Category: General

How to use new Team Templates and how to do custom team provisioning using them as the team template

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 6 Comments

The long awaited Team Templates are starting to appear in tenants around the world. Some get it sooner and some have to wait: don't worry they will come. When they are available the Create a team function on Teams will look somewhat different. Let me first walk you through the end user experience before going … Continue reading How to use new Team Templates and how to do custom team provisioning using them as the team template

How to: create #nocode bots to teams super-easily in 5 minutes using Power Virtual Agents app in Teams

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

The new Project Oakdale connected Teams application preview version saw the rollout during the Microsoft Ignite 2020 last week. Now it is easier than even to create a smart bot to Microsoft Teams that can have conversations and perform actions with team members - or with everyone in the company. And all that without coding … Continue reading How to: create #nocode bots to teams super-easily in 5 minutes using Power Virtual Agents app in Teams

How to Spotlight a specific video in Teams meeting

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 3 Comments

The Spotlight-features has appeared to several tenants now. Using it an individual video feed can be spotlighted to meeting attendees. Once spotlight is active it will "lock" that video feed as primary video shown to attendees. If you are sharing content the content will take priority (the big area) over video. This is very useful … Continue reading How to Spotlight a specific video in Teams meeting

Microsoft Ignite 2020 Teams and Office 365 news – rollout schedules summary

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 3 Comments

All this information can be found at Microsoft 365 Roadmap that were added/updated during 22nd and 21st of September (Microsoft Ignite time). While looking through the Roadmap it is not always that easy to get a good summary view. To help that out here is a list of recent updates in the roadmap with their … Continue reading Microsoft Ignite 2020 Teams and Office 365 news – rollout schedules summary

Teams news summary of Microsoft Ignite

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 1 Comment

#MSIgnite, the Microsoft Ignite 2020 - did it again. The big and beautiful Microsoft tech and developer conference delivered again tons of announcements, news and information. In this post I am focusing on Microsoft Teams related news.. and I am not trying to list all of them but ones I see the most essential + … Continue reading Teams news summary of Microsoft Ignite

Review: Jabra Elite Active 75t

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 7 Comments

I like to use wireless buds as a headset when I am outdoors, commuting or traveling (hopefully looking at the future on this part). They have lots of benefits that make them ideal for me when I am going outside. But I also have requirements for them: They and their case can't take too much … Continue reading Review: Jabra Elite Active 75t

Review: Poly Blackwire 8225

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

This year has been a good year for Microsoft Teams users in many ways. One of the great things how there are several Teams Certified headsets and devices already out there. I am always looking forward to "find the perfect and best device for my use" so I naturally catched the opportunity to test new … Continue reading Review: Poly Blackwire 8225

Get ready to travel the Microsoft Teams Road at Microsoft Ignite

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 8 Comments

The big big conference is just around the corner! Beginning in just TWO days it will be two days of exciting news, knowledge, keynotes, overviews and deep-dive sessions along with loads of interaction and community activities. Since #MSIgnite is virtual and free to attend this year (we all know why) Microsoft has taken extra steps … Continue reading Get ready to travel the Microsoft Teams Road at Microsoft Ignite

Create a Teams meeting easily with Power Automate

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 22 Comments

When I was looking my demo tenant to create some new Power Automate demos I found out that there were new Teams Flow Actions available! Meetings are important so I thought I better build a short Flow to see how it is really behaving. Create a Teams meeting (preview) Looking at the action it looks … Continue reading Create a Teams meeting easily with Power Automate

TeamsFest October 7th 2020 ✅

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

Today it is exactly one month (30 days) before TeamsFest - a fantastic free Microsoft Teams focused online event For the Community, By the Community to share the knowledge and experiences of Microsoft Teams to everyone who attends it! TeamsFest is organized by Chris Hoard, Adam Deltinger, Chris Webb and me. As an anecdote we … Continue reading TeamsFest October 7th 2020 ✅

Upcoming Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams: information so far

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

This week we have seen some info about upcoming Breakout Rooms functionality to Microsoft Teams in Twitter and in LinkedIn by Microsoft employees. Jeff Teper tweeted "Working on it... " with a picture snipped about how Breakout Rooms look in Teams https://twitter.com/jeffteper/status/1295432950675156992?s=09 And the Rish Tandon followed up with information that "up to 50 them, … Continue reading Upcoming Breakout Rooms in Microsoft Teams: information so far

The better and improved Teams Whiteboard

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 2 Comments

Microsoft Whiteboard got nice improvements to both Teams and web-version during the summer. In this post you can see what the improvements are and how they work together with the Whiteboard app. First, the most important improvements Write text anywhere in Whiteboard at Teams & webAdd & edit notes in the whiteboardMove objects in the … Continue reading The better and improved Teams Whiteboard

How to: add a task to To-Do from a selected Teams message

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 11 Comments

Teams got a huge amount of updates and new features during the summer 2020. They are all extremely interesting, but for this one I start off easy and something that can help lots of people: how to make a task out of a single Teams message. It is recommended you read the whole post before … Continue reading How to: add a task to To-Do from a selected Teams message

To a summer break!

