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How to add Tabs?


Glad to see you’re still with us on our Teams journey! In today’s issue, we discuss the Tabs feature and everything you can do it, as well as the ones we recommend for every user. If you’re new to the series, have a look at the previous topics we have covered to cover some basics:

What is Teams
How to navigate the Teams platform
Calling and Zoom Integration
How to Create and Join Meetings 



Tabs

Depending on your requirements, you can add tabs to help integrate your favourite apps, cloud storage, files, wiki and quick links. Your team can then discuss any work or project with ease and accessible context.

Tabs give you and your team members direct access to files, services and tools in a set place within your channel or chat. It lets you have a dedicated place for your selected content and services, to discuss and use together with your team, all from one place.
 
Tabs are visible at the top of the screen:

The default apps for a chat are Conversations, Files, Organisation, and Activity.

Let’s look at each tab and what they mean:

Conversations/Chat – your chat history with that person

Files – the files you have worked on or shared together

Organisation – displays the org chart for your company, to see who that person reports to and who reports to them.

Activity – shows all your colleagues’ activities across the teams, channels, apps, and chats that you are a part of

The default tabs for a team are Posts, Files and Wiki as shown below:

Again, let’s look at each tab and what they mean:

Posts – the general area in your teams channel that shows what everyone has been posting

Files – same as the private chat, it shows the files and documents you have uploaded and worked on together. 

Wiki – a smart-text editor where you can write text and use formatting that you are familiar with from Microsoft Word, such as bold, italics and underlining. You can also add documents to the Wiki tab for more directed communication.

Adding a Tab

Team owners or members can add additional tabs to a specific channel by clicking on the add a tab button, displayed as the + sign.

Tabs range from your preferred Office applications, websites, and external applications that your organisation uses. This means that you don’t have to leave Microsoft Teams to work with the selected tool, giving you more time to focus on the work at hand.

There are many different tabs to choose from, all depending on what you like.
Simply click the add a tab button and search for the one you need:

Adding Files

Office and PDF files, such as Excel, PowerPoint and Word, have to first be uploaded to the Files tab before they are shown on your channel/chat tabs. Once a file is uploaded, it can be easily converted to tabs:

When a custom tab is added to your channel, it opens a Tab conversation that allows you and your team members to have a single place of discussion about the content:

Adding Websites

If you or your team regularly visits a website or is working on a specific website, you can add it to the tabs section to conveniently have it open all the time. Teams will load that specific web page and save you the time from having to minimize applications and open your browser.

To add a website, search for the Website tab in the Add a tab section. The website button will look like this:


Then, add the Tab name (typically the website name) and paste the link in the provided area:

Note that the URL has to start with an https prefix in order to keep your information secure.

Check out Microsoft’s tutorial video on adding tools with Tabs

Thanks again for reading our Microsoft Teams Journey! Our aim is to equip every Microsoft Teams user, currently working from home, with the right knowledge and tools to be more efficient and make the experience a bit easier. Stay tuned for next week’s issue, coming on Tuesday!

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How to Create & Join Meetings

Welcome back to our Microsoft Teams Journey series! In today’s issue, we look at creating and managing meetings. But first, if you haven’t already, check out our previous topics that cover important groundwork to get you started:

Issue #1 – What is Teams
Issue #2 – How to navigate the Teams platform
Issue #3 – Calling and Zoom Integration 

Sometimes, your team discussions require a face-to-face conversation, to help get a message across or quickly cover an important topic. Meetings are one of the best tools for collaboration as you can easily join, create, schedule, record and include people outside of your organization, all from one place and at any time.
 
There are two ways to schedule a meeting, either through Outlook or directly from the Teams application.

Meetings from Teams

There are a few choices to schedule a meeting in Teams, using either Meet Now or through the chat and teams’ tabs. Before we go into that, let’s first look at the various ways you can join a meeting:


Link – the most common way. Select Join Microsoft Teams Meeting in your meeting invite and the meeting will open automatically.


Calendar – Click the Calendar tab on the left side of the app to see your meetings. Find the meeting you are interested in and select Join.


Channel – If the meeting is taking place in a channel, you will see a button to join and some meeting details below, like the attendees and discussed content.


Chat – if the meeting has already started, it will appear in your recent chat list. Simply choose the meeting from your chat list and click on the Join button.


Call In – in some instances, when you are not able to use the Teams application (like during load-shedding), you can join some meetings by calling a phone number.


Great, now that we have covered joining a meeting, let’s continue to creating them.

