來源：YouTube | 00:29:40 | 2026-07-20
Microsoft 365 的複雜性並非來自功能缺失，而是源於應用程式之間缺乏明確的邊界、功能重疊與歷史包袱，導致即使是資深使用者與微軟自身都難以清晰導航；真正的解法在於理解其底層的「個人 vs. 組織」、「儲存 vs. 協作」、「開箱即用 vs. 公民開發」這三條根本分界線。
- 核心生產力應用（Word、Excel、PowerPoint）仍是多數人工作的起點，但其文件中心的思維正在被即時協作工具挑戰。
- 筆記與協作領域陷入多頭馬車：OneNote、Loop、Whiteboard 各有定位，但 Loop 的組件架構才是微軟真正押注的未來協作基調。
- 溝通中樞的權力轉移：Outlook 仍是正式通訊基石，但 Teams 從視訊會議工具被強力推向成為一切工作的入口，而 Copilot 應用則可能成為新一代的統一介面層。
- 資料儲存存在根本性的哲學衝突：OneDrive 的「個人所有權」模型在協作場景中會產生資料孤島，與 SharePoint 的「組織邊界」模型形成對立，而 Lists 則試圖從 Excel 手中奪回結構化資料的儲存權。
- Power Platform 代表了 M365 真正的護城河與進階使用者陷阱：它讓非開發者能建立貫穿整個生態系的自動化流程與應用，但也因此讓「什麼是應用」的定義徹底模糊化。
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微軟的「品牌債」與產品自相殘殺：影片揭露了一個尷尬事實——微軟在應用程式啟動器中仍保留著 2023 年退役的 Kaizala，其連結指向一個損毀的網站。這不僅是技術疏失，更象徵 M365 長期以來的核心病灶：產品命名混亂、退役不徹底、新舊服務邊界模糊。從 Microsoft Project 的網頁版即將在 2026 年 9 月終止，到 Planner 正在吞併 Project 的功能卻仍需額外授權，再到 Viva 看起來「正在慢慢消失」，微軟的產品組合管理呈現出一種「疊床架屋」的模式——不斷推出新服務來修補舊服務的缺陷，卻極少乾淨地關閉舊服務，導致使用者必須自行承擔理解「哪個工具才是當前正確答案」的認知成本。
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OneDrive 與 SharePoint：個人所有權 vs. 組織邊界的根本性對立：影片尖銳地指出「OneDrive 實際上抑制了協作」，這在企業軟體語境中是極為反直覺的批判。OneDrive 的底層邏輯綁定個人帳戶——當員工離職，其 OneDrive 中的關鍵商業資料可能瞬間蒸發。相較之下，SharePoint 提供了以團隊或專案為邊界的共享儲存空間，這也是 Teams 底層的檔案基礎設施（每建立一個團隊，背後就自動生成一個 SharePoint 網站）。影片提出的解決路徑——以 SharePoint 作為組織知識的「事實來源」，OneDrive 僅作為個人草稿區——是成熟 M365 治理的標誌，但多數組織仍停留在「每個人把自己的檔案存在 OneDrive 再用連結分享」的協作反模式中，這是數位轉型中技術能力與組織行為落差最典型的案例。
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Loop 的定位困境：革命性的組件架構 vs. 不上不下的產品身份：Loop 被形容為「M365 家族中沒能真正起飛的醜小鴨」，這是精確但尖銳的觀察。Loop 的核心創新在於「組件」——可被同步嵌入 Teams、Outlook 等多個協作介面的即時協作單元，理論上這應是微軟對 Notion、Coda 等現代協作工作空間的回應。但 Loop 面臨雙重困境：一方面，它缺乏 OneNote 多年積累的筆記生態與用戶慣性；另一方面，它的組件哲學需要跨越應用程式邊界才能真正發揮威力，而 M365 各應用間的整合深度參差不齊。影片製作方坦言「推薦客戶使用 Loop 而非 OneNote，但這在 OneNote 使用者中是敏感話題」，恰好說明了 M365 生態中「情感依附」與「技術合理性」之間的緊張關係。
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Teams 的「超級應用」夢想與 Copilot 的入口顛覆：影片觀察到一個微妙的戰略轉向——微軟曾不遺餘力地將 Teams 推向「所有工作的中心樞紐」，嵌入日曆、企業內部網路（Viva Connections）、應用程式等，試圖將它打造成 M365 的作業系統層。但影片精準捕捉到微軟似乎已「稍微放棄了這個夢想」，因為使用者的注意力正被導向 Copilot 應用。這是一個根本性的互動範式轉移：從「你打開某個應用，然後在應用內完成工作」到「你向一個 AI 層描述意圖，它跨越所有應用為你完成工作」。如果 Copilot 真的成為多數使用者的起點，那麼底層應用程式的品牌名稱與界限將變得愈發無關緊要——這或許正是微軟敢於讓產品組合如此混亂的深層賭注。
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「什麼是應用」的定義瓦解：Power Platform 與公民開發者的雙面刃：影片後半段揭示了一個哲學問題——當 Power Apps 可以建立自訂應用、Power Automate 可以連接所有服務、Copilot Studio 可以創建 AI 代理，傳統意義上的「M365 應用」邊界已然模糊。這賦予了公民開發者前所未有的能力（例如將一個活在某人收件匣中的費用報銷流程，轉化為 Power App 表單 + Power Automate 流程 + Power BI 儀表板的完整解決方案），但也加劇了「我該用哪個工具」的困惑。當 Power Pages 可以建立外部網站、Copilot Studio 的代理可以取代 Power App 的前端，M365 不再是一個應用程式集合，而是一個允許使用者無限產生新應用程式的元平台——這正是微軟的競爭壁壘，也是使用者的認知災難。
| 概念 | 說明 |
|---|---|
| 組件 (Components) | Loop 的核心創新，可在 Teams、Outlook 等介面間同步的即時協作單元，修改一處即同步所有嵌入位置。 |
| SharePoint 為基礎設施 | Teams 的檔案儲存、Lists 的資料來源皆建構在 SharePoint 技術之上，是 M365 協作架構的真正底層。 |
| 觸發器與動作 (Trigger & Action) | Power Automate 的核心邏輯：當特定事件發生（觸發器），自動執行後續任務（動作），可串聯成流程。 |
| 公民開發者 (Citizen Developer) | 非專業工程師但能使用 Power Platform 建立自訂解決方案的進階使用者，是微軟民主化開發策略的核心受眾。 |
| 授權牆 (License Wall) | Planner 的高階功能（甘特圖、相依性）需要額外購買 Premium 授權，是 M365 功能漸進揭露與商業模式的典型摩擦點。 |
Microsoft 365 的表面混亂實際上反映了企業軟體產業從「套件」思維到「平台」思維的結構性轉型。過去，Office 是一組明確的桌面應用程式；現在，M365 是一個由底層資料基礎設施（SharePoint/OneDrive）、協作層（Teams/Loop）、AI 層（Copilot）與公民開發層（Power Platform）構成的多重生態系。這種架構給予組織極大的客製化彈性，但也轉移了責任——以前由微軟決定「什麼工具做什麼事」，現在由每個組織的 IT 團隊與終端使用者自己定義工作流與工具選擇。這解釋了為什麼 M365 治理與變革管理已成為一門獨立專業（如影片中提到的 365 Foundations 課程所試圖解決的問題）。
Copilot 應用的崛起可能預示著企業生產力工具的第三次典範轉移：從「功能導航」（在功能表中尋找指令）到「搜尋導航」（用關鍵詞尋找文件或工具）再到「意圖導航」（用自然語言描述需求，AI 跨應用執行）。如果這個趨勢成立，目前困擾使用者的「應用程式混亂」問題將在未來五年內被重新定義——不再是「我該打開哪個應用」，而是「我該如何向 AI 描述我真正的需求」。對企業軟體供應商而言，應用程式品牌將從差異化資產轉變為底層基礎設施，使用者的忠誠度將轉移到最能理解其工作脈絡的 AI 層。
對於現代知識工作者，M365 的真正生產力釋放點不在於學會所有應用，而在於掌握三條分界線：個人工作 vs. 團隊協作（OneDrive vs. SharePoint）、非結構化思考 vs. 結構化追蹤（Loop vs. Lists/Planner）、手動操作 vs. 自動化流程（標準應用 vs. Power Platform）。能在這三條軸線上做出正確判斷的使用者，將是 AI 時代真正難以被取代的數位人才，因為他們理解的不只是工具，而是資訊流動的治理邏輯。
- "The M365 app ecosystem can get really confusing. Even Microsoft gets confused."（M365 應用生態系統可能變得非常混亂。連微軟自己都會搞混。）
- "We find OneDrive to actually inhibit collaboration... If your coworker were to leave, that important information almost just goes poof."（我們發現 OneDrive 實際上抑制了協作……如果你的同事離職，那些重要資訊幾乎就是憑空消失。）
- "This is the digital equivalent of the junk drawer that everyone has in the kitchen."（這就像是每個人廚房裡都有的那個雜物抽屜的數位版本。）
- "AI isn't really a category of apps in Microsoft 365. It's more of a layer that Microsoft is trying to build across the apps."（AI 並不是 M365 中的一個應用類別。它更像是微軟試圖在所有應用之上建立的一層。）
- "The definition of an app is out the window."（「應用程式」的定義已經徹底失靈。）
