Microsoft Teams is a platform that is becoming increasingly more popular, especially as teams disperse to remote locations. It has helped many professionals reinvent the way we work and interact with others.
As working from home or remotely becomes the new normal, Microsoft Teams can be the optimal tool to increase productivity, improve relationships, and set future goals. Businesses can work with a professional IT company in Yukon to get Teams set up correctly for all their employees.
However, as the platform is in continuous development, it might be challenging to catch up with the many features and tools offered. Below you can find 5 lesser-known features that can make your professional life much easier in the future.
Get a Transcription or Recording of Your Meetings
Do you remember when you had to try to listen, note down information, and come up with revolutionary ideas to impress your boss all at the same time? In Teams, you can easily record the video and audio of your meetings to review later on. Alternatively, if you focus better on written words, you can generate a searchable transcript of what has been said right after the meeting.
How to Do It
As a user, you can:
- Record the meeting by selecting “More Options (the three dots) > Start Recording” in the meeting controls. It will save and load automatically when your meeting is done.
- Click the three dots on the video of your meeting and choose to go to Microsoft Stream.
- Select the three dots under your video in Stream and select “Update Video Details.”
- If there is no language selected under the “Details” column, select your desired language.
- Under the “Options” tab, make sure “Autogenerate a caption file” is selected, then click “Apply.” It will then take you to your video, although it may still take a few minutes for the captions to load.
- When your captions have loaded, they are fully searchable from the “Transcript” search bar on the right of the screen. If you type in a word, the video will jump to the next mention of that word, along with the written transcription below the search bar.
This very useful feature may be less well known because of the trail of “see more” dots you have to follow instead of having clearly marked tabs for each step of its process.
Use Slash Commands
With the increasing number of features Microsoft team releases, it can be challenging to quickly find and navigate to the content and tools you need when you need them. However, you can use the in-search bar and slash commands to shave that extra searching time off your routine.
How to Do It
- Press Ctrl+E (or use the cursor to find the Search box)
- Type the “/” key
- Press enter
- Pick the functions you need
Once you have typed “/” in the search bar, a drop-down box with all commands available will appear. From here, you can select a command to change your status, chat with somebody, start a phone call, or complete a variety of other tasks.
Once you’re familiar with the words and abbreviations used, you can type the whole command to immediately complete the action; for example, “/call” will immediately begin a call, and “/away” will set your status to “away” with no other steps required.
Get Valuable Feedback Through Polls
Polls can be a simple but valuable method of getting useful feedback. Especially if your team works remotely, it can be challenging to get in touch with every one of them to ask about their opinions. When it comes down to making a decision, this process can significantly slow down the beginning of operations.
Microsoft Teams’ Quick Poll allows you to send your team members a one-question poll effortlessly and immediately.
How to Do It
- Click the three dots under a new chat message in the channel where you want to include a poll, then select “Forms.”
- Add your question and answer options, then click “Next.”
- When your question is ready, click “Send.” Participants will be able to answer, and you’ll be able to view their responses in Forms.
Did you know about these Microsoft Teams features? Hopefully they can help you feel at home navigating your virtual office!