Microsoft RD and MVP Christian Buckley (@buckleyplanet) and Tom Duff (@duffbert) go head-to-head to share some of their favorite Microsoft Office and Office 365 productivity tips. Captured on October 27th, 2020 as a CollabTalk webinar, and part of our ongoing productivity series.

1. Microsoft 365
Productivity Tips
“October Ousting"
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. Transcribe your videos in Word for the web
For those of us who are increasingly capturing
interviews and meetings on the web, you can now
generate transcripts directly in Word for the web.
Transcribe detects different speakers so after you
finish recording, you can easily follow the flow of
the transcript. After your conversation, you can
revisit parts of the recording by playing back the
time-stamped audio and you can even edit the
transcript if you see something amiss.
Read more at https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/08/25/microsoft-
365-transcription-voice-commands-word/

8. Transcribe your videos in Word for the web
For those of us who are increasingly capturing
interviews and meetings on the web, you can now
generate transcripts directly in Word for the web.
Transcribe detects different speakers so after you
finish recording, you can easily follow the flow of
the transcript. After your conversation, you can
revisit parts of the recording by playing back the
time-stamped audio and you can even edit the
transcript if you see something amiss.
Simply open Word online, select Dictate, and
upload your audio or video file to begin
processing.
Once transcribed, you can search for specific
quotes and easily add them to your Word
document, or add the entire transcript in one click!
Read more at https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/08/25/microsoft-
365-transcription-voice-commands-word/

9. Saved For Later web part for SharePoint Online
If you're like me, you tend to "bookmark" a lot of things to save for later. Of course, whether you actually
get back to reading them is a different matter… The Saved For Later web part is a great way to flag
content for later reading, and have it displayed back to you in an easy to read manner. Here's how it
works…
Here I've created a new Saved For Later page, and I'm adding the Saved For Later web part:

10. Saved For Later web part for SharePoint Online
By editing the settings on the web part, I can customize the way it displays:

11. Saved For Later web part for SharePoint Online
For Source, I have the option to display everything that I've saved for later, or just the items in this
particular site:

12. Saved For Later web part for SharePoint Online
I can also filter the Type of content to display, such as documents only, pages and news posts, or
everything:

13. Saved For Later web part for SharePoint Online
I can also choose how many items to display, whether I want them to display in a grid or a list format, and
whether the web part should only show up if at least one item is marked for saving:

14. Saved For Later web part for SharePoint Online
Here's what the list format would look like:

15. Saved For Later web part for SharePoint Online
In this example, I was on a news page item, and I clicked the Bookmark icon at the bottom of the page
so I could save it for later:

16. Saved For Later web part for SharePoint Online
Now when I look at my Saved For Later page, I see that article show up in my Saved For Later web part:
This can be a great addition to the front page of your intranet, in that it allows people to see customized
content that is relevant to them instead of just general content that was targeted to everyone.

17. Who won the round?
16 votes 11 votes

18. Round 2

19. Windows 10 Calculator - It's not your grandfather's calculator any more
A couple of weeks ago, my coworker Sandra was using the Windows 10 calculator like usual. However,
she decided to click the menu in the upper left corner, and was amazed at all the options she never knew
about. I too was suitably amazed, and thought this would make a great tip… here's just a sampling of
what it can do…
To launch the calculator, click the Windows icon in the lower-left corner of your screen and select the
Calculator option:

20. Windows 10 Calculator - It's not your grandfather's calculator any more
The calculator will likely come up in standard mode, but click the options menu in the upper-left corner:

21. Windows 10 Calculator - It's not your grandfather's calculator any more
As you can see, there are a number of other calculation options above and beyond Standard:

22. Windows 10 Calculator - It's not your grandfather's calculator any more
For instance, Date Calculation will give you the difference between two dates (a frequent requirement in
business processes):

23. Windows 10 Calculator - It's not your grandfather's calculator any more
Need to get a currency conversion based on up-to-date rates? Use the Currency calculator option:

24. Windows 10 Calculator - It's not your grandfather's calculator any more
Need to know how many minutes are in a particular number of days? Here you go:
Definitely check this out, as it can help you avoid the time spent searching for sites for currency conversions,
measurement conversions, and so on…

25. Add shortcuts to shared folders in OneDrive
OneDrive is quickly becoming a primary
navigation point for my desktop, and now –
just like we do on the desktop – you can
add quick shortcuts to local, online, and
shared folders to make accessing your
essential content easier!

26. Add shortcuts to shared folders in OneDrive
OneDrive is quickly becoming a primary
navigation point for my desktop, and now –
just like we do on the desktop – you can
add quick shortcuts to local, online, and
shared folders to make accessing your
essential content easier!
Within the OneDrive client, simply select
(or create) the folder, and click
‘Add shortcut to My Files’
Once added, you can access your list of
important location from wherever you log
into Microsoft Office!
Read more at https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/01/introducing-
new-onedrive-features-to-share-and-collaborate-
across-work-and-life/

27. Who won the round?
5 votes 22 votes

28. Round 3

29. Mute people in Teams
FINALLY, Teams Meeting admins can shut down the
chatter from the start! In meetings with more than 5
people, people will enter the meeting already muted.
To nip that chatter in the bud:
 Go into More Options (…) and select ‘Meeting Options’
 Toggle off the option ‘Allow attendees to unmute’
Additionally, you can silence specific individuals by
going into the attendee list:
 Click on the ‘Show Participants’ button.
 Click the ‘Mute All’ button at the top, or mute an
individual by clicking on the microphone icon.
 Teams will now prompt you whether you want to mute
these participants. Confirm by clicking the Mute option.
When a user is muted, they’ll get a notification letting
them know that they’ve been muted.
And yes, they can unmute themselves, as needed. But
this simple control will help eliminate much of the
unwanted background noise.

