updated June 2022

What is Microsoft Teams

Microsoft team is a solution designed to become the core of all the activity of a company. it is a tool that Microsoft incorporated at the end of 2016 to the already robust Microsoft 365 suite ( formerly Office 365). This means that beyond its own functionalities, it offers full integration with the other solutions in the suit: Outlook, Word; excel; One Drive, PowerPoint, Power BI…

Based on the cloud, Microsoft Teams allows companies to modernize the way they work thanks to 4 essential pillars for any current company.

• Promote communication between employees

Make the team aware of everything with group chats, online meetings, calls, conferences…

• Optimize teamwork

Collaborate on files with integrated Microsoft 365 applications like Word, Excel, PowerPoint and SharedPoint.

• Customize the work area

Add your favorite Microsoft applications and third-party services to access all the resources you need.

•  Increase security

Get end-to-end security, administrative control, and compliance, all powered by Microsoft 365.

How to download Microsoft Teams free

Downloading Microsoft Teams for free is as simple as accessing the Microsoft website and clicking on the button with the most appropriate version for your needs: desktop or mobile device. If you access this page from a laptop or desktop computer, you can enter your email address to receive a download link to install it on your mobile.

Also on this page it is possible to find the two existing free versions: for home and small businesses or for the work and education sectors.

Signing in to Microsoft Teams

Signing in to Teams depends on the device you are using:

• Windows. Click Start and then click Microsoft Teams.
• Mac. Select the “Applications” folder and then Teams.
• Tablets and mobiles. Click on the Teams application icon.

After that, enter your username and password.

Microsoft Teams for Linux

In addition to Mac, Microsoft Teams is available for Linux. The desktop version is available in .deb and .rpm formats. Teams is distributed every month; the package manager should install the updates automatically.

How to do it: Go to the official Microsoft download page. If we are on a computer with Ubuntu, the system will detect it automatically and will show us the versions to download on our machine. Once done and clicking on it, a wizard will perform the process automatically.

Another option is the manual installation through commands. You have more information about it on Microsoft’s official website.

Below, we leave you with the Microsoft Teams tutorial that reviews the most interesting features.

Customized and integrated tabs

TEAMS members can add additional tabs to each channel to customize them and to offer the services available to their needs.

In channels, Chat and File tabs are created by default. Similarly, in each private chats

In channels, the Conversations and Files tabs are created by default. In the same way it happens in each private chat, the Conversations, Files, Organization and Activity tabs are created by default. However, in addition to these built-in tabs, you can design and add custom tabs. From incorporating an Excel, Word, Power BI file …

How to do it: You just have to click on the “+” symbol that appears in the top menu of a chat and incorporate for that chat or group that functionality you need.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks allow you to save a message or an attachment to read later, or simply to have it marked as an important resource. This is very useful for inappropriate files or messages that we may need to use in the future.

How to do it: In a chat room, find the message or file you want to mark and click the marker icon that appears when you hover over the message. To find the files you have marked, simply type “/saved” in the search bar and you will be taken to a list of the items you have marked.

Sharing and collaboration: how to share screen in Teams

Share content

Share your desktop, a PowerPoint file, or use the whiteboard if you want to show your screen and other activities and files on your desktop to other meeting attendees.

How to do it: To share your screen in a meeting, select “Screen Sharing” from the meeting controls. Then, simply decide if you want to present your entire desktop, a particular window, a Power-Point file…

Sharing PowerPoint in a meeting

If you choose to share a PowerPoint file in a meeting, participants will be able to move through the different slides without interrupting the main presentation. And whenever they want, they can return to the presenter’s view with a single click.

How to do it: Select “Share Screen” from the meeting controls. In the PowerPoint section, select the file you want to share.

Include the system audio

System audio sharing allows you to transmit your computer audio to meeting participants via Teams. You can use it to play an audio or video clip as part of a presentation.

How to do it: To share your system audio, select “Share Screen” from the meeting controls, and then simply turn on the “Include System Audio” option.

Use the board in meetings

The integration of Whiteboard into Microsoft Teams meetings is powered by Whiteboard for the Web, which allows Teams meeting participants to draw, sketch, and write together on a shared digital canvas.

