Mastering Microsoft Teams Messaging: A Guide to Message Bar Features
Exploring the Message Bar in Teams When you open a chat or channel in Teams, the message bar is where you type your messages. But beyond just text, it offers several features that make communication more effective. Here’s a breakdown of what you can do: 1. Rich Text Formatting ("A" Icon) The "A" (Format) button expands the message bar, allowing you to: Apply bold, italics, underline, and strikethrough for emphasis. Adjust font size, color, and highlight for clarity. Create ordered and unordered lists for structured communication. Insert quotes and code snippets for technical discussions. 2. @Mentions for Attention Using @ followed by a name notifies a specific person in a chat or channel, ensuring they don’t miss important messages. In channels, you can also mention: @team – The name of the team: Notifies everyone in the team. @channel – The name of the channel: Alerts everyone following the channel. @everyone - Alerts everyone in a chat. 3. Attach Files (Paperclip Icon) Teams makes it easy to share files directly in chat. You can: Upload files from OneDrive or your local device. Drag and drop files into the message bar. Collaborate in real time on Office documents. Find the paperclip icon, by clicking on the '+' icon. 4. Emojis, GIFs, and Stickers Enhance engagement with: 😀 Emojis – Express emotions quickly. 🎭 GIFs – Add fun or emphasize messages. 🖼️ Stickers & Memes – Create customized visuals. 5. Inline Reactions Instead of replying, hover over a message and use quick reactions like 👍❤️😂 to acknowledge messages instantly. 6. Loop Components For interactive collaboration, Loop Components allow you to create: Live task lists Shared tables Real-time checklists These stay editable by everyone in the chat, keeping information updated. 7. Urgent & Important Messages (! Icon) Teams lets you mark messages as: Important (Red exclamation mark) – Highlights key messages. Urgent (Red bell) – Sends repeated notifications to ensure visibility. Navigate to the '+' for Action and Apps Click on the "Set delivery options" Select which delivery options you would like 8. Meeting Scheduling (Calendar Icon) If a conversation needs a deeper discussion, use the Schedule a Meeting button to book a Teams meeting instantly. First click on the '+' icon and find the 'Schedule meeting' option. 9. Schedule a Message If there is a need to send a message later, perhaps during normal working hours or as a reminder to a teammate at a certain time, schedule a message for the best date and time up to a week in the future. 10. Immersive Reader (Three Dots Menu) This accessibility feature reads messages aloud and adjusts text size for better readability. Hover over a message Click on the three dots menu that appears If not enabled yet, hover over More Actions Click on Immersive Reader The messages will appear in new screen click on "ESC" button to exit 11. Copilot AI Assistance (accessible with a subscription) For organizations with a Copilot license, Microsoft Teams now includes AI-powered assistance directly in chat. With Copilot, you can: Summarize long chat threads to quickly catch up on conversations. Draft messages with AI suggestions to improve clarity and tone. Extract action items from discussions to ensure follow-ups aren’t missed. Ask for insights about ongoing conversations, making it easier to stay informed. Copilot in Teams is a premium feature, available only to organizations subscribed to Microsoft’s AI-enabled subscribed plans/licenses. It’s a game-changer for productivity, reducing manual effort in message drafting and task tracking. Conclusion The message bar in Microsoft Teams is more than just a text box—it’s a productivity powerhouse. Whether you're formatting messages, sharing files, collaborating with Loop, or leveraging AI with Copilot, knowing these features can enhance your communication experience. 💬 What’s your favorite Teams messaging feature? Let us know in the comments!Engage, Empower, Excel - Fun Ways Nonprofits Can Use Microsoft Polls
Polls for Nonprofits: The Secret Sauce for Engagement! Microsoft Polls is a built-in feature that helps nonprofits quickly gather feedback, spark engagement, and make data-driven decisions—all without switching apps. And the best part? It’s easy and free for organizations using Microsoft 365! 🙌 🎯 Why Should Nonprofits Use Microsoft Polls? Quick Decisions, Less Guesswork – Need to decide on a meeting time? Want feedback on an upcoming fundraising campaign? Fire off a quick poll and get instant results. Boost Engagement & Participation – Volunteers and staff love to feel heard! Polls encourage collaboration and help keep meetings dynamic instead of crickets 🦗. Data You Can Actually Use – Poll responses are stored in Forms and can be analyzed later, helping you track trends and make informed decisions for your mission-driven work. Perfect for Remote & Hybrid Teams – Whether your team is all in one place or spread across different time zones, polls make sure everyone's voice matters! 