{"id":181,"date":"2025-09-19T15:25:34","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T13:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/?p=181"},"modified":"2025-10-08T19:09:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T17:09:09","slug":"lets-applaud-outlook-newspost-feature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artofadoption.nl\/index.php\/2025\/09\/19\/lets-applaud-outlook-newspost-feature\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s APPlaud! Outlook Newspost Feature"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outlook newsletters\u2026<\/strong>My first thought was: well that can be great even outside peoples\u2019 scope of work right? I was imagining starting artists, tabletop RGP logs or even starting blog posters like myself to see some sweet benefits of this feature that popped up in Preview Mode.
\nBut\u2026Computer says no\u2026Or well\u2026at least my quick investigation into topic stated this new Microsoft feature is not available for free personal Outlook accounts. One needs a Microsoft Entra ID, an Exchange Online mailbox and access to SharePoint. Yes, the newsletter content is stored in there. What does that mean? Well\u2026you kinda need either a Microsoft 365 Business, Enterprise or Education plan.
\nBusiness only, so let\u2019s get to business!<\/p>\n

How does it work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Getting to business by first opening Outlook, like one does about every workday or so right? Now there\u2019s something new under your New-button: The Newsletter. Enthusiastically smacking that Newletter with a mouse-click like I\u2019m practicing kumite on a punch bag, I open up the creation menu. As you can see, a typical Microsoft menu pops up with some sleek design suggestions similar to Planner or Lists.
\nWithout getting too distracted by checking things out immediately, first notics that a new icon has appeared in your left navigation bar. Could be a calculator in my opinion, but it is a newletter.
\nThe second thing of interest (to me) are those 2 bigger bottons. Create edition and Create newsletter. What is the difference you might wonder?
\nI am wondering that as well and\u2026wonderwell, there is no hoover text assigned to these buttons with a little explanation in the difference. No hoover text to the other buttons as of the moment of noting this, hoping it might come later as these little nifty things is what helps people learning by trial-and-error. \u00a0But, we\u2019re not gonna let ourselves be stopped by this so:<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s button bash!<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hitting the Create newsletter button gives us a quite familiar (Share)Point of view\u2026 Anyone familiar with the news post feature, in particular the option to send posts as email might get a d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu of this picture here. As there are some straightforward fields to fill in, I\u2019m gonna fill in those fields. If you\u2019re by this point wondering what I\u2019m exactly doing\u2026 Lemme tell ya I\u2019m not too sure either, just following intuition with a vague idea of what it might create for us.<\/p>\n

\"Highlighted<\/p>\n

At this stage, some fields are unclear to me. I did a quick search to see if \u201cOwners\u201d might also suggest 2 owners, just like with Teams or SharePoint environments. Turns out, yes, Outlook Newsletter also suggests at least 2 owners.
\nThe little \u201chandbag\u201d, as one of the end-users I taught once called it, allows us to set the target audience of the newsletter. To me, it looks kinda similar to the options in Forms, as you can set it to My organization, Private, and the \u201cUnlisted\u201d which isn\u2019t some fantasy thing, but just all users with a link to your newsletter. Just like in Forms a way to target people outside of your organization. Clients, businesses partners or the like, maybe even use the link in your email signature.
\nHmmm, this might get interesting considering target audiences. Later more about that, as there were some interesting discoveries I made along that little investigation. First we\u2019re gonna save this creation by smashing the Save icon in the top left corner and see what that does for us.
\nNotice that once saved, the +Create now also appears beneath the just-made layout of your Newsletter, implying that we\u2019ve just created an overall lay-out in which you store your editions. I\u2019m really starting to feel like I\u2019m an editor of a newspaper now and I\u2019ve just determined my branding haha.
\nThere is however, so much more to explore. So steady your breath, focus and let\u2019s tackle this some more shall we?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go wild and create the first edition of our newsletter.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"ExampleWe can either click the \u201cOutlook-looking\u201d button in the top left, the \u201cSharePoint-vibes\u201d button mid-right or the newly spawned colorful button on below.I like it when I have some neat little templates lined up when I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing haha. Creative as I think I am, let\u2019s pick \u201cCreator\u201d here.Slapping the button we immediately get 3 fields to fill in. A title for this edition, the choice between \u201cedition\u201d and \u201ctemplate\u201d (which seems a bit odd as I am creating n edition?) \u00a0and the option to pick the group to which this edition belongs to, in case you have several Newsletters going on.\"An<\/p>\n

Here are the blurred lines with Sharepoint. Immediately I notice the premade sections to fill in without needing to be a creative genius regarding some sweet little lay-outs. Simply add images, change the text, add or delete sections, move them up or down. It screams SharePoint to me, in a positive way.
\nOne difference though<\/strong>. I can add contributors to the sections\u2026NEAT!<\/strong> Tempted as I am to take a break to look if my beloved SharePoint has that feature as well all of a sudden without telling me, I ignore these temptations like I ignore my asthma during training and quickly make a mock-up first edition.<\/p>\n

Note that if you add contributors to your edition, they will be notified once you save that draft. Adding images allows you to upload or search stock images. I find that, in difference to SharePoint, the order of searched images after retyping the same search word remains the same\u2026is this a dream? (yes, some know it is a bit of a peeve point of me that the images seem to reshuffle even though you use the same search words, kinda annoying when they don\u2019t shine as you wanted once used on your site and you want to try that other picture that looked great as well, but isn\u2019t in the same place as you first found it).
\nAnyway, I digress.<\/p>\n

Quickly dashing to some neat pine tree images and keeping the pre-made text as I\u2019m typing enough already, I click next and get some more fields to fill in.
\nThis just looks like sending an post as email from SharePoint. Recipients, CC, BCC (automatically filled as subscribers) a nice preview of your post.
\nHowever\u2026there is an option to add a custom email for replies\u2026NEAT #2.<\/strong>
\nAt the bottom, we encounter two toggles to display other editions NEAT#3<\/strong> and allow comments and reaction on this edition (same with posts in SharePoint).
\nOh and how do I wish they would add a featured image as thumbnail for SharePoint posts (please Microsoft, I can\u2019t be the only one that\u2019s getting headaches about using only the header\/banner as the featured image on the news webpart).\"Example<\/p>\n

Obvious Preview button is obvious. Let\u2019s wrap this edition up, hit send and take the win of knowledge!
\nBAM!<\/strong> Immediately our fresh pine tree edition is added to a stack of \u201cPublished\u201d edtions, along with the well-known view, comment and react-break down next to it, once again similar to SharePoint. There\u2019s also options to Share and Duplicate your edition and the three dots next to the edition allow you to Edit or Delete it.<\/p>\n

Wrapping things up with clicking and stumbling around this first \u201cOutlook Newsletter battle\u201d, the buttons on the left let you Explore Newletters and Featured editions and allow you to subscribe to what you like. Drafts contains\u2026your drafts and Published, you\u2019re guessing it correctly: your published Newsletters and Editions. Admin section brings you back to the selected Newsletter overview, good for keeping track of Subscribers or Analytics. The three dots even allow you to export a rapport of these stats to Excel NEAT<\/strong> as well.<\/p>\n

WHY?<\/strong>
\nSo, the question remains: Why? Why would you want to use this, when most of the Modern Workplace movement seems focused on getting away from Outlook? To reduce mail? Why an Outlook Newletters, when you have SharePoint Newspost to email, or mayve even some Viva apps? Browsing around and questioning my own experience thus far I can guess:<\/p>\n