In this latest installment of the M365 Productivity Tips series, Tom Duff (@duffbert) and Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet) return with another head-to-head battle of the Microsoft Office and Office 365 productivity hints and tips, recorded November 24th, 2020 with participants voting on each round. Follow us on Twitter for future webinars and sessions where we'll share more great tips, and be sure to follow the CollabTalk YouTube channel at https://youtube.com/c/collabtalk

1. Microsoft 365
Productivity Tips
“November Nexus"
Christian Buckley
CollabTalk LLC
Thomas Duff
Cambia Health

2. Christian Buckley
Founder & CEO of CollabTalk LLC
cbuck@CollabTalk.com
@buckleyplanet
http://www.buckleyplanet.com
Please remember to subscribe on YouTube!

3. Thomas Duff
Software Engineer at Cambia Health
Thomas.Duff@CambiaHealth.com
@Duffbert
http://oneminuteofficemagic.com

4. Rules of Engagement
1. Each opponent will take turns
2. No duplicates
3. Audience votes after each round
4. No hitting below the belt
5. Winner based on overall voting

5. Let’s get started!

6. Round 1

7. Create Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams
One of the most-requested, and most NEEDED
features being rolled out to Teams this month is
the addition of Breakout Rooms.
With this new feature, Meeting organizers will be
able to break participants into smaller groups so
that they can focus on specific topics.
Presenters will be able to jump back and forth
between rooms to help facilitate, make
announcements, move people between rooms,
and then pull everyone back together to share
their conclusions in the main meeting.
Be sure to check out the awesome blog post that
covers the entire setup process by Matt Wade
https://www.jumpto365.com/blog/how-to-use-
breakout-rooms-in-microsoft-teams

8. Create Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams
Begin the process by establishing the number of
breakout rooms you’ll need, and whether to
assign people automatically or manually.

9. Create Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams
Once your breakout rooms have been created,
you can rename them, add/remove rooms, and
begin adding people (if manual).
When your rooms and participants are ready, you
can alert your meeting participants about the
rooms and give them a time frame to complete
their discussions, and then start the rooms.

10. Create Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams
During this process, you can dynamically change
the rooms, adding/removing rooms, or moving
participants between rooms.
Once the time for breakouts has expired, you can
close the rooms, which brings everyone back
together in the main meeting.
Once again, be sure to check out Matt Wade’s
blog post that walks through the process:
https://www.jumpto365.com/blog/how-to-use-
breakout-rooms-in-microsoft-teams

11. Turning off message preview in Microsoft Teams chat notifications
Have you ever been in a situation where someone is looking over your shoulder at your screen, and a
chat notification shows up with a message preview you'd have preferred not been seen? Same thing with
sharing your screen (and not being in Do Not Disturb mode), and someone sends you "commentary" on
someone in the meeting?
Awkward…
Now you can turn off the message preview function in Microsoft Teams chat notifications. Here's
how that works…
In this example, Sandra sent me a Teams chat message, and the wording could be awkward if the wrong
person saw it:

12. Turning off message preview in Microsoft Teams chat notifications
To prevent that, I can turn off message preview in Teams chat notifications by clicking on my Options
picture in the upper-right corner and selecting Settings:

13. Turning off message preview in Microsoft Teams chat notifications
In the Notifications settings under Appearance and sound, I can turn off the setting for Show message
preview:

14. Turning off message preview in Microsoft Teams chat notifications
Now when Sandra sends me a Teams chat message, I'll only see that she sent it, and no content will be
displayed:
Just a caveat… Notice when you *do* show message preview, the notification box allows you to reply. If you have
message preview turned off, you can no longer do that.

15. Who won the round?
18 votes 17 votes
Christian Tom

16. Round 2

17. Scheduling page publishing in SharePoint Online
This is a feature that our organization has been asking for ever since we went live with SharePoint
Online… the ability to schedule when a page should be published. If you have a Modern Page Library
(often called Site Pages), it's pretty easy. Here's how it works…
First, you need to activate Scheduling for your page library. To do that, click on the Scheduling option
on the library menu:

18. Scheduling page publishing in SharePoint Online
On the options panel, turn on the Enable scheduling option:
Scheduling for pages in that library are now activated.

