Top 15 Microsoft Teams Tips and Tricks to Work Faster and Smarter

Top 15 Microsoft Teams Tips and Tricks to Work Faster and Smarter

Microsoft Teams is a colleague’s collaboration platform that’s available to MS 365 users. Today, we delve into the top 15 tips and tricks that will help you work with Teams like an expert and get the most out of this powerful tool.

MS Teams is Microsoft’s solution to the increasing demand for reliable online communication and collaboration platforms. It combines chats, audio/video calls, file storage, and app integration to enable you and your colleagues to stay connected and collectively productive regardless of locational differences.

Most people like Teams until they learn how to conveniently access its tools and services in the shortest time possible — and then they love it! So, are you convinced that you are deriving optimum value from Microsoft Teams?

Check out our latest video on how to use Teams just like a pro:

What Are the Top 15 Tips and Tricks for Working Faster in Microsoft Teams?

• Use ‘Do Not Disturb’ to Increase Your Focus: Are you working on a delicate project that needs full attention? Activate the ‘do not disturb’ mode to block out all disruptive popups and notification alerts until you’re done with the project. Type ‘/dnd’ in the search box. When you’re done, you can restore the alerts by keying in ‘/available’ in the search bar.
• Mark Messages as Unread and Attend to Them Later: Have you just opened a message and realized that you don’t have enough time or information to respond to it adequately? Well, you can mark it as unread, and it will reappear on your activity notification feed. Click on the three ellipses in the pop-up window and select “Mark as Unread.” So, it’s easier to trace and respond to it in the future.
• Use Bookmarks for Important Messages/Contents: This feature also helps you trace important or frequently used contents easily. To add a bookmark to a content: Open it > Ellipses °°°  > and select Save this message. Type in “/Saved” in the search box to review your bookmarked contents.
• @Mention Colleagues to Get Their Attention: Sometimes, you may want to send a message directly to specific users, channels, or groups. You can @mention them to catch their attention. Type “@” in the portion of the message you want to draw their attention to, start keying in their names, and select from the list given by Teams. Teams will highlight areas with @mention appraise the recipients of the same. You can also filter your feed with @mentions to be notified of more urgent messages that mention you directly. Go to Activity > Filter Button > and select @mentions.
• The Search Box Doubles up as the Command Bar: You can use the shortcut to launch several navigation commands and shortcuts. When you type in “/” in the command box, you will see a full list of all the available commands.
• Chat With Colleagues Directly from the Search Bar Using @mentions: You don’t have to leave the current window or abandon a project you’re working on to send a message to your colleagues. Key in @username in the search box > Enter > Type message > Send and continue working on your tasks.
• Switch from Chats to Calls in One Click: Are you in the middle of a private or group chat but feel that a call (video/audio) would be more convenient? Well, with Teams, you can easily switch from calls to chats and back. Go to the tab in the corner (top-right) to view the available options.
• Translate Messages in Teams: Are you running a multinational company or occasionally have guests who speak different languages? Don’t worry — MS Teams has an in-chat translation feature that supports several languages to help you bypass language barriers. Once you have enabled translation, Open the chat > Ellipses °°° > and select Translate.
• Acknowledge You’ve Seen a Message by Liking Them: You don’t have to type every time you want to agree to a chat’s content or agree that you’ve seen it. The best alternative is to like the message by hovering the mouse over it and clicking the thumbs up button.
• Rearrange your Teams: To move high-priority or frequently visited Teams to the top of the list for easier access, long-click and drag them to the desired locations.
• Use Rich Text Formatting to Organize Your Messages: Open the Font tab to type or edit your texts in rich text formats. You can change fonts, use different text sizes and colors, add headlines and subtitles, mark chats as important, etc. Rich text formats make your texts more organized and easy to read.
• Use the “/goto” Command to Access Your Teams Directly from the Search Bar: Tired of scrawling down the Teams’ list every time you want to access a chat? Just key in “/goto + Team’s name” in the search box to jump directly to specific Teams. You can also use the “/goto” command for quick access to channels.
• Add or Remove Users: As you progress through different project phases, you may need to add or remove some team members. Note that only admins (team owners) can perform this function. Open the Team > Ellipses°°° > Manage Team.
• Follow Channels for Regular Updates: Members of a channel have the liberty to unfollow or follow it. Teams will only send you notifications from the channels/teams you follow. Once you’ve opened the channel, click on the three ellipses, and choose “Follow this Channel.”
• “Favorite” Specific Teams to Prioritize Their Notifications: Following a Team is not enough; you may need to further categorize them into either Favorites or More based on relevance. Click on the three ellipses and select Favorite; the others will automatically be marked as More. Usually, Teams will first send you notifications from favorite channels/teams before the others.

Radius Executive IT Solutions boasts a staff with over 75 years of experience helping businesses in New England and Boston get the most out of their IT investments. Like any other major IT project, you need a reliable team to help you roll out and manage MS Teams.

Call us now at 978-528-0110 or send an email to info@radiusits.com, and let’s discuss how best we can leverage Teams for your business.