Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Teams

With over 270 million active users benefiting from Microsoft Teams, everyone could use it in numerous ways to make their working day easier. Here are ten tips and tricks that will ensure you get the most out of Microsoft Teams:

1. Avoid Being Disturbed

If you want to filter out distractions so you can give a chat your full attention, you can do this by selecting the three dots (“…”) next to your profile picture at the top right corner, and selecting Settings > Notifications?to change the type and frequency of your alert.

2. Use Keyboard Shortcuts

This a simple way to ensure you speed up the most common tasks. Some of the most essential keyboard shortcuts we should all know include:

• Search: Ctrl+E
• Mute: Ctrl+Shift+M
• Open files: Ctrl+6

3. Make Your Chat Searchable

All you need to do is hit the pencil at the top right of your chat and you have full customization of your chat titles.

4. Translate Any Message

If you have any messages to translate into English, click on the three dots and select Translate.

5. Search Through Conversations

After you type in what you want to find, hit Enter and use the following keywords to improve your searches:

• Type “From:” then enter the person’s name
• Enter “In:” then input the channel or group chat name
• Type “Subject:” and the keyword from a message or subject line
• Enter “Sent:” and the date the message was sent

6. Send Urgent Chat Notifications

If you need to send an urgent message below the text compose box, you can check either Urgent or Important to add to your message; once you've sent it they will get it every two minutes for the following 20 minutes.

7. Conduct Polls

If you need to gather opinions all you need to do is click on the Forms icon underneath the message box to create and send a poll.

8. Download Meeting Transcriptions

If you don't have time to take notes during a meeting, you can download the entire transcription of the meeting once the recording is ready:

• Click on … and open the video in Microsoft Stream.
• Open the next … and click on Update Video Details.
• Choose the Video Language, click Autogenerate a Caption File, and click Update.

9. Save a Message to Come Back Later

If you're in the middle of a project and you need reminding of something later, just hover over a message, click on the … and Save This Message. You can then locate any saved messages by typing /Saved in the search box.

10. Add a Chatbot to a Team

If you’re using a chatbot, you can integrate it into Teams by:

• In the menu under Settings, click on Channels
• Select Microsoft Teams
• Select Turn on Teams

You can also customise your bot through Teams too.

Microsoft Teams is one of the most valuable tools to streamline and improve collaboration and conversation throughout your organisation. If you’re looking to make things easier, “Teams” work makes the dream work!