Within a relatively short period of time Microsoft Teams has seen widespread adoption across schools, business, and groups across the globe, and for good reason. The platform is free, easy-to-use, and offers plenty of accessibility features for individuals across a wide spectrum of backgrounds, learning styles, and abilities. And while the app does a great job of pointing users to its many useful features, there is so much to explore within Teams that we thought we’d create a list of some tips and features for Microsoft Teams that you may not know about.
Please note that some features listed may not be available for all organizations or employees.
- Create a Poll
Polls are a terrific way to gather information quickly and anonymously within your group. Creating a poll in Teams is simple. Click the Forms icon under a message box, then type your question and the answer choices. Toggle the options you want, and when you’re ready to go, hit Send.
- Use Immersive Reader
Turn on Immersive Reader to enter into a distraction-free and customizable reading mode that can also read text aloud. To enter into Immersive Reader, click on a chat bubble or piece of text, click on the ellipsis’s icon, and select Immersive Reader.
- Navigate Recent Files
To view your recent files, chats, and teams that you’ve visited recently, hover over the back button located on the top left-hand corner of your screen.
- Download Meeting Transcriptions
You may have already realized that you can record your Teams meeting, but did you know that you can also automatically add and then download transcriptions of the meeting? To add transcriptions, open a completed recording and click on Update Video Details, choose Video Language, click Autogenerate a caption file and click Update. Once this process is complete you can download the transcription via Microsoft Streams.
- Save Messages
To save a message, hover over it and click the ellipsis (…), then click Save this message. To view saved messages type /Saved in the search box followed by Enter.
- Send Urgent Chats
Did you know that if you mark a message as urgent, Teams will resend it every two minutes for the next twenty minutes until you get a response? To do this, click on the Delivery Options icon underneath a message and select Urgent.
- Use Keyboard Shortcuts
Using keyboard shortcuts can vastly speed up your Teams experience, and there’s plenty of useful shortcuts to learn. To view a complete list of keyboard shortcuts, hit control and then the period key (ctrl .) while in the Teams app.
- Search through Conversations
The Search tool can be used to find conversations, files, teams, etc., by typing a relevant keyword. Simply type the keyword into the search bar and hit enter. You can also navigate to different tabs to find applicable search results, e.g., you can search for “Nancy”, then click on the People tab.
