Vlad Catrinescu's Blog, page 2
September 16, 2025
SharePoint Premium Is Dead? Here’s What Microsoft Just Renamed (Again)
SharePoint Premium is dead—again. Yep, Microsoft has renamed it once more, and if you’re keeping count, this marks rename #4 in just a few years.
So what’s the latest? Welcome to Document Processing for Microsoft 365.
In this video, I’ll walk you through:
A quick history of the rebrands (Project Cortex → SharePoint Syntex → Microsoft Syntex → SharePoint Premium → …this)
What each previous name stood for, and why Microsoft keeps changing it
What’s included in Document Processing today (hint: Autofill Columns, OCR, eSignature, and Translation are the stars) 
Which legacy Syntex features are now considered “past generation”
What’s been removed from the branding umbrella (SAM, Backup, Archive are now standalone)
You’ll also learn:
Why the rename signals Microsoft’s evolving prioritiesWhich features are still safe to useHow you can try Document Processing for FREE until December 2025Why your SharePoint Premium swag may now be vintage merch
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptSharePoint Premium is dead—well, at least the name is. Yes, Microsoft is rebranding things again. And if you’re keeping score at home, this marks the fourth rebrand for SharePoint Premium. So, what’s the latest? It’s now called document processing for Microsoft 365.
In this video, we’ll take a look back at how we got here and, more importantly, what this actually means for you. Let’s start by taking a step back. This isn’t the first time Microsoft has renamed these features. We all know Microsoft loves to rename stuff, but four or five times in six years might be a record.
Back in 2019, while still in development, it was called Project Cortex. A year later, it became SharePoint Syntex, focused on AI-powered document understanding. Then in 2022, it shifted to Microsoft Syntex as Microsoft pushed content AI across workloads—not just SharePoint. At Ignite in November 2023, I was in the room when Jeff Teper introduced SharePoint Premium, a suite designed to help you manage, ground, and leverage content for AI. The idea was simple: one brand everyone could recognize, bringing together all the extra features on top of base SharePoint.
SharePoint Premium was organized into three pillars: experiences, processes, and governance. For content experiences, it included brand-new features like the Agreements app in Teams, SharePoint eSignature (which has since been renamed to just “eSignature”), and the Documents Hub for customers and partners—which, as of now, still hasn’t shipped. The content processing pillar carried forward Syntex classics like autofill columns, taxonomy tagging, content query, translation for both documents and videos, PDF annotations, and more. This is where you transform content with AI—not just to improve user experience, but also to prepare your content for Copilot. The better your content quality, the better your Copilot rollout will be.
Finally, the governance pillar introduced advanced admin capabilities like SharePoint Advanced Management, Microsoft 365 Archive, and Microsoft 365 Backup. That was the vision back at Ignite 2023. But now, almost two years later, here we are again. The funny part is that the rename from Syntex to SharePoint Premium wasn’t even fully completed. As of late August, you can still see Syntex mentioned everywhere in the documentation and inside the admin center.
So, what does it look like today? Microsoft has decided to split things up. SharePoint Advanced Management, Backup, and Archive are now standalone products. They’re no longer under an umbrella—they’re their own thing. Everything that used to be Syntex is now bundled under the new umbrella: document processing for Microsoft 365. And yes, Microsoft is very particular about branding. In the documentation, you’ll notice it’s written with a lowercase “d” and “p” because it’s a category, not a product name.
If you check Microsoft Learn right now, you’ll see that this rename helps clarify their priorities, which I appreciate. At the Microsoft 365 Conference in May, they highlighted four services that will get the most attention going forward: OCR, document translation, autofill columns, and eSignatures. These are their priorities. Meanwhile, older features from Syntex—like document processing models, content assembly, taxonomy tagging, and image tagging—have been pushed into the “past generations” bucket. In the documentation, they’re tucked away under “other document processing services.” Microsoft clearly doesn’t want these to be seen as main services anymore. They’re still available, but they’re not part of the future roadmap.
To be clear, Microsoft hasn’t announced any plans to deprecate or stop supporting these older features. So, if you’re using them in production, don’t worry—there’s no emergency to move off them. But it’s obvious which features will get the most love and investment moving forward.
So, what does this mean for you in practice? Honestly, nothing changes overnight. All the features you use today are still there. The only real impact is that all your SharePoint Premium swag—like mugs and socks—now belongs in the vintage pile. Who knows? Maybe they’ll be collector’s items one day.
If you’re relying heavily on older machine learning-based features—like unstructured document processing models or content assembly—this is a good moment to start planning for the future. Look into whether newer tools like autofill columns or Copilot can replace those features. It’s not urgent, but moving in the same direction as Microsoft usually means you’ll get newer features, a smoother experience, and maybe even cost savings—especially with the recent cost reduction on autofill columns.
Make sure you check it out before it becomes urgent and Microsoft announces something. But honestly, even as an MVP, I haven’t heard anything yet. And if I had, I couldn’t tell you—but I haven’t heard anything. Microsoft hasn’t published anything about deprecating these products, even if they’re considered past generation. So, nothing to worry about today, but it’s always good to start looking ahead.
And don’t forget—Microsoft is offering free document processing services until December 2025. If you’ve been curious to try them out or want to run a proof of concept in your organization, now is the perfect time. I’ve got a video walking you through exactly what the promotion is and how to activate it. If you missed that video, make sure you check it out.
That’s it for this video. Let me know what you think of the rename in the comments below. And if you enjoyed this video, please hit like and subscribe—it really helps the channel, and I truly appreciate it. On your screen right now, you’ll see a link to my Content AI promo video, as well as a playlist with over four hours of deep dives to help you make the most out of Microsoft 365 document processing. Woof, I’ll have to get used to that name. See you there!
September 5, 2025
Get 50% Off Microsoft Certifications — Just Pass a Free Applied Skill
Want to save 50% on your next Microsoft certification? Here’s one of the best promos we’ve seen this year.
Microsoft is giving away 15,000 discount vouchers for 50% off any Microsoft certification (except GitHub certs). And all you need to do to qualify is pass a free Applied Skill lab and submit the entry form.
How It Works:
1️⃣Take and pass any Applied Skill (you’ll find many listed on Microsoft Learn)
2️⃣Submit the official form with your details
3️⃣Microsoft will award vouchers in weekly waves from Aug 25 – Oct 13
Microsoft Applied Skills Sweepstakes
Microsoft Applied Skills Sweepstakes Official Rules
This is a great way to try out Applied Skills and save on certs. Let me know in the comments what cert you’re planning to use the voucher on!
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Pass a free Microsoft Applied Skill assessment and you’ll be entered to win one of 15,000 vouchers for 50% off any Microsoft certification exam. It’s a win-win: learn something new and save big!Applied Skills Are Free, Flexible, and Focused
No scheduling, no proctoring, no trick questions. These hands-on labs are designed to build real-world skills on specific Microsoft products—perfect for boosting your confidence or prepping for a full certification.The Sooner You Register, the Better Your Chances
Vouchers are being given away in batches from Aug 25 to Oct 13. If you don’t win in the first round, your entry rolls over to the next—so register early to maximize your chances!Simple Steps to Enter
Pass an Applied Skill → Fill out a quick form (linked in the video description) → Wait for the email. That’s it! Just make sure to include your Learn username, email, and the link to the skill you passed.Vouchers Work for Most Microsoft Certs
You can use the discount on Fundamentals, Associate, Expert, and Specialty certifications—just not GitHub ones. That’s up to $90 USD off, which is a fantastic deal.
