MS Teams - Functions and Settings for a team

Relevant to: sstudents, staff, and faculty

This article contains information considered accurate at the time of publishing. Technology updates, changes in University security practices, and/or policies and procedures may affect the information in this article - updates to articles are scheduled on a periodic basis and will address any required changes.

Introduction

MS Teams offers a variety of functions and tools to communicate with users across the university. You can set up a “team” to act as a hub for communication and work with a specific set of users. This article will go over some of the functions and settings in and out of MS Teams that you may need when working with your team.

Email Members of a Team with Outlook

Your team is designed to send posts and chat messages within the MS Teams app directly. These are the steps if you need to email your team in Outlook outside of posts and chat messages:

  1. Open Outlook signed in with your Empire State University username and password.
  2. Scroll to the “Groups” header along the left-hand menu; all of the teams you are a member of will be listed there.
  3. Select the team you want to email, and an email history of the team will appear in the second column from the left side of the page.
  4. Click the “Send email” button underneath the team’s name; a third column will open a mostly blank email with the team’s distribution list under the “To:” line.
  5. Write the subject and body of your message.
  6. Click the “Send” button.

Scheduling a Recurring Meeting with Members of Your Team

It’s advisable to schedule any recurring meetings with your team using this method. You will not have to manually input members’ names one by one, and your team will receive a notification in the team’s General Posts tab. All members will see the scheduled meeting. When the meeting day/time arrives, another notification will appear saying "Meet now, a meeting has started" to prompt users to join.

  1. Start in the “General” channel of the team on the “Posts” tab where you want to schedule the meeting.
  2. Click the downward arrow on the “Meet” button in the upper right-hand corner of the team; a drop-down box will appear.
  3. Please note: Clicking the “Meet” button directly (not the arrow) will start a meeting immediately; you cannot schedule from there.
  4. Select the “Schedule a meeting” option; a dialog box will open.
  5. Fill in the calendar invite fields:
    • Title of Meeting (required)
    • Invite any additional attendees who are not members of the team (optional)
    • Start date (required)
    • End date (optional)
    • Recurring date options (daily, weekly, monthly, custom) (optional)
    • Channel (your team’s name should already appear here, no further action required)
    • Add location (if using a physical location in addition to the virtual MS Teams meeting)
    • Description (optional)
  6. Click the “Send” button; the invitation will be sent to all members of the team.
Print Article