Teams
Overview
Microsoft Teams is a messaging platform for your group, team, or department. It provides a workspace for real-time collaboration and communication, meetings, plus files and app sharing.
Teams includes the following tools and capabilities:
- Chat-based collaboration hub
- Keeps all conversations in one place
- Create, upload, store and share files in one place
- Integrates with Planner to organize and manage tasks
- Virtual space for meetings that include audio, video, and recording capabilities
- Each team comes with SharePoint site in the background
Teams Renewal
All Teams will expire one year from date of the last activity. Auto-renewal is automatically enabled for any team that has at least one channel visit from any team member before its expiration date is automatically renewed without any manual intervention from the team owner.
If there has been no activity for 365 days, the Group Owner(s) will receive messages via email and within the Teams Client 30, 15, and 1 day(s) before the expiration date asking if they wish to renew. If nobody renews, the group and all related content will be sent to the Recycle Bin and permanently deleted 30 days after that.
You are strongly encouraged to add additional owner(s) to your Team or Site to ensure that they remain current in the case that you leave the university or are not available to respond to the renewal requests.
Maximum Limits and Specifications
To review restrictions and limitations, such as storage limits and maximum limits on number of teams, members, etc. go to Microsoft Support: Limits and Specifications site for the most current information.
Creating a Team
Create Teams on Your Own
Now you can create teams on your own; no request form required. However, if you want assistance, you can continue to use the Request a Team form to have a team made for you. Instructors who want to add a team to a course should contact Education Technology to learn about best practices and discuss how they can assist you with creating your team. See these options below.
Accessing Teams
There are a few ways you can access Teams:
- Sign in to the Office 365 landing pageand choose the Teams icon.
View ScreenshotTeams icon is on the left border of the screen - Once you have accessed Teams online, you can install the Teams desktop app. Go to the Desktop app information below.
- To download the Teams app on your phone or tablet, go to the App Store or Google Play.
Losing access
You are strongly encouraged to add additional owner(s) to your Team or Site to ensure that they remain current in the case that you leave the university or are not available to respond to the renewal requests.
A team will expire one year from date of the last activity. Auto-renewal is automatically enabled for any team that has at least one channel visit from any team member before its expiration date and is automatically renewed without any manual intervention from the team owner.
If your team has been inactive for 365 days, team owners will receive messages via email and within the Teams Client 30, 15, and 1 day(s) before the expiration date asking if they wish to renew. If no one renews, the group and all related content will be sent to the Recycle Bin and permanently deleted 30 days after that.
Leaving KU
Students and faculty lose access to their KU email 210 days after leaving the university.
Unclassified Professional Staff (UPS) and University Support Staff (USS) will lose access immediately after leaving the university.
Create a Team
To create your own Team:
- Go to the Office 365 landing page and choose the Teams icon.
- If the icon isn't visible, search by selecting on All apps at the bottom of the apps bar on the left edge of the interface.
View ScreenshotSelect the Teams icon on the left edge of your screen or All apps icon at the bottom - Click on the Teams app in the app bar to the far left edge of the Teams interface.
View ScreenshotSelect the Teams icon in the left app bar - Once you're in Teams, select Join or create a team at the top-right of the screen.
- From the 4 templates, we recommend that you choose Other.
View Screenshot Choose the Other template
Get Help Creating a Team
If you want assistance in creating your own team instead of creating it on your own, you can use still use the Service Now form to request that a team created for you.
Instructors Using Teams
If you are creating a team for a course, it is recommended that you use the Class template. Select the link below to learn more about the dos and don'ts of using Teams with courses. You can also request that the Education Technology staff build the course for you.
4 Templates
When creating a Team, you will have a choice of four types: Class, Professional Learning Community (PLC), Staff, and Other. KU recommends the use of the Other template for all of your teams.
View ScreenshotFour Teams Templates.
If you want to use Teams for a course, KU Education Technology encourages you to use the Class template as a complementary teaching tool to Blackboard. Please read Teams best practices in using Teams for your course.
To have KU Education Technology assist you with creating and configuring a team, contact them at itedtech@ku.edu.
- Class template is typically for instructors and students collaborating on group projects. However, KU Education Technology recommends the use of this template to complement Blackboard. Please read Teams best practices in using Teams for your course.
- Professional Learning Community is for educators collaborating within topics, special interests, etc.
- Staff template includes administrators, supervisors, and staff members collaborating on unit initiatives and professional development.
- Other is a general-use template and is the most commonly used Team type at KU.
