Microsoft Teams is one of the most popular business communication platforms with close to 270 million daily active users worldwide in 2022 almost double of 145 million daily active users in the past year based on an article available online.
If you are one of the 270 million daily users of Microsoft Teams, you may wonder what helpful new functionalities and efficiency gain one could unlock.
Microsoft teams is a corporate chat, meeting, and collaboration application and it’s included with Microsoft 365, office 365 for business, and enterprise subscriptions. Many companies use Microsoft teams as a primary way to keep their workforce both in-office and remote in touch.
Microsoft teams let one create multiple channels or discussion areas and allow users to share and store various files and conduct voice and video meetings.
As Microsoft teams is a part of Microsoft 365 it integrates well with other Microsoft business apps and services.
Let us help you understand how to use Microsoft teams effectively. Below are some of the Microsoft teams tricks and tips one must know to improve work efficiency and productivity.
1. Use Keyboard Shortcuts in Microsoft Teams
If one wants to speed up the most common tasks then keyboard shortcuts are the most secret weapon.
Initially, it can take a while to feel like you know your way around these essentials, but once you do, it is less than a second’s work to perform a command instead of searching for an option in a menu.
Here are some most common Microsoft teams keyboard shortcuts
- Search: Ctrl + E
- Turn off camera: Ctrl + Shift + O
- Mute: Ctrl + Shift + M
- Background blurring: Ctrl + Shift + P
- Opening files: Ctrl + 6
2. Search into your Conversations
Sometimes one needs more than just a simple search term, which is where Microsoft Teams Keyword Query Language (KQL) for more advanced searches comes in handy.
Below are the keywords Microsoft teams support to boost your searching capability:
- “From:” followed by the person’s name to search from the specified person’s chat
- “In:” followed by the channel or group chat name
- “Subject:” followed by the keyword from a subject line or message
- “Sent:” the date on which the message was sent
3. Sent and Filter Messages using @mention in Microsoft Teams
Typing a @ symbol into the search bar at the top will show up the name of the colleague one is searching for and allow one to immediately message them in Microsoft Teams. One can use @mentions in reverse, filtering messages and alerts sent to you.
4. Avoid getting Disturbed
When one needs to focus on work, one simply wants to filter out distractions, so that one can give full attention to the current work at hand with no worry of being disturbed by alerts from Microsoft teams.
To do this, simply click on the profile picture in the top right corner and then click on the Notifications tab in Microsoft Teams to change the type and frequency of the alerts.
5. Making your Messages Searchable
It is unpleasant to search through multiple conversations to look for a message. Microsoft Teams takes away this exasperation by allowing complete customization of chat titles so one can find them easily in the future.
Simply click on the pencil icon in the top right corner and rename it accordingly.
6. Use SharePoint in Teams
SharePoint, a Microsoft platform for securing and sharing files is already integrated into Microsoft teams.
Clicking on the files tab in Microsoft teams lets file sharing with other team members using SharePoint.
7. Email Forwarding to a Microsoft Teams Channel
Forwarding an email to any Microsoft Team’s channel is easy, next to the channel name, click the ellipsis, then get email address.
Now the Microsoft Teams group has an email address, one can forward messages too!
8. Send Important and Urgent Chat Notifications
To send an urgent message notification in Microsoft Teams, look below the text compose box, one will be able to check either Urgent or Important, and add any of these keywords into a message to grab the recipient’s attention.
Once a message is marked as urgent, the recipient will get a notification on Microsoft teams every two minutes for the following 20 minutes, which will make it hard to ignore.
9. Save a Message on Microsoft Teams and revisit it later
Just hover over any message and click the ellipsis (…) and click on save the message. One can easily find saved messages by entering /Saved in the search box on Microsoft Teams.
Once the results are shown one can also un-save messages using the bookmark icon that appears in the top right of every message.
10. Conduct Polls
Gathering everyone’s opinion could be tedious, but Microsoft Teams makes polling a breeze. Click on the Forms icon under the text box to create and send a poll in Microsoft Teams.
Poll results can be shared automatically after voting while keeping responses anonymous.
11. Ask T-Bot for Guidance
T-Bot is a dedicated help robot in Microsoft Teams. Click on chat and there will be a T-Bot option, click on it and one can start typing questions or just keywords to get instant answers.
12. Create Private Channels
Some of the things are best kept private and shared on a need-to-know basis, therefore this feature in Microsoft Teams lets you create new channels within a pre-existing team for sensitive discussions or private collaboration.
In Microsoft Teams one can identify if a channel is private by looking for the lock icon beside the channel name.
Microsoft team is an essential tool for working professionals and with the above tricks and tips one can improve work productivity and efficiency in day-to-day tasks.
Exabytes is an all-in-one Business solutions provider, if you are looking for a solution to connect, create and collaborate effortlessly among your team, check out the Microsoft 365 solution which includes Microsoft Teams as one of the applications bundled.
Exabytes provide a free consultation for Microsoft 365 subscriptions so that it fits your business requirements, and also provides optional training for your organization to give a better understanding and to use it more effectively under the guidance of expert partners.
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