Nate Chamberlain | NateChamberlain.com

July 18, 2021July 18, 2021

How to paste a copied URL as a web address instead of a hyperlinked title

You may have noticed that when you copy a web address from the Microsoft Edge browser bar and paste it somewhere, it shows a hyperlinked title instead of the web address. For some cases, this is great – it makes your emails, chats, and documentation look more professional.

For other cases, you’d like to actually see the URL (such as when creating print/unclickable resources or wanting to promote the address itself). Luckily, there’s just a slightly different method to use depending on what you’re hoping to achieve.

Copy/paste keyboard shortcuts to show web address or hyperlinked text

Normally, you can use Ctrl + C (copy) and Ctrl + V (paste). This is what will give you hyperlinked text instead of a web address by default. Your result would resemble NateChamberlain.com.

Use Ctrl + C (copy) and Ctrl + Shift + V (paste address) to show the web address instead of hyperlinked text. Your result would resemble https://natechamberlain.com/.

I prefer the keyboard shortcuts because they can be used everywhere, regardless of the destination app.

Right-click menu options when working in web apps (browser locations)

If you’re not a fan of keyboard shortcuts, you can also right-click to copy:

Then right-click to paste either option (web address or hyperlinked text). In this menu “Plan text” is the web address and “Link (Default)” is the hyperlinked text with the site/page title.

Right-click or paste options in other apps (like Office client applications)

You can look in your other apps for paste options like “Keep text only” in Office apps. See the following animation to see two of the paste options action. The first is “Use destination theme” which will keep the hyperlinked text. The last is “Keep text only” which shows the web address.

You can also find these paste options on the Home tab of Office apps:

Change the URL copy/paste default behavior in Microsoft Edge

If you want to permanently change how Edge handles copied links, you can go to Edge’s settings and change the default behavior. To find Settings in Edge, click the ellipsis (three dots) in the upper-right corner. Then choose Settings.

Once in settings, choose Share, copy, and paste from the left-hand menu to change the default behavior.

July 13, 2021July 14, 2021

SharePoint team vs communication site web part options

Depending on whether your SharePoint site is built on a team site template (has a left-hand navigation menu) or a communication site template (no left-hand navigation menu) you will have different options available for web parts to be used on your site’s pages.

Part of this may be because communication sites are not built on Microsoft 365 groups which are required for creating assets like Planner plans. The Planner web part requires its hosting site to share a supporting Microsoft 365 group. You’ll also notice a much more limited selection of third-party (non-Microsoft) web parts available in communication sites.

Note
Even though communication sites aren’t built on Microsoft 365 groups, you can use pre-existing Microsoft 365 groups to grant access/membership to your communication site.

These web parts help remind us of the purpose behind each template. Team sites are meant to be used for collaboration – therefore we see much more collaborative tools available in this template. Communication sites, however, tend to be more consumer-oriented and don’t typically need the third-party apps or collaborative tools to share their documents, news, knowledge, etc. with consumers.

Team sites have the most web part options, including many third-party options. The following web parts are unique to team sites:

Asana
Bitbucket (and Bitbucket Server)
GitHub (and GitHub Enterprise)
Google Analytics
Incoming Webhook
JIRA
Office 365 Connectors
Planner
RSS
Salesforce
Stack Overflow
Trello
UserVoice

Web parts available in a team site | Click to enlarge

There are currently no web parts in communication sites that are not also available in team sites.

In the following table, you’ll find all of the default available web parts, their descriptions, and which template(s) they’re each available within.

