Co-authoring files, Planner and Copilot

Kamran's five-person marketing team is writing the quarterly report. They used to email the file around and ended up with about ten files like “report_final_v3_REALLY.docx”. In Teams everyone works on one copy at the same time, tasks are tracked in Planner, and Copilot (if you have a licence) condenses a long chat into a few sentences.

Where Teams keeps files

Teams doesn't store files itself: SharePoint and OneDrive do the work behind the scenes. Where a file lives decides who can see it.

Co-authoring in Teams

1. 1
   Put the file in the channel

   On the channel's Shared tab, open the In library view and drag the file in, or create a new Word, Excel or PowerPoint document right there.

2. 2
   Open it and edit together

   Select the file: it opens inside Teams, and colleagues can open it at the same time. You can see where others are working, changes appear live and everything is saved automatically.

3. 3
   Switch to the desktop app when needed

   If you need a command that Teams doesn't show, open the file in desktop Word, Excel or PowerPoint — the file stays in SharePoint, so co-authoring continues there too.

4. 4
   Talk inside the document

   Leave comments in the document; type @ and a name in a comment and that person gets a notification. No need for a long chat about one paragraph.

Version history

Because files live in SharePoint or OneDrive, each save creates a new version. In Word, Excel or PowerPoint, File › Info › Version History shows who saved what and when; you can open an older version and restore it. From a channel you can also choose Open in SharePoint and use Version history on the file.

Tasks: Planner and To Do in Teams

The Planner app in Teams brings together Microsoft To Do (personal tasks), Planner (team plans) and Project. In it, My Day shows tasks due today plus the ones you add, My Tasks shows your private tasks, flagged emails and tasks assigned to you, and My Plans shows your To Do lists and team plans.

For a team board, add Planner to a channel: Add a tab › Planner, create a plan and give each task an owner and a due date. Tasks assigned to you also show up in the Assigned to me list in To Do and Planner.

Copilot in Teams: an overview

With a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence, the Copilot button appears in chats (top-right corner) and in the meeting controls. Copilot can summarize the main points, decisions and action items of a long chat over the last 1, 7 or 30 days, help you rewrite a message, and answer questions and list action items during and after a meeting; afterwards the summary is on the Recap tab. To ask Copilot about a meeting after it ends, transcription must have been on during the meeting.