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0:00 The M365 app ecosystem can get really 0:03 confusing. Even Microsoft gets confused. 0:06 They have an app in their app launcher 0:08 that was retired in 2023. 0:11 So, stay tuned to find out which one 0:13 that is. But, I digress. Let's fix the 0:16 confusion. Today, we're going to walk 0:17 through every app worth knowing and a 0:20 few that probably aren't. Explain what 0:22 they actually do, whether you should 0:23 care, and how it fits into your 0:25 day-to-day work. Let's start with the 0:27 core functionality apps. 0:30 First up, everybody's favorite, 0:32 >> [music] 0:32 >> Word. Microsoft Word is the most popular 0:34 document editor in the world. You can 0:37 [music] write and format text, you can 0:39 check your spelling and grammar, you can 0:42 collaborate on documents in real time. 0:44 You can actually see people's cursors 0:45 and see them typing. 0:47 And it can do lots more. If you need to 0:49 write something that's going to get 0:50 shared with other people, this is 0:52 probably where it happens. PowerPoint is 0:55 a general-purpose presentation builder. 0:57 Chances are all those extremely fun 1:00 slide decks you have sat through during 1:02 quarterly update meetings were built 1:05 with PowerPoint. I may have or may not 1:08 have created one of those in my time. 1:10 You can create slides, you can design 1:12 and add visuals, and then also 1:14 collaborate with others. 1:16 Again here, you can see people editing 1:18 in real time. You're probably already 1:19 familiar with like slide transitions, 1:22 and you can make some some bullets pop 1:25 in as you click next, but you can 1:27 actually make some pretty cool 1:29 animations if you know what you're 1:31 doing. If you need to present ideas and 1:33 want some visuals to go with it, this is 1:35 definitely where to go. Next is Excel. 1:38 Excel happens to be the only M365 app 1:42 that has a competitive [music] 1:43 tournament structure built around it. 1:45 It's also where Dave from accounting 1:47 meticulously tracks every invoice your 1:49 company has sent since 1963. Outside of 1:52 that, Excel is built to allow you to 1:54 analyze your data, your spreadsheets, 1:57 build formulas, and create charts and 1:59 reports and things [music] like that. 2:01 So, if you're working with numbers or 2:03 large sets of data, this is the tool you 2:05 want to choose. 2:07 OneNote is next. It's Microsoft's 2:09 digital notebook. So, instead of dealing 2:11 with your notes spread across all three 2:14 different notebooks and a random sticky 2:16 note on your monitor, OneNote lets you 2:19 have all of the notes in one central 2:21 place. You can take notes, organize them 2:24 into sections and pages, and share them 2:26 with others. If you've been with us for 2:28 a little while, you know that we 2:29 actually recommend using Loop over 2:31 OneNote to our customers, but we know 2:34 that's a little bit of a sensitive 2:36 subject, so let's just say it's a place 2:38 for you to store your notes and move on. 2:41 Completely unrelated, let's talk about 2:43 Loop. 2:44 Loop is Microsoft's take on a 2:46 collaboration-focused 2:48 workspace. Think of it kind of like a 2:50 shared notebook that you and your team 2:52 can all update [music] in real time, and 2:54 it's built on a special thing called 2:56 components. [music] These components 2:58 allow you to take the cool collaborative 3:01 functionality of Loop and bring it into 3:03 other collaboration spaces like Teams 3:05 and Outlook. So, let's say you're 3:07 starting a new project and you want to 3:09 brainstorm with your team, 3:11 without Loop, you'd probably have to 3:13 have 3:14 someone schedule a call and have one 3:16 person take notes and then email it 3:18 later. But, if you use a Loop page, you 3:21 can create a page in Loop and then share 3:23 your meeting agenda in the Teams channel 3:26 with a component, and everybody can just 3:28 type in [music] it together, and it 3:29 stays up-to-date everywhere that it's 3:31 shared. It sometimes gets a bad rap 3:33 because it feels a little bit like an 3:35 ugly stepchild of M365 that never really 3:39 caught steam, but there's a lot of 3:41 powerful features in Loop. We think more 3:44 people should be taking advantage of. I 3:46 just so happen to have made a video 3:47 about what Loop is like in 2026, so 3:50 we'll leave a link down below. Check it 3:52 out. 3:53 All right, Edge is uh Microsoft's native 3:56 web browser. 3:57 There's not much more to say about it 4:00 than that. I'm just kidding. 4:02 No, you can use it to browse things on 4:04 the web. Nothing too special. 4:06 >> [music] 4:07 >> It's way better than Internet Explorer 4:09 ever was, and it uses a lot of the same 4:11 infrastructure that you see on more 4:14 modern web browsers. 