Speaker Coach is a built-in feature that offers private, real-time feedback to help you become a more effective communicator (at least in Teams meetings).

Why Use Speaker Coach

Speaker Coach helps you:

• Avoid filler words like “um” and “uh”
• Pace your speech appropriately
• Stay inclusive by avoiding interrupting others
• Improve clarity and engagement
• …and hopefully, boost your confidence in speaking!

It’s like having a supportive mentor in your ear—without anyone else knowing!

How to Turn on Speaker Coach

• During a meeting
• Click the More actions (⋯) menu
• Select Language and Speech
• Select Turn on Speaker Coach

Speaker Coach works in both scheduled meetings and rehearsals (like PowerPoint Live).

Speaker Coach’s Feedback

To access your feedback after your meeting has ended:

• Go to the Teams calendar and open the meeting.
• Click Speaker Coach report to view personalized insights on your speaking habits.

Only you can see your feedback—so it’s a safe space to grow.

AI Usage Acknowledgement

This post was jointly written by Copilot and a human.

If it’s happened to you, you know how frustrating it can be: when you’ve been working hard, and then something happens and you lose all of your hard work. Super sad face.

To keep this from happening again in the future – enable AutoSave!

Sign into OneDrive

In order to utilize AutoSave for your Microsoft files, you must be signed into OneDrive (or SharePoint online).

To sign into OneDrive:

1. Open any Microsoft application (e.g., Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc…)
2. Select File
3. Then Account
4. Sign in with your Microsoft account (your RRC Polytech account)
5. Once signed in, your OneDrive will appear as a save location

Enable AutoSave

1. Open your document
2. Save it to OneDrive
   • Select File
   • Then Save As
   • Then Select OneDrive
3. In the top left of the ribbon toggle AutoSave on

Bonus Tip!

Don’t see the AutoSave option? Search for it in the search bar in the top middle of the ribbon.

AI Usage Acknowledgement

This post was jointly written by Copilot and a human.

It happens to us all, and it’s scarier than any costume you’ve seen on Halloween… you’re working on a document and, your computer crashes, Word freezes, something happens, and all your hard work is just, gone! AH!

But did you know there are things you can do to try and recover that work?

Option 1 – Previous Versions

If you have previously saved the file, and lost additional work, you may be able to recover a previous version of the file.

• Locate the file in your File Explorer
• Right click
• Select Properties
• Select the tab for Previous Versions
• Select a previous version (if available)

Option 2 – Document Management

• Open a blank Word document
• Select File
• Then Info
• Then Manage Document
• Select Recover Unsaved Documents

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View this past Tech Tips: Work Smarter, Not Harder blog post on Subscribing to the Blog!

Maybe you’re in a noisy environment, forgot your headphones, or simply prefer reading over listening, we suggest that you give Live Captions in Teams a try!

Live captions display, in real-time, a text version of what is being said in Teams.

How to Turn on Live Captions

1. Join the Teams meeting
2. Click the more (•••) icon in the top right-hand side of the window
3. Select “language and speech”
4. Then “show live captions”

Learn More!

Use live captions in Microsoft Teams meetings – Microsoft Support

AI Usage Acknowledgement

This post was jointly written by Copilot and a human.

Did you know that your (Windows) computer, and Microsoft Office Applications come with many “accessibility” features built-in? Well, they do!

…we put “accessibility” in quotes as we strongly feel that these features are not just for those with disabilities – they are features that help everyone work in their best way. Features that help everyone thrive!

LEARN Tutorial

To help users get acquainted with these “accessibility” features and the benefits they provide, we’ve put together a LEARN tutorial.

Whether you’re looking for a way to type faster (using voice dictation), read what’s being said around you (with live captions), or are looking for ways to reduce eye strain from extended computer use – this tutorial has you covered!

Check it out at rrc.ca/WindowsAccessibility

Welcome! Welcome to the 2025-2026 Academic School Year. …yes we know we’re a little late in posting that, but we wanted to wait a bit to give students a chance to settle into a routine (and find our blog!).

What is this blog about?

For those of you who are new to our blog, Tech Tips: Work Smarter, Not Harder is a blog dedicated to making your academic (or work) life easier. We do this by highlighting available technologies, or ways of using those technologies.

When do new posts come out?

Typically we post bi-weekly.

However sometimes around special times of year we may post more or less frequently.

Stay in the loop!

You can sign up to receive email notifications when new blog posts come out. It only takes a quick minute, and this way you’ll be reminded of new posts.

1. Go to Red River College Polytechnic – Newsletter Subscriptions
2. Enter your email address in the text box
3. Check off the boxes for any newsletters you want to subscribe to
   • Note: with the above link “Accessibility Tech Tips” is already checked off – this is Tech Tips: Work Smarter, Not Harder
4. Select subscribe at the bottom of the page

Howdy folks, and welcome back to these here Tech Tips blog posts! …translation: Hi, welcome back to our Tech Tips: Work Smarter, Not Harder blog posts. 🙂

Summers are always a slower time of year at the College with less programs running, and less students around. But, that didn’t mean that the posts stopped over the summer!

So, for those that missed our summer posts, here’s what you may have missed:

• Marking Teams Messages as Unread
• Pinning Teams Chats
• Muting a Teams Chat
• Pinning in HUB
• Formatting Messages in Teams
• Scheduling a Post in Teams
• Important Teams Messages

Side Note: Happy 3-year anniversary to the blog!

Important! This blog post is important!

First, because this will be the last blog post of our Teams theme.

Second, because this blog post is about marking messages in Teams as important.

How to Mark Messages as Important in Teams

1. Draft your message
2. Then select the plus + icon to the right of the text box
3. In the drop-down menu, select “set delivery options”
4. A new window will pop up where you can select:
   • Standard – this is how all Teams messages are sent
   • Important – messages are given a red exclamation mark and a “important” label
   • Urgent – recipients are notified every 2 minutes for 20 minutes about the message

Muting Teams Chats

Now that we’ve taught you how to mark messages as urgent – where recipients are notified every 2 minutes (for 20 minutes), let’s remind you how to mute Teams chats!

Tech Tips blog post on Muting Teams Chats

Sometimes you know you need to send a message, but, the timing just isn’t right. Perhaps you remember in the middle of the night something that you need to send to the group, but don’t want to potentially wake anyone up who may have their phone on. Or perhaps you want to wait to send a message until after class, or at the end of the work day.

Well no problem! You can draft that message, and schedule it to be sent at a later time.

How to Schedule Send a Teams Message

1. Draft your message
2. Then select the plus + icon to the right of the text box
3. In the drop-down menu, select “schedule message”
4. A new window will pop up where you can select the date and time you’d like the message to be sent at.

Subscribe to the Blog!

View this past Tech Tips: Work Smarter, Not Harder blog post on Subscribing to the Blog!

Last week we took a short break, but now we’re back on our blog post theme of Teams!

Do you ever accidently hit enter, and send a message, when you just wanted a new line or paragraph? Then you’re scrambling to edit the message before anyone sees it? Happens to us all of the time… So what can we do?!

Formatting Options

Open the formatting options in the text box! With the formatting options open, you are able to format your message in a variety of ways:

• Bold text
• Create a list
• Change font size
• Change font color
• etc…

But most importantly, now when you hit enter, a new line will be started! No more accidently sending messages before you were finished!

How to Open Formatting Options in Teams

From within the textbox, select the format icon (a captial letter A with a pen).

You can also use the keyboard command of CTRL + Shift + X