Ask Sympraxis

“Ask Sympraxis” is a bi-weekly webinar series, where we discuss an array of topics and answer your submitted questions. Join us by downloading our recurring calendar event. You can also join us directly in the meeting without downloading the event.

Use our handy form to submit your questions and subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date about upcoming webinars and announcements. Not a fan of newsletters? Follow @SympraxisC on Twitter for bi-weekly #AskSympraxis webinar topic announcements.

After each session, we post the recorded sessions and resources below along with a summary. You can also browse our YouTube channel to see all previous Ask Sympraxis sessions.

Topic of the Week

Wednesday, June 28th at 12:30 PM ET: Ask Sympraxis Anything

We welcome you to submit your questions to be answered in the session.


Archive of Previous Sessions

After each session, we post a short recap with a link resources including the full recording. Browse our archives to see all previous Ask Sympraxis sessions:

  • Microsoft 365 Conference Announcements Recap – Spring 2023
    The Microsoft 365 Conference took place in Las Vegas early May 2023. Join the Sympraxis team as we discuss our thoughts on the announcements of Microsoft Copilot, SharePoint Brand Center, and so much more.
  • Building a sustainable information architecture
    What is information architecture (IA)? What is an information architecture example? Join the Ask Sympraxis team as they explain through a benefits documents use case example and SharePoint best practices.
  • When Out of the Box isn’t enough
    This week Derek and Julie are accompanied by two exceptional guests, Andrew Connell (developer and SPFx expert) and Stefan Bauer (developer and designer). Join as they discuss when to extend from out of the box in Microsoft 365, SharePoint and Teams extensibility, and design considerations.
  • Empowering users while you implement Microsoft 365
    Ever wondered how to make your implementation of Microsoft 365 even more successful? Empower your users! Join the Sympraxis team as they discuss how to do this while simultaneously building.
  • Customizing and extending search
    Search is a highly customizable and extendable necessity. Join the Sympraxis team as we dive into different search options and their benefits.
  • Employee Directory
    Another week, another great Ask Sympraxis episode. In this session we discuss employee directories. Join as we explore user stories, the Maturity Model approach, people profile cards, and much more!
  • Search Optimization
    Join us as we discuss the important topic of search optimization! Compare search to the Maturity Model and learn the differences between SharePoint Search and Microsoft Search.
  • Notifications and approvals in lists and libraries
    This session of Ask Sympraxis focuses on notifications and approvals in SharePoint lists and libraries. Join as the team discusses UX better practices and how these intersect with the Maturity Model approach.
  • Managing your organization’s Quick Links in your intranet
    Another week, another great session of Ask Sympraxis! This week we focus on Quick Links in your intranet and how they’re managed. Join us now!
  • New(s) Years Resolution: SharePoint News to improve your communication
    We are back for our first Ask Sympraxis of the year! 2023 is the year we focus on improving communication. Join us as we discuss SharePoint News and how it can increase communication at your organization.
  • Business Cases for Viva Connections
    Simplify employees’ day through an integrated and personalized dashboard. Keep them connected with targeted news and info. Sounds pretty great right? This is exactly what you can do with Viva Connections! Join this session as we discuss the app.
  • Migrating from Stream Classic
    Are you still saving videos in Stream Classic? Are you aware that Stream is retiring and you need to transition those videos over to SharePoint so you don’t lose them? Follow along as we share common scenarios, how this works, caveats, tips, and much more on the process of this migration!
  • User Research
    What is user research? How do I conduct it? At what stage of my project is this important? Have you ever wondered any one of these questions? Then join this session of Ask Sympraxis where we dive into user research!
  • Offboarding
    Eventually the time comes when an employee offboards, often resulting in complications within the organization. Thankfully this session of Ask Sympraxis will help you navigate through these transitions as we go through what is needed and our recommendations to smooth the process as best as possible.
  • Microsoft IGNITE Recap Fall 2022
    October 12-14th proved to be an exciting few days for the Microsoft community! Follow along as we recap the Microsoft updates available and those soon to come.
  • Create a Policy Center
    What is a Policy Center you might ask? Tune into this informative session of Ask Sympraxis to learn the about, why, and how to of building and automating one.
  • Intro to Microsoft Forms
    Interested in learning more about the various uses and best practices of Microsoft Forms? Ask Sympraxis is here to help! Give this session of Ask Sympraxis a watch today.
  • OneDrive and sync
    Another insightful episode of Ask Sympraxis! This week focuses on OneDrive’s various manifestations, syncing, and adding shortcuts. Learn more here!
  • Making Your Intranet Multilingual
    This week of Ask Sympraxis focuses on making your intranet multilingual, an ever so important topic in our changing business world! We cover the topic thoroughly from uses cases to potential pitfalls. Learn more today!
  • Ask Sympraxis Anything
    Join us for this session of Ask Sympraxis Anything! We cover a range of topics including organization structure to support SharePoint/M365​, task tracking, SharePoint/OneDrive sync, migration recommendations, and more!
  • Forming an Intranet Steering Committee
    Today’s Ask Sympraxis is all about forming an intranet steering committee. Take a listen to learn more about this crucial process!
  • How to be a Good Content Owner
    Interested in learning to be a good content owner? We have the info for you. Listen to our newest Ask Sympraxis to learn more!
  • Content! Content! Content! Nudging along reluctant content owners
    Join us as we discuss content! Learn how to get content, the typical site timeline, and how to nudge along your content owners.
  • The Intersection of Collaboration & Communication: Managing Your Content Lifecycle