To start a meeting from a chat, click on the Schedule a meeting button in the chat box as shown here:


To start a meeting outside of the chat, go to the Calendar tab and click on the + New Meeting button:


Both options will take you the scheduling form, where you fill in the usual meeting details such as title, attendees, date and time of the meeting.

You can use the Scheduling Assistant tab to help you find the best time through the calendar view.

Adding a guest

 
To invite someone who is not part of the organisation, we recommend first adding them as a Guest on your Teams. To add a guest, simply add a member to your selected Team and enter the persons email address instead of a known contact.


Once you have added the guests email address, be sure to edit the guest information in order change the displayed name.


Please note that the guest should have a Microsoft Account associated with their email address, and if they do not then they will be directed to create a free one. However, an anonymous option is available, although not recommended.

Meet Now

 

There are two ways to create a meeting with Meet Now. First, using the button featured in the chat box:


Click on the Meet Now in a new conversation to start the meeting for the entire discussion or click in an existing conversation, under the reply button, to stay with the relevant context.

You will then see the video preview, where you can give the meeting a name and have the option to set up the camera or schedule the meeting. If you are happy with the information, click on the Meet Now button to begin.


Now you can select the names of the team members you want to invite, through the suggestions tab or simply typing in the name yourself. You can also type a phone number, to add people outside of your organisation.

Secondly, you can use Meet Now directly from the calendar tab and follow the same procedures:

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Calling and Zoom Integration

Great, you’ve made it to the third issue of our Teams Journey. So far, we have covered what Microsoft Teams is  and how to use it. Now let’s look at how to use the calling feature, as well as integrating zoom into your Teams.

Calling

Sometimes a text conversation just isn’t enough, and the tone of a message can be difficult to understand. Voice and video calling can be a much better alternatives so let’s have a look at how you can do this from your Teams platform.

Calling from chat

Found at the top right corner, you simply click on the video or phone button to start a call, depending on if you want to do it via audio or video. You can make one-on-one calls or have a group call to include additional members. While the calls are private, the entries will be shown in the chat.

Step by step:
 
  1. Start a new conversation by clicking on the new chat button.
  2. Type the name or names of the person or people you would like to chat with.
  3. Click on either the video or audio button to start the call, as shown in the picture above.


A quicker method is to type /call in the command box at the top of your Teams application and select the person you want to get a hold of.

You can have up to 20 people in the same video call, but more than that will make the calling options unavailable.

To add a new person to the chat, click on the add people button and type the name of the person that you wish to include.

Call Sharing

If you need to show your colleague or colleagues something that is displayed on your screen, you can choose to share you screen with them. 

Simply click on the screen sharing button as shown above and choose either a specific program, such as a word document or your internet browser, or select to share your entire screen.

The selected colleagues will get a notification asking them if they would like to accept your screen share. Once they accept, it will activate, and they will see whichever option you have chosen.

To end the screen sharing, click on the Stop sharing button under the meeting controls and it will immediately stop the connection.

Personalizing your Teams

Every organization is different and uses different applications in their business, organizing your Teams with the right tools to help productivity is important.

Have a look at Microsoft’s video on screen sharing

Zoom Integration

One of the most popular video communications applications, Zoom is an easy-to-use cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, meetings, and webinars. The basic version is completely free, and its popularity and use are drastically rising in South Africa due to the current lockdown.

Integrating Zoom into your Microsoft Teams is simple and can be found by searching it in the Apps tab.

Step by step:
  1. Click on the Apps tab on the right-hand side of your Teams application.
  2. Type “Zoom” in the search tab.
  3. Click on the Zoom icon and then on Add
Once you have added Zoom, you will see a video icon under your chat box to quickly start or schedule a meeting. Remember to sign into your Zoom account or create a new one if it’s your first time.

Additionally, when chatting with someone, you can type @Zoom into the chat box and see the available options to start or schedule a meeting.

For a more comprehensive guide to using Zoom, we recommend watching the following educational video

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How to Use Teams?

Last week, we had a look at what Microsoft Teams is and what it can do for your business. Now it’s time to focus on how to use Teams and navigate your way around it. 

We know that Teams is designed as a simpler way for your organization to communicate and collaborate, thus providing an easy-to-use application for any user, no matter how tech savvy they are.

Getting Started

Once you have access to Teams, you can either download the desktop application, use the browser version or download the mobile app. The app can be downloaded for iOS, Android and WP users.

Now that you have chosen your preferred application, it’s time to sign in. 
Simply fill in your Microsoft 365 username and password and continue.

  Creating a Team, Channel and Chat.