To learn more, go to Microsoft Support: Choose a Team Type that outlines the differences between the Team types.
Layout and Background
There are a few options in Teams to change the look and layout. You can choose the List or Grid view, as well as a few background options.
From the List view, find the Settings icon at the bottom-left of your screen to the right of Join or Create a Team.
View ScreenshotIn List view, select the Settings icon is in the bottom left panel, then Switch view.
If starting from the Grid view:
- Select All teams link at the top of the left panel above your Team name.
View ScreenshotFrom the grid view, select All teams - The Settings iconwill be located at the top-right area of the screen.
View Screenshot Select the settings icon at the top-right
Settings provides several ways to manage how your Teams client is displayed, as well as managing other Settings preferences. Know that there are more features offered in the Settings area of your desktop app than the web app.
Desktop App
You have the option to open Teams in a web browser from the Office 365 landing page or you can use the desktop app, which can be downloaded and pinned to your taskbar.
To download the app, select your photo or initials from the upper right-hand corner and choose download the desktop app.
View ScreenshotSelect 3 dots next to University of Kansas to open Settings, select Download desktop app
Desktop App vs. Browser
There are a few differences between the desktop and browser, mainly connected to the Meet now videoconferencing app.
We strongly recommend that you download the desktop app, which will give you more options than the web app:
- Easy access from your toolbar
- See notifications without having to log in to the web app
- Several more options available in the meeting app, including backgrounds, live captioning and breakout rooms not offered in the web app.
- Settings offers more features and options in the desktop app than the web app.
Storing Sensitive Information
Important
Microsoft cloud platforms are fully compliant with all regulatory frameworks, but if you are going to store Critical data (formerly Level 1/Confidential) in your Teams site, contact your Tech Support staff first.
Manage Members
Role Comparison Chart
Currently, there are three permission groups in a Team: owners, members, and guests. Guests are users external to KU.
Permissions apply to the entire permission group and cannot be customized for individuals.
Guests have fewer permissions than members. See Microsoft Support: Comparison of Team Member and Guest Capabilities to see the differences in member and guest capabilities.
Add People and Assign Roles
- Select the More options [...] next to the Team name and select Manage Team.
View ScreenshotSelect 3 dots the to the right of team name, select Manage team from panel - Under the Members tab, you can see who is in the Owner, Member, and Guest groups.
- Select the Add Members button to the right of the Members screen, which will open a field to type names of people you want to add.
- You can also add office365 groups by typing the name of the group in the field.
- All people at KU are added as members by default, while those external to KU are guests.
Assign Roles
It's wise to have at least two owners of a team.
- Owners can remove Members and Guests by selecting the "X" next to the person's name.
- To remove other owners, you must first change their role to member, then select the "X" next to the person's name.
- Owners can change the Role of a member or owner by selecting on their current role.
View ScreenshotSelect role to far right of person's name, select role - The Guests role cannot be changed.
Manage Team Permissions
To view or change permission settings:
- Select More options [...] next to the Team name and select Manage team.
- Select the Settings tab at the top menu.
View ScreenshotSelect 3 dots the to the right of team name, select Manage team from panel - Select or deselect the checkbox to the right of permission you want to change
Guest Access and Permissions
Guest Access
When an external user has been added to a Team, they will receive an email and must accept the invitation by selecting Open Microsoft Teams before they can access the team and its channels.
Guest users who have an email address that is associated with Microsoft 365 or a Gmail account can access Teams directly. If the guest is using a personal account other than Gmail or doesn't yet have a Microsoft account associated with their email address, they'll be directed to create a Microsoft account for free.
Guests do not have the same permissions as members. See Microsoft Support: Comparison of Team Member and Guest Capabilities for more information.
Select 3 dots the to the right of team name, select Manage team from panel
Teams Channels
Each team comes with a General channel by default with the option to create additional channels that represent topics, work groups, or themes. Standard channels are visible to everyone or you have the option to create a private channel.
Create a New Channel
Select More options […] next to the Team name > Add channel > provide a name for your channel > choose Standard or Private channel > Add
View ScreenshotUnder Privacy, select Standard or Private channel.
Standard Channel vs. Private Channel
- Everyone on a team has access to standard channels, whereas private channels can only be seen by the person who created the channel (channel owner) and members added to the channel.
- Anyone can add private channels unless Team owners change that permission [under Manage Team > Settings > Member permissions/Guest permissions].
- Team owners do not have access to a private channel unless they create it or are added to the channel by the channel owner.
- Team owners can delete any private channel.