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

I am going onto a summer break. Starting now. While it is a really break from the work the summer break also means more dedicated time with family. I am not saying I wouldn't be blogging or being present at social media - but I will give more priority time for family and aim to … Continue reading To a summer break!

Microsoft Teams provisioning with Power Automate and Graph API

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

I had a privilege presenting this session of mine today at Commsverse. I was asked, again, to publish my provisioning flow to Github and this time I managed to do it! To accompany that here are a few details about the provisioning. The process follows this Get the request to a SharePoint list. The provisioning … Continue reading Microsoft Teams provisioning with Power Automate and Graph API

How to create a personal “read this” task for every message added to a channel in Teams

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

I wrote earlier about adding a ToDo or a Planner task every time you are mentioned in a specific channel. This was to cope with situations where you are being mentioned so much that you can't follow your atmention notifications anymore. Another, a bit similar but usually purely personal, matter is to keep track of … Continue reading How to create a personal “read this” task for every message added to a channel in Teams

Power Virtual Agents & You: Integrating Bots Into Microsoft Teams Without Coding

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

I guest blogged to AvePoint Blog about Power Virtual Agents and how to integrate lowcode/nocode bots with #MicrosoftTeams. Yes, Teams Application template bots are in the post as well. The post gives you an overview what you can do with Teams Bots (#TeamsPlatform) and some ideas how you can get started with them by building … Continue reading Power Virtual Agents & You: Integrating Bots Into Microsoft Teams Without Coding

Helping the busy BDM or manager: create ToDo tasks automatically when you are mentioned in a team channel

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 1 Comment

I have heard the story several times: too much teams, too much channels, too much notifications and especially: too much atmentions. Of course some of that can be taken care of by making Teams your own ( Check out my session at virtual Microsoft 365 Saturday Madrid to get Teams back to your control and … Continue reading Helping the busy BDM or manager: create ToDo tasks automatically when you are mentioned in a team channel

My 2nd MVP year began today

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

This was an exciting day. July 1st is famous to be the MVP renewal date. So first CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL NEW & RENEWED MVPs! YOU ALL ROCK! I am of course honored, humbled, excited and proud to receive this award (MVP for Office Apps & Services) the second time (to 2020-2021). It is a great … Continue reading My 2nd MVP year began today

How to: integrate Power Virtual Agents with Teams using SSO and how to retrieve user information

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 9 Comments

Power Virtual Agents are a great platform that allows organization to create powerful chatbots in a very short amount of time. And yes, they are easy to install into Teams as well. Let's assume you have a some kind of Power Virtual Agent bot (PVA bot) ready and you want to bring that bot into … Continue reading How to: integrate Power Virtual Agents with Teams using SSO and how to retrieve user information

What’s new and happening with Teams during summer 2020?

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

Microsoft Teams has been flying fast in recent months - there are several new features that we all enjoy and have waited. Some examples of obvious ones: 3 x 3 gallery in Teams meetings, which increases engagement and interactivity quite nicely. This is getting to be better with confirmed 7x7 gallery view that is coming … Continue reading What’s new and happening with Teams during summer 2020?

Live Events, Whiteboards & one live OneNote.

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 1 Comment

Live Events are becoming more and more popular. They are however limited in collaboration side: you can interact with audience using Q&A functionality (they ask questions, you answer them). What about Whiteboards or OneNotes and Live Events? Note: No, you can't share OneNote to Live Event in a way that everyone could collaborate and ink … Continue reading Live Events, Whiteboards & one live OneNote.

Why to OneNote instead of Whiteboard?

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 4 Comments

I have written several articles about Microsoft Whiteboard in this blog. I really enjoy using Whiteboard for several reasons (innovative, fun, included in every Teams meeting, has great features) but there is a similar flaws in it currently than with Teams Wiki or Meeting Notes - it is not enterprise ready as a collaboration tool … Continue reading Why to OneNote instead of Whiteboard?

