Part 1 – Save time and be more productive at work with Microsoft 365 Copilot

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In this blog series, I’ll delve into the advantages of using Microsoft 365 Copilot. In this first post, I’ll discuss the common challenges we face in our daily tasks at work and how Copilot can help alleviate these burdens, save time and money, and boost our productivity.

We all feel the pressure of work. Information, deadlines, and constant communication can often overwhelm us. AI can help, not just by making work easier or faster, but by making it more fulfilling. When we don’t have to spend as much mental energy figuring out what happened in that meeting, catching up on emails, or finding that document from last week’s chat, we can focus more on the core of our work and the purpose behind it.

In recent years, the pace and volume of work have continued to increase. Data from searches across Microsoft 365 services reveals that on any given workday, Microsoft’s most active Microsoft 365 users:

  • Conduct 18 searches for what they need.
  • Receive over 250 emails.
  • Send or read nearly 150 chats.

Globally, Microsoft Teams users are now in three times as many meetings each week compared to 2020. Additionally, some people use 11 different apps on Windows in a single day to complete their tasks.

AI helps lighten the workload by boosting human abilities and speeding up natural creativity. When leaders learn to use AI effectively, they can enable their teams to embrace this new era of AI-powered productivity, bringing great benefits to their organisations.

Before diving into Microsoft 365 Copilot, let’s compile a list of tasks we typically handle each day at work. On an average workday, you might find yourself:

  1. Catching up on email threads among colleagues.
  2. Engaging in numerous Microsoft Teams chat conversations.
  3. Reviewing recordings of Teams meetings you missed due to other commitments.
  4. Sending various emails to colleagues and external partners.
  5. Creating PowerPoint presentations
  6. Analysing data in Excel, budgeting, transforming it into tables, graphs, or pie charts
  7. Locating emails and Teams messages where you’ve been directly mentioned with the @ symbol and tasked with specific actions to complete.
  8. Reviewing outstanding tasks from this or last week, including important actions assigned by your manager.
  9. Checking emails or Teams channels to ensure you haven’t missed any company announcements.
  10. Planning for the upcoming week’s tasks and meetings.
  11. Organising the next team get together and ensuring fun activities are arranged.
  12. Reading through a lengthy 100 page document in preparation for a meeting the next morning.
  13. Recalling the last time you had a meeting with a specific colleague.

I could list additional daily tasks, but you get the idea.

How can Microsoft 365 Copilot help?

Microsoft 365 Copilot isn’t just another feature introduced by Microsoft. It’s more than that, it’s your AI (Artificial Intelligence) powered Copilot that accompanies you, the Pilot, throughout your day to day interaction with Microsoft 365 apps such as Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, Teams, Loop and Whiteboard. Copilot was developed to save time and make you more productive by being able to generate new content mimicking human behavior. This is known as Generative AI where machines are able to generate new unique content and respond like your interacting with a real human being.

Going back to the list of daily tasks I created at the beginning of this post. Well, Copilot can assist with addressing those challenges and more. Those challenges we are all aware of at the workplace where the pace of work is overtaking our ability to keep up with our daily tasks. Microsoft 365 Copilot is designed to assist and reduce that burden, such as being able to generate new emails, summarise email threads, summarise a large word document, summarise team meetings you were not able to attend, create you a PowerPoint deck, generate a business proposal, generate a job advertisement, locate email and teams conversations where you were @ mentioned, list your outstanding tasks for the week and more!

Remember, Microsoft 365 Copilot is not replacing you, it’s your Copilot and you’re the Pilot.

Image generated by Microsoft Copilot in Bing

Is Copilot the same as a search engine like Bing or Google?

Is Copilot the same as a search engine like Bing or Google? Not exactly. Copilot is more advanced than a search engine. When you use a search engine, you may ask a question like, “How do I fix this plumbing issue?” The search engine will then scour its index of relevant content and present a list of website links for you to explore. You then have to sift through these links to find the information you need or perform another search.

Copilot, on the other hand, uses a pre trained Large Language Model (LLM) to perform a similar task but with a twist. It doesn’t just find relevant content; it generates new content, providing a direct answer to your question, such as how to resolve the plumbing issue. This process is known as Generative AI. I’ll cover Large Language Models (LLMs) later in this blog series.

Here is a short video from Microsoft which summarises and provides an insight into Copilot.


Is Microsoft 365 Copilot free?
No, this particular service requires a license for each user who will be using Copilot in your organisation. Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on plan with one of the following licensing prerequisites listed at the at the following Microsoft Learn page, Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 requirements.

Before exploring Microsoft 365 Copilot within the various Microsoft 365 Apps, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams and Outlook, I explore how this AI Powered Copilot functions under the hood and provide a high level architecture overview through a number of diagrams.