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptIf you want to save 50% on a Microsoft credential, listen up—Microsoft just launched one of the most exciting promotions I’ve seen in a while. All you need to do is pass a Microsoft Applied Skill assessment, and you’ll be entered for a chance to win one of 15,000 vouchers for 50% off any Microsoft certification exam. The best part? Taking an Applied Skill is completely free. So it’s basically: pass a free Applied Skill, get 50% off a certification. It doesn’t get much better than that—well, 100% off would be better, but this is still the best deal we’ve seen this year.
Now, if you’re new to Applied Skills and wondering what they are or how they differ from certifications, here’s the scoop. First, they’re free. There’s no scheduling, no proctoring, and no trick questions. You just complete the labs on your own time, from wherever you want. Unlike certifications, which often cover multiple products as part of a broader solution, Applied Skills are laser-focused on specific products and real-world tasks. That makes them perfect for building confidence in a hands-on, low-pressure environment. Honestly, a lot of people I know use them to prep for certifications too, which makes this promo even more valuable.
Here are the key details: Microsoft is giving away 15,000 vouchers between August 25 and October 13. The earlier you register, the better your chances of winning. The process is simple—pass an Applied Skill, then fill out a form (linked in the video description). The form asks for your Microsoft Learn username, email address, and the link to the Applied Skill you completed. Fill out a few more details, and you’re entered. After submitting, just wait for an email to find out if you’ve won.
Now, why does timing matter? Microsoft is distributing vouchers in batches, or “prize periods.” In the first week, they’ll give away 3,000 vouchers. After that, 1,500 per week, and then 3,000 per week for the final two weeks. If you don’t win in the period you entered, your entry automatically rolls over to the next one. So the earlier you enter, the more chances you have to win—your name stays in the pool for all future draws.
As for the voucher itself, it’s good for 50% off any Microsoft certification exam delivered through Pearson VUE. The only exception is GitHub certifications, which aren’t included. But all other certifications—Fundamentals, Role-Based, Associate, Expert, and Specialty—are fair game. That’s up to nearly $90 off, which is a fantastic deal.
So, what do you think of this promotion? Personally, I think it’s a great way to encourage people to explore Applied Skills, which are free, and also save money on certifications, which is always a win. I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know in the comments which Applied Skill and certification you’re planning to take. And on screen now, you’ll see some videos highlighting recent Applied Skills you should definitely check out. I’m off to decide which one I’ll do for this promo!
August 27, 2025
Want to Learn Power Automate Fast? Master It in Under 3 Hours
If your organization runs on Microsoft 365, learning Power Automate is one of the best ways to save time and improve efficiency.
In this Pluralsight course, Getting Started with Microsoft Power Automate, I’ll walk you through how to build real automations—no code required. In under 3 hours, you’ll learn how to create cloud flows that eliminate repetitive tasks and connect across Teams, SharePoint, Planner, Excel, and more.
Here’s what you’ll learn: Core Power Automate concepts: connectors, triggers, and actions Common flows: purchase approvals, reminders, scheduled notifications Advanced logic: variables, expressions, error handling, and loops Integrations with Microsoft 365 apps How to prepare for the free Microsoft Applied Skill: Create and manage automated processes by using Power Automate 
Whether you’re brand new to automation or ready to skill up fast, this course will get you ready to build smarter workflows—and earn a credential to prove it.
Watch my 100+ courses on Pluralsight
Most organizations still rely on manual tasks that could easily be automated. Power Automate helps you streamline those repetitive processes.Learn fast, build faster.
In under 3 hours, you’ll go from zero to building real cloud flows—no coding required.Go beyond the basics.
You’ll not only learn the fundamentals like triggers and actions, but also how to use loops, conditions, error handling, and variables to make smarter workflows.Connect with the tools you already use.
Power Automate integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams, Planner, SharePoint, Excel, and more—so your automations fit right into your daily work.Validate your skills for free.
The course aligns with Microsoft’s free applied skill credential: Create and manage automated processes using Power Automate. It’s a great way to prove what you’ve learned.
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptIf your organization runs on Microsoft 365, learning Power Automate is one of the smartest investments you can make. Let’s be honest—every organization has processes that should be automated but are still done manually. That’s exactly where my latest Pluralsight course comes in. In the Getting Started with Microsoft Power Automate course, I walk you through everything you need to know to start automating real work in under three hours.
You’ll learn how to build your own cloud flows using Power Automate’s no-code interface. We’ll cover key concepts like connectors, triggers, and actions, and I’ll show you how to create common automations such as purchase approvals, task reminders, Teams notifications, and scheduled flows that pull data and send alerts.
We’ll also go beyond the basics. You’ll learn how to add logic, implement loops and conditions, handle errors gracefully, and use variables and expressions to make your automations smarter and more flexible. Plus, you’ll see how to integrate Power Automate with Microsoft Teams, Planner, SharePoint, Excel, and many other tools—so you’re not just learning theory, but building practical flows that apply across Microsoft 365.
And if you’re looking to validate your skills, this course maps directly to Microsoft’s applied skill credential called Create and manage automated processes using Power Automate, which is completely free. By the time you finish, you’ll not only be ready to automate your own workflows, but you’ll also be able to earn a Microsoft credential to prove it.
If you’re ready to stop doing the same tasks over and over again and start building smarter workflows, jump into the course today—and let’s get started!
August 21, 2025
Clear Your Copilot History Across Microsoft 365 Apps | Quick Tutorial
If you’ve been using Microsoft Copilot and want to delete your activity history, you’re not alone. Whether it’s for privacy, cleanup, or peace of mind, knowing how to remove that data is important.
In this video, I’ll show you step-by-step how to clear your Copilot history across Microsoft 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Loop, Planner, Whiteboard, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
You’ll learn: Why you might want to delete Copilot history How to find the privacy settings in your Microsoft account How to delete Copilot activity history in just a few clicks Which apps does this apply to across Microsoft 365
This quick tutorial takes less than 5 minutes to follow and will help you keep your Copilot experience private and under control.
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You can delete your Copilot history—it’s not just there forever. Handy if you’re sharing your screen in Teams or doing a training session and don’t want all your trial prompts showing up.
The process takes less than a minute: go to your Microsoft 365 portal → click your name → View Account → Settings & Privacy → Privacy → Copilot activity history → Delete history.
Choose what to wipe: you can specifically target Microsoft 365 Copilot activity, then hit Delete. It usually clears in 30 seconds, but sometimes takes up to 15 minutes.
This covers all the big apps—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, plus Forms, Loop, Planner, Whiteboard, and Copilot Chat itself.
Peace of mind delivered: once deleted, your history’s gone across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem, so you can demo, teach, or screen-share without awkward surprises.