Tips and tricks for Teams Breakout rooms and event organization

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 7 Comments

I wrote previously about how to create and organize Breakout Rooms to Teams. This article follows it up with some good practices and tips that help to facilitate the event better and get a better attendee experience. Thank you all who commented and gave feedback about their methods which gave me the inspiration to pull … Continue reading Tips and tricks for Teams Breakout rooms and event organization

Testing headphones for Teams use: Plantronics Voyager 8200 UC

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 7 Comments

I have written a few headset tests earlier: Jabra Elite 85h https://myteamsday.com/2020/02/07/jabra-elite-85h/Jabra Evolve 75 & Logitech Zone https://myteamsday.com/2019/11/27/microsoft-teams-with-jabra-evolve-75-and-logitech-zone-wireless/ Poly / Plantronics headsets had been missing from my personal hands-on experience but I had heard lots of good about them. When I finally got my hands on to one set a month ago I decided to … Continue reading Testing headphones for Teams use: Plantronics Voyager 8200 UC

How to use Microsoft Whiteboard in teams and channels

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 4 Comments

Using Microsoft Whiteboard in meeting is easy and I have written a couple of blogs about that earlier: https://myteamsday.com/2019/11/19/how-to-use-whiteboard-in-teams-meetings/ and https://myteamsday.com/2020/03/21/how-to-whiteboard-in-teams-meetings-efficiently-ii/ 20.1.2021: it is now possible to add Microsoft Whiteboard to a channel as a tab. Read my blog post how to. If you want to start using Whiteboard with your team in channels you … Continue reading How to use Microsoft Whiteboard in teams and channels

Guide how to do Crisis Communication in Microsoft Teams with only out of the box features

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 3 Comments

Current world-changing and wrecking Corona-crisis has raised the need for communication inside company to new frontiers and atmospheres. Employees need information for themselves (what this means to me and to my work, how we continue from now on, what changes) and for the company (how we are communicating to outside, is there a common story … Continue reading Guide how to do Crisis Communication in Microsoft Teams with only out of the box features

Creating webinar sign-ups, approvals and invitation emails sending using Forms, Teams and Power Automate (POC)

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 2 Comments

There is now more demand than ever before to create online events with Microsoft Teams. These may be training events or webinars or just a need to organize a online community meeting using Teams Meeting or Live Event. But if you don't want to share your joining link publicly in Twitter and pages (like #TeamsFest … Continue reading Creating webinar sign-ups, approvals and invitation emails sending using Forms, Teams and Power Automate (POC)

How to use Whiteboard in Teams meetings efficiently II

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 15 Comments

When you need to collaborate in more visual way with your team members you want to take a look at Microsoft Whiteboard that automatically available with every Teams meeting. If your collaboration with your team is more text-based then I advice to use OneNote. For more visual needs, free form planning or just because you … Continue reading How to use Whiteboard in Teams meetings efficiently II

Art of Pinning Channels III

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ Leave a comment

I wrote last year two posts in this blog about Pin channels feature in Microsoft Teams. The first one was more about "what is Pin channels and how do you use it"   and the second was "what if you would turn Teams to more channel oriented". This one is more about my experiences since … Continue reading Art of Pinning Channels III

Easy Teams onboarding by welcoming new members automatically

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 5 Comments

You are added to a new team and look around. While some teams are familiar from the click one, there are some that would require a bit of more knowledge. What is the team's purpose, what are those channels, are there some agreed team practices? Instead of having to ask around for these the team … Continue reading Easy Teams onboarding by welcoming new members automatically

Sharing a teams conversations using Outlook

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 16 Comments

A new feature recently rolled out to Teams. You can now choose to share a Teams conversation using Outlook. The feature is found via message's ... (three dots, ellipses) menu. This shares the message and all it's replies. Then the Outlook-style window will open up. You can add your comments, do editing of message etc. … Continue reading Sharing a teams conversations using Outlook

Jabra Elite 85h: the best modern worklife headphones I’ve had so far

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 28 Comments

I use Teams meetings and calling a lot. I also do tons of work from various other places than my home office. Some other locations are for example a train when I commute to Helsinki, when I am visiting our headquarters, occasionally in a café or restaurant, lobby, .. You name it. Simply put: I … Continue reading Jabra Elite 85h: the best modern worklife headphones I’ve had so far

Copying files to Private Channel using Graph API

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 7 Comments

I was approached with a scenario: Once I have created a Private Channel how can I automatically copy files there? Since I didn't have a direct answer it was time to open Graph Explorer and start digging. Create a Private Channel You need to have a suitable team first. /me/joinedTeams is quite a good Graph … Continue reading Copying files to Private Channel using Graph API

Teams features hidden in plain sight: right-clicks and pinning applications

~ Vesa Nopanen ~ 2 Comments

Microsoft Teams doesn't always tell you what you can do in it's interface. Since it is a kind of web application we have used to use left click around different menus. However, there are some features in Teams that will make your life easier if you right-click on them. And I am not talking about … Continue reading Teams features hidden in plain sight: right-clicks and pinning applications