6 Tips and Tricks for Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is a Great Tool for Business
Over the past several years, Microsoft Teams has been adopted as the go-to conference platform for more and more businesses. After the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft Teams has seen a rapid growth rate. In fact, according to Business of Apps, the platform has grown from 44 million users in March 2020 to over 270 million users in 2022! With so many people worldwide using it daily for work, we thought we would provide some useful tips and tricks. While these tips won’t make you a Teams guru, they will provide some valuable information to make your experience better.
Here are six tips to help you better use Microsoft Teams. These tips will come in handy, especially during a Teams call.
Microsoft Teams Tip #1 - Mute Shortcuts
While it may seem like a simple tip, there is a quick shortcut to mute yourself, while on a Teams call. Using this shortcut instead of always having to press the mute button in the top right corner of the screen, will get to be second nature after a while. To quickly mute yourself, simply press Ctrl+Shift+M. That's going to put you on mute until you decide to unmute yourself (by pressing Ctrl+Shift+M again).
There is another shortcut for muting yourself. If you prefer to keep yourself muted most of the time, here is a quick way to temporarily unmute yourself. By pressing Ctrl+Spacebar, you can unmute yourself and then automatically re-mute yourself without pressing any extra keys.
Microsoft Teams Tip #2 - Hide for Me
If you are easily distracted by the small window showing your window in the bottom right corner, there is a simple way to hide that. If you are being distracted by looking at yourself instead of the person you're meeting with, just hover over your window in the bottom right-hand corner. Click on the three dots for more options. Here, you can switch camera, “pin for me”, or “hide for me”. By choosing “hide for me,” you can minimize your camera, to take away the distraction of seeing yourself.
Microsoft Teams Tip #3 - Transcripts
Turning on transcripts is included in Microsoft Teams as an accessibility feature. This is also a great tool for following the conversation and as a reference.
To turn on transcripts, click on the three dots at the top right of the screen for more actions. Next, scroll down to the option near the bottom and select start transcription. For transcriptions to work, you need audio turned on. Microsoft Teams then uses AI to transcribe everything it hears. While not completely accurate using transcription will provide a written record of what was said in a meeting. This is a great reference tool.
You can easily go back and read the transcript by selecting Recordings & Transcripts from the top menu. From here, you can read, edit and download transcripts.
Microsoft Teams Tip #4 - Translations
Similar to Transcriptions, Translations will actually provide a pretty good video call translation. Select Translations from the menu by clicking the three dots at the top of the page. You can add captions in multiple languages using the “Translate to” menu, and attendees can turn on captions by choosing “Subtitles On” on the right side of their screen.
Microsoft Teams Tip #5 - Do Not Disturb
From time to time, you just need to tune out the world around you and devote all of your attention to the cat you are in without the distraction of alerts. To adjust your settings, click the three dots next to your profile picture (top right corner) then select Settings > Notifications tab to adjust the type and frequency of your alerts.
Microsoft Teams Tip #6 - How to Quickly End A Meeting
Another tip to quickly end a meeting from your side uses the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+H. This shortcut may be preferred over using your mouse to close a meeting.
Of course, there are literally dozens of keyboard shortcuts you can use to improve your Teams experience. The list of keyboard shortcuts for both Windows and macOS is available directly from the Microsoft website.