Microsoft Teams is a piece of collaborative software that allows members of an organisation to chat, make voice and video calls, organise meetings and share and collaborate on documents.

This guide aims to address the various features of Teams so you can make the most of the software when working remotely.

Before you start

Please note: If you are remoting onto a device in your office from a laptop at home, you will need to run Teams on your home device to be able to use the microphone and camera.

Where possible, for the best experience, anyone using Teams to work remotely should do so by downloading the full application as per the instructions under the following section (Accessing Teams), or via the Apple/Google Play store on mobile devices.

Teams web client works best in Chrome browser. If you do not already have this, please visit https://www.google.co.uk/chrome/ to download and install.

Audio calls on Teams are not a replacement for the Chorus telephone system at the University; you will not receive notifications through Teams if you receive a call to your desk phone at work as this runs on an independent system. If you call a colleague using Teams, they will receive the call on Teams and not on their work phone. Users must be logged into Teams to receive calls.

Accessing Teams

Log into https://portal.office.com using your SSO username in the following format bras****@OX.AC.UK enter your SSO password and follow through with your Two Factor Authentication request, after this you will reach the Office 365 portal.

At the top of the portal homepage you will see a list of clickable icons leading to various Office web apps.

Find the Teams icon and click it to open the app:

You can use the Teams web app using the steps above, but there is also a link to download the full Teams desktop client should you wish. The download icon is located in the bottom left-hand corner of the Teams web app UI and looks like this:

Click the link and follow the prompts to install the app on your device. Once the app is installed, log in using your SSO credentials as outlined above.

Teams Overview

When you’re logged into Teams, you’ll see several options down the left-hand side of the interface:

This guide will be divided up into sections addressing each one of these areas of the Teams application, with explanations of the features and functionality offered by each area.

Activity – your recent activity and notification feed

Chat – message a colleague (with options to start a call)

Teams – collaborate and chat within Teams of colleagues

Calendar – schedule remote meetings and view your calendar

Calls – call your contacts, create groups and quickdials

Files – browse, upload and manage files shared through Teams