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Teams··3 min read

20 Microsoft Teams keyboard shortcuts that make you noticeably faster

Stop hunting for buttons in Teams. These 20 keyboard shortcuts cover chat, meetings, navigation and the small wins you'll use every day.

L

Lina Santiago

Independent writer

20 Microsoft Teams keyboard shortcuts that make you noticeably faster

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Microsoft Teams is one of those apps you live inside all day. A handful of shortcuts saves you hundreds of clicks a week. Here are the 20 worth learning, in the order we'd teach them.

Shortcuts below use Windows keys. On Mac, replace Ctrl with Cmd (⌘) unless noted.

Navigation

  1. Ctrl + 1 — Activity feed.
  2. Ctrl + 2 — Chat.
  3. Ctrl + 3 — Teams (channels).
  4. Ctrl + 4 — Calendar.
  5. Ctrl + 5 — Calls.

You probably use these five tabs all day. Stop clicking them.

  1. Ctrl + E — Jump to the search bar at the top. Type anything (person, file, message) and hit Enter.

Chat & messages

  1. Ctrl + N — Start a new chat.
  2. Ctrl + Shift + M — Mute/unmute in a meeting (the big one — learn this today).
  3. Ctrl + . (period) — Open the keyboard-shortcuts cheat sheet inside Teams.
  4. Shift + Enter — New line in a chat without sending. Stops accidental half-messages.
  5. Ctrl + Shift + X — Expand the compose box into a full editor (formatting, bullets, links).

Meetings

  1. Ctrl + Shift + O — Turn camera on / off.
  2. Ctrl + Shift + Space — Press-and-hold to temporarily unmute while you speak, then release to mute again.
  3. Ctrl + Shift + K — Raise hand.
  4. Ctrl + Shift + E — Share screen.
  5. Ctrl + Shift + B — Toggle background blur.

Calls

  1. Ctrl + Shift + S — Accept an incoming call.
  2. Ctrl + Shift + D — Decline an incoming call.
  3. Ctrl + Shift + H — Hang up.

The smartest one

  1. Ctrl + G — Jump back to the last thing you visited. Faster than the back button.

Where to find the rest

Open Teams and press Ctrl + . to see Microsoft's full cheat sheet — there are about 60 shortcuts in total. The 20 above are the ones you'll actually use weekly.

Mac differences worth knowing

  • Replace Ctrl with Cmd (⌘) for most shortcuts.
  • The mute-while-speaking shortcut on Mac is Cmd + Shift + Space.
  • Camera toggle is Cmd + Shift + O.

TL;DR

Learn Ctrl + Shift + M (mute), Ctrl + Shift + Space (unmute-while-pressing), Ctrl + E (search), and the Ctrl + 1–5 nav. Those five alone save more time than every other shortcut combined.

Tags:#teams#shortcuts#productivity

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