Let’s have a look at the Teams platform:

  1. Join or create a team – find the team you need to join by entering a provided code or create your own from scratch.
  2. Manage your team – edit your team details, add a new member, create a new channel or a get a link for others to join.
  3. Organize your team – view all your teams here and reorder them to your preference.
  4. Chat – view your conversations with single team members, your contact list and find specific conversations with the filter option.
  5. Channels – see the different channels allocated to a specific team and view the conversations taking place or the files being used.

Personalizing your Teams

Every organization is different and uses different applications in their business, organizing your Teams with the right tools to help productivity is important.

  1. Apps – browse the many available apps to choose from or add the ones that you are already familiar with.
  2. Tabs – add specific tabs to each team, to focus on a certain app, service or file for each team and channel.
  3. Command box – search for a specific file, person or app to save time by quickly accessing them.
  4. Profile Settings – customize your profile with a status or picture, set your availability when you’re busy or away, and change your app settings to your preferences.
If you would like to watch a full demo tutorial, have a look at to Microsoft’s video where Aya Tange presented during the Microsoft Ignite tour

Thank you for making it to yet another Microsoft Journey blog, we hope this has helped you understand the user interface a bit better.  Next week, we will be discussing Microsoft Teams usage for business and its application in the corporate sector. Be sure to check our social media pages for its release!

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What is Microsoft Teams?

You have probably come across the name in your online experience, as the popularity has been rising ever since its release in 2017.  Our goal in this journey series is to explain how Teams is used, what are it’s features and how you can expertly use it with your work group.

Microsoft Teams is a part of the Microsoft 365 suite and is being adopted by many businesses around the globe, especially with the current pandemic and social distancing we are all facing. Employees are having to work from home, while adhering to safety precautions and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

As every organization is unique and has their own requirements, Teams lets you customize the platform to your exact business or cultural needs.

With our Microsoft Teams Journey series, we will be discussing features, applications and tips on how to use Teams with your colleagues or employees. You can look forward to the following topics in the near future:

  • How to use Teams
  • Usage and business application
  • Microsoft 365 Integration
  • Teams and Channels
  • Tabs
  • Apps and app categories 
  • Bots

To begin, we will have a look at what exactly Microsoft Teams is and what it offers :

Microsoft Teams is a collaboration tool for teamwork and communication that gives you the ability to discuss and share information through chat, video, file sharing and storage and app integration.  Think of it as the heart of an organizations place of working together, to achieve a common goal. 

Using the Teams platform, you have the most sought out features that all businesses look for:

Let’s look a bit further into each specific feature:

Communicate – have the option of all communication possibilities, either text, VoIP or video chat from anywhere and at any time. Share ideas and as well as you character with the option to send GIFs, emojis, and stickers in a group chat or direct messages. If you need to be more direct, simply do a voice or video chat, with a single person or many team members at the same time.

Share – Teams is all about collaboration and sharing is an important feature to have. Not only can you share live documents and files while chatting, you can also share them during a meeting or even to people outside of your team. If that’s not enough, you can share your entire desktop screen by giving certain people access to what you are seeing.

Integrate – currently sitting at 406 (yes, that’s right) available apps to choose from, the long list should have some options that your business can benefit from. If, by some chance, there is not a single one that could work for your business, then you also have the option to create your own using the developer toolkit.

Be Secure – the online world is full of cybercriminals who want to get their hands on your data. Teams offers premium security and compliance traits to help you stay secure. From advanced encryption to saving files on a secure cloud, you can be assured that your and your clients information is safe from harm.

Have a look at Microsoft’s video on Teams

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog, this is only the first issue of our Microsoft Teams Journey and we have a lot more exciting information to share with you. The next issue will focus on how to use and navigate Microsoft Teams from your desktop and mobile. Stay tuned!

Get Microsoft Teams today
Or contact us if you have any additional questions: support@3gi.co.za

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Top 5 Free Learning Resources For Students

Free Learning For Students

Amidst the COVID-19 lock-down students are having to exercise severe discipline in order to keep their brain active while finding the best tools to learn from. Below you will find our top 5 free learning resources and materials that are now open to students, including courses and digital certifications.  
 
 
Khan Academy
 
Students around the world have probably come across Khan Academy during their researching and it’s no surprise that this nonprofit educational center has seen a spike in traffic in these past weeks. It offers three different categories of materials, for teachers, learners and parents, and a wide variety of subjects and courses. To name a few popular ones, you have access to Math, Science & Engineering, Computing, Arts & Humanities and a kid’s app for young children between the ages of 2-7. Simply create your free account and begin exploring. 
 
