Microsoft 365
Productivity Tips
“June Jam"
Christian Buckley
CollabTalk LLC
Thomas Duff
Cambia Health

Christian Buckley
Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC
cbuck@CollabTalk.com
@buckleyplanet
http://www.buckleyplanet.com
Please remember to subscribe on YouTube!

Thomas Duff
Software Engineer at Cambia Health
Thomas.Duff@CambiaHealth.com
@Duffbert
http://oneminuteofficemagic.com

Rules of Engagement
1. Each opponent will take turns
2. No duplicates
3. Audience votes after each round
4. No hitting below the belt
5. Winner based on overall voting

Let’s get started!

Round 1

Restore previous versions in File Explorer
It is often the small, incremental
improvements that can add the
most productivity to your daily
activities.
You can now view and restore
versions of a document directly
within File Explorer – rather than
having to open the application to
view the history.

Restore previous versions in File Explorer
Simply right click on the file name,
and from the menu dialog, select
Version History
The version history dialog opens, allowing
you to scan through your various versions
and open the right version.

OneDrive Sharing Reports to see who can see what
OneDrive is a great tool, but it can be a bit difficult when it comes to finding what you've shared with
whom, and whether you need to do some permission clean-up. By using the OneDrive Sharing Report,
you can get all this information in an easy-to-read Excel spreadsheet. Here's how that works…
Go into OneDrive in your browser, and click on the Options icon. That will give you the OneDrive
Settings option:

OneDrive Sharing Reports to see who can see what
In the More Settings section, select Run Sharing Report:

OneDrive Sharing Reports to see who can see what
Select a folder in your OneDrive to store the Sharing Report. In this case, I chose the Collection Folder:

OneDrive Sharing Reports to see who can see what
The process takes less than a minute, and you will then see the file in your selected OneDrive folder:

OneDrive Sharing Reports to see who can see what
In the spreadsheet, you'll see the path of each of your files, the file type, who you've shared the file with,
and the level of access they have:

Who won the round?
15 votes 7 votes

Round 2

Searching in channels and chats for Microsoft Teams
While Microsoft Teams is a great way to keep information consolidated for your work, the capability to
find things in various chats and channels has been somewhat limited. With the addition of enhanced
searching in Microsoft Teams, that now becomes much easier. Here's what it looks like and how it
works…
To start your search, type in your search term in the command bar at the top of Microsoft Teams. Here,
I'm searching for items from my coworker Sandra Mahan. It gives me the option to narrow my search to
Messages, People, and Files, and it starts with Messages:

Searching in channels and chats for Microsoft Teams
I also have the option to use advanced filters for messages, such as who they are from:

Searching in channels and chats for Microsoft Teams
Or whether they're items from a chat or a channel:

Searching in channels and chats for Microsoft Teams
Or if the search term only appears in a specific channel. In this case, I only want items from Sandra in the
Spark Connect channel:

Searching in channels and chats for Microsoft Teams
And here we are:

Searching in channels and chats for Microsoft Teams
After Messages, I have the option to look for any People who match or have similar names to my search
term. I have Sandra's regular and test account showing up here:

Searching in channels and chats for Microsoft Teams
Finally, I can select Files to see anything that is associated with her name:

Searching in channels and chats for Microsoft Teams
I can also drill down in the filters to select a specific Team workspace, or a specific file type, such as Excel:

Searching in channels and chats for Microsoft Teams
And now I'm only seeing Excel files that are associated with her:
There are a number of other features you might want to explore here: Search for messages and more in Teams

Work on your Documents without leaving Teams
Another simple tip: We all know that multi-tasking as a time-saver is a fallacy. Our constant context-switching
makes it difficult to remain focused and get work done. Thankfully, the folks at Microsoft are providing more and
more ways for us to get work done in one place – which is increasingly within Microsoft Teams.
I was reading a post by Rick Espin on the European SharePoint site (Top 7 Hidden Features in Microsoft Teams)
which reminded me of another basic, yet powerful capability within Teams that can help reduce the context-
switching: working on Documents within the Teams workspace.
From the Files tab, select any file or document and right-click or select the ellipsis.

Work on your Documents without leaving Teams
With close-to-parity features between browser and desktop versions, we’re seeing more and more that new
features are arriving in the cloud before the desktop. Keep things simple by opening and editing within the browser
(get in, get out, done). Of course, this also means you can access all of your content and tools from any browser.
This also streamlines your access to content in SharePoint, OneDrive, and any cloud storage service that has been
added to Microsoft Teams.