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptIf you’ve been using Microsoft Copilot and you’re wondering how to delete your activity history, you’re not alone. Whether it’s for privacy, cleanup, or just peace of mind, knowing how to remove that data matters. In this video, I’ll walk you through exactly how to do it across the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
You might be thinking, “Why would I need to delete it?” After all, everywhere you look, it says that Copilot is your personal assistant and that others can’t see your conversations—which is true. However, if you share your screen during a Teams meeting or conduct a Copilot training session, your previous prompts and responses could be visible. This includes all your practice runs and test prompts, which might not be something you want to show.
For example, in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, if I were to share my screen, all my recent conversations would be visible. The same goes for Teams—inside Copilot, the history of what I asked during a meeting is stored. If I want to reset that and keep it private, there’s a simple way to do it.
From the Microsoft 365 portal, click on your name and select “View Account.” This will take you to myaccount.microsoft.com. From there, go to Settings & Privacy, then navigate to Privacy > Copilot Activity History, and select Delete History. You’ll be asked which Copilot activity history you want to delete—just check “Microsoft 365 Copilot” and click delete. It may take anywhere from 30 seconds to about 10–15 minutes for the history to be fully cleared.
That’s all you need to do. This method works across all Microsoft 365 apps that store Copilot activity history, including Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Teams, and online apps like Forms, Loop, Planner, Whiteboard, and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat.
If you have more questions about Copilot privacy—like deleting history, managing permissions, or understanding what Copilot can see—drop them in the comments. If you found this video helpful, don’t forget to like it and subscribe for more great content. And check out the other videos on your screen for more tips!
August 20, 2025
Try SharePoint Content AI (document processing) for Free – Limited Time Offer from Microsoft
If you’ve been curious about SharePoint Content AI features but haven’t tried them yet, now’s the perfect opportunity. 
Microsoft is offering a limited-time promotion that gives you free access through December 2025 to powerful AI tools in SharePoint Online—no add-on license required.
Included in this offer: 100 pages/month for Autofill Columns 50 documents/month for Content Assembly 1 million characters for Document Translation 2500 images/month for Image Tagging 5 eSignature requests/month Taxonomy Tagging, Optical Character Recognition, Document Processing & more 
To activate this: All you need to do is enable pay-as-you-go billing in your Microsoft 365 tenant. Once it’s set up, the monthly usage listed above is available at no cost through the end of 2025.
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Microsoft is offering a limited-time promotion that gives you free monthly access to SharePoint Content AI features—no extra license needed!What’s included? A lot!
You get free usage of autofill columns, document translation, image tagging, e-signatures, content assembly, and more. These tools can seriously cut down manual work and boost consistency.No license add-ons required
Just activate Pay-As-You-Go billing in your Microsoft 365 tenant, and you’ll automatically unlock the free monthly quotas for these AI services.Watch out for usage limits
If you go over the free monthly limits, standard rates will kick in. I’ve linked a video and Microsoft’s official page to help you set up budgets and avoid surprises.Learn how to use every feature
I’ve created a full YouTube series—17 videos and over 4 hours of hands-on demos—so you can dive deep into each AI capability and start using them right away.
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptIf you work with SharePoint and have been curious about Content AI, now is the perfect time to try it without spending a dime. In this video, I’ll show you how to take advantage of a limited-time promotion that gives you access to some of the most powerful AI tools in SharePoint Online—for free.
Let’s start with what’s actually included. SharePoint Content AI services go far beyond basic automation. We’re talking about autofilling columns based on file metadata, advanced document processing, content assembly with modern templates, document translation, image tagging, and even taxonomy tagging to better organize your content. These features can save hours of manual work and bring consistency across your content libraries.
If this is your first time hearing about these features, I’ve created a full YouTube series that walks through how each one works. It’s over four hours of practical, hands-on demos split across 17 videos, so you can quickly learn what you need. You’ll find the link in the description below, so definitely check it out.
Now, back to the purpose of this video—here’s the big news. Microsoft launched a limited-time promotion that gives you access to SharePoint Content AI features at no extra cost through December 2025. That means you have around four or five months to test, learn, and integrate these tools into your workflows before the promotion ends. I’ll link the official Microsoft page in the description so you can read the details, but let’s take a look together.
Once you visit the page linked in the description, you’ll land on the “Try out pay-as-you-go services for document processing” page. If we scroll down, we’ll see the exact details of what’s included. For autofill columns, you get 100 pages monthly at no charge. For content assembly, you can create 50 documents from smart templates. Document translation includes 1 million characters—enough for a lot of documents. Even e-signature is included, with five requests per month. For image tagging, you get 2,500 images, which should be plenty for your stock image library.
There’s a lot more: optical character recognition, pre-built document processing, structured document processing, and taxonomy tagging for 50 document stacks using AI to automatically tag with managed metadata. This ties in nicely with any existing managed metadata efforts. One thing to note is that the 100 pages for autofill columns are shared with unstructured document processing. I recommend using autofill columns over unstructured document processing, but that’s a topic for another video. Just keep in mind that the quota is shared.
Now, you might be wondering how to activate the promo. The cool thing is, you don’t need an add-on license. All you have to do is activate pay-as-you-go billing in your Microsoft 365 tenant. Once that’s done, you’ll automatically get access to the free monthly usage for these Content AI services. Just remember, if you go over the monthly limit, standard rates will apply. I’ll also link to the pricing details in the description.
To help you set this up properly, I’ve created a dedicated video that walks through best practices for enabling pay-as-you-go in Microsoft 365. It’s important to configure budgets correctly so you don’t get overcharged or activate it on more sites than necessary. That video covers everything in detail.
So now I want to know—what features are you most excited to try? Personally, I think document processing, especially autofill columns and image tagging, have huge potential for saving time and improving content quality. Let me know in the comments what you’re planning to test first.
If you haven’t activated pay-as-you-go yet in your tenant, now is the time. This promotion ends in December 2025, and once it’s gone, so is the free access. Don’t miss the chance to try out these AI-powered features while they’re still available at no cost.
And of course, if you enjoyed this video, make sure to like and subscribe to the channel so you get notified about more awesome content. Check out the videos appearing on your screen now for more great AI and SharePoint insights. Thanks again for watching, and see you in the next one!
August 19, 2025
Power Automate Error Handling: What to Do When Flows Fail
Flows don’t always go as planned—whether it’s a missing manager profile, a broken API, or an unexpected error, Power Automate flows can and will fail. The good news? You don’t have to leave it up to chance.
This video is part of my Pluralsight course Getting Started with Microsoft Power Automate, where we go deeper into building reliable, production‑ready flows. You can find the full course over here.
In this video, I’ll walk you through how to add error handling to your Power Automate flows so you stay in control when the unexpected happens. You’ll learn: How to use Run After settings to trigger actions when a step fails How to build a catch‑all error handler that notifies you immediately How to use the Terminate action to properly mark a flow as failed.
This way, you can set up custom error notifications, keep processes running even when a step breaks, and make debugging much easier.
