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Share files, your desktop, and an application window with meeting participants and pass control of the mouse. 

Quick reference

Share Content in a Meeting

Learn how to share different types of content in a Teams meeting. 

When to use

We share content whenever we want to demonstrate/present something or collaborate on a file or whiteboard. 

Instructions

Often we will want to share content with other people in a Teams meeting.

Maybe we are demonstrating how to create an Excel chart and want to share our screen. Maybe we want to share a Word document with the latest marketing campaign information. Or, we might want to run a PowerPoint presentation or brainstorm using a Whiteboard. 

We can share all different types of content when in a Teams meeting. 

Share Content via Chat

  • From a Teams meeting, click Chat. 
  • Click the Attach button (paperclip icon). 
  • Browse for the file to attach. 
  • Select Upload a copy. 
  • Click Send. 

Meeting participants can now download the file from the Chat pane or open it in a browser window. 

Share Content

If we want to demonstrate something or run a training session, we can share our screen.

When we share our screen, all meeting participants can see everything on our screen. This is a good option if we plan to jump between different applications during the presentation. 

  • From a Teams meeting, click the Share button. 
Presenter mode

The first thing to select is how we want to present our content. We have 4 different layouts to choose from. The first one only shows the content, whereas the other layouts will show the content and the presenter (if they have their camera on). 

  • Choose Content only. 

Share Screen

To share our screen, click the Screen option. A red border will appear around our screen and we can see the word 'Presenting' at the top. From this point, anything we do on our screen can be seen by everyone on the call. 

Helpfully, Teams automatically sets our status to Do not disturb so we don't receive any notifications or pop-ups while everyone is viewing our screen. 

Pass Control of Mouse and Keyboard

If we are sharing our screen, we have control of our mouse and keyboard. However, we can pass control to someone else in the meeting. This is helpful if someone else needs to demonstrate or highlight something. 

  • When sharing our screen, push the mouse to the top of the screen. 
  • From the drop-down menu, click the drop-down arrow next to Give control. 
  • Choose a meeting participant from the list. 

We can take control back by clicking Cancel control. 

Stop Presenting

We can stop presenting our screen to the meeting participants at any time. Push the mouse to the top of the screen and choose Stop presenting from the menu. 

Share Window

Aside from sharing our screen, we can also share a window. We can choose a window that we currently have open on our PC to share and meeting participants will only be able to see the window we selected. 

This option helps us maintain our privacy by restricting what participants can see. They cannot see anything on our PC other than the selected window. 

This is not a good option if we need to share multiple applications e.g an Excel spreadsheet and a Word document. 

  • From the meeting, click Share. 
  • Choose Window. 
  • Select a window to share. 

