Category: Microsoft
Category Archives: Microsoft
Unified Portal – Sentinel incident losing set tactics
Hi,
Just trialling the unified portal, and incidents in Sentinel seem to lose any tactics set via the analytic rule.
Plus the resulting incident has a slightly different title, assume after being converted to ‘Defender speak’.
We have a standard rule TI MAP IP entity for Office365 and the incident is TI Map IP entity for Office365 involving one user and the tactic is missing even though its in the original rule?
Anyone else experiencing the same?
Regards,
Tim
Hi, Just trialling the unified portal, and incidents in Sentinel seem to lose any tactics set via the analytic rule.Plus the resulting incident has a slightly different title, assume after being converted to ‘Defender speak’. We have a standard rule TI MAP IP entity for Office365 and the incident is TI Map IP entity for Office365 involving one user and the tactic is missing even though its in the original rule? Anyone else experiencing the same? Regards, Tim Read More
Device Discover – MDE AV Passive Mode
Does device discovery work when the endpoint has MDE antivirus set to passive mode?
Does device discovery work when the endpoint has MDE antivirus set to passive mode? Read More
Excel: SUM and SUMIF
Hi all, I am preparing an excel file and I have an issue with the SUM formula.
In the file, I added a checkbox that will give 0 if FALSE (not ticked) or 125 is TRUE (ticked).
For this I used the formula =SUMIF(K21,TRUE,M21) where:
K21 is the true/false cell linked to the checkbox
M21 is 125
What I want to achieve is: When the box is ticked, add 125 to the final amount (in cell J37) and sum all prices in cells J26:J35 (and when the checkbox is not ticked, then 125 should not appear in the total sum).
Both formulas:
=SUMIF(K21,TRUE,M21)
=SUM(J26:J35)
Work separately, but they do not work together in the same cell, as I would like to have just one final cell (J37) that includes the amounts J26:J35 & SUMIF(K21,TRUE,M21).
Could you please help me with this?
Hi all, I am preparing an excel file and I have an issue with the SUM formula. In the file, I added a checkbox that will give 0 if FALSE (not ticked) or 125 is TRUE (ticked). For this I used the formula =SUMIF(K21,TRUE,M21) where:K21 is the true/false cell linked to the checkboxM21 is 125 What I want to achieve is: When the box is ticked, add 125 to the final amount (in cell J37) and sum all prices in cells J26:J35 (and when the checkbox is not ticked, then 125 should not appear in the total sum). Both formulas:=SUMIF(K21,TRUE,M21)=SUM(J26:J35)Work separately, but they do not work together in the same cell, as I would like to have just one final cell (J37) that includes the amounts J26:J35 & SUMIF(K21,TRUE,M21). Could you please help me with this? Read More
What is this Windows 11 Enterprise G version of windows?
My first time to see this version. Anyone knows about it?
My first time to see this version. Anyone knows about it? Read More
BYCOL & BYROW
Hi,
Below formula throwing #Calc error:
Need one array formula.
Hi, Below formula throwing #Calc error:BYCOL(C3#,LAMBDA(ColHdrs_1,BYROW(B4#,LAMBDA(RowHdrs_1,IFERROR(COUNTA(UNIQUE(FILTER($K$3:$K$25,($I$3:$I$25=RowHdrs_1)*($J$3:$J$25=ColHdrs_1)))),0))))) Need one array formula.Sheet Read More
Integrating Power BI with Azure Data Services
Integrating Power BI with Azure Data Services
Introduction
Hi, I am Khalid Abdelaty a Microsoft Learn Student Ambassador, studying Computer Science Student @ Tanta University in Egypt. I am fancisanted by the opportunity of AI and the ability to analyze and interpret data.
Power BI has seen massive growth in the past couple of years in the IT industry. With the exponential growth of data, employees face challenges in data governance. To manage this unmeasurable data, we need reliable storage solutions. Microsoft Azure facilitates the integration of Power BI with services such as SQL, Stream Analytics, and many others. This combination enhances the ability to work with complex data efficiently.
In this article, we will discuss the following topics:
What Azure services can we connect to Power BI?
Hands-on: Integrate Power BI with Azure
FAQs
Conclusion
What Azure Services Can We Connect to Power BI?
By combining Azure services with Power BI, you can transform data processing efforts into analytics and reports for real-time insights that benefit your business. Azure Power BI has built-in connectivity and integration to develop complex business intelligence solutions without the need for coding.
We can connect the following Azure services with Power BI:
Azure SQL Database
Stream Analytics
Azure ML
Azure Event Hub
Azure Storage
Azure HDInsight
Hands-on: Integrate Power BI with Azure
Step-by-Step Guide to Connecting Azure SQL Database with Power BI:
Go to Azure Portal and click create a resource.