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Video SummaryFlows fail—plan for it! Even the best-designed Power Automate flows can break due to missing inputs, unset managers, or API outages. Error handling gives you control over what happens when things go wrong.Default notifications aren’t enough. By default, you’ll get an email hours (or even a day) later, and it might list multiple failed flows. That’s not helpful for quick fixes.Use “Configure Run After” for smart branching. You can tell actions to run only if the previous step failed, timed out, or was skipped. This lets you send targeted notifications or even start alternative processes when something breaks.Two error-handling strategies:Action-level handling: If a specific step often fails (like “Get Manager”), add a parallel branch to send an error email or assign a fallback value.Catch-all handling: Add a final step that runs if anything above fails or is skipped, sends a notification with a direct link to the failed run, and optionally uses the Terminate action to mark the flow as failed.Pro tip: Use the Terminate action to make sure your flow status reflects reality. Without it, a flow might show as “Succeeded” even if something broke earlier.For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptWhile all of our demos ran smoothly, real-world flows can fail. Whether it’s a missing input, a manager not set in a profile, or simply an API being down, we need to make sure those errors are handled properly. Let’s learn how to handle errors in Power Automate flows.
As much as I like to think that all of the flows we create are error-proof, we can never plan for every single scenario, and sometimes our flows will hit something we simply didn’t expect. Error handling allows us to have more control over what happens when the unexpected occurs. It can be as simple as sending an email to somebody or as complicated as starting another process.
Before we learn what can be done, let’s take a look at the default setup. By default, when a flow fails, you will get an email—but that is not instant. It can take a couple of hours or even more than a day sometimes, and that email can include multiple flows. You also have access to the Power Automate Cloud Flows activity page, but it’s something you need to manually check, so it’s not as effective.
So what can we do? The answer is configuring the Run After functionality in Power Automate. There is a setting for each action where you can tell it to only run if the previous action is successful (which is the default), has timed out, is skipped, or has failed. This allows you to control what happens depending on whether a previous action succeeds or fails. For example, you can configure an email notification if a certain task fails or even if the entire flow fails.
As a nice tip, you can insert a link in that email that goes directly to the flow run. This is done using an expression that builds the URL. You have access to many variables and environment properties to make this work. Don’t worry—you don’t need to memorize it; you can copy it from the exercise files on Pluralsight.
Depending on how you implement your error-handling logic, if the last action in your flow succeeds, your flow will be marked as successful—even if something failed earlier. That means you handled the error correctly, but it can make finding failed runs harder. To address this, you can use the Terminate action in Power Automate, which allows you to select how the flow finishes and mark it as failed if needed.
Now, let’s look at two ways to manage potential errors inside flows. First, I prepared a simple flow: it’s manually triggered, gets an item from a project tasks list, retrieves the manager of the person who created the item, and sends an email.
The first method is for actions that often fail. For example, “Get Manager” is a common failure point because not every organization has managers set in Azure AD. If it fails, we can add a parallel branch that sends an email notification. Then, in the settings of that email action, we configure it to run only if “Get Manager” fails. This way, if the action succeeds, we send a success email; if it fails, we send an error email.
The second method is for when you don’t know where the flow might fail. For this, you can add a “catch-all” email at the end of the flow. Configure it to run only if the previous success email is skipped or failed. In that email, include the dynamic link to the failed run so you can quickly troubleshoot.
However, there’s one more step: if the last action (the catch-all email) succeeds, the flow will still show as successful. To fix this, add a Terminate action after the catch-all email and set it to “Failed.” This ensures the flow status reflects reality.
Finally, if everything works properly, the catch-all and terminate actions won’t run, and you’ll only get the success email. These two approaches—action-level handling and catch-all handling—give you flexibility in managing errors in Power Automate Cloud Flows.
August 14, 2025
How to Translate Video Transcripts in SharePoint (100+ Languages)
Did you know SharePoint can automatically translate your video transcripts into over 100 languages? Whether you’re sharing a CEO update or internal training, this feature, powered by Content AI, makes multilingual communication a breeze.
In this full tutorial, we’ll show you how to: 
Configure SharePoint for video translations Translate transcripts to multiple languages Edit translations using downloadable VTT files Understand costs with Pay-As-You-Go billing Save hours compared to manual transcription and translation
Skip the manual work — let AI handle your captions! Check out the other episodes in the playlist.
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Video SummaryTranslate videos in one click: SharePoint Content AI lets you translate internal videos—like CEO messages or training sessions—into over 100 languages with just a single click.Simple setup: All you need is Pay-As-You-Go billing and to enable video translation on your SharePoint sites. If you’re not sure how, earlier videos in the series walk you through it.Affordable and editable: Translation costs just $15 per 1 million characters, and you only pay when it is completed. You can download and tweak the transcript if needed—perfect for polishing or using your editing tools.Surprisingly accurate: Microsoft’s AI does a great job—catching proper names, formatting, and even context. It’s not flawless, but it’s a solid starting point that saves time and money.Why wait? Just go for it: Compared to traditional translation services that cost $1–$2 per minute, this is cents per minute. As Gokan says: “Just go for it.” And don’t forget to check out the rest of the Ultimate SharePoint Content AI series!For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptBonjour! Sorry—this video is about video translation in SharePoint, not YouTube. It doesn’t work on YouTube yet. But speaking of SharePoint, imagine being able to translate all the hundreds of videos on your intranet—whether it’s a CEO message or company training content. Imagine having transcripts available in over 100 languages, and all it takes is one single click to make it happen. That’s exactly what video translation powered by SharePoint Content AI can do for you.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to the 16th video in the Ultimate SharePoint Content AI series. I’m joined again by Gokan Ozcifci, one of the only MVPs who speaks five languages. I’ve been adding a new language in every video, and we’re excited because we’re nearing the end of the series. Technically, this is the last feature-focused video. If this is your first time watching, make sure to check out the previous episodes—especially the one on document translation, which we covered just before this.
Before jumping into the demo, there are a few things you need to configure. First, you need to set up Pay-As-You-Go billing. Then, you need to enable video translation either on all SharePoint sites or just the specific site you want to work with. If you’re unsure how to do that, don’t worry—the third episode in this series explains it in detail, and you’ll find a link in the description.
Now, let’s dive into the demo. I’ll go back to the document library and refresh the page. I’ll open a video, which launches in Microsoft Stream. I’ll mute it so you don’t hear it in the recording. By default, if I go to captions, you’ll see I have English captions. Gokan calls it captions—I call it “inception” because it’s Vlad inside Vlad. A video within a video. Double Vlad!
Anyway, let’s say I want to make these captions available in French for my French-speaking colleagues. I go to video settings, then to transcript and captions. You’ll see that I’ve generated English captions using Microsoft’s transcription service, which does an excellent job. Now, if I click the Translate button, I can translate from English to over 100 different languages. Let’s search for French (Canada) and click Translate.
It’s not instant—you’ll see a progress bar. Sometimes it takes 30 seconds, sometimes up to five minutes. You don’t need to watch it like we are now. Usually, you just start the translation, grab a coffee, and it’s done by the time you’re back.
While we wait, let’s talk about cost. If you watched the previous video on document translation, it’s the same pricing: $15 per 1 million characters, based on the source transcript. So if you translate from English to French, it counts the English characters. If you then translate from French to Dutch, it counts the French characters. You’re only charged when the translation successfully completes, and there’s no charge for viewing translated transcripts. I appreciate that.
