Microsoft Monthly Update Feb-Mar

Welcome to our first Microsoft Monthly Update where we summarise some of the latest headlines from Microsoft, so that you don’t have to.

In this update we will look at some of the latest news from Microsoft, take a deep-dive into some new functionality and take a sneak peak at what’s to come on the Microsoft Product Roadmap.

AI: What will it mean for women?

While participating in a panel discussion as part of Microsoft’s AI Tour in Sydney, Emma Barrett – Public Sector Director for Microsoft New Zealand, was asked about the role AI would play in supporting women in the future.

This article dives into the roles Emma sees AI playing in supporting and enhancing the way women work.

Read the full article here.

Best practices for SharePoint when using Microsoft Copilot

To help organisations prepare to use Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft have released a 5-step guideline for SharePoint Administrators to help them get their data in order.

1. Review site-level sharing controls and remove “Everyone Except External Users” from people picker.

2. Identify inactive sites, then restrict access or delete.

3. Identify potentially overshared content.

4. Take remediation actions to address oversharing.

5. Set restricted access control and block file download policies on business-critical sites.

Read the full article here.

Feature Deep-Dive: Formatting Options in Word for Web

One of the great things about Microsoft 365 is how it empowers users to work anywhere on any device. This includes using your favourite apps in a way that suits you.

Whether you prefer the convenience of using word in Teams or Word for the web or prefer the rich formatting tools that come with Word for desktop, you no-longer have to choose.

In this Feature Deep Dive, Archana Nair, Product Manager on the Word team shares information about the latest formatting options in Word for the web.

New formatting options:

Give your documents a professional look by adding headers and footers to your document.

Take advantage of the layout that suits your content best with the ability to change from single- to multi-column layouts.

Display line numbers and make it easy to refer to specific lines in a document.

Want to learn more? Check out the full deep-dive here.

New updates coming to SharePoint Pages!

Microsoft has a number of improvements to SharePoint Pages beginning to roll out over the next few months.

The most noteworthy of which is Custom image as Section Background!

This update will come in two parts and begin being released worldwide from June 2024:

Increased Selection of Microsoft Curated Backgrounds – this will include colour gradients and a selection of chosen images.

Custom Images – Get creative and use your own imagery in the backgrounds of your sections.

Something to be mindful of in this update is the impact an image may have on the readability of your content – consideration should be given to the colours and textures used.

Other noteworthy updates to SharePoint Pages on their way:

• Video Pages – Create video-centric page content with new video pages templates. [Planned for release from April 2024]
• New Banner Webpart (updated title area) in SharePoint Pages and News – This update will see the title area of a page become removable. Instead, it will be replaced with a Banner webpart with new layout options. This will also mean multiple banners can be added to your page. [Planned for release from April 2024]
• Content Pane for SharePoint Pages and News – Access relevant authoring tools and easily drag and drop webparts, media and section templates to your pages. [Planned for release from May 2024]

For more information about Microsoft Updates, you can check out the Microsoft 365 Roadmap.