Disabling SharePoint Designer access in Office 365

SharePoint Designer is a free tool from Microsoft that allows you to make modifications to SharePoint sites. It can allow you to make changes down to the code and HTML level. That is great if you know what you are doing, however if you don’t you can cause irrevocable damage to SharePoint.

In most cases, this means you want to keep users away from using SharePoint Designer, however Office 365 by default provides the option to download SharePoint Designer right from the console as you can see:

It is located in the Software section of all users Office 365 portal under the tools & add-ins.

As an administrator it is possible to disable this. Here is the procedure.

From the menu on the left hand side select service settings.

From the menu across the top select user software.

At the top of the page you’ll find the option to Manage user software through Office 365. In this section you can uncheck SharePoint Designer and then press the save button. You’ll also notice that you have the option to prevent users from also downloading Office and Lync (if it is part of their plan).

The next time a user accesses their console and goes to Software and tools & add-ins they will see a message:

The administrator has disabled SharePoint Designer 2013 installations. Contact your administrator for information about how to install SharePoint Designer 2013.

Unfortunately, this is not the only way that a user can download SharePoint Designer. They can of course download it directly from the Microsoft download site here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download/details.aspx?id=35491

So what can you do if users download SharePoint Designer themselves and attempt to modify SharePoint? Luckily, SharePoint has the ability to disable operation within individual SharePoint site collections. Unfortunately, if you have multiple site collections (M or E plans generally) then you’ll need to make the following changes on each site collection.

In the top right of the window press the ‘cog’ icon to reveal the above menu. From this select Site Settings.

In the bottom left, under Site Collection Administration, select SharePoint Designer Settings.

Unselect all the options listed. By doing so you will remove the ability for ALL users (administrators included) to use SharePoint Designer on this site collection.

You will note that by default only Site Owners and Designers can edit sites using SharePoint Designer. Most users are only Site members, so they “shouldn’t” be able to using SharePoint Designer on a site. However, if you want to 100% sure that NO ONE can use it then uncheck all the options here.

Press the OK button to save and changes made. You will be returned to the Site Settings page.

The following Microsoft Support Article provides more information as well:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2592376

CIAOPS Podcast–Episode 54

In this episode I’m joined by MSP Jim Hunton who speaks about the challenges of IT Providers and managing passwords. Jim shares his experience and his findings as what he has found works best for his business and his customers.

You can listen to this podcast and subscribe to the series at:
http://ciaops.podbean.com/2013/06/18/episode-54-jim-hunton/
You can support this podcast via http://donation.ciaops.com and by visiting our new sponsor PROXPN. Visit proxpn.com/podcast and use the offer code CIAOPS for a 20% discount off your new account.
Don’t forget all the other previous podcasts at
http://ciaops.podbean.com
and appreciate a like over at
http://www.facebook.com/n2kpodcast.
Remember if you want to be a guest please contact me (director@ciaops.com).

Setting Office 365 password expiry from the console

With the latest version of Office 365 it is possible to alter the password expiry policy for the whole organization directly from the Administration console. To do this complete the following.

Select passwords from the options across the top of the page.

You can now enter a value for Days before passwords expire which can be from 14 to 730 and Days before a user is notified that their password will expire which can be from 1 to 30 days.

If you want to set a users password to never expire you will still need to use PowerShell and the details on achieving that can be found here:

Setting a Office 365 users password to never expire

And of course don’t forget to press the Save button after changing any values.

A different way to look at Outlook Web Access

If you access your Exchange Online mailbox in Office 365 from a browser using http://mail.office365.com you’ll see something like the above default view. This happens because Outlook Web Access detects you are using a browser on a desktop and formats the display as such.

What you may not be aware of is that on other devices, say a tablet or a mobile, Outlook Web Access will format the screen differently automatically.

If you want to see this on your desktop you can ‘fool’ Outlook Web Access by appending the following to the URL:

?layout=twide

thus, the complete URL in this case will become:

https://pod51041.outlook.com/owa/?layout=twide

When you do so you should see the above layout designed for a tablet. The menu items are further apart, there are nice big buttons at the bottom of the screen and so on.

Now if you instead append:

?layout=tnarrow

you’ll see the above layout which is how it would appear on a mobile device.

So by just adding a few additions to the end of the Outlook Web Access URL you can see how it will appear on both a tablet or mobile without leaving the comfort of your desktop.

Office 2013 Touch/Mouse mode

Here’s something you may not have known about Office 2013.

In the Quickstart menu at the very top of the screen you will see a down arrow that allows you to customize this menu. On that menu you’ll find an option Touch/Mouse mode.

If you add that item to the Quickstart menu you’ll now see a new button appear that looks like a pointing finger. Pressing that reveals the two menu options shown above.

If you select the Touch option the Office interface, including the Ribbon Menu is optimized for touch (i.e. the spacing between the buttons increases).

If you then select Mouse the interface will return to the original spacing.

Thus, you can easily toggle between touch and mouse depending on how you are using the device. Really handy for hybrid devices like the Microsoft Surface Pro and is available in all Office 2013 applications.

Office 365 Service Descriptions shortcut

If you want to find out exactly what Office 365 plans include and don’t include you should always consult the Office 365 Services Descriptions. These are now posted as web pages rather than document which makes them much easier to refer. Only problems generally was finding the the link.
Turns out there is a easy short cut:
http://o365sd.com
will take you straight to the Services descriptions. Easy eh?

Yammer integration in Office 365

I think that Yammer integration for Office 365 is great news and even better is now you should be able to enable for your Enterprise tenants.
To do so, login to you Office 365 portal as an Admin.

From the Admin menu option in the top right of the screen select SharePoint.

From the SharePoint admin center select settings at the bottom of the menu on the left hand side.

At the top of the page you will see the Enterprise Social Collaboration option. Simply select Use Yammer.com service and press OK at the bottom of the page.
Now at the moment you’ll need to have already set up an Yammer account but you can do that for free. Going forward, we’ll see deeper integration between Yammer and Office 365. For details on this see the following blog post:
http://blogs.office.com/b/sharepoint/archive/2013/03/19/yammer-and-sharepoint-enterprise-social-roadmap-update.aspx
For more information also see the following:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/office365-sharepoint-online-enterprise-help/pick-your-enterprise-social-network-yammer-or-newsfeed-HA104037368.aspx
where it notes:

Activate Yammer for your organization

If you’re interested in activating Yammer for your organization, take a look at your options:

If you’re a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement customer, you can activate Yammer Enterprise for free. Microsoft Enterprise Agreement customers with qualifying license purchases, such as Office 365 Enterprise E3 and E4 plans, are eligible to activate Yammer Enterprise for their users. Qualified customers will need to work with a Yammer Service representative to start the activation process and appoint a Verified Administrator and a Community Manager to manage their company’s Yammer network.
If you’re not a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement customer, your organization can sign up and use a Yammer basic network. Learn more about Yammer plans and pricing to help get you started.

Of course if you don’t want to use Yammer or want to switch back to the traditional Newsfeeds you can by just reversing the process.
I’ll do a future post about how important I believe social tools, like Yammer, are to the way competitive business will function going forward. I honestly believe that if you don’t embrace social inside your business NOW you will be left behind.
So, if you haven’t looked at what Yammer and does, now is the time because soon it will be deeply integrated into all aspects of Office 365.