Managing a Microsoft Team

If you’re a team owner, you're in control of a lot of the settings and permissions of your team. Here's how to adjust them.

• Manage Team Settings and Permissions
• Creating Channels
  • Create a Standard Channel
  • Create a Private Channel
• Add Team Members
  • Add Team Members Manually
  • Invite Team Members via Shared Code
  • Invite Team Members via Shared Link
• Change a Team Privacy Setting
  • Change a Team Privacy Status
• Make Someone a Team Owner
• Remove Someone from a Team
• Team Owner, Member, and Guest Capabilities

Manage Team Settings and Permissions

1. Go to the team name and click More options (...) > Manage team.
   
    
2. In the Settings tab, check or uncheck the options or permissions you want to use.
   
    

Creating Channels

Divide your team down into different segments, so folks working on specific topics can work in a designated area. 

Create a standard channel

To create a standard channel, start in the team list. Find the team name and click More options (...) > Add channel. You can also click Manage team, and add a channel in the Channels tab. 

You can create up to 200 channels over the life of a team. That number includes channels you create and later delete. 

Create a private channel

If you want a focused place to discuss sensitive information such as budgets, resourcing, strategic positioning, and so on, create a private channel for your team. Only owners or members of the private channel can access it. To understand who can view what in a private channel, see Private channels in Teams. 

You can create up to 30 private channels over the life of a team.

To create a private channel for a team:

1. Go to the team you want to create the private channel for and choose More options  (...) > Add channel.

2. Enter a name and description for your channel.

3. Under Privacy, select the down arrow on the right, and then select Private – Accessible only to a specific group of people within the team.

4. Select Add. This adds a private channel to the team.

Add Team members

Add team members to your team or share a unique code that allows users to join themselves. 

Adding Team Members Manually

After you've created a team, you can go back and add more members following the steps listed below.

1. As a team owner, find the team name in the Teams list and click More options  > Add member.
   
    
2. Start typing a name, username, distribution list, or Office 365 group to add to your team. You can also add people outside your organization as guests by typing their email addresses. When you're done adding members, click the Add button.
   
    
3. By default, users are Members of the team, but you can selecting the down arrow and changing their role to Owner.
   
4. Click Close.

Invite Team Members via Shared Code

Give team members the power to add themselves by sharing out a Team Code. Here's how to find yours:

1. Next to your team name, select More options ... > Manage team.
   
    
2. Select the Settings tab and then Team code.
   
    
3. Select Generate to generate your unique team code.
   

Then use the buttons below your unique code to:

1. Present the team code Full screen so your audience can join on the fly.
2. Reset your team code to another unique series of characters.
3. Remove the team code, so users can no longer use it to join.
4. Copy your team code and share it via email, Canvas, or on the web.
    

Invite Team Members via Shared Link

Get the link to your team, and use it to quickly give users access. 

1. Next to your team name, select More options ... > Get link to team.
   
    
2. The link to your team will display in the Get a link to the team window. Click the Copy button to copy the URL to your computer's clipboard and then share it with your team to join. 
   
    

Change a Team Privacy Setting

Private teams can only be joined if the team owner adds someone to them. When creating a team, choose to make the team discoverable so that people can search for it in the team's gallery, or turn discoverability off so that people can only find the team if shared by you or a team member.

Public teams are visible to everyone from the team's gallery and you can join them without getting approval from the team owner.