The Latest

---

Teams
A Team is a group of people brought together to collaborate on a shared purpose like a department, project or initiative. Each Team acts as a digital workspace where members can share files, hold meetings and stay organised. Think of it as the overall container for collaboration.

Channels
Within each Team, work is organised into Channels. Channels are dedicated spaces for specific topics, projects or workflows. For example, a Marketing Team might have separate Channels for “Campaigns,” “Content" and “Analytics.” Conversations, files and meetings within a Channel stay focused on that topic, making it easier to keep everything in context.

Chat
Chat is for direct, often informal communication, either one-on-one or in small groups. Unlike Team or Channel conversations which are open to the group, Chats are private to the people involved. They are ideal for quick questions, direct collaboration or conversations that don’t need to be shared with a whole Team.

So what is metadata in SharePoint and should you be using it?

Metadata is information that describes a document for example, the filename, document title, who created the document, who last modified it.

You can create your own metadata fields in SharePoint that essentially categorises documents for example, is the document related to a certain project, if so, which one, or is the document of a certain type (proposal, agenda, budget etc).

You then use this metadata structure to filter and locate documents in a SharePoint library.

This then eliminates the need for nested folder structures, commonly seen on company network drives.

A well thought out and structured metadata approach in SharePoint document libraries is worth the time investment.

Without this, you will end up with a replication of a network drive, just simply in a different environment.

 Power Query in Microsoft Excel offers a multitude of benefits for users who need to efficiently manage and analyse their data. This powerful tool simplifies the process of importing, cleaning, and transforming data from various sources, such as databases, web pages and spreadsheets. 

With Power Query, users can automate repetitive tasks, saving significant time and reducing the likelihood of errors. 

Its intuitive, user-friendly interface allows both novice and experienced users to shape and refine data without requiring extensive knowledge of complex formulas or programming. 

Additionally, Power Query supports advanced data manipulation through its robust query editor, enabling users to merge, filter and aggregate data seamlessly. 

By leveraging Power Query, Excel users can enhance their data analysis capabilities, making more informed decisions and deriving deeper insights from their datasets. 

 Speaker Coach in Microsoft PowerPoint is a powerful tool designed to help users improve their presentation skills. 

This feature, found on the Slide Show tab, provides real-time feedback and personalised tips to enhance public speaking abilities. 

As you rehearse your presentation, Speaker Coach will analyse various aspects of your delivery, such as pacing, pitch and use of filler words. 

It highlights areas where you might be speaking too quickly or slowly and suggests more inclusive language choices to ensure your message is clear and respectful. 

Additionally, Speaker Coach can detect repetitive phrases and offer alternatives to keep your audience engaged. 

By utilising Speaker Coach, presenters can build confidence, refine their speaking techniques and deliver more impactful and professional presentations.  

  SharePoint Permission Groups

SharePoint permission groups (Owners, Members, Visitors) allow you to control who has access to the SharePoint site only. Those users in the Owners group can grant or remove access as required. 

M365 Permission Groups

M365 a collection of lots of different applications, such as Teams, Tasks, OneNote, SharePoint Online and many more, under the banner of M365. M365 permission groups control who has access to all of these services. This can be very useful for multiple applications that users should have access to and in most cases will do the job you need.

There may also be occasions though when 'Person A' needs to have access to the M365 services but perhaps should not have access to one of the SharePoint sites. So in this situation that's where the SharePoint permission groups come in. The administrator can access the SharePoint permission group and remove 'Person A' from access, still leaving the user access to the other M365 applications.

 Using 'Data Types', located on the 'Data' tab,  in Microsoft Excel enhances the functionality and efficiency of your data management and analysis. 

This feature allows you to convert plain text into rich data types that are linked to an online database, providing additional contextual information. 

For example, you can transform a list of countries into a Geography data type, enabling access to relevant data such as population, area and GDP directly within Excel. 

Similarly, Stocks and Organisation data types offer real-time updates and detailed insights. By leveraging these dynamic data types, users can enrich their spreadsheets with up-to-date information, streamline their workflows and make more informed decisions based on comprehensive, automatically updated data sets.