🌍 🚀 How to Create a Poll in Microsoft Teams (It’s Easy!) Open the Apps icon in Microsoft Teams. Type in Polls in the search. Add the Polls app. Optionally pin to your menu bar if you will use it frequently. Choose a channel, chat or meeting you’d like to use Polls in and then select Open. Select Create a new Poll. Craft poll questions and responses and then select preview. Choose whether you want to record the names of respondents (visible to creator only). Choose whether you want to share results with the respondents. Select Preview and then make edits or send the poll. The chosen chat, channel or meeting will now see the poll and be able to submit responses. If you have selected to have aggregated responses visible, they will also be able to see them in real time. Poll results can also be found in Microsoft Forms. You can also create polls in Teams meetings to keep your audience engaged and interactive—perfect for virtual town halls, volunteer training, or staff check-ins. 🎉 Fun Ways Nonprofits Can Use Microsoft Polls Fundraising Brainstorming: “What theme should our next fundraiser be? 🎭🕺🏾🎨” Training & Development: “What cybersecurity topic should we cover next?” (Because cyber threats don’t take breaks! 🔐) Volunteer Scheduling: “What weekend works best for our community event? 📅” Just for Fun: “How do we feel about pineapple on pizza? 🍍🍕” (Because, yes, team bonding matters!) 🏆 Pro Tip: Make Polls a Habit! Want to keep engagement high? Try making a quick weekly poll part of your team meetings. Whether it’s a serious topic or just a lighthearted check-in, using Microsoft Polls can make work feel less like work and more like a collaborative experience. So, next time you're in a Teams meeting, give Microsoft Polls a spin and see how it transforms engagement for your nonprofit! 🚀💙 Have you tried Microsoft Polls in Teams yet? Drop a comment and share how your nonprofit is using it! 👇How the Microsoft Updates App Keeps Your Nonprofit on Track
Why Nonprofits Will Love the Microsoft Updates App Picture this: Your nonprofit is launching a new community outreach program. There are multiple moving parts—grant approvals, partnerships, volunteer coordination, and event planning. Instead of sending scattered messages or manually updating spreadsheets, you can use the Microsoft Updates App to track progress, update stakeholders, and ensure nothing falls through the cracks. Here’s how it helps: ✔ Clear visibility on project progress – Easily see what’s been completed and what’s still in progress. ✔ Keep everyone aligned – Share updates with staff, volunteers, or board members without cluttering inboxes. ✔ Reduce repetitive check-ins – Instead of constantly asking for status updates, team members can submit the latest updates in Teams anytime. Getting Started: Setting Up the Microsoft Updates App It’s super easy to get started! Here’s how: ️Load the App – Open Microsoft Teams, click the ellipses in the left-hand menu and search for "Updates". You can also right-click and pin the app to your Teams menu for easy access. Give an Update – Select Quick Update to send an update to your team or specific person. Collect Updates – Collect updates from your team by selecting the Collect Updates or Explore all templates. Here you will find templates for Weekly updates, daily well-being, project progress or even by category: Software Development, Finance, etc. Customize – Inside each template you will be able to customize the questions and configure settings such as who submits the form, who can view the submissions, who can manage the request, set due dates and recurrences etc. Once you make your changes you can then publish the request. Assigned submitters will get a notification of the request, or you can post the link in a chat or channel. Review – Lastly, at the bottom of your homepage you will be able to review the update submissions (received and submitted) as well as manage requests. Final Thoughts: A Simple Way to Stay Organized Nonprofits juggle a lot of moving pieces and keeping everyone informed doesn’t have to be complicated. The Microsoft Updates App in Teams provides an easy way to track progress, share updates, and keep your initiatives moving forward—all in one place. Try it today and take the stress out of project updates!Microsoft 365 Champions community call | January 2025 | PM
Join us to see the reimagined chat and channels experience in Microsoft Teams to help you collaborate more efficiently and effectively! Learn more about this streamlined experience and how you can organize conversations your way. Host: Tiffany Lee Guest: Diana Hsu Moderator: Jessie Hwang 📢 Each call includes a live Q&A, where you'll have a chance to ask your questions about Microsoft 365. Ask your questions via Comments on this page: https://aka.ms/M365ChampionCallPM ⏰ 👋 Join the Microsoft 365 Champion program today! Champions combine technical acumen with people skills to drive meaningful change. Join now: https://aka.ms/M365Champions. Note: If you are unable to watch the recording on YouTube, try watching it here.What’s Included with Microsoft’s Granted Offerings for Nonprofits?
