Microsoft Teams Tips and Tricks You Should Know

With the increasing need for remote collaboration, online platforms have become essential for businesses in Ireland. Microsoft Teams is one of the leading options, providing a wealth of features for remote collaboration and teamwork. Whether you’re new to Teams or a seasoned user, there are always new ways to enhance your productivity and streamline your workflows.

Getting Started with Microsoft Teams

If you’re looking for an efficient team communication software to facilitate virtual meetings and enhance teamwork, Microsoft Teams is the platform for you. Tier3Tech covers the basics of setting up Teams, creating channels and inviting team members to collaborate.

Key Features of Microsoft Teams

• Microsoft Teams is an online collaboration platform designed for remote collaboration.
• It offers a chat-based workspace, video conferencing and a range of collaboration tools.
• Effective organisation and management of teams are crucial for maximizing productivity.
• Bots, automation and keyboard shortcuts can streamline workflows and save time.
• Staying updated with the latest features and enhancements is essential for making the most out of Teams.

Setting Up Your Microsoft Teams Account

Before you can start collaborating with your team, you’ll need to set up your Microsoft Teams account. If you have a Microsoft 365 account, you can use your existing credentials to log in to Teams. If not, you can create a new account by following the prompts on the Microsoft Teams sign-up page.

Create Teams and Channels

Teams are groups of people who work together on a common project. You can create multiple Teams within Microsoft Teams, each with its own set of channels. Channels are where team members can communicate and collaborate on specific topics or tasks.

To create a new Team, click on the “Teams” icon on the left-hand side of the screen, then click “Join or create a team” at the bottom of the page. From there, follow the prompts to set up your new Team and invite members to join.

To create a new channel within a Team, click on the Team name, then click on “More options” (represented by the three dots), then “Add channel”. Give your new channel a name and description, then click on “Create”.

Invite Team Members to Collaborate

Once you’ve created your Teams and channels, it’s time to invite team members to join and start collaborating. To invite someone to a Team or channel, click on the Teams or channel name, then click on “More options” and select “Add member”. You can then search for team members by name or email address and send them an invitation to join.

Join and Host Virtual Meetings

Now that you have your Teams and channels set up and your team members invited, it’s time to start collaborating in virtual meetings. Microsoft Teams makes it easy to join and host virtual meetings, whether you’re working from home or on-the-go.

To join a meeting, simply click on the scheduled meeting in your Teams calendar or join an ad-hoc meeting by clicking on the “Meet” icon in the left-hand navigation bar and entering the meeting code.

To host a meeting, click on “Meet” in the left-hand navigation bar, then click on “New Meeting”. From there, you can invite team members to the meeting by sharing the meeting code or sending them a link to join.

With these basic steps, you can start using Microsoft Teams to collaborate with your team more efficiently and effectively.

Navigating the Chat-Based Workspace

If you and your team are new to Microsoft Teams, it may take some time to adjust to the chat-based workspace. However, with a few tips and tricks, you’ll be navigating through channels, sharing files and engaging in conversations with ease.

Channels in Microsoft Teams

Channels are where most of the work in Microsoft Teams happens. Channels are organised by topic or department and are where team members can communicate and collaborate on specific projects or tasks. To access your channels, simply click on the “Teams” tab on the left-hand menu and select the channel you want to work in.

You can add members to a channel, create new channels or even delete channels that are no longer needed. To create a new channel, click on the “More options” icon (represented by three dots) next to the team name and select “Add channel” from the drop-down menu.

Sharing Files in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams makes sharing files between team members easy and efficient. You can share files in a channel or directly with a team member. To share a file in a channel, simply click on the “Files” tab, select the file you want to share and click on “Share” button. This will create a link to the file that you can share with your team members.

To share a file directly with someone, go to the “Chat” tab, click on the person or group you want to share the file with and then click on the paperclip icon to select the file you want to share.

Engaging in Conversations in Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams allows you to have conversations with your team members in real-time. To start a conversation, simply go to the channel or person you want to speak with and type in your message in the chat box at the bottom of the screen.

If you want to make sure that a specific team member sees your message, you can mention them by typing the “@” symbol followed by their name. This will send them a notification that they have been mentioned in the conversation.

Emojis can also be a useful tool for communicating with your team members. You can add emojis by clicking on the smiley face icon in the chat box.

Now that you know how to navigate through the chat-based workspace, you can effectively communicate and collaborate with your team members in Microsoft Teams.