19. Scheduling page publishing in SharePoint Online
Now when you create a new page, click on Page Details to launch the Page Details panel. Turn
Scheduling on and select the date and time when it will appear on the site. When that's complete, click
the Schedule button (replaces the Publish button):

20. Scheduling page publishing in SharePoint Online
The page now tells you when it will show up on the site:
When you look at the pages in the Site Pages library, you'll see a calendar/clock icon next to pages that have been
scheduled for publishing:

21. Scheduling page publishing in SharePoint Online
You can also get to the Scheduling option by selecting an item in the library and clicking the
Information icon:
That brings up the Page Details panel, and from there you can turn on Scheduling for the page, as well as setting the
date and time for it to appear on the site:
Please note: If you change a
page that is scheduled to be
published, it will turn off the
scheduling option for that page.
You need to turn scheduling
back on for that page, as well as
resetting the time and date for it
to appear on the site.

22. Quickly gather feedback in Teams meetings with polls
One of the biggest “missing” features
in Teams has been its ability to easily
insert polls during (and as part of) a
Meeting. Well, Microsoft Forms are
now generally available!
Meeting presenters can prepare polls
in advance and launch the polls
before, during, or after meetings that
attendees can easily view and answer.
You can get started by updating your
Teams app and adding the Forms app
to your meeting tabs.
Read more at
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-
365/blog/2020/11/19/from-new-apps-in-
microsoft-teams-meetings-to-endpoint-dlp-
heres-whats-new-to-microsoft-365-in-
november/

23. Quickly gather feedback in Teams meetings with polls
Begin the process by adding the
Polls app as a tab to your chat or
meeting.

24. Quickly gather feedback in Teams meetings with polls
As with the standard Microsoft
Forms UX, you have the ability to
ask basic questions, add/remove
responses, and allow for multiple
answers.
Additionally, you can share the
results automatically as people
reply, and even make responses
anonymous.

25. Quickly gather feedback in Teams meetings with polls
As you prepare various polls to
be launched during your meeting,
you will see them as drafts within
the tab.
You can determine the order in
which you publish each poll, or
launch them all in rapid
succession.

26. Quickly gather feedback in Teams meetings with polls
Once again, you can launch a poll
before a meeting, during, or
following.
Once you launch a poll, it shows
as live in your Polls tab.
By clicking View Results, you can
track responses in real-time.

27. Quickly gather feedback in Teams meetings with polls
Within the Teams chat for the
meeting, people will see and be
able to respond to your polls, and
if you have selected the option to
make results visible, they will also
see the cumulative responses to
the questions.

28. Quickly gather feedback in Teams meetings with polls
Within your Meeting, the
organizer can select the Polls icon
from the menu and see all of their
draft and live polls, and launch
questions when appropriate.
Following your meeting, all of the
results will continue to be
available in the Polls tab.

29. Who won the round?
26 votes 5 votes
Christian Tom

30. Round 3

31. Add your Personal Calendar to your Outlook work account
Managing multiple calendars can be tricky. Add
to that complexity the need to balance time
between work and personal calendars.
Outlook on the web has made that process
easier. Now when you add a personal calendar to
Outlook on the web, the times for those events
will be shown as busy (with no details or
information) when someone wants to schedule a
meeting with you using the Scheduling Assistant
in Outlook.
Additionally, this new feature allows you to see
your personal calendar side by side to your work
calendar – in one single view.
Read more at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-
365/blog/2020/07/14/get-control-microsoft-365/

32. Add your Personal Calendar to your Outlook work account
To add your personal
calendar within Outlook for
the web, you start by clicking
on the calendar icon.
Then select the option to
Add Calendar

33. Add your Personal Calendar to your Outlook work account
The Add Calendar menu
appears, with the option to
add personal calendars.