Web part	Description	Team	Communication
Asana	Track projects from start to finish	X
Bing Maps	Display a location on a map using Bing Maps	X	X
Bitbucket	Manage and collaborate on your code projects	X
Bitbucket Server	Manage and collaborate on your code projects	X
Button	Add a clickable button with a custom label and link	X	X
Call to action	Add call to action text and an image paired with a clickable button	X	X
Code Snippet	Add a Code Snippet to the page	X	X
Conversations	Show conversations from a Yammer group, user, topic, or home	X	X
Countdown Timer	Count down or count up to an important event	X	X
Divider	Add a line to divide areas on your page	X	X
Document library	Show a document library from this site	X	X
Events	Display upcoming events from your sites in a layout you choose	X	X
GitHub	Manage and collaborate on code projects	X
GitHub Enterprise	Manage and collaborate on code projects hosted on a GitHub Enterprise instance	X
Google Analytics	Get Google Analytics summary reports	X
Group calendar	Display a calendar from one of your Office 365 groups	X	X
Hero	Prominently display up to 5 pieces of content with links, images, pictures, or photos in a highly visual layout	X	X
Highlights	Show highlights of Yammer conversations	X	X
Image gallery	Show several images, pictures or photos in a gallery layout	X	X
Incoming Webhook	Send data from a service to your Microsoft 365 Group in real time	X
JIRA	Gather, organize, and assign issues detected in your software	X
Kindle Instant Preview	Show a preview of a Kindle book	X	X
List	Display a list from this site	X	X
List properties	Connect to a list web part on the same page and dynamically display a selection from that list	X	X
Markdown	Use Markdown language to add and format text	X	X
Microsoft Forms	Add a survey to collect responses or show results	X	X
Microsoft PowerApps (Preview)	Show a custom app created with PowerApps	X	X
My feed	Display a personalized feed of content and activities	X	X
News	Show news posts from one or more sites in a variety of layouts. You can filter news and target news to key audiences	X	X
Office 365 Connectors	Connect with other services to show updates and notifications from them	X
Organization chart	Show an organization chart (org chart) with structure and connections for a selected person	X	X
Page properties	Show details about your page like date, content type, or custom properties	X	X
People	Display selected people and their profiles	X	X
Planner	Show and work with a Planner board or charts	X
Power BI	Display a Power BI report	X	X
Quick chart	Show data in a simple bar or pie chart	X	X
Quick links	Show a collection of links in a variety of layouts with options for icons, images, and audience targeting	X	X
Recent documents	Display recent documents for the current user	X	X
RSS	Get RSS feeds for your group	X
Salesforce	Build relationships with your customers	X
Saved for later	Show the current page viewer’s documents and pages that they saved for later	X	X
Site activity	Show site activity such as files uploaded or edited, lists created, and more	X	X
Sites	Show important or interesting sites on your page	X	X
Spacer	Add vertical space between areas on the page	X	X
Stack Overflow	Ask and answer programming questions	X
Stream	Display a Stream video or channel	X	X
Trello	Manage Trello cards and tasks all in one place	X
Twitter	Display a Twitter feed	X	X
UserVoice	Collect new customer ideas, and track and respond to customers’ problems	X
Weather	Show the current weather in a location you choose	X	X
World clock	Show one or more clocks with time zones you choose	X	X
YouTube	Show a YouTube video on the page	X	X

A table detailing available web parts and in which site template you can find them for use.

July 8, 2021July 8, 2021

Microsoft Teams is Not a Zoom Alternative; It’s Much More

I recently wrote a blog post for Centriq Training on how Microsoft Teams is more than just a Zoom alternative. In the post, I detail (with a table comparison) how Teams and Zoom are similar in meeting and chat functionality. But Teams goes far beyond communication and really excels in being the “one-stop shop” of enterprise communication and collaboration.

The post is broken down into:

Intro (What is Teams, what is Zoom, and why do people ask Teams vs Zoom?)
Microsoft Teams vs Zoom (for online meetings) with feature comparison
What’s unique about teams
- Participant limit and meeting types
- File integration
- Pre-connected apps teams can use
Conclusion (go beyond just chat and meetings with a single app for all productivity, collaboration, and communication)

Read the entire post on Centriq’s blog here: Microsoft Teams is Not a Zoom Alternative; It’s Much More.

July 2, 2021July 2, 2021

How to restore a file deleted from a Microsoft Teams channel

Microsoft Teams is the place where groups of people come together to communicate and collaborate. A large part of that collaboration is document storage, sharing, and co-authoring. In Teams, files can be found on the Files tab of each channel within a team.

