Wictor Wilen

It was a couple of weeks since last, but this time we got some major updates on the Office Roadmap, following the recent announcement on the Office blogs. Changes 2015-04-15 Since the 26th of March, these are the changes. Quite a few of them… Now Launched Bulk Updates in Project Online: Directly to launched status Improvements to Demand Management in Project Online: Another Project thingie, directly to launched Changing support for LinkedIn in Outlook: LinkedIn connections in Outlook no longer supported, another that went directly to launched Clutter Control and admin capabilities: from rolling out Document deletion policies for OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online: A really interesting and important feature, now live Lync Online Active User Activities Report: previously rolling out MAPI over HTTP for Outlook 2013 and Exchange Online: one of the oldest things on the roadmap now rolling out More control over Sent Items for Shared Mailboxes: from in development New preview features for Power BI: from rolling out Option for Passwords to Never Expire: new on the list the last time, but now launched Removing Deleted Items Retention Period: from in development. This one is a huge one! Now Rolling out About Me Update and New Authoring Tool: Big news yesterday on the Office Blogs. From In development. Lync Web App support for Mac and Windows Chrome users: from in development. Everyone is now invited to the party! MDM for OneDrive for Business: Another great OneDrive feature now rolling out Mobile Device Management: Changed name from “Mobile Device Management for Office 365” to “Mobile Device Management”. From In Development. NDR backscatter protection: more Exchange goodies, new on the list Office 365 Groups: improving visibility and management: new on the list. Finally some improvements in this feature for enterprises. We might not need to turn it off at every client anymore. Public Folder calendar and contact access in OWA: from in development Skype for Business desktop application update: New Skype for Business is now rolling out since yesterday. In Development Evolving the Outlook Web App options page: OWA is evolving. New on the list Improved image attachment viewing in Outlook Web App: OWA team is on fire. New on the list Optimize File Picker in Outlook Web App: Keep it coming OWA team! New on the list Recommend OneDrive for Business for Large Attachments: Go OWA! New on the list. Save to OneDrive for Business: Speechless! New on the list Storage and file upload improvements for Sites and OneDrive for Business: Yay! Let’s upload those big video files… New on the list Office 365 Groups: adding Like to Conversations: Ooops. This was just rolling out the other week - back to the drawing board? Office 365 Help pane: A new and better way to introduce features for the end-user. I like it. New on the list Office 365 Notification pane: Another Ooopps. This was also previously Rolling out, with mixed feelings in the community. Better make it work and look good before launching… Task Notifications in Project Online: Another new Project thingie Moved off the list into Previously released eDiscovery Center Scale Increase My apps for Office 365 app launcher Office 365 Admin Center for Business Office 365 ISO 27018 Privacy Compliance OneNote Staff Notebook for Education Outlook for iOS & Android Partner admin mobile app PIN lock and other updates for Outlook for iOS & Android Quarantine Bulk Release RMS Departmental Templates No longer at the list at all Forms on SharePoint Lists - bye bye, for good? Phew! Good Job Microsoft!

It’s just less than three weeks until the SharePoint Evolution Conference 2015 has kicked off - and I’ll be there speaking. The Evolution Conference is by far the most important and interesting conference when it comes to SharePoint - online and on-premises. The lineup of speakers are incredible - no other conference will ever get this assembly of crew from all around the world. And in this case this really is “no marketing, no bullshit” (thanks AC & CJ). The sessions and their content is out of this world, ranging for hard-core developer stuff, to nitty gritty infrastructure details to well-polished shoes and ties type of stuff. If you’re in this business - you should be there! Go register, there is till a couple of more slots available.

Aprils fools day and for the sixth time I have been awarded with the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) recognition for SharePoint Server. Dear Wictor Wilen, Congratulations! We are pleased to present you with the 2015 Microsoft® MVP Award! This award is given to exceptional technical community leaders who actively share their high quality, real world expertise with others. We appreciate your outstanding contributions in SharePoint Server technical communities during the past year.

Here we go, another round of updates of the Office Roadmap. Don’t we love them! And sometimes they roll out even before the roadmap is updated ;-) Changes 2015-03-26 These are the change since yesterday. Now Launched Office 365 Admin App Update: Directly to launched status Features now rolling out Office 365 Groups: adding Like to Conversations: New stuff on the roadmap. Seems like the Office 365 (Exchange) team is building a whole new Yammer… Office 365 Notification Pane: (from development) This feature seems to cause some disturbance in the force. It’s rolling out, but it seems like it is just half finished… It does not (at the time of writing this) work and the user experience is…confusing. Worth mentioning here is that it is rolling out for Groups to start with (something that was changed today as well from yesterday ;-) Option for Passwords to Never Expire: (new on the list) Allows admin to use the UI to configure this rather than only PowerShell Tighter Yammer Integration with Delve: (new on the list) More Yammer in Delve. Why not more Groups in Delve? Features now In Development Office 365 Setup Wizard: (new on the list) The replacement for the basic and advanced setup options. The wizard will include migration from on-premises, Google Apps and more! Really neat!

Another day with some changes in the Office Roadmap, and some really interesting ones actually! Changes 2015-03-25 These are the changes since last time. Now launched Compliance Center for Office 365: From rolling out. Now no one can be less compliant than anyone else, or… Office 365 Groups Notebooks: Coming from nowhere direct to launched. Each Office 365 Group now has a OneNote Notebook. Features now rolling out Edit Office 365 profile details page update: Another newcomer on the list, only this one didn’t make it directly to production :). By clicking on the Gears in the upper-right corner, choosing Office 365 Settings, then choosing Me you will (if your tenant has this feature rolled out) find the new responsive page (https://portal.office.com/profile)

One very common requirement in SharePoint, and other portal solutions for that matter, is to have the possibility to target content to a dynamic audience of users and even secure information based on dynamic rules. Traditionally this has been done with Audiences in SharePoint. Audience is a dynamic set of users that is compiled, usually once a day, and at compile time the rules of the Audience is evaluated. A SharePoint Audience is used to target information, but cannot be used to protect content - ie as a security group.

Some small but interesting additions on the roadmap today. Changes 2015-03-19 New stuff on the roadmap Yammer support for Android Wear devices: (Directly to Launched) Yammer on your wrist! Ok, where’s the Microsoft Band app? Enhanced NDRs: (In Development) Microsoft will now help you understand the cause and reason of NDRs in a much easier way. ExpressRoute for Office 365: (In Development) You want your own redundant fat pipe to the Office 365 Data Centers - then this is your feature. Will be launched this fall.

It’s not easy to keep up on what is happening in the Office and Office 365 world. Everything is changing so fast. Fortunate for us Microsoft and the Office product group has created the Office Roadmap site (http://office.com/roadmap) with all (almost at least) the details on what is in development and rolling out etc. It became quite famous the other week when the new forms solution went from In Development to Cancelled.

It’s not easy to keep up on what is happening in the Office and Office 365 world. Everything is changing so fast. Fortunate for us Microsoft and the Office product group has created the Office Roadmap site (http://office.com/roadmap) with all (almost at least) the details on what is in development and rolling out etc. It became quite famous the other week when the new forms solution went from In Development to Cancelled.