Introduction to MS Teams

Meeting notes are now taken directly on the meeting’s Meeting notes tab in the main Teams window. (This is one of the benefits of having the meeting in a separate window.) To access or take notes from within the meeting window, select More options (…) > Show meeting notes and you’ll see the usual side pane come up. In the pane, there is a Take notes button that brings you to the Meeting notes tab.

Focus mode is available when content is being shared. If you’d like to pay close attention to content, without the distraction of seeing video feeds, Focus mode is for you. It’s available in the meeting controls under More options (…) > Focus mode.

Together mode places each meeting participant in a seat in a virtual audience.  This is meant to create a sense of being in one room with all participants.

Together mode is only available when 5 or more participants are sharing video

Together mode can be activated using the menu opened by clicking on the “…” icon in the top-right corner of the screen.

Together mode will place each participant’s video stream in a virtual seat.  This will look something like this:

When to use Together Mode

Together mode is best suited to meetings that will have multiple speakers, groups that will have trouble maintaining attention, and presenters that would like to “read the room” and see all of their attendees faces at once.

When not to use Together Mode

Together mode does not show a user’s background, including items like a whiteboard.  If this is required, together mode is not recommended.
Meetings that will see a lot of people moving around and out of their seats will want to avoid together mode, as this will look strange on the screen.
Together mode currently only supports up to 49 users at a time.  Meetings with more participants than this may want to consider other options.

Large gallery view lets you see up to 49 video streams at once. This view is available when there are 10 or more attendees who are sharing video. To switch to large gallery, go to More options (…) in the meeting controls > Large gallery.

Here’s an example of what the Large gallery looks like:

Meeting Options allow you to  control various participant settings.

How to access Meeting options:

1. In Teams, go to Calendar, open a meeting, and then select Meeting options in the toolbar across the top.
   1. You will be redirected to a web page were you can can then set options like Lobby, Chat and Presenting permissions.

   

2. During a meeting, select More actions at the top of the meeting window, and then Meeting options. A panel will open on the right, and you can change your options right from there.
   1. Another way to get there during a meeting is to select Show participants in the meeting controls. Then, above the list of participants, choose the three dots, select  Manage permission to go to the Meeting options screen.