Microsoft 365 - Microsoft Teams

This article provides an overview of what Microsoft Teams is, how it can be utilized, and how new teams can be created.

What is Teams?

Microsoft Teams is a single application that brings together your team’s conversations, meetings, files, and notes to facilitate collaboration. The service is available to faculty, staff, and students. Microsoft has published a great deal of helpful content to help get you started: Microsoft Teams Help & Learning

How do I access Teams?

Teams can be accessed in several ways, but the most common are via the web, the desktop app, and the mobile app.

Web

You can access Teams on the web by first visiting https://office.unc.edu. If prompted, please sign in using onyen@ad.unc.edu and your Onyen password.

Teams should appear on the left sidebar, but you can also click the waffle icon at the top-right to see more Microsoft 365 applications, and Teams should be an option.

Desktop app

If you would prefer to use Teams a separate application, you can download Teams from the web app using the steps above. You can also visit the Microsoft website to download the application.

Mobile app

You can also take Teams on the go by downloading it from the App Store or Google Play Store. Teams for iOS/iPadOS can be downloaded from the App Store. Teams for Android can be downloaded from the Google Play Store.

You will sign into both the mobile and desktop apps using the onyen@ad.unc.edu format for your email address.

Using Teams

While Teams has many different functions and uses, the most common ones are Chats, Teams, Calendar, and OneDrive

Chats

Chats within Teams are direct messages. These are usually between two people, but you can create group chats of up to 250 people. These chats are private and their contents only visible to members of the group chat.

Teams

The Teams section is where you will see all the Teams of which you are currently a member. It is also where you can make edits to existing Teams or even create new entire Teams.

What is a Team?

A Team is an extension of a Microsoft 365 Group. You can have a Microsoft 365 Group without a Team, but a Team must have an associated Microsoft 365 Group. More information can be found at Office 365 Groups - Getting Started.

How are Teams organized?

A Team is composed of Channels. By default, a new Team will have only one channel: General. But more channels can be created for more specific purposes. For example, you could have a channel for a specific project.

An owner of a Team can create a new channel by clicking the three dots next to a Team name and selecting Add channel.

Types of channels

There are three types of channels within a Team: Standard, Private, and Shared.

A Standard channel is the default option. This channel will be available to any current and future members of the Team.

A Private channel is one that can be restricted to certain members of the Team. Only those within the Private channel will be able to access it. Private channels are also hidden from those without access.

A Shared channel is a channel that can be shared outside of its associated Team. This can allow other people access to the items within a specific channel, but it does not allow access to other channels within the Team.

Accessing/sharing files within Teams

Since Teams is connected to the Microsoft 365 platform it is fully integrated with OneDrive and Sharepoint. This means you can access your personal OneDrive files and your group's shared files all in one place.

OneDrive

Teams has a direct link to your personal OneDrive on the left-hand side of the window. Clicking this will open your personal OneDrive site within Teams itself. All the functionality found at OneDrive should be present here. You can open files, download them to your device, share files with individuals or groups, upload new files, or even create new Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, or PowerPoint presentations.

Group files (Sharepoint)

Underneath your personal files, you will also see a Quick Access section that will contain links to files from the groups where you are a member. Quick Access will only show some of the groups by default, but you can click More places... at the bottom of the list to see all of the groups.

You can also visit a Teams channel directly via the Teams section, and then click Files at the top to see the files within this channel. Similar to your personal files, you can add upload new files to the channel. These files will be accessible by anyone who has access to the channel. But if you need to share the file with someone outside of the channel, you can do so using the share function.

Calendar

Due to its integration with Outlook, Teams also has a section where you can see your calendar. This can allow you to see your upcoming meetings, cancel any existing meetings, or make new meetings.

To schedule a meeting within Teams, you can either click New meeting at the top-right, or you can double-click on a specific block of time for which you would like to schedule the meeting. Either will open the new meeting window, where you can provide a subject, invite people/groups to the meeting, an make changes to the date/time as needed. Similar to Outlook, there is a Scheduling Assistant at the top to aid in ensuring the attendees will all be free at a given time.

Creating a Team

New Teams can be created from within the Teams section by clicking the + button at the top, then Create Team. If you have an existing Microsoft 365 Group, you can also create a Team for that group by selecting From group on the left.

Teams will prompt for a template to be selected when creating the Team. All Teams will have the same functionality, regardless of the template used to create it. It is recommended to pick the template that most closely matches your use case for the Team, but any differences will only be cosmetic as the functionality will be the same.