4:16 Let's move on to Outlook. This is more 4:19 than likely one of your major 4:21 communication hubs at work. We have a 4:23 lot of thoughts about why people should 4:25 be moving away from email as much as 4:27 possible, but we can't deny that there's 4:30 a lot of work that still gets done in 4:32 this app. You can send emails, you can 4:35 manage your emails, you can schedule 4:37 meetings, keep track of your day, and 4:40 see information about the people that 4:41 you're working with. Sometimes it's hard 4:43 to know what's an app versus a just a 4:45 feature within an app. You might see 4:47 calendar or people listed as apps in 4:50 some of the places in M365, but if you 4:53 ever click on them in an apps list, they 4:55 actually just redirect you to that 4:57 feature in Outlook. Calendar is an app 5:00 in Outlook where you can manage your 5:02 meetings and focus blocks. People is 5:04 another one. It's a digital contacts 5:06 list. You can add contacts internal or 5:09 external to your list, and then you'll 5:11 have all their contact information in 5:13 one place. 5:15 Next up is Teams. It's a big one. It's 5:17 the home of finding creative methods to 5:19 keep your mouth moving while you watch 5:22 the reruns of The Office for the 17th 5:25 time over and over and over. Just 5:28 kidding. You would never do that. 5:30 Right? 5:31 This is Microsoft's real-time 5:33 communication and collaboration app, 5:36 where instead of making long email 5:38 threads, you can just have conversation 5:40 that happens more immediately, 5:42 real-time, within the app. You can chat 5:44 with individuals or groups. You can 5:46 create channels or teams for your 5:49 projects. 5:50 Maybe you can jump on calls or meetings, 5:52 which is what we see a lot of the time. 5:54 Or you can collaborate on files, just 5:56 all in one place. Based on everything 5:59 we've seen over the last few years, it 6:01 seems like Microsoft is pushing Teams to 6:03 be a central hub for people's work. Your 6:06 calendar also lives here. They have 6:08 options for showing your organization's 6:10 intranet right in Teams, etc. Things 6:13 like that. In my opinion, Microsoft has 6:15 given up a little bit on this dream 6:17 because it seems like they're pushing us 6:19 all over into the Copilot app world, but 6:22 we'll talk about that in a minute. If 6:23 you were maybe forced to use Teams in 6:25 2020 for all of your meetings and kind 6:27 of got a bad taste in your mouth and 6:29 haven't tried it again since, you should 6:31 probably give it another shot. It's 6:33 gotten a lot better in the past couple 6:35 years, and it just may push us to switch 6:38 from Slack over into Teams, but that's a 6:41 topic for another video. 6:43 Whiteboard is another collaboration 6:45 tool. Similar to Loop, it kind of gives 6:48 you a real-time view of who's doing what 6:51 on the screen, but more in a flat, think 6:53 whiteboard space, less uh up and down 6:56 document sort of feel. We find that the 6:58 feature set is a little bit limiting, so 7:01 we substitute with an alternative called 7:03 FigJam. But, if you're looking for a 7:06 simple way to replicate a whiteboard 7:08 session that you had in a conference 7:09 room in a virtual environment, this is 7:12 what it's for. 7:13 >> [music] 7:14 >> Bookings is next. It's Microsoft's 7:16 response to Calendly and other 7:17 scheduling tools. Bookings attempts to 7:20 streamline the meeting scheduling 7:21 process, where you create links that you 7:24 can send out to people might want to 7:26 schedule time with you, and it lets them 7:28 just pick a time that works for them. 7:30 This integrates right with your Outlook 7:32 calendar, so someone doesn't double-book 7:35 over your time. It's not quite as 7:36 feature-rich as something like Calendly 7:39 if you are a power user there, but if 7:41 you're just looking for basic 7:43 functionality and you want to test a new 7:45 way to schedule meetings, might be a 7:46 good option for you. 7:48 Forms is Microsoft's tool for collecting 7:51 information from other people. 7:53 It lets you make surveys and polls and 7:56 quizzes and then publish them by sending 7:59 a link out to other people that they can 8:01 open and then fill out. It'll also 8:02 visualize the results for you so you can 8:05 present it in a meeting or you can 8:07 export the results to Excel and use it 8:09 however you please. 8:11 Viva is next and it's an interesting one 8:14 because it's presented as 8:16 an app and has a landing page like other 8:19 apps, but it's actually a bit more of 8:21 like a collection of apps. Overall, Viva 8:23 is Microsoft's employee engagement 8:25 program where they offer services like 8:28 an education platform with Viva Learning 8:31 or an engagement platform where you can 8:33 make different [music] communities and 8:34 discuss shared topics like Viva Engage. 