January 2021
OneDrive for the Web Dark Mode
In January 2021, dark mode will be available for OneDrive. Dark mode is intended to reduce eye strain. You will be able to enable and disable dark mode for OneDrive for web under Settings (the gear icon).
PowerPoint for Mac record slide show updates
PowerPoint for Mac users who have a microphone, speakers, and, optionally, a webcam, will be able to easily record PowerPoint presentations, capturing narration, slide timings, and ink gestures. When you prepare to record a presentation you will notice a new toolbar at the top of the recording view which handles recording controls. When you begin recording a presentation while using a webcam, you will see yourself in the lower right corner of the slide canvas, if you have a webcam and have chosen to record a video of yourself to accompany the narration.
The new recording workflow allows presenters to easily control when they start, pause, resume, and stop recording. It also enables presenter video recording (previously, recording on Mac supported only the recording of presenter audio narration). By our moving the new inking UI to the main canvas, presenters have easy access to the pen and highlighter tools during recording to highlight parts of the slide, add notes, or diagram elements. With these updates, these inking gestures, including use of the laser pointer, will be captured during a recording session; those motions will play back in the recording.
This feature will become available mid-January.
November Updates
Outlook for Windows Roaming Signatures
Traditionally, signatures were stored locally on a user's Windows device. With this feature, signatures will now be associated with an email account. Signatures will be stored in the user's mailbox and will be available on any devices running Outlook for Windows that has been configured with that email account. When the feature becomes available, at the end of November, Outlook will read the existing local signatures. Outlook will copy signatures selected as default for New messages or Replies/forwards to the account mailbox, making them available across multiple devices.
SharePoint Lists from Templates
Users will now be able to create lists from eight built-in templates from SharePoint sites (from site contents or from the site homepage). Existing list creation flows will be visually refreshed to align with the updates that users are already seeing as part of the Microsoft Lists app and Lists in Teams. This feature will be available at the end of November.
Bookmark for OneDrive for iOS
Microsoft is adding a bookmark that makes it easier for users of OneDrive for iOS to return to a specific page in a PDF document. This bookmark feature allows end users to add or remove bookmarks using either the bookmark icon on the toolbar or via the context menu in long-press gesture, whether that press is on text or in a non-text area. This feature will be available at the end of November.
Move files and easily keep sharing
When you move a file from OneDrive to a SharePoint site collection, or from a SharePoint site collection to OneDrive, or from a SharePoint site collection to another SharePoint site collection, you will have the option to easily continue sharing the file with their collaborators at the new destination.
Move and keep sharing is a new feature that allows you to easily re-share a file with all the direct collaborators (e.g., the users who had previously received a share for that file) should it be moved. If an end user chooses to do so, direct collaborators will be provided with the new link or with direct permissions that match those that they had at the source location. An email will also be sent to collaborators that notifies them that the file has been moved should the owner re-share the file location.
Removal of Everyone Except External Users policy as Default in OneDrive
This change will remove the Everyone Except External Users (EEEU) policy as default and perform a full permissions reset for personal lists. As a result, any users that these personal lists were previously shared with will be unable to view the list until the list owner reinstates the sharing permissions.
If you wish to self-mediate before the policy changes are rolled out you may review and update your site permissions by following these directions
- Navigate to Site settings -> Site Permissions on OneDrive for Business
- Select the Everyone Except External Users permission and click on Remove user permissions
- Note:If you don't see the Everyone Except External Users permission, you are not affected
- For personal lists that have already inherited the EEEU claim, you can self-mediate by removing the claim by clicking on the "Stop sharing" option on a per list basis. More details about how to do this can be found in Stop sharing OneDrive or SharePoint files or folders, or change permissions.
Users with lists that are affected by this update may take the following actions to re-instate the desired sharing permissions
- Open the list that you want to update sharing permissions for and select "Share"
- Enter the names of the people that you want to re-share the list with. More details about how to do this can be found in Share a list or list item.
This change will start rolling out November 1 and will continue through the end of 2020.
Forms: Specific user sharing for response collection
Form owners will see a new response collection option when navigating to Share > Send and collect responses. When a Form owner selects Specific people in my organization can respond, they can then specify one or more individuals or user groups by using their email address. The specified people or groups can then view and submit a response to the form/quiz. Other users will be prevented from seeing the form. This allows a form owner to manage the response collection more precisely than using the current anyone or organization wide options. Because of its more restrictive permissions, this setting is optimal for forms with more sensitive content or in cases where the responses are meant to be more controlled.
