Communications – Annabel Treshansky's Blog

Using Flow with Teams, part 2

On 3rd April 2020

In Collaborative Software, Flow / PowerAutomate, SharePoint, Teams

Reading Time: 19 minutes

Recap

This is a follow on from my previous post, ‘Using Microsoft Flow to update a Teams group with SharePoint activity‘. Flow is also known as Power Automate, and it is a Microsoft method for connecting apps so that outputs from one app can become inputs to another app, and events that happen in one app can trigger procedures in another app.

In my previous post, I added Flow to a Microsoft Teams group, and set up conditional testing to post a message in one of two Teams channels, depending on the value chosen in a metadata column when a file was uploaded to a SharePoint library belonging to the Team.

The Plan

The next steps to improve on this Flow will be:

Changing the SharePoint column name to ‘Relevance’ and the option labels, Teams channel names and Flow conditions to say ‘Urgent’ and ‘FYI’ rather than ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Never’. This morphed into the far more complicated problem of waiting for the SharePoint column value to change before continuing the Flow.
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In the message that’s posted to Teams, change the text displaying the uploaded file’s URL to a working link to the file.
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Post the message in Teams using the name of the person who uploaded the file to SharePoint.
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Another thing I would like to do is to add the updates as cards in ‘To Do’ columns in the Teams group Trello board.
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Summary: Bringing the last few things together. Jump to summary section
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Apr 3, 2020

Photo: Mothers Working from Home with Kids.

Remote Working and Home Learning links

By Annabel Treshansky

On 29th March 2020

In Collaborative Software, Communications, Coronavirus Lockdown, Other Stuff, Remote Working

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Photo: This is definitely how organised my family life is.

How’s everyone finding it, working from home through the apocalypse?

The Apocalypse: I expected Zombies and Anarchy. What I got was no cycling and no toilet paper.

Also a million browser tabs

One challenge I didn’t expect was a virtual avalanche of constantly updating incoming information. There has been so much to take into account in this transition from normal everyday life to a combination of lockdown, home education and simultaneous working from home.

Soon I had an impossibly unmanageable number of browser tabs open and it couldn’t go on. So here they are: a collection of useful links that I am listing here to clear the decks in my browsers.

Mar 29, 2020

Photo: the Top 10 Unitarian UK Facebook Pages

The Scottish Unitarian Churches’ Social Media and Communications Workshop

By Annabel Treshansky

On 15th March 2020

In Communications, Social Media, Websites

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Photo of the grand looking Station Hotel in Perth

The Station Hotel in Perth: a very nice place to spend a day, with nice coffee and lovely chocolate orange cake!

I had a very interesting trip to Perth yesterday, to attend the Scottish Unitarian Churches’ Social Media and Communications Workshop. (I have a small side job updating the website and doing some of the social media posting for my church).

It was a great opportunity to network with people in similar roles at other Scottish churches, and to hear the latest communications-related news, tips and advice from Dr Rory Castle Jones, the Unitarians UK Communications Officer.

Communications: Traditional and Modern

Rory started off by comparing Traditional and Modern Communications channels.

Traditional channels of communication would include:

Leaflets
Posters
Press releases
Newsletters

Modern channels of communication would include:

Websites
Social media
Blogs
Email lists

So, Why should Churches use Social Media?

The UK has 45 million social media users, who on average use social media for 1 hr 50 minutes per day.
Here are some of the things churches can use social media for:

Publicising services
Publicising events
Connecting with the community
Explaining your faith

It seems very appropriate to include a tweet from Rory, showing the workshop getting started:

Scottish Unitarians’ Communications workshop getting underway in Perth, with inspiring opening by Rev Rob Whiteman on communications in a time of #coronavirus fear & confusion @UKUnitarians pic.twitter.com/kyawdhaqyI

— Rory Castle Jones (@RoryCastle) March 14, 2020

Mar 15, 2020

Screenshot: Trello board inside a Microsoft Teams group

How to add a Trello board to a Microsoft Teams group

By Annabel Treshansky

On 11th March 2020

In Teams, Trello, Useful Tips

Reading Time: 5 minutes

This post assumes you have a Trello board (because who wouldn’t) and a Microsoft Teams group (and who wouldn’t want to cheer one of those up with a Trello board).

So here’s the Trello board I’ve created as the first Swiss cheese hole nibbled into my upcoming SharePoint project:

My Trello board, a thing of awesomeness that nearly keeps me sane in moments of SharePoint

And here’s the Teams group I’ve created for the same SharePoint project:

It says, ‘Welcome to the Team!’ That’s a nice start, I like that. Big improvement, Microsoft!

Here’s what to do next…

Mar 11, 2020

Cher wearing a halo and standing like a religious icon

SharePoint: Who can save us?

By Annabel Treshansky

On 3rd March 2020

In Collaborative Software, SharePoint

Reading Time: 5 minutes

To be fair, it’s not her best work

I’m Attacking SharePoint and Flow with Swiss Cheese

I may have mentioned in previous posts (that I might not have published yet) that I am at the beginning of a big project to tidy up an old shared network drive, delete what’s no longer in use, and move all its remaining associated filing systems and processes into SharePoint. This is to be done for the purposes of efficiency, standardisation and automating of data protection. Yay.

A year ago, I hadn’t heard of SharePoint. (And yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…) Since then, I’ve approached it first with an open mind, and then with increasing dread.

So when I first heard about this project, I thought, “Please, for the love of God, no.” What to do. SharePoint is part of my job, so I have to stop this negativity and get into it.
And if there’s one thing I know I am, it’s stubborn as ****. So there will be a way.

So. Who are those people most well known for stopping any panicking and making people get on with things? That’s right, Management Consultants. So I did some internet research, and discovered there are ways to get on with such things. First I would tackle my project with Swiss Cheese, then Salami, and then a Pomodoro. It’s no wonder these management types bring such comfort and reassurance everywhere they go.

Kicking off with the Swiss Cheese method, I am nibbling little holes out of my project until the rest makes enough sense to slice up like salami. So here goes…

Mar 3, 2020