How can we make Microsoft Teams better?

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Ability to open multiple documents

Currently If I am editing a File in Teams, and if I have to refer another file present in Teams, I have to forcefully close existing document and go to the next file. It will be a nice to have feature if I can open other documents in Preview mode if I am editing a document.

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  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I've also just come across this deficiency of functionality in an otherwise useful product.
    Seems to be quite a common stumbling block.
    Yes, there are workarounds but that is not the point, if it was designed properly we wouldn't have to do workarounds

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I have just wanted to compare two files. I opened one file, clicked Open in Desktop App, and it opened in Word. I then closed the Teams file and opened the one to which I wanted to compare the first. This worked fine. Does this answer anyone else's problems?

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Given that this comes from the company that gave us 'Windows' (get the hint?), this oversight is embarrassing. How little they understand?

  • SWS commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I am also struggling with this. In particular, I am needing to go back and forth between a file that is in one team folder, with a file that is in another team folder. If I download one, so I can see them at the same time, I lose the work my other team members are contributing. This has been extremely problematic for our work.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Having just experienced 'Teams' for the first time while trying to help my children with their schoolwork, I find it staggering that this multiple document facility is missing. To watch my children write a bit in one document, then to close it and navigate to another reference documents, then close that, and back again over and over is just embarrassing.
    It feels a bit like it did in the mid 1980s.
    Sort it out.

  • Pat Shanahan commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I am a new user of teams and find not being able to open multiple documents within the Teams platform very, very limiting. It feels like a pre-Windows program, without this feature.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I really need this. Would be OK with openeing files in their native applications (need Word, Excel, something displaying PDFs)

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Please move this feature to the top of your priority list. A lot of resource hours are being used to continually open documents when working on multiple documents.

  • Lucas De Lamper commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I agree. Teams seems to reduce the user experience with bare windows and even some office apps where you can open multiple documents. The 'open in browser' is a poor man's workaround.
    I do like teams a lot but this is a serious drawback.

  • anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Thank you for the "open in browser" workaround to view multiple documents at the same time. It did work, but I continue to be frustrated with Teams.The entire experience is very limiting and slowing me down. It's as though someone tried to re-create the Windows experience without the user in mind; limited copy and paste functionality, limited functionality to work within several documents and view Teams Tasks, and chats at the same time. I work on policies and procedures, project charters, project plans, expansive road maps, etc. all cross related and with input from many individuals across my company. I feel like I'm working in a box and being micromanaged, with the knowledge that just on the outside there is freedom and flexibility to accomplish my work efficiently in a manner that is well suited to my needs. Teams is costing me on average 1.5 hrs a day.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Really annoying that you can't open multiple windows in Teams. I have two files I need to switch between numerous times a day so opening and closing each time is wearing thin.

  • J.H. commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    TRY THIS: Use the elipses (...) to open in borwser. You can have one document in each tab. You can even separate the tabs and align the two documents side by side. It will still save it in the place you accessed it from, changes and all.

  • j commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    FIX IT, it's a complete no brainer - if you are stuck maybe you can ask Slack or other how to do it?

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I find that I have to download a copy of the ones I want to refer to in order to have them open at same time and avail to edit he one online. Kind of defeating the object of having them online! Frustrating, as then need to delete them from hard drive but its a workaround.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I am struggling to comprehend a world in which a group of engineers and product people at Microsoft created a software experience in 2020 that does not allow opening multiple documents at once — something that is utterly foundational to the modern computing environment — and decided: "Yes. This is the product we want to release. This is the user experience that we want our consumers to have."

    The mind reels.

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