Did you know the Files tab is actually showing you the contents of a SharePoint folder associated with that channel?

Because Teams files are stored in SharePoint, any file deleted from a Teams channel goes to the associated SharePoint site’s Recycle Bin. We need to go to that Recycle Bin to restore the deleted file from there.

Click to enlarge | The dialog that appears when deleting a Teams file shows us it’ll go to the (SharePoint) site Recycle Bin.

How to restore a deleted Teams file

To find the correct SharePoint site for the team in question, we first open the Files tab for the channel from which you originally deleted the file. Then choose Open in SharePoint. If you don’t see it, you may need to use the ellipsis (…) then select it as seen in the following screenshot.

Next choose Recycle Bin from the left-hand navigation menu.

Finally, select the file you deleted then choose Restore from the ribbon menu.

Idea: Add the Recycle Bin as a channel tab

If you’re part of a team that is frequently accessing the Recycle Bin, you can pin it as a tab in your channel(s). Start this by clicking the plus sign (+) to the right of your existing tabs.

Click to enlarge

Choose Website for the app (SharePoint apps won’t work for this particular idea).

Name the tab Recycle Bin, paste the URL to your site’s Recycle Bin, and click Save.

Now you can drag the new Recycle Bin tab right next to your Files tab and have them side-by-side.

June 19, 2021June 19, 2021

How to create one-click, direct download links in modern SharePoint Online libraries

I previously blogged how to create one-click direct download links, but that post was exclusive to the classic experience in SharePoint (or any opportunity in which we could use classic html/css).

Normally, to download a document in modern SharePoint Online libraries, we would have to use a file’s menu (right-click or ellipsis) then choose Download.

I was recently challenged to help figure out how to create a single click experience to immediately download a document in modern SharePoint Online libraries and after much trial and error was able to do so using a little bit of JSON in a calculated column.

Here’s how to create a Download link column in modern SharePoint libraries:

1. Create a calculated column (Library Settings > Create Column) named Download and set its formula to =””

2. Copy and paste the following JSON code into the JSON formatting field of the calculated column settings.

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json",
  "elmType": "a",
  "txtContent": "Download",
  "attributes": {
    "target": "_blank",
    "href": "=@currentWeb+'/_layouts/15/download.aspx?sourceurl='+[$FileRef]"
  }
}

3. Set the new column to show in the default view so it’s visible in the library and click OK.

4. Return to your library, and test it out!

And if you want anonymous users to be able to use these convenient download links, be sure to share a FOLDER link with the anonymous user(s) so they will see the file in the library alongside the one-click download link.

Optional formatting of the Download link

And while I’m not a JSON expert, I did dabble a bit in stylizing the Download link so it would look a little bit better. You can add a little bit of style to the JSON to achieve a more button-like experience (or for the advanced among you, change the element to an actual button or download icon).

Here’s how you can get started stylizing the text link (see result at bottom):

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json",
  "elmType": "a",
  "txtContent": "Download",
  "style": {
    "background-color": "gray",
    "text-decoration": "none",
    "color": "white",
    "font-size": "14px",
    "padding-left": "5px"
  },
  "attributes": {
    "target": "_blank",
    "href": "=@currentWeb+'/_layouts/15/download.aspx?sourceurl='+[$FileRef]"
  }
}

Optional usage of the file’s name instead of “Download”

One small change to the JSON will reference the file’s name for the link instead of using “Download” for all links. Then you could hide Name and just use your Download column.

{
  "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/json-schemas/sp/v2/column-formatting.schema.json",
  "elmType": "a",
  "txtContent": "[$FileLeafRef]",
  "attributes": {
    "target": "_blank",
    "href": "=@currentWeb+'/_layouts/15/download.aspx?sourceurl='+[$FileRef]"
  }
}

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021

Getting Teams certified: My prep for the MS-700 and the exam guide that followed (Recording)

I was recently invited to speak at the SharePoint User Group of DC and shared some prep tips and exam prep book writing experience with attendees. Most of the session was advice, practice questions, and resources for the MS-700 Teams Administrator certification exam. The last 10 minutes or so, I discuss co-authoring the MS-700 exam prep book with my co-author and friend Peter Rising.