8:37 Viva Insights will give you insights on 8:40 your workplace for things like how many 8:42 hours you spend in meetings, how long 8:44 it's been since you've had a one-on-one 8:46 with your direct reports, [music] 8:48 and more. Viva's Connections app is also 8:51 the service I mentioned earlier that 8:54 lets you put your intranet inside the 8:56 Teams app. Just reading my tea leaves, 8:58 it feels a little bit like Viva is 9:01 slowly going away, but at the moment you 9:03 should think about it as Microsoft's 9:05 employee experience platform that 9:08 [music] might be really helpful if HR 9:10 wants to give you and your coworkers a 9:12 place that you can go and socialize 9:15 with it being 9:16 >> [music] 9:16 >> kind of adjacent to the tools that you 9:18 work in already. It's hard to really 9:20 call Viva an app, but it is presented 9:22 that way in a few places so we felt like 9:25 we need to mention it. 9:26 Planner, let's talk about Planner. It's 9:28 everyone's favorite topic around here. 9:30 Planner is a lightweight project 9:33 management software that comes in the 9:35 Microsoft suite. If you've ever used it, 9:38 you'll know why we put some emphasis on 9:40 that lightweight part of that 9:42 introduction. It gives you the basic 9:43 functionality of creating tasks, 9:45 assigning them to people, setting due 9:47 dates, 9:48 >> [music] 9:48 >> tracking progress, things like that. 9:50 That's within basic plans. You can also 9:53 buy a license to a premium planner where 9:56 you get more features like Gantt charts 9:58 and dependencies and subtasks and things 10:01 like that that might feel a little more 10:03 full-featured. And Microsoft is blurring 10:06 those lines a little bit and bringing 10:08 them all together just in Planner 10:10 instead of having them be distinct 10:12 experiences. It does still require the 10:14 extra license, which is annoying, but uh 10:18 you can count on seeing those things 10:20 being brought together here very [music] 10:21 soon. That said, it's all far from 10:23 finished. So, if you are in a hurry and 10:26 you're building 10:27 big plans and lots of intricate details 10:30 around that, you might want to hold off 10:33 on Planner and lean into something 10:35 that's more purpose-built for project 10:37 management for the time being, but 10:39 [music] we are ever hopeful that it is 10:42 continuing to improve and will one day 10:44 feel like the thing that we can stamp 10:47 our our stamp of approval on. 10:50 If you're hearing us talk about project 10:51 management tools and screaming at your 10:54 monitor saying, "What about Microsoft 10:56 Project?" this is for you. Microsoft 10:59 Project was Microsoft's original attempt 11:02 at an enterprise project management 11:04 [music] software, and it served project 11:06 managers around the world for over 40 11:09 years. It's still technically available. 11:12 The web-based version is being 11:13 discontinued in September of 2026, 11:17 depending on when you're watching this, 11:18 and it's not currently available for 11:20 purchase. You're also able to 11:22 technically download your own version of 11:24 the software and host your own server 11:26 for it, but 11:28 save yourself the trouble. It's probably 11:30 not worth it. So, check out Planner or 11:33 any of the other project management 11:34 options if you need something. 11:37 Speaking of niche task management 11:39 solutions, let's talk about everyone's 11:41 favorite To Do. To Do is a place where 11:44 you can create your own task list and 11:46 then [music] bring it together with the 11:48 tasks that you've already been assigned 11:49 to in Planner. It's technically a part 11:52 of Planner nowadays, but you might see 11:54 the To Do name hang around for a little 11:56 bit longer. If you're a solo operator or 12:00 you just need a place to wrangle your 12:02 own tasks, To Do is worth a look. Just 12:05 know that anything you put here stays 12:06 with you. Your team can't see it. So, 12:09 you can't create tasks here and expect 12:11 your team to do something with them. 12:13 [music] You just use it for personal 12:15 stuff and keep the real project work 12:17 over in Planner. 12:19 OneDrive is everyone's favorite file 12:21 storage platform. It acts as cloud 12:24 storage for your files, so you don't 12:26 really need to keep all your work files 12:28 saved to your computer. 12:29 It [music] also gives you the ability to 12:31 share access to those folders and files 12:34 with other people, so you can work 12:35 collaboratively. 12:37 I put some sarcasm around the word 12:39 collaboratively because we find OneDrive 12:42 to actually inhibit collaboration. 12:44 That's because it's tied to you. It's 12:46 tied to an individual. If your co-worker 12:49 were to leave and they had a bunch of 12:51 important information there, it almost 12:54 just goes poof and you lose access to 12:57 all that information. 