2. Search for Azure SQL and press enter.
3. Select the resource type as Single Database and click on create.
4. Fill in the necessary details such as specifying a resource group, creating a server for the database, then click on review and create and finally click on create.
You will notice that the deployment is in progress. Once the database is deployed, open it.
5. Now, we will add some data into the SQL database. For that, go to your SQL database and click on query editor. Enter the credentials you set while creating the server for the database.
6. Let’s add a simple query and run it :
CREATE TABLE Person (
PersonId INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
FirstName NVARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
MiddelInitial NVARCHAR(10),
LastName NVARCHAR(128) NOT NULL,
DateOfBirth DATE NOT NULL
);
CREATE TABLE Student (
StudentId INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
PersonId INT REFERENCES Person (PersonId),
Email NVARCHAR(256)
);
CREATE TABLE Course (
CourseId INT IDENTITY PRIMARY KEY,
Name NVARCHAR(50) NOT NULL,
Teacher NVARCHAR(256) NOT NULL
);
CREATE TABLE Credit (
StudentId INT REFERENCES Student (StudentId),
CourseId INT REFERENCES Course (CourseId),
Grade DECIMAL(5,2) CHECK (Grade <= 100.00),
Attempt TINYINT,
CONSTRAINT [UQ_studentgrades] UNIQUE CLUSTERED (
StudentId, CourseId, Grade, Attempt
)
);
7. Next step is to add data to the table. Select the dbo.course table and add rows to it by clicking on Create New Row.
Now we have the data present in the SQL database. Now we will visualize the data in Power BI.
8. Click on Power BI (preview) option under the Power platform and click on get started, and it will download the pbids file as shown below
9. Open the pbi file, and it will open up the Power BI desktop application. It will ask for the username and password under Database. Provide the username and password you set while creating a database server.
As we added some sample values under the course table, preview the data by clicking on course and click on load.
As you can see that we added CourseID, Name, and Teacher rows.
Just check the CourseID, Name, and Teacher. It will create a visualization out of this data. You can choose any visualization from the visualization section, as shown below.
Hence it is a straightforward process to create a visualization using Power BI Integration with Azure.
FAQs
Q1: How does Power BI integrate with Azure?
Ans: Power BI integrates with Azure services to provide real-time business insights through seamless data analytics and reporting.
Q2: Does Power BI work with Azure?
Ans: Yes, Power BI works with Azure to unify data and simplify complex datasets through visualizations.
Q3: What is the use of Power BI embedded in Azure?
Ans: Power BI embedded allows developers to integrate interactive reports and dashboards into applications quickly, transforming data into graphical forms.
Conclusion
Integrating Power BI with Azure provides stability and enhances the ability to handle large data volumes. With easy connectivity and powerful visualizations, users can leverage Azure’s enhanced governance and cataloging capabilities for insightful data analysis.
Microsoft Tech Community – Latest Blogs –Read More
Display list filtered by a fixed filter in webpart in Sharepoint365
Hello everyone,
please help me out, as I am starting to despair. Here’s what I am trying to do:
I have a List of processes and a separate List of all process steps of all processes. I am using a lookup field to connect those steps to their respective process. For easier use, I want to create a SharePoint page for each process, showing, among other things, a list of the steps of this specific process.
Seems straightforward but, for now, I haven’t found a way to create this filtered view on the List of steps in an embed.
I’ve tried three ways:
1. Using the List web part, there seems to be no way to define a fixed filter.
2. Using a list view filtered by URL parameters embedded using the embed web part – technically works but looks ugly, as it doesn’t display only the list, but several control bars, which I can only remove in parts using JSON view formatting. The “?env=Embedded” parameter also seems to be doing nothing…
3. Creating a pre-defined list view in Lists and embedding this – also technically works but is a lot of manual work and there appears to be no way to filter a view on a hidden column, so I would have to display the name of the process as well which is redundant information.
My last resort would be creating a separate List for each process, but that seems a bit excessive and would massively hinder further extensions of the system.
Any other ideas?
Thanks!