Now that it’s done, you’ll see the transcript was translated by Microsoft. You can download it if you want to make edits. It’s not final—you can tweak it and re-upload. I now have French (Canada) as an option. Let’s click on it and check the video. Gokan, you’re not hearing the audio, so just based on reading the transcript, tell me—does this sound like something Vlad would say?
Looking at it, I’m really happy with how it turned out. Even “Microsoft Teams” is properly capitalized, and names like “Vanessa” are recognized and formatted correctly. It did a really good job. I remember recording this video, so I know what I said—and I’m impressed. Of course, no translation service is perfect. That’s why you can download the transcript as a VTT file, open it in Notepad, and make edits. You’ll see the timings and text, and you can fix any words or adjust the timing if needed. Many companies use specialized tools to edit these files more easily, and this gives you a great starting point.
Again, we’re talking $15 per 1 million characters. Imagine doing this manually—it would take forever. With this tool, you save so much time and money. It might be perfect the first time, or it might need a little love, but there’s no reason not to start using it right now.
Gokan, what do you think?
“100% agree,” he says. “Translation for everyone is a must—whether it’s video or other content. Hiring a professional usually costs $1–$2 per minute of video, but now we’re talking cents per minute. Totally worth it.”
That’s it for this video—it was short and sweet compared to the others where I talk a lot. Any final words, Gokan?
“Just go for it,” he says.
If you enjoyed this video, make sure to like and subscribe to the channel. And don’t forget to check out the other videos in the series. You’ll see the previous one on document translation and the next one, which wraps up the series by showing how to extend Content AI even further.
Thanks so much for watching, and we’ll see you in the next one!
August 13, 2025
New Microsoft Credential for Copilot Studio Agents (APL‑7008)
There’s finally a new credential for Microsoft Copilot Studio — the APL‑7008 Applied Skill: Creating Agents. I took it myself, passed, and in this video, I’ll share what you need to know.
We’ll cover:What makes APL‑7008 different from certificationsThe key skills you’ll be tested onWhere this applied skill fits into the bigger Power Platform certification path
Applied Skills are free, hands‑on labs with no scheduling, no proctoring, and no trick questions. If you want to prove your Copilot Studio agent skills or are looking for the next step after PL‑900, this is the credential to check out.
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Video SummaryAPL-7008 is the newest applied skill for Copilot Studio, designed for those who already have hands-on experience. It’s a practical, lab-based credential that tests your ability to build and deploy custom agents—no trick questions, no proctoring.Applied skills are free and flexible, making them a great way to build confidence. You complete them on your own time, and they focus on real-world tasks like configuring Gen AI, managing topics, and integrating with Dataverse.The lab experience was smooth and well-structured. I finished it in under an hour, thanks to clear instructions and a much-improved interface. While the scenario felt a bit simplified, it’s still a solid intro to Copilot Studio’s core capabilities.If you’re mapping out your Power Platform journey, start with PL-900 (Fundamentals), then take APL-7008 to specialize in Copilot Studio. From there, you can explore PL-200 or PL-400, and eventually PL-600—though that one might retire soon.Applied skills are perfect for product-specific expertise. Unlike broader certifications, they let you go deep into one area—whether it’s cloud flows, canvas apps, or Copilot Studio—so you can stand out with focused, hands-on knowledge.For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptIf you’re working with Microsoft Copilot Studio, you’ll be happy to know there’s finally a brand-new credential for it: the APL-7008 – Creating Agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio. Since I use Copilot Studio regularly and even train others on it, I decided to take it myself—and luckily, I passed. Now, I can walk you through what the experience is like and whether it’s worth your time.
Here’s what we’re going to cover in this video. First, I’ll give you a quick overview of the APL-7008 credential. Then, I’ll share my personal experiences taking it and show you how it fits into the bigger picture of Power Platform certifications—especially if you’re wondering if this credential is right for you or what the next step is after earning it.
Okay, first things first. For those of you who are new to applied skills and wondering what the difference is between applied skills and certifications, well, first of all, they’re free. There’s no scheduling, no proctoring, and no trick questions. You just do the labs on your own time, from wherever you want. And they’re not proctored like certifications. Unlike broader role-based certifications, applied skills are tightly focused on specific products and real skills. This makes them really great for building confidence in a hands-on, lab-based, no-pressure way.
Now, let’s focus on the credential. To earn this credential, you’ll need to demonstrate that you can build custom agents with Microsoft Copilot Studio. This isn’t for total beginners—you should already have experience with Copilot Studio, Microsoft Teams, and the Power Platform. If you want to see the official details, I dropped a link to the Microsoft Learn page in the video description.
So, what skills do you need to pass this applied skill? You’ll start by building your initial agent. Then, you’ll need to learn how to manage topics and trigger phrases. From there, you need to know how to work with nodes, variables, and entities, set up generative AI, pull in data from Dataverse, and finally deploy the agent. So, it’s a full test of everything it takes to go from idea to a working solution.
You know what? Let’s go ahead and take a look at the full list directly on Microsoft Learn. This is the link you’ll find in the description below. It goes directly to the applied skill. If you’ve passed it, you’ll see your result right there on the page. But if you want to see the detailed study guide, scroll to the bottom, where you’ll find the study guide for applied skills, which will bring you directly to the guide for this specific skill.
So, what do you need to be able to do before you take it? You need to know how to build an initial agent—create and name a new agent, add a description, and configure Gen AI instructions. You need to know how to manage topics and trigger phrases—delete sample topics, disable default topics, create new topics, and create trigger phrases. You need to know how to configure nodes—add a “send a message” node, an “ask a question” node, an “ask with an adaptive card” node, a condition node, and a variable or topic management node.
You also need to know how to edit variable names and configure variable scope—whether they’re limited to a specific topic or usable across all topics in your agent. You need to be able to create and edit Copilot Studio closed list entities and reuse entities across multiple topics. You also need to know how to configure the Gen AI capabilities of Copilot Studio—such as adding a public website or a file as a knowledge source, configuring trigger priority for topics, and setting up Copilot content moderation.
You need to know how to retrieve data from Dataverse—create actions, call Power Automate flows, and configure inputs and outputs from your flow. You should understand what data to pass to the flow and how to use the data that comes back, including showing those outputs in a message. Finally, you need to know how to deploy the agent—save and publish it, and add it to one of the many channels that Copilot Studio supports, like Teams or the demo website. But of course, you should also know about other channels, such as SharePoint.
As you can see, it’s straight to the point and covers almost everything you need to do when creating an agent. I told you that I did it, so let me talk a bit about my experience going through this applied skill. Overall, I thought it was well done. The instructions were clear, everything matched the study guide, and I was able to complete it in under 60 minutes. You have more time than that, but I did everything—including scoring, reading, and preparing—in under one hour, which was pretty good.
Microsoft recently introduced a new applied skills interface, which was a huge improvement. It allows you to go full screen much more easily than before. But there are a few downsides. Again, this might depend on the specific lab I got, since I’m sure there are multiple variations out there. So, my experience might not be the same as yours. I found it a lot easier than some of the other applied skills I’ve done. I also felt that the scenario used wasn’t reflective of what people are doing with agents today. It felt overly simplified compared to what clients tell me they want to do with Copilot Studio. But overall, it was a great introduction to the core capabilities of Copilot Studio.
