How to share your screen in Microsoft Teams – A complete guide

Businesses and teams have adopted working remotely as a regular part of business, making remote collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom an indispensable part of the “office.”

But, as more teams spend time working from home, remote collaboration on important projects becomes unavoidable. Teams need to use all the remote work tips and tricks to stay as productive as possible.

The combination of video calling and screen sharing comes as close to replicating in-person collaboration as you’re likely to get today. By learning how to share your screen on Microsoft Teams, for example, you can visually communicate anything on your screen to someone. In this guide, we’ll cover how to share a screen in Teams.

Whether it’s showing how to use some software or application, giving a presentation, replicating a bug, demonstrating a new feature or product, illustrating a solution, or even delivering training – screen sharing can drastically enhance and augment your collaboration over Microsoft Teams.

How to share your screen on Microsoft Teams

Step #1: Launch Microsoft Teams and join a meeting

Step #2: Click on the Share icon in the call menu to launch your screen-sharing options

Step #3: Pick a workspace you want to share

Now, a quick explainer before we proceed.

Microsoft Teams share-screen feature has the handy capability to allow you to select only specific interfaces to be shared. It will allow you to choose specific applications, desktop views, browser tabs, or even Microsoft Teams extensions to share.

Let’s see it in action.

So, when you click the share screen icon, it will open a section at the bottom of the screen where you can select one of the following options:

• Desktop – to show your computer’s desktop (everything that’s on your desktop, Screen#1 for the first monitor, Screen#2 if you have a second monitor).
• Window – to show a specific app that you currently have on the desktop (for example opened pages in Chrome, opened Teams application, Excel…).
• PowerPoint  – to show your presentation.
• Browse – to find the file you want to show that is saved on your computer (as a PDF, images, documents).

For some types of meetings, other options are available, such as Microsoft Whiteboard and Freehand by Invision. They are useful in collaboration because they allow participants to write, sketch, and draw on a shared digital canvas. Almost like you’re having a meeting in the office!

To improve your presentations, check out these specific Microsoft Team app integrations that can provide special interactions with screen sharing.

Step #4: Select a workspace to start sharing your screen

When you start sharing your screen on Microsoft teams, you will see a red border around the shared media on some sharing options. That’s how you know which part of your screen you’re sharing and which one you’re not.

The most common problem with screen sharing is when you choose Window as a sharing option and get confused why your teammates don’t see folders that you’re opening in another window. Well, that’s the perfect example of when to use Desktop as a sharing option. Just remember to close the windows you don’t want others to see.

Depending on the device or type of meeting, you will see a ribbon telling you your screen is being shared and offering different options. If the ribbon disappears, just move your mouse to see it.

You can allow another person in the meeting to take control of the screen so they can move their cursor and click on the screen you are originally sharing.

Step #5: Stop presenting ends your screen sharing

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