Click the link below to progress to the next post. See you there 🙂

Copilot for Microsoft 365 under the hood

Prevent users from downloading files from Microsoft Teams Channel

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In this blog post I will go through the process of preventing members from downloading a document from a Teams channel. I will also go through the process of amending permissions so members can only view the document in read only mode. Finally, I will go through the process of how to apply permissions to individual files where permissions have been inherited from a parent folder.

For the purpose of this post I have created a test word file named CloudBuild within my teams channel named Cloud Build Team


I would like to prevent members from editing or downloading my word document CloudBuild.docx

  1. Click the 3 dots visible to the right of the file and click Open in SharePoint

2. In Sharepoint, click the three dots by the side of the file and click manage access.

3. Click team members, click the edit icon and change from Can Edit to Can View. This config will prevent members from editing the document but not downloading. You could also apply this to visitors.

Once the permissions have been applied, the pencil icon displays a line through it to indicate that the edit permissions have been removed and is now read only.

4. Next, let’s prevent members from downloading the file

5. Click the Advanced link as shown below

6. Select members and click Edit User Permissions as shown below

7. Select the option Restricted View – Can view pages, list items, and documents. Documents can be viewed in the browser but not downloaded and click OK

You could also apply the above permissions to the folder level if there was a requirement to apply permissions to all files within a folder. The files within the folder will inherit permissions from the parent folder.

After applying the permissions to the folder level, I can no longer amend permissions on the individual files within the folder, as permissions are now inherited from the parent folder which makes sense.

But, what if there is a requirement to amend permissions on one of the files within the parent folder. It is possible to break the inherited permissions on individual files while new files created within the folder still inherit permissions from the parent folder. To configure,

  1. Click the file within the parent folder, click the 3 dots, click manage access
  2. Click Stop Inheriting Permissions

This process will break the inherited permissions for the individual file. Amend the permissions as required and save

That’s all. Stay tuned for further posts and please don’t forget to subscribe if you wish to stay up to date with the latest tech posts.

MS-700 Managing Teams Exam Preparation

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I am pleased to announce that I recently passed the MS-700 Managing Teams exam. I’ll be preparing for the MS-100 exam next but before I make a start, I thought it would be a great idea to blog about my experience and how I prepared for the exam.

The MS-700 exam measures your ability to accomplish the following technical tasks: plan and configure a Microsoft Teams environment; manage chat, calling, and meetings; and manage Teams and app policies.

Candidates for this exam are Microsoft Teams Administrators for their organisation. The Microsoft Teams Administrator configures, deploys, and manages Office 365 workloads for Microsoft Teams that focus on efficient and effective collaboration and communication in an enterprise environment.

The Teams Administrator must be able to plan, deploy, and manage Teams chat, apps, channels, meetings, audio conferencing, live events, and calling. The Teams Administrator is also responsible for upgrading from Skype for Business to Teams.

The Teams Administrator collaborates with Telephony engineers to integrate advanced voice features into Microsoft Teams. This role is not responsible for configuring direct routing, configuring call routing, or integrating telephony. The Teams Administrator may work with other workload administrator roles, including security and compliance, messaging, networking, identity, and devices.

Candidates for this exam should be proficient at managing Teams settings by using PowerShell. The Teams Administrator has a fundamental understanding of integration points with apps and services, including but not limited to SharePoint, OneDrive for Business, Exchange, Azure AD, and Office 365 Groups. The Teams Administrator understands how to integrate external apps and services.

You only need to take the one exam to achieve Microsoft 365 Certified: Teams Administrator Associate

Please note: that the content of this exam will be updated on November 24, 2020. You can download the skills measured document at Exam MS-700: Managing Microsoft Teams

How I studied for the MS-700 exam:

There are a number of websites available offering courses for preparing for the exam so you’ll find that other bloggers may have taken a different route to prepare for the exam, but the destination is the same, to understand and learn the skills required to pass the exam. As you go through your studies, you’ll find out more about the architecture of Microsoft Teams, how the application relies on a number of Microsoft services and the Teams Location of data

There is a lot to understand but I promise that you will really enjoy studying for this exam if you have the passion. It’s a great certification you’re earning because as you know Microsoft Teams is growing rapidly and the most recent stats at the time of writing this blog post is that Teams is being used by over 115 million users daily! This number is going to grow.

Studying for this certification means your experience with managing Teams will become greater and you’ll be able to go back to your employer with a lot more knowledge then you had previously. You may be able to recommend additional improvements within you internal security, compliance and governance departments. Share your knowledge and improve the user experience.

Please take the time to study each area, pause the video, do some extra research, lab it, understand it and then continue with the video. It’s important that you understand before moving on.

Let’s move on to how I prepared. Just so you are aware, I watched around 20 hours of videos and read a large number of articles. It really depends on how passionate you are about passing this exam and then putting that knowledge into action.

