Three-minute read

One standout feature that illustrates the user-friendliness and versatility of Microsoft Teams is its ability to integrate common technologies into the platform. For example, did you know you can make YouTube videos easily accessible for you and your teammates in Teams?

Plus, it’s really easy to do!

Here’s how:

1. Start with the Video: Go to the YouTube video you wish to add to Teams, click the Share button, and then select Copy to copy the link.

2. Begin Integration in Teams: Click the + button at the top right of the channel toolbar where you want the video.

3. Add YouTube as a New Tab: A screen titled “Add a tab” will appear. Type “YouTube” in the search field, and click the YouTube icon when it shows up.

4. Incorporate YouTube into Your Channel: On the following screen, click Add to add YouTube to your Teams channel.

5. Embed the Video: Paste the copied YouTube URL and press Enter. When the video preview pops up, click on it and then select Save.

6. You’re All Set!: Now, the YouTube video should be visible as a new tab in your Teams channel.

Microsoft Teams isn’t just a tool for collaboration; it’s a comprehensive platform that boosts productivity in diverse organizational settings.

If you’re curious about other fantastic features of this power tool, do not hesitate to get in touch with one of our Microsoft experts.

For more valuable tools and guides, including a downloadable PDF version of this blog and other resources, be sure to visit our resource page.

Two-minute read

Microsoft Forms, a user-friendly application included in your Office 365 subscription and accessible to anyone with a Microsoft account, is your go-to tool for creating and sharing forms, surveys, and quizzes with both internal and external recipients.

To get started, simply choose the type of question you want to ask (multiple-choice, text-based, etc.), type in the question and possible responses. Once you’ve input all your questions, hit the Preview button to see how your survey will look on both a computer and a mobile device.

After you’re satisfied with your form, click the Share button to generate a link to the form. You can then share this link via email, a Teams chat, or any other platform of your choice.

The best part?

The recipient doesn’t need to be an Office 365 customer to fill out your form!

To view the responses, navigate to the Responses tab of your form. Here, you can view the responses directly from the form window or export them to an Excel spreadsheet.

But that’s not all!

Microsoft Forms has a plethora of other fantastic features, such as creating tests or quizzes and using branching to determine which questions users need to answer based on their responses. We highly recommend exploring this application further.

To help you get the most out of Microsoft Forms, we’ve created a comprehensive PDF guide detailing our favorite features. You can access it here. We believe this guide will enhance your understanding and usage of this powerful tool.

If you’re interested in other Microsoft applications that could boost your team’s efficiency and productivity, don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Having a comprehensive online team space for collaboration and virtual engagement has become essential in today’s remote and hybrid business environments. Since the pandemic, many organizations have turned to Microsoft Teams to simplify their group work and increase their virtual teams’ creativity and productivity. With more than 115 million users, Microsoft Teams has become a popular tool for managing remote work. In this blog, we will outline the best features of Microsoft Teams and how you can use them to your advantage. 

From apps designed to improve workflow and efficiency to comprehensive project management tools, there are many great “hidden gem” features in Microsoft Teams to help organizations reach their productivity goals.

One of Microsoft Teams’ best assets is integrating fully with Microsoft 365 and the apps that many team members are likely already using, like Outlook, PowerPoint, Excel, Word and SharePoint. This means that all your apps are in one location, and introducing Microsoft Teams should be a seamless transition, allowing team members to collaborate in real-time easily.

1. Auto Fill

Auto Fill allows you to take a formula or pattern that has been applied to one cell and apply that same formula or pattern to other cells. In the example below, we have used a formula to give Bob a 3% salary increase. We can then select the tiny green dot at the bottom right corner of the cell containing Bob’s new salary and hold the mouse down and drag it vertically until all of the other cells in the column are selected.

Once we let go of the mouse, all of the remaining cells in the column will be populated using the same formula that was used to compute Bob’s new salary.

2. Remove Duplicates

When analyzing or sorting through data, no matter what industry you are in, it can get chaotic and maybe even a bit messy. Depending on the way the data is imported, some sequences may be added more than once, resulting in duplication. Knowing how to remove copies of data segments is important so that the copies don’t skew the end amount.

To access the Remove Duplicates feature, tap on Data > Data Tools > Remove Duplicates. Make sure the proper dataset is selected. You can then click Remove Duplicates. You will be able to view the different columns, so ensure the “My data has headers” box is crossed off if the column names are failing to display. Simply click okay and you’re good to go.

3. Find and Search

These may seem like basic functions but they are integral and can save you tons of time. Also, it is good to know that Find and Search are not one and the same.

To access Find, click the Search (Alt + Q) bar at the top of the sheet. This will give you three options, with the top one being Find. Click on it. Find will only return case-sensitive matches, whereas using the Search feature will give you broader matches. Search isn’t limited to case sensitivity and it will find the words in pieces of text too.