To make all this information easier to digest, let’s take a look at an infographic I created for Power Platform credentials. Let me open it here really quickly. Okay, there we go. And let me zoom in. By the way, if you like this infographic and want to look at it in detail, I’ll have a link directly to the image or a PDF version in the description below.
This infographic covers all the credentials. Of course, the beginner certification for Power Platform is the PL-900, Power Platform Fundamentals. If you don’t have any credentials for the Power Platform, this is the first one you should look at. After that, we have four intermediate-level certifications. There’s the PL-200, Power Platform Functional Consultant—no Copilot Studio in that one. Then there’s the PL-300, Data Analyst Associate, which is all about Power BI. The PL-400, Power Platform Developer, covers cloud flows, model-driven and canvas apps, and Dataverse—but again, no Copilot Studio. And finally, the PL-500, which is all about Power Automate desktop flows.
In addition to certifications, we also have applied skills. The cool thing is that while certifications like PL-200 and PL-400 cover many products, applied skills focus on just one or two. There’s one for cloud flows, one for canvas apps, one for model-driven apps (which also includes Dataverse), and now our new one for Copilot Studio. So, if you want to specialize in Copilot Studio at an intermediate level before going for the PL-600 (the expert-level certification), this is the only credential currently available.
Copilot Studio is also included in the PL-900. So, if you want to get Power Platform certified with a focus on Copilot Studio, I’d recommend starting with PL-900. That’s your entry point into the Power Platform portfolio. Then, go for the applied skill—Create Agents in Copilot Studio. After that, if you want to go further, you can look at the intermediate-level role-based certifications like PL-200 and PL-400. And finally, if you’re aiming high, you can go for the PL-600 Power Platform Solution Architect exam. But be careful—PL-600 might actually retire by the end of this year. Nothing is confirmed yet, but I do have a video about it in the description below, so make sure to check it out.
So, what do you think overall about the skills tested in this applied skill? Is it something you think you’ll go and try? Let me know in the comments below. And if you want to learn more about Power Platform credentials, make sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel. On your screen right now, you’ll see two videos I’m sure you’ll find interesting. I hope to see you in the next one!
August 12, 2025
Translate Documents in SharePoint with AI (Multilingual Made Easy!)
Collaborating with teams across different languages just got easier! In this episode of the Ultimate SharePoint Content AI Series, we show you how to translate Word, PowerPoint, and PDF files right inside SharePoint—powered by AI.
See how it handles French, Dutch, and Turkish—and how to improve accuracy with a custom glossary file.
Learn how to auto-translate new files using SharePoint Rules. And find out how the new translation tracking pane keeps you in the loop.
Whether you’re from Quebec or Belgium—or anywhere else—this tool is a game changer for multilingual collaboration!
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Video SummarySharePoint now lets you translate documents into multiple languages with just a few clicks—Word, PDF, PowerPoint, even emails are supported, and it’s surprisingly fast and affordable.You can use glossary files to control how specific terms are translated. Just make sure the terms match the exact casing in your documents—it’s case sensitive!SharePoint’s new rule engine lets you automate translations. For example, every new file added to a library can be instantly translated into French (or any language you choose), using your glossary if needed.There are a few limitations: files must be under 40MB, encrypted or password-protected files won’t work, and you can’t translate entire folders or SharePoint pages (yet!).Translation costs $15 per 1 million characters—including spaces and punctuation. It’s a great accelerator for multilingual projects, but always double-check the output, especially for legal or sensitive content.For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptWhether you’re based in North America, Europe, or anywhere across the world, you’re probably collaborating with people who speak different languages. And SharePoint multilingual has traditionally been quite a challenge. It wasn’t always the easiest story to tell. But what if I told you right now that with one single click, you can translate documents in SharePoint from English to French, English to German, German to English, and hundreds of different languages—and the cost is quite cheap?
Welcome back, everyone, to the Ultimate SharePoint Content AI Series. This is episode 15. We’re getting towards the end, and in this episode, I’m joined by my good friend Gokan Ozcifci. I cannot do a translation video without Gokan because, you know, I speak three languages—well, three and a half—and I think I’m pretty cool. But then you come in and speak like six languages fluently. Four fluently, really fluently. Five with some words and some sentences—like, I can order food, talk to the cab, everything.
Gokan: Yeah, no, he speaks more than four. Don’t listen to him.
Vlad: And Gokan, how many multilingual SharePoint projects have you had?
Gokan: A lot of those projects, especially in Belgium, where we speak like three languages, including English. It’s only about bilingual, multilingual projects.
Vlad: And I’m from Quebec, where French and English are in every single project. So before we get started, there are two things you need to have set up. First, you need to have billing for pay-as-you-go enabled. Second, you need to have document translation turned on—either on the site you’re working on or across all SharePoint sites inside your tenant. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do it or haven’t done it yet. We have a dedicated video that covers it, linked in the description below. After this video, you can go check it out.
This video shouldn’t be too long. We’ll go directly to the point and have lots of fun demos. Now, let me put the supported file types here on the screen. As you can see, quite a few are supported—from email messages to PowerPoint, Word, PDF, text, and even HTML. I want to point out that both the new Word document format (.docx) and the old one (.doc from Word 2003) will work. However, the translated document will be in the new version. Honestly, you should just create the new version anyway.
Should we do a demo, Gokan?
Gokan: Let’s do a demo.
Vlad: We’ll get back to the slides after. So here I have a document library—just a basic one. I’ve added some documents to it. We’re on conference Wi-Fi, so I wanted to make sure everything was preloaded so you don’t have to wait for uploads. I have this document in English called “M365 Copilot Consulting.” I probably just want to invoice Gokan for some more money here. I also have a smaller one titled “Understanding Cloud Computing.” It’s a lot smaller and just uses some technical terms I wanted to talk about.
Let’s say I need this document in French. I can click the three dots, select “Translate,” and with only a few clicks, I can choose the languages—Dutch, Turkish, and French. Should I put Dutch here and Turkish for you, Gokan?
Gokan: I can only help with the first one. I cannot help with the other two.
Vlad: We can also add a glossary file, but I’ll talk more about that in just a few seconds. Right now, let’s just translate this document to those three languages. Click “Translate,” and it will take a Microsoft minute—but usually it’s faster. It can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 5–10 minutes. Let me refresh for good luck. Okay, it’s not done yet.
Meanwhile, let’s cover some limitations. The maximum file size for documents is 40MB. This is the major limitation when I present this to customers—they often have documents larger than 40MB. It’s rather small for enterprises. The problem is usually images in PDFs and PowerPoint files make them large, even if there’s not much text. I wish they made it bigger.
Encrypted files are not translated. Password-protected files are not translated either. That would’ve been cool—remember all the tricks in school when teachers locked files? You cannot use translation to decrypt or remove password protection. Text on images within documents is not translated. SharePoint site pages are not supported at this time. Microsoft, please—love pages! Pages are also a source of content.
