Learn How to Use Microsoft Teams ASAP.
The lockdown has forced millions of professionals to take refuge in their own homes. This led them to look for jobs in home apps and tools. One application that has grown dramatically to server failure is Microsoft Teams. People from all over the world come to Teams to lead, communicate, manage, share information, and work together on pressing issues. Since most of these users are not familiar with the app, they don’t know how to use Microsoft Teams.
How to use Microsoft Teams
I’ll try to help here by giving you some sort of roadmap. You’ll find helpful shortcuts, links to important articles and guides, and answers to some important instructions that should help you get started quickly. The idea is to get back on your feet as soon as possible.
Let’s start.
1. Keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Teams
You don’t have to remember the shortcuts, but it will help. Press Ctrl +. (this is the control key and period) on your keyboard to open a pop-up window with all the keyboard shortcuts available in Teams. They are neatly divided into sections such as Navigation, Messages, and so on.
Remember a few keyboard shortcuts that you think you will need the most. The rest can be found here when you need them. It will gradually become easier to remember them from memory.
READ ALSO: 10 Best Slack Tips and Tricks to Improve Your Performance
2. Commands in Microsoft Teams
Teams work in the same way as in Slack. This is how it works if you haven’t used it yet. Press the forward slash (/) key in the top search bar on your keyboard and you should see a list of available commands. As you start typing, you will see more options.
The command is on the left and the short description is on the right. Pretty straightforward and easy to use. I recommend that you browse the above list to understand everything you can do with these commands. They can really save time.
3. Introduction to the dashboard
Here’s the basic command structure and how it works. It’s actually pretty easy to use if you know where everything is. There is a search bar at the top where you can also enter commands as we discussed in step 2. Important links are in the sidebar. There you will find an Activity, where all mentions, replies and other conversations will be visible (feed). Then there is the chat tab where you can chat with everyone on the team.
Teams is where you can access all the teams and channels inside. The screenshot above shows the Commands tab. Blogging and Watercooler are channels. Notice the tabs at the top such as Messages and Files? You can create or delete tabs that you work with frequently. These tabs can be applications such as OneNote or Planner, or even separate files from the Office suite. Just click the “+” icon to select.
Now you can switch between apps, files, people and conversations on the same screen using tabs. Don’t go crazy and insert too many tabs. Keep it simple and clean so you don’t have to scroll a lot.
By clicking on “Files” in the sidebar menu, you can see who is working on which file and track progress. From there, you can also access connected cloud storage apps like OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.
Now click on the Applications button at the bottom of the sidebar menu. There you will find a list of apps, bots, tabs, connectors, and more.
You know what applications are. Just connect, sign in, give access and permission, and now you have read and write information right in Teams. We’ve also seen tabs above where you can pin content at the top. These can be files or applications. Bots can help you automate certain processes, such as collecting and sharing information with a team or channel. Connectors will bring notifications, like reminders, from other apps like Trello inside Teams. Finally, Messaging will allow you to format content from other apps and share it in a chat or channel for others to access and view.
Overwhelming? Do not worry. Just plug in the app and see how it works. You can also remove them easily.
4. Skype for Business to Teams
Skype was designed as a communication application with audio and video capabilities. Over the years, they’ve added a few more useful features. Teams was designed to work together with deep integration with Office 365 and other applications. You can also make audio / video calls using it. Microsoft says there is interoperability between both applications using TeamsUpgrade mode. If you are an administrator, find out here how both can coexist together. Understand that Skype for Business will cease to exist in the future, but it will continue for now. Microsoft realizes that there are too many companies now using Skype for Business. If you are an end user, this is how they both can coexist in the same workspace and what all you can do by logging into both applications.
Also read: 10 Microsoft tips and tricks to better manage your tasks
5. Microsoft Teams task lists
Microsoft Planner was designed for teams, and Microsoft To-Do is designed for individuals. In addition, Planner requires an Office 365 subscription, and To-Do is free. Microsoft has now announced the tasks that run inside Teams. How?
You can use Tasks to create and assign tasks to others or yourself. Most people don’t know that you can also use it to import tasks from To-Do and Planner. Note that the Tasks and Tasks apps also work with Outlook and Cortana. Everything stays in sync no matter where you go straight to Teams.
6. How to use Planner in Teams
Adding Planner to Teams is easy. Just click the + icon to add a tab and find the Planner app to add it. Again, you can add any app that your administrator has provided you and the plan they choose. I’m taking Planner as an example because many of you have asked for it.
After adding the Planner app, you can easily create a new plan, assign people to it, create tasks and assign those tasks to users, and more. The link above provides a handy list of everything you can do with Planner in the Teams tab.
How to use Microsoft Teams
Microsoft has done a really good job with Teams. The app is pretty easy to use and work with. You just need to know the basics, where to start and what all the buttons and tabs are for. The rest is easy. As you add more apps and tabs, things start to take shape and you will learn something new along the way. At this point, you need to get started as early as possible because there is still work to be done. I hope this article helped with that. A quick, quick guide to getting started with Microsoft Teams in minutes.