How to Use Microsoft Teams - Beginner's Guide

Summary

This video tutorial offers a comprehensive guide on utilizing Microsoft Teams, highlighting its availability across various platforms. It emphasizes real-time collaboration on Office apps like Word and Excel, as well as features for virtual meetings, chats, and file sharing. The video walks viewers through creating a Teams account, navigating the interface, setting up teams and channels, inviting members, and using video chat functionalities. It also touches on advanced options like meeting notes and private chats, providing a solid foundation for new users.

Takeaways

• 💻 Microsoft Teams is available on multiple platforms including Mac, PC, browser, web, iOS, and Android.
• 🌐 The web and desktop versions of Microsoft Teams are identical.
• 📱 A separate video will be made for using Microsoft Teams on mobile devices.
• 👥 Teams is designed for collaboration with coworkers, virtual meetings, and classroom settings.
• 🔗 Teams integrates with other Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint for real-time collaboration.
• 🆓 To get started with Microsoft Teams, sign up for a free account on office.com.
• 🔑 Microsoft Teams is part of the Office 365 Business Edition, not the personal edition.
• 🔍 The Activities tab shows notifications, replies, and mentions.
• 📝 The chat feature is useful for private conversations and reducing emails.
• 👤 Teams can be created from scratch or from existing groups, and can be private or public.
• 📑 File sharing is integrated with OneDrive, allowing for cloud storage and collaboration.
• 📹 The video chat feature includes options for turning the camera on/off, muting the microphone, and sharing the screen.

Q & A

What platforms is Microsoft Teams available on?

Microsoft Teams is available for Mac, PC, browsers, the web, and for iOS and Android devices.

Is there a difference between the web and desktop versions of Microsoft Teams?

The web and desktop versions of Microsoft Teams are identical.

What unique feature does Microsoft Teams offer due to Microsoft's other apps?

Microsoft Teams allows real-time collaboration on apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint with other team members.

How can you reduce emails with Microsoft Teams?

You can use Microsoft Teams' powerful chat platform to chat and reduce the need for emails.

What is the difference between the personal and business editions of Office 365 regarding Microsoft Teams?

Microsoft Teams is included in the business edition of Office 365, but not in the personal edition.

How can someone get started with Microsoft Teams for free?

You can sign up for a free Microsoft Teams account through office.com, following the signup process for a freemium model.

How do you create a new team in Microsoft Teams?

You can create a new team by pressing 'create a team' and choosing to build from scratch or from existing teams or groups.

What types of teams can you create in Microsoft Teams?

You can create private teams, public teams, or organization-wide teams in Microsoft Teams.

How do you invite people to join a team in Microsoft Teams?

You can invite people to join a team by sending them an invitation link or by adding their email addresses and names directly in the app.

What is a channel in Microsoft Teams and how do you create one?

A channel in Microsoft Teams is a dedicated space to organize conversations around specific topics. You create one by pressing 'create channel', naming it, and setting its privacy.

How can you collaborate on documents in real-time using Microsoft Teams?

You can upload a document to the files tab in a channel, and team members can view and edit the document in real-time.

What options are available during a video chat in Microsoft Teams?

During a video chat, you can turn your camera on/off, mute/unmute your microphone, share your screen, use a whiteboard, and have side conversations.

Outlines

00:00

💻 Introduction to Microsoft Teams

The video begins with an introduction to Microsoft Teams, highlighting its availability across various platforms including Mac, PC, browser, iOS, and Android. The presenter focuses on the web and desktop versions for Mac or PC, with a separate video planned for mobile usage. Microsoft Teams is positioned as a tool for collaboration, particularly with its integration with other Microsoft apps like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, allowing real-time collaboration. The unique selling point is the ability to work together on documents within Teams. The presenter guides viewers on creating a Microsoft Teams account, emphasizing that it's part of the Office 365 Business Edition, not the personal edition. The process involves signing up for free via office.com, selecting the purpose of use, and creating or signing into a Microsoft account. The video then demonstrates how to access the web app and navigate the home page, explaining the different features like activities, chat, calls, and file sharing.

