Freaky Friday Tips for Microsoft 365 - Convert a Calendar Meeting in Outlook to an OneNote item

 

 

Next up in our line of Microsoft 365 tips and tricks is that Outlook Calendar can be easily transformed into an item in your OneNote app, complete with deadlines and reminder notifications.

 

1.     Select the item (Meeting) and then select the Send to OneNote icon

 

 

2.     Select location.

3.     Click OK.

 

 

You can also convert OneNote items into meetings in your calendar, so you never miss an important date.

Stay Tuned for more Freaky Friday Microsoft 365 Tips.

What is Shifts?

Shifts Video 

With Shifts in Microsoft Teams, create a schedule, assign shifts to your team members, copy and reuse shifts, and add open shifts.

 

Shifts in Microsoft Teams is a schedule management tool that helps you create, update, and manage schedules for your team. 

• Schedules - Create, edit, and manage a schedule with Shifts in Microsoft Teams. A Shifts schedule displays days at the top, team members appear on the left, and assigned shifts appear in the calendar. 

• Groups - Name a group like a job type or location to keep your groups organized. 

• Shifts - Choose where to add a shift. Create it from scratch, or copy an existing one.

• Open shifts - Each schedule has an open shifts row. Add open shifts to your schedule that anyone can request. 

• Time Clock - Time Clock lets your team clock in and out of a shift with a mobile device.

• Requests - Review requests for time off, shift swaps, or offers. 

Schedules and groups

1. To create a new schedule:

   • Select Create a new schedule to build one from scratch.

   • Select View to choose an existing schedule.

   • Select Create on the team you want. You must be a team owner to create one. 

2. Select Add group to organize your schedule based on a job type or location. 

3. To name the group, select More options  > Rename group, type a group name, and then select Save.

4. To add people to a group, select Add people, choose someone, and then select Add. 

Create a shift for a team member

1. To create a shift for someone, select their row, and then select More options > Add shift.

2. Add or edit start and end times, a custom label, break times, shift notes, and activities, and then select Save.

Copy a shift

1. To reuse the same shift across your schedule, on the shift, select More options  > Copy. Or, press CTRL + C. 

2. To include shift activities, turn the Always include shift activities when copying shifts toggle On, and then select Done.  

3. To paste, choose an empty slot and select More options > Paste. Or, press Ctrl + V.

Add an open shift

• Choose a day, and then select More options > Add open shift.

• If you need to copy or switch to another schedule, select Copy schedule, or select the menu  and then choose a shift to switch to.

Microsoft 365 Tips in Productivity for Busy Executives

Looming deadlines, an endless flow of information, and multiple tasks demanding our constant attention, we often feel unfocused, overwhelmed, and ineffective. In other words, we experience “executive skills malfunction.”

“Executive functioning” is the term psychologists use to describe how our brains work—specifically, the cognitive skills we use to organize our professional and personal lives, to make plans and then execute on them.

Unfortunately, the executive function part of the brain doesn’t always work the way we want it to. Oftentimes, our capacity for complex thinking and getting things done shuts down. We lose our ability to control our impulses and emotions, and to adjust our behavior positively to unexpected changes. Moreover, when this happens in a group or team, the ripple effect is an organizational culture where everyone is regularly working reactively rather than proactively.

Improve your organizational skills

At its peak capacity, your executive function helps you efficiently organize your thoughts and ideas. But if you’re consistently struggling to keep track of important information and relying on chaotic systems to stay on top of things, the following solutions are essential.

• OneNote is a great alternative to writing your ideas down or mapping things out visually on paper. It also helps you save, organize, and access all your memos in one secure place. Store your notes in a variety of formats, including hand-written texts, drawings, charts, and tables—as well as audio files, images, and videos.
• Microsoft List provides a simple and flexible way to manage the work data that matters to you and your team. Create, share, and track issues, contacts, and inventory to keep everyone aligned around what’s happening. For example, if your business loans laptops and smartphones to employees, use your app to create an asset list, noting who has each device, their assigned product number, and the date they were first assigned that product. Start quickly with ready-made templates or spreadsheet files, see recent and favorite lists, and even add photos with QR code support.

• Streamline planning, prioritization, and task management

  If you have trouble setting and reaching goals, making decisions about what to focus on now versus later, and just getting started on tasks, these digital tools can keep you productive and motivated.

  • Use the Microsoft TO DO app create and store all your individual tasks in one place—essentially using it as a smart daily planner. Create your tasks and sub-tasks in the app and make them meaningful by adding descriptions, photos, and files for reference. Simply open the app at the beginning of your day and it will help you map out everything that must be completed. Over time, this app will help you track your existing behavior patterns to create more productive habits, providing personalized suggestions on the most critical priorities for the day. Set up reminders for certain tasks, which will keep you accountable and more intentional about prioritizing your workflow.

