If your group makes use of Office, likelihood is you’ve encountered Microsoft Teams, at the least for video conferences. But it’s able to much more, offering an efficient means for teams of individuals to collaborate on work and advance enterprise targets.Teams is, at its core, group chat software program with videoconferencing capabilities and a few attention-grabbing options round working with paperwork and spreadsheets, particularly these saved in SharePoint and OneDrive for Business. It’s included with Microsoft 365/Office 365 enterprise and enterprise subscriptions, making it engaging to Microsoft prospects who don’t need to pay for added chat or assembly software program.Once you get to comprehend it, Teams is a genuinely useful software for groups in corporations that use Microsoft 365, because it brings collectively a bunch of suite parts and surfaces them in a single handy place.Microsoft affords an online interface for Teams, in addition to cell apps for iOS and Android so you’ll be able to keep linked from anyplace. But the very best expertise is obtainable by the desktop shopper. Available for Windows 10 and 11, macOS (any of probably the most three current variations, in keeping with Apple’s assist coverage), and Linux (on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS, Fedora 30 Workstation, RHEL 8 Workstation, and CentOS 8), it’s a wealthy, full-featured software that allows you to hold conferences, chats, and notes all collectively in a single place. This story will give attention to getting you acquainted with the desktop app.Creating or becoming a member of a teamAs the identify suggests, Teams organizes itself across the idea of groups, which might be small teams you’re working with on particular initiatives, your complete division or, in some circumstances, even your complete firm. When you launch Teams, you’ll be taken to the Teams view. The first time you launch Microsoft Teams, you’ll doubtless be enrolled in a number of groups. Jonathan Hassell/IDG
Teams offers teams a spot to speak about initiatives, share recordsdata, and extra. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
To create a brand new workforce, which you would possibly have to do whenever you begin a brand new mission, as an illustration, choose Join or create a workforce on the backside left of the Teams window. (If you don’t see this selection, be sure to’re in Teams view by clicking the Teams icon within the left navigation bar.) On the display that seems, hover over the “Create a team” space and click on the Create workforce button. You have to then select whether or not to create a workforce from scratch or create a workforce based mostly on a Microsoft 365 Group (if you happen to select the latter, then you must specify the group on the subsequent display), select whether or not the workforce is personal (solely you and different homeowners of the workforce can resolve which members to incorporate) or public (anybody who has entry to Microsoft 365 in your group can be part of), after which give your workforce a reputation and a pleasant description so others could make sense of its objective. Jonathan Hassell/IDG
You can create a brand new workforce from scratch or use an current group. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
After that, you’ll be prompted so as to add any related folks, distribution teams, and safety teams which may exist contained in the Global Address List for Microsoft 365 in your group. Here, consider distribution teams that get memos in your division, any explicit staff, and even different electronic mail lists which may have members that may discover the content material of your discussions related. You can even designate them as members or homeowners of the workforce. If Microsoft 365 is configured appropriately in your organization, you’ll be able to even invite company from outdoors your group, resembling distributors and contractors, just by typing their electronic mail addresses into the team-picking display. Their “guest” standing shall be clearly denoted in all of their actions. (If you don’t have permission out of your administrator to do that, Teams will report again that you’re not approved.) Jonathan Hassell/IDG
Adding members to a brand new workforce. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
When you create a workforce, Teams routinely units up sure components of Microsoft 365 to assist the workforce. Specifically, it creates a SharePoint workforce website and grants entry to the members of the workforce you added, a Microsoft 365 Group (consider it as an Exchange or Outlook distribution record on steroids) comprising the workforce members, a shared OneNote pocket book hosted within the cloud, and a shared Plan, one thing that’s a part of the Microsoft Planner software in Microsoft 365, which is past the scope of this text.To handle your workforce at any time, click on the three-dot icon subsequent to its identify within the navigator bar on the left. You’ll see a pop-up menu the place you’ll be able to add or take away members, create channels for the workforce (extra on that beneath), change the workforce identify or description, and extra.If you’d like to hitch an current workforce relatively than create a brand new one, choose Join or create a workforce on the backside left of the Teams window. On the display that seems, you’ll see an inventory of obtainable groups. Hover over any public workforce and click on its Join workforce button to hitch immediately. If the workforce is personal, you’ll have to request approval from its administrator. ChannelsOnce a workforce is created, you’ll discover a number of issues within the Teams window. Jonathan Hassell/IDG