Nils
Hello everyone, please help me out, as I am starting to despair. Here’s what I am trying to do: I have a List of processes and a separate List of all process steps of all processes. I am using a lookup field to connect those steps to their respective process. For easier use, I want to create a SharePoint page for each process, showing, among other things, a list of the steps of this specific process. Seems straightforward but, for now, I haven’t found a way to create this filtered view on the List of steps in an embed. I’ve tried three ways: 1. Using the List web part, there seems to be no way to define a fixed filter. 2. Using a list view filtered by URL parameters embedded using the embed web part – technically works but looks ugly, as it doesn’t display only the list, but several control bars, which I can only remove in parts using JSON view formatting. The “?env=Embedded” parameter also seems to be doing nothing… 3. Creating a pre-defined list view in Lists and embedding this – also technically works but is a lot of manual work and there appears to be no way to filter a view on a hidden column, so I would have to display the name of the process as well which is redundant information. My last resort would be creating a separate List for each process, but that seems a bit excessive and would massively hinder further extensions of the system. Any other ideas? Thanks! Nils Read More
Need a powershell script to change the default font from Aptos to Verdana in powerpoint
Hi Champs,
Does anyone could provide a powershell script to change the default font from Aptos to Verdana in powerpoint please.
We are in a intune environment. I want to push it to all the devices. Please assist.
Thanks,
Ram
Hi Champs, Does anyone could provide a powershell script to change the default font from Aptos to Verdana in powerpoint please.We are in a intune environment. I want to push it to all the devices. Please assist. Thanks,Ram Read More
Auto save on file opening
I am using OneDrive on Windows 11. I manage all my files with OneDrive. I manage the documents with the Windows Explorer file structure on my computer by creating a shortcut via MS Teams or SharePoint.
OneDrive is always in sync mode on my computer. It updates automatically whenever I make changes to any file. But the important detail is “when I update” 🙂
I have a problem with OneDrive for a while. I don’t know if this is due to OneDrive.
When I open any file, the file is somehow automatically saved and synced to OneDrive, even if I don’t make any changes to the file. Unfortunately, this way I miss the previous modification date of the file etc.
Of course, I can go and look at this in the version history, but the date of the last permanent file is updated as my current file opening date.
This is not something that happens in every file, but it becomes annoying because I cannot predict when it will happen or not.
Has anyone ever encountered a similar situation and found a solution?
Thank you in advance for your reply.
I am using OneDrive on Windows 11. I manage all my files with OneDrive. I manage the documents with the Windows Explorer file structure on my computer by creating a shortcut via MS Teams or SharePoint.OneDrive is always in sync mode on my computer. It updates automatically whenever I make changes to any file. But the important detail is “when I update” :)I have a problem with OneDrive for a while. I don’t know if this is due to OneDrive.When I open any file, the file is somehow automatically saved and synced to OneDrive, even if I don’t make any changes to the file. Unfortunately, this way I miss the previous modification date of the file etc.Of course, I can go and look at this in the version history, but the date of the last permanent file is updated as my current file opening date.This is not something that happens in every file, but it becomes annoying because I cannot predict when it will happen or not.Has anyone ever encountered a similar situation and found a solution?Thank you in advance for your reply. Read More
Why FQDN resolution gets affected when Network Protection is in disabled state.
Why FQDN resolution gets affected when Network Protection is in disabled state?
Is it forcing user to use Network Protection?
Isn’t disable state for not interfering with Network?
Why FQDN resolution gets affected when Network Protection is in disabled state?Is it forcing user to use Network Protection?Isn’t disable state for not interfering with Network? Read More
Loop through Excel files and compare files not working
I have a process that exports two sets of identical Excel files – a first set where users can edit data and a second reference set that enables file compare to identify updates made in the first set. Each file has only one sheet and the file name is the sheet name plus extension.
I need a macro to loop through both sets of files and highlight the updates in the first (edited) set, but I cannot get the loop through the set of edited files to work. I have tried both While Wend and For Each Next. My code runs, but does nothing.
Help to identify my error greatly appreciated!
