Views from Veronique

Category: Productivity Tips

  • Change to SharePoint Online Site Navigation

    Before you have a heart-attack like I nearly did this morning, we can still have mega menus on team sites. Microsoft has changed the way you configure the navigation, and it does not make it clear at all that the functionality is still there. And if you’ve been using SharePoint for years, you will be […]

  • New Experience When Editing Modern SharePoint Pages

    While we were on holiday, the way modern pages looked when editing them changed. They used to show the site navigation like this : But now the default hides all navigation when editing pages. This makes it tricky to see what you are linking to when you’re trying to link to list and libraries on […]

  • SharePoint Online Pages Text Spacing Tip

    We love the modern pages in SharePoint Online. But a couple of months ago, Microsoft changed something and suddenly all the existing and new text was pushed into double line spacing. It took forever to go around and clean that lot up. To avoid double line spacing, simply click SHIFT and Enter when making a […]

  • Undo Edit in Grid View Mistakes

    When you’re doing rapid changes in grid view in lists and libraries, it’s easy to sometimes copy and paste information into the wrong cells by accident. Hit CTRL-Z immediately upon realising your error and it will undo the mistake.

  • Stop the Number 1 in Numbering from Indenting on in SharePoint Online Pages

    Have you noticed how when you have text that you want to number as a heading with a fullstop next to it, that the number 1 immediately indents and make the text smaller when you put a space between the number and the text? Yet you can put space on any other number and it’s […]

  • Office 365 Glossary of Terms for Business Users

    Learning a new technology is never an easy thing. The terminology alone can be overwhelming, let alone the functionality. Here’s a list of commonly used words you’ll start to hear when using Office 365 to build your intranet and use Office 365. Hope it helps. Feel free to copy and paste it into your intranet […]

  • Make a Christmas Themed SharePoint Home Page

    It’s been quite the year huh. End it on a cheerful note and give your intranet a Christmas theme. This is super easy in SharePoint Online because you can make different site pages into home pages whenever you want to. Get yourself some Christmas gifs in large format and put it into a one cell […]

  • How to Sign into Office 365 from Anywhere and Navigate

    There are 2 main ways you can get into Office 365 depending on where you are in your journey. Our go-to way is to sign into the intranet home page. That is always companyname.sharepoint.com, so ours is letscollaborate.sharepoint.com for example. Sign in with your work email address and password. This takes us to your intranet […]

  • Rename Your Emails

    Did you know that you can rename the subject lines of the emails you get? You know what it’s like, most email subject lines are pretty useless, making it very hard to search for anything. To change them, open the mail, the just type over the existing subject info. Then click escape on your keyboard, […]

  • Make SharePoint Online Menu Items Open in New Tabs!

    What a score! I pasted a link wrong and when I fixed it, I stumbled across a way to make Quick Launch and Top Link Bar Mega Menu items open in new tabs! 😀 And it’s SO easy! Edit any menu, then click on an existing link. Select only the http:// in the front of […]

  • Letterhead and Template Management in SharePoint Online

    Ah the cloud, full of interesting “quirks”. Something as simple as not allowing people to edit documents should just work seamlessly when they have read only access. But it doesn’t work seamlessly in reality. It’s a common scenario that we need people to be able to download templates, save the completed documents somewhere else, and […]

  • How to Fix the 5000 Item Limit Error Message in Classic #SharePoint Online Lists and Libraries

    There is a hard limit on the number of items that can be displayed PER VIEW in lists and libraries. That limit is 5000 items. This means that you cannot display more than 5000 items in any view or you will get the following error : This view cannot be displayed because it exceeds the […]

  • How to Manage Your Staff Working From Home Using Office 365

    Many managers and business owners are struggling to keep a handle on what their staff are doing whilst working from home. It’s a new concept for many people. But this is where technology used in the right way, can be vital. The first trick is to keep it simple. This is no time to over-complicate […]

  • Crisis Countdown Timer

    We hope you are all using SharePoint and friends to communicate the Covid-19 issues to all your staff; more on that later. For now, why not add the Countdown Timer web part to your intranet to give people something to look forward to. We decided to do it to our website too. T-Minus 1 day […]

  • Are You Emotionally Ready to Work at Home?

    Learning to work at home alone can be challenging for people who have been used to working in offices surrounded by people. Here’s a chapter adapted from my book called Career Success with SharePoint and Office 365 you may find helpful : It sounds somewhat romantic to say that you work from home—and it is, […]

  • Can Your Employees Still Work If They Are Not in the Office?

    This is a good time to evaluate how well your business operates when people can’t come to the office. Most companies have many technologies in their business to keep it running, a key technology should be your intranet. Hundreds of thousands of businesses around the world have been using SharePoint for their intranets – it’s […]

  • “There Was an Error While Attempting to Get the Theme”

    Modern SharePoint Online is buggy in some aspects. One of those being the themes. Out of nowhere, modern themes start giving errors – and waiting 24 hours doesn’t seem to solve it. To fix it, go back to the classic themes and change it to something else. This will kickstart the modern themes again. Thanks […]

  • How to Get the Top Navigation / Mega Menu on a Modern Site

    Someone asked me if turning a site into the communication site look and feel would give you the top navigation. The answer is no. To get the top nav on any modern site – and by association, get the mega menu options – go to the SharePoint Admin Centre and register the site as a […]

  • How to Turn Your Modern SharePoint Team Site into a Communication Site with No Code

    Want to turn your modern team site into a one-page communication site look and feel? You need to lose the Quick Launch then. Easy peasy – click on Settings > Site Information > View All Site Settings. Click on Navigation Elements. Then untick Enable Quick Launch and save. (PS : Please don’t ever use Tree […]

  • How to Make Email Links Open in Outlook Instead of Your Browser

    When you click “contact us” emails anywhere in a browser, are the links taking you to a blank new browser tab instead of Outlook? Easy to fix. Search for Default Programs on your PC, then click on Associate a File Type or Protocol with a Program. Scroll down (a long way) till you find “mailto”. […]