Microsoft Teams: Attending Meetings

Microsoft Teams: Attending meetings

In this video, I’ll walk you through joining a meeting hosted in Microsoft Teams on your computer, as well as through a video conferencing system in a conference room.

Joining a meeting using a computer

• I’ll start by demonstrating how to join a meeting on your computer or laptop.
  • To join a Teams meeting, first, open the meeting on your calendar.
  • Next, in the meeting details, click the Click here to join the meeting link. Teams will open automatically and connect you to the meeting.
  • Before you’re put into the meeting room, you’ll see the meeting settings screen. Here, you can check your audio and video settings before joining a meeting.
    • You can view and change your device settings by clicking on the Device Settings The Device Settings pane will appear on the right side of the meeting window.
    • From here, click on the appropriate drop-down menu to change your speaker, microphone, and webcam.
    • To close the Device Settings pane, click the Close button in the upper right corner of the pane.
  • If desired, you can mute your microphone and turn off video before entering the meeting by clicking on the microphone and camera toggle switches.
  • When you’re ready to join the meeting, click the Join now button.

Using the meeting controls 

• If you’re new to meeting in Teams, many of the control buttons you’ll need are present at the top of the meeting window, instead of at the bottom like they are in Zoom. 
  • To turn your webcam on and off, in the meeting controls at the top of the screen, click on Camera or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-O.,
  • To mute or unmute your microphone, click on Mic or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-M.
  • If you need to change your device settings during the meeting, click the three dots, or More Actions button, and in the menu that appears, click on Settings, then click Device Settings.
    • The Device Settings pane appears, like we saw before joining the meeting, with the same options shown previously.
    • To close this pane, click the Close button in the upper right corner of the pane.
  • To view the meeting chat, click on Chat and the chat pane will open on the right side of the screen. Clicking on Chat again will close the chat.
  • If you want to share your screen, click on The Share Content menu will appear – to share your screen, click the thumbnail for the screen you want to share, or click Window to choose a specific window to share.
  • If you want to record the meeting, in the meeting controls at the top of the screen, click on More Actions. In the menu that appears, click on Record and Transcribe, then click Start Recording.
    • Teams will start recording the meeting, and will also start transcribing the meeting’s audio. To hide the Transcript pane, if desired, click the Close button in the pane’s upper right corner.
    • To stop recording the meeting, click on More Actions, then Record and Transcribe, then click on Stop Recording.
    • You’ll be asked to confirm that you want to stop recording – to confirm, click the Stop Recording and audio transcription will stop.
  • When you’re ready to leave the meeting, in the upper right corner of the meeting window, click the Leave You’ll be returned to the Teams window.

Joining a meeting using a video conferencing device

• Now let’s see how to join a Teams meeting using a video conferencing device such as a Cisco or Polycom device.
  • To join a Teams meeting from a video conferencing device, you’ll need to have the Video Conference ID that’s included in the meeting invitation on hand. In the meeting invite, it’s listed under the Join with a video conferencing device This is the number you’ll dial to call into the meeting.
  • On the video conferencing device, tap the Dial button, enter the video conference ID, and tap the Call You’ll then be connected to the meeting.
  • When you’re done in the meeting and ready to leave, on the the video conferencing device, press the End button to hang up the call.

Accessing additional features while attending using a video conferencing device

• While attending a Teams meeting using a video conferencing device, there may be times where you need access to some Teams meeting features like chat, file sharing, the ability to record the meeting, and the ability to admit participants into the meeting from the meeting room lobby.
• To use these features, you can join the meeting from the Teams app on your laptop or phone without connecting the device’s audio. This way, you can access the additional features available in Teams without causing an echo in the meeting room.
• To join without audio on a laptop, click the meeting link in the invitation as you normally would. Then, in the meeting options window, select the option for Don’t use audio, then click the Join Now button to join without audio.
• To join without audio from a mobile device, start joining the meeting as you normally would.
  • Then, on iOS, to view the options for joining a meeting, under the Join meeting button, tap on More join options.
  • On Android devices, the other join options are accessible from the dropdown menu next to the Join button.
  • When the other join options appear on the screen, on iOS, tap Join without audio. On Android, tap on Audio off. You’ll then be connected to the meeting without audio.
• Now you have access to all the additional features available in a Teams meeting including chat, recording the meeting, lobby management and meeting lock while the video conferencing device handles the audio and video for the meeting.