Microsoft 365 and Teams have so many features that it would take someone that specializes in Teams to know and understand all of them. Let’s look into a few of the lesser-known features that exist to make your workday more efficient.
Working on your documents within Teams
It’s a well-advertised, yet seldomly used feature. Editing documents directly in Teams is quick, easy, and allows for in-the-moment collaboration. There are a few ways to access the files that you have sent. The first, and quickest way, is using the file tab on your navigation bar. The files you will see in here are your recently shared, opened and the files located in your One Drive.
The next way is finding the file within the conversation. Each chat has a Files tab on the top of the chat, which are files that are also stored in One Drive. Click on that, and you will find any files that were shared with that person directly.
Once you have located the file that you were looking for, just click on the ... beside the file. You will be given the option of opening it in Teams, in a browser, or the desktop application.
Immersive Reader
Immersive Reader may be something that you have heard about from other Microsoft 365 products, but did you know that it can be used in Teams as well? It can be used for accessibility, as a tool used to help learn a piece of information that has been delivered to you, or even just as an aid in helping understand something. When you have found the message that you would like to hear, click on the ... and select Immersive Reader. You can then just select the play button at the bottom of the pop-up, and hear the message sent.
Saving Messages
If you need a message saved for later, whether it be for an email, or an import tidbit of information that you want to keep to yourself to refer to later. Simply find the message that you would like to save, click on the ... and then save the message. It will save to a chat to your saved which is located in your profile menu.
Commands
While the search bar is widely used to find people or files, some users may be unaware of the quick actions functionality using commands. We have touched base on this in the past, but let's take another look. You can start by putting in / and then it will bring up a list of actions that you can perform. Let us look at a few of the options:
Now, it is quite the list, and you will not use most of these, but let us look at a few more of the more used functions:
- /available, /away, /brb, /busy - These are all setting your status.
- /testcall - If you got yourself some new equipment and want to make sure it is all working before your next big meeting, use this function. It will connect a call with Teams Echo, allow you to record a quick message that it will playback so you can sample the quality of your microphone. At the end of the call, it will identify what it has detected.
- /whatsnew -This will take you to the what's new section of your Help section. This will allow you to review what is new to Microsoft Teams. This is one that should be checked regularly to keep up with what is happening in Teams, and what other cool features Microsoft has rolled out.
I hope that we were able to get you a few features that you might want to use soon. There are also a few more less known functions that we have touched on in the past. Take a look at How to e-mail a channel in Microsoft Teams, and How to manage your noise in Microsoft Teams. If you have any other questions about SharePoint or Teams, reach out to us at Bloom Software and we will happily discuss how we can help.