Are you a nonprofit looking to boost your impact with cutting-edge technology? Microsoft is here to help! From free software licenses to guided technical documentation and support, this program offers a range of resources designed to empower your organization. In this blog, we’ll dive into the incredible tools and grants available to nonprofits through Microsoft, showing you how to make the most of these generous offerings. Whether you’re managing projects or just trying to simplify your day-to-day tasks, there’s something here for everyone. Let’s explore what’s possible!One-click AI agents in SharePoint and Teams — focused on files you select (Microsoft 365 Copilot)
Streamline your workflow and enhance team collaboration with one-click AI agents in Microsoft 365 Copilot. Automate responses, generate detailed documents, and maintain up-to-date content without moving files outside Microsoft 365. Agents utilize your existing content to provide accurate and efficient outputs, saving you time and ensuring consistency. Integrate them into Microsoft Teams to facilitate real-time information sharing and collaboration. CJ Tan, Microsoft SharePoint and OneDrive GPM, shares the steps to get started building custom AI agents. Create AI agents in one click to handle projects and tasks. Ensure important questions are answered — even while you’re away. See it here. Save time with agents in SharePoint. Scoped to only select SharePoint files for your specific business needs. See how you can create AI agents in one click. Use and share agents in SharePoint in Teams chats. @mention your agent, get instant responses and precise information for team discussions. See it here. Watch our video here. QUICK LINKS: 00:00 — Create specialist agents in one click 00:42 — How to create an agent 02:12 — Data security & version control 02:39 — Customize your agent 04:14 — Access and permissions 05:39 — Test it out 06:23 — Use agents in Teams 07:50 — Agent files 08:25 — Wrap up Link References For more ideas and details for building your own agents, check out https://aka.ms/SharePointAgentsAdoption Unfamiliar with Microsoft Mechanics? As Microsoft’s official video series for IT, you can watch and share valuable content and demos of current and upcoming tech from the people who build it at Microsoft. Subscribe to our YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/c/MicrosoftMechanicsSeries Talk with other IT Pros, join us on the Microsoft Tech Community:https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-mechanics-blog/bg-p/MicrosoftMechanicsBlog Watch or listen from anywhere, subscribe to our podcast:https://microsoftmechanics.libsyn.com/podcast Keep getting this insider knowledge, join us on social: Follow us on Twitter:https://twitter.com/MSFTMechanics Share knowledge on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft-mechanics/ Enjoy us on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/msftmechanics/ Loosen up with us on TikTok:https://www.tiktok.com/@msftmechanics Video Transcript: -Did you know that if you have Microsoft 365 Copilot, you can create specialist agents in just one click to help you and your team with your specified topics and tasks? For example, imagine if you are working in a different time zone to the rest of your team, so you often wake up to a bunch of their unanswered messages at the start of your day. Now, while you are asleep or away, your agent, grounded in the knowledge you give it, can answer specific questions from your team on your behalf, freeing you up. In fact, all you need to build your agent is your content in SharePoint and an idea for where an agent can help you in the course of your day. Let me show you how easy it is to create one. My team writes product specifications for Contoso Energy’s solar panel arrays. In SharePoint, all I have to do is select the folders or individual files that I want this agent to focus on. -Here, I have files that have already been uploaded. You can also upload new files, where SharePoint will index those files for you in a few moments. I’ll select all of these product specifications. On top of the screen, you can see the create an agent control. I’ll click that. And with just one click, the agent is ready and grounded with all my selected files. And I can try it right from here. So, I’ll prompt it with compare each solar panel array with details on the home range in square feet for the two types of materials offered. Add the average home square footage per array size and price ranges for each. And it gives me all the details across the files that I added as grounding information. So it’s generated a response by panel array type and home square footage. And I can let my agent reason over that information, too. For example, if I’m new to the team and am looking for a product recommendation based on the size of a house. I’ll use my customer has a 2900 square foot home and wants the most efficient solar panel type and the right size solar panel array. What do you recommend? And here, it recommends a specific panel array based on the home size and