Recent Microsoft 365 Changes We Love: What's New in 2022

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Site Scripts/Site Designs Templates

Site Templates are incredibly useful. They allow users to establish information architecture on new sites. These templates don’t have to be the whole site, rather simply componentry. It’s a very powerful engine and a lot can be done with it.

Content Hub Sync Site Script Action

This feature was added into Site Templates, and grants users the ability to work with the content type hub.

Collapsible Sections

One of the benefits of collapsible sections, especially when it comes to longer pages, is they serve as a mini-information architecture. Users can get an idea quickly of the content on the pages. We love the new options to expand/collapse content, which creates new user experiences. We don’t love the lack of option to use Ctrl+F to search in collapsed sections, or how Microsoft Viva Topics topic cards are not supported in collapsed sections.

Microsoft Editor & in-line images in text web part

They have released the Microsoft editor and in-line images in the text web part in SharePoint. This is great because previously the Microsoft editor was a browser add-in, so now it’s just natively there. Now with in-line images, users can add rich pictures to promote context in text very easily.

Administrator Experiences

We can now use dynamic groups and content targeting with navigation, news, quick links, highlighted content web part and events web part.

Viva Topics Updates

The Adoption Guidance from Microsoft for Viva Topics is excellent. There are scenarios, templates for communication, etc. There are also new workloads coming for OWA, Yammer, and Teams. Lastly, there have been some improvements in the Topic Management experience.

Viva Connections Adaptive Card Extensions

Currently, this is the only extension point into the Viva suite. Note: don’t confuse Adaptive Card Extensions with Adaptive Cards. The goal is to provide Mobile First, Platform Agnostic Experience. There is huge value here, especially for remote workers when it comes to widgets.

Teams Search has been updated to provide four different search verticals, including all, messages, people, and files. App messages can be filtered by mentions or file attachments.

Microsoft Lists Board View

Board view vs. planner, how do the capabilities differ? If you have a complex team, or belong to an organization that is struggling with trust on the planner boards, Microsoft Lists may be the better option because they’re more auditable.

Development

SPFx 1.14 release is eminent this month. If you join the PnP call you will hear Vesa cover where we are at with the 1.14 release.

PnPjs 3.0 release is coming February 14th. This is a huge rearchitecture but the developer experience should remain the same.

Resources

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