05:00

👥 Creating and Managing Teams

This section of the video script explains how to create and manage teams within Microsoft Teams. The presenter demonstrates creating teams from scratch or from existing groups, with options to make teams private or public. The process involves selecting team members, choosing between member or owner roles, and creating channels for specific discussions. Channels can be private or public, and the presenter shows how to add and manage files, start chats, and use the wiki feature for note-taking. The script also covers adding various collaborative elements like Excel, PDF, and Word documents to channels. The presenter further explains how to initiate video chats, manage audio and video settings, and share screens or other assets during meetings.

10:01

📝 Advanced Features and Conclusion

The final part of the script covers advanced features of Microsoft Teams, such as taking meeting notes, managing private chats, and uploading files for real-time collaboration. The presenter shows how to access device settings to troubleshoot audio and video issues, use the whiteboard feature, and manage meeting participants. The script also details how to conduct private chats, mark messages as important, and make video calls within the platform. The presenter wraps up by uploading a file to demonstrate real-time collaboration and the ability to perform actions like renaming, deleting, or copying files. The video concludes with a brief overview of the key features covered and an invitation for viewers to explore alternative collaboration tools and subscribe for more content.

Keywords

💡Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a platform that provides chat-based collaboration, video meetings, file storage, and application integration. It is designed to facilitate communication and collaboration among team members. In the video, the speaker focuses on demonstrating how to use Teams on web and desktop versions, highlighting its availability across various devices and its integration with other Microsoft applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

💡Collaboration

Collaboration refers to the process of working together to achieve a common goal. In the context of the video, collaboration is a core theme as Microsoft Teams is used to enable team members to work together on projects, presentations, and more. The script mentions how Teams allows real-time collaboration on documents, which enhances productivity.

💡Virtual Meetings

Virtual meetings are online gatherings where participants can communicate and interact using video and audio technology. The video script explains how Microsoft Teams can be used for virtual meetings, which is particularly useful for classrooms, businesses, and other organizations that require remote communication.

💡Office 365

Office 365 is a subscription-based service by Microsoft that provides access to a collection of software and services. The script clarifies that while Office 365 Personal Edition does not include Microsoft Teams, the Business Edition does. This is important for viewers to understand which subscription they need for access to Teams.

💡Real-time

Real-time refers to the immediate transmission of data or interaction without significant delays. In the video, real-time collaboration is a key feature of Microsoft Teams, allowing multiple users to work on the same document simultaneously, as demonstrated when the speaker shows how to collaborate on Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files.

💡Chat Platform

A chat platform is a service that enables text-based communication between users. The video script describes Microsoft Teams' chat platform, which can be used to reduce emails and facilitate quick communication. It is highlighted as a powerful feature for both private and team chats.

💡Video Chat

Video chat is a method of communication that allows users to see and hear each other in real-time. The script includes a demonstration of how to use video chat in Microsoft Teams, showcasing features like muting the microphone, turning the camera on or off, and sharing screens or presentations.

💡Teams

In Microsoft Teams, 'Teams' refers to groups created within the platform for specific projects or departments. The video script explains how to create and join teams, which is essential for organizing work and communication within the platform.

💡Channels

Channels are dedicated sections within a team for focused discussions on specific topics. The video script describes how to create channels, such as 'video discussions', and how they can be made private or public, which is crucial for organizing team communication and workflow.

💡File Sharing

File sharing is the act of distributing or allowing access to files over a network. In the video, file sharing is shown as a key feature of Microsoft Teams, allowing users to upload, share, and collaborate on files within the platform, which is integral to the team's workflow.

💡Integration

Integration refers to the process of combining software applications or systems to work as a unified whole. The video script mentions that Microsoft Teams is integrated with other Microsoft apps, which allows for a seamless workflow and is a significant advantage for users already within the Microsoft ecosystem.

Highlights

Microsoft Teams is available for Mac, PC, browser, web, iOS, and Android.

The video focuses on the web and desktop versions of Microsoft Teams.

A separate video will cover the mobile device usage of Microsoft Teams.