- Private channels create their own SharePoint document libraries accessible only to those who are channel owners and members of that channel.
- You cannot schedule meetings in Meet now.
- Does not support some apps like Planner.
- Every channel has two default tabs: Posts and Files. Find links in the left navigation for more information on Tabs.
Restore Deleted Channel
Team owners can bring back a channel that was deleted.
- Hover over team name and select More options [...] to the right of the name
- Select Manage team
- Select the Channels tab from the top menu
- Below all of your Active channels, select the Deleted dropdown option.
- Select Restore to the right of channel name.
Channels and SharePoint Folders
Creating a Standard Channel in Teams creates a corresponding folder in the SharePoint Document library.
View ScreenshotTeams channels (on the left) will create respective folders (on the right).
All folders and files created and uploaded within these folders from SharePoint will sync back to your team's channels.
If you create a folder in SharePoint that exists outside of the folders created by channels, it will not sync back to Teams unless you create a new channel with the same name as the new folder.
It is a best practice to always create channels in Teams first to easily create syncing.
Channel Menu Options
Pin will place the channel to the top of your list. Only available in List view.
Manage channel to set moderation preferences.
Get email address allows you to copy the email address of this channel, which enables you to email the channel. The message will appear in posts.
Note: By default, only KU internal addresses are allowed to email directly to a channel. Requests for external email addresses need to be evaluated by IT.
Get link to channel allows you send a link for others to access your public team or add the URL to your SharePoint site for quick navigation.
Edit this channel - Edit channel name and description – This does not automatically change the name of the folder in SharePoint. You must go to SharePoint to change the name of the folder.
Connectors keep your team current by delivering content and updates from services you frequently use directly into a channel.
Delete this channel – By default, everyone is allowed to delete a channel. Team owners can change the permission on who is allowed to delete channels [under Manage Team > Settings > Member permissions/Guest permissions].
Team Notifications
Notifications are sent when you are mentioned in a post, messages are posted in the Posts tab or Chat, and other activities, such as membership changes, seeing when someone is on or offline, meeting notifications, etc.
How You Receive Notifications
- Your feed notifications will show on the Activity icon at the top part of your app bar and on the Desktop app.
View ScreenshotActivity icon and desktop icon showing notifications.
If you don't have the Desktop app in your toolbar, you can download it from the Teams web app under Settings.
View ScreenshotSelect 3 dots at top-right of screen, select Download desktop app. - If banner notification is selected, a rectangle message will slide out from the right side of your screen for a few moments, then will disappear.
- Email notifications will happen only when you are not logged in to Teams.
Manage Notification Preferences
You can change email, banner, and feed preferences from different areas in teams. Manage your notifications from Settings, conversations, and channels.
Notifications from Settings
Select your profile image (or circle icon) at the top-right of screen > Settings > Notifications. From here, you can choose a variety of notification settings.
Conversation Notifications
- Hover over the top-right corner of a conversation
- Select More options […]
- Select Turn off notifications
Channel Notifications
- Hover over the channel name and select More options […]
- Choose Channel notifications
- Change options
Mention a Person, Channel or Team
When posting in a channel, use the "@" symbol followed by the name of a person, channel, or the name of the team. This will send a notification to that person or team based on their preferences.
Hide/Show Channels
By default, all channels and teams are visible, allowing you to receive notifications for teams and channels that you haven’t hidden from your list. You can choose Show or Hide to ensure you get notifications from teams and channels you care about.
- Hover over channel or team, then select More options [...] on the right of the channel name
- Select Hide channel/team
View ScreenshotSelect 3 dots to right of channel name, select Hide from the panel.
Your hidden channels and teams will be condensed in your list, but will remain available if you want to bring them back at a later time. Once you hide a channel or team, you will no longer receive notifications for them until you bring them back.
To bring the channel back:
- Hover over Hidden channel and select the arrow > to the right of your channel.
- Select Show next to the team/channel you want to bring back.
View ScreenshotSelect 3 dots to right of channel name, select Show from the panel.
Teams Posts and Chat
Microsoft Teams supports a variety of ways to communicate with your team, including group conversations in the Posts tab, private Chats, calls, meetings, and breakout sessions.
Channel Posts
All members of a team can view and add to conversations in the Posts tab in any standard channel. These conversations can be seen by everyone on the team. Documents can be attached and shared in a post are automatically saved to the Files tab of that channel. Posts are different from Chats because they are visible to everyone in a channel and not private.
Persistent chat will keep all posts without the need to archive. You can search all posts by keywords or headings.