Coursera
 
Founded by Stanford University professors in 2012, Coursera now has over 200 partners across 29 countries and offers courses from leading universities such as Standford, Yale, University of London and more. While not all of the courses are currently free, there are many that are and the paid ones are affordable. Coursera recently launched a free course on COVID 19 and Epidemiology that can be found here. The course starts tomorrow so we encourage anyone interested to join now!  
 
edX
 
edX offers more than 2500+ online courses and has helped over 20 million learners. The popular online course provider was founded by MIT and Harvard University and offers university-level learning materials for students around the globe. It is a great way to spice up your CV and show future employers a variety of knowledge on advanced subjects. According to their website, edX is the only leading MOOC provider that is both nonprofit and open source. You can find many free courses here with the option of a paid digital certification upon completion.  
 
Codecademy
 
Coding is a highly valuable skill to have in this modern age and developers are in high demand in the job market.  Codecedemy is currently offering 10 000 scholarships to high school and college students around the world that gives you access to Codecademy Pro benefits and materials. Don’t be intimidated by coding and think that you are not suited for the task, check for yourself by taking their free quick quiz to see where you can fit with programming and developing.  
 
Skillshare
 
If you’re more of the creative type then Skillshare is the perfect platform for you. By offering courses in creative fields such as animation, design, illustration, photography & film, business writing and more, Skillshare helps you explore your creativity and find what works for you. While there are free courses available, Skillshare is also offering a 2-month free premium account where you have enough time to complete many of the paid courses as well. See all courses here.
 
We hope that you found this blog helpful and that you begin your online journey for learning online. Remember to stay calm and give yourself a balance between entertainment and education, this pandemic undoubtedly gives you a lot of free time, so use it wisely!  

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How to help your small business survive the coronavirus lockdown

The time has come and South Africa is now under full lockdown, with many business owners worried about what it will do to their trade and employees.  Businesses across the nation are facing financial difficulties and have to adopt new measures to diminish risks, support customers and protect their employees. Here are valuable resources and tips that you will need to create an efficient home workplace for you and your staff.

Be lenient towards staff

You and your team is currently working from home and most probably have their families with them. This includes children and elderly who require care and attention that will undoubtedly impact available time for work and tasks. As an employer or manager, you should try being understanding and flexible toward employees and adopting a contingency plan in case you are understaffed. While many clients will understand delays due to the current situation, businesses should be transparent and open on what they are facing.

Communication Tools

The most important step to maintain a healthy work force is communication. While you and your team may me be separated at the moment, there is no reason to stop meetings and collaboration due to many available resources at your fingertips. Group communication tools and video conferencing is more important than ever so here are our top picks for you:

Microsoft Teams –  not only is it fully integrated with the most used office applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel, it offers the perfect collaboration tools to improve communication and increase productivity:

– Schedule meetings with the ability to record, chat, upload documents and set agendas.
– Calendar syncing for tasks and projects, with full integration for Microsoft Outlook.
– Full cloud based solution means you can access Teams from anywhere with anywhere device and at any time.
– Real-time document work gives your team the ability to work, edit and comment on a document at the same time
– Multiple third-party service integration allows you to connect your already used applications such as Zoom, Trello, Hootsuite and more.

Get Microsoft Office 365 today

3CX – The perfect VoIP solution if your business handles regular client calls, either local or international. By utilizing your internet connection to make calls, 3CX offers a highly affordable and easy to use system, meeting all communication standards and needs, such as:

– Scheduling calls and web conferencing
– Website live chat and talk.  
– Self -installation and maintenance.  The system is simple and easy to set up, making it possible to manage it with ease, from home and in the cloud.
– Available on Android and iOS, as well as extensions on popular web clients such as Chrome and Edge.
– CRM integration

Find out more on VoIP here

Security

Internet networks are currently strained with everyone connecting from home for work, education and entertainment. Cybercrime prevention is more important than ever as employees and businesses will be working on and sharing sensitive data and client information. Preventing cyber-attacks is an invaluable measure right now and employers should be utilizing the available tools and resources for such measures:

– Educating your team on how cybercriminals and attacks work, how to prevent it and what measures to use.
– Recommend and provide quality anti-virus and malware protection applications for your teams remote work stations.
– Cloud back up for data. Protecting your data on a reliable cloud platform means that you can save sensitive information without having to worry about data breaches, ransom ware and general cyber-attacks. 
– Secure document management and file sharing. Provide you team with unified storage and document access through a secure portal.

For more information on internet security, see our recent blogs on basic security precautions, ransomware, protecting your business from cybercrime and phishing attacks.

