Microsoft Teams

Overview

Microsoft Teams is a cloud-based communications platform and part of the Office 365 suite. Teams provides a project group with many tools: a conversation and chat space, video meetings, and file storage. As part of Oklahoma State’s Microsoft license, Teams is free to use as an employee of OSU.

Features

MS (Microsoft) Teams offers you the ability to have a group chat, online meetings, calling and web conferencing, thereby allowing your team to more effectively communicate.

In Teams you can work together by collaborating on files with built-in Office 365 apps like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and SharePoint. You can customize your workspace by adding in your favorite Microsoft Apps and third-party services such as OneDrive.

Administrators of the team can control membership and manage team information and security by clicking on ellipses (next to the team name):

If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft’s hub for teamwork in Office 365, visit https://products.office.com/en-us/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software .

FAQs

Q: Is Microsoft Teams Free to use as an Employee at OSU?

A: Yes, Microsoft Teams is free to use as an Employee of OSU.

Q: How do I access Microsoft Teams?

A: The main ways to access Microsoft Teams is either through the Desktop standalone App, via the web, or through the Mobile App. Shown below are basic instructions:

     Accessing Microsoft Teams – Standalone App
1. Start Teams.

  • In Windows, click Start > Microsoft Corporation > Microsoft Teams.
  • On Mac, go to the Applications folder and click Microsoft Teams.
  • On mobile, tap the Teams icon.

2. Sign in with your Office 365 username and password.

      Accessing Microsoft Teams – via the Web

1. Open a web browser (such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Apple Safari, etc.) and visit Cowboy Mail (cowboymail.okstate.edu)

2. Log in using your OSU credentials.  

3. Once in CowboyMail, Click on “Apps” menu. The Apps Menu is the blue square with nine (9) white dots, located in the top left hand corner.

4. Once the Apps menu has opened, click on Teams.

5. From here, you will be redirected to Microsoft Teams. You will see team names for those teams to which you have access.

*NOTE* If you have previously logged into Microsoft Teams, and are attempting to log in again; you may be required to sign in using your OSU Credentials once again.

     Accessing Microsoft Teams – Mobile App

  1. Go to the App store on your mobile device (Apple App Store, or Google Play Store)
  2. Search for Microsoft Teams
  3. Once the Microsoft Teams App has been downloaded and installed; Log in using your
    OSU Credentials.

Q: How do I setup a ‘team’?

A: Listed below are the detailed instructions on how to setup a ‘team’.

  1. Login to https://okey.okstate.edu.
  2. From the left-hand navigation, select “Microsoft Groups”:
  3. Select “Create a new group as an employee”.
  4. Complete the form then click “Create Group”. After approximately one business day, the group is created and the team is available in Microsoft Teams.

Update Coming to Microsoft Office

There is a new update coming soon to Microsoft office that will include some very noticeable changes. If you are not expecting these changes they can be very jarring. Thankfully, these updates do not change the core functionality of Microsoft Office just some of the visuals of the programs. The following are several of the changes that you will notice right away.

The application icons have been updated to a new image for each program except for the icons for Publisher and Access. (Older icons on the left and new icons on the right.)

There is a new home screen for when you open Microsoft Word. It contains several popular templates as well as several of your recent files. On the left of the screen, there are also icons for New files and Open documents pages.

The New page gives you additional templates as well as the Blank document option. You can also simply hit escape and it will take you right into a blank document.

The Open page gives you a list of recent documents as well as options to select common places your files might be saved. You can always use the Browse button to open the file explorer and navigate to your needed files.

The ribbon in Word has been updated. There are several new options added and the ribbon has been refreshed. However, most ribbon items and commands have not been moved or replaced which makes the update less painful.

PowerPoint and Excel have been updated to the new Home page style and also include very similar New and Open pages. Their file ribbons have been updated and refreshed as well.

Outlook has also been refreshed and does include a few new features. Many of the ribbon icons have been changed to new images which give outlook a completely new feel. However, the layout of the ribbon items has not been changed, making the upgrade easier for end-users.

Microsoft will start releasing this update soon for Office 365 users. For those who are using stand-alone versions of Microsoft Office, you will either need to upgrade to the newer version or change to Office 365 downloaded apps to get the new features. If you have any questions, please contact your DASNR IT support specialist.