Scott Brewster, one of the group’s leaders, kindly recorded and posted the session to YouTube so you can watch the recording below.

Be sure to check out the SharePoint User Group of DC’s upcoming events here: SharePoint User Group of DC (Arlington, VA) | Meetup. You can also follow them on Twitter (@sug_dc).

June 11, 2021June 11, 2021

What is Microsoft’s Imagine Cup?

This year I had the privilege of serving as one of 165 judges for Imagine Cup Junior 2021. Imagine Cup was new to me last year (2020), and I knew immediately I wanted to play a part in this amazing program. As a Microsoft MVP I was eligible to help and threw my name in the ring for judge selection for both Imagine Cup (collegiate division for ages 16+) as well as Imagine Cup Junior (ages 13-18). While I wasn’t selected as an Imagine Cup judge, I was thrilled to be asked to serve in the Junior division process.

“The Imagine Cup brings together student innovators using passion and purpose to tackle global issues with tech.”
https://imaginecup.microsoft.com/

Imagine Cup is basically a tech skills-based competition that not only has teams entering amazing projects and ideas in a bracket, but it serves as a learning journey as well. Teams are given resources, learning event opportunities, and information throughout the duration of the competition to help from beginning their Azure or other tech learning to completion of a robust and impressive project. The Junior division doesn’t actually build their solution, but proposes a comprehensive idea and often prototypes or videos to help illustrate the concept. The collegiate division, however, does actually build their project.

While both divisions focus on solving global issues using Microsoft tech, submissions and specific technology focuses may vary. For example, the collegiate division (Imagine Cup) this year accepted a broad array of team project submissions in the categories of Earth, Education, Healthcare, and Lifestyle. The Junior division (Imagine Cup Junior) focused the tech aspect specifically on AI for Good, and had categories of AI for Earth, AI for Health, AI for Accessibility, AI for Humanitarian Action, and AI for Cultural Heritage.

Check out the winner of the 2021 collegiate division competition, Team REWEBA from Kenya.

In the Junior division, there isn’t one winning team but a top 10. As a judge, I was asked to evaluate a group of submissions using a standardized rubric. I was so blown away by the ingenuity and compassion behind many of these submissions and am excited to see what these young innovators do next. The future is in good hands.

Check out the winning top 10 teams in Imagine Cup Junior 2021.

You can also check out the Imagine Cup FAQ to learn more and see contest rules.

June 4, 2021June 4, 2021

How to enable and use audience targeting for SharePoint pages and news

anonymous person with binoculars looking through stacked books

Note: This article pertains specifically to SharePoint Online (M365).

Audience targeting can be used to surface relevant information and resources to specific groups of people throughout SharePoint. This post will focus specifically on enabling audience targeting on your site’s pages and news so that you can create individualized experiences for users based on their identity or role.

The overall process consists of three steps:

Enable the audience targeting ability for all content in your Site Pages library.
Specify the appropriate audience(s) for specific pages/news items within the library.
Modify any existing web parts (news or highlighted content web parts) to enable audience targeting (simply meaning to utilize any audience targeting configurations that have been specified for the content surfacing in that web part).

Step 3 is not required if you only wish to have audience targeting “seen” on the SharePoint start page, mobile app, or other non-customized areas where news may surface.

How audience targeting works

If you specify an audience for content, it will be shown in relevant areas (SharePoint start page, mobile app, news or highlighted content web parts using audience targeting, etc.) to members of the audiences only. This is not a security feature – the content is still discoverable by other users – just not surfaced upfront conveniently for them.

If you are a member of an audience specified on a news piece, you’ll see that news wherever it’s being called up. If you’re not, you won’t see it but can still search or browse to find it.

If no audience is specified for an item, it will be shown to all users. Or if a web part (such as a news web part) has disabled audience targeting, any specified audiences on individual pieces will be disregarded and the content will be shown to all through that particular web part.

