This article originally appeared as a blog post on Be Orange.

Most people share their slides in Teams via the 'Share' button. But there are also other ways that are more convenient.

Working from home ensures growth in use of Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is a product that has appeared frequently in various media in recent months. Now that many people have to work from home, it’s essential that people can meet virtually, and globally people are making much more use of tools that support virtual communication.

This also explains the enormous growth of more than 200% in the use of Microsoft Teams, with more and more use of video in addition to audio. On Microsoft Teams in Netherlands, 60% of calls now include video.

At Avanade, all meetings are now virtual, and our already intensive use of Teams has increased even further. Where previously most people only used audio during virtual meetings and left the camera off, now many people choose to turn video on. It is easier to assess attention and emotions if you can see the other person, and video helps us stay more personally connected. 

Many of the functionalities in Microsoft Teams have been around for a long time and were previously known as Skype for Business and Lync. With Microsoft Teams, all the functionalities in Skype and Lync have been rebuilt in the Microsoft Cloud. The greatest advantages of Teams are ease of use, stability and uniformity across apps on PC and mobile devices. In addition, Microsoft Teams also adds the collaboration functionalities of Office 365 to those communication options. A very versatile and widely applicable application!

In addition to audio and video calling and screen sharing, much more is possible in Microsoft Teams. Let’s highlight a number of options that can help to work even more efficiently with Microsoft Teams.

Share presentation via PowerPoint

When you choose to share the content in a Teams meeting (via Screen sharing), you often choose Desktop or Window. This is a practical way to share content in a meeting. You can also choose to give the presentation directly from PowerPoint, by sharing the file itself from the PowerPoint header.

This has the advantage that both the presenter and participants can easily click through the slides and displays the controls more effectively. This is also more efficient for the network; by working together in PowerPoint itself, you use up to 90% less bandwidth. This is ideal for sharing messages to participants who may have a somewhat poorer network connection, or who have to share their network with roommates.

Extra options

When you send out a Teams meeting request in Outlook, there are also extra options to prepare it a bit more. For example, you can indicate who is authorized to present and who, for example, has to wait in the lobby. This is useful to prepare the presentation yourself before you allow the participants to the meeting.

You do this by clicking on Meeting Options in the invitation.

On the page that opens, you can set who has to wait in the lobby and who is authorized to present. These people then also have more options, such as allowing the people waiting in the lobby to enter the meeting and muting the microphone of participants.

Preload PowerPoint

You can also pre-load a PowerPoint presentation. When you send an invitation to a Teams meeting via Outlook, you can include a PowerPoint presentation. In the Teams meeting, the first option to share the PowerPoint immediately comes up. With a paperclip icon to make it clear that this is the attachment.

If you intend to plan a new Teams meeting for which you have prepared a PowerPoint slide deck, these tips will help make presenting even easier and more efficient!