Even though the new year has only just begun, Microsoft Teams has already implemented an innovation. The agenda has been renewed, and now looks more like the agenda you know from Microsoft Outlook. There are now many more functions available within the Microsoft Teams agenda. Curious about what you can do with it? You can read all about it in this blog!
Agenda view in Teams
First, you may notice that the agenda view has changed. For example, the appointments of the current day and the days that are still to come that week are displayed in more detail. The appointments of the days that have already passed in that week contain less detail. You can also now adjust how large you want the time blocks in your agenda to be. In addition, you can enable week numbers via agenda settings. You can also add different time zones via these settings. Handy if your colleague (or yourself) is on workation!
Filters in the Microsoft Teams calendar
It is now also possible to enable different filters, via the three dots at the top of your Teams calendar. These filters help you focus on certain appointments in your calendar. If you have divided different types of events into categories, such as appointments with colleagues, appointments with external parties and performing tasks for yourself, this is very useful. You can also enable these filters to distinguish between, among other things, accepted, unanswered and cancelled meetings. For example, you can filter your calendar by ‘unanswered’, so that you can also accept or decline the invitations that you have missed in all the hustle and bustle.
Create meetings from the Teams calendar
You can now schedule your meetings in detail within your Teams calendar. Previously, only a pop-up would appear where you could list the most important things, such as date and time, participants, location and description. Now you can enlarge that pop-up, allowing you to add more details. Think of setting notifications before the meeting, making the meeting recurring and using the scheduling assistant to avoid double appointments.
Open and edit meetings in the Teams calendar
When opening an appointment in your Teams calendar to find more information about it or to adjust it, the small pop-up will first appear. You can enlarge this for more details. For example, you can now find a chat button here. This way you can send and receive messages via the chat from everyone involved in the meeting. This can be useful for taking meeting notes. There is also now a button available with which you can directly participate in the meeting or copy the link to send to your colleagues.
Concept of a meeting
When you are planning or adjusting a meeting, you may need more information to schedule it. For example, you may have forgotten an important meeting point, for which you need to send a message to your colleague. Then you can simply go to the chat via the left side of Teams, as you always do. Here you can look up your information or ask your question. When you return to your agenda, the screen of the meeting you were planning is still open. This way you don’t have to fill in everything again!
View shared calendars in Teams
In the Microsoft Teams calendar you can now also view calendars of others. Make sure you first add these calendars in Microsoft Outlook via ‘Add shared calendar’. This function is not (yet) possible within the Microsoft Teams calendar.
Indicate your work location
Within your Teams calendar you can now indicate per day or week which days you work in the office or remotely. You can also see which days your colleagues work in the office, if they have filled this in of course.
Saved Views
With the ‘Saved views’ option, you can create and save different calendar display settings. For example, you can add an option in which you only see your own calendar, but also an option in which the calendars of your colleagues are visible.
Channel Meetings
You can now also schedule channel meetings via the Teams calendar. This is very useful if you want to schedule a meeting with your team. You can also do this via the arrow next to ‘New event’. This allows you to enter which Teams channel you want to schedule a meeting with. If you do this via the ‘normal’ way of scheduling, you do not have the option to add a channel. You can also choose to send personal invitations, so that invitees immediately receive the invitation in their calendar.
Meeting templates
You can also schedule different types of meetings in the new Microsoft Teams calendar. You can find these via the arrow next to ‘New event’. Here you get three different meeting options: webinar, meeting and virtual appointment. The settings for these different options are precisely tailored to the type of meeting. For example, you don’t have to think about muting the microphone of participants during a webinar. Microsoft Teams has already done this for you as the default setting for this type of meeting.