12:59 We find a lot of our clients have 13:01 incredibly important sources of 13:03 information there and and data stored in 13:06 their OneDrives that can lead to some 13:07 serious headaches that are avoidable. 13:10 The way you can avoid those headaches is 13:11 by using an inherently shared storage 13:14 system like SharePoint. That's a pretty 13:17 good transition. Pretty smooth if I do 13:20 say so myself. SharePoint is Microsoft's 13:23 tool for organizing, storing, and 13:25 sharing files across a team or an 13:28 organization. You can create a site for 13:31 different teams or projects and store 13:33 documents and collaborate on them with 13:35 others. Fun fact, Microsoft Teams is 13:38 using this very technology under the 13:40 hood. If you're working with shared 13:42 files or team content, there's a good 13:44 chance it lives here behind the scenes. 13:47 We find that SharePoint can be a little 13:49 confusing or intimidating for folks that 13:52 are new to it, so let's break it down. 13:54 Most organizations have a main company 13:57 site. This is usually where 13:59 >> [music] 13:59 >> company-wide information lives, like 14:01 announcements or important resources. We 14:04 call it an intranet a lot of the time. 14:06 Then, separate from that, you have an 14:08 individual team or project site. And 14:11 those sites [music] 14:12 exist within their own workspace. It's 14:14 like its own files and pages and content 14:18 for that specific group of people. So, 14:20 instead of everything living in one 14:22 giant place, SharePoint splits things up 14:25 into smaller, organized spaces depending 14:27 on [music] who's working on what. 14:29 SharePoint has the same file 14:31 infrastructure that's managing all your 14:33 files like you might be used to in 14:35 OneDrive, but it also has [music] 14:37 a front end to that. It has an interface 14:39 that allows you to interact with that 14:41 information on a website like you would 14:44 any other external website. If you're 14:46 listening to us talk about the concept 14:48 of personal storage and organizational 14:51 knowledge, we cover this in a lot more 14:53 detail in our 365 Foundations course. 14:56 It's designed to help you understand how 14:58 the tools all fit together so you 14:59 [music] can use them more effectively in 15:01 your day-to-day work. 15:03 Check out the link below. 15:05 Let's continue. 15:06 Next up is a fun one. It's Lists. This 15:09 is Microsoft's tool for tracking 15:11 structured information. Think Excel, but 15:13 more focused on organizing and managing 15:16 data. [music] 15:17 When we introduced Excel, we said Excel 15:19 was great for analyzing data, but we 15:21 didn't say anything about storing data. 15:23 There are a lot of use cases where 15:25 people use Excel to store their data and 15:27 refer back to it later 15:29 >> [music] 15:29 >> who would be much better served in 15:31 creating the same information in lists 15:33 and then exporting it to Excel when you 15:35 want to manipulate or analyze the data. 15:38 You can create a list of items, add 15:40 columns of different types of 15:41 information, and track things in a more 15:43 flexible way than a standard table. If 15:46 you need to keep track of information 15:48 that doesn't really fit neatly into a 15:50 document or a task list, check out lists 15:53 next time before defaulting to Excel. 15:55 Fun fact, lists comes from SharePoint 15:58 lists. That's the original place that 16:00 you could create lists and they have now 16:02 surfaced it into its own app. 16:04 Microsoft Access, we're talking about 16:06 Access. It's a database tool where you 16:10 can build and manage large sets of data. 16:12 It's a professional-grade tool meant for 16:15 information systems professionals to 16:17 create custom tools. If you ever heard 16:19 about Access, just skip to the next app. 16:23 If you're If you want If you're a 16:25 completionist and you want to to know 16:27 that we know about Access and you're 16:29 still holding on to your Access 16:30 database, [music] it's a tool where 16:33 professionals can can store information 16:36 in a database and, you know, create 16:38 custom tools from it, but 16:41 it's it's on its way out, guys, okay? 16:43 Let's talk about the next one. 16:45 All right, let's dig into what Microsoft 16:47 calls the Power Platform. If you're 16:50 wondering why I now magically am wearing 16:52 a different shirt, M365 has so many apps 16:55 that it took us 2 days to cover them 16:56 all. 16:57 The Power Platform is not an app, but a 17:00 suite of apps that gives users the 17:01 ability to make their own solutions to 17:04 their problems in their everyday work. 17:06 It's designed to enable power users or 17:08 citizen developers to create [music] 17:10 custom solutions to their problems. They 17:13 also seamlessly work with all the apps 17:15 in the Microsoft 365 [music] 17:16 ecosystem. This functionality allows the 17:19 Power Platform tools to do things like 17:21 when this email is sent from Outlook, 17:23 take that information and put [music] it 17:24 in this Excel sheet. It takes all the 17:26 different apps in the M365 world and 17:29 helps them work [music] together. These 17:31 tools are a bit more advanced than most 17:33 of the stuff we've covered so far. If 17:35 any of it seems interesting to you and 17:36 you want to see us go deeper into 17:38 anything 17:39 >> [music] 17:39 >> in the Power Platform, let us know down 17:41 in the comments. 