simple Power Automate flow to post a friendly reminder in a Yammer Community

There are many of us who, as a natural part of our work, have the mandatory task of filling in time reports for each completed work week. In the best of worlds, of course you and all your colleagues always have a clear conscience when it comes to this.

Continue reading “Simple Power Automate flow to post a friendly reminder in a Yammer Community” →
Automation, Cloud Productivity, IT Governance, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Forms, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Teams Apps, Power Automate, SharePoint Online, Tips & Tricks

A simple solution for requesting new Team apps

Many organizations and companies choose to block Teams apps that do not come directly from Microsoft, but they approve all team apps from Microsoft and these are thus possible for users to add to Teams.

A challenge with this approach to success is that users do not know how to go about asking for permission to access and use any of the apps that are blocked. Often, IT also does not have routines or solutions to handle this smoothly. In other words, it becomes a source of confusion and inertia in the organization.

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Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Migration, Migration Tools, Planner, ShareGate, SharePoint Online, Tips & Tricks

Moving team channels is easy (when you know how to do it)

After using a system, solution or tool for a longer period of time, it usually either becomes a bit messy and/or you come up with other structures that you would rather have used. Just think back to how often you moved and reorganized folders back in the day when you were working against file servers. Then it was relatively easy to change the order of the folders in the structure you had built, but that was probably also the only advantage of working with folders on a file server. Enough about that. Today, we work in a more modern way and with tools that give us significantly more dimensions and possibilities.

Most of us who work a lot with Microsoft Teams are sometimes asked how to move a channel. The most common answer from me when I get this question is the counter question: “Do you need to move all posts as well or is it enough to move the files?”.

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Data Residency, Microsoft 365, Modern Workplace, Security & Compliance, Tips & Tricks, Viva Engage, Yammer

A tribute to Yammer (and some thoughtful security considerations)

My opinion on Yammer for intra-company networking

Yammer/Viva Engage is an incredibly useful tool for formal and informal internal networks in an organization.

Yammer is where

  • You can call out into the forest and quickly get an answer.
  • You can share both good and less good experiences with the aim of strengthening your colleagues.
  • The transparency of an organization really shines through.
  • The shy ones who otherwise do not dare to stand up and express themselves have a forum in which they can feel included and comfortable.
  • Leaders can inform by using posts and announcements and all employees are involved and given the opportunity to comment.

If you’ve read this far in this text, you’ve already understood that I’m a big fan of Yammer. I have always been a big supporter of transparency and knowledge-/experience sharing. The best way for me to learn something is to “Work out loud”. Yammer is the tool that gives me exactly what I need.

The best way for me to learn something is to “Work out loud”

But where is my information stored?

Continue reading “A tribute to Yammer (and some thoughtful security considerations)” →
Cloud Productivity, Collaboration, Document Collaboration, File shares, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Modern Workplace, OneDrive for Business, Planning, SharePoint Online, Tips & Tricks, User Adoption

Information structure in Microsoft Teams – Where should I save (and later also find) the documents?

In my daily work, I meet far too many companies and organizations that take the information structure too lightly. Sometimes due to lack of time, but sometimes due to carelessness. Either reason will sooner or later lead to chaos and irritated users. In the best case scenario, one has in any case gotten away from storing files on file servers and instead got over to Microsoft 365 with Teams, SharePoint and OneDrive as storage areas.
BUT
Unfortunately, it is far too common to just dump the files where you see that it is possible.

Here are some examples of Basic misuse (which many actually do).

  • Put all files on OneDrive
  • Put all files in one Document Library on a SharePoint Site
  • Put all files in the General channel in a Team

The reason for this blog post

On the first of September 2022, I will participate in Kai Stenberg’s PodCast “Teams Cast away“. There we will talk about information structure in Microsoft Teams. This blog post is written with the aim of sharing some tips with others who might wonder how to build a smart and logical structure in the simplest possible way so that you know where documents belong and can easily find them again when working in Microsoft Teams.

“Create and store documents in their logical/intuitive context. Then you and your colleagues don’t need to waste time searching for them later”

A golden rule in the handling of documents in Microsoft Teams is that the documents must always be created and stored in their relevant context. In my world, there should always be a relevant channel where a document fits. If you have relevant channels, you store documents and conversations in a relevant/logical context, and thus you don’t have to look for them. They simply have a natural place where they belong and your other team members should know (and practice) that too.


Below I will give you some simple and basic tips on what to keep in mind when you have a document that you are wondering where it belongs.

Continue reading “Information structure in Microsoft Teams – Where should I save (and later also find) the documents?” →
Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Governance, Microsoft Teams, Retention, Disposal and Archiving, Tips & Tricks

Why archive inactive Teams and how?

Regular housekeeping and cleaning is important both privately and at work to have an environment you feel comfortable in and to avoid looking too much for things you need. When it comes to Microsoft Teams, you may find that you have too many Teams to keep track of and that the list of Teams is too long? Maybe some of them are no longer active? Then it is a good idea to archive the inactive teams.

When you archive a team, you keep it for reference, and it is also possible to activate it again in the future should the need arise. When archiving, the conversations / posts and files in the team becomes read-only. You will still be able to search through what you need and you can even keep the team as a favorite. (Worth knowing is that only team owners can archive and restore it. Here you can read about how team archiving works.

Source: support.microsoft.com

(Photo by Nana Smirnova on Unsplash)