Overview of teams and channels
Create a channel
Create and use private channels
Show and hide channels
Work in channels
Tip: Send email to a channel
Create a plan with Planner
Overview of teams and channels
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In Microsoft Teams, teams are groups of people brought together for work, projects, or common interests. Teams are made up of two types of channels — standard (available and visible to everyone) and private (focused, private conversations with a specific audience). Each channel is built around a topic like “Team Events,” a department name, or just for fun. Channels are where you hold meetings, have conversations, and work on files together. The tabs at the top of each channel link to your favorite files, apps, and services.Add a tab
- Select the plus sign next to the tabs. For example, add Planner to create a project board for tracking team tasks.
Pin and unpin a channel
If you have a lot of channels, pin the most important ones to make them easy to find.- To pin a channel, choose one to pin and then select More channels > Pin.
- To unpin a channel, choose one to unpin and then select More channels > Unpin, and to see what else you can do.
Create a channel
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Create a channel in Microsoft Teams to focus conversations on a specific topic, project, or department.- Use a General channel to share announcements and news that everyone needs. Each team has a General channel by default. To create a new channel, select More options (…) > Add channel.
- Add a name and description.
- Select a privacy level: Standard or Private.
- Choose to automatically show the channel in everyone’s channel list.
- When you’re ready, select Add and the channel appears in your team’s channel list.
Create and use private channels
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If you need to have focused, private conversations with people on your team, create a private channel. Most channels are standard ones — everyone on the team can see them as well as view and participate in conversations, share files, and more. With a private channel, members of a team must be specifically added to it to participate, see content, and to see the channel appear in their list of channels.Note: Team owners can create private channels, and allow members to create them. Whoever creates a private channel can add people to it.
Create a private channel
- Go to a team you want to create a channel for, select More options > Add channel.
- Type a name and description.
- Under Privacy, select the down arrow and choose Private – Accessible only to a specific group of people within the team.
- Select Next.
- Type in the names of who you’d like to invite including guests.
Note: People must already be members or guests of a team to be added to a private channel.
- Select Add. People you’ve added will see it appear in their channel list with a lock next to the name. And to see everyone that’s been added to a private channel, select the Open people pane.
Share a file and Meet Now
- When you share a file in a private channel, it’s viewable and accessible only to people with access to the channel. These shared files live in a separate SharePoint site away from the standard channels. This ensure access only to members of the private channel.
- To meet with just the people in a private channel, select Meet now.
Show and hide channels
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Show and hide channels in Microsoft Teams to keep up with important channels and hide the ones you don’t need.Hide or show a channel
- From within the channel, Select More options
> Hide. - If you want to unhide the channel, select hidden channels > Show.
Customize channel notifications
- Select More options > Channel notifications.
- Choose the settings you want such as new post notifications or channel mentions.
- Select Save. Notifications appear based on your preferred settings.
Work in channels
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Channels are where team conversations happen:- Standard channels are available to all team members.
- Private channels are for specific people who have been invited to them.
Hold a meeting in a channel
- Select Calendar > New meeting > Add channel > choose a channel from the list.
- Add details.
- Select Send.
- If you want to join an ongoing channel meeting, select Join on the meeting.
Work with messages in a channel
Team members post messages and replies under the Posts tab in a channel. You can:- Select
next to a message to show you liked it. - Select More options (…) > Edit to edit a message.
- Select More options (…) > Delete to delete it.
Start a new conversation and get someone’s attention in a channel
To create a post in a channel, select New conversation. When you’re working on your post, you can:- Type
in front of a team member’s name to include them in the conversation. - Type in front of a team or channel name to include the entire team or channel.
Note: You can only @mention a team or channel if your admin has enabled it.
See where you’ve been mentioned
- Look for the red circle on the left next to different channel names to see the number of times your name has been mentioned in a conversation.
Co-edit a file and view channel info
Collaborate with your teammates in a channel:- Attach a file to your message.
- Comment and edit the file with your team.
- Open the right-hand pane to:
- Add new members.
- See current members.
- View apps.
Pin and unpin a channel
Pin a channel to your teams list for quick access.- On the channel you want, select More options (…) > Pin.
-
To unpin it, select More options (…) > Unpin.
Tip: Send email to a channel
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If you need to communicate by email, send it to everyone in a channel.Get and copy a channel’s email
- Select More options > Get email address.
- Select Copy.
- Paste the copied email address into a new email.
- Select Send.
Forward an email to a channel
- Open the email you’d like to forward.
- Paste the copied email address into the To line of your email.
- Select Send.
Create a plan with Planner
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Create a board with Planner to keep you and your team organized in Microsoft Teams.- In a channel, select Add a tab.
- Select Planner.
- Select Create a new plan or Use an existing one, and then select Save.
- With a Planner board, you can:
- Create buckets
- Add and assign tasks
- Update tasks
- Chart progress