30. Contextual search in Microsoft Teams using CTRL-F
Being able to find certain words in a document using CTRL-F is one of the most useful features in
applications like Word. That same ability now makes its appearance in Microsoft Teams. Here's how it
works…
Since this is "contextual" search, you need to be in the chat or channel where you want to find the
particular search term. In this case, I'm in a chat with Sandra Mahan, and I want to find the mentions of
the word "uservoice". When I pressed CTRL-F, the command bar changed to /find with the name of the
chat/channel I'm searching in. I type in "uservoice" and press Enter:

31. Contextual search in Microsoft Teams using CTRL-F
The Results panel lists all the particular entries in my chat with Sandra that have the word "uservoice":

32. Contextual search in Microsoft Teams using CTRL-F
If I click on one of the entries in the Results panel, it takes me to that particular chat entry where the word
was used:

33. Who won the round?
12 votes 17 votes

34. Round 4

35. Outlook on the Web now has type-ahead suggestions
If you use a personal email client like Gmail, you're probably used to seeing suggested wording appear as
you're typing away. Now Outlook on the Web has the same type-ahead suggestion feature! Here's what it
looks like…
In this email I'm composing, Outlook determined that the word "me" might be a possible next word. If I
want to take that suggestion, I just click the Tab key and it'll automatically add that word:

36. Outlook on the Web now has type-ahead suggestions
As I continue to type, Outlook determined that I might want the word "going" followed by "on" based on
my sentence up to that point. Again, hitting the Tab key fills that in for me:

37. Create recurrent surveys in Teams
We continue to see more features added to Microsoft
Forms, and at long last, you can setup recurring surveys
within Microsoft Teams!
Microsoft has heard your feedback and is releasing new
workflows for common scenarios like employee sentiment,
employee issues and challenges, and employee health
status. These new workflows include templates and the
ability for users to choose frequency and set reminders for
each Teams channel, making these surveys easy to get
started and manage going forward.
To get started, click Create a workflow to automatically
collect response in the Forms tab and select Scenarios.
Read more at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-
365/blog/2020/06/25/whats-new-microsoft-365-june/

38. Create recurrent surveys in Teams
To create a recurring survey:
 Add the Forms app to your Team or chat. Name
the survey, and select ‘Create a recurring survey’
from the bottom of the dialog.
 Select the template
 Review / edit the questions to be included
 Set your recurrence
 Select how you will review results, and click Save

39. Who won the round?
19 votes 9 votes

40. Round 5

41. Plan your tasks in Outlook
Plan when your tasks need to be completed in
advance—planning, prioritizing, and making sure
you block time to complete your tasks can help you
stay organized, in control of your day, and what
needs to be done.
In Outlook on the web, use My Day in the calendar
to make sure you are assigning time to complete
the tasks that are important in your day and week.
This integrates directly with ToDo.
Within the desktop application, there is not yet
ToDo integration, but you can add Outlook tasks in
the same way, dragging-and-dropping tasks into
your calendar.
Read more at https://www.microsoft.com/en-
us/microsoft-365/blog/2020/07/14/get-control-
microsoft-365/

42. Turning off GIF animations in Microsoft Teams
We had a question come up yesterday in one of our Teams workspaces… was it possible to turn off the
GIF animations that can be added to Teams chats and channels to make things less distracting? My co-
worker Eydie found the solution for that, and it's surprisingly easy. Here's how…
To make this change, click on your image in the Teams toolbar and select Settings:

43. Turning off GIF animations in Microsoft Teams
In the settings for General, scroll to the bottom for Display and check the option to Turn off
animations:
Once you make this change, you will need to exit and restart Teams for it to take effect.

44. Turning off GIF animations in Microsoft Teams
Now when you get a GIF in a chat or channel conversation, it will not automatically play. It will display
with a Play icon so you can see the animation if you'd like, but it's now entirely up to you:

45. Who won the round?
16 votes 8 votes

46. 0 5 10 15 20 25
WHO WON ROUND 5?
WHO WON ROUND 4?
WHO WON ROUND 3?
WHO WON ROUND 2?
WHO WON ROUND 1?
October Ousting
Christian Tom
Christian!

47. Current
Leaderboard
Most Rounds Won
Tom (66-63-1)
Most Events Won
Tom (13-12)
Most Overall Votes
Tom (2062-2031)
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
TOTAL 66 2062 63 2031
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
9/24/2019 Online
11/26/2019 Online
10/29/2019 Online
10/27/2020 Online
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

50. Thank you!
Christian Buckley
@buckleyplanet
buckleyPLANET.com
Tom Duff
@Duffbert
OneMinuteOfficeMagic.com
Please remember to subscribe on YouTube!