How to schedule a meeting

• Check Microsoft Teams for team work.

I can't login to Teams

• NB! To log in to Teams, enter username@ut.ee, not firstname.surname@ut,ee.

How to keep conversations in organised threads? 

• An important trick in an MS Teams chat is to reply to a conversation in the same thread instead of starting a new conversation: 

  • Use the Reply field in the conversation.

  • Do not reply by writing to the field Start a new conversation.

How can I make sure my conversation partner sees my message? Why don’t I receive notifications about new messages in MS Teams groups? 

• If you belong to many teams, it may be rather difficult to keep an eye on all discussions in all groups. 

• If you want to get the attention of a group, channel or person, use the @mention. 

• Then the mentioned person will receive an active notification - a red alert in the Activity and/or Teams and/or Chat menu.

• A person who does not actively use MS Teams (for instance, an external guest) also receives the notification by e-mail.

• If you have switched on the notifications of a channel, you will also be notified if you are not @mentioned. 

  • By default, notifications of new messages in groups are switched off in MS Teams. 

  • See Creating a team workspace in MS Teams (turn on notifications on new group messages in MS Teams).

How to send a link to an MS Teams meeting using a web browser/other channels? 

• Check How to start a meeting or seminar in MS Teams? 

How to add background in Teams videoconference

• Check Microsoft Teams - Add a video background.

How to switch to a large gallery?

• With the large gallery view, you can watch up to 49 video streams at a time.
• "New Meeting Experience" must be enabled before using large gallery view.
• At least 10 participants must share their video for the large gallery view to be available.
• During a meeting, select "..." >  select "Large Gallery". If it is not grayed out, it means that there are at least 10 active video streams.

Where do I turn on the new meeting experience?

• Click on your avatar or initials icon at the top right.
• A drop-down menu will appear > select "Settings" > Click on "Turn on new meeting experience".
• Click the "X" icon in the upper right corner to close the "Settings" window.
• This setting requires a restart of Microsoft Teams.

How to keep important channels of a team in focus? 

• MS Teams allows pinning important channels. 

• Select Pin under “...” next to a channel name.

How to create workspaces of restricted access to some members within a team? 

• MS Teams allows creating channels with private access.

• When you create a new channel, you can choose to give access to the entire team or only some members. 

  • By default, access is granted to the entire team. 

• Creating a private channel.

  • Click on "...” next to the team name and then Add channel.

  • Insert the channel name.

  • Select Private - accessible only to specific group of people within the team from privacy settings. 

  • Click Next. 

  • Add members and click Done. 

Which team type should I choose when creating a new work group?

• We advise choosing the type Other.
• If you choose another team type (Class, Staff, etc.), the menu bar of the team will include pre-configured modules you won't probably need (e.g. Staff notebook).

How to share your screen to your conversation partner? 

• See Creating a team workspace in MS Teams

How to create a new team workspace in MS Teams? 

• See Creating a team workspace in MS Teams

How to use MS Teams to organise voting? 

• MS Teams allows adding modules to be used within a team. 

• MS Forms and Polly are suitable for voting and polls. 

• See Organising polls in MS Teams using Polly. 

How to use MS Teams for teaching activities? 

• Ask for advice from the e-learning specialists of the university. 

  • See Recommendations for teaching staff to replace classroom teaching with e-learning.

• See Quick Start Guide - Microsoft Teams for Education. 

How to archive a team in MS Teams? 

• See Archiving a team in MS Teams.

What happens to our files and groups after the end of the project? 

• It is wise to archive the workspace when the team workspace is no longer needed. 

  • See Archiving a team in MS Teams.

• If a team workspace is deleted, all the content, conversations, etc. created in the team will be lost. 

• A deleted group can be restored by an administrator within 30 days after deletion. 

  • Contact the IT helpdesk to restore a deleted group.

How to organise a seminar to a large audience using MS Teams?

• MS Teams offers simple tools for producing and broadcasting video of a public seminar using its Teams Live Event function.

  • An event can have up to 10,000 viewers.

  • Viewers can watch the video and ask questions. 

• See Videoconference for large audiences - Teams Live Event. 

How to manage work assignments in MS Teams? 

• An MS Teams chat is not the best option for sending work assignments and requests to others. 

  • Since the main focus of MS Teams is conversations, it is not easy for people to take on assignments from there.

• The MS Teams menu Assignments is meant for teaching activities and is not suitable for managing a team’s work assignments in general.

• A more convenient tool for joint management of work assignments is the Planner that can be added to an MS Teams workgroup as a module.

  • See  reating a team workspace in MS Teams (“Create a work assignment management space for your team using Planner”). 

  • See FAQ - tips and tricks of Planner.

How to add a team member who does not have a user account of the university? 

• An external member can be added to an MS Teams team as a guest, using the person’s e-mail address. 

• If the person has not used MS Teams before, he/she must first create a free account of MS Teams and can then join the corresponding workgroup. 

How to invite people to join a Teams team using a link? 

• Click “...” next to the team name.  

• Select Get link to the team.  

• Select Copy.  

• You can share the copied link through other channels.  

• The team owner needs to accept the requests sent through the link.  

  • Manage Team → Pending Requests → Accept.  

• Tip: if you want people with the link to join the team right away, without the acceptance, you can create a team code: 

  • Manage Team → Settings → Team code → Generate.  

  • You can share this code together with the invite link via other channels. 

How to prevent the deletion of entries in the team conversations of MS Teams? 

• MS Teams allows configuring the rights of the team members to create and delete elements of the workgroup. 

• The following elements can be managed:

  1. Allow members to create and update channels. 

  2. Allow members to delete and restore channels. 

  3. Allow members to add and remove apps. 

  4. Allow members to upload custom apps (by third parties). 

  5. Allow members to create, update and remove tabs. 

  6. Allow members to create, update and remove connectors. 

  7. Give members the option to delete their messages.

  8. Give members the option to edit their messages.

  9. Allow guests (members outside the university) to create and update channels.

  10. Allow guests to delete channels.

How to discuss a document in an MS Teams team? 

• It is possible to discuss a document in MS Teams - share additional comments, assign tasks, etc. 

  • Select the function Conversation.

• The conversation is visible also in the main chat view. 

• Please note! This function only works with documents added to MS Teams. 

  • External resources (e.g. a Sharepoint folder) do not support the Conversation function. 

How to quickly switch between Microsoft online applications? 

• Each MS O365 online application has a button of nine dots in the top left corner. Clicking on it opens a menu of different MS O365 applications.

Why don’t I get notifications about new posts in Teams groups? 

• By default, notifications are disabled in Teams groups. Generally, it is reasonable to turn them on.  

• It is important to use the @ mark before a member’s or team’s name in messages to call their attention: @name, @channel, @team. This way the person or the group will get a notification. 

I hate the default theme in Teams. How can I change it? 

1. Click your profile picture in the Teams window. 

2. Select Settings. 

3. In the General menu you can choose between three themes: Default, Dark or High Contrast. 

Screen sharing stops working after updating MacOS Catalina

• Problem: Screen sharing does not work after MacOs Catalina update. 

• Solution: Select System Preferences -> Security & Privacy, under Privacy find “Screen Recording” and allow Teams.  

During a meeting chat preview windows pop up.

• Set the account status to Do Not Disturb.