Here are five of my favorite Microsoft Teams keyboard shortcuts you can learn today. If five seems like too many, pick three. Just commit to learning them – they’ll improve your Teams life.
Note: I use the same shortcut notation as Microsoft. When a keyboard combination requires two or more keys pressed at the same time, you’ll see the plus sign (+).
Get to the top and search for stuff
Ctrl+E will get you to the top of Teams, to the Search Bar. Once there, you can press / (the forward slash) to invoke commands. If you’re looking for a file you recently worked on but can’t remember the Team and Channel, type /files to see your recent documents. “Do Not Disturb” is there, too. Type /dnd and your status is set.
Helpful On and Off switches
Meetings and calls are no time to be scrambling for the on and off switches. The Teams team has conveniently created shortcuts for your camera and your audio. Toggles are:
Ctrl+Shift+O to turn your camera on and off. As in Control Shift Oh no, my video is on! NOTE: this does not work for the Teams Web app.
Ctrl+Shift+M to mute yourself or unmute. Anything to avoid the dreaded “You’re muted!”
Where’s my files?
To get your files quickly, press Ctrl+6. You will be presented with your recent files, Teams files, and Downloads in addition to your OneDrive. For the Teams Web app use Ctrl+Shift+6.
Zoom (not THAT Zoom)
Need a little boost to your eyesight when working late on a Friday night? Zoom is for you. To zoom in, press Ctrl+= (Control plus equal sign) and to zoom right back out, press Ctrl+- (Control plus minus sign).
To find the keyboard shortcuts in Teams, click on your profile picture and you’ll see it listed on the menu. Or, /keys in the box at the top of Teams will get you the list too.
Keyboard shortcuts save time
See this interesting take on how much time shortcuts save.
Author’s note: This post is a February 2021 revision of a post I wrote back in 2018. I started the article with “We’ve all been there. You’re on a Teams call and an otherwise sweet, normal family member starts up a chainsaw behind you. Or a rant. You lunge for the mouse and frantically look for the mute button!” Things really haven’t changed much! Thank you very much for stopping by.
Swann Dive 