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You're reading from  Microsoft 365 and SharePoint Online Cookbook - Second Edition

Product typeBook
Published inFeb 2024
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781803243177
Edition2nd Edition
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Authors (4):
Gaurav Mahajan
Gaurav Mahajan
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Gaurav Mahajan

Gaurav Mahajan is a Microsoft Technology Solutions Professional who specializes in Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and AI, with over 19 years of technical consulting experience. Gaurav has a bachelor's in engineering, is Stanford certified in machine learning, and holds a PG Diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management. He speaks at and organizes technical events, code camps, and conferences. He is a co-chair of the M365 & SharePoint Saturday, Pittsburgh (US) annual conference.
Read more about Gaurav Mahajan

Sudeep Ghatak
Sudeep Ghatak
author image
Sudeep Ghatak

Sudeep Ghatak is a Microsoft MVP in Business Applications and a frequent contributor to the Power Automate Community forum. He works as a Principal Architect in Christchurch, New Zealand and loves designing solutions based on Office 365 and the Azure platform. He is a certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) and holds a postgraduate degree in instrumentation engineering. He is an active member of the Microsoft community and often seen speaking at user groups and conferences in New Zealand.
Read more about Sudeep Ghatak

Nate Chamberlain
Nate Chamberlain
author image
Nate Chamberlain

Nate Chamberlain is a technical content creator, solution architect, and trainer, recognized as a 5-year Microsoft MVP. With a background in business analysis and systems administration, Nate has authored seven books and manages his blog. He holds an array of certifications, including M365 Enterprise Administrator Expert and Microsoft Power Platform App Maker Associate, and is a frequent speaker at user groups and conferences.
Read more about Nate Chamberlain

Scott Brewster
Scott Brewster
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Scott Brewster

Scott Brewster is a Microsoft 365 Solutions Architect. He has supported numerous government clients focusing on SharePoint and Microsoft 365 since 2008. His focus is on security, administration, migration, governance, and training. Scott has been speaking at conferences and user groups since 2010 and runs the SharePoint User Group of DC.
Read more about Scott Brewster

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Preface

We have been working on SharePoint and related technologies since 2007, when Microsoft 365 wasn’t around, and we have seen it go through several transformations since then. One of the questions we have often been asked as consultants is “What is SharePoint?” We have, at times, struggled to answer that question because, unlike some other Microsoft products that focus on solving one problem, SharePoint is a platform that can be leveraged to help implement a multitude of business solutions.

The question is even harder to respond to when someone asks “What is Microsoft 365?” because it is even bigger than SharePoint. With this book, our goal is to answer those questions by providing practical guidance on and insights into how to carry out various tasks in all the different areas of Microsoft 365. While we have provided the necessary background and best practices where possible, we have deliberately stayed away from getting too technical to keep the recipes simple for those who are new to Microsoft 365.

Microsoft 365 is an ever-changing platform with frequent updates being made to it. As you can imagine, it is hard to write a book on such a rapidly changing platform. We have tried to keep the book as close to the latest updates as we can. However, you should expect to see some variations in the steps and images provided in this book. Having said that, the underlying concepts that guide these steps should remain the same.

This comprehensive guide encompasses all major applications within the Microsoft 365 suite, along with an exploration of Copilot, with the aim of providing you with a head start in adapting to Microsoft’s adoption of AI features on its platform. To achieve expert status, however, you will require additional study and lots and lots of hands-on practice.

Who this book is for

While writing this book, we had multiple audiences in mind.

On the one hand, we want to help end users become familiar with the many Microsoft 365 services. If you use these services in your business, you’ll learn the basic controls as well as some tips and tricks to boost your productivity.

On the other, more administrative, hand, we also wrote recipes with more technical concepts in mind. If you’re an IT administrator who wants to understand Microsoft 365 governance, or a business stakeholder or architect wanting to understand the tools of the trade for handling business workflows, there’s a lot for you to learn.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Overview of Microsoft 365, summarizes the products available in the Microsoft 365 suite, what they are used for, and the general licensing information you should know about. You’ll learn how to sign in to Microsoft 365 and get to know its user interface.

Chapter 2, Introduction to SharePoint Online, provides recipes for the basic operations when using SharePoint, such as creating and sharing documents. This is useful for anyone who needs guidance on the essentials of using SharePoint.

Chapter 3, Modern Sites in SharePoint Online, explores content management using modern sites. You’ll get to know the modern site architecture and features available in SharePoint Online for creating and managing modern sites.

