GitHub Copilot (in Agent mode with Codespaces) dramatically cuts down the cost of context switching, perfectly fitting my chaotic, multitasking workstyle. It lets me stay productive and in flow, even as I juggle coding, helping others, and specs—all while being 51 and still loving the craft.
For Those Who Prefer the Director’s Cut …keep on reading
..well, not really, but it’s an improvement which makes news roll-up match multiple information architecture scenarios. I’ll leave it up to those setting up intranets to gage the usefulness, and I know there has been demand for this feature.
A shoutout to my old peeps at Puzzlepart for wanting this feature – adding to many other customers who have asked for this feature.
So, what am I talking about? In the news web part, when you use “Select sites” or “Recommended for the current user”, a new option to either show or hide the site title will show below the sites you pick.
When displaying news from one site, the site title is already hidden as you are on that one site anyways. If you pick more sites, you may want to hide the site title because content authoring happens in multiple sites because of information architecture, not because you need to show the site title.
Here’s an example with and without site titles.
Happy intranet authoring!
What’s great at Microsoft, is that anyone can contribute anywhere. The above feature was implemented by yours sincerely as part of one of the yearly hackathons we have at Microsoft. It allowed me to look more closely at how web parts are built in SharePoint, and also solve a customer pain. Win-win!
The scenario I’m sharing is not a new one, but (somewhat) recent changes to SharePoint indexing of items may make the scenario easier to solve.
Before we dig into the details, let's talk about Microsoft Syntex, as it has bearing on the nugget I will share. Microsoft Syntex is a service that uses AI and machine learning to automatically sort and classify documents across SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive for Business, and Exchange.
Or simply put in terms for SharePoint: Pulling structured data out from unstructured data and store it as metadata for easier use and retrieval. Something we have done manually or via customized processed for the longest time in SharePoint lists and libraries.
Microsoft Syntex is licensed via a pay-as-uou go model, where you pay for items processed. See https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/syntex/syntex-pay-as-you-go-services and for more details and the offering currently includes these features:
Say you have a library where you add a new column. In this case a number column.
In a search scenario for the library you want to filter results based on the number value. One example being all items with a value above 100.
In my case the column has an internal name of PnPNumberColumn. If the column was manually created at the library it would output a crawled property named ows_PnPNumberColumn. This crawled property could be mapped to RefinableInt00 and after re-indexing you could use the below KQL query to list all items with a value above 100. If you add an alias to the managed property you could use this instead.
RefinableInt00>100
Now, let us go back to the site column scenario. Site columns will in addition to the default crawled property, create an additional crawled property and an automatic managed property. This is described at Automatically created managed properties in SharePoint Server which also apply to SharePoint Online despite what the article is tagged as.
The caveat of the automatically created managed properties is that they are of type text, which is not very useful when it comes to numbers. The example column above yields an automatic managed property named PnPNumberColumnOWSNMBR. This means I can query with:
PnPNumberColumnOWSNMBR:500 or PnPNumberColumnOWSNMBR=500 and get a match, as it matches on text. PnPNumberColumnOWSNMBR>500 would however be invalid KQL.
And here is the nugget. In addition to PnPNumberColumnOWSNMBR we now also get an additional property PnPNumberColumnOWSTNMBR. Note the extra T.
A word from our sponsor: This tip was brought to you by indexing advancements made for Microsoft Syntex. Microsoft Syntex greatly automates creation of site column for the average user. What are you waiting for?
And don’t be fooled by the schema admin page saying the property is of type text, as it is indeed of type number. A fact somewhat called out in a notice when you view the property settings, so you just have to trust me.
Below is screenshot showcasing the behavior where the query PnPNumberColumnOWSTNMBR>499 return the sample document. Easy as pie!
PS! The property is not refinable so you can not use it as refinement filter. If this is your case keep on as you always have and map to e.g RefinableInt00
How time flies! I have now been 5 years at Microsoft. I started as a Program Manager, which changed into Product Manager, and now I’m an Engineer.
Despite the title changes the work I do has not changed much over these five years. I have always been a jack of many trades, and I enjoying doing many things at once. When everything is interesting and challenging, it is hard to cut something out. And I have been lucky to be allowed to work to my strengths while still learning – and I love to learn!
What has changed over the years is that I have learned to appreciate process and governance more than before. Which is why I have onboarded to internal roles as privacy champ, compliance champ and responsible AI champ – the last one becoming increasingly important as Microsoft focus all energy on Copilot. Luckily for me loving search as a function and search tech, is that Microsoft Search plays an important role also in Copilot.
