This will be the final post (for now) in my Microsoft Teams series.  Previously I wrote about the apps you can get with the new tool as well as I spoke heavily on the chat feature.  In the future I intend to discuss further how Teams works in the back-end and how it integrates into SharePoint Groups.  Today I am going to finish off discussing Microsoft Teams: meetings and files and how they integrate into the tool and different ways to use them.  If you are looking for the other posts I have completed on Teams please click on one of the links below:

Meetings

In a nutshell, meetings in Teams are an easy way to give  your tired fingers a break and move into a meeting environment.  Meetings can be open to everyone on the team, or even just the people involved in a conversation you are having.  You can have an immediate meeting where it starts as soon as you hit the “magic meeting button” or it can be scheduled for a future date.

Microsoft Teams: Meetings and Files - MagicMeetingButton

A meeting can be in different mediums; including but not limited to video, audio and\or typed (so your fingers may not get a break).  Basically within Teams, a meeting is intended to be a bit more formal than chatting, but still allow for a feeling of being informal by the ability to create an impromptu meeting.

To schedule a meeting you do the following:

  1. Click on the Meetings button in the app.
  2. Click on Schedule Meeting
  3. Fill in the meeting details
  4. Click on Schedule Meeting

Microsoft Teams: Meetings and Files - Creating A Meeting

The meeting will send a notification to all recipients’ via email and the notification will also show up in the recipients’ Teams meeting tab

Microsoft Teams: Meetings and Files - Notification Email  Microsoft Teams: Meetings and Files - App Notification

Once the meeting occurs, the recipients can either join from within their Teams App or from the calendar entry like other Skype for Business meetings.

Files

Like Groups and SharePoint, Yammer and many of the other business apps you use to make collaboration easier, you can also add files to Teams.  The files themselves, when uploaded, are stored in the document library of the Group that is joined to the team when it is created.  Files can be uploaded to a conversation thread, a private chat and to the team file repository in general.  When uploaded, the files are stored within the region they were uploaded into.  For instance, if a file was uploaded into a private chat window, it will only be available in that chat and not the team file repository (they are autonomous of each other).

Microsoft Teams: Meetings and Files - File Upload Storage

Like O365 and SharePoint with Office Online Server installed you have document controls on the document where ever you are viewing it from.  For example, the controls exist in the conversation thread and the file storage location.  You can also share the document from the chat window as well.

Microsoft Teams: Meetings and Files - EditingOfficeDocuments

As you can see from the screen shot above, you can also make the document a tab.  This means you can pin it to your conversation window, chat and\or team window.

Microsoft Teams: Meetings and Files - FileAsATab

You can edit the file within the tab including co-authoring, download it, rename it and remove it from the tabs.  When downloading, it retains the storage location so you can complete your editing within the office client and save it back.  When saved, the tab will update with the changes you made.

That’s all I am going to cover right now with Microsoft Teams.  The app is still being actively updated as it is still in preview.  It is slated for general availability (GA) early in 2017.  This means that if there is a feature you would love to see, there’s still a chance it will be there.  Have ideas or fixes you would like to see for Teams?  Make your voice heard with Microsoft Teams User Voice.

 

Thanks for Reading!