Microsoft Teams for MCS: Getting Started Updated 20200320 Adiaz

Microsoft Teams for MCS: Getting Started Updated 20200320 adiaz

Contents Overview ...... 2 How to access Microsoft Teams ...... 3 Get to Teams on your computer ...... 3 Get to Teams on your phone or tablet ...... 3 Get to Teams in a browser ...... 3 How to start using Microsoft Teams ...... 4 Set up a Teams Chat ...... 4 Attend a Teams Meeting ...... 5 Join a Teams meeting to which you have been invited ...... 5 Set up a Teams Meeting ...... 6 Instant Teams Meetings ...... 6 Video Meetings ...... 6 Audio Meetings/Calls ...... 6 Screen Sharing ...... 6 Scheduled Teams Meetings ...... 6 Non-Microsoft Teams Meeting and Chat Options ...... 7 Add an App to Microsoft Teams ...... 7 Appendix A: Check out your computer audio and webcam with a test call...... 8 Appendix B: Troubleshooting Computer Audio ...... 10 Appendix C: Optional Next Steps in Teams ...... 15

Overview Microsoft Teams is a secure chat program and shared work area that is part of Marietta City Schools’ Office 365 subscription. It integrates with Outlook and your normal @marietta-city.k12.ga.us email address, and at the basic level lets you use your internet connection to chat with and instant message your colleagues, individually and in groups. It also lets you set up scheduled and instant calls, video meetings, and screen sharing, right from the chat area. All MCS employees with an email address have access to Teams.

A few other features:

1. Easy group chat via WiFi. Set up custom groups for specific needs or have multiple one-on-one private chats. Only the persons in the chat can see that content, and it is searchable later. 2. Teams looks at your Outlook calendar and call activity to automatically color code your availability status – a small dot on your avatar shows green for available, red for in a meeting/do not disturb, white with an x for not signed in, and orange for away. Status can also be set manually. 3. You can enter a video call, audio call, or screen-sharing session directly from chat – see circles below. Meetings use computer audio by default. 4. Teams is available on both iOS and Android; calls from Teams can ring your phone if you have installed the app and allowed notifications. 5. Notifications can be customized for your phone, your browser, and your installed program. Do not disturb and quiet hours are available, as are email notifications for those that want them.

How to access Microsoft Teams There are a couple of ways to get to Teams. For any method, the log-in email and password is the same as the one for Outlook and for your computer. Get to Teams on your computer If you are going to be attending Meetings in Microsoft Teams, you will have less lag/fewer potential bandwidth issues if you connect via the desktop version of the app.

First, disconnect from any remote workstation – you can leave your VPN connected, but you want to make sure to install Microsoft Teams to your laptop/computer where you physically are.

Go to https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads and click the Download Teams button. Click on the file (usually at the bottom left) to open it and follow the prompts to install the program.

Once it is installed, click the Windows button at the bottom right of your screen to bring up your list of installed programs – it will be under M. I recommend you pin it to your start menu or to the taskbar at the bottom of your screen so you can find it again easily – do this by right clicking on the program icon and choosing Pin to Start or Pin to Taskbar.

Get to Teams on your phone or tablet Scroll further down on the https://teams.microsoft.com/downloads website to find links for Microsoft Teams phone apps, or search for Microsoft Teams on your phone’s app store. Get to Teams in a browser Open your favorite web browser.

Option 1, go to https://teams.microsoft.com/ and sign in with your @marietta-city.k12.ga.us email and regular password. That’s it. You can pin the Teams page in your browser by right clicking the top tab and choosing Pin.

Option 2, go to https://www.office.com/ and sign in with your @marietta-city.k12.ga.us email and regular password. Teams is one of the icons at the top - click it. This is also an easy place to get to the web version of Outlook and your recent OneDrive files. I recommend pinning this page in your browser or saving it to bookmarks for easy access.

How to start using Microsoft Teams Open Teams on your computer (most versatile option), in a browser, or on your phone. Sign in with your @marietta- city.k12.ga.us email and regular password. Set up a Teams Chat Click the Start New Chat Icon at the top.

In the To: box at the top, start typing the MCS email address of the person or persons you want to talk to. The address book is the Global Address List from Outlook, making colleagues easy to find. Groups in Outlook contacts will not show up here – add each person individually to a group chat.

When the name or names is/are in the To: box, click in the box at the bottom of the screen that says Type a new message.

Type a message in the box, then key Enter or click the Send icon at the bottom right – it looks like the top of a paper airplane.

That’s it!

If it is the first time you have sent a Teams chat to someone, they will get an email notification that you are trying to reach them via Teams.

If a colleague is not signed in, the message will be waiting for them when they do sign in.

If this first message is urgent, contact the recipient directly via email or another method to let them know you want to use Teams chat with them; Microsoft Teams is new to MCS and they may not respond to the email notification.

