How to Use Microsoft Teams – 10 Steps to Get Started in Teams

This How to Use Microsoft Teams tutorial is suitable for users Teams in Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise Plans.  

OBJECTIVE

Explore the Top 10 steps that will help you get started with how to use Microsoft Teams. Including, chatting, posting, sharing, and collaborating in Microsoft Teams.

Take a look at the full, Microsoft Teams Course.

WHAT IS MICROSOFT TEAMS?

Microsoft Teams is a persistent, feature-rich, collaboration platform. To access Microsoft Teams, you need to have a business or enterprise account subscription for Microsoft 365.

Teams is designed to bring people, content, and conversations together. It’s naturally integrated with the familiar Office applications that people know and love so teams can easily collaborate.

Teams comes complete with team channels, document sharing, online audio and video meetings, chat, and the ability to connect to other apps and services.

Having a shared workspace makes it easy for a team to collaborate, especially if a particular team is based at a huge company, across global offices, or has many employees who work from home. It enables everyone to stay connected no matter where they are located.

VIDEO TUTORIAL

10 TIPS TO GET STARTED

Microsoft Teams is stacked full of so many amazing features; it would be impossible to include them all on one blog post. So, we’ve decided to pick ten steps to get up off and running in Teams.

1. GET YOUR TEAM UP AND RUNNING 

To get your team up and running, create a team, add people, and add channels.

CREATE A TEAM 

1. Select Teams > Join or create a team.

2. This is where you create your own team or join an existing team.

3. Select Create a new team, and then select From scratch or select From a group or team to build an all-new team or create from an existing group respectively.

4. Select Private if you’d like people to request permission to join, select Public if anyone can join, or select Org-wide to allow everyone in the organization to join automatically.

5. Give the team a name and add a short description.

6. Select Create.

Add members.

7. You can add people, groups, or even entire contact groups.

8. If you need to add people from outside your organization, use their email address to invite them as guests. Add a friendly display name for them too.

NOTE: To add guests to your team, ensure you’ve turned on ‘Enable Guest Access’ in Admin Settings > Teams > External Access.

9. When you’re done adding members, select Add and then Close.

CREATE A CHANNEL 

Once you’ve created a team, you’ll want to set up some channels. Channels bring groups of people together for work, projects of common interests. Teams are made up of two types of channels – standard (visible to everyone) and private (focused, private conversations with a specific audience).

Channels can be built around any topic. Working on a specific team task? Want a private space for just your department? Or maybe you want a fun channel to talk about the latest episode of Game of Thrones? No problem – create a channel!

1. Select More options… next to the team name.

2. Select Add channel.

3. Enter a name and description for your channel.

4. Select Automatically show this channel in everyone’s channel list if you want this channel to be automatically visible in everyone’s channel list.

5. Select Add.

CUSTOMIZE AND MANAGE YOUR TEAM 

1. Select  More options… next to the team name.

2. Select Manage team to find Members, Channels, Settings, and Apps for your team all in one place.

3. Select Settings > Team picture to add a team picture and give your team some personality.

2. COLLABORATE IN TEAMS AND CHANNELS 

The tabs at the top of each channel link to your favorite files, apps, and services.

ADD A TAB 

1. Select the plus sign next to the tabs.

2. For example, add Planner to create a Todo list to track team tasks.

PIN AND UNPIN A CHANNEL 

If you have many channels, it’s a good idea to pin the ones you work in most frequently, so they are easy to find.

1. To pin a channel, choose one to pin and then select More channels > Pin.

2. To unpin a channel, choose one to unpin and then select More channels > Unpin, and to see what else you can do.

3. CREATE AND FORMAT A POST 

Chat with others in a channel or privately. Add emojis, gifs, or stickers to inject interest and fun into conversations.

START A CONVERSATION IN A CHANNEL 

1. Click on a channel.

2. Use the conversation box at the bottom of the screen and type a message.

3. Format as required.

4. Click the Send button or press Enter.

FORMAT MESSAGES 

Highlight words, change the font style, the font color, apply bullets, insert tables, and adjust paragraph alignment in a message.

5. Click the Format button to expand the conversation box.

6. Use the formatting toolbar to apply formatting to the message.

ADD A REACTION 

7. Hover over a message to add a reaction.

PRIVATE CONVERSATIONS 

Have a private conversation with someone through the Chat tab.

8. Click on Chat.

9. Type the name of the person you want to start a conversation with.

10. Type a message.

11. Press Enter.

CREATE AN ANNOUNCEMENT 

Create an announcement, to highlight important information to your team.