Microsoft Teams is designed for collaboration and virtual meetings.

Teams can integrate with Microsoft Office apps for real-time collaboration.

Microsoft Teams offers a powerful chat platform to reduce emails.

Instructions on creating a free Microsoft Teams account are provided.

Microsoft Teams is part of Office 365 Business Edition, not the personal edition.

The web app version of Microsoft Teams is introduced.

The home page and navigation options within Microsoft Teams are explained.

How to create or join a team on Microsoft Teams is demonstrated.

Teams can be public, private, or organization-wide.

Invitations to join a team can be sent via email or contact list.

The process of adding people to a team is shown.

Channels within a team can be created for specific discussions.

Files can be shared and collaborated on in real-time within a channel.

The video chat feature of Microsoft Teams is explored.

Options for sharing screen and using a whiteboard during video meetings are highlighted.

Meeting notes can be taken and accessed by all participants.

Private chat and video chat options are available within Microsoft Teams.

Files can be uploaded for collaboration with team members.

An overview of Microsoft Teams concludes with a prompt to subscribe for more videos.

Transcripts

everyone in today's video I want to show

you how to use Microsoft teams

and Microsoft teams is available for Mac

for PC on the browser on the web and for

iOS and Android all those devices right

now for this video I'm gonna focus on

the web and the desktop version they're

identical I'm gonna show you how to use

it on Mac or PC I'll make a separate

video on how to use it on the mobile

device and I'll put a link to that in

the description below this video now

Microsoft team is intended for

collaborating with coworkers or doing

virtual meetings for classrooms and

things like a classroom where you can

basically get a group of people in one

place and work on the same project or do

presentations in the form of a video

chat for example Microsoft teams is a

little bit unique compared to the other

apps out there because microsoft owns

other apps like Microsoft Word Excel

PowerPoint so you could collaborate on

those with other team members in real

time so that makes it really powerful

you could also use it to video chat I'm

gonna show you that as well he also has

a powerful chat platform where you could

go ahead and chat and reduce your emails

so first let's go ahead and make a

Microsoft team's account not anybody

could join a Microsoft team's account

and anybody could create one what was a

little confusing to me is even if you

have office 365 the personal Edition the

Business Edition is what Microsoft teams

is on it is not on the personal edition

so I'm gonna show you exactly where to

get it where to install it how to get

started for free to get a Microsoft

team's that count just click the link

below this video to come to products

office.com and you basically could get

Microsoft teams on this page if you come

all the way to the bottom of this page

actually there's an option to sign up

for free and it will be just a freemium

model where you get something for free

and then you have to upgrade to get the

full access again this is part of office

365 business go through the signup

process here if you're using it for work

for school for family or friends make

your selections and you do need a

regular Microsoft account so if you have

Skype or if you have any microsoft

product you already have this if you

don't you can just go ahead and press

create an account and type in your first

your last name your company your country

and this sign up for Microsoft teams and

if you see this page you could just go

ahead and start with the web app instead

I'll show you how to get the desktop Mac

or PC version but the web app is pretty

identical and you get started with it

right here and you're finally on the

home page of the Microsoft team's

application and now that we're inside of

Microsoft team's platform here let me

just show you here on the left side what

you have you have your activities tab

which is gonna show you every time you

get a reply or you get a notification or

someone mentions you in the chat option

you'll see that here so this is a good

place to always come and check your feed

here then you have your chat option here

where you could do private calls and

chats very useful for having private

conversations and then inside of the

team's I'm gonna come back to in a

second but mostly everything that we're

gonna look at is gonna take place in

here you have your calls option again

where you could initiate calls here just

by pressing make a call here very simple

and then you have your file sharing

option inside of Microsoft team and he

has access to onedrive that's the

Microsoft cloud storage capability you

could also come way down here also and

press and download the app and if you do

that it's gonna download the Microsoft

team's app now it looks identical to

what's happening on the web version here

but let me go ahead and just press this

it will do it for Mac or PC depending on

what platform you're on so I'll go ahead

and press that here and I'll just

install it just to show you what it

looks like so now let me just search for

teams here now that installed it on my

Mac and then it's gonna require the

sign-in again the same email and

password that you use for the web

version and it's gonna pull up all the

teams you have if you press continue on

