I’m impatient. If I click a button in an application and see a “loading” animation, I find something else to do while I wait. If I have to upload or move a file and the progress bar is creeping slowly along, I find something else to do while I wait. Something else. That’s the problem. Often that “something else” is something else entirely. It isn’t related to what I was doing. I stop thinking about what I’m working on and get distracted. What am I doing? I’m filling the gap. I am multi-tasking. I’m making a better use of my time, rather than waiting for this thing to load, this meeting to star ..read more

The new Outlook. It has all the things browser-Outlook has had for a while, like a calendar board view, to organise your day on a canvas. Tasks, meetings, notes, links, all visible from one board. Pin items to top of Inbox to easily find them later. Drag messages into the To Do list to create tasks. Snooze messages to deal with them later. But the new Outlook looks a lot like Outlook on the Web. Is that it? New-Outlook is a progressive web app, keeping some of browser-Outlook stored locally on your device to make it run fast. But unlike desktop-Outlook, new-Outlook is also kept up to date as e ..read more

When I last wrote about accessing Microsoft Teams meeting chat, I was reflecting on 9 months of restriction and confusion. In 2021, Microsoft changed meeting chat to prevent meeting attendees from reading conversations they shouldn’t read. But it also prevented meeting chat from being a reliable collaboration environment. People we expect to have access to chat, didn’t have access before or after the meeting. Since my last post, Microsoft have somewhat simplified access to meeting chat. At a minimum, you should now be able to safely assume that people from you organisation who are invited to t ..read more

I think it was the right strategy to launch Loop as components in a Teams Chat experience first. One of the core tenants of Loop is that you will be able to share Loop content across many Loop-aware applications, such as Outlook and OneNote. As we use Loop in Teams chat, we become familiar with co-authoring and collaboration embedded in our conversations. We begin to form an awareness when opportunities arise to start a Loop, wherever the conversation is, and start collaborating. If Loop had launched as a full app, we would probably focus on starting Loops from the Loop app. It would take long ..read more

I say this with an exhausted sigh. I want to be able to hold conversations with people before, during and after a meeting. You know, like we can via email on a meeting invite. I can reply-all to the invite and start a conversation. I can negotiate an agenda, share additional files. I can ask what I need to do to prepare for the meeting. With meeting conversation using email this is easy. Just reply to the organiser or all attendees and the conversation is kept in the same thread using the same subject. But I can’t rely on being able to do the same with a Teams meeting chat. Last year Microsof ..read more

This week I joined Ragnar Heil and Alex Eggers and on their show to discuss Microsoft Loop. It was a fun interview with some good questions and feedback about Loop. I learn just as much as I give during these opportunities to talk with other community members. In my role, simple and clear explanations are highly valued. A good Q&A session gets everyone thinking more about what, why, how, when and where?  Here are my highlights from the discussion: 11:49 The shift from Fluid and Live Components to Microsoft Loop 14:54 Is Microsoft Loop a clone of @NotionHQ? Where are they similar and ..read more

Microsoft Loop is a new app for starting new ideas, co-creating with team members, collecting resources, and collaborating from within other Microsoft 365 apps. Loop is being released in stages, starting with Loop Components that can be used within Teams Chat, meeting invites and meeting notes. The full Microsoft Loop app is expected to be released in 2022. We are all finding out about Microsoft Loop at the same time, as new features, experiences and components are released. So join me as we learn how to use Microsoft Loop on the roadmap to release. My “How to use Microsoft Loop” course will ..read more

Microsoft Loop caused quite a stir at MSIgnite 2021. The demonstration videos were packed with information and clues as to what's coming. Seriously. It was like watching a Marvel trailer full of Easter eggs. Let’s slow down and highlight items on the roadmap to release. This is not an official roadmap. It’s a summary of what's coming soon on the roadmap to releasing Microsoft Loop. No dates have been given about when these Loop experiences will become available. Only Live Components in Microsoft Teams Chat are available today for people on Public Preview. Loop components in Teams Chat The fir ..read more

If you have visited OneDrive for Business recently in your web browser, you may have seen a message prompting you to install the new desktop app. New desktop app? But isn’t OneDrive built into Windows? Yes, that hasn’t changed. You can still add your Microsoft account or Office 365 account to Windows, sync and get files on demand in File Explorer. Or install the OneDrive sync app for Mac. Then what is this new OneDrive desktop app? I was curious and clicked the message. I was expecting to be taken to a landing page that told me about the new OneDrive desktop app, with a download link somewher ..read more

It’s a challenge to keep focused. Yes, even while working from home. Working away from the office used to be a way to give yourself some uninterrupted time. Head home to work, close the door to your virtual office and focus. Put some distance between you and the open-floor office that is so open to distraction. But when everyone is working from home, by choice or not, it increases the need to keep connected to your team and organisation. That means being available to chat, call and meet. So when you are focused on a task, an unexpected chat can take you out of your focus and into the conversat ..read more