Zentraler Informatikdienst

Using Teams

For:  students    employees

This user guide will help you to use Teams at the University of Vienna.

Students and employees are separated from each other within the Microsoft 365 environment of the University of Vienna – it is not possible to find and interact with both groups. This also applies to the visibility of attendance status.

Logging into Teams

Log in to the Teams app with your Microsoft 365 account of the University of Vienna:

  • User name: UserID@univie.ac.at (example: doejami8@univie.ac.at)
  • Password: u:account password

Use the user guide on the Microsoft support pages How to log in to Microsoft Teams.

Logging off from Teams or removing account

Use the user guide on the Microsoft support pages Sign out or remove an account from Microsoft Teams.

Uninstalling Teams

Use the user guide on the Microsoft support pages Uninstall Microsoft Teams.

Teams and channels

Create teams and channels to bring people together in chats and meetings, and collaborate with files and apps.

Note

Students are not able to set up teams. An error message appears when attempting to create a team. Students cannot be added to an existing team as team members. It is possible to chat in groups and share content via your personal OneDrive.

Creating a team

  1. Click on Teams in the left navigation and click the Join a Team or Create a Team button in the right top corner.
  2. Click on Create Team.

Use the Microsoft user guide Create a team from scratch in Microsoft Teams.

Note

  • A user can be a member of a maximum of 1,000 teams.
  • A team can have a maximum of 5,000 members.
  • A team can have a maximum of 100 owners.
  • The storage space for a team at the University of Vienna is currently 50 GB.
  • Please also note the information on the termination of chats and teams.

Selecting a team type for collaboration

When you create a new team, you need to choose a team type.

Use the Microsoft user guide Choose a team type to collaborate in Microsoft Teams.

Distinguish between public and private teams

  • Public teams are visible to everyone in the Teams catalogue. People can join, read and chat without the permission of the team owner.
  • Private teams can not be found in the Teams catalogue. Members are added or invited by the team owner. All conversations, files, etc. are reserved for team members.

Changing settings for a team

  1. If you want to change the settings for your team from Public to Private (or vice versa), click on Teams in the left navigation and then on the relevant team.
  2. Click on the 3 dots. Select the Edit team entry.
  3. Under Privacy, select Private – only team owners can add members or Public – anyone in your organisation can join from the list.

Use the information on the Microsoft website Make a public team private in Microsoft Teams.

Adding a team owner

  1. Click on Teams in the left navigation.
  2. Select the team you have created and click on the 3 dots. A menu will appear. Click on Manage Team.
  3. Navigate to the Members tab. Select the people you want to use as team owners. Under Role, select Owner instead of Member.

Creating channels in a team

Channels are special sections within a team. Each channel can be dedicated to a specific topic, department or project. A maximum of 200 channels (including deleted channels) can be created per team.

You can create channels in a team that you own as follows:

 

  1. Click on Teams in the left navigation and find the desired team.
  2. Click on the 3 dots and then on Add channel in the menu. Alternatively, click on Manage Team and on the Channels tab, click on Add Channel.

  3. Enter a channel name. Please note:

     

    • The following characters must not be used in channel names: ~ # % & * { } + / \ : < > ? | ' " ..
    • Channel names must not begin with an underscore or a dot or end with a dot.

Adding members to a team

If you are a team owner, you can add people to a team. These can be people from your organisation or guests. 

Use the user guide Collaborating with external persons.

Use the information on the Microsoft websites Add members to a team and Add guests to a team.

Note

All members you want to add to a team must have a Microsoft 365 account (business, school or university account). If there is no Microsoft account yet, you will be redirected to create a free Microsoft account, when you accept the invitation. 

After you add a member to a team, it may take a few hours before access is possible.

Contacts

Adding contacts

  1. Select Contacts in the left navigation. Click on the 3 dots if they are not displayed.
  2. Click on Add new contact. You can also add people who are outside your organisation.

Calls and meetings

A maximum of 250 people can attend a meeting.

The Meeting feature is available in the desktop app and in the web app in Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

Starting a meeting

  1. Click in a channel on the camera icon in the top right.
  2. Select Start meeting now. Team members will receive a note in the area of Posts to participate.

Adding external persons or guests to meetings

You can use the calendar to plan meetings also with external persons and guests. No Microsoft account is required to participate in meetings.

Calendar

The Teams calendar at the University of Vienna is only available to employees with a University of Vienna Exchange account. To create a link for a meeting without using the Teams calendar, use the Meeting Link app.

Use the Microsoft user guide Join a meeting in Microsoft Teams.

Changing the background of a meeting

The ability to customise the background in meetings depends on the device used. You can either blur the background or select an image from the list

  • before joining a video meeting using the Background Settings slider or
  • during the video meeting by clicking on the icon with the 3 dots and selecting Video Effects and Settings from the menu.

Inserting your own background image

Users can upload their own background image and then select it for the video meeting from the list of background images. Background images in the corporate design of the University of Vienna can be downloaded here:

On Windows
  1. During the video meeting, click on the 3 dots in the menu bar and select Video effects and settings.
  2. On the right, you will see the available backgrounds. Upload your own background under Add new.
  3. Select the desired background and click on Preview.
  4. To display the background during the video conference, click Apply. The background is now activated and visible to others.
  5. To remove the background again, open the Background Settings menu and select the top entry None.
On macOS
  1. Open the Finder.
  2. In the Finder, hold down the Option key and click on the Go menu in the menu bar.
  3. As long as you hold down the key, you will find the Library entry there. When you select it, the Finder will switch to the corresponding folder.
  4. Open the Application Support folder and follow the path Microsoft/Teams/Backgrounds.
  5. Move your own background images to the Uploads folder.
  6. During a video meeting, click on the 3 dots in the menu bar and select Show background effects.
  7. You will see the available backgrounds on the right. Select the background you want and click on Preview.
  8. To display the background, click on Apply. The background will then be activated and visible to others.
  9. To remove the background, open the Background settings menu again and select the top entry, No background image.

Please note that for technical reasons, the use of background images can lead to image noise, for example when moving your head around your hairstyle or gesturing with your arms. A calm posture is therefore recommended.

Recording and transcripting meetings

In accordance with data protection regulations, the consent of the participants is required for the recording or transcription of video conferences in teams.

Use the user guides on the Microsoft websites:

Shared data

Files may have a maximum size of 2 GB.

Shared files within a channel are stored in SharePoint. Use the user guide Managing OneDrive storage space.

Troubleshooting

If problems occur with Teams, clearing the cache can be helpful. This will not delete any data.

Use the user guide on the Microsoft web pages Clear the Teams client cache.

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