this page it's gonna take you to the app

now as you can see it's identical to

what we're just looking at on the web

version so if I go to the web version

here and I go to the desktop version it

looks exactly the same so I'm gonna

minimize the desktop version I just

wanted to show you that everything I'm

gonna show you here on the website is

the same on the app okay so the first

thing we want to do is we either want to

create or join a team so press create a

team here and since I'm the owner of

this

I'm gonna be able to create other teams

as well so I could build a team from

scratch or creating from existing teams

or groups that I already have so if I

wanted to make a second team here I

could make a private one a public one or

an organization-wide one so in this case

let's just do a private one where people

need permission to join and I'm gonna

call this finance and I'll press create

and then it's gonna tell me to add

people to the team I'm gonna skip that

for now but now as you can see I have

two different teams I have to have

Finity team up here and I have the

finance team next to it so I could

create more teams here and have a bunch

of teams laid out on their teams this is

great if you're running a classroom for

example I have multiple classrooms you

could do multiple teams and assign

students there or if you're running a

company for marketing for Finance for PR

you could have different departments

there under different teams so now we

want to invite people to join us so we

could go down here and invite people to

this entire organization and then we

could assign them to different teams so

I usually send people this link here to

be invited to the full organization or

the classroom or the school and then you

could invite people here from your

contact list or from email so this is

one of the easiest ways if you just go

ahead and press the email option you

will already bring up this page where

you could just add a bunch of different

emails and people's name and send them

once they get this email they just

basically click one link and then it

will require them to make a Microsoft

account they most likely already have

the Microsoft account this is just a

regular Microsoft account and then

they'll be able to join this team once

they are invited so I just did this and

I invited another person here I could

jump into one of my teams over here so

I'll go to the finance team for example

and I'll press add more people and then

I could pick the person that I just

invited to the whole organization they

pressed okay they signed up and now I

could just go ahead and press add and I

can make sure if I want them to be a

member or the owner of this team so I

could always change that over here and

I'm done so now you could see that that

demo account that I have is been added

to this team now I could create channel

so let me explain this if I press create

channel I'll name the channel I'll call

this video discussions you could have a

description

here privacy is very important if you

need to make this private a standard

that's accessible to everyone in this

team that's fine and I'll check this on

here and I'll press add now you could

see this channel has been created

there's a general channel that always

gets made by default and then there's a

different one that I just created and I

could come over here and start my chat

and then everybody in this group could

see what I typed out I could use the add

mention sign so I could put the add

mention sign and mention Dan here select

his name and then send him a message and

then he will get it this way and he will

get a notification that he got a message

I have that account set up on this other

computer so that's the ding you heard

and they got a little notification that

they were tagged also on top of this

page you have a files option where you

could look at the different files that

you're sharing here so you could drag a

file here and have a discussion here and

then you have the wiki where you could

have conversations and take notes here

and everybody could come on this wiki to

see what this discussion was all about

very useful on top of this page here

could always press the plus sign as well

to add more elements here for your team

to collaborate on like Excel or PDF or

Word all these different things are

available to add so if I was to add word

for example here I could have a

discussion about that let me come back

to the post here and let me show you

some of these other options underneath

so you could have some formatting option

for formatting your text you could

attach files here from your computer or

from onedrive you could also go ahead

and send emojis and gifts and stickers

and we have the meat now option now

that's what I'm gonna focus on right now

let me go ahead and press that and it's

gonna get access to my camera and it's

gonna get access to my microphone and as

you can see here you could go ahead and

put your title up here and nobody could

see what I'm doing just yet I have to go

ahead and press meat now so I could turn

off my camera if I wanted to and if I'm

ready I could leave it on and I'll press

meat now and let me show you all your

options inside of the video chat

application here so you could again turn

off your camera you could turn that on

and off you could turn off or mute your

microphone that's this option here

you could go ahead and press share here

and share any number of things like your

screen if you press this is going to