Also, you have to do it at the document level. You can select multiple documents, but you cannot select a folder and translate everything inside it at once. Let’s see if it’s done now. Quick refresh. Were we lucky, Gokan?
Gokan: Not yet.
Vlad: We still have to wait a second. So we’re going to pause the video for you, and in just one second, all our documents will be ready. And yeah—we didn’t have to cut the video. It’s just there. Wow. It’s live demo timing.
Let me go to the French one since we can both understand it. I’ll put the English one up for comparison. Sorry if English and French aren’t your languages—those are just the ones Gokan and I both understand. You’ll have to trust us that it’s right.
Gokan, let’s see. “Cloud computing has revolutionized the way businesses operate by providing scalable and flexible IT resources over the internet.” Cloud computing revolution—please. Virtual machines, load balancer, firewall, encryption, and latency balance.
Gokan: It’s pretty decent, to be honest. It just couldn’t translate a few words, but it’s pretty decent.
Vlad: You know what I realized? Let me open the Dutch one so you can tell me what you think. Again, I’ll just have to trust you on this. Let me…
Oh, this is not good. This is bad. Sorry for zooming in and out. I’ll try the Turkish one as the last one. Go ahead—this one, I really cannot help you on.
Yeah. Oh, by the way, you see the summary? We have the Copilot summary here in English. It’s able to translate the other way as well in Copilot. The summary at the top has nothing to do with Content AI—that’s a Copilot functionality. But I still found it interesting.
Now, Gokan, let me go back to the French one. You have a lot of customers in France, right?
Gokan: We wouldn’t be using those English words in a French text. People in France use a lot more English words than we do in Quebec. In Quebec, we’re really…
Vlad: How do you say “cloud computing” in French?
Gokan: “Le nuage.”
Vlad: No, maybe in France. In Quebec, we call it “infonuagique.”
Gokan: Whoa.
Vlad: Right. So how do I fix it? Remember when I mentioned the glossary files? Let me rename this document to “Understanding Cloud Computing New,” and I’ll also add “Gokan is the best IT pro ever.”
What you can do to make document translation work better is use a glossary file. I have a file here called “Glossary.” It’s a CSV file, and you need one for every language. For example, if “load balancer” didn’t translate, I want to tell it what to use. If it’s “Gokan,” I want it to be “Gokan” (your nickname in the community). For “cloud computing,” I want it to be “infonuagique.” For your French clients, you might use “le nuage,” but for me in Quebec, it’s “infonuagique.”
Back in the document library, I’ll go to “Translate,” choose French (Canada this time), and select my glossary file. It’s really important—don’t pick the first “French” you see. Pick the actual one you want. No matter what language you choose, it’ll never translate “Gokan” to “Gokan” unless you tell it.
I’ll choose my glossary file now. What I’m telling SharePoint is: translate this document, but look at all the special terms I’ve defined. Click “Translate.” It’ll take a few seconds again. Let’s talk about custom glossaries.
Most automatic translation services—SharePoint, Google Translate, AI tools—don’t handle niche terms well. A glossary instructs the engine on specific terms you care about and how to translate them. You need to give it as a CSV file, which is honestly the easiest format. You can also use TSV or tab-delimited files.
Gokan: I have to disagree. It could be a SharePoint list somewhere in your site.
Vlad: That would be great, but right now it has to be one of those files. The file needs to be in the same library as the documents you’re translating. It can be in a different folder, like I did here, but it must be in the same library.
When using glossary files, you can only translate to one language at a time. You can’t do up to 10 like I did in the previous demo. Something else I want to show you—if you go to “Automate,” then “Rules,” and create a rule, the new SharePoint rule engine is like super easy workflows. I can set it so that when a new file is added, it always creates a translated copy in French (Canada). You can also select the glossary.
So now, every file added to this library will automatically be translated. You don’t have to do it manually. But if I also add Dutch, the glossary gets grayed out—because as soon as you use a glossary, it’s only one language at a time. I wish I could just have one glossary with all the terms and have it be smart enough. There’s so much opportunity for this to get better.
Anyway, I just wanted to share the rule engine with you. The new translation got added—“Understanding Cloud Computing New” in French. It didn’t like “cloud computing” here. This one it did. I wonder if I copied and pasted badly. There we go—“Gokan est le meilleur.”
It worked. “Cloud computing” here didn’t work. You have to be careful when you create the glossary. I wonder if it’s case sensitive. I’m curious. I’ll do the test after this.
Hey there, this is Vlad from the future. Sorry to interrupt your video, but I just finished the test we talked about with Gokan. I wanted to show you the result. I changed “cloud computing” to match the exact capitalization in the Word document. I did two tests—one with a capital “C,” one with lowercase. I re-translated it, and it worked. It said “infonuagique,” exactly what I wanted.
So we have our answer—it is case sensitive. Just something to be careful with. I also tested it in a sentence, and even with a spelling mistake, it worked. But for title casing, “cloud computing” wasn’t translated using my glossary. So make sure your glossary terms match the case exactly.
While I have your attention, I also want to talk about something fresh off the press. Microsoft added a processing status pane. You know how Gokan and I kept refreshing to see if it was done? Now, Microsoft will show a translation activity pane. You’ll be able to see the history for the last 60 days of your translations, including ones in progress. It’s no longer a black box. You can see everything—what worked, what failed, and what’s still processing.
Now let’s talk about money. Money runs the world, right? It’s important. The cost is $15 per 1 million characters you translate. It’s tough to estimate by the number of documents because every document is different. But remember—your character count includes letters, Unicode code points, punctuation, and white spaces.
Honestly, punctuation and white spaces being counted is… come on, Microsoft. It’s like in school when you had to reach a certain number of lines or spaces.
Gokan: Yeah, exactly. It just shows more characters for the teacher. That’s how they did billing for it.
Vlad: But again, who are we to argue against Microsoft? All we can do is inform you how it works. So yes, $15 for 1 million characters.
This is it for this video. Gokan, in your experience, are people using this? Is it reliable, or is it just a starting point and then people do manual changes?
Gokan: It’s an accelerator. I’m not going to call it a starting point because the translation is very good. We’ve tried it with PDF files, with images—it keeps the same layout and design. It’s an accelerator. We always double-check, read to make sure things are good. Don’t use it for legal documents, okay? We’re not responsible if you do that. But it’s phenomenal. It’s a great accelerator to translate any data to any language you want. Highly recommend it.
Vlad: Awesome. Well, that’s it for this video on document translation, everyone. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, like the video, subscribe to the channel, and check out the other videos in the series. The next one will appear on your screen right now. Thank you again so much for watching.
August 7, 2025
Add Managed Metadata in SharePoint with AI (Full Tutorial)
Tired of inconsistent tags and messy filters in SharePoint?
In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to use AI-powered taxonomy tagging to automatically apply Managed Metadata to your documents — step by step.
You’ll learn: What Managed Metadata is and why it matters How AI matches document content with your term sets Setup requirements (like Pay-as-you-go) Limitations, supported file types, and governance tips A full live demo of taxonomy tagging in action
This is part of our Ultimate SharePoint Content AI series — check out the full playlist to go even deeper
For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!