What the next one or five years will bring I have no idea, and it’s not important. I’m still a day to day kind of person, with no long term plans. If what I do is fun, challenging and benefits Microsoft customers, I will keep doing it. And for those who know me, I’m not giving up om my long term mission to cut ties from classic SharePoint search features still having dependencies in the modern world of Microsoft Search. Some cuts are hard but still important to ensure the success of future experiences.
Cake time!
Time spent per day before: 15 minutes per document
Time spent with Copilot: 5 minutes per document
Resources
Taking my previous post about re-writing text in Word, we can prompt to have key points from the text pulled out and as an example formatted as a table for easier consumption.
The prompt used is “Extract key points into a table with two columns for key point header and details”, and the output is the table below.
| Key point | Details |
| Copilot can rewrite the content | Copilot can check and improve the tense, the passive voice, the readability, and the personal tone of the content. |
| Copilot may or may not respect the writer's style | Copilot's suggestions may vary depending on the instructions given by the writer. The writer can try to specify the style they want and see what Copilot does. |
Time spent per day before: 30-60 minutes per document
Time spent with Copilot: 5-10 minutes per document
Resources
Some writers may have a specific style that they want to use. Copilot in Word may or may not respect that style, depending on the instructions given. But one can always try to tell Copilot what kind of style they want and see what happens. Maybe Copilot will surprise them with some creative suggestions. Or maybe Copilot will ignore them and do whatever it wants. Who knows?
Here’s the original blog-post I started out with before throwing Copilot at it.
Not everyone is a native writer of the language they produce content in. Thus, using Copilot to rewrite your content for consistency in terms of tense, passive language, readability, and personal flavor will ensure those consuming the content have a better experience and more clearly pick up on the points you want to come across in your argumentation.
If you have a particular writing style, then Copilot in Word may or may not be able to assist, but you can try to add this as part of the prompting instructions and verify the outcome.
When using the auto rewrite feature this is what I ended up with.
Sometimes, people write content in a language that is not their native one. Therefore, using Copilot to edit your content for consistency in grammar, voice, clarity, and tone will help those who read the content have a better experience and understand the messages you want to convey in your reasoning.
If you prefer a specific writing style, then Copilot in Word may or may not help you, but you can attempt to include this in the prompting instructions and check the result.
This time around I wanted to give more instructions to simplify my writing.
“Rewrite the text using shorter sentences and language understood by an audience with little experience in Copilot or Word. Make instructions concise and relatable for beginners.“
Do you write in a language that is not your first one? Then Copilot can help you make your writing better. It can fix grammar mistakes, make sentences easier to read, and use the right words for your message.
Do you have a favorite way of writing? Copilot in Word might be able to copy it. Just tell it what you want and see what it does. You can always change it if you don't like it.
And this is the prompt I ended up with for the final post, as it reflects some of my personal writing style. Maybe this will makes it way into Word eventually using writing samples for style.
“Rewrite the text using shorter sentences and language understood by an audience with little experience in Copilot or Word. Make the text longer than the original, write in third-person tense and **DO NOT** use *I*, *You*, *Your* and *We*. Throw in some subtle irony and sarcasm.”
Time spent per day before: 10 minutes, rethinking the words to use
Time spent with Copilot: 1-2 minutes, letting Copilot do the work
Resources
Let’s take the message “I don’t agree with your points” and run it thru Copilot to make it longer and Enthusiastic.
The output can be something like: “Thank you for sharing your perspective. However, I have a different view on the matter and I would like to explain why I disagree with some of the points you made.” which is less likely to piss Vesa off :)
You can even do a customized prompt for formatting: “Make it sound like it was written by Super Mario”. The above prompt is actually a prompt hack to overcome Responsible AI to add some Paolo Italian flavor into the message.
Time spent per day before: 30-60 minutes
Time spent with Copilot: 5-15 minutes
Resources
I typically use the “Summarize what I've missed” Copilot suggested prompt inline in the chat which opens the Copilot pane, or I open the pane manually as seen below with prompts such as “Highlights from the past day” or “Highlights from the past 7 days”.
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Resources
The beauty of online meetings with transcripts is the ability to quickly go back and find key points later without having to watch the recording or read thru the full transcript.
By default Teams provides an AI notes section with a quick summary, and using the Copilot pane you can ask more direct questions such as summarizing your talking points, or ask what your action items were for the meeting.