Chapter 4, Lists and Libraries in SharePoint Online, covers the creation and management of lists and libraries in SharePoint Online. These are fundamental components for organizing and storing information.

Chapter 5, Document Management in SharePoint Online, focuses on document management capabilities in SharePoint Online, including versioning, metadata, and document collaboration features.

Chapter 6, OneDrive, discusses the features and functionality of OneDrive, Microsoft’s cloud storage solution integrated with Microsoft 365. You’ll learn the basics of uploading, syncing, and sharing files.

Chapter 7, Microsoft Teams, explores Microsoft Teams, a collaboration platform that combines workplace chat, meetings, file storage, and application integration. The recipes in this chapter increase in complexity, so you can choose to learn basic controls or more complex topics such as adding connectors, using breakout rooms, and creating registration forms.

Chapter 8, Power Automate (Microsoft Flow), introduces Power Automate, Microsoft’s workflow automation tool for creating automated workflows across various applications and services. After creating a workflow, you’ll learn how to edit and test the flow before following recipes for exporting, importing, and sharing it.

Chapter 9, Creating Power Apps, guides users through the process of creating custom business applications using Power Apps, Microsoft’s low-code application development platform. You’ll learn how to create an app based on a template, connect to data sources, and add interactive screens to your app.

Chapter 10, Applying Power Apps, demonstrates how to deploy and integrate apps within your organization. You’ll learn how to embed an app in Teams and on a SharePoint page, as well as how to export and import your apps.

Chapter 11, Power BI, provides an overview of Power BI, Microsoft’s business analytics tool, for creating interactive reports and visualizations from data sources. While visualizing data is the end goal of Power BI, you’ll also learn important steps for transforming and modeling data.

Chapter 12, Overview of Copilot in Microsoft 365 and Power Platform, introduces Copilot, an AI-powered coding assistant, and explores its integration within Microsoft 365 and Power Platform. We’ll take a bite-sized tour of Copilot in all the most popular software and what you can do with it.

Please note that the following chapters are only available in the free eBook that supplements this book: https://packt.link/online-sup-book

Chapter 13, Term Store and Content Types in SharePoint Online, discusses the management of metadata and content types using the Term Store in SharePoint Online for improving content organization and search.

Chapter 14, Search in Microsoft 365, explores the search capabilities within Microsoft 365, including Microsoft Search and its integration across various applications.

Chapter 15, Microsoft Delve, provides an overview of Microsoft Delve, a personal search and discovery tool, for surfacing relevant content and connections within organizations.

Chapter 16, Microsoft 365 Groups, explores Microsoft 365 Groups, collaborative workspaces that integrate with various Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook, SharePoint, and Teams.

Chapter 17, Power Automate Desktop for RPA, introduces Power Automate Desktop, Microsoft’s robotic process automation (RPA) tool, for automating repetitive tasks across desktop applications.

Chapter 18, Copilot Studio (Power Virtual Agents), introduces Power Virtual Agents, Microsoft’s no-code chatbot development platform, a predecessor to Copilot Studio used for creating intelligent virtual agents to engage with users.

Chapter 19, Viva Insights, overviews the functionality of the Viva Insights app, including features for organizing your work calendar. As we’ll see, this is a “nice to have” application that aims to improve your work-life balance rather than performing staple tasks for your organization.

Chapter 20, Viva Learning, helps you get comfortable with Microsoft’s app for training and growing your skills, Viva Learning. You’ll learn what Viva Learning is, how to take courses on the app, review your learning activity, and suggest courses for your team.

Chapter 21, Viva Engage, prepares you to use Viva Engage, Microsoft’s enterprise social networking platform. You’ll find recipes for the basic functionalities of creating and joining Viva Engage communities, using the home feed, following people, and posting messages. In case you need some more administrative knowledge of Viva Engage, you’ll learn how to create a network and invite external members to your network.

Chapter 22, Planner, provides an overview of Microsoft Planner, a task management tool, for organizing and tracking work within teams and projects.

Chapter 23, Microsoft To Do, explores Microsoft To Do, a task management app, for organizing tasks and managing to-do lists across devices.

Chapter 24, Microsoft Forms, teaches you the basic features when using Microsoft Forms. As you’ll learn in the chapter, Forms is an easy solution for creating forms and quizzes. You’ll learn the differences between the two formats and what features are available in each.

Chapter 25, Custom Development – SharePoint Framework, is a more advanced chapter that discusses custom development using the SharePoint Framework (SPFx) for building solutions and extensions on the SharePoint platform. This is the only chapter that will require a beginner-level knowledge of JavaScript.