For chats with more than one person, you can change the label of the chat by clicking the pencil icon at the top of the chat next to the current chat name. Chats with one person are always labeled with that person’s name.

The chat list defaults to showing the most recently updated chats. To pin chats to the top so you see them every time you are in Teams, right click on the name of the chat in the chat list at the left, and select Pin.

You can also add files, websites, or apps to the top of the chat. Files can be added from your OneDrive. Click the + icon at the top of the chat to add tabs for websites or apps.

Attend a Teams Meeting Make sure you have a working headset or microphone and speakers (see Appendix A).

Your laptop is likely to have a webcam, your monitors are not – plan to participate in video meetings in front of your laptop or with video turned off.

Join a Teams meeting to which you have been invited:

Option A: In Microsoft Teams installed on your laptop, click the Calendar Icon on the left, then click the Join that appears on the meeting record as the meeting time approaches.

Option B: go to your Outlook calendar (not on a remote machine), open the meeting in your calendar as usual, and click the link that says Join Microsoft Teams Meeting.

That’s it.

Set up a Teams Meeting Microsoft Teams meetings allow for communication with computer audio and video, or they can call your phone if you have installed the Microsoft Teams app. There is even in-Teams voicemail… Instant Teams Meetings To start a Microsoft Teams Meeting immediately, first have a look at your co-workers’ current availability color codes. In general, instant meetings are most likely to be available with folks who have a green dot next to their name. If the dot next to their name is red they are currently in another meeting or do not wish to be disturbed. White dots = not signed in; orange dots = signed in, but hasn’t been active for a few minutes – might be available; might not. Just like with FaceTime or other meeting apps, invited persons can choose to deny the call. Instant Meetings do not show up on your Outlook calendar, but they do change your availability indicator to red to show you are not available, and they do show up in your Microsoft Teams activity feed (Click the bell icon at the top left).

If everyone is available, go to your chat with the folks you want to meet with, then click one of the buttons at the top right. It will call everyone in the chat, so be sure you are in the right chat before you click the button.

Video Meetings The video camera icon starts a video meeting. Attendees can mute themselves by toggling the microphone icon, or can be muted by the organizer from the attendees list (accessed by toggling the icon with people on it). You can choose to share your screen from a video meeting, or have another attendee share their screen.

In a video meeting, attendees can decide whether to enable their webcams or not. If they have poor bandwidth, audio- only may help call quality. A blurred background is available to folks who attend from a potentially distracting location.

You can continue to work in Teams while attending a video call. For example, you can click the Chat Icon on the left and the streaming video will shrink itself to allow you to access the rest of Teams. This also allows you to team edit shared documents while in a video meeting. To end a video meeting, click the red horizontal phone handset icon.

Audio Meetings/Calls The old-school phone handset icon starts an audio meeting or call. These can ring to your computer or to your phone if you have installed the Microsoft Teams app. You can also adjust your settings so that incoming calls go directly to Teams voicemail. To hang up, click the red horizontal handset icon.

Screen Sharing If you want to share your screen, with or without audio, click the icon that looks like a rectangle with an arrow going up into it. First, be patient, as it takes a few seconds to start the screen sharing. If you have multiple monitors or applications open, it will ask you which screen you want to share. It will also give you the option of adding audio. If you do not want audio, just ignore the pop-up – closing it will also close the screen-share. Scheduled Teams Meetings To schedule a Microsoft Teams meeting ahead of time, you can start a meeting in Outlook as usual, then click the Teams Meeting button in the ribbon – it will insert a link to the Teams Meeting in the body of the meeting, allowing attendees to just click the link to join the meeting.

Note the colored squares next to each person’s name – this shows the person’s availability right now as you prepare this invitation. The color of the square in Outlook is the same as the color of the dot in Teams chat. 6

Alternately, you can click the Calendar icon at the left in Teams, then click the button for + New Meeting at the top right. I don’t recommend this, as it does not allow contact groups to be added all at once. Outlook is faster and easier to use.

Non-Microsoft Teams Meeting and Chat Options If you want to meet with someone who is not in Teams or who needs to call in with a phone instead of using computer audio, there are options.

Zoom is a newer well-known service that has free accounts to start with and has integration into Teams. You can sign up for a free Zoom account with your work email at https://zoom.us/signup, and then connect it to Teams by adding the Zoom app (see below for instructions on adding an app). Or, if you prefer not to connect it to Teams, you can have meetings from the Zoom site or app. There is a chat function in Zoom, but Outlook contacts are not pre-populated – you have to invite folks to sign up first.

Google Meet is a service included with MCS’s Google Suite subscription – https://meet.google.com/ Sign in with your @marietta-schools.net email and your regular password. Google Chat is available at https://chat.google.com/ with the same login. These don’t integrate with Outlook, so they are not as handy as Microsoft Teams for seeing who is available right now. They are also associated with an email address that most MCS employees seldom check. You can find colleagues, but there is no telling when they will see the notification.

