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Microsoft Teams Glossary of Terms, Apps, and Icons

Microsoft Teams is being rolled out in phases to help facilitate more seamless collaboration with the Stanford hospitals. Learn more.

As you explore the app and become familiar with the instructions, here are some terms you may see.

General Teams/M365 terms

Team – a virtual workspace where a group of people work toward a shared goal.

Channel – Dedicated sections within a Team to share messages, tools, and files.

Channel Meetings- Schedule a meeting in advance or choose “Meet now” to hold a meeting open to every Team member.

Chat - a quick discussion between two people or a small group.

Cross-affiliate collaboration - Cross-affiliate collaboration in Microsoft Teams refers to the ability of people from different affiliate organizations to work together and collaborate on shared projects or tasks using Teams.  At Stanford, this feature enables university and hospital colleagues to join the same team or channel, and work together.

External User – a person outside your organization’s tenant who is available is not a member of a Stanford University team.

Global Address List (GAL) - the address look-up feature in Microsoft 365. At Stanford, Teams users will find colleagues employed by Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children’s Health in the GAL.

Guest User - an individual within the Global Address list but outside of Stanford University who is added to a Team.

Meetings - One of the key ways to collaborate in Teams and may include audio, video, and screen sharing. You don’t need a Teams account to join a Teams meeting.

Tab – built-in parts of any channel that enable quick access to certain apps or files. Find tabs at the top of the screen. All Team members can add new tabs. Team Owners –Primary and secondary owners have elevated privileges on a Team.

Team Owners - Primary and secondary owners have elevated privileges on a Team.

Tenant - An application that is available to a specific group of users and typically associated with a domain name, such as @stanford.edu or @stanfordhealthcarte.org.

Thread - A discussion on a specific topic in a Team/channel. Meetings – One of the key ways to collaborate in Teams and may include audio, video, and screen sharing. You don’t need to have a Teams account to join a Teams meeting.

M365 apps

Teams – the entire software/application used as a hub for collaboration.

SharePoint – used to create websites and to store, organize, share, and access information.

OneNote – a digital notebook that automatically stores and saves your notes as you work.

OneDrive – store your documents in the cloud in what is essentially a personal SharePoint site.

Forms – enables you to create surveys, polls, and quizzes.

Planner – enables Teams to create, assign, and organize work visually.

Power BI – Microsoft's Business Intelligence and reporting app allows you to create reports and dashboards.

Whiteboard- digital collaboration canvas that can be used for collaboration and brainstorming.

Icons

Activity - displays all your colleagues’ activities across the teams, channels, chats, and apps that you have access to.

Chat - displays all your contacts and communication activity.

Calendar - allows you to schedule meetings and plan out your work week.

Calls - shows your contacts, call history, and voicemails; allows you to make a call, and make call groups.

Files- allows you to access shared files from your team and from your OneDrive account.

Help- includes instructional guides and videos on how to use and navigate through Microsoft Teams.

Last modified February 26, 2024