6 minute read

With Teams you can invite and participate in online meetings with just a few clicks.

Participants can choose to participate with video or audio only. They can also join from mobile devices or choose to simply call the meeting. At the meeting you can look at files, screen share, draw on whiteboards and much more.

Create a Teams meeting from Outlook

In a calendar invitation, click Teams Meeting in the Meeting tab. This adds a link to the meeting down in the body text that the meeting participants can use when it comes time for the meeting.

 

Then fill in the meeting information - time, participants, agenda and so forth - and click Send.

Create a Teams meeting directly from Teams

In Teams access the area Calendar and pick + New meeting in the top right corner.

Fill in the rest of the meeting invitation - other participants, agenda, etc. - and send off with the Send button.

Note that there - unlike when booking the meeting i Outlook - is a field to select channel to meet in. Here you can choose to associate the meeting with a team and possibly a specific channel. This means that the meeting will be in the history of the team, so that it is easy to find again afterwards and all communication is gathered in the team.

Here's how to attend a Teams meeting

1. Depending on your Outlook settings, a reminder will appear before the Teams meeting. In this, you can click Connect Online and get connected to the Teams meeting directly.

2. You can also use the link in the meeting invitation.

3. The meeting invitation also includes a phone number allowing meeting participants to simply call up the meeting from a phone.

4. If the meeting participant does not have Teams at all, the link in the meeting invitation will open the meeting in their browser and thus they still have the opportunity to participate.

During the meeting

If you host a presentation during a Teams meeting, you have the same options as usual in Teams. You can share files, present PowerPoint, share your screen, hold polls and much more.

It all takes place in the meeting menu:

• To turn video or microphone on or off, click  .
• To add more meeting participants, click on the participant icon  .
• To record the meeting, click on the three dots and then click Start Recording. Read more about footage in this guide.
• To share your screen, click  and then choose what you want to share. You can share your entire screen or only individual applications - such as a PowerPoint presentation. Here you can also open the meeting whiteboard if you like.
• To flag that you want to speak, you can click the hand icon 
• To post a chat message to all meeting participants, click .
• If you want some privacy in a video conference, you can blur your background. To do this, click on the three dots  and select Blur my background. You can also choose an image as background.
• Below the three dots is a number of other features you can use during the meeting, e.g. Meeting notes, Live captioning, Meeting settings and Gallery, which allows you to choose how you see the other participants.

In the case of a larger meeting (4-5+ participants), it may be a good idea for those who don't speak to mute their microphone. Driving in a car while attending (via headset, of course) also makes good sense to turn off the microphone when you just listen.

But probably already know all these little tricks from other online meeting tools. If not, you quickly get them under your skin.

One more thing...Breakout rooms

If you have created the meeting, you have access to manage so-called breakout rooms. Breakout rooms are independent meetings that are connected to the original meeting. Here you can divide and place the meeting participants, and when they have finished discussing there, they can easily return.

To create breakout rooms, click on the square icon in the top menu.

Then choose whether to divide the participants automatically or manually. If you choose automatic distribution you can still move individual participants manually in the next step.

Click Create rooms once you've picked number of rooms and settings.

This will open a sidepanel where you can see the distribution and make changes, if necessary. When all looks fine you can go ahead a start the rooms by clicking Open rooms.

When you do that, there's a countdown on the participants' screens and they are then automatically transferred to their breakout room.

While the breakout room sessions are running, you can visit the individual rooms by clicking Open.

You can also give make an announcement in all rooms by clicking the three dots, and close all the rooms by clicking Close rooms. This will return the participants to the original meeting. 

If a participant wants to leave a breakout room and come back to the original meeting, you simply click Return.