How to Use Zoom

Zoom is a video call platform that people use every day to communicate with their coworkers, friends, and family. Zoom can be used to schedule meetings, plan group meet-ups, and call friends and family around the world. Learning to use Zoom effectively is the first step towards talking to people you care about whenever.

As a quick note, Zoom is different for everyone. If, while following the instructions, you don’t see a button or option on your screen, know that it’s not your fault. Zoom moves buttons and menus and hides things all over the place.

1. An Apple or Windows Laptop
2. Zoom Installed (https://zoom.us/download)

Mac / Apple

1. Click The Apps Icon on the Dock
2. Tab through the pages of Apps until you find the Zoom App
3. Click to Open

Windows

1. Click the Windows icon on the bottom of the screen
2. Start typing ‘Zoom’ on the keyboard
3. Click on the Zoom app that appears in the menu

Zoom should now be open on your computer. If it does not open in about five minutes, then repeat the instructions in the Finding Zoom section.

First Time

If this is your first time opening Zoom, then the application will prompt you to either, “Join a Meeting” or to “Sign In”. For now, we will choose “Sign In”. You will now be prompted with an email and password box, as well as several other options below those two.

Mac / Apple

1. Click on the Apple button at the bottom of the Zoom window.
2. Your internet browser should open up. Enter your Apple login information just as if you were logging into something for iCloud or Apple.
3. After finishing the login process, you should be told to go back to the Zoom application.

Windows

For the purposes of this guide we will assume you have a Gmail account.

1. Click on the Google button at the bottom of the Zoom window.
2. Your internet browser should open up. If you’ve used Gmail before on your computer then you will be prompted to choose which Gmail account you would like to log in to. Choose an email.
3. Continue through the sign-in process until you are directed back to the Zoom application.

Getting your surroundings

There are two main areas for Zoom. There is the header tab and the main area. The header tab is at the top of the screen and may have tabs like, “Home”, “Team Chat”, and “Whiteboards”. The main area has buttons like “New Meeting”, “Join”, and “Schedule”.

To start a Zoom meeting, click on the “New Meeting” Button in the main area.

You will be prompted to choose an audio conference option. This means that you are choosing how your computer will play the sound from the meeting. Click on the “Join with Computer Audio” Button in the center of the screen.

There are many buttons to manage the meeting. As the person who started the meeting, you are the admin and have many options at your disposal. We will cover only how to operate the simple aspects of the meeting and not how to manage others' capabilities in the meeting.

On the bottom of the meeting view, you may see buttons in this order:

Mute, Start Video, Participants, Chat, React, Share, Host Tools, Whiteboard, Docs, More.

We will go through these buttons one at a time.

Mute

The mute button will mute your microphone when clicked. After clicking the mute button it will change to an unmute button and will unmute your microphone when clicked.

Start Video

The start video button will start sharing the video from your camera, if your computer has a camera detected. When the start video button is clicked it will change to a stop video button and will stop the camera video when clicked.

Participants

Clicking on the participants button will open a menu to the right side of the screen that will show the names of everyone currently in the meeting. Since we are the only one in the meeting, we should be the only one in the meeting. To close the participants menu click the small X in the top right of the participants menu.

Chat

Clicking on the chat button will open a menu to the right side of the screen that will show the text messages each participant has sent throughout the meeting. To send a chat message, click on the “Type message here…” text in the bottom of the chat menu. Type your message and either click the arrow in the bottom right corner of the text field or press the enter button on your keyboard. To close the chat menu, click the small X at the top right of the chat menu.

React

We will skip the react button functionality.

Share

Clicking the share button will open the screen share menu. Double click on the image that shows which screen or application you want to share to the rest of the meeting. Now you should be sharing that screen or application you clicked on. Anything surrounded in a green border is being shared to the meeting.

Notice! Now your buttons may have moved from the bottom of your screen to the top and are centered.

To stop sharing your screen, click the red “Stop Share” button underneath your control buttons at the top of the screen.

Host Tools

Clicking on the host tools button will show a menu just above the host tools button with check marks next to lots of options for different groups of people. Feel free to play around with these. We will not be going in depth on these options in this guide.

Whiteboard

We will skip the whiteboard functionality.

Docs

We will skip the docs functionality.

More

We will skip the more functionality.

To end a meeting click the End button in the bottom right corner of the meeting view. If you created the meeting you can choose between Ending the meeting for all meaning it will close the meeting for all participants, or just leaving the meeting yourself. Either option works. If you are the last participant to leave a meeting then the meeting will close regardless.

If you are joining a meeting, then someone else must have sent you a link or a meeting ID. If you are joining a meeting with a link then the meeting will open automatically. If you are joining a meeting with a meeting ID then follow these steps.

1. Click on the Join button in the main area.
2. In the popup that appears enter your meeting ID in the top field.
3. Click the Join Button

You should now be joining a meeting. See the In a Meeting section for information about being in a meeting.

To schedule a meeting in advance click the Schedule button. A menu should appear on the screen overlapping the Schedule button. To change the meeting name click on the text box which has your name.

Then click on the date boxes and choose the dates for your meeting. You can choose both start dates and end dates.

Now click the time boxes and set the start and end times for your meeting. These start and end times do not actually effect the meeting once it is running but it will give the participants an idea for how long the meeting is going to be.

Finally if you know the emails of who you are sending your meeting to, you can add them in by typing their emails and pressing the Enter button on your keyboard.

Once you've entered all the participants, click the Save button at the bottom right corner of the menu. This might open a window to your calendar. If it does, feel free to schedule it in your calendar, or you can close the internet browser that it opened up. Either option works.

Navigate back to Zoom, and now, on the right-hand side of the Zoom App, you will see the meeting you scheduled. To see more information about the meeting, click somewhere in the middle of the box with your meeting title. This will open a menu with more information about your meeting. To start your meeting, use the following steps:

1. Click on the meeting to show more information
2. At the top of the menu that appears, click the Start button just beneath your meeting title.