  

  • Microsoft 365 Planner is an intuitive tool that uses Kanban boards and task notes packed with files, checklists, and labels, providing you with just enough information to overcome indecision and keep moving through your workday. It also offers many useful features—such as visual insights, email notifications, and the ability to assign individual tasks—to help you and your team avoid chaotic workflows. By following a structured checklist and crossing off completed tasks, you’ll fight procrastination and gain a sense of achievement.
  • Microsoft 365 Outlook is an essential tool for improving your ability to plan and prioritize. It helps you structure your time effectively with a comprehensive view of the days, weeks, and months ahead. Color code your calendar to schedule regular breaks in your day to spend time away from your devices or allot focus time for strategic thinking and deep work. Manage expectations by using a solution that shows your team when you’re busy and when you’re available.  
• Excerpt from Digital productivity tools to maximize your executive function skills Microsoft 365 Team May 12, 2021

• Contact us for a free 30 minute consultation on your productivity needs.

Populating a Word document with Microsoft Power Automate

Dynamics 365 has long had the ability to populate Word templates, but not without limitations. Now with Power Automate, there is an easier way.

Microsoft Power Automate has a huge range of functionality and with the help of the native Word connector, it is possible to take a prepared Word document and populate it with data from Microsoft Dynamics 365. The main advantage of this method over using traditional Dynamics 365 templates is that the data can come from any tables that you reference in your flow and can also be combined with additional data along the way.

This tip has steps that are required to create your customized Word document and create a multi-page report using Dynamics 365 data.

A one-time step that needs to be carried out is to enable the Developer tab in Word’s ribbon.

1.   Go to the File Tab and select Options/Custom Ribbon, choose the Developer Option and Click OK.  Your window should look as shown:

Next start a new Word document and format as required. In this example, we’re creating a simple table of contact information:

First Name	Last Name	Email Address	Address	City	State

 For this tip we will have repeating rows to populate the table within the document, so you only need to create one blank row for now

For each field you want to populate, you will need to add a placeholder reference via the Developer tab as shown in the following figure.

1 – Developer tab

2 – References

3 – Design Mode

1.     Click the Insert Text Control button

2.     Enter a name of your choosing in the ‘Title’ box and click OK. Keep this simple – lower case with no spaces.

3.   When  all the fields are in place and with their titles set, you will need to select the entire row and add a Repeating Section Content Control, as seen below:

Now that the Word document is ready, you need to upload it so that it can be accessed by Power Automate. The simplest place for this would be OneDrive for Business, but SharePoint is another straightforward option as well.

You are now ready to create the flow to populate your template with data from Dynamics 365. Head over to Power Automate begin creating your flow, either from the Flows option in the menu or creating the Flow.  In this tip, you have kept things simple, with the flow being triggered manually and listing all contacts:

The key part to note is the initialization of an empty array that we will later be populating with Dynamics data.

Next, add an Append To Array Variable action, select your array variable initialized earlier and enter your text as shown:

You will note that as soon as you add the first field (First Name in our example), an Apply To Each loop is automatically created for you; this enables your Flow to automatically loop through all of the records found in your List Records action. Ensure that ‘Value’ text is entered cautiously in the same format as above or you will get an error message.

Now that you have prepared your data, you are now ready to populate your uploaded Word Document. When you add a Populate a Microsoft Word Template action, you will be prompted to browse for the location of the file and once selected, the references you added earlier will automatically be displayed:

Although each individual reference is displayed, by clicking the Switch To Input Entire Array button, you can populate the entire row at once using your array variable:

With the Word document now containing data, it’s ready to be used; in this case, you are just sending a simple email with the Word file as an attachment:

And as you can see, the received document is now populated with all the requested Contact data:

  

First Name	Last Name	Email Address	Address	City	State
Carol	Ray-Holmes	Carol.rayholmes@ladyraycomputer.net	1234 Anywhere St	Sacramento	CA
Joe	Jones	Joe.jones@sampleemail.com	3949 Freed Street	Cleveland	OH
Jean	Stinnett	Jean.stinnett@sampleemail.com	4848 St John Road	Atlanta	GA
Remme	Smith	Remme.smith@sampleemail.com	2920 Steward Rd	Houston	TX

Now with a  few simple steps, Word documents can be created that can be populated with your Dynamics 365 data. Once a Word file has been created, edits to this file can easily be made and the original file overwritten, making it much easier to maintain than a traditional Dynamics 365 template.

For more tips and tricks follow updates, workshops and consulting services at www.ladyraycomputer.net