How To Get The Most Out Of Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams has been transformational in how businesses work today. Naturally, users are therefore keen to learn ways in which they can get the most out of Microsoft Teams, to make their working lives easier.
With this in mind, we’ve collated some of our favourite Microsoft Teams features and functions that we believe will help your business get more from the tool. We’ve split them into two, giving you advice on how to become a Microsoft Teams superuser and then how to better manage your Microsoft Teams environment.
How to become a Microsoft Teams superuser.
Save or pin important messages.
With the number of messages sent on Microsoft Teams, the ability to return to important messages is incredibly useful. There are two ways to do this. You can either save messages or pin messages. To do so, hover over a message, click the three dots and select ‘Pin’ or ‘Save this message’.
Pinning a message will attach the message to the top of your chat box with that person, so you can always see it, no matter how the conversation progresses. Alternatively, saving the message sends the message to a bank of your previously saved messages. Simply type /saved into the top search bar visible on any Microsoft Teams page and you’ll be able to view all of your saved messages.
With users frequently using instant messaging as a means of sharing information alongside email, by pinning and saving messages in this fashion you’ll be able to make sure you never forget something important.
Use slash commands such as /dnd and /unread.
As alluded to in the first piece of advice, the top search bar can be very beneficial in getting the most from Microsoft Teams. In fact, it can be used to quickly tell Microsoft Teams what to do. Type / followed by a command. For example, try typing in /dnd and pressing enter. You should see your status change to Do Not Disturb. This is perfect when you need some peace and quiet to concentrate on your work.
If you simple type / into Microsoft Teams, it will show you a list of all the available slash commands. Another handy slash command is /unread as it will bring up all of your unread notifications on one screen. This is really useful when you’ve been away from your desk for some time perhaps at a meeting.
Use @mention to send a message directly from the search bar.
Another key function of the search bar that speeds things up is the ability to send messages from it. That’s right, you don’t need to go to the chat function and find the person you want to talk to. If you want to send a quick message to someone simply type @ and their name into the search bar. Hit enter when their name is highlighted, followed by your message and hit enter again.
This functionality allows you to fire off quick messages without having to find who it is you’re looking for and can be done from any screen, saving you yet more time.
Drag and drop teams into an order that suits your preference.
The ‘Teams’ tab of Microsoft Teams can become quite clustered as you use the platform more and more. Naturally, some teams are going to be more important to you than others. To keep this tidy and in an order that works best for you, you can drag and drop the teams into any order you so wish.
What’s more, you can pin channels within a team if you want to ensure something specific stays at the top of the list. This allows you to find your most frequently visited teams and channels quickly, again without having to browse through long lists. If you rarely work on a particular channel, you can even hide it so it doesn’t make your lists needlessly large. Don’t worry, you’ll still get notifications from channels within those teams.
How to effectively manage your Microsoft Teams platform.
Don’t create too many teams.
When using Microsoft Teams, people can be eager to create teams and groups for everything within the business. This is somewhat natural, but without a little restraint and control, things can get very confusing, very quickly.
To get the most from your teams on the platform, only create those that you need and once settled, stick with them. Think of your end-users. The more teams they’re in, the more notifications they’ll get and the more they’ll have to manage. This takes time and energy. Keep things as simple as possible, and your team will be able to navigate through Microsoft Teams with ease.
Adopt a sensible naming convention.
On the theme of simplicity, make sure you adopt sensible naming conventions when using Microsoft Teams. Ensure that there can be no confusion as to what a team or channel is for. Remember you might not be the person using that particular group, so ensure the name makes sense to those that do.
A particular issue many have is the use of initialisms or abbreviated words that aren’t immediately obvious. Try to avoid them where possible if you want to get the most from Microsoft Teams. If a team member is asking you what something is called or what your name means, you’ve probably got the name wrong!
Don’t overdo planning and try to do too much.
Again, when using Microsoft Teams there can be a temptation to dive straight in and use everything in earnest, but just because a feature exists, doesn’t mean it needs to be used. Do you really need that poll or can you just ask people directly? Do you need to embed a spreadsheet or a third-party app, or are you just adding noise and distractions?
The best way to get the most from Microsoft Teams in terms of planning is to keep things simple. Start small and add what you require as time progresses. Don’t be tempted to add everything to a channel, to begin with. Let progression happen naturally. In an ideal scenario you want everything being used, so if something is sat there idle, being ignored, not only was the time setting it up wasted, but it’s getting in the way potentially causing more confusion.
Microsoft cloud services from Acronyms.
Here at Acronyms, we provide businesses with a range of Microsoft cloud services including Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Azure. For a better understanding of the Microsoft services we offer, please visit our dedicated Microsoft page. This page gives you a detailed rundown of what we offer.
Should you require more information or anything additional please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the team today.
