Microsoft Teams: Creating and Managing a Team

Overview

Microsoft Teams is an easy way to pull together a group to share, collaborate and communicate in one central location without the use of phone calls that take time away from our day or emails that can easily get buried.  From directly within Teams we can bring everyone together to share information, securely edit files live and at the same time, bring together Microsoft Office 365 apps (OneDrive, OneNote, Planner, Forms, etc) and third-party apps and websites in one place, tag members of the team in conversations or actions and customize the work through adding notes (OneNote and others) and other applications.
 

Creating your team is an easy process.  Follow these instructions to create, edit and manage your Team.

Create a team from scratch

  1. On the left side of the app, Select Chat Teams Chat Tab icon. If using the separate view, select Teams Teams button. 

  2. Select New items from above your list of chats and channels. 

    Screen shot of the option to select new items from the combined view. It's on the right, above the list of chats and channels.

    Screen shot of the option to select new items from the separate view. It's on the right, above the list of teams and channels.

  3. Select New team.                            

    Screenshot of the option to create a new team. It reveals after selecting the new items option.

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  4. Name your team and add an optional description.Screenshot of the Create a team window. It includes an area to add a team name, description and type. You can also create your first channel's name. 

  5. Decide what kind of team you want this to be. To limit content and talk to a certain group of people, choose Private. For a community or topic that anyone in the org can join, choose Public. If your organization uses data classification, select your team's sensitivity label as well. 

    Note: Teams are automatically private (if the organization allows it). Default sensitivity, if set by the organization, will appear automatically.

    Screenshot of a window for creating a new team in Microsoft Teams with options to set sensitivity as "Secure" and privacy as either "Private" or "Public."​​​​​​​       

  6. Name your first channel. 

  7. When you're done, select Create.

Your team's first channel

Every team has at least one channel. We create the first one for you; however, you must provide a name to get started. Its description is the same as your team's description.

Note: Your first channel used to be called the general channel, but you can rename it. Learn more at Edit a channel in Microsoft Teams. 

If needed, you can add more channels but you'll always have this channel. Your first channel can't be archived or deleted. 

What to do next 

As the creator of the team, you're the owner. Invite people to your team and create more channels. For a deeper look at roles and permissions, see Team owner, member, and guest capabilities in Teams.

Feel free to create more teams—you can own up to 250 teams per account.

Manage team settings and permissions in Microsoft Teams

If you’re a team owner, you're in control of many settings and permissions for your team. 

Change team name, description, and privacy settings

  1. Go to the team name and select More options More options icon > Manage team Settings button.

  2. In the Settings tab, expand the Team details section and select Edit.

  3. Change the team name, description, or whether it's a public or private team. Select Done.

Change team permissions and other settings

  1. Go to the team name and select More options More options icon > Manage team Settings button.

  2. In the Settings tab, check or uncheck the options or permissions that you want to use.

Note: For more info about roles and permissions, see Team owner, member, and guest capabilities in Teams.

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