Who won the round?
6 vote 18 votes

Round 3

Leveraging the Microsoft Productivity Score
Most organizations are thinking
about end user adoption and
engagement, and need to start by
looking at their Microsoft
Productivity Score, currently in
private preview.
The goal of the MPS is to provide
you with:
 visibility into how your organization
works
 insights that identify where you can
enable improved experiences so
people can reach their goals
 actions to update skills and systems
so everyone can do their best work.

Leveraging the Microsoft Productivity Score
The score is based on two categories:
the employee experience and the
technology experience. Both include a
benchmark that helps you compare
how you are doing compared to
organizations similar to yours.
The employee experience shows how
Microsoft 365 is helping to create a
productive and engaged workforce by
quantifying how people collaborate on
content, work from anywhere,
understanding communication styles,
and developing a meeting culture.
The technology experience helps you
ensure the technology isn’t getting in
the way by assisting you optimize your
device experiences such as proactively
remediating common helpdesk issues
and improving PC startup times, and
your network to ensure your apps
work well.

Leveraging the Microsoft Productivity Score
Within technology experience there
are insights for each area you are
attempting to optimize.
For example, legacy hardware, poorly
tuned policies, or the presence of 3rd
party agents can impact PC startup
performance, while network
performance can impact Teams call
quality and OneDrive for Business.

Leveraging the Microsoft Productivity Score
To see the actions that you might want
to take in the employee experience,
you can click on the view actions
button in the primary insight or the
link at the bottom of a supporting
insight.
Doing this opens the recommended
actions panel with options that you
might consider.
For example, some of the actions
recommended in the collaborating on
content area are focused on providing
end user training around how to
better collaborate and how to create
links to documents in emails instead of
sending attachments. There is also
documentation for IT to understand
how to configure external sharing.

Leveraging the Microsoft Productivity Score
Within technology experience,
Microsoft provides recommended
actions like tuning policies, removing
problem agents, or upgrading hardware
to improve startup performance.
Also, to reduce support tickets
Microsoft provides pre-canned
“proactive remediations” to fix issues
on devices before people even know
there is a problem.
To request access to the private preview
please fill out the form at
https://aka.ms/productivityscorepreview

Audience Targeting in SharePoint Online navigation links
One of the latest changes to show up for SharePoint Online is the ability to have audience targeting
apply to specific links in your navigation in Modern sites and pages. This means that you can have
certain navigational links show up only to specific groups of people who are part of an Active Directory
group. Here's how it works…
In the site navigation, click the Edit link. This will cause the navigation panel to show up on the left side of
the page. To enable audience targeting, turn on the Enable site navigation audience targeting option:

Audience Targeting in SharePoint Online navigation links
When you create a new link (the Plus symbol), the Add panel gives you the option to set Audience
Targeting for up to 10 Active Directory groups. Only the people who are part of the group(s) in the list
will be able to see the link once you save it:
For more information about navigational audience targeting (and navigation in general), check out this informative page:
Customize the navigation on your SharePoint site.

Who won the round?
5 vote 12 votes

Round 4

Adding your own background images for Microsoft Teams meetings
Recently Microsoft Teams offered a standard set of background images for your Microsoft Teams
meetings. You *could* add your own images, but it was more of a hack and wasn't something you'd
necessarily want to advertise. Now, there's an easy way to do this, and here's how it works…
When you're in a Teams meeting, click the Ellipsis icon in the device bar and select Show background
effects:

Adding your own background images for Microsoft Teams meetings
In the Background settings panel, select the Add new option:

Adding your own background images for Microsoft Teams meetings
Select your image that you'd like to have added to your custom background selections (see the end of
this post for the image requirements):

Adding your own background images for Microsoft Teams meetings
Your image is now available as a selectable background, so click Apply and turn on video to have it
show up as your background:

Adding your own background images for Microsoft Teams meetings
And here I am, coming to you live from the Aqaba amphitheater in Jordan!
Not all images can be used for backgrounds, however. They must meet these requirements, and you won't be able
to add it to your set if they do not:
• Minimum size: 360 x 360 pixels
• Maximum size: 2048 x 2048 pixels
• File type: jpeg, png, bmp
• Aspect ratio: Greater than 4

Use Natural Language Queries in Excel
We’ve talked about Ideas in Excel in the past,
but not the advanced query capabilities.
There are two ways in which you can ask
questions within Excel:
First, try the Suggested Questions. Simply
click in the text box at the top of the Ideas
pane, and you'll see a list of suggestions
based on your data.
Second, just ask your question about your
data using natural language, and the latest
AI capabilities will attempt to provide you
with an answer.