Organising and Managing Your Teams

Maximising workplace productivity often means effectively organising and managing your teams within Microsoft Teams. Here are some tips to help you:

Tip	Description
Create and customise teams:	Customise team structures to fit your needs. Choose team names, add a description and create channels that reflect your team’s workstreams.
Set up permissions and roles:	Control who can see and edit certain channels and files within a team. Select the appropriate role for each team member, such as owner, member or guest.
Utilise tags and filters:	Use tags to categorise and label channels, messages and files. Filter by tags or other criteria to quickly find what you need and stay organised.
Manage notifications:	Customise notification settings to reduce distractions and stay focused on important tasks. Set up different notifications for different channels and mute notifications as needed.
Track important updates:	Stay up-to-date on changes within your team by using @mentions to notify specific team members of updates or by pinning important messages and files for easy access.

By utilising these simple tips, you can streamline your teamwork and boost your workplace productivity within Microsoft Teams.

Optimising Your Meetings

Virtual meetings have become essential for remote collaboration, with Microsoft Teams providing a robust video conferencing platform. Use these tips to optimise your meetings:

1. Schedule meetings: Use the “Schedule” button to schedule a meeting ahead of time. This allows attendees to plan ahead and join the meeting on time.
2. Join meetings: Joining a meeting in Microsoft Teams is straightforward. You can join via a link or by entering the meeting ID.
3. Video and audio features: Microsoft Teams offers a range of video and audio features, including background blur, screen sharing and recording. Take advantage of these features to enhance your meetings.
4. Presenting: Use the “Present” feature to share your screen and present documents or slideshows. This feature makes collaboration seamless and efficient.
5. Recording: Meetings can be recorded using Microsoft Teams. Recordings are saved to Microsoft Stream for future reference.

With these tips, you can ensure that your virtual meetings run efficiently and effectively, improving collaboration and productivity within your team.

Enhancing Collaboration with Apps and Integrations

Microsoft Teams can integrate smoothly with other apps and tools, including Microsoft Office 365. This interoperability streamlines work processes and simplifies collaboration. Microsoft Teams integrates with a variety of other applications, allowing users to centralise their work.

For instance, users can integrate their Microsoft Office 365 account with Microsoft Teams, allowing them to access files and documents from Word, Excel and PowerPoint within Teams. This makes it easier for users to collaborate on documents in real-time with their team members. Additionally, users can integrate other popular tools, such as Trello, Asana and Zoom, among others.

Applications and Services That Can Be Integrated with Microsoft Teams Include:

Miro Trello Asana Zoom GitHub

In addition to app integrations, Microsoft Teams supports automation to streamline workflows. Power Automate, formerly known as Microsoft Flow, lets users automate routine tasks and save time for more important work. Users can define triggers and actions to automate tasks, such as sending notifications or creating tasks in other apps.

To integrate an app with Microsoft Teams, follow these steps:

1. Open the Microsoft Teams app and go to the app store.
2. Select the application you want to add and select ‘Add.’
3. Provide the necessary details to connect Teams to the app.
4. Select the permissions needed for the integration and click ‘Install.’
5. The app will now appear in your list of installed apps.

Integrating with other tools and automating workflows in Microsoft Teams can greatly enhance collaboration and productivity. Take advantage of these features to enhance teamwork and streamline processes, making your remote collaboration experience more efficient and enjoyable.

Boosting Productivity with Keyboard Shortcuts

In today’s fast-paced workplace, efficiency is key. Luckily, Microsoft Teams offers a variety of keyboard shortcuts that can help you save time and boost workplace productivity. Here are some essential keyboard shortcuts that you should know:

Action	Windows	Mac
Open Command Bar	Ctrl + E	⌘ + E
Open Settings	Ctrl + ,	⌘ + ,
Create New Chat	Ctrl + N	⌘ + N
Create New Channel	Ctrl + Shift + N	⌘ + Shift + N
Navigate to Activity	Ctrl + 1	⌘ + 1
Navigate to Chat	Ctrl + 2	⌘ + 2
Navigate to Teams	Ctrl + 3	⌘ + 3
Navigate to Calendar	Ctrl + 4	⌘ + 4
Navigate to Calls	Ctrl + 5	⌘ + 5
Reply to Conversation	Ctrl + R	⌘ + R
Format Text as Bold	Ctrl + B	⌘ + B
Format Text as Italic	Ctrl + I	⌘ + I
Format Text as Underline	Ctrl + U	⌘ + U
Mark Message as Important	Ctrl + Shift + I	⌘ + Shift + I
Open Emoji Picker	Windows Key + .	Control + Command + Space

By using these keyboard shortcuts, you can navigate Microsoft Teams more efficiently and accomplish tasks with less effort. By increasing your workplace productivity, you’ll have more time to focus on important projects and achieve your goals.

Customising Your Microsoft Teams Experience

Microsoft Teams offers a range of customisation options to tailor the platform to your preferences, helping to increase workplace productivity. It’s important to personalise your Teams experience by adjusting settings, changing themes and modifying notification preferences. The following are some useful tips and tricks to help you customise your experience:

Adjusting Settings

Customise your Microsoft Teams settings to suit your needs. This includes changing settings for notifications, presence and language preferences. You can also adjust settings for your profile picture, background and theme.

