Teams step by step

1. MS Teams startpage
2. MS Teams Communicate
3. MS Teams Collaborate
4. MS Teams Breakout Rooms
5. MS Teams Live Events
6. MS Teams FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
7. MS Teams Manuals

Explanation/positioning

What do you not need your own Teams for?

• For chat conversations, even with superiors, this is possible in a chat group, which you can best give your own name. You can also pin this chat group to your favourites to give them a more permanent character.
• For meetings, as an organizer, you naturally need the Teams plugin for Outlook. The other participants can simply use the received link. A Team means no added value here.
• To share files: ad hoc files can also be shared in chat (groups) or OneDrive. On a broader scale, it is often better to use SharePoint sites or shares for file sharing. You can use this self-service to request SharePoint sites: https://sharepoint.ugent.be/sites/selfservice.
• For giving lessons: the recent tool 'Bongo Virtual Classroom' can offer a better solution, of course, in addition to the well-known platforms (Ufora, streaming, lesson recordings, etc.).

What is the use of having your own Team?

• For conversations and files in separate persistent channels for a defined group of users, typically at the level of a department, research group, team or for a specific project. In those conversations you can tag colleagues, the Channel or the Team to attract attention.

Will the Teams we create now remain?

• No. Exceptionally, we have now opened the temporarily creation of Teams, but: they are therefore temporarily for the duration of this crisis. Afterwards, we will remove everything or conform to policies that have yet to be drawn up.
• Also be extremely reluctant to add some 'Apps' in those temporarily Teams. We cannot provide support for those added apps today and can certainly not guarantee that they will be preserved after this crisis.

Can anyone create teams?

• No. Only UGent employees can create Teams. Students can be part of a team, but cannot create them themselves.
• To prevent wild spreading, first validate with your manager and colleagues to start using Teams (or other tools).

Can we use centrally defined groups (eg our department)?

• Yes: see (with more details - example of such a group, no automatic addition or removal of users, manual re-addition needed when changing central group, persons must be manually removed from Teams, ...)

Some tips to get started

• Ensure smooth management by appointing more than 1 team owner. In order not to depend on one person, it is best to appoint 2 to 3 people who can act as administrator (owner) of your team.
• Set up a large part of your team before adding members.
  • Create channels to focus/organize discussions
  • Add some Tabs to your channel to keep important information close at hand.
• Invite your team members. Only owners can add members. Team members automatically receive an email invitation. Depending on the size of the team, you can also start with a small group of members and then add the rest.
• External parties can also be invited as "guests".
• Use "Reply" below a message itself if you want to reply (instead of starting a new message).
• Files in a message are automatically collected under the "Files" tab.
• Co-authoring and versioning for Office documents are available by default.

The structure of a Team

• Each team contains channels. Each channel is built around a topic, such as 'team activities', a department name, or just for fun. Meetings and conversations take place in channels and there is collaboration on files. Click on a channel to view the files and conversations on that topic.
• Each channel contains tabs. By default, the "Posts" and "Files" tabs are present.
• Team members can post messages, web links, images, and attachments in channels. You can respond to any message, like it, or save it in a kind of reading list.
• Attachments and images are stored directly in a linked SharePoint document library and are also visible under the Files tab.

Read more?

• More about teams and channels
• Video training for Microsoft Teams Collaborate in teams and channels

Create a team

Creating a new Team can be done via the "Create Team" button in Teams or via Microsoft 365 Self Service. The creation process is semi-automatic. As soon as your Team is created, you as applicant/owner will receive an email and a notification in Teams.

Standard and private teams

All our teams are Private teams by default.

Members and guests

Members are persons with a UGent account.

Sometimes you want to work with people who are not part of your organization. Often you do that by email, but if you want to collaborate with them in Teams, you can add them as guest. Guests have fewer options than team members or team owners, but there is still much they can do.

A guest is someone who is not an employee, student, or member of your organization. They do not have a school or work account at UGent. For example, guests can be partners, suppliers or consultants. Anyone who is not part of your organization can be added as a guest in Teams. This means that anyone with an email account as a guest can participate in Teams.

• Add external members

Add external members to a team

IMPORTANT: For scheduling meetings via the Outlook agenda, it is NOT necessary to add external parties to a team.

External parties are persons who do not have a school or work account at UGent. We add them as a "guest" to our team. Guest access allows teams in your organization to collaborate with people outside your organization by giving them access to existing teams and channels in Teams.

• Only Team administrators (owners) can invite external users (guests)
• Guests are invited by adding them to a Team using their email address.

Add guest step by step:

1. Click (next to the name of the Team) on the three dots (...)
2. Click on "Add member"
3. Enter the guest's email address.
4. Click on "Add"

The external user (guest) must then accept the invitation. This goes as follows:

• As an external user (guest) you have received an email from noreply@email.teams.microsoft.com with the subject "U bent toegevoegd als gast aan UGent in MS Teams"/"You have been added as a guest to UGent in Microsoft Teams"
• open this email and click the "Open Microsoft Teams" link.
• follow all steps. (A Microsoft account is required to access Teams. If a Microsoft account is not already associated with your email address, these instructions will help.)

Read more?

• Add guests to a team in Teams

Channels

• Each channel is built around a topic, such as 'team activities', a department name, or just for fun.
• Meetings and conversations take place in channels and there is collaboration on files.
• Teams can have standard or private channels. Standard channels are available for all team members in teams. Most channels are Standard channels. If you need a smaller, specific audience for a particular topic, you can use a private channel.
• By default, only owners of a team can create channels.
• Tip: add a channel whenever possible instead of creating a new Team.

Create a channel

1. Go to the team you want to create the channel for
2. Next to the team name, click on the three dots (...) and then on Add channel
3. Enter a name and description for your channel.
4. Select Add. This will add the channel to the team.

