https://dartmsp.com/microsoft-teams-essentials-what-smbs-should-know/As we’ve entered another year where virtual calls and remote work are our reality, it’s no wonder programs like Microsoft Teams are still a part of our daily lives. You may feel like you’ve gotten the hang of Teams by now, but there are some tricks you should consider following if you’d like to make your experience a bit easier and more effective.

For example, knowing how to search within the program, managing notifications to help increase productivity, and leveraging how the translation tool works can help you daily.

If you’re not a Teams power user yet, you’ll be well on your way after reading the tips below.

Search in Microsoft Teams

Teams makes chatting with colleagues on the platform very easy. So easy that your conversations can be extraordinarily long. But don’t worry. If you need to find an answer to your question from a robust conversation, simply press “Ctrl+F” followed by your search term and hit enter. All words associated with that term will be highlighted and easy to find.

The search feature is also available for messages, people, and files. Just type your search terms into the box and use one of the classifying categories to help refine your query. This can reduce the time spent searching for the answer you’re looking for.

Manage notifications

Within any organization, there are meetings, deadlines, presentations, projects, and calendar notifications going off constantly. Teams empowers its users to manage notifications more effectively on the platform. By using the “Custom” option in “Channel Notifications,” users can set specific notifications. Only want to know when a new message is posted to a specific channel? Done. Interested in only being notified on your Activity pane feed and not as a banner? Easy.

Aside from following important channels and customizing notifications, you can also adjust the other notifications in Teams. Instead of being alerted each time someone mentions you on a channel, you can choose to receive a message instead. You can also customize the settings to stop certain notifications. Simply click on your profile picture, hit “Manage Account,” and choose notifications. There you’ll find a long list of potential notifications and can choose which to turn off or leave on.

Translation tool

Finally, consider the translation tool. It enables you to translate simple messages from co-workers, clients, and freelance employees who may not speak the same primary language as you. The tool is also simple to use: Hover over the message, select the ellipsis, and hit translate.

Microsoft Teams has been an incredibly helpful tool over the past couple of years. Using the tips above, you can level up your experience using Teams.