How to do it: You can share a whiteboard, so it is available simultaneously in whiteboard applications on Windows 10, iOS, and the web. After you join a Teams meeting, select “Share” from the meeting’s share tray. And in the Whiteboard section, select Microsoft Whiteboard.

Using the pencil on the whiteboard at a meeting

You can open the same whiteboard in Microsoft’s whiteboard applications for Windows 10 or iOS to add any content and use the pen.

How to do it: When you start Whiteboard, Teams meeting attendees can draw on it. Click on the pencil icon, select a color, and write down anything you want.

Video calls

Make video calls

With Teams you can make video calls to hold meetings or create much more dynamic conversations than in chat mode. These video calls can be made with as many members as you like and can be recorded for anyone who missed the meeting.

How to do it: Open the chat with the person/group you wish to start the video call with and click the video icon at the top right.

Customize background on Teams calls

On Microsoft Teams you have the ability to blur everything that’s left behind when you make a video call.

How to do it: To activate the background blur you only have to access a video call and click on the More Options icon (…) and select the option Background Blur.

*If you want to personalize the background with your own images, you can visit this article where we detail how to do it.

Events and meetings

Schedule a Teams Live event

The host of a live event can schedule a Teams Live event from the desktop or the web. This process will automatically add the event to your group’s calendars, making it easy for attendees to be reminded of the meeting before it starts.

How to do it: In Teams, click meetings on the right side of the application, and then click schedule a meeting. At the top of the box.

Create a meeting for a Teams channel

When you create a meeting for a channel, all team members will be able to watch it and join it in that channel. Channels cannot be edited or added after the invitation is sent. You will need to send a new invitation with the updated channels.

How to do it: Select “New Meeting”. Type the name of a single channel where Add a Channel is indicated (in the date and time fields).

Join a meeting without a Teams account

You do not need a Microsoft Teams account to access meetings on this platform.

Anyone who receives a meeting invitation can join a Microsoft Teams session. After clicking the link, a web page will open, where you will see two options: download the Windows application or join the meeting via the web. When joining via web, you can use Microsoft Edge or Google Chrome.

How to do it: Enter your name and choose your audio and video settings. If the meeting room (or other device that is connected to the meeting) is nearby, choose audio OFF to avoid interruptions. Select phone audio if you want to hear the meeting on your mobile phone.

Find a chat or channel

Sometimes, we need to access channel or chat information as quickly as possible. It is very simple and works for group and private chats!

How to do it: Go to chat or channel, press Ctrl + F (or CMD + F for Mac) and then type what you want to search for. You’ll get results from just that channel or chat.

How to create a team in Teams

There are several ways to create groups in Teams:

Create a team from scratch

When you generate a team, your Microsoft 365 group is automatically created, containing an inbox, Outlook calendar, OneNote and SharePoint space. Teams can be public or private.

How do I do this: On the left side of the application, click on “Teams” or go to the bottom of the application to “Join or create a team”. Once the “Create a team” card appears, click on “Create a team” and choose “From scratch”. After naming it and writing an optional description, click on “Create”.

Create a team from a template

You can use the team templates created specifically for each one and create optimized teams for your way of working. There are also some new templates for project management, employee incorporation and more.

How to do it: Tap the “Teams” tab on the left side, and the “join a team or create one” option at the bottom of the team list. At this point, choose “Select from a Template”, scroll down and choose a template for your new team. After reviewing the list of channels and applications with which the new one will start, select “Start” at the bottom. All that remains is to customize the name and details of the group and press “Create”.

Set up the scene with Conference Mode

If you’ve grown tired of seeing the same look in your video calls day after day, now you have the chance to escape from boredom and take your team from the auditorium to a winter world, a paradise under the sea…

How to do it: Once you’re in Conference Mode, just select Change Scene, which you’ll find in the bottom left corner of the meeting.

Publish a company-wide task list

Organizing in a company is crucial, and you can create and track your team’s work with the task publishing app. It integrates individual tasks with Microsoft To Do technology and team tasks with Planner technology in one place.

How to do it: On the left side of your Teams you can find the “Tasks” app or as a tab in a channel within individual teams. To enable Tasks for your organization, locate the Tasks application, select it, and then click Allow.