Additional Resources available:

Coronavirus(COVID-19) 24-hour hotline number: 0800 029 999

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5 Tips to Keep You Entertained


Millions of people are now at home, with loved ones and children exercising the important social-distancing. Trying to find what to do to keep yourself and children entertained can be tough and frustrating, with boredom and cabin-fever being felt across the nation. It is important to stay patient and understanding with your loved ones in a time like this and not let panic and emotions take over. Here are 5 tips and ideas to help challenge the above difficulties:

1. Digital Entertainment

Utilizing popular streaming services such as Netflix and HBO can be a great way to blow off some steam and let the time go by. Now is a perfect time to binge your favourite series and complete your to-watch list. You can search for recommendations and the top charts for some that you may have missed due to a busy schedule. For the young ones, be sure to use the kids section for family friendly content. That being said, too much screen time should be avoided and the right balance is recommended.

2. Exercising

While you may not have access to your favourite gyms at the moment, you can still accomplish many fitness goals from your home. These days, there are many popular fitness apps and videos to help you find what works for you. Use popular home workout techniques and even introduce your family to some fun activities such as Yoga for kids and dance tutorials.


3. Reading

Everyone can find a genre or topic that they enjoy reading and your current spare time is a perfect opportunity to find what works for you. Dive into epic fantasy series, romantic novels or helpful mindfulness reading and watch the time fly. Additionally, reading for your children can help them explore their imagination and creativity while igniting a passion to begin their own books. Look back to your favourite childhood stories, from popular fairy tales that have been adapted to your children’s go-to Disney movies or something similar they may enjoy.

4. Games galore

Most households have board games that have been collecting dust in the cupboard and now is the perfect time to bring those out, invite the whole family to participate and enjoy competitive play and teamwork with the kids. If you do not have many board games, we suggest looking into creating your own fun games from random household objects and toys. Popular family games like charades and general knowledge can keep your mind focused while having fun.  If you have a garden then take the family out for fresh air and much-needed outdoor time.

5. Education

Even if your children are not going to school, that shouldn’t stop them from learning new things. There are a wide variety of educational videos and online tools that can be a lot of fun to get into. Take your children on a virtual tour of an aquarium or zoo or let them dive into history with family friendly videos that make learning a whole lot easier. Be sure to challenge your children and yourself with knowledge portals free online schooling centers.

Thank you for taking the time to read our blog and remember that you have access to a worldwide portal of information and entertainment. Be sure not to panic and make the best of the current situation.

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Introducing the new Microsoft Office App


Microsoft recently introduced a new mobile app called Office, which combines the individual apps of Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint into one platform. Millions of people use Microsoft Office to get their work done, either in the office, at home or at school. It is, therefore, no surprise that this new app has already been met with immense positive feedback.

Combining Word, Excel and PowerPoint is already a great benefit as you don’t have to install multiple apps on your phone, giving you more storage space on your device as well as making it more convenient to switch between them.

The Office app makes it easier for users to perform tasks and get more done in exclusive mobile capabilities with built-in actions, such as creating PDFs, signing them off, using Sticky Notes and transferring files between devices.  

Additional features include the integration of Microsoft’s Lens technology, which enables the use of your mobile camera. This includes the ability to convert images into editable Word and Excel documents, scanning QR codes and taking photos of whiteboards that automatically get enhanced for easier reading.

While the above is already pretty captivating, Microsoft promises to deliver even more features in the future. These include:

  • Word Dictation is the ability to turn your voice into text, use voice commands and simple toolbars to help you with the right formatting and punctuation on Word.
  • Outline to PowerPoint will help you turn your presentation content presentable slides with the correct styling and formatting.
  • Excel Cards View will let you view and edit data in an Excel table row in a simple and easy to read card format, helping you against the bothersome extended columns that users sometimes face.

While the app is completely free to use, we recommend singing in with a Microsoft Account in order to have access to the cloud. Additionally, an Office 365 or Microsoft 365 subscription will give you access to added premium features.

If you are interested in getting Office 365, see our available packages here.

Download the Office App today:
Android
OS

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Phishing attacks and how you can identify them

Have you ever received an email from an unknown source, which asked you to fill out private information or tried to get you to click on an external link? If so, you might have been a potential victim of a phishing attack.

Phishing is a fraudulent practice that tries to get sensitive information from a user, in order to steal from them and infect their computer with malicious software, typically malware.

In the past couple of years, South Africans have experienced a steady increase in phishing attacks, with firms and users being targeted on a daily basis.

Download out free guide to learn more about phishing attacks and how you can identify them, from your workplace and personal capacity