34. Add your Personal Calendar to your Outlook work account
In this example, I am going
to add my Gmail calendar.
Selecting that option…
opens a sign in prompt for
Google. Select your account
and approve the access
privileges.

35. Add your Personal Calendar to your Outlook work account
Once added, you should
receive a security notification
to your personal email
account notifying you of the
change. From the Add
Calendar dialog you can also
verify all connected accounts.
Back within your calendar
view, you can now see your
newly added and color-
coded personal calendar
(which you can toggle on
and off)

36. Transferring a Microsoft Teams meeting to another device
I'm sure everyone's been on a Microsoft Teams meeting that is running longer than expected, and they
need to leave for an appointment or errand. Unfortunately, hanging up on the call may not always be an
option. Now, you have the option to transfer the meeting to another device, such as your iPhone.
Here's how it works…
I was in a meeting on my
Teams client on my laptop.
Then, using the Teams app
on my iPhone, I called up
my calendar and saw an
option to join the meeting
in progress. I clicked on the
blue Join button at the top
of the screen:

37. Transferring a Microsoft Teams meeting to another device
The Teams app asks me if I
want to join the meeting
using my iPhone (which
means I'd be in the meeting
twice), or if I want to
transfer my attendance in
the meeting over to my
iPhone. Choosing the
Transfer to this device
option means I will join the
call on my iPhone, and I'll
be removed from the
meeting on my laptop:

38. Transferring a Microsoft Teams meeting to another device
Before it joins me to the
meeting, it gives me the
chance to set video and
microphone options. Once I
set everything the way I want
it, I click Transfer now:
On my laptop, the Teams meeting says I've transferred to a different device and removes my connection to the
meeting on my laptop. This provides excellent flexibility to being able to stay connected, even when you can't
necessarily stay on the device that you originally signed into the meeting on.

39. Who won the round?
4 votes 29 votes
Christian Tom

40. Round 4

41. Creating a new list from an existing list in SharePoint Online
This is a feature I haven't used as much as I should, as it would save me a ton of time. Even better, I can
create new lists from lists in *other* sites, too! Here's how it works…
When you're in Site Contents, click on the New option and select List:
Please note… you can only do this if you have at least Design level access on the site.

42. Creating a new list from an existing list in SharePoint Online
In the Create a list panel, select From an existing list. You will get a selection of lists from your current
site, *and* a list of other sites you have access to. Select the list to use as a template, and then click
Create in the lower-right corner. You will get a new list formatted like the one you selected:
If you have some standard lists you like to use in multiple sites, you might want to store them in a "Templates" site so
that everyone could create a list in their own site using those templates as starting points.

43. More control and visibility with Outlook meeting invites
One of the latest UX changes to
Outlook for the web is the ability to
view and manage meeting invites
dynamically within your inbox –
without having to open an invite!
This new card interface allows you to
contextually switch between messages
and meeting details, see the attendee
list and who is attending the meeting,
and even add an online meeting to it
if the organizer forgot. No more
emailing someone to please add a
Teams link!
You can toggle between the messages
shared around the meeting, dive into
the meeting details, and add an online
meeting right from your inbox.
Read more at https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/14/get-control-
microsoft-365/

44. More control and visibility with Outlook meeting invites
In addition, you can now set all of your
meetings to be created online, automatically.
In this day and age, most people are working
remotely, but even when we transition back
into the office, it is a good practice to always
have the option to join a meeting online.
You can set this as the default option in
Outlook mobile and web, so you never forget
to add that Teams link again.
Read more at https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/14/get-control-microsoft-365/

45. Who won the round?
15 votes 14 votes
Christian Tom

46. Round 5

47. Highlight part of an email and add it as a task in Outlook
As part of the greater Tasks strategy across
Microsoft 365, you can now highlight text
in Outlook for the web and convert it to a
task in Outlook – and in Microsoft ToDo.
We have all received emails that contain
next steps or instructions, but unless we
convert that text into actionable tasks,
things may get lost.
You can now generate tasks from these
emails while working in context in
Outlook.
Read more at
https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/14/get-
control-microsoft-365/

48. Highlight part of an email and add it as a task in Outlook
In this example, I have sent myself
an email with a list of reminders
from my mobile device.

