Accessing Microsoft Teams | Navigating MS Teams | Chat | Teams | More Help |

How to Use Microsoft Teams

Accessing Microsoft teams

Access Microsoft (MS) Teams via your web browser, desktop app, or mobile device.

Access via web browser

  1. Navigate to mso365.gmu.edu.
  2. Log in with your NetID, Patriot Pass Password, and 2FA via Duo.
  3. If not on a shared computer, select Stay Signed In option to reduce the number of login prompts.
  4. Click the App Launcher Icon
  5. Select MS Teams from the list

Access via MS Teams Desktop App

  1. Download the desktop app from within the MS Teams web app or from Microsoft at products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/download-app.
  2. From within the web app, there will be an icon located on the bottom-left of the screen below Help to download the desktop app.
  3. Log in with your NetID, Patriot Pass Password, and 2FA via Duo.

Access MS Teams from your Mobile Device

  1. Download the app from the app store from Microsoft at products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/download-app on your mobile device.

MS Teams looks the same whether you are accessing it via the web or desktop application.

Highlights of the navigation bar contain the following:

  • Activity: latest posts, reactions, etc. from chats or channels you participate in
  • Chat: one-to-one or group chat conversations. These persist across platforms and devices
  • Teams: the groups to which you belong, including their channels and related content
  • Calendar: an embedded view of your Microsoft 365 apps for enterprise calendar to help when scheduling team meetings
  • Files: quick access to recent Teams files from a single location or access to your OneDrive for Business files

Chat

Chat provides private conversations between individuals and groups. The Chat tool may be used to:

  • Chat (text) with co-workers.
  • Launch audio or video calls within the system.
    Note: for those with MS teams loaded on a mobile device, these will ring like phone calls.
  • Share your desktop for collaboration.
  • Share documents and files.

Teams

Overview

Teams consist of groups of users working together around a particular topic. This can be a department or group, committee, project, or any shared interest. Each team consists of the following user roles:

  • Owners: those with permissions to configure team settings and manage membership
  • Members: those who have access to the team

Channels

Channels represent the sub-topics within a team. Teams may have many channels and they may be open to all members or a subset of the team. Each channel has a set of associated tabs that is customizable by the Team’s owners.

  • Posts: this is the conversation area within a channel. Similar to chat, this is an area to converse and share.
  • Files: this is a shared file space for the channel. Share and collaborate on documents right in the browser without having to email them back and forth. Version history is also tracked.
  • Team Notebook: OneNote notebook for the channel (available for Staff Teams)
  • Other Tab Options: Customize the channel by adding other tabs including MS Planner, Office applications, Forms, and even embedded web pages (URLs)

Notifications

MS Teams allows for notifications on desktops and/or mobile devices in response to a variety of actions.

  • Desktop Client: click on your profile picture (or initials if no profile picture) at the top-right and then select Settings > Notifications

Mobile App: select More  > Settings > Notifications

For more information, see the MS guide on configuring notifications.

Get notified on your desktop, via email, and more.

MS Teams Notifications

@Mentions

At Mention is used in posts to notify users when they are mentioned. By typing the @ sign before the person’s name, their name will be pulled in from the directory as you type it. This is a quick way to type a general post, but make sure specific people receive it.

More Help

Microsoft Training Videos

Video Tutorials and additional training are provided by Microsoft on the MS Teams Video Training Page. Videos are typically less than 5 minutes long and include topics such as:

  • Quick Start
  • Intro to Microsoft Teams
  • Setting up and Customizing your Teams
  • Collaborating in Teams and Channels
  • And more…

Mason’s MS Teams Community of Practice

In addition to the general training provided by Microsoft, Mason has created an MS Teams Community of Practice. The Community of Practice is a team for interested Mason users, which provides a space for a crowd-sourced forum and communication of Teams updates and resources.

 

MS Teams is a self-service application. Training and support provided by ITS are limited to account access questions.

Last modified: July 1, 2021