Top 10 Microsoft Teams Tips

Many of you will now be using Microsoft Teams due to the need for companies to set up their remote working capabilities. Whilst there has been a huge increase in Teams usage recently, there are also plenty of organisations that have been using Teams in their day to day operations for years, risual being one of them! Whether you’re a newbie or a Teams veteran, below are our top 10 Teams tips which might make your life just a little bit easier

Translate messages

For global organisations, communication is crucial for the delivery of projects and completion of important tasks. This can be quite difficult if you don’t speak the same language as the person you are trying to contact. Luckily, Teams has a built-in translation tool that can solve this problem. Simply click the ellipsis on the message you wish to be translated and click ‘translate’. Voila!

Send GIFs

Whilst you are working from home, it is very easy to miss out on the daily banter and rabble that you experience when in the office. The GIF function in Teams helps to brighten up conversations and maintain some online banter by providing thousands of graphics and moving images that you can use to bring your messages to life. This will also help prevent messages been taken the wrong way due to the lack of facial expression and tone of voice!

Customise your background

This is an extremely useful feature to know of if you are working from home. When you are at home, especially in the current situation we are in, your home and office lives collide. Your office may not be as tidy as you’d like, your other half might be cleaning in their pyjamas, sometimes it’s hard to escape the hustle and bustle of a household. An amazing feature that Teams provide is the ability to blur and customise your background. This means that you can video call your colleagues without the worry of them judging that collection of mugs in the corner of the room!

I’m sure all of you will be familiar with that time Dr Robert Kelly was discussing South Korean politics during a live BBC interview, and his two young children invaded his office and were broadcast on live national television. He certainly could have done with a blurred background then!

Quick shortcuts

One great aspect of Teams is that it makes everything easy for you. The whole basis of Microsoft Teams is to make your daily tasks quicker and easier to complete by providing all the tools in one place. Teams shortcuts are a way to help you complete your tasks even quicker, here’s a few of them below:

  • Show keyboard shortcuts onscreen: [Ctrl] + . (period)
  • Start a new chat: [Ctrl] + N
  • Open Activity: [Ctrl] + 1
  • Open Chat: [Ctrl] + 2
  • Open Teams: [Ctrl] + 3
  • Open Meetings: [Ctrl] + 4
  • Open Calls: [Ctrl] + 5
  • Open Files: [Ctrl] + 6
  • Start audio call: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + C
  • Start video call: [Ctrl] + [Shift] + U

Title your chats

You probably have a lot of different chats within multiple different teams. To stay organised, label your chats so that you know exactly which one you need straight away.

Store and share files in SharePoint

Teams is heavily integrated with SharePoint which means that you can secure your files online and collaborate with colleagues on these files when you share them. Sharing files is extremely quick and easy, all you have to do is share the link to a document on Teams and you can decide if you want the recipient to be able to edit, or just view the file.

Use the mobile app

Remote working doesn’t just mean working from home but instead means working from anywhere. Thanks to the mobile app, you can take your chats and calls anywhere you go, so that you are always in touch with your organisations, whenever you need them.

Integrate Microsoft planner

Another great feature of Microsoft Teams is that it allows the use of other Microsoft apps, like Planner, inside Teams. Planner is a useful tool for small teams to track and designate tasks to people within your team. It also features an option to tick off these tasks as you complete them. A small feature that can go a long way in keeping your team organised.

Reorder teams chats with drag and drop

If you are in multiple team channels, the chances are that you use some of them very infrequently. If this is the case, you can reorder your channels by dragging and dropping them. This way you can have the most relevant channels at the top, making it easier and quicker to access them.

Integrate emails and teams

Almost every modern organisation relies heavily on emails. Teams recognises this and therefore makes it possible to forward a message from Outlook, directly into a Teams channel. To do this, simply click on the ellipsis located next to any channel name and select ‘’Get email address’’. This will help generate an email address for the channel which you can then copy and use to forward anything you might want to add to the channel including Word docs, messages, and more.

We hope these small tips and tricks help to make your days a little smoother. If you have any other questions regarding Teams, such as training, support, or trialling Microsoft Teams for free, don’t hesitate to get in touch!

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