For all its ever-updated suite of features and tools, Microsoft Teams remains, for most people, a meetings platform. Since the pandemic brought a paradigm shift in the remote working culture, Teams has been adopted by countless businesses across the world to host virtual meetings and conferences.
If your company is one of them, here are some beginner’s tips to enhance and customise your meeting experience.
1. Preview video
You’ve likely got it set to preview your video before entering a call, but what about if you switch your camera on mid-way through? To do this, simply hover over the ‘Turn camera on’ button and you’ll see a small pop-up open just for you to see what’s in shot and give you a quick opportunity to ensure you’re well-lit and straightened up.
2. Apply effects
Also in the preview you can toggle effects. By far the most popular option is ‘Blur my background’ (which does exactly as the name suggests) or you can also select ‘More background effects’ to look at the different virtual options or even add your own.
3. Screen share
One of the most effective Teams meetings tools is the screen share. With this you can deliver a presentation, showcase work in progress or highlight exactly what you’re seeing on a certain website, portal or channel. Simply select ‘Share content’, where you’ll be presented a drop down with your current open windows from which to select what gets shared.
4. Raise a hand
It’s not as easy in virtual meetings to catch the eye of the speaker if you want to interject, so instead simply select ‘Raise hand’ to show you have something to say. When the speaker is ready they can come to you – just remember to put your virtual hand back down again afterwards!
5. Spotlight videos
Any meetings that involve one person speaking at a time (rather than a free-for-all) will benefit from spotlighting the speaker. With this enabled, the person speaking gets a larger frame on the screen, with everyone else minimised. Right click on the speaker then select ‘Spotlight’ (and once more to confirm), to enable this feature.
Armed with these handy tips you can go from a novice to a Teams expert in no time.