Hints & tips

  • To share a window, it must be open on your PC behind the Teams meeting or minimized. 
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  • 00:04 In this lesson we're going to talk about a really important aspect of Teams meetings,
  • 00:09 and that is sharing content.
  • 00:11 Quite often, you'll jump into a meeting with your colleagues or
  • 00:15 even clients or external team members.
  • 00:18 And you'll want to share things like files,
  • 00:21 PowerPoint presentations, maybe even work on these together.
  • 00:26 Well, the good news is we can do all of that from within Teams.
  • 00:29 So let's explore some of the options that we have when it comes to sharing content.
  • 00:35 So I'm already in a meeting with Olivia.
  • 00:38 So if we open up the Chat pane, take a look all the way down the bottom of
  • 00:43 the screen where we have all of those icons.
  • 00:46 One of them is the attach button.
  • 00:47 It's the little paperclip.
  • 00:49 If we click here, we can choose to attach a file from OneDrive,
  • 00:53 or we can browse our computer.
  • 00:56 Now, depending on what cloud storage you have access to your list might be slightly
  • 01:00 different to mine.
  • 01:01 So I'm going to choose Upload from my computer.
  • 01:04 Now, as you might expect, this is going to pop open File Explorer, and
  • 01:08 we can just navigate to the correct folder and choose our file.
  • 01:12 So I want to share the Marketing Plan Word document.
  • 01:17 Let's select it, and click on Open.
  • 01:19 Now, notice here it says that the file already exists in Teams.
  • 01:22 And that is correct, I actually uploaded this file in a previous lesson.
  • 01:29 So if you do already have the file in Teams, it exists in Teams,
  • 01:33 then you're going to get this message.
  • 01:35 And you can choose to upload a copy, or you can replace the file.
  • 01:39 Now, if the file doesn't exist in Teams, and you won't get this message, I'm
  • 01:44 going to choose Replace and you can see it's now uploading that file into chat.
  • 01:49 Now, something I always forget to do is actually click on Send.
  • 01:53 So let's make sure that we click on the paper plane icon just to send that
  • 01:57 document through to all other meeting participants.
  • 02:00 And of course, you're going to be able to find that file in Teams in
  • 02:05 the Files tab in the Team channel, and also in the main Files tab as well.
  • 02:10 So now, this file exists in Teams, other participants can open it,
  • 02:15 they can download it, or they can copy the link.
  • 02:19 So that is one way that you can share files in Teams, but
  • 02:22 what about if you want a more collaborative option?
  • 02:26 Well, notice that we have a Share button in the top right-hand corner, and
  • 02:30 we have a few different options in the Share content pane.
  • 02:34 And the first thing I need to select here is how I want to present my content.
  • 02:39 So currently, if I was to share a Word document or maybe even my screen,
  • 02:44 all meeting participants, they're going to see the content only.
  • 02:48 So whatever that might be a PowerPoint presentation or Word document,
  • 02:52 they're not going to be able to see me.
  • 02:54 The next option here, you need to turn your camera on for, and
  • 02:58 this means it's going to share your content.
  • 03:00 So let's say a PowerPoint presentation, but
  • 03:03 participants will be able to see you in the bottom corner.
  • 03:07 Note the next icon, so my camera or
  • 03:09 my image is effectively side-by-side with the content that I'm sharing.
  • 03:14 Or I can have the content in a much smaller window and
  • 03:17 have me be larger in the window.
  • 03:20 So choose your presenter mode first of all.
  • 03:23 Now, I'm just going to leave it on the default, which is content only.
  • 03:27 We then have an Add background button just here, and I'm going to talk about this
  • 03:32 a bit later on when we speak about background effects and
  • 03:35 how to filter out unprofessional or messy backdrops.
  • 03:38 Next, we then get to choose what it is that we want to share.
  • 03:41 And we really have a few options here.
  • 03:43 We can share our screen.
  • 03:45 We can share a specific window.
  • 03:48 We can share a Microsoft whiteboard or content from camera.
  • 03:52 We can even present a PowerPoint presentation in presenter mode.
  • 03:57 And when we present in presenter mode,
  • 03:59 it means we can see things like a next slide that's coming up and add notes.
  • 04:04 And those things are invisible for the participants.
  • 04:06 They just see the slide deck, but it's really useful if
  • 04:10 you need to read some notes whilst you're presenting to your audience.
  • 04:14 Now, in this lesson I really just want to focus on these two options at
  • 04:17 the top screen and window.
  • 04:18 We're going to look at some of these others in later lessons.
  • 04:21 So if I just simply want to share my screen with all participants
  • 04:26 in this meeting, I can click on a screen.
  • 04:29 Notice that my Teams meeting minimizes and you now see whatever I have on my screen.
  • 04:35 Notice that Teams has also set my status to do not disturb.
  • 04:40 And that's pretty handy, because what that will do is basically disable any
  • 04:44 notifications that might come in whilst people are looking at my screen.
  • 04:48 Also, notice we have the red box around the outside that shows the area that
  • 04:53 is capturing.
  • 04:54 So currently, everybody in this meeting can see everything I have on my screen.
  • 04:59 So if I want to present maybe a PowerPoint presentation, I can now show this and
  • 05:04 everybody in the meeting can see exactly what it is that I'm doing.
  • 05:08 Now, if I push my mouse to the top of the screen,
  • 05:11 it's going to pop down that little menu.
  • 05:13 And I can change the layout, if I want to, from up here.
  • 05:16 So if I decide that everybody needs to see me in the corner and
  • 05:20 my content behind, I could choose my presenter layout.
  • 05:25 I can also pass control to somebody else in the meeting.
  • 05:29 So currently, I'm controlling the mouse in this PowerPoint presentation, but
  • 05:34 maybe Olivia is struggling to really communicate to me exactly what she means
  • 05:38 about this paragraph on this slide.
  • 05:41 So what I could do is pass control across to Olivia, and
  • 05:44 she can now control the PowerPoint presentation.
  • 05:48 So notice that she's moving around in this presentation, I can see a little image
  • 05:53 of her profile, and she can show me exactly what it is that she means.
  • 05:57 So maybe she wants to draw my attention to be about us heading.
  • 06:01 So passing control back and forth is a really nice way of collaborating with
  • 06:06 meeting participants on specific documents.
  • 06:09 Now, notice that if I click, I can still take back control.
  • 06:14 So if I push my mouse up to the top of the screen, I can say, Cancel Control.
  • 06:19 And I now have control back of mouse and
  • 06:22 I can do that, because I'm the meeting owner.
  • 06:26 And if I now decide that I want to stop presenting and jump back into the meeting,
  • 06:30 I can simply click on Stop presenting.
  • 06:33 It's going to stop sharing my screen and just put me back into the meeting.
  • 06:37 So the share screen option is a really nice collaboration tool, and
  • 06:42 it's one that I use all the time.
  • 06:45 So what I can do here,
  • 06:46 is I can choose to share a window instead of my entire screen.
  • 06:50 And this is going to show me all of the windows I currently have open on my PC.
  • 06:55 I can choose one of these specifically to share with my meeting.
  • 06:59 So maybe I want to share this, the Approved Copy for Brochure.
  • 07:03 So let's click, and it's now sharing just that specific document.
  • 07:07 So if I was to switch to something else, so
  • 07:11 let's pull up my Microsoft 365 account.
  • 07:16 Even though I'm viewing this,
  • 07:18 no other meeting participants are currently see what's on my screen.
  • 07:22 They're still seeing the Word document that we shared.
  • 07:26 So when you share a window, it will only share that window, and
  • 07:29 it means you can't really flick between other applications.
  • 07:33 If you wanted to do that, you would share your screen.
  • 07:36 So just be aware of that difference.
  • 07:39 Now, I'm going to choose Stop presenting.
  • 07:43 So those are the first two sharing options that you have, screen and window.
  • 07:48 In the next lesson we're going to explore sharing a Microsoft whiteboard.

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