My best example is a late night meeting where I forgot to take notes and the next morning I knew I was supposed to contact an “Andrew”, but had forgotten the full name. Requesting the name in the meetings Copilot quickly gave me the name, saving me around 15 minutes and some grief.
…and the answer is, as it always has been, NO!
Disclaimer: the opinions of this post are mine entirely, and nothing to do with my work at Microsoft. I have not changed opinion on this matter in the past many many years.
Sparked by the recent message center post MC714186 – Remove Custom Script setting in OneDrive and SharePoint web, I figured I’d write out my stance and my full support of the planned change.
Summary: The Custom Script setting in OneDrive and SharePoint web will be removed in March 2024. A new PowerShell command, "DelayDenyAddAndCustomizePagesEnforcement", has been introduced to delay the change to custom script set on the Tenant until mid-November 2024. The NoScriptSite setting will be configured to True for all existing SharePoint sites and OneDrive sites except for specific site templates. Existing scripts in OneDrive and SharePoint sites will remain unaffected. Administrators can permit the execution of custom scripts on specific SharePoint sites using the Set-SPOSite command.
In the above summary I want to point out that “existing scripts will remain unaffected” means classic page injections. Not SPFx solutions on with the setting requiresCustomScript=true.
SharePoint by design is a JavaScript application and has always allowed for extensibility in the UX. In modern ways extensibility is achieved via the SharePoint Framework (SPFx), which you should use, and that is ok. Because by virtue of how SPFx is built any script or logic in a SPFx solution is governed and controlled by design.
To explain what I mean. By arbitrary code I mean someone can insert and freely modify JavaScript that runs in a SharePoint site or page without anyone noticing. One example being a bad actor put script on a page which when a person visit the page then transfers all the persons OneDrive files to evil.corp in the background without the person ever knowing. And this has been possible with SharePoint in classic experiences since always, and also with 3p modern webparts when allowing script to run, or by bypassing settings for a site.
When writing code in a SPFx solution, it is no longer arbitrary. Someone wrote it, built it, and then handed the package over to a person with SharePoint admin role rights to install it (or by an admin role proxy if a site has it’s own app catalog). How diligent the process is for code review and installation is up to each organization, but at least the setup allows for a governed process to help control what is installed into a tenants SharePoint Online experience.
Arbitrary script on the other hand would be JavaScript added to SharePoint sites or pages by any regular user with edit rights or a site administrator. Every Team or Group creator is a site administrator of the associated site, and this is not very controlled in my opinion. With classic SharePoint, script can be injected or allowed via the Script Editor web part, via search display templates, and via something called custom actions. When Modern sites were introduced many years ago, allowing these features were by default turned by setting the “Allow and Customize Pages” permission to false. The feature is more commonly renamed in e.g. PnP PowerShell to NoScriptSite. Documentation on turning this on or off can be found at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/allow-or-prevent-custom-script.
If you are still on classic pages, then disregard as you are a lost cause anyways. It’s 2024 people! Modern is no longer modern. It is the new classic.
Hopefully most customers have moved over to using SharePoint Framework for any custom JavaScript solution running in SharePoint Online by now. However, the elephant in the room is my infamous Modern Script Editor Web Part- https://github.com/pnp/sp-dev-fx-webparts/blob/main/samples/react-script-editor/README.md. If built without changes then someone has changed the site settings to allow arbitrary script to run for the web part to work. When this is then flipped off every 24 hours by the service, the web part will stop running (which is good!).
Instead of working the web part will render ugly white space instead.
Alternatively you rebuild the web part bypassing the custom script check saying it does not rely on custom script (boooooo on you, and bad governance practice).
It is no secret what my take is on usage of this web part. The sample modern script web part should NEVER be used, and I will argue to my death that there are no good scenarios for it. Sure, it’s quicker to use compared to always creating new SPFx extensions or web parts, but is this ease of use more important than security? My answer is still a big NO! Sure, you may reduce the attack vector by using site scoped app catalogs, and maybe you have the utter most control for who can edit pages in those sites. But is this a long term risk you are willing to take?
Why not just build your scenario solutions in a governed way thus blocking someone from changing the code? If you have access to someone building the Modern Script Editor web part, then you also have access to someone who can do it the right way.
My hope is that people do not run a script every 24h to allow custom script, or that they cheat on building SPFx web parts to bypass scripting. Instead everyone should embrace this opportunity to get their solutions cleaned up – if they haven’t already.
Happy coding governed solution, and preventing your files from being stolen!