tells me what panel type is most efficient with more detail. So, let’s rewind what we saw because I want to point out a few things. -First, unlike other options you may have tried, you don’t have to move your files outside of Microsoft 365. You don’t need to worry about version control. Your files are always up-to-date as you and your team continue to edit them. And your agent is always working with the latest information. And all of your data security protections, such as file labels and encryption, remain in place to help prevent data loss. Now, let me walk through another example of this, and this time I’ll customize the agent to show you the options. Let’s say that you spend a lot of time building written project plans. Each has a similar structure and tone, but details will change based on each project-related tasks and other aspects. Wouldn’t it be great to use your existing files as baseline templates, and then just point to a small set of details to author new project plans? Let me show you how that would work. So I’m looking at another SharePoint site for project planning. There are two folders here. This one contains all the recent completed project plans, like you saw before. -Now, I’ll show you what’s in the other folder. It contains project intake forms. I’ll also open up one of these intake forms. And you’ll see that it just lists key details and differentiators for one specific project. So, this time I’m just going to select the Completed Installation Project Plans folder as the baseline knowledge for my agent. Then I just need to click Create an agent. And if I wanted to, I could start using it right away by hitting Try it. But in this case, I want to add a few more details to make it easy for anyone on my team to start using it, so I’m going to choose Edit. Here, I can choose to rename. I’ll do that. There’s an option to brand it with a different icon image, but I’ll skip that for now, and give it a more detailed description here. In the Sources tab, I can see that my SharePoint folder is already selected, and I can choose to add another SharePoint site or more libraries, folders, or files. I can select here up to 20 sources. Importantly, agents do not grant access to your selected content. Which means that for anyone using the agent, they will only get responses based on the files and locations that they already have access to. In my case, I’m going to keep what’s on the Sources tab. -Now, I’ll move to the Behavior tab. Here, I can add a message to help others understand how best to use this agent. And below that, I can add starter prompts. These are recommendations that you can make for anyone to quickly get value from what your agent can do. I’m going to add one here for creating a new project plan based on the defined knowledge from our folder of completed project plans. It also has an instruction to reference a specific project intake form using the paperclip or forward slash. I can add two more starter prompts, but in this case, I’ll remove the other two by deleting the text. That way my agent is focused on this one task. Below that are the instructions for the agent. Here, it’s best to be very specific about your expectations for what it should do. I’m going to paste in a command to output content very close to our completed project plans. I can test it from here, but I’ll hit Save instead, so I can use it full screen from our SharePoint site. So now the agent is ready and discoverable for anyone with access and permissions to this SharePoint site. -Let’s try it out. This agent file is my new agent, and I’ll open it. And I’m going to use the starter prompt that I configured earlier. I’ll use this paperclip button to attach the project intake form that I just opened with the new details and submit my prompt. And you’ll see the output as it’s getting generated is following the structure of the completed project document and adding the details from the project intake form that I referenced in my prompt. Now I have a completed project plan like I wanted. Again, I didn’t need to move files from their original location, and everything remained within my compliance boundary in Microsoft 365. -From here, I can copy the output and put it into Word or an email and make any additional edits. And something else I want to show you is how you will be able to use this agent in the context of Microsoft Teams. I’m going to use Share and Copy link to add this to my clipboard. Now, I’ll move over to Microsoft Teams in a group chat. Note that this also works in meeting chats. So I’ll paste in the link and send it to the group. There it is. I’ll confirm that I want to add it to this chat. And from there, I can just @mention my agent to work with it like a team member in this chat. -This time, instead of asking it to generate a project plan, I’ll prompt it for details about the completed project plans in the knowledge source folder. I’ll prompt the agent with which project plans have been created for locations in Sunnyvale? And I can see that four of them are completed for that location. Now, I’ll prompt it, how