TranscriptIf you’ve already worked with SharePoint, you already know how important metadata is to have a good experience—whether it’s searching for documents, filtering in a list or library, or simply opening a library and making sure that you understand what every document is about. Now, there are many different ways to use AI to extract data from documents and put it in different fields. But the problem with them is that they might create different variations of the same piece of content every single time. And when you try to filter or search, that will just create multiple options for the same exact thing. It doesn’t help us much.
This is where taxonomy tagging comes in. Welcome back, everyone, to the Ultimate SharePoint Content AI Series. I’m again joined by my good friend Gokan as Chief Chi. And for those of you who have been following along, this is part 14 of the series. And for those of you who are new, well, welcome to the series. We really hope you’re going to enjoy this video and check out some of the other ones. But now, Gokan, I’ll let you take it away.
Thank you so much, Vlad. It’s always a pleasure to be with you on screen. And the phenomenal part is that your introduction already covers half of my slides, so I’m going to just repeat what you said. Well, taxonomy tagging in SharePoint uses AI to automatically apply terms from your organization from metadata within your document in your field, your document libraries. And you can definitely use them to search, sort, filter, and so on and so on.
So basically, you just upload a document, and then AI will analyze that file, check within the managed metadata, and then apply those terms if there is a match. Today, there are only four types that are supported for that kind of operation: DOC, DOCX, PDF, and PPTX. So only those four—the most important ones—but still, I know it can be bigger. A lot of other AI options have more, but this is a very good start. So those four only.
And you have a few things to bear in mind. Within a document library, you can only have five of that kind of column, so you can’t have more than five taxonomy tagging columns within a document library. The second part is it only works on native PDFs—so no scanned PDFs, unfortunately. You cannot scan something and say, “Hey, analyze that and bring me that within the taxonomy field.”
The third and most tricky side is—and I know you have a joke about the Microsoft minute—this is a bit more of that Microsoft minute. It’s between 20 minutes, but a Microsoft minute can be anything. That’s the thing. A Microsoft minute is from 30 seconds to 72 hours. So this is less than a Microsoft minute. It can take up to 24 hours maximum in order to extract the field and bring it to your document library.
There is no backfill, unfortunately. So if you already have documents in your document library and you create that column, well, you have to re-upload them. You cannot do autofill where you select them and press autofill—no, you can’t, unfortunately. So that’s the biggest drawback.
And the columns are editable. So it’s not because they extracted something and put it in your column that you’re stuck with it. You can always modify it. If you’re not happy with the result, feel free to modify it. You can always have a workflow where AI does almost everything and somebody checks it, for example.
Totally. Okay, awesome. Again, the automation guy who talks. Okay, next one is: here are the four steps in order to use taxonomy tagging while enabling Pay-As-You-Go, setting up the taxonomy tagging, and then we can either create a new column or use an existing one and modify it. That’s the only slide I had. So, if you’re ready for the demo—can you go one slide back really quickly?
Yes. And for those of you who are new to the series, for the first part, enable Pay-As-You-Go. If you haven’t done it already, we have a dedicated video that only covers how to do that. So if you haven’t done it yet, after this video, go check it out—it’ll be linked in the description below.
Now, Gokan, I know you already spent too much time on slides for your usual, so I’ll let you go to the demo.
There you go. So I have a document library, and you will see that there is nothing special about it. Now we just add a column, and what you’re going to see here under managed metadata when you click on “Next” is—after enabling Pay-As-You-Go services—you get that “Automate tag documents with terms.” This is the first time I’ve seen it. So you need Pay-As-You-Go, and you need to have it enabled on the site, and then you have those options.
There you go. Awesome. And then I’m going to just select my term here within my term set. I can either go on that name, but you can also go here and say, “You know what, I have multiple customers, and I want every time that I’m uploading a document, check the content of it, and if there is a match with those names, fill in my column with that data.”
Awesome. I’m going to just select “Customers” and click on “Save.” One golden rule that I’m giving to everyone is: try to use—if your governance permits—the premium logo or the diamond logo and then just have the name in front of that. You do know that half of the people are going to love it, and half of the governance people are going to hate you for giving that idea, right?
That’s why I say check with your governance people first, because when I create this—look how it’s beautiful—and it’s somehow the same as the Power Platform, you know, like premium connectors. Now this is a premium column. Half of me is like, “This is beautiful.” The other half wonders, “What does the ID of the column look like if I want to put it into PNP and things like that?” Please don’t. Anyway, please don’t. Again, check with your governance people if allowed to do that, because some of them might hate you.
Now I’m going to just click here and then upload a file. Let me go for my PDF file just here and click. But what happens if Wingtip Toys doesn’t have any of V-neck Solutions or Neoxy? If there is no match, it’s going to be empty. Okay, it’s going to be empty. So now we’ll have to wait 20 minutes to 24 hours in order to see our column filled in.
Okay, we’re back. So now you can see here that my document’s uploaded, and I can see that it extracted the value from my metadata store, and I have “V-neck Solutions Inc.” And if I go check here, well, it’s exactly the same value as you can see in my term store. As I said, these are editable fields. So if you’re not happy with that, you can always delete that and bring your own value into it. But that’s how automatically things are being done with the taxonomy tag.
That’s amazing. So you can combine—I know you said we can only have five columns of this type—but I can add another five of type autofill if I want to, for example, right? And this way still extracts ten columns from that document.
Yes.
Yes. I know I’m asking you all the edge cases and weird things like that. I’m sorry, I’m putting you on the spot.
Yes, you can add those. You can even go for any other AI model and then have almost all kinds of scenarios. But technically, yes, you could do that.
Okay. And I know you’re a big autofill fan, so yes, you can do that, Vlad.
Okay, thank you. I’m happy now.
No worries. So that’s basically it. Nothing very spectacular, but I think it’s core for any content management within SharePoint. And I know organizations have been struggling to put metadata into their columns. Well, nobody wants to do it. That’s the problem. It’s important, but nobody wants to do it. And just by having those columns, autofills, AI models, and so on, well, you can add and fill in your columns with exactly the value you want to see for better content management within SharePoint.
So, I have a question for you, Gokan. Is this free?
It’s not for free. That’s why you have the little diamond there.
There you go. And I know that this is a premium service that I’m going to consume money from my credit card with the Pay-As-You-Go services.
Awesome. But for all of you on the screen right now, you’re going to see exactly how much it costs per extraction or per transaction. This way, you have all the information. We’ve already covered it in the “Setting Up Billing Pay-As-You-Go,” but if you just watched this video, this way you have it on the screen and you get your answer right away.
Gokan, anything else you want to add or is it just that easy?
It’s just that easy. I feel like this video is too short.
It’s just that easy. I can just show one more thing if you have time—is it?
Well, here I have the taxonomy tagging, and again I can just edit and say, “Okay, this is available to all sites, no sites,” or I can select up to 100 sites.
That’s awesome. I love it.
Well, Gokan, thank you so much for your time. This has been an amazing deep dive. For everybody watching, we really hope you have enjoyed this as well. If you want to check out the next video in this series, it should appear on the screen right about now. And make sure you like this video and subscribe to the channel. This way, you get notified as soon as more amazing content like this one gets released. So, thank you so much and see you in the next one.
