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So far Red Level has created 17 blog entries.

Microsoft Teams Naming Convention

Let’s start with a question. What do you call a fake noodle? ........ An IMPASTA How does this dad joke relate to this blog topic? I get into that below. Does this ever happen to you: The proliferation of groups or teams in Microsoft Teams or Office 365 is so vast that you don't know which one you should join? The nature of Teams or Groups aims to foster collaboration within organizations. As an administrator, you want to provide a certain degree of autonomy to your users to foster collaboration across or among themselves. This degree of autonomy leads to a “self-service” scenario where people can just create any kind of groups as they seem fit. As a result, a lot of groups can be created with very similar names. This is a major issue from a user’s perspective if there are a lot of Office 365 Groups or Microsoft ...

2023-02-16T16:01:32+00:00
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Take Advantage of Microsoft Flow Timers

Timers are helpful as a reminder to trigger us to do other actions. For example, if you set a timer when cooking pasta to make sure it’s al dente, you turn off the heat when the timer rings. It’s very much the same when it comes to Microsoft Flow; the timer can be very handy. Microsoft Flow has a whole series of timers that are built into it or things you can use to trigger the next action.   In old-school technology, we have used in SharePoint to trigger types of time-based events through “information management policy” or “scheduled workflow.” These are the traditional approaches, and they get the job done. Some examples: Information Management Policy - You set duration, a start period and start date for when you want a certain document to wait for the next action to trigger. Scheduled workflow - Set a specific time to trigger ...

2023-02-16T16:01:33+00:00
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Microsoft Teams Shortcuts

How often do you use shortcut commands such as Ctrl + C or Ctrl + V? Mostly likely a lot, or more than you can count. The truth is learning how to use to shortcut commands help us as users to familiarize with the system and use it. Same goes for Microsoft Teams! If you are struggling to find documents, things, or functions in Teams check our these shortcut commands. You may find they make it easier to embrace Microsoft Teams. Navigation- Alt +1 = Activity Alt + 2 = Chat Alt + 3 = Teams Alt + 4 = Meetings Communication- Ctrl + Shift +D = Decline Call Ctrl + Shift +S = Accept Call Other examples- Alt + E = Go to Search Alt + N = New Chat The command bar is another great tool in Teams that allows you to do some shortcut functions without typing ...

2023-02-16T16:01:33+00:00
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Use Report Builder 2012 to Visualize Your SharePoint Data Part 2

Quick and Dirty Reporting for SharePoint 2013 Applications - Part 2 Last week I shared with you how to build a report with Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Report Builder. This week we will dive into how to get these reports to display in your SharePoint environment. Part 2: Display the report in the SharePoint Navigate to a library within your SharePoint site. It can really be anywhere users who have access to the report data also have access. I like to use a library within the site where the source data is stored. Upload the report you just created and saved locally. Click the button: Open For a quick test, click on the report that just got uploaded. It should open and display live data. Note: this might be good enough, however you can also display it in a part of a page through a web part. Click the breadcrumb link to ...

2023-02-16T16:01:39+00:00
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The Yammer Hammer

Focus the Yammer’s purpose to communication, by removing file management features. I always keep my keys in the same place, on a hook at home, my backpack at work or my right coat pocket. With my daughter now driving, my car is taken out on a random basis, and my keys are often NOT found where I expect. However, with a few minutes of search, they are usually found. The issue is not the multiple drivers, it’s that there are multiple good places to store the keys at home. The Kitchen counter, the table by the front door, my daughter’s purse and our key rack at the back door. The same is true with Office 365 and file management. There are lots of good places to store files including SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Groups and even Yammer. To reduce confusion, the number of options should be limited. So how do we ...

2023-02-16T16:01:39+00:00
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SharePoint Migration and History

I have a client who asked me “Will I lose historical content approval information if it is disabled, migrate in some files and then enabled it?” Specifically, can I... Migrate in new files to a library with the SharePoint Content Approval and publishing workflow configured. Don’t trigger the publishing workflow. There would be so many new approvals Default new files to the status of Approved Don’t lose historical versions and approval status. A simple test example was needed to try this out. Create a Document Library: I created a new Document Library with the following: SharePoint Version: SharePoint Online  App: Document library   Experience: Classic   Library Settings > Version Control > Content Approval: (Yes)  Library Settings > Version Control > Version Settings > Major and Minor Drafts:  (Yes)  Library Settings > Workflows > Approval – SharePoint 2010  > Triggered on:  Start this workflow to approve publishing a major version of an item. (Yes)  Create Historical Data: Uploaded three test files  They all start ...

2023-02-16T16:01:40+00:00
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Microsoft Teams and Collaboration Tool Landscape

The Situation: Productivity continues to be on the radar of many companies. A copious amount of time is wasted searching for data, the increased volumes of email and the fact users are asked to collaborate with 2x more teams than they did 5 years ago all lend to lost productivity. This time lost hurts daily productivity. The ingredients that make up our business world are changing faster and faster. Will we find a tool that helps? The Solution: IT leadership is asked to provide a tool that can help facilitate collaboration in an engaging, socially interactive way. From: The Ultimate Guide to Chat-based Tools http://bit.ly/2n3kB9O Evaluation of Existing Tools Microsoft has had a few products within the collaboration space. These and other third-party products have had various levels of success. Features fall into two major categories: Content: Management of content for reference, searching, and sharing. Communication: Connecting and communicating with ...

2023-02-16T16:01:46+00:00
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