49. Highlight part of an email and add it as a task in Outlook
By highlighting the text on the
page, two options appear just
above my selected text:
1. Send an email regarding the
highlighted text
2. Create a task from the selected text
To create a task, simply click on the
task icon.

50. Highlight part of an email and add it as a task in Outlook
The AI in Outlook for the web
selects anything that appears to be
a task, and automatically adds
them to a list of tasks.
From this view you can forward an
individual item via email, highlight
it (star), or mark it as completed.
Additionally, you can create
additional tasks from this view if
other steps are required to
completed these tasks.

51. Highlight part of an email and add it as a task in Outlook
By clicking on the Tasks icon at the
bottom left, you will find the new
ToDo integration within Outlook
for the web, and can open your
Tasks list to see all of these items.
And if you’re a fan of ToDo in the
mobile app, these new tasks are
instantly available within ToDo.

52. Grouping your contacts in Microsoft Teams
If you've been using Skype, you're probably familiar with the ability to group your Skype contacts into
various contact groups to help you keep people organized. However, in Microsoft Teams chat, it's a bit
more hidden. Here's how to create contact groups in Microsoft Teams, and how to add people to them.
First off, go into the Chat area of your Microsoft Teams client:

53. Grouping your contacts in Microsoft Teams
Click on the dropdown arrow next to Chat, and select Contacts:

54. Grouping your contacts in Microsoft Teams
This shows your existing contact groups. To create a new group, click on Create a new contact group:

55. Grouping your contacts in Microsoft Teams
Give your new contact group a name and click Create:

56. Grouping your contacts in Microsoft Teams
Once you have your new contact group, click on the Ellipsis icon and select Add a contact to this group:

57. Grouping your contacts in Microsoft Teams
Find the name of your contact and click on it:
If that is the right person, click on Add:

58. Grouping your contacts in Microsoft Teams
You now have a new person in your new contact group!

59. Who won the round?
8 votes 16 votes
Christian Tom

60. Christian!

61. Current
Leaderboard
Most Rounds Won
Tom (68-66-1)
Most Events Won
Tied (13-13)
Most Overall Votes
Tom (2143-2102)
Event Date Location Rounds Won Votes Won Rounds Won Votes Won
9/12/2017 Online 3 31 2 29
10/28/2017 SPSTC 1 74 4 96
11/28/2017 Online 2 11 3 15
1/16/2018 Online 4 167 1 104
2 54 3 53
3 152 2 122
3 141 2 136
2 87 3 104
3 63 2 33
4 178 1 137
0 37 5 183
1 31 4 64
4 168 6 200
4 108 1 59
2 69 3 64
4 88 1 60
4 69 1 50
3 56 2 78
2 54 3 51
3 114 1 91
1 65 4 104
2 57 3 51
4 67 1 38
3 54 2 41
2 67 3 68
2 81 3 71
TOTAL 68 2143 66 2102
10/27/2020 Online
9/24/2019 Online
11/26/2019 Online
10/29/2019 Online
11/24/2020
Tom
2/7/2019 Online
4/19/2019 Online
5/22/2019 SPC19
6/20/2019 Online
7/30/2019 Online
8/26/2019 Online
2/24/2020 Online
3/24/2020 Online
4/22/2020 Online
5/26/2020 Online
6/23/2020 Online
Christian
1/15/2019 Online
7/25/2018 Online
2/3/2018 SPSUTAH
8/28/2018 Online
11/17/2018 SPSTC
12/19/2018 Online

64. Thank you!
Christian Buckley
@buckleyplanet
buckleyPLANET.com
Tom Duff
@Duffbert
OneMinuteOfficeMagic.com
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