In 2024, our Student Digital Champions conducted interviews with eight Aberystwyth University graduates to understand what skills they now use after graduating and skills that they wished they had learnt and developed while at university. Below are the top five skills across all the profiles that the graduates now use and how you can develop these skills:
Do you want a faster and more efficient way to navigate MS Teams, for example to let your colleagues know your status on Teams or send a message? DigiTip 51 can show you quick commands to do just this. For this DigiTip we will be using the forward slash commands in the search bar on Teams.
First open MS Teams.
Next, we will need to access the search bar at the top, this can either be done by pressing ctrl + e or by just clicking in the search area at the top.
Then if you press / you will receive all commands available to you to use.
After you have chosen the command you want to use you just have to press enter.
An example of one of these would be /busy which is a faster way of setting your status to busy.
Another example, /chat will give you a follow up option of selecting who you want to send the message to and what you want the message to be, all in the search bar.
There may be times when you’re in an MS Teams meeting, and you need to make a quick decision. It could be deciding when to hold your next group meeting or voting on which title to choose for a project report.
If you need to create a poll once you’ve started your meeting, Teams offers a built-in polling feature. Watch the video below to learn how to set up your first poll.
Please note: We suggest that you use Vevox, AU’s polling tool, if you’re looking to set up a poll in advance of your online meeting or session.
Teams has a useful search function, but it can sometimes produce too many results. To save you unnecessary time searching, you can utilise filters.
These filters allow you to search using specific criteria such as date, sender, and file type, helping you to quickly pinpoint the information you need!
Take a look at the screenshot below to learn how to use these filters ⬇
There may be times when someone has sent you an email, and you’d like to acknowledge its receipt without sending another reply. A great feature to use in this case is the reactions feature in Outlook, which works similarly to those in MS Teams or on various social media platforms.
To react to an email, click on the smiley face button on the top of your screen. You can then choose from six emojis, ranging from a thumbs up 👍 to a sad face! 😥
Have you ever been in an MS Teams meeting where you’ve needed to send a quick list that’s easy for others to read? There are actually two quick ways to create bullet points or numbered lists in any MS Teams chat.
Option 1
You can either click on the format icon in the chat, and you can easily create bullet points or a numbered list from here.
Option 2
Or, if you’re in a Teams chat:
Press – and then the space bar to start your bullet points
Press 1. and then the space bar to start a numbered list
Here is your final DigiTip for this academic year but you can catch up on all of our previous DigiTIps from this page. We hope that you’ve found our tips useful, and we’ll be back in September ’24 where we’ll continue support your confidence with technology, one DigiTip at a time!
Do you sometimes struggle in larger meetings to know who is currently speaking? …..“was that Ffion or Bethan?!” Maybe you’re working in a loud environment and are struggling to hear others in the meeting speak? Perhaps you’ve joined a meeting where the language spoken isn’t your first language? Or perhaps you appreciate the accessibility of having subtitles?
If any of the above are true for you, then you will likely find the functionality to enable live captions in MS Teams useful. Watch the video below to learn how to enable live captions:
It’s worth noting a couple of things if you’re using this feature:
Live captions are only visible to those that have enabled the feature within the meeting, meaning that if you switch them on, they won’t automatically appear for everyone!
Live caption data is permanently deleted after a meeting, so no one will have access to this information.
Visit this webpage for further support and guidance in using MS Teams.
As someone who uses Microsoft Teams every day for work, I’ve discovered a collection of useful keyboard shortcuts and tips that have helped me in navigating the platform more efficiently. Whether you’re a staff member jumping from one meeting to the next, or a student using MS Teams to collaborate on projects or attend virtual lectures, these tips should help you to make the most of MS Teams.
Keyboard Shortcut
Description
Ctrl+Shift+O
Turn off your camera
Ctrl+Shift+M
Mute your microphone
Ctrl+K
Create shorter hyperlinks
Shift+Enter
Start a new line in the chatbox without sending the message
Summary of the key keyboard shortcuts mentioned in this blogpost
Turn off your camera quickly
There are times when you need to quickly turn off your video during a call, it may be that your bandwidth is limited or there are distractions behind you. Quickly toggle your camera on and off by using the Ctrl+Shift+O shortcut.
Customise your hyperlinks
Instead of cluttering your messages with lengthy URLs, make use of the Ctrl+K shortcut. This shortcut allows you to customise the displayed text for your hyperlink, making your messages more concise!
Mute your microphone
Background noise can also disrupt meetings (I have two dogs that bark whenever someone rings the doorbell, so this is my most-used shortcut!) Use Ctrl+Shift+M to mute and unmute your microphone swiftly.
Refine your search results
Teams has an useful search functionality, but sometimes it can yield too many results! Make the most of the available filters to refine your search and to save you time.
Start a new line in the chatbox without sending your message
Typing messages in Teams can be tricky, especially when you want to add line breaks without sending the incomplete message. Use Shift+Enter to start a new line in the chatbox without sending the message prematurely.
Make quick decisions with the polling feature
Do you need to gather opinions or make decisions quickly? If you’re looking to create a poll once you’ve started your meeting, Teams offers a built-in polling feature.
Please note: We suggest that you use Vevox, AU’s polling tool, if you’re looking to set up a poll in advance of your online meeting or session.
Mark messages as urgent or important
Do you want to send an important message on Teams and are worried that it will get lost within a stream of messages? To solve this issue, you can mark any messages as urgent or important in MS Teams.
Do you have any other shortcuts or other general tips when you’re using MS Teams? If so, we’d love to hear from you! Share your tips and shortcuts in the box below ⬇
Are you a planner but struggling to be productive? Do you work better with a to-do list, but you want everything in one place? Introducing Microsoft Teams Task by planner!
You can create your own to-do lists, break these down into daily to-do lists and even view tasks that have been assigned to you in Microsoft Teams channels.
To create your To Do List:
Go to the Apps icon on the left-hand side of MS Teams
Search for and install the Tasks by Planner and To Do app
At the bottom of the planner, select‘+ New list or plan’
Enter any task, select the priority and due date
Once completed select the circle and the task will complete itself
To break down your to-do list to more achievable goals you can add tasks from your to-do list to “my day” which will refresh every day.
Watch the video below for a demo on how to use Microsoft Teams Tasks by planner.