Sub Compare_Spreadsheets_While_Wend3()
Dim editPath, refPath, filename, refFname As String
Dim editwbk, refwbk As Workbook
Dim editws, refws As Worksheet
Dim wbk, FileSystem, Folder, editFile, refFile, FSO, editFolder As Object
editPath = “C:pathSet_1”
refPath = “C:pathSet_2”
‘Loop through files in reference folder
refFile = refPath & “*.xls*”
While refFile <> “”
refFname = ActiveWorkbook.Name
Set FileSystem = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set editFolder = FileSystem.GetFolder(editPath)
For Each editFile In editFolder.Files
filename = editFile.Name
‘Problem here
If editFile.Name = refFname Then
Set editwbk = Workbooks.Open(editPath & “” & filename)
For Each editws In editwbk.Worksheets
If editws.Name = refws.Name Then
For Each cell In editws.Range(“A1”).CurrentRegion
If cell.Value <> refws.Range(cell.Address).Value Then
cell.Interior.Color = vbYellow
MsgBox “Changed value in ” & cell.Address & ” in sheet ” & editws.Name
End If
Next cell
Exit For
End If
Next editws
Exit For
editwbk.Close SaveChanges:=True
End If
Next editFile
Wend
End Sub
I have a process that exports two sets of identical Excel files – a first set where users can edit data and a second reference set that enables file compare to identify updates made in the first set. Each file has only one sheet and the file name is the sheet name plus extension.I need a macro to loop through both sets of files and highlight the updates in the first (edited) set, but I cannot get the loop through the set of edited files to work. I have tried both While Wend and For Each Next. My code runs, but does nothing.Help to identify my error greatly appreciated!Sub Compare_Spreadsheets_While_Wend3()
Dim editPath, refPath, filename, refFname As String
Dim editwbk, refwbk As Workbook
Dim editws, refws As Worksheet
Dim wbk, FileSystem, Folder, editFile, refFile, FSO, editFolder As Object
editPath = “C:pathSet_1”
refPath = “C:pathSet_2”
‘Loop through files in reference folder
refFile = refPath & “*.xls*”
While refFile <> “”
refFname = ActiveWorkbook.Name
Set FileSystem = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)
Set editFolder = FileSystem.GetFolder(editPath)
For Each editFile In editFolder.Files
filename = editFile.Name
‘Problem here
If editFile.Name = refFname Then
Set editwbk = Workbooks.Open(editPath & “” & filename)
For Each editws In editwbk.Worksheets
If editws.Name = refws.Name Then
For Each cell In editws.Range(“A1”).CurrentRegion
If cell.Value <> refws.Range(cell.Address).Value Then
cell.Interior.Color = vbYellow
MsgBox “Changed value in ” & cell.Address & ” in sheet ” & editws.Name
End If
Next cell
Exit For
End If
Next editws
Exit For
editwbk.Close SaveChanges:=True
End If
Next editFile
Wend
End Sub Read More
problems with non-profit verification
After registering, I was contacted by Microsoft support (verification department) and asked for additional information:
We are from the verification department, and we need additional information to properly resolve the problem you are experiencing.
To help us resolve your case, we need to verify both your identity and your association with the non-profit organization for which you are requesting sponsorship. Please provide us with the necessary documentation to facilitate this verification process, which will allow us to quickly resolve your issue.
Please provide the following additional information, among other relevant details:
Organizational URL/website – if applicable
A photo or scanned copy of your employee identification card
Government-issued documentation not publicly available concerning your Nonprofit Organization
Confirmation email from your nonprofit organization’s domain, affirming that you are acting on their behalf and outlining your association with the organization, etc.
If you have any additional information that you consider relevant for our consideration, please include it in your response.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and eagerly anticipate your prompt reply. If we do not receive a response within the next 48 hours, regrettably, the case will be closed.
I provided my organization’s website and my email address at the organization so they can contact me, so I can verify I can receive email at my organization’s domain.
I wasn’t able to provide the other information because my organization doesn’t have employee id cards. I also asked what specific government issued documentation was requested, because the request was nondescript.
The response I got back was:
Thank you again for reaching out and for applying for nonprofit status with Microsoft. However, we have been unable to determine the veracity of the account details you have provided and are unable to process your account for offers through the Nonprofit Portal.
We will be archiving this ticket at this time. Should you disagree with this assessment, please feel free to open a new ticket with additional verifiable documentation.
This was disappointing. The ticket was closed without me really knowing what it was about or me given a reasonable chance to provide what was requested.
Any advice?
After registering, I was contacted by Microsoft support (verification department) and asked for additional information:We are from the verification department, and we need additional information to properly resolve the problem you are experiencing.
To help us resolve your case, we need to verify both your identity and your association with the non-profit organization for which you are requesting sponsorship. Please provide us with the necessary documentation to facilitate this verification process, which will allow us to quickly resolve your issue.
Please provide the following additional information, among other relevant details:
Organizational URL/website – if applicable
A photo or scanned copy of your employee identification card
Government-issued documentation not publicly available concerning your Nonprofit Organization
Confirmation email from your nonprofit organization’s domain, affirming that you are acting on their behalf and outlining your association with the organization, etc.
If you have any additional information that you consider relevant for our consideration, please include it in your response.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and eagerly anticipate your prompt reply. If we do not receive a response within the next 48 hours, regrettably, the case will be closed. I provided my organization’s website and my email address at the organization so they can contact me, so I can verify I can receive email at my organization’s domain.I wasn’t able to provide the other information because my organization doesn’t have employee id cards. I also asked what specific government issued documentation was requested, because the request was nondescript. The response I got back was: Thank you again for reaching out and for applying for nonprofit status with Microsoft. However, we have been unable to determine the veracity of the account details you have provided and are unable to process your account for offers through the Nonprofit Portal.