Here are the detailed steps to set up audience targeting:

Enable audience targeting for Site Pages (and news)

1. Go to your Site Contents > Site Pages library

2. Select the settings gear > Library settings

3. Choose Audience targeting settings

4. Check the box for Enable audience targeting and then click OK.

Specify an audience for SharePoint pages or news

1. Now return to your Site Pages library and select a page or news item to which you wish to add audience targeting.

2. Open the details pane (i icon) in the upper right

3. In the Properties section, enter up to 50 M365 Group names, user names or emails, etc. to whom the selected content should be targeted. Notice it also adds the specified audience in a column in the library. Your additions are saved automatically.

Modify web parts to utilize audience targeting where available

1. Edit the page on which you’ve placed a news or highlighted content web part.

2. Click the edit icon (pencil) on the particular web part for which you’re enabling audience targeting.

3. In the Filters section, toggle Enable audience targeting on.
(Note: News source must be This site or Select sites. Recommended for current user doesn’t have audience targeting settings).

4. Republish your page when ready.

This can take some time to fully update in your site, so check back after a while to confirm functionality.

After completing these three sections, you’ve now

allowed content within the pages/news library to be used in audience targeting scenarios,
chosen specific pieces to which you’ll apply audience targeting,
and modified the web parts where content will surface to utilize those pieces’ audience settings when appropriate.

Check out this article for more information on SharePoint audience targeting, including more than pages and news.

June 4, 2021June 4, 2021

How to export OneNote to PDF while preserving clickable hyperlinks

It’s not often I need to “print” OneNote. However, today I had a section I wanted to convert to a PDF document and printing is the way to go in OneNote for Windows 10 (the version that comes pre-installed on Windows 10 machines). I found, however, that the file created through this method didn’t maintain its links (links weren’t clickable in PDF).

After trying Adobe, SnagIt, and Microsoft PDF print abilities to no avail (using both OneNote versions – Windows 10 and desktop/2016), I found success using OneNote (desktop) > File > Export > PDF. Detailed instructions are at the bottom of this post.

Learn more about the difference between the two OneNote versions here.

Thankfully, OneNote (desktop aka 2016) allows us to “Export” notebooks, sections, or pages to PDF. We can print to PDF as well, but using “Export” specifically is the key here to maintain the clickable links. OneNote for Windows 10 doesn’t currently have a similar export ability.

If you don’t have OneNote (aka 2016) already installed, you can still download it here. Once you have it, proceed with the following steps to export your OneNote notebook, section, or page to PDF with clickable hyperlinks:

1. To open a new notebook, select File > Open. You may need to switch account if not seeing your cloud notebooks right away.

2. Once your notebook is opened and you’ve opened the specific content you wish to print, click File (upper left).

3. Choose Export > Content Scope (page/section/notebook) > PDF > Export as shown in the following screenshot.

4. Choose a location and filename, then click Save.

Now check the resulting PDF and you’ll find your OneNote notebook content with clickable hyperlinks in tact.

Bonus tip: One small thing to note is that OneNote for Windows 10 has a nice feature where you can print a section group. OneNote (desktop) does not – it’s only exportable by page, section, or the entire Notebook. So if you don’t need clickable links in the resulting PDF, you may wish to choose OneNote for Windows 10 for your “Print to PDF” needs to simplify printing several sections at once from the same section group.

May 18, 2021May 18, 2021

How to schedule a Microsoft Teams webinar

Previously we could schedule Teams meetings and Teams live events. Now there’s a new, third option called webinars for those “in-between” needs. It is currently rolling out (May 2021) so you may not see this option right away but check back soon.

Webinars enable up to 1,000 participants, but also come with some great features like custom registration pages with email confirmation to registrants, attendee reporting (in line with what we’re seeing in meetings and live events), and polls, chat, and reactions (as we have in meetings). We’ll also be better able to manage attendee audio/video as hosts of webinars.

Webinars can extend beyond 1,000 participants, though anyone beyond 1,000 will be view-only (non-interactive).