17:42 First up is Power Apps. When we said 17:45 Microsoft makes apps that builds other 17:47 apps, this is the one. It's Microsoft's 17:49 tool for building your own custom apps 17:51 without needing to be a developer. You 17:53 can build forms for 17:55 collecting data, you can build internal 17:57 tools where you want to manage 17:59 information, or you can build 18:01 multi-screen apps with navigation and 18:04 conditional logic and 18:06 >> [music] 18:06 >> connected data sources 18:08 all in one app. If your team has 18:10 repetitive processes that lives in a 18:12 spreadsheet, which is a no-no, 18:15 uh an email chain, or just someone's 18:16 memory, Power Apps is how you can turn 18:19 that into something people can actually 18:21 interact with. Let's look at an example. 18:24 Say your company has an expense 18:26 reporting process that lives in 18:28 someone's inbox. People email them 18:30 receipts and 18:32 maybe someone logs them and finance 18:34 rebuilds the same spreadsheet every 18:36 month. Power Apps is where you fix the 18:38 front end of that problem. You can build 18:40 a simple app, say a form where employees 18:43 submit their expenses, upload a receipt, 18:46 and hit submit. That's it from their 18:48 side. They They're They're all done. The 18:50 app is all of the the forms, the 18:52 visuals, everything that people interact 18:54 with. Now, when you need something to 18:56 happen after that submission, like let's 18:58 say route it to a manager for approval, 19:01 or maybe you just need to log it 19:02 somewhere, or let somebody know in a 19:05 Teams channel, that's where you can 19:07 bring in Power Automate. 19:09 Power Automate lets you make things 19:11 called flows that automate certain 19:14 actions when a specific trigger occurs. 19:16 A trigger is the thing that kind of sets 19:18 everything into motion. So, when an 19:20 expense report is submitted, that's the 19:22 trigger. And then an action is something 19:25 that happens after the trigger happens. 19:27 So, upload that receipt to SharePoint. 19:29 Then you can start chaining additional 19:31 actions together with a trigger, and 19:34 that creates a flow. You can have flows 19:36 that aren't tied to a Power App, but for 19:38 the sake of simplicity, let's bring it 19:40 back to our scenario of Power Apps. The 19:43 The moment someone submits in that app, 19:46 that's the trigger. Power Automate takes 19:48 it from there and notifies a manager in 19:50 Teams. It captures the submission. It 19:53 logs it to a SharePoint list, let's say. 19:56 The employee just filled out a simple 19:58 form, and everything else happened 20:00 automatically. 20:01 Next app is Power BI. This is 20:03 Microsoft's power tool for turning data 20:07 into [music] charts and insights and 20:08 things like that. I know we just told 20:11 you Excel is great for analyzing and 20:13 visualizing data, and 20:15 it is, and that's where some people will 20:17 live, but a lot of people start to run 20:19 into limitations where Power BI might be 20:22 a good uh solution. So, if you're trying 20:25 to track data across multiple sources or 20:28 constantly build reports, and 20:31 you probably start to feel like it's not 20:33 the right tool for the job anymore. 20:35 Power BI lets you connect that data, 20:37 build a dashboard once, and then have it 20:40 update automatically. So, back to our 20:42 expense example, the user submitted the 20:44 expense through the Power App. Power 20:46 Automate logs it to SharePoint through 20:48 the flow. Now Power BI can connect to 20:51 that data, and finance gets a dashboard 20:53 that shows spending by department, 20:55 employee, category, etc. [music] Just 20:58 automatically updated every time a new 21:00 expense comes in. 21:02 No one is rebuilding that report at the 21:04 end of the month. They They just set 21:06 from this date to this date show me the 21:08 information and it will show you exactly 21:10 [music] what you need. So Power BI is 21:12 the tool that lets you build that 21:14 dashboard once and then have [music] it 21:16 update automatically using as many data 21:18 sources as you need really. It's also 21:20 the solution for hey, can you send me 21:22 that report? You say, here's your link. 21:25 Go 21:27 get whatever data you want. It's a 21:30 It's a common thing that we see with 21:32 some of our clients. 