Both of the features can make finding information in a spreadsheet much easier.

4. Insert Function

The Insert Function button allows you to tell Excel what you are trying to do, and it will give you a list of likely functions to solve your problem. It will also walk you through how to enter the parameters needed for that particular function.

For example, imagine you wanted to find the largest value in the list of current salaries in our previous example. You would type “Largest in a set of values” in the Search box and select “Go,” and Excel will return two possible functions that meet your needs. You can see exactly what the functions do at the bottom of the screen. Once you determine which of these functions you want to use, select the function and press ENTER.

Once you press ENTER, you will be presented with the Arguments screen where Excel will walk you through each of the arguments that the function requires. The text at the bottom tells you exactly what needs to be entered for that argument.

Once all the arguments are entered, just select OK, and your function will be entered into the appropriate cell! If you look at the formula bar above the data, you will see the function that Excel created for you:

5. Conditional Formatting

Conditional Formatting allows you to graphically depict your data based on their values. You can use colors or icons to depict the data in different ways. For example, imagine we wanted to show the difference in people’s salaries. We could use the Data Bars type of conditional formatting as shown below so that the people with the highest salaries have the longest purple bars while those with the smallest salaries have the shortest bars.

We could also use icons instead of just colors so that the people with the highest salaries have a green “up” arrow, while those with the lowest salaries have a red “down” arrow.

There are many more options for conditional formatting; be sure to try them out until you find the one that works best for you!

Want to find out more ways your staff can make the most of Excel? Don’t hesitate to get in touch. For more workplace productivity tips, you can join our free training sessions where you will be able to learn about the latest techniques and tools to help your organization achieve proficiency.

Three-minute read

Microsoft Tasks by Planner and ToDo (formerly known as Planner) is a feature-rich application that integrates with Microsoft Teams. This powerful tool enables users to assign, collaborate, and monitor projects and tasks using a variety of dashboards.

To integrate the Planner app into Teams, simply navigate to the desired channel and select the + (Add a Tab) button in the menu bar. When the list of applications comes up, select Tasks by Planner and ToDo. If you don’t see this listed, start typing Tasks in the search bar and you should see the app appear.

Once selected, on the next screen click Create a new plan and give your plan a name:

You will see a new tab with the Planner name on your Team’s menu bar.

The main user interface of Planner shows tasks in the bucket view. These buckets represent different groups of tasks, like Client-specific, Internal, and Webinar Series. Within each bucket, you can create individual tasks, choose a due date, and make assignments:

When users are assigned a task, they receive an email with the new task information. The task information can be monitored from the main Planner screen in Teams (see above). Users can also edit tasks and mark them complete using this same interface by clicking on the task to open the Task Details screen:

In addition to the bucket view, users also have the ability to view their team’s tasks using a charts view, which groups tasks by various categories. For example, in the screenshots below, the tasks are broken down by status, bucket, priority, and members:

Finally, Planner provides a list view which enables you to view all tasks in a standard list:

Microsoft Planner is an easy-to-use task management application that nicely integrates with Teams. Try it out to see if it could help your organization’s task management needs, and if you have any questions or would like help choosing the best Microsoft tools for your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Three-minute read

Microsoft Teams is chock-full of valuable applications designed to make our lives easier. One such tool which increases collaboration and improves productivity is the Polly app. Polly is an application that creates polls and surveys. For Polly, a poll includes one question, whereas a survey includes multiple.

It’s important to note that Polly has two versions – a free and a paid version. With the free version, you can easily create polls; however, surveys are reserved for the paid version.

Before expanding on other differences between the two versions, let’s first run through how you and your teams can easily install and use the Polly app.

1. Click on the three dots at the bottom of your navigation bar, left of the screen in Teams. You can search for and download any application here and pin it to your navigation bar so that it is always visible and accessible.

2. Now, whenever you start a conversation in a channel or chat, you will see a Polly icon among the others (like attachments and gifs).

3. You can also add Polly as a tab into any Team by simply clicking on the + sign at the top of the intended Team. Search for Polly to add it.

Now that you have Polly installed, how does it work? Wherever you’d like to access it, simply click on the Polly icon to open it. When it opens, you will see that you can create a poll template. With the free version, your choices are fairly limited, but you can choose an audience, a channel for the poll to live in, and when you’d like to send it.

Here are some options the paid version offers: templates, polls, surveys, recurring polls, greater analytics, and sending reminders.

To view the results of a completed poll, click on the View All Results button from your poll; this will bring you to a simple graph outlining everyone’s choices.

designDATA’s Microsoft Experts Can Help

Whether your organization is new to Microsoft’s tools and technology or an experienced lot, our experts can help analyze and outline the best applications to bolster your team’s productivity and collaboration. Don’t hesitate to contact one of our experts to leverage Microsoft 365 features like never before.