Recent disruptions to your regular work routine have probably seen you getting to grips with team collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams.
And now that you’ve grasped the basics of MS Teams, it’s time to understand what more it can do beyond chat and video-conferencing. From smooth communications to enhanced productivity – Teams has more than one trick up its sleeve to simplify your work life.
In this article, we’ll take you through some of the more advanced Microsoft Teams productivity hacks so you can learn to use it like a pro!
The Secrets to Team Productivity
Tabs
Tabs are web pages embedded in Microsoft Teams. They can be used to add third-party apps and services to your Team account, giving you access to information without leaving the app.
There are two types of tabs: Static and Configurable. The former is for individual users while the latter is used for the whole team channel. All tabs are visible at the top of the screen, making them easily accessible.
You start off with some tabs already set up. For example, files uploaded in the chat appear in the Files tab, while notes taken by team members live in the Notes tab. Using custom tabs in Microsoft Teams can take your workflow efficiency even further.
How to add tabs
- Select the ‘+’ sign on the tabs bar like you would on your browser.
- Choose the type of tab you want. For example, let’s create a tab for a website we want to access.
- Give the tab a name and insert the URL.
- Press ‘Save’
If there’s a developer in your team and you have an app to share, you can also add custom tabs in Teams for the whole channel.
Bookmarks
To avoid losing yourself in the continuous stream of content in a Teams channel, bookmarking messages in Teams is a handy trick.
When you see a piece of content you might need later, click the three dots next to the emojis and select “Save this message”.
Saved messages are stored in your Saved Messages, accessible via your profile icon in the top right corner.
Mentions
You’re already using mentions, right?
When posting to a channel, you can alert the team or specific members of that team and draw their attention to the post. This will notify them with an alert and likely elicit a quicker response if one is needed.
What if you haven’t saved a specific message that was directed to you?
You can find it by using @mentions.
Clicking on the activity tab will take you straight to a list of mentions, replies and notifications.
Another way to improve searchability is by naming your chats so you can find them easily later.
Personalisation
This is the era of personalisation, and Microsoft Teams allows you to personalise your workspace.
First of all, it provides a personal app space, which you can find on the left side of your screen.
Here you can access your personalised environment and all the tasks assigned to you from multiple apps like Trello.
Here, you’ll also find your company Wiki, where you can use your Personal wiki to take notes or see all the wikis you’re currently involved with.
To add to that personalisation, you also have the option to Show and Hide channels. You can, for example, choose to hide the ones that aren’t relevant to you at that moment and keep the ones that require more immediate attention.
If you really want your MS Teams to look and feel like your personal workspace, why not change the theme by heading over to General Settings?
Keyboard Shortcuts and Slash Commands
You certainly don’t want to waste time doing tedious things like setting your status or scrolling through a chat to find out if you’ve missed anything important.
Luckily, you can take care of these by using slash commands.
To veteran internet users, these might sound very familiar. Back in the 90s, Internet Relay Chats used chat commands for the same reason you want to use them in Teams – to save precious time.
To use a slash command, simply start typing in the “Search or type a command” box.
We’ve put some of the most useful commands in bold below for you to try out.
/activity – View someone’s activity
/available – Changes your Teams status to “Available”
/away – Changes your Teams status to “Away”
/busy – Changes your Teams status to “Busy”
/call – Initiate a call
/dnd – Changes your Teams status to “Do Not Disturb”
/files – See your recent files
/goto – Go to a certain team or channel
/help – Get help (with Teams)
/join – Join a team
/keys – View keyboard shortcuts
/mentions – See all mentions
/org – View an org chart
/saved – View your saved list
/unread – See all unread activity
/whatsnew – Check what’s new in Teams
/who – Ask Who (search people by name or topic)
Email Forwarding
One of the most useful Teams productivity hacks is the Teams and email integration with Outlook.
