I think the snowmageddon got them. The news is a little lite this month and all I can figure is the snow storms Seattle got this month just broke the whole machine. Or maybe it was because January was straight fire. Either way. Here is what I know about Teams documentation, Microsoft Forms Pro, some Office client stuff,PowerApps, and of course the icons. Enjoy!

Updated content for Microsoft Teams

I keep telling you that Teams is coming like a freight train. To help you manage the train, they continue to improve the documentation, including content on the real challenge how to effectively roll out Teams. Read more on the new documentation here. There is also some proper training content, including videos available in the new readiness materials. Get the links and game plan here.

Microsoft Forms Pro

Coming soon to the internet near you is Microsoft Forms Pro. I think this is fun. They released Microsoft Forms as a way to compete with other survey and quick data capture tools out there (cough Google cough). Turns out adoption was super high and then everyone kept saying I wish it could do X or Y. Microsoft did the right thing, instead of adding a million enterprise features to the free product they are spinning off a paid version. This means they don’t screw up the easy to use product Microsoft Forms but branch it into a proper, paid product with all of these great new features and more important integrations with other platforms. Kudos.

Also make sure to check out everything Tony published this month as well, including the upcoming discussion on the reliability of Office 365.

New Icons

In case you have been living under a rock, there are new icons for Office 365 rolling out. I am certain you already knew this but I felt obligated to mention it here because every other outlet on the planet has mentioned it. So yay, icons changed. Special shout out to Mark for reminding me to include this.

Office 365 vs Office 2019 clients

I keep trying to figure out ways to tell you guys how great the Office 365 clients are vs. the Office 2019. Apparently, Microsoft has been working to tell the same story. To that end, they released these videos Office 356 vs Office 2019. These videos are basically twins being given the same task on two different Office versions and then talking smack to each other. Good stuff. Give them a watch and if you can get yourself on the Office 365 clients.

Productivity insights in Outlook

Keeping with the client side theme, coming in late March will be new insights features built into Outlook. Basically, they are the machines attempting to learn to do your job. No, that isn’t true. What it is an Outlook add-in that will help you better manage your inbox, meetings, and calendar right in the context of Outlook. I am certain mine will just say something to the effect “you have too many emails, delete them all and start over”. I am interested to check this one out, AI and machine learning are coming on fast, might as well enjoy the ride. The link above has details of what is coming and some FAQ of how it is coming.

PowerApps adds components

I almost submitted this without adding something about PowerApps but I couldn’t hit publish without this info. This month PowerApps rolled out components, a new feature that allows you to package multiple controls to create reusable objects in your apps. These things are super awesome and move PowerApps as a platform up another rung on the ladder. Read about what they are here and then check out the 10 that Microsoft released here. My mind is swirling with ideas. They are just in preview but you need to dig in now. What will you build?