This feature will be available at the end of November.
Designer in Word
Designer helps writers create documents with a consistent look-and-feel. It provides a variety of themes to help writers create documents that better communicate ideas visually. To access Designer, open a document in Word for the web and then select Home > Designer. Designer also detects formatting inconsistencies. Apply formatting fixes by clicking on a button at the top of the pane or allow formatting fixes to be applied automatically when selecting a theme. In addition, Designer will improve Word document accessibility by using semantic styles (e.g., title and headings). Designer will eventually make additional suggestions as well.
OneNote feed in Outlook for the web
Outlook web now includes OneNote feed. When logged in to Outlook web you will now notice a OneNote icon on the top right. This makes it easier to access your notes in Outlook. In addition, the OneNote feed includes Sticky Notes and recent OneNote pages so you can quickly reference them in Outlook.
Microsoft Lists home
Lists helps you organize, collaborate and share. You can quickly start a list from scratch or get inspired by ready-made templates. View your recently accessed lists no matter where they are stored and favorite lists that need quick access. To get to the Lists home page on the web, click the Lists icon in the Microsoft 365 app launcher. The Lists home page provides easy access to your recently visited and favorite lists.
What can you do on Lists?
- View all your recently accessed lists as part of the "Recent lists" section.
- View all your favorite lists as part of the "Favorites" section. Any list can be favorited for quick access from Lists home or from the list on their SharePoint site.
- View all personal lists you have created
- Create a new list: from scratch, from an Excel spreadsheet, from an existing list or from 8 ready-made templates
- Rename a list
- Share a list
- Search for lists
What's new in List creation?
- Full visual refresh of the experience
- Ability to create a list from 8 ready-made templates
- Ability to create a personal list, that you can share. These personal lists are stored in the user's my site
This feature will be available at the end of November.
Introducing commenting in Microsoft Lists
Users can see which list items have comments when they access the list home page. By default, users will see a new comments pane alongside the list item form when they access a custom list. Users can toggle the comment pane visibility by clicking or tapping the comments icon. When comments hide, the pane does not collapse. The pane will be closed by default for lists enabled by Power Apps.
Comments follow the permission settings inherent in SharePoint and Microsoft Lists. Users with read-only permission can only view comments. Those with list edit permission can make comments as well as delete comments; editing comments is currently not possible. Comments are stored in the schema for each list, which is based on the SharePoint storage platform. Classic lists that are not yet built to show up in modern user interfaces, like task Lists, will not have this commenting feature. Commenting on lists in Teams is not available with this release. Comments are not indexed by Search.
Add shortcuts to shared folders in your OneDrive in Public Preview
Users will now be able add a shortcut to any shared folder from Shared with me or Shared libraries in OneDrive or from SharePoint. After a user adds a shortcut, it will appear in their OneDrive as a folder with a link icon at the OneDrive root. Owner information will be visible in the Sharing column to differentiate it from their content. Users will be able to access these shortcuts in OneDrive on the web, the OneDrive sync app, the OneDrive Android app, and Microsoft Teams.
Support for additional products, such as the OneDrive iOS app, will be available in the next few months. When syncing OneDrive, these shortcuts will automatically appear in OneDrive across all devices. The exception: if a user adds a shortcut to a SharePoint folder that they were already syncing, that previously synced folder will remain where it is in File Explorer and they will not see the new shortcut in their OneDrive folder. This is a limitation of Public Preview which will be addressed before the feature is generally available. These shortcuts will respect all policy, compliance, and permission settings from the source. If a user loses access to a shortcut, they will see an "Access Denied" error when they next navigate into that shortcut and will be prompted to remove it.
Shared Library creation experience in OneDrive
Users who click "Create shared library" in OneDrive on the web will see a simplified experience for creating a Shared Library. New Shared Libraries experience Old Shared Libraries experience The new experience focuses on setting the Name and Membership. All options for modifying the Site and email address, Privacy, Sensitivity and Language settings are available under an advanced settings dropdown. This experience respects all existing admin settings and behaviors around TeamSite creation.