M365 Changelog: “All” List Update on Office.com

MC242583 – Updated March 09, 2021: We have updated the content with additional details for clarity. Thank you for your feedback.

“All” files list: Helps you quickly find, work on, and collaborate on the files or content that matters most to you.

This message is associated with Microsoft 365 Roadmap ID 70728

When this will happen

This is available now.

How this will affect your organization

This upgrade to the document list organized by “Recent”, “Shared with Me”, “Pinned”, and “Discover” is being updated to become the “All” files list which combines these lists into a more comprehensive list of your users’ files and content and still includes pivots for “My recent” files, “Shared” files, and content you have marked/starred as “Favorites”.

It will span cloud, email attachments, and local file giving them access to many more documents on the initial Office.com screen. You’ll notice a performance improvement in the speed in which they can navigate this large list of content, and includes new real-time “filter as you type” so you can rapidly narrow the list just by typing a few characters of the title or the people associated with the documents.

It has a new “All” pivot that spans all your content and helps you keep up with important document user activity, as well as a “My recent” pivot that lets you focus in on just what you’ve opened. Another pivot is a more modernized, customer requested “Favorites” that enables marking for easier retrieval and is portable to other endpoints such as your desktop Win32 apps and will be seen as “Pinned”.

More details:

• The NEW real-time “filter as you type” lets you type just a few characters and refines your list immediately, so you don’t have to remember the exact file name or the full name of the person you remember sharing the content with you. Try it out by just typing a few letters of your co-worker’s name or part of a file name!
• Columns allow scope narrowing by filetype such as “Word”, “PDF”, “Media”, “Stream”, or other file types, if it was shared to or by you, or by various activity types such as @mentions, edits, comments, or what you’ve hidden (more on that in the next bullet).
• Next to each file name is an overflow action menu and can also be enabled via a right-click. It enables opening the file in different ways, sharing the file or obtaining a sharing link for it, adding to your “Favorite” list, hiding the file if it is more sensitive and you don’t want it showing in your list (hint: unhide using a selection in the Activity column header), or other common actions.

What you need to do to prepare

No preparation necessary as the UX will just update automatically

Your users may have a couple questions that we can help you with:

Q: How do I get back to my Recent documents that used to show up here?

A: While the list is expanded to show you all your content you have access to across cloud, emails, and local files, we have still included a pivot labeled “My recent” which narrows the list to only the content you have personally opened.

Q: It’s a big list now, how do I find a file when I vaguely remember part of the title or someone who worked on the content?

A: We have added a “Type to filter” that lets you type any number of characters of the filename or the contributing people and it will quickly narrow the list and highlight those candidate items. Customer feedback has been incredibly positive on how this helps them get back to items and how speedy it is.

Q: Do I see files that aren’t mine?

A: This service only includes files and content that you have access to. If you don’t have access to it, it won’t show up in the list

Q: I’m not seeing my local files in the “All” list, what do I need to do?

A: Users who have enabled sharing their “Activity History” with Microsoft are able to see their local files in the list. Either search for “Activity History Privacy” to go to your Settings or on Windows 10 go to Settings / Activity history to check the boxes for “Store my activity history on this device” and “Send my activity history to Microsoft” and enable your account under the “Show activities form these account” section.