A Tutorial on Setting up Essential Microsoft 365
Applications
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Contents
1 The Foundational Step: Everything Starts in Microsoft Teams 3
1.1 Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 For Desktop (Windows and Mac) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 For Mobile (iOS & Android) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.2 Creating a New “Team” for a Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2 Setting Up SharePoint for File Management 4
2.1 Accessing Your SharePoint Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2.2 Key Setup and Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3 Setting Up Microsoft Planner for Task Management 5
3.1 Adding a Planner Board to Your Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2 Setting Up Your Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
4 Setting Up Microsoft Lists for Tracking Information 5
4.1 Creating a Lead or Issue Tracker as a List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
4.2 Adding Your List into Microsoft Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
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Hello everyone. In this guide, we will walk through the process of setting up and con-
figuring the essential Microsoft 365 applications for effective project management and
collaboration: Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, Planner, and Lists.
A key thing to understand is that these are not separate programs you install one by one
like old software. They are interconnected services. Our goal is to create a central hub
for a project using Microsoft Teams and then plug the other services into it.
1 The Foundational Step: Everything Starts in Mi-
crosoft Teams
Microsoft Teams acts as the main office or project room. Everything else we set up will
be a tool or a resource inside this room.
1.1 Installation
1.1.1 For Desktop (Windows and Mac)
• Open your web browser and go to the Microsoft Teams Download Page.
• The website will automatically detect your operating system. Click the “Down-
load for desktop” button.
• Once downloaded, open the installer file and follow the on-screen instructions.
• Sign in using your Microsoft 365 work or school account.
1.1.2 For Mobile (iOS & Android)
• Go to the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.
• Search for “Microsoft Teams.”
• Tap “Install” or “Get” to download the app.
• Open the app and sign in with your M365 account.
1.2 Creating a New “Team” for a Project
In this phase, we will create a dedicated space for a new project or department.
1. Open Microsoft Teams.
2. In the left-hand menu, click on the “Teams” icon.
3. At the bottom of the Teams pane, click “Join or create a team.”
4. Click the “Create team” button.
5. It’s best practice to choose “From scratch” to have full control.
6. Choose the privacy level. “Private” is recommended for specific projects, meaning
people must be invited to join. “Public” means anyone in the organization can join.
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7. Give your team a clear, descriptive name. For example, “Project Alpha - Marketing
Campaign” or “Q4 Website Redesign.”
8. Add the team members who will be working on this project. You can add them by
name or email address.
9. Click “Close.”
Congratulations! You have now created your project’s central hub. By doing this, you’ve
also automatically created a connected SharePoint site in the background.
2 Setting Up SharePoint for File Management
SharePoint, being an online file management system, doesn’t need installing. When you
created your Team, an associated SharePoint site was made automatically to store your
files securely.
2.1 Accessing Your SharePoint Files
1. In your newly created Team, you will see a channel called “General.” Click on it.
2. At the top of the channel, you will see several tabs: “Posts,” “Files,” and
“Wiki.”
3. Click on the “Files” tab.
This is your project’s document library. Any file you upload, create, or share here is
automatically stored in SharePoint. This is the single source of truth for all project
documentation.
2.2 Key Setup and Configuration
1. Uploading Files: You can drag and drop files directly into this “Files” tab or use
the “Upload” button.
2. Creating Folders: Use the “New” button to create folders to organize your doc-
uments (e.g., “01 Client Briefs,” “02 Drafts,” “03 Final Deliverables”).
3. Opening SharePoint View: For more advanced options like creating metadata
columns or setting up alerts, click the three dots (. . . ) and select “Open in Share-
Point.” This will open the full SharePoint site in your web browser.
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3 Setting Up Microsoft Planner for Task Manage-
ment
Now, let’s add a project plan to track all our tasks.
3.1 Adding a Planner Board to Your Team
1. Go back to your project’s Team and select the “General” channel (or any other
relevant channel).
2. At the top, next to the “Files” and “Wiki” tabs, click the plus icon (+) to add a
new tab.
3. A new window will appear with a list of apps. Select “Planner.” (If you don’t see
it, you can search for it).
4. A configuration window will pop up. Choose “Create a new plan.”
5. Give your plan a name. It’s good practice to name it after the project, for example,
“Project Alpha - Task Board.”
6. Click “Save.”
3.2 Setting Up Your Plan
A new tab with your Planner board will now appear permanently at the top of your
channel.
1. Create Buckets: Buckets are columns that represent stages of your workflow. By
default, you have a “To Do” bucket. Click “Add new bucket” to create more,
such as “In Progress,” “For Review,” and “Completed.”
2. Add Tasks: Click the “+ Add task” button under the “To Do” bucket to create
your first task.
3. Assign Tasks and Set Dates: Click on the task card you just created. A window
will open where you can:
• Assign the task to one or more team members.
• Set a Start date and a Due date.
• Add a checklist of sub-items.
• Attach files (which will be stored in your SharePoint library).
Now your entire team can see who is responsible for what and when it’s due, all
without leaving Microsoft Teams.
4 Setting Up Microsoft Lists for Tracking Informa-
tion
Microsoft Lists is a powerful tool for creating simple databases to track information like
leads, issues, or inventory. You do not need to install it separately.
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4.1 Creating a Lead or Issue Tracker as a List
1. From the Microsoft 365 home page [Link] click the app launcher
(the nine dots in the top-left corner) and select “Lists.”
2. Click “+ New List.”
3. You can start from a template, which is highly recommended. For this example,
choose the “Work progress tracker” or “Issue tracker” template.
4. Review the template’s columns and click “Use template.”
5. Give your list a name (e.g., “Client Leads Q4”), a description, and choose a color
and icon.
6. Click “Create.”
4.2 Adding Your List into Microsoft Teams
The real power comes from making this list accessible directly within your relevant Team.
1. Go to the Team where you want this tracker to live (e.g., a “Sales” Team or a
specific project team).
2. Just like with Planner, click the plus icon (+) to add a new tab.
3. Search for and select the “Lists” app.
4. Click “Save.”
5. The next screen will ask if you want to create a new list or “Add an existing list.”
Choose the latter.
6. Select the list you just created (e.g., “Client Leads Q4”) from the options provided.