Use applications in meetings

The applications that Teams adds to the platform can help us in many tasks of our day to day. You can improve the experience of your meetings quickly and easily.

How to do it: Open the meeting details and select the “Plus icon” at the top. Then choose an application and press “Add”.

Shared channel calendar

You can schedule meetings as a team with this new calendar. You can now view all channel events in one location and add them to your personal calendar.

How to do it: Select Calendar on the left side of the app. Then tap “Add a tab”, Channel calendar in the list of available apps, and assign a name to the calendar. Just select “Add” and you can add meetings to which all members can join.

Subtitles and message translation

Use subtitles in a live event

Teams is adding more languages to subtitles and translations of live events. You will have subtitles for the spoken language or subtitles translated into the language of your choice.

How to do it: To enable live subtitles and subtitles, select the Subtitles button in the video controls. To change the caption language, select settings > subtitles or subtitles, and choose the language you want.

Message translation

If Teams is an ideal tool for bringing together teams from anywhere, language cannot be an obstacle. Remove any barriers and work with people from all over the world thanks to the message translation functionality.

How to do it: In a message, click on the ellipses and select the “Translate” option.

Remove background noise

Whether we are in the office or teleworking at home, sometimes external noises sneak into our calls that can become very annoying and can affect the flow of communication.

How to do it: Select Settings > Devices > Noise Suppression. If the noise is too loud, you have the option “Stop” for even greater suppression of background sounds.

Files

Edit files in Microsoft Teams

Teams makes it easy to share files and work collaboratively on all types of files, allowing you to view, edit, and work on them together, directly without leaving Microsoft Teams.

How to do it: Files stored in your team’s file library are accessible to all team members.  There is no need to check the files or worry about whether one of your colleagues has the document open. You can all work at the same time and even see which colleagues have the file open and what changes they are making to it.

Update the Files tab

It’s one of the simplest steps. You can update the files you share with your team at any time and make sure you have the latest versions of the group files.

How to do it: Just select the “Sync” option and it will do so automatically.

Record a meeting and enable live transcription

Any Teams meeting or call can be recorded for later viewing. The recording captures audio, video and screen-sharing activity and is securely shared across the organization.

How do I: Start a meeting or join a meeting. > Go to the meeting controls and select the “More Actions” button. > Start recording.

Start a new chat in a new window

In the settings, you can now choose to start a new chat in the main Teams window or in a new one.

How to do it: Go to Settings and more Microsoft Teams “more options” icon at the top of the application, and then select Settings. Scroll down to Open new chat in and select New window. The next time you start a new chat, it will automatically open in a new window.

Customize notifications

If you don’t like the way your notifications appear, you don’t have to follow the default mechanism. The changes can be made in a very simple way.

How to do it: Access your profile picture, select Settings > Notifications and that’s it.

Take notes of meetings

Meeting notes now admit up to 100 meeting participants at a time. Participants with access to the notes will continue to have access to the notes of the meeting, even after the end of the meeting. Also, if someone joins the meeting after it’s scheduled and doesn’t have access to the notes, they can now ask the owner for access to the notes.

How to do it: Go to the calendar, select the chosen meeting and select the “Meeting Notes” tab and start taking notes from the meeting. Once you’re at the meeting, go to “More Options” in the meeting controls, and then choose meeting notes. If you want to access notes from a channel meeting, go to the channel where the meeting took place and look for the meeting. Below it, select “Show full screen notes“.

Hide the pop-up messages

Notifications come by default, but, to provide even more privacy, Teams now allows you to disable message previews in desktop notifications.

How to do it: Select Settings > Notifications > Show message preview. From here, change the toggle button to Off.

Share the foreground

Putting a video in the foreground is like fixing it for all the users of the meeting. If you’re an organizer or moderator, you can choose a video from anyone to make it the main video users see.

How to do it: Select the “Show participants” option to see a list of all meeting participants. Find the name of the person whose video you want to highlight in the list, right-click on their name and select “Spotlight”. When you are ready to finish the focus, right-click again and choose “stop focus”.

Access to channel information

Many times, we need to know who makes up a channel. There is now an option to obtain a list of members who have access to the channel and persons who have recently contributed to it.

How to do it: Just click on the “i” symbol at the top right of the channel.