12. To create an announcement, select a post type > Announcement.

13. Type a headline, and then add a color scheme or your own background image.

@MENTIONS 

Mention other people in conversations by typing the @ symbol followed by their name.

4. UPLOAD AND FIND FILES 

Collaborate on files by sharing them with your team. Files can be shared in team channels and private conversations.

SHARE A FILE IN A TEAM CHANNEL OR PRIVATE CHAT

1. Create a new message.

2. Click the Attach button.

3. Browse for a file in OneDrive or locally on your PC.

4. Click Send.

5. Repeat these steps in the Chat tab to privately share a file with someone else.

UPLOAD FILES FROM CLOUD STORAGE 

Connect to your cloud storage service in Teams to upload, share and collaborate on files with others.

6. Click the Files tab.

7. If required, Add Cloud storage and pick the relevant cloud service.

8. Click the Upload button to upload files and folders into Teams.

9. Click the New button to create a new Word document, Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint presentation, OneNote notebook or Excel form directly within Teams.

5. SEARCHING IN TEAMS 

Use the command bar to search for files, messages, people and more. Or type in / or @ to see a list of shortcuts for common tasks.

SEARCH FOR FILES, MESSAGES OR PEOPLE

1. Click in the command bar.

2. Type in your search criteria.

3. Select from the menu or press Enter to run the search.

USE / OR @ IN THE COMMAND BAR 

Type / in the command bar to see a list of shortcuts to common tasks and activities. By entering the slash into the command bar, you can see some of the most common commands available.

You can use the @ command to find a specific person using Microsoft Teams within your organization, or by typing @app_name you can share info with your team.

6. START AUDIO AND VIDEO CALLS 

Start audio and/or video calls/meetings with your Team or privately. Meetings can be on-the-fly using Meet Now or you can Schedule a Meeting.

MEET NOW

Adhoc audio or video meetings can be started at any time without the need for advanced planning.

6. In any team channel, click the Meet button and select Meet now.

7. Toggle the video option to turn video off and meet with audio only.

8. Click Meet Now to start the meeting.

Use in-meeting options to manage the call.

SCHEDULE A MEETING 

Meetings can be scheduled ahead of time in Teams.

9. In any team channel, click the Meet button and select Schedule a Meeting.

10. Complete the meeting details and invite participants.

11. Click Send.

7. CREATE LIVE EVENTS 

Microsoft Teams live events are an extension of Teams meetings that enable you to schedule and produce events that stream to large online audiences!

1. Click the Calendar tab.

2. Click the drop-down next to New meeting.

3. Select Live Event.

4. Complete the details of the live event and enable/disable required settings.

5. Click Get attendee link to copy the link and paste in an email or channel.

8. BACKGROUND EFFECTS 

Joining a meeting from home? Forgot to tidy up? No problem! Add a virtual background or blur your background to save your blushes. You can even use your own image as your background.

NOTE: Blur Background and Background Effects are only available in the desktop version of Teams.

1. Select  More options…

2. Select Background Effects.

3. Choose a background, use your own or select Blur Background.

9. SCREEN SHARE 

Share your desktop, a specific application, or whiteboard with meeting participants to get their input and feedback.

1. Select Share content.

2. Choose what you want to share.

3. To stop sharing, click Stop Presenting.

TAKE MEETING NOTES 

Take meeting notes during the meeting and share with participants during or after the meeting. Meetings notes will be saved in the Team channel.

1. Select  More options…

2. Select Meeting notes. 

3. Click Take notes.

4. A new tab labelled Meeting Notes will show in the tabs area.

5. Type your meeting notes.

Meeting notes will be shared in the Team Channel.

Now you are up and running, you might want to further your knowledge on how to use Microsoft Teams with some additional reading. Please check out the following links below:

Getting Started in Microsoft Teams – Recorded Webinar

Chorus – Microsoft Teams: A Beginners Guide to Teams in Office 365

Deborah Ashby

Deborah Ashby is a TAP Accredited IT Trainer, specializing in the design, delivery, and facilitation of Microsoft courses both online and in the classroom.She has over 11 years of IT Training Experience and 24 years in the IT Industry. To date, she's trained over 10,000 people in the UK and overseas at companies such as HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, Parliament, SKY, Microsoft, Kew Gardens, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.She's a qualified MOS Master for 2010, 2013, and 2016 editions of Microsoft Office and is COLF and TAP Accredited and a member of The British Learning Institute.