We will be archiving this ticket at this time. Should you disagree with this assessment, please feel free to open a new ticket with additional verifiable documentation. This was disappointing. The ticket was closed without me really knowing what it was about or me given a reasonable chance to provide what was requested. Any advice? Read More
Using name alternatives in Teams Meeting with Copilot AI Notes
When using Copilot for notes in a Teams meeting, it records who was speaking and display’s their name in the notes and assigned actions. When somebody uses a shortened version of their name e.g. Bob for Robert, etc, then you don’t get actions and the note taking becomes less accurate. It would be great if there was a way to confirm or add in name abbreviations to the AI notes, perhaps some kind of fast name mapping in Copilot that could link abbreviated names back to full names
When using Copilot for notes in a Teams meeting, it records who was speaking and display’s their name in the notes and assigned actions. When somebody uses a shortened version of their name e.g. Bob for Robert, etc, then you don’t get actions and the note taking becomes less accurate. It would be great if there was a way to confirm or add in name abbreviations to the AI notes, perhaps some kind of fast name mapping in Copilot that could link abbreviated names back to full names Read More
Unable to login my account
I have unable to access the account and it says “Your sign-in was successful but does not meet the criteria to access this resource. For example, you might be signing in from a browser, app, or location that is restricted by your admin.”
I have setup all my payment details. and already bank has created the mandate with huge amount. I am bit worried. Please help me to login to my account and also help me to remove the my payment details if in case I am unable to login to portal.
I have unable to access the account and it says “Your sign-in was successful but does not meet the criteria to access this resource. For example, you might be signing in from a browser, app, or location that is restricted by your admin.” I have setup all my payment details. and already bank has created the mandate with huge amount. I am bit worried. Please help me to login to my account and also help me to remove the my payment details if in case I am unable to login to portal. Read More
Could not create the marketplace item
I created offer, offer is in preview status.
I tried to purchase the SaaS offer to test my offer, but in Azure Portal preview message is “Could not create the marketplace item. This marketplace item is not available.”
I created offer, offer is in preview status.I tried to purchase the SaaS offer to test my offer, but in Azure Portal preview message is “Could not create the marketplace item. This marketplace item is not available.” Read More
Getting full url path of nested folders and file inside “Dcouments” in a sharepoint site
I’m using Flow to get the full path of nested folders and files inside “Documents” in a SharePoint site.
The ultimate goal is to verify which paths are more than the character limit of Microsoft.
It is a simple flow, but the thing is, I’m not getting a folder path under the “Document” folder, but I’m getting a path under “Shared Document”.
As per the org requirement, I could not disable the shared document feature in SharePoint.
Is there a way to do it? (I don’t mind to use flow or PNP script )
I’m using Flow to get the full path of nested folders and files inside “Documents” in a SharePoint site. The ultimate goal is to verify which paths are more than the character limit of Microsoft. It is a simple flow, but the thing is, I’m not getting a folder path under the “Document” folder, but I’m getting a path under “Shared Document”. As per the org requirement, I could not disable the shared document feature in SharePoint. Is there a way to do it? (I don’t mind to use flow or PNP script ) Read More
Count value in column
Can you help me with this issue ?
I want to count the number of anime grouped by genres but I have 6 columns of genres. In output, I want to have a column for unique genre and a column for number of anime.
How can I do that?
Can you help me with this issue ?I want to count the number of anime grouped by genres but I have 6 columns of genres. In output, I want to have a column for unique genre and a column for number of anime.How can I do that? Read More
What is the alternative for ActiveXObject in Modern browser say Microsoft edge or chrome.
We have migrated our application from IE to modern browser and now we are facing an issue regarding ActiveXObject.
Its showing a console error saying ActiveXObject is not defined, can anyone please suggest what can be used instead of ActiveXObject in modern browser?
We have migrated our application from IE to modern browser and now we are facing an issue regarding ActiveXObject.Its showing a console error saying ActiveXObject is not defined, can anyone please suggest what can be used instead of ActiveXObject in modern browser? Read More
Copy and Paste Fails to Work
I have gotten off the chat with Microsoft’s support about this issue already. Essentially, whenever I copy a section of my file and try to paste, I only have the unformatted unicode text option. There are no other paste options that are available. We have gone through all the usual processes:
Verifying that the Cut-Copy-Paste options all show “Keep Source Formatting”Delete all registries for WordA full re-install of Office (twice), with re-installs as well.
This issue also exists in Excel technically too, so it’s not just one application. Problem started about 1 week to 1 1/2 weeks ago. Any insights are more than welcome at this point.