Mentions can be created by typing ‘@’ before an individual’s name, channel name, or team name. Notifications to be sent to those included in the mention based on their notification settings, which can be adjusted as needed.
More Options for Posts
Hover over the right corner of a post to bring up a response emoji. Select More options […] to bring up additional options.
View ScreenshotHover over conversation to bring up emojis and select 3 dots to bring up additional options.
- Team owners can delete any post; members can only delete their own post
- Members can edit their own messages only
- Team owners can delete any message
Review of Options
Save this message allows you to bookmark a message. You can find all bookmarked messages by typing /saved in theSearch / commandfield at the top of the screen.You can also find it by selecting on your image (or encircled initials) at the top-rightthen choose Saved messages.
Your saved messages will open in a panel to the left. You can remove a saved post by selecting on the bookmark icon to unsave the post.
View ScreenshotDeselect the bookmark icon to remove the saved post.
Copy link to share a post in another team or chat message.
Share to Outlook send post as a message via Outlook.
Translate will translate the post into the language chosen in your Settings. English is set by default.
Immersive Reader can read text for users, adjust font size, etc.
Pin allows you to pin posts in the channel information panel. To view pinned items, go to the Show Channel Info icon at the top-right of the screen. You'll find your pinned posts towards the bottom of this panel.
More Actions allows you to add polls to your posts. Select More actions and a new panel will open allowing you to create a new poll.
Additional Post Options and Tools
Additional formatting and fun ways to communicate.
- Additional formatting provides editing options, such as adding a subject, bulleted lists, tables, etc.
Add an Announcement, which creates a more noticeable post: select the Additional format icon > New conversation located at the top-left of panel > Announcement
View ScreenshotSelect New conversation, then select Announcement.Post announcement in multiple Team channels: After you select Announcement, select Post in multiple channels > Select channels. From the panel, select channels from your list of teams, then select the send button at the bottom right of the screen
View ScreenshotSelect Choose the Select channels button to bring up teams and channel options. - Use the paper clip icon to attach a file or drag and drop the file into the message. All attached files will be saved in your Files tab.
- You can add GIFs and stickers, or send a Praise. These can also be turned off by Team owners: select More options [...] next to the team name > Manage team > Settings tab > Fun stuff > deselect features.
- The Stream icon that takes you to where your Teams videos are stored. Currently, Stream is being revamped and will not load recordings. All channel recordings will be saved in your SharePoint library in a folder titled Recordings.
Start a Chat
Chat allows you to have private, one-on-one or group conversations that are not in the public team channel.
- Click in the Search field at the top of the screen and begin typing the name of the person you want to chat with.
- Select their name from the drop down choices.
Attach Files
Attach files by using the paper clip or drag and drop into the message area.
To find the files later:
- Select the chat where the file was posted and select the Files tab.
- You can also view all your files by selecting on Files icon in the left panel. Files from all of your chats and channels will be located here.
- Select the More options [...], then Files. If the Files icon isn't present, type files in the search field, then select files.
View ScreenshotSelect 3 dots in app bar on left edge of screen, type files, select Files. - All chat files will be stored in your OneDrive for Business in the Microsoft Teams Chat Files folder.
- To pin your files app to the app bar for easy access, right-click on the files app and select Pin.
- Select the More options [...], then Files. If the Files icon isn't present, type files in the search field, then select files.
Other Options
You have the option to create a meeting, call, and share screen. You can also add additional people to the chat as needed.
Files in Teams
The Files tab displays all of a team’s files within a given channel, which are stored in you Team's SharePoint Document library.
Create and Manage Your Files
To create new files or folders:
- Select a channel, then choose the Files tab at the top.
- Click +New in the top menu and select the file type or folder.
- Provide a title, then click Create.
To upload files and folders:
- Click Upload at the top menu or drag and drop the file from your computer.
- In the Posts tab within a channel, you can attach a file to a conversation using the paperclip icon or drag and drop the file into the message. These options will upload the attached file to the Files tab in that channel. These options will upload the attached file to the Files tab in that channel.
View ScreenshotUpload file using paper clip icon below conversation field. - After you sync your folders, you can drag and drop files into you File Explorer on a PC or Finder on a Mac.
Editing Files
- You have the option to edit in the browser, from the desktop app, or in Teams.
- While the browser offers many of Word's editing tools, you will get full editing tools when editing in the Desktop app.
View ScreenshotFind Open in Desktop App link below the Search field.
Conversations in Editing
Editing in Teams includes a persistent conversation option to discuss the file while editing. The conversation always stays with the respective file and can also be viewed in the Posts feed of that channel.