You can:
▪️Reply to messages in Teams from Outlook
▪️Turn an email into a Teams conversation using “Share to Microsoft Teams”
▪️Forward an email to a Teams channel using the channel’s email address
Note: Your IT admin must enable this feature. Attachments appear directly in the Files tab of the channel.
- See your email attachments upload directly into the Channel’s Files Tab.
The Joys of App and Bot Integration
Now it’s time to enable even greater efficiency for your team by discovering the joys of integration.
MS Teams lets you integrate a plethora of applications and bots to help you during your everyday work life.
Out of over 200 productivity app integrations, we’ve chosen to highlight a few:
Sharepoint
We could call this MS Team’s soulmate – Microsoft Sharepoint.
You can add SharePoint pages, lists, and document libraries to Teams channels through the website tab as explained in the previous section.
Zoom or Webex
This video chat tool is now in everyone’s living room. Its simple interface makes it excellent for any kind of video call, from work to recreational.
When you add Zoom to your apps, the Zoom bot will send you a helpful message outlining which commands you can use. For example, you can use ‘start’ to start an instant meeting.
Webex gives you the same option, which means you can add your Webex meetings to Teams using the simple integration.
Much like Zoom, you can send links from Webex into Teams and schedule meetings on Microsoft Office 365 calendars.
Lucidchart
Working visually helps you wrap your head around complex workflows and concepts. The Lucidchart integration allows users to see, edit, or comment on a document straight from Teams!
See, edit, or comment on documents visually from Teams. Features include:
▪️Commenting, notes, and @mentions
▪️Real-time collaboration from any location
▪️Drag-and-drop visual editing
▪️Interactive diagrams
▪️Presentation mode for slideshows
Polly, AgilePolly and Qubie
To understand how your workspace is running, it’s imperative to know how your employees are working and feeling.
Polly is a simple polling app that will help you communicate and receive feedback from your team. PollyAgile can be integrated into your current agile methods by automating standups and check-ins, tracking status updates and identifying main blockers.
Once you install them, you’ll receive an instructional video on how to set up standups in your chosen channels.
Another one for employee engagement is Qubie. This integration helps you by asking easy sentiment questions such as “How was your week?”
Then, it uses the collected information to deliver reports based on employee feedback, along with easy sentiment analysis.
Like Polly, it identifies roadblocks in performance and insights into collaboration.
Microsoft Connectors
Connectors are used to stream updates and important information straight into Teams from popular apps such as Twitter, Wunderlist, Github and even Google Analytics. There’s a pool of connectors in the Apps section that you can scroll through.
New and Exciting Features
We’ve covered just a few of the more advanced Microsoft Teams productivity hacks. Here’s a sneak peak at some others you may find useful for your company:
▪️Incoming IP Video Policy – Control video bandwidth for outgoing/incoming calls
▪️Task Pane – Centralised view of tasks from Planner and other apps
▪️Pop-out chats – Multiple chats side-by-side
▪️Linux support – Install Teams natively instead of using the web version
The Teams you know is just the tip of the iceberg. These features make teamwork smoother and transition to a modern workplace effortless.
The MS Teams you know is just the tip of the iceberg. Underneath, there’s a myriad of features that will make your team’s life easier and ensure a smooth transition to a modern workplace.
If you want a more tailored walkthrough, get in touch at info@itbuilder.co.uk and we’d be happy to have a chat.
Otherwise, feel free to download our accompanying in-depth guide for small businesses here.
Simon Lunness
Simon is an IT veteran having worked over two decades in both technical and commercial capacities in the industry. He consults with our our key accounts on their business challenges and keeps them on the forefront of technology to gain a competitive advantage.
Simon has the knack of translating human problems into technological solutions using jargon-free communication that people can really relate to. He loves nothing more than getting into a room with a bunch of people and taking the meeting notes back to our technicians to build clever solutions that add value to businesses.
Lunny, as he known to all, grew up in Enfield and moved up the A10 to Hertford to settle down with his family.
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