Microsoft Teams is a unified communications and collaboration hub that includes messaging, guest sharing, bots and a dynamic user experience. The goal of Teams is to allow users to centralize their work in one location to increase efficiency and productivity. Teams offers a wide variety of features, which can be overwhelming to users just getting started.

We put together a few Microsoft Teams tips and tricks to help get you started and enhance your experience.
 

Helpful Microsoft Teams Tips

Chats and Conversations

Save a Message to Easily Resume a Conversation

Channel conversations and chats are great for immediate and instant communication and saving messages allow you to find and quickly resume important conversations. Users also find it helpful to save messages to use as a reference in a later project or conversation.

To save a channel conversation or chat click the message you would like to save and then click on more options (•••). The option to save the message will appear. To find your saved messages, click on your Microsoft Teams profile image in the top right corner of the screen and click save. This will take you to a page with all of the messages you saved.

https://news.microsoft.com/november-2016-event/

Attract attention to Certain Chats with a Title and Formatting

You can title and customize your chat in channels to draw attention to a specific conversation. Titling your chat also allows you to easily search the subject in the command bar at the top of your Teams application.

To title or customize a chat, click on the format icon at the bottom of the chat. This will open a customization box. Here you can add a subject to title your chat and apply other formatting options to your message.
 

Emphasize Action Items in Messages with Tags

Tags notify your teammates in their activity feed about a conversation. This is helpful when you want to draw attention to a part of a conversation to a teammate or have an action item for specific teammates. Users will also see tagged messages in their activity feed and can keep track of important action items there.

To tag someone in a message, type @ followed by their name. A menu will appear with your teammate's name, make sure to click on your teammate's name. The name will appear purple in your message after you correctly inserted the @Mention.
 

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/use-mentions-to-get-someone-s-attention-in-teams-eb4f059d-320e-454e-b111-03361d4d6855

 

Name Your Group Chat for Better Organization

Add a meaningful name to your group chats to easily organize your conversations by topics or project names. Click on the group you want to name, and an edit pencil will appear next to your group members' names. Click on the edit pencil and a window will appear where you can name your group.

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/skypehybridguy/2018/01/06/microsoft-teams-making-meetings-matter/

 

Video Calls

Start a Video Call from a Message to Quickly Clarify Ideas

Want to clarify or expand and idea further? Start a video call! You can start a video call right from a channel conversation by clicking on the meet now button located at the bottom of the message.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-instant-meetings-with-meet-now-cce91d93-129d-4574-83be-841c6fe2ed45?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US

Record a Video Call to Benefit from the Call After it is Over

Recording a Video Call allows users who were not present the ability to view the call later. Users also find it helpful to record calls so that they can reference the conversation later. To record a call, click on more options (•••) while in the call and select start recording.
 

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/create-instant-meetings-with-meet-now-cce91d93-129d-4574-83be-841c6fe2ed45?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US[/caption]

 

Teams and Channels

Minimize Notification Distractions in Channels

Did you know you can change notifications options for each channel separately? Users find it helpful to turn off notifications for channels that they are currently not participating in and turn on notifications for a channel that contains important projects.

Click on more options (•••) next to the channel you would like to change notifications for. Click channel notifications and a settings menu will appear.

Customize Your Tabs to Easily Access Everyday Apps and Files

Tabs are the bars that appear on the top channels, private chats, and group chats. They allow you to add apps, services and files so that your team can quickly access them. To add a tab, click on the plus sign at the end of the tab bar. A menu with different apps, tools and services will appear.

 

 

Bots

Use Bots to Automate Tasks, Scheduling, and Polling

Bots are automated intelligence programs that act as another member of your team. They can be added for personal and team use and are designed to help you be more productive.

Keyboard Short Cuts

Use Keyboard Shortcuts to Save Time

Using keyboard shortcuts can be faster than using a mouse or a touchscreen and can be especially helpful for users with disabilities. Click here to access the Microsoft Teams Keyboard Shortcuts List. The list is separated by categories, including general, navigation, messaging and meetings & calls so users can easily find the shortcuts that they need.

Microsoft Teams provides users with an efficient way to collaborate and communicate with Team members. We hope that these Microsoft Teams tips will help enhance your experience!

If you’re interested in learning more about how Microsoft Teams fits into the bigger picture of productivity and communication, check out our video demo on Improving Productivity with Office 365 & Teams.