With Microsoft Teams it is possible to discuss document straight from within the App. This post walks through the step on how this can be done.

First I’ve started by creating a new Channel within my Team.

 

then I use the New option to create a new Word document.

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams new channel

Currently Word, Excel and PowerPoint are available.

 

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams new document

Now my document will be opened up in my browser. Huh, wasn’t the idea of teams that I don’t need to leave the app all day?

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams documentcreated

So now I’ve got a document ready!

To start the conversation around the document I can now make a tab. This makes it easier for all the team members to find the document:

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams menudocument

After the document is added to the tabs it will be opened in read only mode. It’s now possible to edit the document or simply start a conversation about the document:

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams previewdocument

 

After you click on the Start conversation button, the discussion can start:

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams start conv

 

Ok, this is great, but have a look through the options now.

You can Add gifs:

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams addgif

Or a sticker ( this is just a static image):

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams sticker

 

Or you can have a video call about this. But one of the options that you shouldn’t miss is you can add another document to the conversation. How often do you discuss one document and you then want to include another document to the conversation. Really clever ….

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams adddocument

… or maybe not!

When you select any of these options Browse Teams and Channels, OneDrive, Google Drive, you will end up with multiple copies of the same document. One copy in the original location and one copy within your new discussion. Is this clever? No!

Haven’t we been telling our customers not to create multiple copies of the same file?

Microsoft Teams - Conversations around a document Microsoft Teams linktodocWhy isn’t it possible to create a link to the original document? Yes, I can understand if the original file doesn’t exist within SharePoint that it may be a bit harder to create a link to the document, but when you add a file form another team site a link should be good enough.

So this way we’re going to end up with two versions of the same document. How long will it take before two people both edit a different version of the same document? Should permissions of the document be kept in Sync?

Hopefully this will be improved soon.

I had a look at the Microsoft Teams user voice and the team is looking this:

https://microsoftteams.uservoice.com/forums/555103-public/suggestions/16944823-links-attachments-in-chat

 

By Pieter Veenstra

Business Applications and Office Apps & Services Microsoft MVP working as a Microsoft Productivity Principal Consultant at HybrIT Services. You can contact me using contact@veenstra.me.uk.

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