    Want to learn about managing your content lifecycle? Join us as we discuss various tools to use, tips and best practices, and permission inheritance.
  • Microsoft Loop
    Microsoft has begun the initial roll out of a new solution called Loop. Join us as we discuss this new solution including observations and use cases.
  • Working Across Tenant & Identities in Microsoft 365
    Microsoft has recently announced a new account switcher feature for Microsoft 365 web apps. Join us as we discuss benefits and limitations.
  • Microsoft 365 April Conference Recap
    We attended the Microsoft 365 Conference in Vegas. Here are our top takeaways.
  • Modern Content Types
    The Sympraxis team discusses content types from our different perspectives including updates to the content type gallery.
  • Ask Sympraxis Anything
    It is your turn to ask all the questions! The Sympraxis team answers your questions from the mail bag and takes additional live questions.
  • The Value of APIs
    Join us as we explore the value of APIs when working with Microsoft 365.
  • Help me to help you! How to engage with support
    We’ve all had to deal with support at one point or another. As members of the M365 community we are often on the giving end of some of that support. In this session we provide some things to think about before you engage support as well as where to find the support you might need.
  • Recent Changes We Love
    Join us as we discussed recent changes in Microsoft 365 that we love.
  • Building Accessible Solutions
    Accessibility is essential for organizations that want to create/provide high-quality tools, and not exclude people from using their products and services.
  • Business Solutions Using SharePoint Lists
    When is good good enough? Join us as we explore our CRM-ish story using SharePoint Lists as a solution.
  • The Island of (Microsoft) Misfit Toys
    In this special holiday episode of Ask Sympraxis we will be exploring the Island of (Microsoft) Misfit toys. This can be products that never panned out, died too early, or weren’t that great of an idea to start with.
  • SharePoint & Teams: What To Use When Part 3
    This session is part 3 of a multi-part conversation about how to leverage SharePoint and Teams and when to use each.
  • Microsoft Ignite Recap
    This session is a highlight of the top announcements from Microsoft Ignite Fall 2021.
  • SharePoint & Teams: What To Use When Part 2
    This session is part 2 of a multi-part conversation about how to leverage SharePoint and Teams and when to use each.
  • SharePoint & Teams; What to use when Part 1
    This session is part 1 of a multi-part conversation about how to leverage SharePoint and Teams and when to use each.
  • Hosting multiple subsidiaries or business units in Microsoft 365
    In this session we talked about how organizational complexity and Microsoft 365. At some point, managing all the different subsidiaries or business units in Microsoft 365 becomes difficult. We talked about our approaches to make all this work.
  • The Intranet is Dead. Long Live Microsoft Teams!
    We’ve been asked: Are SharePoint-based intranets dead, to be replaced by apps in Microsoft Teams? We think the answer is no, and we’ll talk about why, and how they are better together.
  • How to Protect Your Time, Your Attention and Your Sanity
    This has been a challenging year and a half. The lines between work and home have never been more blurred, and the hybrid workplace has created both new efficiencies and demands. As a 100% virtual organization (even before COVID) we will talk about what we’re doing to protect our time, focus and well-being, and we’d love to hear what’s working for you.
  • Migration Scenarios for Mergers and Acquisitions
    We get asked a lot about splitting content across tenants or moving content from one tenant to another. Usually these are a result of a merger, split, or acquisitions. In this edition of Ask Sympraxis we look at some of the common scenarios and pitfalls we have encountered.
  • Ask Sympraxis Anything
    We opened the mic up to you for this Ask Sympraxis Anything. There were some great questions around themes and branding as well as some other question.
  • Viva Topics: What We’ve Learned So Far
    In this installment to Ask Sympraxis we took a deeper dive into Viva Topics. Check out the recap for the TLDR.
  • Viva Desktop and your Intranet
    Viva Connections is a marketing term that is being used as a collection of functionality. It isn’t a SKU that you can purchase like some of the other Viva components like Topics. Viva Desktop is one of those pieces of functionality that is available for you to enable in your tenant. In this episode of Ask Sympraxis we talk about Viva Desktop and Viva Connections.
  • Ask Sympraxis Anything
    This week we opened things up to you and had a lively conversation running the gambit. Q: Have you encountered any privacy-related issues with public or private content delivery networks (CDNs) in SharePoint? I’m concerned about content being accidentally shared outside of our tenant. A public CDN is exactly what it sounds like, a public endpoint to content. When you enable this you define … Read More Ask Sympraxis Anything
  • External Sharing in Microsoft 365: The Rest
    While we were working on our other sessions on external sharing we realized that there were lots of other miscellaneous things to share about parts of Microsoft 365 that we hadn’t already talked about. So, in this session of Ask Sympraxis we are covering all the rest. OneDrive  OneDrive Tenant Level Settings Tenant administrators can set different external sharing policies for both OneDrive and SharePoint. … Read More External Sharing in Microsoft 365: The Rest
  • External Sharing in Microsoft Teams
    Tenant-Level Settings  Teams Admin Center  There are many layers of security which acts like a filter or funnel. When it comes to things like guests or external sharing, it’s important to know that at the tenant level, the tenant admin or teams admin has to turn a couple of switches on or off. The most common factor is differentiating between external users and guest users.  External Users  … Read More External Sharing in Microsoft Teams
  • External Sharing in SharePoint Online
    Team Site vs Communication Site External Sharing  For Team Sites, the external sharing is on by default when you set up your tenant. This is usually where people are doing most of their external sharing and collaboration on documents.   With Communication Sites you can share externally, however, you can’t do it from the site itself until you turn on the external sharing in the Admin Center. There are 3 … Read More External Sharing in SharePoint Online