To access your settings, click on your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen and select ‘Settings’. From here, you can customise your preferences.

Changing Themes

You can change the theme of your Microsoft Teams to suit your preferences and personal style. There are several themes available, including ‘Default’, ‘Dark’, ‘High Contrast’ and ‘Theater Mode’.

To change your Teams theme, click on your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen, select ‘Settings’ and then choose ‘Theme’. Select the theme that suits you best and your Teams interface will update accordingly.

Modifying Notification Preferences

Notifications are an integral part of Microsoft Teams and can help increase workplace productivity. However, excessive notifications can be distracting and decrease focus. Adjusting your notification settings can help manage distractions and keep you focused.

To modify your notification preferences, click on your profile picture in the top right corner of the screen, select ‘Settings’ and then choose ‘Notifications’. From here, you can adjust settings for desktop notifications, email notifications and mobile notifications. You can also customise notification settings for specific channels or teams.

Customising Your Background

Microsoft Teams allows you to customise your video call background with images, blur effects or predefined templates. You can also upload your own images.

To customise your background, join a call and click on the three-dot menu in the call bar. Select ‘Show background effects’ and choose your preferred background option.

By taking advantage of these customisation features, you can make your Microsoft Teams experience more personalised and increase workplace productivity.

Utilising Collaboration Tools

Microsoft Teams is more than just a messaging and video conferencing platform. It also offers a range of collaboration tools that can take your remote collaboration to the next level.

One of the most popular collaboration features in Teams is co-authoring. This allows multiple users to work on a document in real-time, making it ideal for remote teams working on projects together. To use this feature, simply upload your document to Teams and share it with your team. Each member can then access the document and make changes simultaneously, ensuring seamless collaboration.

Another collaboration tool in Teams is white boarding. This feature allows team members to brainstorm and share ideas in a virtual whiteboard, making it perfect for remote meetings. You can also use the annotation tool to make notes or draw diagrams on the board, which can be saved and shared with your team later.

If you need to get feedback on a document, you can use the commenting feature in Teams. Simply upload your document and your team members can leave comments and suggestions directly on the document. This makes it easy to collaborate on a document without the need for endless back-and-forth emails.

If you need to schedule a meeting with people outside your organisation, you can use the guest access feature in Teams. This feature allows you to invite external stakeholders to your Teams meeting, making collaboration with clients or partners a breeze. You can also set up a private channel for sensitive discussions with external stakeholders.

Finally, if you need to share a large file with your team, you can use the file sharing feature in Teams. This allows you to upload files to a Teams channel, making it easy for your team to access and collaborate on the file. You can also set permissions to control who can access or edit the file.

Staying Secure in Microsoft Teams

Ensuring workplace productivity is important, but so is maintaining a secure environment within Microsoft Teams. This is particularly crucial when handling sensitive information. Here are some tips and best practices for keeping your Teams workspace secure:

• Enable two-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security to your account.
• Use strong, unique passwords and update them regularly.
• Limit guest access to channels that are relevant to them and revoke access when it is no longer needed.
• Avoid sharing sensitive information through chat messages and instead, use the secure file-sharing options available in Teams.
• Be wary of phishing attempts and suspicious links and report them if necessary.
• Regularly review and manage permission settings for each team member to prevent any unauthorised access or changes.
• Stay up-to-date with Microsoft’s security updates and patches and ensure that your Teams app is always updated to the latest version.

By following these security measures, you can protect your team and ensure that your work environment remains safe, secure and productive.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

While Microsoft Teams is an excellent tool for remote collaboration, occasional issues may arise. Here are some common problems users face and possible solutions:

Audio and Video Issues

If you experience issues with audio or video during a call or meeting, try the following steps:

1. Check your network connection and make sure it is stable.
2. Ensure that your microphone and camera are properly connected and selected in Teams.
3. Try restarting your device.
4. Check if there are any updates available for Teams or your device.

Connection Problems

If you are having trouble connecting to a call or meeting, try the following:

1. Check your network connection and make sure it is stable.
2. Ensure that you have the latest version of Teams installed.
3. Try restarting your device.
4. Check if there are any outages or disruptions in your area that may be affecting your connectivity.

Syncing Errors

If you are having trouble syncing files or data in Teams, try the following:

1. Ensure that you have a stable network connection.
2. Check if there are any updates available for Teams or your device.
3. Clear your cache and cookies.
4. Try logging out of Teams and logging back in again.

If none of these steps resolve your issue, try contacting Tier3Tech for further assistance.

Streamlining Workflows with Bots and Automation

In today’s fast-paced work environment, streamlining workflows is crucial to maintaining workplace productivity. One way to achieve this is by leveraging bots and automation within Microsoft Teams.