GoToMeeting is an older well-known paid service. MCS has one paid account, which is first-come-first serve. It’s OK. Add an App to Microsoft Teams To add an app, click the apps icon at the bottom left, then use the search bar to find the app you want to add. Follow the prompts to install. Be cautious, many apps require a paid account to work.

Appendix A: Check out your computer audio and webcam with a test call. In the downloaded-and-installed-on-your-local-computer version of Microsoft Teams, click on the circle at the top with your picture or initials in it. The test call is not available in the browser version.

In the menu that drops down, select Settings.

In Settings, select Devices, then click the Make a test call button. You will also see a preview of your webcam, if you don’t have it covered or turned off. Plan ahead.

It will open a video window that shows your webcam view at the bottom – this is what it would look like if you were on a call with someone who is only sharing audio. It will ask you to record a short message after the beep. Do that, wait a little longer than you think it should take, and it should play back the message you recorded.

After it hangs up, it will show you test call results. If your microphone is unavailable or says something about remote, disconnect any remote connection to another computer and do another test call. If that still doesn’t work, continue to Appendix B: Troubleshooting Computer Audio.

Appendix B: Troubleshooting Computer Audio If your sound or microphone is not working, here are some things to check.

If you are not using a headset, you may still have a microphone and speakers on your computer. Testing is the same.

If you are using a headset, make sure it is the kind with a microphone – they can look very similar to the ones without a mic. A corded headset that works in your phone or tablet should also work in your computer (except for those with specialized connectors – you can use an adapter if you have one).

Make sure your headset connector is plugged directly into the computer in front of you. Theoretically, plugging into a docking station or KVM switch will also work, but the fewer levels of connection required, the less can go wrong.

Look at the sound icon at the bottom of your screen and make sure it is not crossed out and does not have an X next to it – either one means that your sound is muted. If it is muted, click the sound icon and move the slider until the sound is at a comfortable volume over zero.

If all of this still hasn’t helped, it’s time to check settings. They are easy to get to by right clicking the sound icon at the bottom of your screen.

The menu that opens up has Troubleshoot sound problems at the bottom – you can select that and watch Windows run a wizard to check stuff out and that may do the trick.

If it doesn’t help, the next thing to check is what hardware your computer thinks you are using for audio. Right click on the sound icon to open the menu, and click Open Sound Settings.

In Sound Settings, look at the dropdown under “Choose your output device”. If it says something about remote audio, disconnect from your remote computer and try again – you can leave the VPN connected.

If it says a set of headphones or speakers that you are not expecting, click the dropdown menu and choose the device you are actually using.

This is also a place to adjust your volume – it matches the level at the bottom of your screen.

Do the same review with your input device/microphone. Pick the one you are expecting to use. If you have a headset with both headphones and a mic, make sure you choose the headset for both so they can cooperate.

Under Input, you can Test your microphone – you should see the little bar moving as you talk into the mic.

When you are done choosing your output device and your input device, close the settings window. You do not have to save changes.

If your microphone and/or speakers are still not working, the last place to check before calling IT for help is found by right clicking on the volume icon in the taskbar, then selecting Sounds from the same menu as before.

When the small window opens up, it will likely be on the Sounds tab. Choose the Playback tab and see which speakers or headset is currently set as the Default Communications Device.

If your Default Communications Device is the same as your Default Device, it will only say Default Device.

If your computer has a default device that is not the one you want to be using for conference calls, right click on the name of the correct device and select Set as Default Communication Device. While you are in there, go ahead and repeat the process to select Set as Default Device. This way, no matter what you are doing on your work computer, it knows your preferred device.

There may be times when you want the default device and the default communication device to be different – for example, if you want to play music with one while on a call with another – feel free to experiment after verifying that your device will work for conference calls.

Do the same thing for the Recording tab – right click the correct microphone and set as default communications device and default device. CLICK OK to save your changes.

Now that the computer knows the device or devices you want to use for conference calls, go back to the Microsoft Teams program that you downloaded to your computer and re-try the Test call described in Appendix A. If it is still not working, it’s time to call IT.

Appendix C: Optional Next Steps in Teams For groups that want to use Teams for more than Chat, there is the option of a formal Team. The Team can have channels that act as repositories and focused chat areas for different projects or work areas, and each channel can be customized in a lot of ways. You can forward emails directly to each channel, can add tabs for frequently visited websites and apps, and can have private channels that are only available to those invited. All of it is searchable by folks with access, and there are many apps available for channels, including the ones for chat (Posts) and a lot more. If you want to do task management, project management, or other management-oriented tasks, this might be useful to you.

To get set up with a department or group team, contact Danielle Small in Technology – [email protected]