many weeks does it take to run the full project for an A400 solar panel array? And it gives me a detailed breakdown of the project phases. Others in this chat can ask follow-up questions, like you’re seeing now, whether smaller homes take less time. And there is another detailed response. So, we can use this information for future projects and customer inquiries. Of course, that is just one example, and you can use the same approach to help develop other types of documents and collaborate with your team. And by the way, your context documents don’t need to be as structured or complete. They can even reference notes or meeting transcripts for similar outputs. -Now, let’s dig into the .agent files that you might have noticed earlier in our SharePoint document library. You can use these files and click on them to open your agents. And the files themselves contain everything that you configured in your agent. Here’s the agent file I built before and this is the schema. And you’ll see the starter prompts here, the agent name, the description that was added, and the instructions, and below that are the selected grounding data sources. Additionally, these files use the same labeling and policy protections as other files stored in SharePoint and OneDrive, too. -So, that was an overview of the approaches you can use for building agents. As you saw, all you need to bring to this experience is your content and an idea for where your agent can help you in the course of your day. Beyond building your own agents, each SharePoint site will include a built-in agent focused on the content on the site, so you can get started right away. For more ideas and details for building your own agents, check out aka.ms/SharePointAgentsAdoption to see what’s possible. And be sure to subscribe to Microsoft Mechanics, and thanks for watching.Get to know the Microsoft Teams new chat and channels experience
The new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience is designed to revolutionize the way you collaborate, making it more dynamic and intuitive than ever before. With enhanced features that streamline communication, this update ensures you never miss an important message. This article aims to aggregate helpful new resources to best understand the coming updates, how best to use them, and to best plan for broader adoption within your organization.Microsoft Teams new chat and channels AMA (Ask Microsoft Anything)
NOW ON DEMAND | Microsoft Teams product makers were on hand to answer your open questions during the live Ask Microsoft Anything (AMA), live, and hear your feedback – It was an opportunity to connect with Teams product experts behind the new chat and channels experience. New questions are now closed, and you can respond to existing chat threads. Helpful resources to review before attending this webinar: Review Jeff Teper's blog, "Streamline collaboration with the new chat and channels experience in Microsoft Teams" to learn more. Noga Ronen's tech blog: "Introducing the new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience" New adoption microsite: "The new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience" New eBook: "Microsoft Teams: The new chat and channels experience - A Public Preview guide" And hear from Teams product leads, Russell Dicker and Arpana Barve, as they chat with Karuana Gatimu about: "Designing the new Microsoft Teams chat and channels experience"Microsoft 365 Administration Cookbook: Essential Recipes for IT Pros
I'm excited to announce the release of my 10th book, Microsoft 365 Administration Cookbook: Enhance Your Microsoft 365 Productivity to Manage and Optimize Its Apps and Services. This fully updated second edition cookbook is packed with recipes to spice up and streamline your Microsoft 365 administration and features a foreword by Karuana Gatimu, Director of Microsoft's M365 Customer Advocacy Group. Key Features: Manage Identities and Roles: Efficiently handle Microsoft 365 identities, groups, and permissions. Streamline Communication and Teamwork: Optimize Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online, and SharePoint for seamless collaboration. Enhance Productivity and Knowledge Sharing: Leverage Microsoft Search, SharePoint, and OneDrive for effective information retrieval and document management. Automate with PowerShell: Master PowerShell to automate tasks and manage roles, improving service efficiency. Optimize Security and Compliance: Strengthen your environment with Microsoft Defender and manage compliance with Microsoft Purview. This cookbook provides step-by-step recipes for app configurations and administrative tasks, offering strategies for managing Microsoft 365 apps and services. It covers new features and capabilities introduced in this edition and guides you through navigating Microsoft 365 subscription options and services. Whether you're a seasoned IT professional or new to Microsoft 365, this book is designed to enhance your skills with practical insights and best practices. Purchase your copy today. Thanks for your support, Nate Chamberlain