21:33 Copilot Studio is sort of on the fringe 21:36 of what we would consider an app but at 21:39 this point the definition of an app is 21:42 out the window. So we're going to cover 21:43 it under the Power Platform. 21:46 Copilot Studio is Microsoft's tool for 21:48 building custom AI agents. 21:50 >> [music] 21:50 >> You might recognize the term Power 21:52 Virtual Agents. 21:53 Now you can build agents that answer 21:55 questions, interact with your data, or 21:58 take actions across your workflows. And 22:01 now they're adding the Copilot smarts to 22:02 it. It lets you create these agents with 22:05 [music] 22:05 plain text prompts and you describe what 22:08 you want and Copilot will run off and 22:10 basically use its best guess to build 22:12 the agent that you want and you can 22:14 tweak it from there. You can give an 22:16 agent knowledge from SharePoint sites. 22:18 Hopefully not but you can add OneDrive 22:21 files and other data sources. Then tools 22:24 will let you take specific actions and 22:26 even the ability to work with other 22:28 agents. So bringing all those together 22:30 allows this thing to understand a 22:33 request, decide when it needs to happen, 22:35 and then coordinate complex workflows 22:38 across multiple systems. So let's say in 22:40 our expense example, you could remove 22:42 the Power App and then just make it a 22:44 Copilot agent that lives in a Teams 22:47 channel and then that can trigger the 22:49 same Power Automate flows we were using 22:51 before. Then AI will just be able to 22:53 take the information from the receipt 22:54 and drop it right into the SharePoint 22:56 list with that expense log. We actually 22:58 just made a video on the topic of AI and 23:01 the Power Platform, and it goes through 23:03 a similar example. So, if you want to 23:05 see more, go check it out at the link in 23:07 the description. 23:08 Next up is Power Pages. Power Pages is a 23:11 low-code app in the Power Platform that 23:14 lets you make externally accessible web 23:16 pages. So, [music] everything that we've 23:18 talked about so far is internal. It's 23:20 meant for you and your coworkers to use. 23:23 If you need someone externally to have 23:25 access to things that are in your tenant 23:28 and 23:29 able to interact with it in the context 23:31 of an app or a website, that's what 23:33 Power Pages is for. So, if you've ever 23:35 used something like Squarespace or Wix 23:38 to build a website, it's similar, but a 23:41 little bit more limited when it comes to 23:43 design and flexibility. Where Power 23:45 Pages really stands out is how it 23:47 integrates with the Power Platform. If 23:49 your goal is just to build a website, 23:51 this is not the tool. There's better 23:53 tools out there. But, if you need a site 23:55 that connects directly to your M365 23:57 [music] 23:58 systems and data, it starts to make a 24:00 lot more sense. And now with tools like 24:02 GitHub Copilot or Claude Code, you can 24:05 actually build websites. You can build 24:07 the code for those websites 24:08 >> [music] 24:08 >> pretty quickly and sync it up into that 24:11 Power Page. So, you end up building an 24:13 app that's externally accessible pretty 24:16 quickly. There is a little bit of a 24:17 licensing difference that is is worth 24:20 noting, but I'll leave that for another 24:22 video. That's it for the Power Platform. 24:25 It's whole reason it exists is to help 24:27 you build and and fill gaps where either 24:29 a tool off the shelf doesn't work or one 24:31 of Microsoft's existing tools just 24:34 doesn't make the cut. Now, if you've 24:35 been paying attention, you will have 24:37 noticed we've barely talked about AI so 24:40 far, and that's because AI isn't really 24:42 a category of apps in Microsoft 365. 