Every Chapter Updated This Time Round
The Office 365 for IT Pros writing team is happy to announce the availability of the April update for Office 365 for IT Pros (2021 edition). This is the ninth update we’ve issued for this edition and it’s a big one. We’ve updated every one of our 24 content chapters for April, which makes this the biggest ever update we have done. Some chapters are more heavily updated than others, but the big message is that change is pervasive across Office 365. You can’t afford to turn around for risk missing out on something, which is why we republish the book every month. We are the only Office 365 book to issue monthly updates and we’ve done this for six years. You could say that it’s become a habit.
Fetching Updates
Subscribers who bought the EPUB/PDF version of the book can download the updated files from Gumroad.com using their Gumroad account or the link in the receipt received when they bought the book. Kindle subscribers must contact Amazon support to arrange for the updates to be made available to their device (we don’t make the rules). See our FAQ for more information about how to retrieve updates.
Change List
Here’s a brief list of the changes in the April 2021 update. The changes made since the first publication of the 2021 edition are in our change log.
| Chapter | Change |
| 1 | Microsoft has added Teams as a workload with multi-geo capabilities. |
| 2 | Added note about shared responsibility for cloud services; mentioned HAFNIUM and on-prem vulnerabilities; added intro section for T2T migrations. |
| 3 | Temporary access pass content; selective password hash synchronization; conditional access user actions update; Azure AD Connect V2 endpoint update |
| 4 | Added note about using typed variables with PowerShell cmdlets. Introduced billing notifications and conglomerate branding. |
| 5 | Added section about reporting managers and their direct reports. |
| 6 | Add note about blocking BCC delivery to distribution lists. |
| 7 | Added new external email tagging feature discussion |
| 8 | Several updates to reflect the current status of features. Added section about Viva Topics. |
| 9 | Yammer communities support Azure B2B collaboration (guests). |
| 10 | The preview version of the Azure AD PowerShell module allows the resending of invitations to change the email address used by a guest account to sign in. Updates section about blocking guest access for individual groups. |
| 11 | Support for Teams view-only meetings. Meeting reactions are available. Dynamic view for meetings is available. Removed section on the transition from Kaizala to Teams because Microsoft hasn’t said anything about it since June 2019. We therefore assume that Microsoft is letting Kaizala die slowly. Safari 14 supports video feed in Teams meetings and calls. Automatic transcription is now available for the Teams desktop client (US English only). |
| 12 | Several adjustments to text because transcripts are available for Teams meetings. |
| 13 | Version 2 of the Teams PowerShell module is available, removing the need to run the New-CsOnlineSession cmdlet to connect to the management endpoint. The Get-Team cmdlet gets a useful performance boost in the V2 module. |
| 14 | Added information about Operator Connect. Removed section about Teams Advanced Communication license as Microsoft is revising its plans. Added section about Teams panels. |
| 15 | Planner roster containers are on the way. |
| 16 | Automatic transcripts are now available for Teams meetings. |
| 17 | Minor text changes, including link to Company Portal setup instructions for macOS. |
| 18 | Added Authenticator code matching; noted pending retirement of Delve Mobile app; mentioned new signin method for OWA. |
| 19 | Added clarification about retention policy processing |
| 20 | Emphasize that the time required to run content searches is influenced by the number of mailboxes included in the search. From April 16, 2021, users will need Office 365 E5 or Microsoft 365 compliance licenses to create new Advanced eDiscovery cases. |
| 21 | Microsoft’s threat, profanity, and harassment classifiers are now available in seven languages other than English. |
| 22 | Microsoft is introducing a new Teams DLP recommendation which leads to the creation of a Teams DLP policy to protect common financial and PII data. |
| 23 | Section on Power Automate Desktop inserted. |
| 24 | The Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise (desktop) support co-authoring for protected documents. Deprecation of the classic AIP portal and labels (31 March). GA for external sharing capability controls in sensitivity labels. |