MS-700 Teams Study Guide

  1. Firstly, it’s important that you visit and download the skills measured document on the Microsoft website to understand what the exam will cover. There is a PDF download link available towards the bottom of the MS-700 exam page. Microsoft also offer a free learning path to help you prepare for the exam. Both can be found at Exam MS-700: Managing Microsoft Teams.

    Just another reminder that the content of this exam will be updated on November 24, 2020. You can download the skills measured document at the link above.

  2. I signed up to a number of Microsoft Teams related sessions at Microsoft Ignite (Virtual due to the Covid-19 Pandemic). It was great to know about what’s new with Teams and live sessions with the experts were a bonus. As the event is over you can visit the following link What’s New in Microsoft Teams. Please note that new Microsoft Teams features are continuously being released so stay up to date as you’ll find the link above may be out dated.

  3. Keep an eye on this great Microsoft website – Microsoft 365 Roadmap. The site includes details on what Microsoft are rolling out, what’s in development and what has already been rolled out. I would recommend visiting this site from time to time to allow you to keep up to date on O365 updates.

  4. Twitter! In my opinion, Twitter is the main social media platform that all the Microsoft Engineers, MVP’s and experts hang out. It’s a great platform to keep up to date with what’s going on with Microsoft Teams and other products and services. You can connect with the guys who work with Microsoft Teams day in day out. You’ll also find a few Microsoft Teams User Groups and their free to join so do take advantage of this and don’t be shy to ask questions if you’re not sure about something. I have had a great experience on Twitter and have managed to connect with some great techies who are also passionate about sharing knowledge and growing the community.

  5. Sign up for a free 1 month Office 365 E3 license. You don’t want to be configuring settings on a live environment. If you don’t want to continue with the free trial after the month, please ensure that you cancel the subscription via the portal, or else you will be charged for the following month. It’s not a trial which will stop after one month. Something to keep in mind.

    If you don’t want to sign up for the 30 day trial, you could also sign up for the free Microsoft 365 Developer Program. It’s a renewable 90-day Microsoft 365 E5 developer subscription. As a program member, you can get a free Microsoft 365 developer subscription with 25 user licenses to use to build your solutions. This subscription will remain active for as long as you’re actively developing and deploying solutions. More details on the program can be located here

  6. Time, you really need to work out when you’ll be studying for this exam and setup a schedule. Will your employer allow you to study for the exam in working hours? or do you need to study for the exam in your own time?

  7. I went through a great course by Skylines Academy at Microsoft MS-700 Certification: Managing Teams. Includes practice test questions.

  8. In case you’re not aware, Skype for Online Business is going end of life July 2021 and will no longer be available. That’s right it will stop working! If you have not migrated to Teams, starting planning now. If you’re studying for the exam prior to July 2021, it’s VERY important that you understand the complete process of migrating from Skype For Online Business to Microsoft Teams. If you’re sitting the exam after July 2021, remember that Microsoft are still supporting the On premise version of Microsoft Skype For Business until the year 2024 so the exam will most likely cover Skype for Business On premise to Teams migration type of questions. You will need to understand the process involved in migrating from Skype for Online Business and on premise to Microsoft Teams. Below are links to the great videos that I watched. Highly recommended. It is very important that you understand the migration process as you will be tested on this in the exam.


    Introduction to Upgrade from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams (Upgrade part 1 of 4)

    Plan your upgrade from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams (Upgrade part 2 of 4)

    Manage Coexistence and Interoperability between SfB and Teams (Upgrade part 3 of 4)

    Administrator experience for the upgrade from SfB to Teams (Upgrade part 4 of 4)

  9. Know the Teams Admin Center like the back of your hand. You may be used to working in the O365 Portal and know where all the required policies are. But do you know where all those policies are located without looking. For example, what policies are located in Teams, where would you need to configure 365 group permissions, Access Reviews, expiration policies, retention, private channel permissions, meeting settings, network planner, reporting, alerting, chat permissions, barrier policies, and so on. There will be questions based on policies inside and outside the Teams Admin Center, and where you would need to configure the required settings.

  10. I then visited the skills measured document on the Microsoft website again (See step 1) and went through the skills measured. I performed additional research on the features where I believed further reading and research was required. For example, if you want to know more about direct routing, visit the Coffee in the Cloud YouTube channel and visit the video Direct Routing. Or if you want to learn more about Network Planner you may want to perform a search and visit a post such as Use the Network planner for Microsoft Teams. Or you may want to revisit your training video’s depending on where you’re learning, whether that’s via Microsoft Learn, CloudSkills.io, Skyline Academy or Udemy. There is lots of great content out there.

    It’s important that if you don’t understand something from the training videos or articles, perform a search and study further. Or make a note and come back to that topic if you wish to move on.

I am happy to help, so if you have any questions please contact me via my Twitter Handle @ITSupportBlog

All the best and i’m sure you will enjoy preparing for this exam like i did.

Thanks for reading my post and please share 🙂