To schedule a webinar in Microsoft Teams webinar, follow these steps:

Scheduling a webinar in Microsoft Teams

1. Go to the Calendar via the Microsoft Teams client left-hand nav

The Calendar option in the left-hand navigation menu of Microsoft Teams.

2. Choose the dropdown arrow next to New Meeting in the upper right-hand corner and choose Webinar.

The new (May 2021) Webinar feature when scheduling Teams events.

3. Choose the dropdown arrow next to require registration to choose who should be required to register for the webinar in order to attend. You can choose None, For people in your org and guests, or For everyone.

Note: If For everyone is grayed out for you, your administrators will need to allow you to require it outside your organization via policy. See this documentation for more info. While currently PowerShell, we can expect to see UI settings added to the Teams Admin Center eventually as with other features.

The require registration option on a new Microsoft Teams webinar.

4. Select View registration form to configure the registration form attendees will complete.

The View registration form link on a new Microsoft Teams webinar.

5. Configure all of the details for the registration form, including any additional fields you want to add or speaker information.

Click to enlarge – Custom registration form configuration screen.

6. Click Save when finished customizing. You’ll see a preview of what your attendees will see and can copy the registration link from the top ribbon. When finished previewing, click the X in the upper-right hand corner to close the pop-up.

Click to enlarge – A custom registration form preview in Microsoft Teams when creating a webinar.

7. Complete the invite details for your presenters (matching the details you placed on the registration form, of course). Click Send when ready.

That’s it! Just be sure to only share the Registration link (open event from calendar and click Copy registration link) for your attendees and NOT the “Click here to join the meeting” link.

Click to enlarge – Share the “registration link” with attendees, not the “Join” or “Click here to join the meeting” links.

You can download current registration any time by re-opening the event from your calendar and selecting the registration file icon shown below.

Author: Nate Chamberlain

How to paste a copied URL as a web address instead of a hyperlinked title

Copy/paste keyboard shortcuts to show web address or hyperlinked text

Right-click menu options when working in web apps (browser locations)

Right-click or paste options in other apps (like Office client applications)

Change the URL copy/paste default behavior in Microsoft Edge

Like this:

SharePoint team vs communication site web part options

Like this:

Microsoft Teams is Not a Zoom Alternative; It’s Much More

Like this:

How to restore a file deleted from a Microsoft Teams channel

How to restore a deleted Teams file

Idea: Add the Recycle Bin as a channel tab

Like this:

How to create one-click, direct download links in modern SharePoint Online libraries

Optional formatting of the Download link

Optional usage of the file’s name instead of “Download”

Like this:

Getting Teams certified: My prep for the MS-700 and the exam guide that followed (Recording)

Like this:

What is Microsoft’s Imagine Cup?

Like this:

How to enable and use audience targeting for SharePoint pages and news

How audience targeting works

Enable audience targeting for Site Pages (and news)

Specify an audience for SharePoint pages or news

Modify web parts to utilize audience targeting where available

Like this:

How to export OneNote to PDF while preserving clickable hyperlinks

Like this:

How to schedule a Microsoft Teams webinar

Scheduling a webinar in Microsoft Teams

Like this:

Copy/paste keyboard shortcuts to show web address or hyperlinked text

Right-click menu options when working in web apps (browser locations)

Right-click or paste options in other apps (like Office client applications)

Change the URL copy/paste default behavior in Microsoft Edge

Spread the word:

Like this:

Spread the word:

Like this:

Spread the word:

Like this:

How to restore a deleted Teams file

Idea: Add the Recycle Bin as a channel tab

Spread the word:

Like this:

Optional formatting of the Download link

Optional usage of the file’s name instead of “Download”

Spread the word:

Like this:

Spread the word:

Like this:

Spread the word:

Like this:

How audience targeting works

Enable audience targeting for Site Pages (and news)

Specify an audience for SharePoint pages or news

Modify web parts to utilize audience targeting where available

Spread the word:

Like this:

Spread the word:

Like this:

Scheduling a webinar in Microsoft Teams

Spread the word:

Like this: