[VIDEO] Using a site template with a new site collection in SharePoint Online

I’ve just uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel that shows you how to take a site template from one site collection and use it as the base site in a completely new site collection. You’ll find the video at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeeTPTLYjaU

This is based off an earlier blog post I did on the same topic.

Now using this technique you can create and template a site (including the content if you wish) and use this as the first site in a completely different site collection with SharePoint Online.

SkyDrive is now Onedrive

We all knew that SkyDrive was going to be renamed but until now we weren’t sure what that name would be. Well now we know – it will be called OneDrive!
If you want the official announcement here it is:
http://blog.onedrive.com/onedrive-for-everything-your-life/
and you can sign up for a preview at:
https://preview.onedrive.com/
Interestingly for existing users:
For current users of either SkyDrive or SkyDrive Pro, you’re all set. The service will continue to operate as you expect and all of your content will be available on OneDrive and OneDrive for Business respectively as the new name is rolled out across the portfolio.
So SkyDrive Pro becomes OneDrive for Business which I think will reduce confusion in the market place about the product and which market it serves.
So, now we just have to wait and see what other changes get rolled into this updated product.

[VIDEO] Saving a SharePoint Online site as a template

The original post is here:

https://blog.ciaops.com/2013/10/saving-sharepoint-online-site-as.html

but now I have done a video on how to save and re use a SharePoint Online template.

Upgrading a SharePoint site in Office 365 to current version

If you have been using Office 365 prior to February 2013, you would have been on what is known as Wave 14 or the 2010 versions of the software. This means that your SharePoint site collections (i.e. top level sites) probably looks something like this now when you visit:

You’ll see that it still has the older SharePoint 2010 interface but now there is big crimson banner across the top of the page like so:

What this is letting you know is that it you have the option to upgrade the interface (i.e the look and feel) to the latest SharePoint 2013 version.

For most people who have used SharePoint this upgrade is something that you can do immediately. Where it becomes more complicated if you have gone in a done some major customizations to the look and feel (i.e. HTML and CSS changes) or inserted custom code (i.e. solutions and web parts). In that case, you are really need going to need to spend some time testing these with the new 2013 interface. Also remember that upgrading a site collection will also upgrade all subsites automatically as well.

However, in this case, I know I have a very basic SharePoint site collection so I am going to proceed with the upgrade by selecting the Go to the upgrade page now link in the banner.

That will take me to a page like you see above. Here I have the option to Try a demo upgrade if I want but I am happy to proceed with the complete upgrade so I select the Upgrade this Site Collection button.

Importantly, taking this option means that when the process is complete I will be unable to roll back to the 2010 version of my site, so make sure you are 100% certain that is what you want to do.

You’ll receive a confirmation that you want to proceed with this as it is a one way trip! I’m sure I won’t have any issues so I press the I’m ready button to proceed.

Now the upgrade will be scheduled. It may take a while for the upgrade process to commence so be patient. If you get cold feet you can press the Don’t Upgrade Now button, however if just wait this page will refresh every 60 seconds or so to let know the status. Pressing the Refresh Now button doesn’t make the upgrade process commence any quicker (much like traffic lights).

Shortly, the upgrade process will commence as you can see above. Again, the screen will refresh every 60 seconds or so and provided updated information on the progress of the upgrade.

The time to complete the upgrade process will depend on the size of your SharePoint site collection and the amount of information and sub sites it contains.

Once the process is complete you will hopefully see a Completed Successfully message as shown above. If you want to, you can select the log file link to view technical details about your upgrade. That will look something like:

Which is probably only going to be of use if the upgrade failed for some reason.

In most cases you’ll select the Let’s see this new site button in the lower right hand corner.

Doing so should reveal the upgrade site with an updated SharePoint 2013 interface like shown above.

If you do need to revisit the upgrade log you can do so.

Select cog in the top right hand corner and from the menu that appears select Site Settings.

In the bottom right of the Site Settings screen under the Site Collection features select Site Collection Upgrade.

Now select the Preview Site Collection Upgrade Status link in the middle of the page.

You’ll again see the link to the upgrade log file.

Now what happens if you do nothing and don’t upgrade your site collections to the 2013 interface? It is my understanding (and I am not 100% sure about this) that come April 2014 Microsoft will automatically upgrade any old Wave 14 site collections to Wave 15, but as I said I haven’t found anything definitive on whether this will be case and how it will be conducted. Best advice? Upgrade as soon as you can so you have the control.

All in the name

As you may well know I have written a number of books that are available on my site or from places like Amazon. One of these is:
Getting Started with SkyDrive Pro for Office 365.
I recently received a very poor review from PL1 Pgrmr that reads:
Not what it purports to be: I found this book to be totally corporate oriented. When I bought it, my thought was to understand Skydrive and how it works better. This book fails on all counts. After skimming it, I was sorry I even bought it. Stay away unless you are in a corporate environment.
Now my first reaction, especially to the review title, has annoyance as I certainly believed that both the title and the description were valid. However, upon reflection I can see where the problem lies.
Office 365 has a Home Edition that also includes SkyDrive but the consumer version NOT the Pro version. So this person would seem to have Office 365 Home Edition and was looking for information about SkyDrive, bought my book and was disappointed because my book only covers the business versions of Office 365.
So here we have a great example of how inconsistency in products confuses end users:
1. Office 365 Home is NOTHING like Office 365 for business
2. SkyDrive Pro is NOTHING like consumer SkyDrive
Now I do understand that Microsoft is trying to unify its products and brand all under one cloud banner but it is still very confusing for end users. Even I had to stop and look at this from the point of view of someone who has purchase Office 365 Home and wants information on SkyDrive and how easily it would be to confuse my book on Office 365 Business and SkyDrive Pro.
It is so easy as technology people who understand the differences between products like SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro to overlook the fact that the vast majority of end users struggle to differentiate the products. It also highlights how you have to really, really specific with these cloud offering to ensure you are targeting exactly the right audience.
No one is at fault here, it is just confusion around the product editions. I have now updated the description on Amazon to indicate my book doesn’t talk to the Office 365 Home edition and I have left a comment for the reviewer indicating what I believe is where the confusion lies.
My book NEVER attempted to cover consumer SkyDrive and in the first few pages (which I am sure you can view via a preview it does say:
It is important not to confuse the consumer edition of SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro
and
This means it covers material that is applicable for Enterprise Office 365 Plans and well as for the Small Business and Professionals Plans. It will not cover the consumer version of SkyDrive.
However, I do understand how someone using the Office 365 Home edition could still be confused, yet I think the title of the review is a little harsh but I accept that is what happens when you publish publically.
So what’s the point of this post? I suppose it is to say always ensure that you avoid confusion in the minds of consumers when it comes to your products. If there is confusion there will be frustration like that experienced by the reviewer and myself as an author both expecting different content from a product of the same name, that being Office 365. That frustration results in negative sentiment when in fact each product provides a great solution for home users and for business. It is unfortunate that they are so dissimilar but share a common name.
Oh well, I need to update that SkyDrive Pro book anyway.

Enable Yammer integration in Office 365

A while back Microsoft bought Yammer and since then has been working hard to integrate it into Office 365. If you have an Enterprise Office 365 plan you should now have the ability to enable this integration.

Here’s a brief outline of how to complete this integration.

Login to your Office 365 portal as an administrator. At the bottom of the second column on this page you should see Included services. Select this.

That will now display the above option to the right. Select the link – Yes, activate Yammer Enterprise for my network.

You’ll then be taken to a screen where you can select which domain you wish to activate that on from the pull down list at the top of the screen.

Then select the Activate Yammer Enterprise button below.

The configuration will now commence. As noted this process could take 1 to 30 minutes to complete.

Look out for future post of the Yammer integration with Office 365 as I think this is another HUGE opportunity with the product.

Adding additional SharePoint storage for Office 365 P plans

All SharePoint Online plans provide the ability to add additional storage. In the Small Business plans this can be a little hard to locate. Here’s a quick overview of what you need to do.

Login to your Office 365 tenant as an administrator and select Manage and purchase licenses from under the licenses heading at the bottom of the page.

Click on purchase services at the top of the page and then Add under your Small Business plan on the right under the price.

Select optional add-ons item under user license at $XX.XX

Add your storage and complete the purchase.

Now you should be able to assign additional storage to your SharePoint Online site in the Small Business plans.

Adding space is slightly different for M and E plans and I’ll cover that in an upcoming post. Also, the story is a little different for plan in Australia so beware.