share your screen here you could also

share different assets like powerpoints

you could do a whiteboard here if I

press whiteboard it's gonna load a

whiteboard where I could draw different

things on here very useful option so as

you could see I could just draw there's

different options with colors and

there's a racer option so you could go

ahead and explore this option on your

own when you're done with this page you

could stop presenting and it'll bring

you back to the video page you have a

show conversations tab here where you

could have conversations on the side

with all these different options again

like gifts and attachments so you could

have just a standalone conversation over

here and then everybody in this meeting

could see that because your participants

here so everybody that's a participant

is over here dan hasn't joined but I'm

the organizer and when this other person

joins they will be seen here and I could

go ahead and invite other people over

here as well or I could go ahead and

press copy join information and I could

go ahead and paste this to other people

so let me go back to notes here and I'll

press paste and press that so basically

anybody now that clicks this if I email

this to someone for example they could

join this conversation now some other

options are these three dots if you

press them you could do show device

settings this is very useful I could see

what speaker I'm using one microphone my

camera so if I wanted to change my

microphone if I had a USB mic connected

for example for better sound quality I

could go ahead and press that or if I

had a different camera connected I could

go ahead and change that here and let me

press X here so if you have any issues

with your video or audio that's the

place to go ahead and fix that show

meeting notes this option is really

useful because you could go ahead and

press take notes or somebody in the

meeting could press take notes and you

could take notes from the meeting so

then everybody would capture what's

going on in this meeting the important

notes about this and you could go ahead

and add sections to it really really

useful let me go ahead and end this

meeting here and now as you can see over

here on the same channel basically on

the same

team I have meeting notes now because I

just took some meeting notes on the

previous one that will show up over here

very useful option let me show you this

private chat option as well right here

on the left side I'm on teams I could

come up here to chats and I could go

ahead and basically press this little

option over here to invite people and

have a private chat with them so I'll

invite someone against someone that is

part of this organization that I already

invited to this app and I'll go ahead

and type something and then they'll

receive it on there and over here and I

could basically mark the message to as

important or urgent here instead of the

default standard if I want to and you

have all those other options as well

like sending attachment sending praise

so I could go ahead and send this praise

for example to this demo accounts and

inside of this application inside of

this private chat I have the call and

video chat option too so if I press

video right here it's gonna let me have

a one-on-one conversation over here

inside of the video chat they're getting

the request I'm gonna turn on theirs

so I turned off the camera on the

microphone to this test account over

here a different computer than the

laptop I'm on but they basically are

able to see me here and hear me and

again I could go ahead and share my

screen share a PowerPoint if you don't

see the PowerPoint option you could go

ahead and press browse here and upload

it from a computer or from your onedrive

you could show participants here and

invite more people to this call so very

much like the other ones that we looked

at under the team tab I'll go ahead and

hang up and he ended the call on their

end as well so let me go back to teams

here and let me show you how to add a

file that you want to work on with

someone you could go to the files tab

here and then you could go ahead and

upload a file here from your computer

for example or you could drag a file

over here so I'll drag a word document

over here and now anybody here under

this video discussions tab is gonna be

able to go to files and they're gonna be

able to see this file and they could

click on the file and they could go

ahead and make changes to it in real

time so I could make changes to it and a

different account could make changes to

it and you're gonna be able to see that

here on we

time line you could do this with number

of different documents like Word

PowerPoint Excel just by adding it here

to that file page so I'll go back to

this team's tab again that's right here

on their files and it's over here I

could press the three dots over here and

do a number of things to it like

deleting it or renaming it or copying it

if I don't want to work on the original

here and that's a how-to overview of

using Microsoft teams again there's a

lot of different option a lot of

Advanced Options and teams but I wanted

to make it as brief as possible to show

you all the most important options that

I think most people will use all the

time and I have a lot of other videos

like alternatives to Microsoft teams on

this channel so make sure you subscribe

and you check out these videos to see

which one is a good fit for you and your

team thanks so much for watching and

I'll see you next time