24:45 It's more of a layer that Microsoft is 24:47 trying to build across the apps. But, 24:50 there is a common way that people 24:52 interact with it, and that is 24:53 [clears throat] through the Copilot app. 24:55 You should think of the Copilot app as 24:57 your starting point for getting things 24:59 done with AI and M365. By now, you have 25:02 probably noticed that Microsoft gives 25:04 you lots of different tools and places 25:07 that you can store and manage your 25:09 information. There's emails in Outlook 25:11 and files in SharePoint and chats in 25:13 Teams and notes in Loop and tasks in 25:16 Planner and the list goes on and on. The 25:19 Copilot app sits across all of that and 25:22 lets you interact with it just [music] 25:24 in plain language. So, instead of 25:26 opening five different apps to get 25:27 context on a project, you can just 25:30 >> [music] 25:30 >> ask Copilot. You can skip the the jumps 25:33 between Outlook and SharePoint to pull 25:35 [music] something together and ask 25:37 Copilot. And beyond finding information, 25:40 it can take action for you. It can draft 25:42 emails, summarize meetings, create 25:45 content. It can update tasks without you 25:47 even needing to know which app to open 25:49 first. All right, I think we have 25:51 covered the the main players in the 25:54 Microsoft 365 world. What's left is a 25:57 lot of miscellaneous apps. It's the 25:59 digital equivalent of the junk drawer 26:01 that everyone has in the kitchen. Some 26:03 are super helpful, some not so much, and 26:06 now we can even talk about the one that 26:08 doesn't exist anymore. Kaizala is a tool 26:10 that helped communication in a large 26:12 workforce where there were lots of 26:14 external vendors and [music] contractors 26:16 and you needed to communicate 26:18 seamlessly. 26:19 Microsoft officially retired it in 2023 26:22 and replaced it with Teams, but it's 26:24 still in the all apps section and we're 26:26 not especially sure why that link just 26:28 takes you to a broken website, but it's 26:30 in the all apps section, so we're going 26:32 to cover it. Next up is Clipchamp. 26:35 Clipchamp is a simple video editor that 26:38 exists in your browser or as a 26:40 standalone app on Windows machines. You 26:43 can make basic edits to videos, you can 26:46 record new clips, you can add text and 26:48 voice-overs and more. You're not going 26:50 to make a cinematic masterpiece in 26:53 Clipchamp. Actually, maybe you will. Let 26:55 let me know if you make cinematic 26:57 masterpieces in Clipchamp. Um but, it's 27:00 very helpful for a lot of the workplace 27:02 scenarios that we see. 27:04 Next up is Sway, Microsoft Sway. Let's 27:07 just say there's some solid reasons why 27:09 Sway finds its spot in this video in the 27:11 app junk drawer. Sway is Microsoft's 27:14 attempt at creating a middle ground 27:15 between a PowerPoint presentation and a 27:18 website. So, instead of building 27:20 traditional slides, you create a 27:22 scrolling interactive experience that's 27:25 designed to look good on any device, 27:27 really. If you've ever wanted something 27:29 that's a little more engaging than a 27:31 PowerPoint deck, but don't want to build 27:33 a full website, Sway might be worth 27:35 checking [music] out. This is the first 27:37 time you've heard of Sway, don't worry, 27:38 you're not alone. We have found use in 27:41 it when we need to deliver reports to 27:43 some of our clients on a monthly basis. 27:45 We just send them a link to a Sway. 27:46 [music] 27:47 Next up is Visio. If PowerPoint is for 27:50 presentations, Visio is for diagrams. 27:53 >> [music] 27:53 >> Visio is Microsoft's tool for creating 27:56 process flows and network diagrams, 27:58 floor plans, etc. Any sort of visual 28:01 documentation that you need. [music] It 28:03 comes with a big library of shapes and 28:06 templates that are designed for specific 28:09 industry use cases. And so, it makes it 28:11 a lot easier than trying to build the 28:12 same thing manually in PowerPoint. If 28:14 this looks like something you make 28:16 often, or should be making often, and 28:18 you haven't heard of Visio, you should 28:20 probably go check it out. 28:22 Last but not least, our long-lost love, 28:25 Microsoft Publisher. Publisher is 28:28 Microsoft's desktop publishing tool 28:30 where you can create designs [music] 28:32 like brochures and flyers. It first came 28:34 out in 1991, and a few years ago 28:37 Microsoft realized the functionality of 28:39 that app was duplicated in Word and 28:42 PowerPoint, so they're retiring it at 28:44 the end of this year. And judging by the 28:47 state of its website, Microsoft seems 28:49 pretty [music] ready to move on. And 28:51 that is Microsoft 365. If you've made it 28:55 all the way through the video, congrats. 28:57 You now know more about the M365 app 29:00 ecosystem [music] than most people who 29:02 use it every day. Also, we have managed 29:05 to get through most of this video 29:06 without talking about licensing once. If 29:09 you want to see a similar video trying 29:11 to map out Microsoft's licensing options 29:14 and explain which plans include what, 29:16 let us know in the comments. Fair 29:18 warning though, that video might be even 29:20 more confusing than this one. If you 29:21 think we missed an app, yell at us in 29:24 the comments. Let us know. Or if this 29:25 was helpful, consider subscribing, and 29:28 we'll see you in the next one. 29:30 >> [music]