Configure Microsoft’s collaborative tool, take it in hand, and master its main features to benefit from it in your daily tasks.
With the containment measures put in place as part of the fight against the spread of the coronavirus, new teleworkers have had to deal with the use of collaborative tools that were until now unknown to them. Among them, Microsoft Teams, a tool offered by Microsoft, has a free version and now integrates with the Microsoft 365 suite.
Faced with competing solutions, Teams has the advantage of working in concert with all Microsoft tools as well as with other products through extensions. Professionals using Teams with other tools from the Microsoft 365 suite will find their calendar, the Onedrive cloud storage service, and much more.
Teams mixes conversation tools (written, audio, video), and project management and organization. You will be able to create and assign tasks to collaborators, and follow their progress directly from the application. Microsoft’s solution Here’s a quick overview of everything you need to know to get started with Microsoft Teams.
1. Install Teams
If you haven’t already, start by installing Teams on your machine. The program is available as a stand-alone application, but is also available in an online version accessible from any web browser at http://teams.microsoft.com.
Download Microsoft Teams for Windows (Free)
Download Microsoft Teams for macOS (Free)
Download Microsoft Teams for Linux (Free)
2. Log in and customize your profile
Launch Teams and sign in using your Microsoft ID. Once you arrive on the main page of the application, you will be able to personalize your profile and your status by clicking on your avatar at the top right.
You will be able to personalize your image, modify your status and define a message, or even access the application settings.
3. Take control of the interface
The Teams interface is divided into three areas. The first, on the left, groups together all the navigation menus allowing access to the different sections of the application:
- Activity: groups together all the notifications received (reaction to a message, mention, etc.)
- Conversation: groups together all individual or group discussions
- Teams: allows access to the different channels
- Calendar: allows access to Outlook calendar events
- Call: to initiate audio or video calls, one-on-one or in a group
- Files: file explorer allowing access to all the documents shared by users or that you have downloaded. It is also connected to the OneDrive storage attached to the Microsoft account used in Teams.
The second zone displays the content of each of the menus seen previously. Finally, the third and last zone displays the selected content (channel, conversation, etc.)
4. Start a conversation
Go to the Conversation menu, and click on the New Conversation button displayed at the top of the interface.
In the central window, enter the first letters of the contact you want to chat with in the to: text field. Since Teams is deployed for a team by your company, you should be able to find all your colleagues very easily.
Once the contact has been selected, all you have to do is type your message in the area provided for this purpose and then send it. Below the message input window, you will find a toolkit for adding attachments, animating the conversation with emojis or GIFs, and more.
You can also launch an audio or video call quickly by hovering over the name of your contact to bring up his card.
5. Explore the canals
From the Teams tab, you will find the different conversation channels.
These aren’t conversations per se, but topics, like on a forum, where each team member can participate by posting or sharing content. Ideally, the channels make it possible to treat and follow a subject or a project in which several collaborators participate.
6. Schedule a meeting
Microsoft’s collaborative tool includes everything you need to work remotely.
From the Calendar section, you can easily schedule a New meeting or a live event, but also create a meeting immediately by clicking Join now.
When the meeting is in place, you can invite your collaborators to join it. They will then have the opportunity to participate in video or audio only.
7. Make a call
Similar to meetings, if necessary, you can initiate an audio / video call on the fly from the Calls section.
If making a call with a single individual can be done very easily by hovering over their card from anywhere in the application, the Calls tab will be particularly useful for creating groups of contacts that you need to call regularly.
In addition, Teams immediately suggests a number of contacts within its Speed ​​Dial. This section, designed to make it easier for you to reach the contacts with whom you exchange the most, can be enriched by adding other contacts.
8. Easily find a file
While Teams is particularly useful for exchanging files, whether in a workgroup or in a conversation, finding those files when the time comes is not always easy.
Fortunately, you will not have to trace the thread of conversations to find the documents you need. Go directly to the tab dedicated to Files.
There you’ll find documents you’ve interacted with recently, files shared by all collaborators in Teams, and files sent to you. Teams even offers direct access to the OneDrive storage space attached to your Microsoft account to make it easier to share documents with your colleagues.
9. Quickly find what you want
Teams has a search engine where you can quickly find any contact, or perform certain commands. Type @ or / to view suggested commands available in Teams.
You’ll be able to easily find a coworker, use a third-party app to find content to share, quickly access a channel without having to navigate with a mouse, and more.
10. Install apps in Teams
At the very bottom of the left column, you will find an Applications tab. Going to it will take you to the catalog of extensions that can be installed in Teams.
You can, for example, install a poll generator to submit questionnaires to your colleagues in Teams, integrate an image search module that can be shared immediately in channels or conversations, or even be able to search for an article on Wikipedia to share with your friends. colleagues.
Each installed application can then be called from the search field by entering @applicationname followed by the keywords of your search.