A brand new workforce is born. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
For one, a General channel has been created for the workforce. Channels are the place you converse and collaborate. The General channel is supposed to be a catch-all place the place you go to start out conversations whenever you first start utilizing the Teams product; normally extra particular topic-related channels will spring from there.You can create a number of channels for any given workforce — the Widget Launch workforce would possibly need to have gross sales, manufacturing, and advertising channels, for instance. To add a channel, click on the Create extra channels button. On the display that seems, sort in a reputation and an outline for the channel, choose a privateness possibility if you wish to restrict the individuals who can entry the channel, and click on the Add button. All the channels for a workforce seem beneath the identify of the workforce within the left pane.Each channel has tabs that present up within the higher portion of the principle space of the Teams display, together with tabs for posts (like conversations) and recordsdata. When somebody does one thing new in a channel, resembling including a file or beginning or persevering with a dialog, that channel’s identify will develop into daring within the left pane. PostsThe Posts tab sort of works like Facebook or LinkedIn in that you could remark to your teammates in an ongoing dialog. Composing messages is simple: Just click on the Start a brand new dialog textual content field, or click on Reply beneath an current dialog and begin typing.You can name teammates’ consideration to sure elements of the dialog by tagging them with an @ signal when typing, like this: @Adele Can you share the most recent workback grid? Users who’ve been tagged will see, in their very own copies of the Teams shoppers, these tagged elements of the dialog highlighted in vivid crimson to allow them to simply see and reply to messages. You can use emoticons, emojis, and GIFs as effectively — that’s what I imply by pondering of this space like Facebook. Jonathan Hassell/IDG
Conversing and tagging in a channel in Teams by way of the Posts tab. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
Other actions resembling shared calls or shared recordsdata seem in a timeline trend within the Posts tab. These might be accessed elsewhere, however they’re populated and referenced within the Posts space as effectively, very similar to a information feed on a social website works. And anybody who’s at present accessible on Teams could have a inexperienced circle with a white checkmark on their profile image within the Posts space.FilesYou are in all probability starting to get the concept that Teams is in some ways an overlay to Microsoft 365 providers. This could be very clear within the Files tab, which populates an inventory of recordsdata on the shared SharePoint workforce website proper in your window, saving you the difficulty of loading it up in your browser and clicking round. You can add, open, edit, copy, transfer, obtain, and delete recordsdata, or get hyperlinks to these paperwork to share with others. Jonathan Hassell/IDG
Use the Files tab to entry your workforce’s shared recordsdata. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
If you click on on a file identify, the net model of Word, Excel, and so forth will open proper within the Teams window, permitting you to carry out light-weight edits or create easy paperwork from scratch with out leaving the Teams shopper.Adding extra tabs (and apps)The tab space is mainly the place all the thrilling integration motion occurs with Teams. Functionality from different Microsoft 365 providers in addition to third events surfaces as new tabs.For instance, you’ll be able to add Excel spreadsheets, Word paperwork, OneNote notebooks, Power BI dashboards, Planner plans, and extra instantly as tabs within the Teams shopper. Just click on the plus button (+) on the far proper of the tabs format so as to add a brand new tab. There are additionally accessible integrations with third-party cloud providers like GitHub, Cisco Webex, Smartsheet, and so forth. Jonathan Hassell/IDG
Add new tabs inside Teams to increase performance to different functions, recordsdata, and providers. (Click picture to enlarge it.)
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