What you missed from our Microsoft 365 Roundup 2021 event
We held a roundup of everything that’s happened in Microsoft 365 across the last year. From recently launched features to announcements of what’s coming in 2022. Staff also shared success stories about implementing Microsoft tools.
Microsoft 365 sessions run by IT Services in 2021
In the Personal Development Management System (PDMS)
From Introductions to OneNote, Teams and more, to accessibility and security sessions. We are proud to have supported over 400 attendees throughout the year.
- Introduction to Microsoft 365
- Tips and tricks in Microsoft Teams
- Security features in Microsoft 365
- Introduction to OneNote
- Introduction to Forms
- Introduction to Teams
- Hybrid working
- Task management in Microsoft 365
- Accessibility features in Microsoft 365
Cuppa Teams
We also ran weekly (now biweekly) ‘Cuppa Teams’ session on a Friday. This allows members of our user community to join us for a short, informal session on a variety of topics in Microsoft 365, such as:
- Microsoft 365 tips for new members of staff
- Digital wellbeing
- Presentations in Teams meetings
- Security and Privacy
- End of Calibri?!
- Outlook tips and tricks
- Content search
- Translator
- Q&A in Teams meetings
What new features came in 2021
Teams
The awaited reply to specific messages went live in October. This means you can reply to a past message more clearly if the conversation has progressed.
Fluid components (soon to be Live Components) allows you to create a post or message which others can co-author, such as agendas or rotas.
The search results page also got an update. Now allowing you to filter results from people, messages, and even files. No more losing conversations or documents!
The Q&A feature, previously reserved for Live events is now available in standard Teams meetings by way of the Q&A app. Q&A in Teams meetings allows for moderated Q&A.
The long-awaited feature of breakout rooms also landed! This lets users split their meetings into smaller ‘rooms’ to promote discussion among attendees.
See the numbered order of Raised hands when multiple attendees want to contribute during a meeting.
Sharing Content from Camera straightens any whiteboard in view and projects any text. This means you can’t block whiteboard content while standing in front of it.
Lastly, three new Presenter modes came to meetings, letting presenters appear in front of their content for a more engaging presentation.
Rest of Microsoft 365
Image editing in OneDrive allows you to do basic tweaks to their files.
As for Outlook, the ability to use instant suggested replies went live. Secondly, users can now share any email to their Teams channels or chats using the share to Teams function that came this year.
The way we give presentations changed too. The ability to Present to Teams from PowerPoint online became available. Instead of navigating the share tray in Teams, users can open their presentation in PowerPoints online and share from their browsers.
Similarly, the Forms add in added the Word Cloud in forms – letting results from word-based polls be displayed in a visual manner.
What features are coming in 2022?
With the announcement of expanded reactions, you will soon be able to choose from around 800 emojis.
Additional chat density options will allow you to condense your chat and show up to 50% more messages on screen at once.
Delayed delivery of chat messages is soon to come too, like Outlook’s delayed delivery option, this will allow you to schedule messages to send after a time delay.
Soon you’ll be able to chat with yourself too, the new functionality will allow you to save messages, notes, or other things within a chat only you’re in.
You’ll be able to assign co-organisers so that up to 10 others can help you run the meeting and change permissions of other attendees..
Live events and webinars are getting updates too, with the virtual green room being added. This feature will allow presenters of your events to test setups and share screens without the audience seeing – allowing for final testing and adjustments. The option to bring speakers on screen will soon be added too, giving meeting producers more granular control over who the audience sees for a more engaging experience.
The ability to hide yourself in Teams meetings allows you to appear to everyone else without your own video preview being visible to you. This feature is hoped to reduce the recent phenomenon of ‘zoom fatigue.’
The whiteboard feature in Teams is set to improve too, bringing live collaboration to a new height.
Microsoft Teams Connect set to go live in the new year allows you to share Channels with people outside of your Team. This can be with internal or external users.
Finally, Microsoft Mesh was announced this year. Mesh will allow people in different physical locations to join shared holographic experiences, using the productivity tools in Microsoft Teams. Organisations can build immersive spaces called metaverses within Teams. These are persistent digital world inhabited by digital twins of people, places, and things. The first step for most users will be the ability to join a meeting as a customised avatar of themselves instead of a video feed.