Teams offers several built-in bots that can automate repetitive tasks, such as scheduling meetings or sending reminders. You can also create your own bots using the Microsoft Bot Framework, which allows you to tailor bots to your team’s specific needs.

Power Automate is another powerful tool that can automate workflows within Teams and across other apps and services. With Power Automate, you can create customised workflows to achieve tasks such as automatically saving email attachments to OneDrive or creating tasks in Planner based on flagged emails.

Bot	Description
Trello	Integrate with Trello to create cards and lists from Teams.
Giphy	Add some humour to your conversations with GIFs from Giphy.
SurveyMonkey	Gather feedback and opinions by creating surveys in Teams with SurveyMonkey.

Whether you’re using built-in bots or creating your own, bots and automation can greatly enhance workplace productivity within Microsoft Teams. Take some time to explore these options and find ways to streamline workflows.

Advanced Tips for Power Users

If you’re a power user of Microsoft Teams, there are several advanced tips and tricks you can use to further enhance your workplace productivity.

Slash Commands

If you’re looking for a faster way to navigate through Teams, try using slash commands. These quick commands allow you to easily search, navigate and perform actions within Teams without having to use your mouse.

Here are a few examples of slash commands:

Command	Description
/goto	Navigate to a channel or team
/files	Show recent files
/call	Start a call with a person or group

Private Channels

If you need to have a conversation with a specific subset of your team, consider creating a private channel. This feature allows you to create a channel within a team that is only visible to certain members, ensuring that sensitive information remains confidential.

Advanced Search

Microsoft Teams has a powerful search feature that allows you to quickly find specific messages, files and other content within your conversations. To access advanced search, simply click the search bar at the top of the Teams window and enter your query.

You can also use search filters to narrow down your results. For example, you can filter by author, date or type of content.

Custom Tabs

Custom tabs allow you to integrate other apps and services into your Microsoft Teams channels. This can be especially useful if you frequently use a specific app or if you need to share information from another platform with your team.

To add a custom tab, simply click the plus sign next to your tabs and select the app or service you want to add.

Shortcuts for Emojis and GIFs

If you love using emojis and GIFs in your conversations, Microsoft Teams has several shortcuts that can save you time. For example, you can type a colon followed by the name of an emoji to quickly insert it into your message.

Additionally, you can use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + 1 to open the GIF picker and quickly find the perfect GIF for your conversation.

By implementing these advanced tips and tricks for Microsoft Teams, you can take your workplace productivity to the next level and collaborate more efficiently with your team.

Keeping Up with New Features and Updates

Microsoft Teams is in constant evolution, with new features and updates being released frequently. To stay on top of the latest developments and make the most out of the platform, there are a few tips you can follow.

Check the Microsoft 365 Roadmap

The Microsoft 365 Roadmap provides a comprehensive view of all the features that are currently in development, rolling out or launched across Microsoft 365. This includes updates to Microsoft Teams. You can filter the roadmap to see features specific to Teams and view the estimated release timeline.

Participate in the Teams UserVoice Community

The Teams UserVoice Community is an online forum where users can suggest new ideas, vote on features they would like to see implemented and provide feedback on existing functionalities. Microsoft actively monitors and responds to the community, making it a great way to influence the direction of the platform and stay informed about upcoming changes.

Keep Track of Release Notes

Whenever a new update or feature is released, Microsoft publishes detailed release notes that outline the changes and improvements. These notes can be accessed through the Microsoft Teams admin centre under the “Message center” tab or through the Teams blog. Keep an eye on the release notes to stay informed about new features and improvements relevant to your organisation.

Irish Businesses are Adapting Microsoft Teams as a Valuable Remote Collaboration and Teamwork Tool

Microsoft Teams has proven to be a valuable remote collaboration and teamwork tool for businesses in Ireland. With its chat-based workspace, video conferencing capabilities and integration with other tools, Teams has revolutionised the way we work and collaborate.

By implementing the tips and tricks outlined by Tier3Tech’s cloud optimisation specialists, you can take your Teams experience to the next level and create a more efficient and seamless remote working environment. From utilising keyboard shortcuts and customising your settings to leveraging collaboration tools and automation, Teams offers a wide range of features to enhance productivity.

Stay up-to-date with the latest features and enhancements by checking the Microsoft 365 roadmap, participating in the Teams UserVoice community and keeping track of release notes. And remember, security is of utmost importance when it comes to remote collaboration, so be sure to follow best practices for maintaining a secure environment.

Overall, Microsoft Teams is a powerful and versatile tool that can help you and your team stay connected and productive, no matter where you are. So why not take advantage of all that Teams has to offer and see how it can transform the way you collaborate?

If you’re considering adapting Microsoft Teams to increase collaboration and efficiency in your business, reach out to Tier3tech, one of Ireland’s most trusted Microsoft provider with 10 years of experience in the cloud optimisation industry.