I have gotten off the chat with Microsoft’s support about this issue already. Essentially, whenever I copy a section of my file and try to paste, I only have the unformatted unicode text option. There are no other paste options that are available. We have gone through all the usual processes: Verifying that the Cut-Copy-Paste options all show “Keep Source Formatting”Delete all registries for WordA full re-install of Office (twice), with re-installs as well. This issue also exists in Excel technically too, so it’s not just one application. Problem started about 1 week to 1 1/2 weeks ago. Any insights are more than welcome at this point. Read More
Get Copilot responses based on your own files (no copy/paste)
Use your files, emails, chats and meeting information automatically or with direct references using Copilot prompts in Microsoft 365 apps. You don’t need to copy information then paste it into a browser tool or upload work files and images into other generative AI experiences. Instead, directly from Teams, Word, PowerPoint and other Microsoft 365 apps, you can leverage not only your opened file, email, chat or meeting, but also other work data that you have permissions to in SharePoint and OneDrive. Copilot retrieves and synthesizes information across emails, chats, and files, so you can generate presentations, respond to emails, and catch up on meetings. The Copilot process also follows your organization’s policies for data protection and compliance, eliminating the need and added risk of bringing your work data to those tools.
Mary David Pasch, Principal Product Manager from the Copilot Platform team, joins Jeremy Chapman to share how Copilot enhances collaboration and efficiency, making complex tasks like document creation and information retrieval effortless and secure.
Generate content based on your files while keeping your data protected.
In Microsoft 365, Copilot works across your files, emails, & chats from within specific app experiences like Excel, Word, and Teams. See how to get started.
Catch up on meetings — even if you join late.
Save time and ensure you’re up to speed with automated recaps. How to streamline your workflow with Copilot in Teams.
Convert Word documents into fully formatted PowerPoint presentations in seconds.
Automatically generate outlines, slides, images and notes. Start using Copilot in your Microsoft 365 apps.
Watch the full video here:
QUICK LINKS:
00:00 — Leverage your work data with Copilot
00:51 — How Copilot augments your prompts
02:22 — Automatically works across your files
03:03 — Meeting recaps with Copilot in Teams
03:59 — Meeting summaries with Copilot in Teams
04:57 — Incorporate specific info from work data
06:53 — Convert written docs to PowerPoint presentations
09:07 — Recommended prompts
10:29 — Standalone Copilot chat experience
12:11 — Stay within your Microsoft 365 data security boundary
12:39 — Wrap up
Link References
For more go to Copilot Lab at https://copilot.cloud.microsoft
Watch our full series on Microsoft Mechanics at https://aka.ms/M365CopilotMechanics
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Video Transcript:
-If you’re using web-based generative AI tools, but want to safely use GenAI tools with your work data, and without that manual copy/paste, well, today, we’ll show you how in Microsoft 365 from one single prompt, Copilot safely leverages your work data automatically, retrieving it fast, for example, to help catch you up on what you may have missed across emails, chats, and files. And Generative AI is also tuned within the different Microsoft 365 App experiences as you work, to expertly generate things like PowerPoint presentations from your files, or take detailed email threads and generate an appropriate response, and much more. And joining me today to show what’s possible in Microsoft 365 when you use Copilot and how it works is Mary Pasch from the Copilot Platform Team, welcome back.
– Yeah, thank you so much for having me again.
– Thanks for joining us today. You know, today, we’re going to do something a little bit different. We’re going to show how Copilot is different in Microsoft 365 compared to anything else out there.
– It really is, and what makes Copilot different is that Copilot itself has a specific job function. Because it’s part of Microsoft 365, beyond knowledge from the Internet, it can use the information that you have access to in Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, OneDrive, email and your calendar. Its main role is to augment your prompts. And I’ll explain what that means. After you submit a prompt, what you don’t see is that in the background, Copilot is assessing your prompt and intent. Depending on what you need, Copilot finds additional information, not just from the Web, but also from information that you explicitly have permissions to. For example, it can append retrieved information, across relevant email, chat, and file content, to your prompt. And then it presents the expanded prompt to the large language model to give it what it needs to generate an informed response. While all of this is happening, Copilot is also making responsible AI checks and will respect and apply data protections as part of the process. Once all those steps are complete, Copilot returns the generated content to the app you’re using.
– Right, so it really goes above and beyond what you might be using today. And really, the only way you might achieve something somewhat similar to this, to really achieve its output, is to copy and paste information into your prompts, maybe perform several prompts, depending on what you’re trying to do. And when you do stuff like that with these different web services, a lot of times, or most times, the information protection controls aren’t in place for your info.
– That’s right. And Copilot really is like an intelligent orchestrator and the difference is how it safely and automatically works across your files, emails and chats, to generate context-appropriate and relevant content, while keeping your data protected. Also, another big difference, as you mentioned, is that the experience is tuned across the different Microsoft 365 apps, whether that’s Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, your OneNote, Microsoft Teams, PowerPoint presentations, your Outlook inbox and many more. You can literally call on Copilot from within specific app experiences to help you save time as you work.
