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Microsoft Groups is a robust company chat, collaboration, and assembly utility. As a result of it’s included with most Microsoft 365 and Workplace 365 enterprise and enterprise subscriptions, many corporations already use it as a major technique to hold their workforce — each in-office and distant — in contact.
Groups allows you to arrange a number of channels (dialogue areas) on your workforce, share and retailer information, and conduct voice and video conferences. As a part of Microsoft 365/Workplace 365, Groups integrates effectively with the household of Microsoft enterprise apps and companies that encompasses Excel, OneDrive, OneNote, Outlook, Planner, PowerPoint, SharePoint, and Phrase.
To get began utilizing Groups in a enterprise setting, see our Microsoft Groups cheat sheet. After you’ve gotten a deal with on the fundamentals, attempt the guidelines on this information to get extra out of this highly effective collaboration instrument.
This information focuses on the Groups desktop app for Home windows or Mac beneath a enterprise subscription. There are additionally Groups cell apps for Android and iOS, in addition to an internet app. However these apps emphasize chatting with out numerous the superior options of their desktop counterparts. Likewise, a client model of Groups is accessible, however it doesn’t embrace all of the options for enterprise customers coated on this story.
Additionally word that though this information features a few ideas for video conferences, it focuses primarily on the chat and group collaboration options of Groups. To be taught extra about videoconferencing in Groups, see “11 greatest practices for Microsoft Groups video conferences” and “The ten greatest new Microsoft Groups assembly options.”
Take management of the interface
1. Arrange your groups and channels.
Within the sidebar on the left aspect of the app, click on the Groups icon to open the Groups pane. You’ll see the groups that you just’re a member of, with a number of channels under every workforce title.
By default, groups (and the channels under every workforce) seem within the order that you just joined or created them. However as you employ Microsoft Groups over time in your day by day work, some groups and channels will turn into extra vital to you than others — and never essentially within the order that the Groups app locations them.
Pinning a channel strikes it towards the highest of the Groups pane for straightforward entry. To do that, click on the three-dot (Extra choices) icon to the correct of the channel title and choose Pin from the menu that opens. (Do that course of once more to unpin a channel.)
To alter the order of your pinned channels, click-and-hold a channel title and drag it up or right down to the place you’d prefer it to be within the checklist of pinned channels.
You too can do that to alter the order of your groups: Click on-and-hold a workforce title and drag it up or right down to the place you’d like to maneuver it on the checklist.
2. Disguise low-priority channels or groups.
You possibly can tidy up your Groups workspace by hiding channels or groups that aren’t vital to your work in the intervening time.
To cover a channel or workforce, click on the three-dot icon to the correct of its title, then click on Disguise from the menu that opens. (Word that you just can’t conceal the Common channel for any workforce.)
To unhide a channel, take a look at the checklist of channels beneath a workforce title. On the finish of this checklist is a hyperlink saying what number of hidden channels that this workforce has; click on this hyperlink to open a menu revealing the hidden channels. Transfer the pointer over the title of the channel that you just need to unhide, and click on the Present icon to the correct.
To unhide a workforce, look or scroll right down to the tip of the checklist of your groups, the place you’ll see a Hidden groups hyperlink. Click on this to open the checklist of hidden groups. Click on the three-dot icon to the correct of a hidden workforce, then click on Present on the high of the menu that opens.
3. Shortly discover conversations that you just’re a member of or messages that you just’re tagged in.
In Groups, it’s straightforward to see all of the conversations (message threads inside a channel) and messages that you just’re part of at a look.
On the high of the left sidebar, click on the Exercise icon. This opens the Feed pane to the correct. To the correct of the Feed pane title bar, right-click the Filter icon (three horizontal traces in a funnel form) and choose @ Mentions from the menu that opens. (Or kind /mentions into the search bar on the high of the Groups app.) Conversations that you just’re a member of, and messages that you just’re tagged in, can be listed within the Feed pane.
4. Save particular messages.
This trick might be helpful if you wish to compile a listing of messages to atone for or confer with later. Transfer the pointer to the upper-right of a message that you just need to save, click on the three-dot (Extra choices) icon, and click on Save this message from the menu that opens.
To see a listing of your saved messages, click on your profile headshot or icon on the higher proper of the Groups app and click on Saved from the menu that opens. (Or kind /saved into the search bar on the high of the Groups desktop app.) The messages that you just saved will seem within the Saved pane towards the left aspect of the Groups app.
Tip: It may be helpful to avoid wasting messages which have connected information (reminiscent of vital paperwork that it is advisable to take a look at later) with out having to obtain the information.
Make conversations and messages stand out
5. Get somebody’s consideration.
Channels sometimes comprise many conversations — and plenty of messages inside these conversations — so it may be straightforward to miss a message. To ensure a selected individual in your workforce sees a specific message, tag them as you write your message by typing @username. (Exchange “username” with the individual’s person title, after all.) Or: After you kind @, a menu opens itemizing the names of individuals in your group. Click on a reputation on this checklist to tag them in your message.) When you submit the message, the individual will get a notification as a immediate to learn it and reply to it.
You too can use this @ operate to ship a direct message (a one-on-one message) to a workforce member. Contained in the search field on the high of the Microsoft Groups desktop app, kind @ and their title (or kind @ and click on their title from the checklist that opens). Sort a brief message within the search field and press Enter or click on the correct arrow on the proper finish of the search field.
