Microsoft Teams has become one of the most successful tools during the coronavirus pandemic. Learn to master it with these tips and tricks that we show you.

If you use Microsoft Teams regularly, you are probably already familiar with the basics of the application. Changing your appearance, creating separate teams, or collaborating on documents, and screen sharing are things most people know how to do.

However, even if you feel comfortable with the tool, you should know that there are lesser-known features that Microsoft does not highlight, but that it is convenient to know to move with ease in your video calls.

That’s why we’ve put together 10 valuable tips and tricks to help you get the most out of Microsoft Teams. This covers both basic and more advanced functions, although Windows is not always available on Mac and vice versa.

Share screen

The screen sharing feature in Microsoft Teams is perhaps one of the most used in video calls, and yet people often have a hard time finding it. When you have an active call, click on the ‘Share tray’ button on the bottom bar.

This bar is sometimes hidden during the video call, but by clicking anywhere on the screen, it reappears. The function allows you to share the entire desktop, the open window, or a specific application.

Messages during a video call

During video calls, there are situations in which you may have to introduce yourself to a group or to express an opinion without interrupting the speaker. To open the chat channel, click on the speech bubble icon to the right of the bar.

A window will open on the right in which you can write your message, or check what others have written. Everyone will receive a pop-up notification when new messages are sent.

If the call was established on a specific channel or group, these messages will still be available after the call has concluded.

Record meetings

Recording a meeting can be tremendously useful, especially if you are following an online class or high-interest training talk. Also for those cases in which you have to share the meeting with someone who could not join the call.

To record the meeting, click on the three menu items shown above and select ‘Start recording’. Both the images and the audio will be recorded and then stored under a file.

Please note that all participants will be notified that the call is being recorded, with images and audio available as a video shortly after the meeting ends. The host can also choose to share it externally.

Create subgroups with specific labels

You may want to talk to specific team members about a certain topic, but you would rather not go through the hassle of creating an entirely new channel.

That’s where tags come in, allowing you to group people based on their type of work or a specific project. Your company administrator may have to enable this feature for all members, but it is worth doing.

1. Click on ‘Teams’ on the left panel and find the team of people you are looking for.
2. Hover over it and click on the three dots.
3. Select ‘Manage Tags’.
4. Choose the people you would like to add to a specific tag and what you would like to call them.

Now you can use these tags to @mention this specific group of people, safe in the knowledge that only what you share will be notified to them.

Use Microsoft Outlook and Teams together

Teams are designed to be a single window for collaboration, so it can be a bit cumbersome to have to go out to a separate application to manage email while taking a video call.

However, Microsoft now allows you to integrate two tools like Outlook and Teams, which means that you can compose a message in Teams that is also sent as an email.

To use this feature, you will first need to send the message in Teams. Then hover over the specific message and click on those same three dots from before. Click on the option that says ‘Share in Outlook’.

Assuming Outlook is linked to the same Microsoft account as Teams, you will be prompted to select any recipient and add appropriate comments.

Save chats for the future

By touching those same three dots in any message, you can also save the conversations for future reference. Once saved, you can access them by clicking on your icon in the upper right corner and choosing ‘Saved’.

Mute and hide notifications

Notifications are great until you are bombarded with them. Teams give you control over who can and cannot send you notifications, which can be useful if you are a member of many active channels.

For specific channels, head over to the ‘Teams’ heading and hover over the channel you want to change notifications for. Click on the three dots that appear and then choose ‘Notifications’ for the channel.

You will then have options for ‘All Activity’, ‘Off’ or ‘Custom’. For a particular chat, choose ‘Chat’ in the left panel and click on the same three dots. You will see the option to ‘Mute’ that particular conversation.

Use different accounts

With Microsoft encouraging people to use Teams for widespread use as well, it’s clear that some will want to be able to switch between personal and work accounts. There is no in-app solution yet, although you can run a separate version of Teams.

Opting to use the application in web mode may be a solution. Head to teams.microsoft.com to get started, although you may need to sign out of your account before you can sign in to another.

Add important apps

It can be annoying to have to switch between multiple apps all the time, especially if you use the same handful every day.

To add an application, you will simply have to click on the ‘+’ icon next to the person or channel you have selected and chosen from a large selection of applications. If you don’t see that option, it means that the owner hasn’t granted you permission for the changes.

Collaborate on Microsoft Office documents

Microsoft’s Office applications have come a long way since they focused on real-time collaboration, so people can share and edit documents directly within the Teams interface, without changing apps.

We encourage you to check out this related content: Fun things you can do in Microsoft Teams.

Since the Zoom tool is another great alternative, we offer you an article on how to go beyond the 40-minute limit of Zoom video calls.