– Right, and as someone who’s been on the team since the very, very early days, what are the experiences that you like to use?
– Wow, there are so many, but one of my favorites since the early days is Copilot in Teams. And let me show you why. Say I have a meeting I’m supposed to be on and I’m running late. Let’s see how Copilot can help me here. I’ll join the call. I can immediately see that the call is in progress already, and Copilot knows I’m joining late and says, “Want to see what you missed?” And there’s a suggested prompt to recap the meeting so far, so I’ll do that. And it’s using the running meeting transcript to summarize what’s happened up until now, and then it’s generating the response that you see here, so that the other people on the call don’t need to spend time recapping what was already said.
– What I really like about that is you’ve probably been on these kind of calls, and I sure have, where somebody joins maybe five minutes late, we all stop and then have to do a recap for that person that’s late to join, then maybe a second person joins late, or 10 minutes late, and then we have to do the same thing again. So it’s not a very efficient use of everyone’s time.
– Yeah, it really isn’t. And related to this, another super helpful capability we’ve worked on is meeting summaries after a call. Here I can return to the meeting after it’s ended and right from the meeting chat, I can view the recap. These AI generated notes are generated from the full transcript. And something really useful is that I can chat with Copilot to ask about other things that were covered in the meeting. In this case, I’m working on a planning document. And so, I’ll ask a specific question, “What were the discounts discussed?” And you can see Copilot answers with an exact summary of the key points conveyed, So, I’m able to quickly fact check that I’m up to date with the discounts that I’ve already reported in my planning document. In fact, let’s switch over to Word to see what I’ve been working on. And one thing I’ll point out, that was a real time saver, is that I’ve used Copilot to generate most of this text based on its open world training on how to structure a planning document, and, in addition to the content I’ve authored myself, Copilot provided much of the draft content that you’re seeing here to get me started. And from here, I can do even better, by incorporating more specific information from the work data that I can access. Let’s say for example, if after the meeting, my colleague Daichi let me know that the discount and incentive structure has been updated. I can open Copilot, and start writing a prompt, “summarize the discount plan.” I’ll type the forward slash and write “Daichi” as the person who shared the updates with me. And, I’ll pause here for a second, because this is important. We’ve made it easy for you to choose from Files, People, Meetings, or Email items to incorporate the working set of information you want. This way, if I don’t remember where the information was shared with me, and it doesn’t matter, I can just select Daichi by name, and add “sent earlier this week” for Copilot to find it. And I’ll submit my prompt.
– This is a really great capability because you might be working with people across email and Microsoft Teams, and you can quickly retrieve the content just by knowing the person that shared it with you and you don’t need to know where it was shared in order to augment your prompts.
– That’s right. And importantly, I didn’t need to go to a browser to do this. I don’t need to copy/paste anything outside of Word, or upload any information to a different web service. And back on my screen, you can see that Copilot found the updates I was referring to. It looks like the discounts and incentives have increased a bit. And from the citation, I can see that this came from an email, and how to find the source, which is another great feature to check for accuracy. In this case, I know it’s right, so I’ll use this new information to update my document. And check this out, I can even use Copilot inline as I write to automatically rewrite the text here, or one of my favorite capabilities is how you can easily change the format of the information presented, and I’ll use Copilot to visualize this bulleted list as a table. And Copilot automatically translates everything in that list to a much easier to read table. And I’m ready to send my plan off to reviewers in just a fraction of the time.
– Okay, so now you’ve got your document ready, it’s probably time in that point in time, actually, where you’d start to want to present this out to other people, maybe using PowerPoint.
– Yeah, this is usually when someone asks you to change your document to a PowerPoint presentation. So let’s look at how Copilot is tailored to each specific app. In PowerPoint, we can convert our written document into a presentation by just referencing the file. I’ve already created a new blank presentation. And in the Home tab, you’ll see the control to open Copilot. Once I do that, I can submit prompts below on the right. And above that, it also recommends a few things I can do to get started. Because I want to create a presentation based on the file I was just working on in Word, I’ll choose “Create presentation from file.” And that immediately pulls up my files. Right at the top of the list is the “Product and Promotion Plan” document, so I’ll choose that. Then I’ll confirm. And this process takes a moment, because behind the scenes, Copilot is orchestrating a lot of work to reason over this information. First, you can see that Copilot has processed the document and generates an outline for the presentation. Then with the text content ready, it moves on to generating the slides for the presentation. And you’ll see those appear on the left. Once that’s complete, Copilot lets you know what it’s generated with a summary. In fact, let’s take a look at our presentation. Not only has it generated the slide content, but it’s also generated notes for each slide, here in slide 1, you’ll see that it also cites the source material. As I move to slide 3, it’s added an image with solar panels, speaker notes and information from the original document. On this slide, it added another image and cited the corresponding sentences from the source. And here are the discounts and incentives I just added to the document a moment ago. So, it’s an amazing first draft and Copilot even recommends using AI from Designer to help in changing the look of my slides if I want. I like this background with a light bulb and I’ll choose that. And so, in just a few moments with one simple recommended prompt, I’ve converted a complex document into a fully formatted presentation.