6. Title your conversations.
A technique to assist a dialog thread stand out among the many different conversations in a channel is by giving it a title. One other plus: You possibly can enter the title into the search field of the Groups desktop app to search out the dialog later. You don’t must title each dialog. It’s greatest to provide titles to solely crucial conversations that you just need to monitor.
So as to add a title as you’re composing a brand new dialog: Click on the Format icon (an “A” with a pencil) on the left finish of the toolbar under the textual content entry subject. The message composing window will broaden up. On the road that claims “Add a topic,” kind in a title, then kind your message under. Click on the Ship arrow on the backside proper of the message composing window to submit your dialog with its new title to the channel.
You too can add a title to an present dialog by transferring the pointer to the higher proper of the message, clicking the three-dot icon that seems, and clicking Edit from the menu that opens. Click on the Format icon on the left finish of the toolbar under the textual content entry subject. On the road that claims “Add a topic,” kind in a title. Click on the checkmark on the backside proper of the message composing window to submit your dialog with its new title again to the channel.
7. Management the dialog.
The expanded message composing window that seems while you click on the Format icon has extra neat tips up its sleeve.
If you wish to make a dialog actually stand out, you’ll be able to flip it into an announcement. Within the expanded message formatting window, click on the New dialog drop-down on the high left and choose Announcement. A subject seems the place you’ll be able to kind a big headline on your submit and optionally embrace a background picture or coloured background to make it stand out much more.
Tip: By default, everybody in a channel can reply to conversations, however you won’t need that for an announcement. In the event you click on the Everybody can reply drop-down on the high of the message composing window, you’ll be able to choose You and moderators can reply to restrict responses to solely these individuals.
In order for you your dialog to look in a couple of channel, choose Submit in a number of channels, click on the Choose channels button, and on the panel that opens, verify the containers subsequent to the channels you need to submit your dialog to.
8. Mark a message as vital.
One final choice for drawing consideration to a message in a channel dialog is to mark it as vital. When you submit it, Groups will instantly alert the opposite individuals within the chat to learn your message. They are going to be reminded to take action each two minutes for 20 minutes. Clearly, you need to solely use this operate for a really pressing matter.
To mark a message vital, click on the Format icon. The message composing window will broaden up. On the proper finish of the textual content formatting toolbar, click on the three-dot (Extra choices) icon, and from the menu that opens choose Mark as vital.
All 4 of those choices needs to be used sparingly, just for conversations and messages of high significance.
Chat extra successfully
9. Reply to a selected message.
Whereas conversations in workforce channels are accessible to all members of that workforce, non-public chats happen between two or extra people and are accessible by clicking the Chat icon within the left sidebar.
In a gaggle chat, all messages seem within the order they had been posted, irrespective of who posted them. In the event you see an earlier message you need to reply to instantly, transfer the mouse pointer over that message. A toolbar of emoticons seems; click on the three-dot (Extra choices) icon and choose Reply on the small menu that opens. Your reply will present the message you’re replying to for context.
10. Pin a message.
You possibly can pin a message to the highest of the chat window, bringing it to the eye of others within the chat. Transfer the mouse pointer over the message you need to pin. The emoticons toolbar seems; click on the three-dot icon and choose Pin on the small menu that opens.
11. Begin a chat in a brand new window.
Usually, while you begin a brand new chat, it opens in the principle window of the Groups desktop app. You possibly can change this so {that a} new chat opens in a separate window: On the high proper of the Groups app, click on the three-dot (Settings and extra) icon and click on Settings from the menu that opens. Below “Open new chat in,” click on New window.
12. Ballot your colleagues.
This function is presently out there solely when your Groups app is switched to your private account. Open the chat the place you need to create the ballot. Beneath the field the place you kind in a message, click on the polls icon (represented as three vertical bars). On the panel that opens, kind in your ballot query and reply selections.
By clicking Add choice, you’ll be able to add as much as six reply selections. If you wish to enable individuals to pick greater than as soon as reply alternative, click on the swap subsequent to A number of solutions.
Click on the Save button to see a preview of your ballot. On this preview panel, you’ll be able to click on the Edit button to make adjustments to your ballot. In any other case, click on the Ship button. The individuals on this chat will see this ballot and be capable to reply to it.
Handle notifications
13. Observe vital channels.
If you wish to be up to date of your colleagues’ newest actions in particular channels, open the Groups pane and click on a workforce title to see its channels. Transfer the pointer over the title of the channel you need to be up to date on, click on the three-dot (Extra choices) icon to the correct, choose Channel notifications, and click on All exercise from the menu that opens.
This menu lists an alternative choice, Customized. While you click on this, the “Channel notification settings” panel opens. Right here you’ll be able to set if you wish to be notified each time a brand new message is posted to this channel and/or each time the channel is talked about by somebody in Groups. In the event you flip both notification on, you’ll be able to specify if you wish to be notified via your Exercise pane feed and as a banner, or solely via your Exercise pane feed.
14. Regulate different notifications.
By default, Groups sends you notifications that replace you on a number of actions — @mentions, new messages, adjustments to workforce membership statuses, and extra — via numerous strategies reminiscent of banner alerts, your Exercise pane feed, and electronic mail. To regulate or change what you’re notified about:
Click on your profile pic or initials on the higher proper of the Groups desktop app, after which click on Handle account. On the Settings panel that opens, click on Notifications.
This switches to an intensive checklist of actions which you could be notified about, letting you select what sort of notification you need to obtain for every (banner and electronic mail, banner solely, feed solely, or off).
Chances are you’ll must experiment with the assorted settings to search out the correct stability of notifications that works greatest for you. However when you’ve figured it out, you’ll be glad you made the changes.
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