Use Natural Language Queries in Excel
To use this feature, simply click a cell in a
data range, and then click the Ideas
button on the Home tab. Ideas in Excel
will analyze your data, and return
interesting visuals about it in a task pane.
If you're interested in more specific
information, you can enter a question in
the query box at the top of the pane, and
press Enter. Ideas will provide answers
with visuals such as tables, charts or
PivotTables that can then be inserted into
the workbook.
If you are interested in exploring your
data, or just want to know what is
possible, Ideas also provides personalized
suggested questions which you can
access by clicking on the query box.
Find our more at
https://support.microsoft.com/en-
us/office/ideas-in-excel-3223aab8-f543-
4fda-85ed-76bb0295ffc4

Who won the round?
11 votes 6 votes

Round 5

Expand your Outlook Calendar
For many of us, email remains as a
primary productivity tool. We structure
our work days around our calendars,
using it to organize our meetings,
social engagements, and to block out
personal time.
Staying connected to what’s going on
out in the world or down the street is
also worth staying on top of, so if you
like getting your news from a TV
program, or want to stay aware of your
daughter’s school schedule, add their
schedules to your calendar.
Within Outlook Web, you can add the
following calendars:
 Schools
 Holidays
 TeamSnap (child/intramural sports
app https://www.teamsnap.com/)
 Sports
 TV

Expand your Outlook Calendar
Want to make time for Must Watch TV?
You can add your favorite TV program
schedule to your personal calendar by
selecting Add New Calendar > TV
Select your time zone, network, and
programs, and a new calendar will be
added to your profile.

Expand your Outlook Calendar
Maybe a better example is keeping
track of your daughter’s school
calendar to make sure those upcoming
half-day teacher days are part of your
schedule.
Select Schools and add your zip code.
A list of area schools will appear, from
which you can select your daughter’s
school, and click Add.
The school calendar is then added to
your Outlook under Other Calendars.
Read more about this Outlook feature:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/outl
ook-blog/add-family-school-amp-sports-
calendars-in-outlook-com/ba-p/1048391

Suggested Replies for Outlook on the Web
If you're used to using an email application like Gmail, you've likely seen (and used) the Suggested
Replies feature, where short one-click answers are provided to speed up your email processing. Outlook
on the Web now has that same feature, and it's pretty cool. Here's how it works…
In this email using Outlook on the Web, I have three suggested replies that I can use with a single click:

Suggested Replies for Outlook on the Web
In this case, I chose "You're welcome", clicked the button, and a Reply to All email was generated with
that as the text:

Suggested Replies for Outlook on the Web
If you look back at the first image, you'll also see where I have an opportunity to offer Microsoft feedback
on the "suggested suggestions", and whether they were helpful or not. If I click No, it gives me an
opportunity to explain why if I click OK:

Suggested Replies for Outlook on the Web
You have some predefined options for why they didn't work for you, but you also have an area to go into
more depth as to why the suggestions weren't proper in your opinion:

Who won the round?
4 vote 11 votes

Tom!

Current
Leaderboard
Most Rounds Won
Tom (64-60-1)
Most Events Won
Tom (13-11)
Most Overall Votes
Tom (1995-1963)
Event Date Location Rounds Won Votes Won Rounds Won Votes Won
9/12/2017 Online 3 31 2 29
10/28/2017 SPSTC 1 74 4 96
11/28/2017 Online 2 11 3 15
1/16/2018 Online 4 167 1 104
2 54 3 53
3 152 2 122
3 141 2 136
2 87 3 104
3 63 2 33
4 178 1 137
0 37 5 183
1 31 4 64
4 168 6 200
4 108 1 59
2 69 3 64
4 88 1 60
4 69 1 50
3 56 2 78
2 54 3 51
3 114 1 91
1 65 4 104
2 57 3 51
4 67 1 38
3 54 2 41
TOTAL 64 1995 60 1963
9/24/2019 Online
11/26/2019 Online
10/29/2019 Online
6/23/2020 Online
Tom
2/7/2019 Online
4/19/2019 Online
5/22/2019 SPC19
6/20/2019 Online
7/30/2019 Online
8/26/2019 Online
2/24/2020 Online
3/24/2020 Online
4/22/2020 Online
5/26/2020 Online
Christian
1/15/2019 Online
7/25/2018 Online
2/3/2018 SPSUTAH
8/28/2018 Online
11/17/2018 SPSTC
12/19/2018 Online

Thank you!
Christian Buckley
@buckleyplanet
buckleyPLANET.com
Tom Duff
@Duffbert
OneMinuteOfficeMagic.com
Please remember to subscribe on YouTube!