– And again, just to be clear here, this is something that you can’t really replicate with standard AI tools. It would take dozens of prompts, image generation or image searches, then you have to add everything into your presentation along with speaker notes. And Copilot just orchestrates all of that for you.
– And we’re really just scratching the surface here. There’s a lot more it can do. In fact, let’s go back to PowerPoint to explore what you can do is using the recommended prompts, which are tailored to each app experience. There are a few categories for PowerPoint, with Create, Understand, Edit, and Ask. Under each, you can see what works well, like our “Create a presentation from a file” prompt that I just used. And now if I head over to “View more prompts,” I’ll find all of the recommendations from Copilot Lab for whichever app I’m using. Then if I go over to “See all prompts,” that takes me to the Copilot Lab website. And there, you can see all the recommended prompts to try for each of the Copilot experiences across apps. In fact, there are a dozen Microsoft 365 apps and services with integrated Copilot experiences. Here, you can filter to sort by the task you want to do, like Catch up, Create, Understand, Edit and Ask. And something we’re asked a lot is “What can Copilot do for me in my job?” So, we’ve also added Department and Industry-specific prompts to try, and this list will keep growing over time. I’m actually going to sort by task in my case and select “Catch up.” Then I’ll click into “What’s new” and I can see that this prompt looks for the latest from a person, but the powerful thing is that it can search the content you have access to across emails, chats, and files. And from here, I can copy it, add it to my favorites or even share it with others for them to try out for themselves
– Just to point out, that last one that you showed, it doesn’t really have a specific app that it’s anchoring to, because the files could be anything that you can access, they can be your Email or also conversations in Teams.
– And that’s by design, because beyond using Copilot in apps, there’s the standalone Copilot chat experience that’s connected to your work data. This can quickly generate content and look across multiple apps and locations in Microsoft 365. You can get to this from microsoft365.com or in Teams using Copilot chat. To save a little time typing, I’ll paste in a prompt from my clipboard. It says “write me an update based on: 1. The solar promo, 2. Revised discounts and incentives, and 3. The regional rollout and availability.” Something like this is perfect when your manager asks for an update or you want to catch up after being away from work for a few days. So now I’ll submit it. And while that generates a response, notice what I did there in the prompt. When you’re using Copilot, it’s important to be descriptive and add more details than you might typically add, for example, when performing a search. Here, I separated each of these topic areas with commas and numbers to make it very clear that I’m looking for updates in each of those areas. Now you’ll see that Copilot is generating its response starting with the Solar Promo. Then, I see the discounts and incentives and the details we’ve seen earlier. And then the Regional Rollout and Availability details, and these are all new to me. So, in the references list below, I can see the Regional Rollout citation. And this is a live link I can click on to go directly to that specific conversation in Microsoft Teams. And here I can see all of the granular details for the different rollout phases across regions for our promotion.
– And like you mentioned, this is also how you’d verify the different generated responses. And again, you didn’t need to copy/paste or upload any documents to a location outside of Microsoft 365. This is something that can pose a security risk if you do these things. Right, what you do with Copilot stays within your Microsoft 365 data security boundary. And all of the actions are fully logged and can be audited, too.
– Which, again, is a huge difference compared to what you might be doing today with other generative AI tools, where you likely don’t have that same level of visibility or control on the data that gets shared with those other services. So, we’ve covered a lot today, we’ve seen how a lot of things work, what do you recommend for the folks watching right now that they do to get started?
– To learn more, I’d say one of the best resources is to go to Copilot Lab at copilot.cloud.microsoft or from the apps, for a great breakdown of what you can do by app and other suggested prompts. And, of course, watch the full series on Microsoft Mechanics to learn how everything with Copilot works and even more things that Copilot can do, at aka.ms/M365CopilotMechanics.
– Thanks so much again for joining us today, Mary, it’s great to see all the possibilities and there’s a lot more that you can do, even when you use Copilot extensions to work with data outside of Microsoft 365, and there are more capabilities coming soon. So, be sure to subscribe for more Copilot updates like this. And thank you for watching.
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