Chapter 26, Microsoft 365 on Mobile Devices, explores the features and capabilities of Microsoft 365 applications on mobile devices, enabling productivity on the go.

Note that the Appendix is part of the supplementary eBook. It covers niche Microsoft technologies that may be “nice to have” additions to your workspace, such as Microsoft Bookings and Microsoft Loop.

To get the most out of this book

All you need is access to and licenses for the various apps and workloads in Microsoft 365, as well as the right administrative permissions. We’ll cover the specific requirements before each recipe. If you already have access to your organization’s Microsoft 365 subscription but are still unable to work your way through a recipe, you may need to reach out to your IT department to grant you the appropriate licenses and/or access required to complete the steps in that recipe.

Alternatively, you can also sign up for a Microsoft 365 trial account here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/try. This will give you one month’s free access to a newly created Microsoft 365 environment. This option is recommended for organizations or users that want to try the service first. You will need to enter your billing information first, but you can cancel the subscription at any time.

Another option is to sign up for the developer program by visiting https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/dev-program. This will provide you access to a Microsoft 365 environment containing all the workloads and apps, with fictitious user accounts, along with a lot of dummy test content. This environment has a 90-day validity, after which it is deleted unless it is renewed. The developer program provides a great opportunity to learn about Microsoft 365 and its entire suite of apps.

Download the example code files

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://packt.link/GitHub-repo. If there’s an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/gbp/9781803243177

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “Scaffold a web part template by typing yo @microsoft/sharepoint and respond to the questions that are asked.”

A block of code is set as follows:

Syntax: 
Set(variable_name,value)

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

npm install -g @microsoft/generator-sharepoint

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: “Click the Sync option in the header menu.”

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Sections

Like any cookbook, we’ve organized this book into a series of recipes that follow a regular structure. You will find several headings that appear frequently in the recipe format: Getting ready, How to do it..., How it works..., There’s more..., and See also.

To give clear instructions on how to complete a recipe, we’ve used these sections as follows.

Getting ready

This section tells you what to expect in the recipe and describes how to set up any software or any preliminary settings required for the recipe.

How to do it…

This section contains the steps required to follow the recipe. Don’t worry if you’ve got questions about some of the technical details; we’ll cover those in the next section.

How it works…

This section consists of a detailed explanation of what happened in the previous section. This helps to couple your practical skills with a deeper understanding.

There’s more…

This section consists of additional information, such as more advanced features for more niche situations.

See also

This section provides helpful links to other useful information for the recipe. This includes links to other resources as well as other relevant recipes elsewhere in this book.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, mention the book title in the subject of your message and email us at customercare@packtpub.com.

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details.

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For more information about Packt, please visit packt.com.

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Authors (4)

author image
Gaurav Mahajan

Gaurav Mahajan is a Microsoft Technology Solutions Professional who specializes in Microsoft 365, SharePoint, and AI, with over 19 years of technical consulting experience. Gaurav has a bachelor's in engineering, is Stanford certified in machine learning, and holds a PG Diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management. He speaks at and organizes technical events, code camps, and conferences. He is a co-chair of the M365 & SharePoint Saturday, Pittsburgh (US) annual conference.
Read more about Gaurav Mahajan

author image
Sudeep Ghatak

Sudeep Ghatak is a Microsoft MVP in Business Applications and a frequent contributor to the Power Automate Community forum. He works as a Principal Architect in Christchurch, New Zealand and loves designing solutions based on Office 365 and the Azure platform. He is a certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) and holds a postgraduate degree in instrumentation engineering. He is an active member of the Microsoft community and often seen speaking at user groups and conferences in New Zealand.
Read more about Sudeep Ghatak

author image
Nate Chamberlain

Nate Chamberlain is a technical content creator, solution architect, and trainer, recognized as a 5-year Microsoft MVP. With a background in business analysis and systems administration, Nate has authored seven books and manages his blog. He holds an array of certifications, including M365 Enterprise Administrator Expert and Microsoft Power Platform App Maker Associate, and is a frequent speaker at user groups and conferences.
Read more about Nate Chamberlain

author image
Scott Brewster

Scott Brewster is a Microsoft 365 Solutions Architect. He has supported numerous government clients focusing on SharePoint and Microsoft 365 since 2008. His focus is on security, administration, migration, governance, and training. Scott has been speaking at conferences and user groups since 2010 and runs the SharePoint User Group of DC.
Read more about Scott Brewster