Read more?

• Create a channel in Teams
• Teams can have standard or private channels

Hide channels

View a team or channel. When you join a new team, it will automatically appear in your list of teams. If you know you are a member of a team but don't see it, scroll to the bottom of your list of teams and select hidden teams, find the one you want. Click on the three dots (...) and then on View. Hide a team or channel If you don't want a team or channel to show up in your list of teams, you can hide it. Go to the name of a team or channel, click on the three dots (...) and then on Hide. This is an excellent way to clean up the list and focus on the teams and channels you are active on. You can also show channels in the hidden channels menu below a team's channel list. Click on the three dots (...) and then on View Note: To help you get started quickly, teams automatically display the five most popular channels for each new team you join.

Read more?

Show, hide, or pin a team or channel in teams

Channel notification settings

= receive notifications about channel activity.

Tabs

There are two fixed tabs per channel: Posts and Files. You can find how to use it below Use the Posts tab en Use the Files tab

Add a tab in a channel

• Tabs allow you to add per channel your favorite utilities (apps) and files. By default, the "Posts" and "Files" tabs are present.
• You can create tabs and insert them directly. For example, make an Excel sheet or a PowerPoint presentation directly accessible. Or give your team direct access to a frequently used website. Or, for example, add Planner to track team tasks.
• The more tabs you add to a channel, the more likely users are to be unable to find what they are looking for. If you add so many tabs that they no longer fit on your screen (which is different for every user), then it's time to think about other options.

How?

1. Select the plus sign next to the tabs.
2. Choose the tile for the type of tab you want.

Read more?

• Add and use a planner tab in teams
• Add and use a wiki tab in teams
• Add and use a Stream tab in Teams
• Add an app to Microsoft teams

Use the Posts tab

• Post a message.
• Reply to a message.
  Type your message in the box and press Enter or select the paper plane icon to send it.

@ mentions

An @mention is similar to a tap on the shoulder, a way to get someone's attention in a chat conversation.

• Type @ in the box where you type the message and type the first few letters of the person's name. You can also @ entire teams and channels.
• Select the person / team / channel. Repeat this for anyone you want to mention via an @mention.

Any person you mention this way will be notified in the activity feed.
Check if you see a red circle next to your Activity to see if someone has @mentioned you.

Read more?

• Send an emoji, GIF, or sticker in teams

Use the Files tab

Each channel has its own folder where you can share files for that specific channel. To open this folder, go to the channel and select the files tab above the conversation window.

• Everyone on your team has access to Files on your team
• If you share a file in Microsoft Teams, in a channel, it will be stored on SharePoint Online.
• Even though members leave the team, the files remain there
• You can also easily navigate to your own files from Teams: Click on Files in the app bar (app bar), the vertical toolbar on the far left of the screen.

Activity feed

• Your Activity Feed is where your day starts. Click on "Activity" on the app bar (app bar); this is the vertical toolbar on the far left of the screen.
• Select the Filter button (= the funnel icon) in the top right corner of the feed to display specific types of posts, such as unread posts, @mentions, replies and likes..
• To personalize your Microsoft Teams notifications, click your profile picture at the top right of the Teams user interface to access the account settings. From here you can access "Settings" and then you can click "Notifications". Tip: You can also set "Quiet Hours" on your mobile device to suppress notifications.

Read more?

• Explore the activity feed in Teams

Collaborate/Collaboration

Word document: editing competitor, locking at paragraph level

Changes to the document are visible live in viewer

Teams online meetings

Read more?

• Manage meetings Video training for Microsoft Teams

Apps in Teams

Add apps to channels

Manage channels

Permissions

Channel supervision on/off + who can post messages.

• Click (top right) on the three dots (...) and then on "Manage Channel"> Channel Settings> Permissions

See an overview

• Click (next to the name of the Team) on the three dots (...) and then on "Manage Team"> Channels / Channels

At the top you will see the search box (left) and the button "Add channels" (right). Below the (collapsible) list of all active and deleted channels. This list can be sorted by any field.

• Active (number) and Deleted (number)
• By channel: Name - View for me - View for members - Description - Type - Last activity
• Show for me (Show for me) versus Show for members
• Manage channel via the three dots (...) at the end of the line

Manage team

Click (next to the name of the Team) on the three dots (...) and then on "Manage Team".

• Members
• Pending Requests
  (approve requests to add members)
• Channels
• Settings
• Analysis
• Apps

Settings

Click (next to the name of the Team) on the three dots (...) and then on "Manage Team"> "Settings".

• To add a team image: click on "Team Image", under "Team Avatar" click on "Change Image": select (or upload) an image and click "Update".
  • In addition to customizing the Team avatar, you can also edit your team's Team Name and Description.
  • Attention: Do NOT change your team's Privacy. By default it is set to "Private - only team owners can add members". All our teams are Private teams.
• Create channel, add apps and allow more: Member Permissions

  The following options are checked by default:

  • Allow members to upload custom apps
  • Give members the option to delete their messages
  • Give members the option to edit their messages)
  We recommend that you do not allow members to create and delete channels. (So ​​do not check the options "Allow members to create and update channels" and "Allow members to delete and restore channels")
• Enable channel creation: Permissions for guests
  Giving guests permission to create and delete channels is only possible if this is also activated for members.
• Select who can use @team and @channel mentions: @mentions
  Here you set who can use @team and @channel entries; the most convenient is to allow both.
  • Allow members to use @team or @ [team name] (this will send a notification to everyone on the team)
  • Give members the option to list channels with @channel or @ [channel name]. Anyone for whom the listed channel appears in the channel list will receive a notification.
• Allow emoji, memes, GIFs, or stickers: Fun stuff