View ScreenshotSelect Create New Poll link.
Sharing Files
To share files with others outside of your team, there are a few places to find the share files tool:
- Open the file you want to share
- Click on Open in Desktop or click the ellipsis [...] in the top right menu then Open in Browser
View ScreenshotTo share file, you can open file in the desktop app or select Open in Browser from the 3 dots. - Click the Share button at the top-right above the tool ribbon
View ScreenshotOnce the file is open, select the Share button at the top-right.
The other place to find the Share tool is via SharePoint.
- From files in Teams, click on the ellipsis [...] in the top right menu > Open in SharePoint
View ScreenshotSelect 3 dots to the far-right in top menu, select Open in SharePoint. - Hover over the file you want to share, then click on the Share icon
View ScreenshotHover over file, select share icon to open share panel.
Use left menu to navigate to more information about sharing files.
SharePoint in Background
Your Microsoft Team also comes with a SharePoint site. All Teams files are stored in the document library found on that site which you can access by clicking Open in SharePoint in the Files tab.
Each channel will be assigned its own folder in SharePoint.
- If you add a channel in Teams, it will be stored as a folder in a SharePoint library.
- If you change the name of the Teams channel, it will not automatically change the name of the folder in SharePoint. You must do this manually.
Go to SharePoint Document Libraries for more information about managing folders in Teams and SharePoint.
Private Channels in SharePoint
When a private channel is created, a new, abbreviated SharePoint site is created just for that channel. This ensures any files created in the private channel can only be accessed by those who are owners/members/guests of that channel. The channel will have the same name as the team with Private channel added to the end of the name [Team name - private channel name].
Create Files
Upload Files
Share Files
Sync Folders
Tabs in Teams
Tabs allow team members to access services and content in a dedicated space within a channel or in a chat. Owners and team members can add tabs to a channel, private chat, and group chat to help integrate their cloud services.
Default Tabs
Every channel comes with two default tabs: Posts tabs provide a dedicated space for conversations in a channel, and the Files tab is where you upload, create, and share all of the files pertinent to that channel.
Learn more about Posts and Files features by selecting on the respective links in the left navigation.
Additional Tabs
- Additional tabs can be created to quickly access apps or data.
- If you want to create a tab for a PDF, Excel, Word, or PowerPoint, the files must be uploaded to your channel's Files area before they can be converted to a new tab. Select the file, then select Make this a tab.
View ScreenshotSelect circle to left of file, then select Make this a tab in top menu.
Create a New Tab
- Open the channel and select the + Add a tab icon located at the top of your screen to the right of your default tabs.
View ScreenshotTo add a tab, select the plus sign to the right of your Posts and Files tabs. - Choose from the available apps and connectors within Teams, such as OneNote, Tasks by Planner, Forms, etc.
Important Note
There are supported and unsupported apps available in the tabs area. Unsupported apps generally require a registration, privacy policy agreement, and can sometimes come with a price. Although you are welcome to use these apps, KU IT does not offer technical support for them. Adobe is an exception since we have purchased licenses for Adobe products. If you need technical assistance, you will need to contact the company. Additionally, please read the privacy policy carefully when integrating a third party app to your team.
The top apps under Recent are KU supported and most of those listed under More tabs are third party.
Common Integrated Apps
Find more information on the following common Microsoft apps: Planner, Forms, and Bookings.
Channel Calendar App
Teams Channel calendars shows all of your channel meetings in one organized view. Any member or owner on the team can view and add meetings to the calendar, as well as join the channel meetings.
Add a Calendar to Your Channel
- Select the +plus sign in your tabs area to add a tab
- Choose Channel calendar
- Select Add
- Provide a name for your calendar
- Select Add
Notes
- Any team member can schedule a meeting as you normally do through the Meetings tool or in the Channel calendar app and it will show in the calendar.
- See all scheduled channel meetings in one place.
- Scheduled meetings notifications will show in channel feed.
Limitations
- The meetings do not consistently sync with your Outlook calendar except for those you add to the Add required attendees field.
- Guests cannot access the calendar app.
- One calendar per channel.
- No list of channel calendars anywhere.
- Not available in private channels.
- No SharePoint calendar integration.
Meetings
See Teams Meetings for details on the following:
- Schedule a Meeting
- Join Meetings
- Spotlights
- Breakout Rooms
- Polls in Teams
Support
Technical Support: itcsc@ku.edu | 785-864-8080
Training Support: training@ku.edu | 785-864-5155