Anchor important publications

You can anchor an important post so that you and your peers can easily find it. If you have important company instructions that everyone should consider or if you want to make a virtual celebration, it’s best to anchor it and have quick access to all the details.

How to do it: Hold the mouse pointer over any type of message and select More options  > Anchor

Control the meeting options

You have the option to have all users, including people in your organization, go through the meeting waiting room when they join a meeting you’ve organized.

How to do it: Open “Meeting Options“. Then, where you ask “Who can skip the waiting room?” select Just me. From there you can change the configuration of the meeting participants.

Disable the microphones of attendees

Now, the organizers of the meetings have more power to enable or disable the microphone of attendees.

How to do it: Go to “Meeting Options”, then “Allow attendees to activate the audio” and change the toggle button to Yes.

See the organization chart of the company

From Teams, you can access a detailed view of your company’s organization chart. See the organizational hierarchy, which members are part of a team, who is responsible for it, and the fit of each of the members of your company.

How to do it: Open a chat with a teammate and click on the “Organization” tab in the top menu. You will be shown an organization chart relating to their position within the company.

Live reactions

If you’re at a loss for words, now you can express yourself in another way. In addition to virtually raising your hand in a meeting, it is now possible to express yourself in other ways such as like, love, applause and laughter. This will help make meetings more inclusive, engaging and fun.

How to do it: Just hold the pointer over the reaction option in the meeting controls in the upper right area of the screen and all the new reactions will be displayed. Select the one you want and it will appear for a few seconds on the video or profile picture in the lower right corner.

Use history to go back

You can now revisit previous areas you have been to in Teams. You will access your history of conversations, channels, applications, activities, tabs and files. Choose an item from the list and you will instantly return to that point.

How do I do it: To access the history, hold the pointer over the back-forward dates to the left of the search bar. That’s where you’ll be able to choose from all the areas you’ve recently visited.

Use small group rooms at Team meetings

Sometimes groups need to be divided into smaller group discussions. It usually happens between teachers and meeting organizers. Fortunately, you can get that with small group rooms at Teams meetings.

How to do it: The first thing is to start the meeting, and then select, in the controls of the meeting, “Rooms for jumps”. At this point, you will need to indicate the number of rooms you want (maximum 50) and if you want Teams to assign people to the rooms (automatically) or if you want to choose the people in each room by yourself (manually). And finally, “Create rooms”.

Set the duation of the status

If you want to set the time of your states by default, now you can. For example, if you want to set a fixed time so you don’t get disturbed on your lunch break, it’s very simple.

How to do it: Select your profile image at the top of the app, choose the status (Available, Do Not Disturb, etc.) below your name, and then select “Duration”. There, choose the state and time you want to show up and ready.

Use the “Approvals” application

To simplify applications and processes with teammates and partners, the “Approvals” app is the perfect choice. You will be able to create applications and consult the ones that have been sent to you, a view of all previous approval requests in one place.

How to do it: Open the “Approvals” app in Microsoft Teams. Then select “New Approval Request” and enter the data (name of the application, who must approve it, any additional information and data attached) and then just click “Send”.

Microsoft Teams bots

As if all this weren’t enough, bots are automated programs that respond to all kinds of queries or provide updates and notifications on details that may be of interest to users; task management, surveys, reminders, better time for meetings…

How to do it: You must click on the suspension points that appear when you hover your mouse over any group/chat name and select “Manage Applications”.  The applications/bots in operation in that chat will appear, and by clicking on the “More Applications” tab you will access the menu from which you can add those bots that help you perform your tasks more efficiently.

Some examples of Microsoft Teams bots:

Calendar BOT

Scheduling a meeting with your team can be complicated. Checking the availability of your colleagues is not always easy since free hours are sometimes scarce or non-existent. With the FreeTime 1 command, a list of the most suitable times for team members will be displayed, according to their schedules.

Polly

Polly is the ideal bot to present surveys, votes, and polls that make it easy to collect the opinions of your team members.

RememberThis

This bot solves a simple but recurring problem. As its name indicates, it allows you to program timers in conversations, so that it will draw our attention in the future to a particular topic that we don’t want to forget, or that we need to remember.

Webinar: Tutorial Microsoft Teams