ALT 🆕 #KashBox article | We at Sympraxis Consulting hold an open-to-all, bi-weekly, 🆓, knowledge-sharing meeting called, "Ask Sympraxis." In fact, we've our next one this coming Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2025, 9:30am PT -- Happy New Year! 🎉 I wanted to take a moment and share a little more info about Ask Sympraxis more broadly, so you get a clear picture of what it is AND hopefully decide to join in. It's all about two-way knowledge sharing, in-person or on your own time (each session goes to our YouTube channel). Learn more about our "Ask Sympraxis" offering, and see you soon: https://kashbox.substack.com/p/ask-sympraxis-free-bi-weekly-microsoft

ALT They say sharing is caring, and in 2025, SharePoint cared a lot—to give us useful, innovative features. This list focuses on new tech that arrived in 2025 AND fits the category of most useful; with a slight bias from your author here about the ones I actually use most (or oft recommend) in my day-to-day personal use and consultative guidance. So, grab your favorite beverage and let me scroll-walk you down through my top five SharePoint features of 2025—the ones that made me think “that helps!” And in the pace of change, choosing five was tough. So, the article rounds out at the end with honorable mentions, a few related tech winners from OneDrive and Teams, and yes, a moment of silence for products and services we lost this past year. #RIP

ALT Semantics in language help convey meaning and make communicating interesting. Semantics in technology is a magical middle layer that takes raw information and turns it into knowledge – aka, something relatable and clear; a bridge to understanding. So, let’s explore it from a few angles and make sense of it together. In this article, we’ll explore three semantic steppingstones: 1) Human Communication, 2) Microsoft Interactive Media Manager (IMM) – An early (2007) SharePoint-based media solution, and 3) Semantic Index for Microsoft 365 Copilot. Title "Semantics bridges gaps in the AI era" overlayed onto a photo of a bridge crossing water.

ALT Three screenshots, left-to-right, using “Speak” aloud on an iPhone: Within iMessage, within a third-party app: LinkedIn, and within the Safari mobile browser — each showing selecting “Speak” from the pop-up menu.

ALT Social graphic for the article, “An AI-generated 'audio overview' of the SyncUp podcast episode "Audio overviews in OneDrive"” by Mark Kashman.

ALT Screenshot of my new “About me” page. Learn how to create a SharePoint page to introduce yourself out to your team members/organization/company AND generate a link about you that you can send to anyone internally to share your common details for various events and communication purposes.

ALT Screenshot of the Microsoft Learn home page | Discover essentials, take hands-on training, ask questions, create a personalized learning plan, and more to help you get the most from Microsoft products. learn.microsoft.com. This is one of six areas the FULL article focuses on.

ALT For the below example (screenshot), I first started in SharePoint — in the Teams team ‘connected SharePoint team site’ — to build out the Welcome page. I chose the new “Team Introduction” page template to jumpstart my creation. I then used Clipchamp to record a simple welcome video (all within the browser) and added that to the page. This template in particular uses the new flexible section layout, and I did just that, I moved a few things around, flexibly, until I got a nice “Welcome to the Green Team” page welcoming a new member of the Green Team. 🌱 Review full article on The KashBox (Substack): https://kashbox.substack.com/p/four-content-tips-when-working-with

ALT Ever wish your SharePoint site or content would know who has a’come a’knockin’? AKA, “Read the room, SharePoint” – know your audience! And then, magic, it serves up a most-relevant performance of content and information. Audience cheer erupts off the datacenter rafters! That’s exactly what SharePoint audience targeting does—think of it as a more-perfect performer presenting targeted content, navigation, pages, lists, and more to your intended audience(s).

ALT Use of Editorial Card web parts in SharePoint. Editorial Cards have advanced image controls, custom call-to-action buttons, and varied layouts. As the author of the page, you can group text, images, and buttons into composite cards drawing attention to key resources. They fit pretty much wherever you need them - at the top of your page, in the middle, or top-to-bottom in a vertical section.

ALT Automate your flow of work with Microsoft Lists rules, SharePoint quick steps, and Power Automate flows -All in Microsoft 365.

ALT Three things I like about the Apple AirPods Pro 2. You can listen, talk, transcribe… shake your head and nod — They’re a worthy addition to work and life, imo. This article explains why. Plus, four news nuggets from Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference 2025.

ALT "Ten ways to make a SharePoint page work for you, after you publish it!" You've written, designed, and laid out the perfect page... now, achieve greater reach and impact. Learn about numerous built-in features that help you promote your communications and information throughout your organization - closer to where you colleagues work.

ALT New Kashbox Substack article, "Get to know SharePoint agents." The basics. The demos. Links to learn more. SharePoint agents are natural language AI assistants connected to SharePoint sites. They offer always available, scoped subject matter expertise that surface insights, scale support, and assist with planning and creating.

ALT Well hello Curious One. Welcome. Lately, we’ve been publishing a lot of product training content — at every level, for a variety of roles. In the mix are keynote strategy sessions, broader general overview sessions, deeper product-knowledge sessions - all from Microsoft executives and product makers from across the company. The playlist of videos covers Microsoft Copilot, AI, Teams, Viva, OneDrive, Stream, developer and IT Pro content, and more. Find the ones that are most relevant to your role. Discover information about areas of technology you may be just beginning to understand. And, if you see something that resonates with a peer or client, share it (or the whole playlist) with them.

ALT Working with SharePoint and related technologies is always exciting. You can constantly learn new things, experiment with cool features, and stay updated. There are many resources available to help you master it all and get ahead. No matter if you are new or seasoned (nutmeg is nice this time of year), a developer or a designer (or elf), a business user or a power user (or a power point’er), you will discover something helpful and timely. Get the most out of SharePoint and related tech so you can make and get the most out of them. The image comes from Microsoft Bing Image Creator from Designer, using this prompt: “A 3D cartoon that celebrates and thanks the technical community, the best community in tech that stays connected, keeps the conversation going, and stays ahead.” 🤖🎨💡

ALT Social graphic to highlight the value of trying new things, sharing with others, and giving yourself credit - a new article on Kashbox.Substack.com.

ALT Timeline view of numerous Microsoft AI/Copilot announcements spanning March thru May 2023.