A Zoom Tutorial for Beginners, and Beyond
Start simply with tools for attendees (such as students), then advance to hosting and screen sharing.
This tutorial features a "dummy" Zoom meeting that lets you try out Zoom functions in a realistic setting. If you and some friends want to work through the tutorial together, you can all go individually to the meeting from your own device at home, and all be in the same room to try things out with each other.
Recommended Reading
Zoom Good Manners
How to behave yourself on Zoom: a picky person's guide.
Zoom Tips
Very complete, illustrated Zoom Reference, in easy, bite-size, chewable chunks. Everything you need to know, and very easy to find your way around.
How to Use This Tutorial
If you are comfortable with switching between applications, just follow this tutorial in your browser window and switch to Zoom to get to the meeting and try things out. If not, print the tutorial, then go to the Zoom meeting (see below).
Devices
You can use Zoom on the following devices: 1) computer (desktop or laptop), 2) smart pad, or 3) smart phone. Your device must connected to the Internet. Pad and phone require wireless internet (wifi).
Which device is best? All devices will allow basic class participation: seeing, hearing, talking. But if you have a choice of devices, computer is better than pad is better than phone. Bigger is better for seeing class slides or videos, and hearing voices and music, so computer is best. Phone is missing some functions, especially in ways to let you see other students. You will only see one person at a time (when they speak), while computer and pad users can see many people at once, if desired. More in Adjusting your own screen view, below.
(Friendly warning: this tutorial was designed using Apple devices: Macbook laptop computer, iPad, and iPhone. Your devices might have some small differences in appearance and location of controls. Look around. Contact me if you get stuck -- find my email address near the bottom of THIS page.)
Maybe right now you can't imagine being knowledgeable enough about Zoom to be tempted to help a host who encounters a problem during a meeting. But as you learn more, such helpfulness will become a temptation.
Resist it.
The First Rule: Sometimes your host might have a problem with Zoom, such as getting the right thing to show on the screen. Unless you are assigned as Technical Assistant for the meeting, DO NOT give the instructor ANY advice -- please wait SILENTLY (mute yourself) while your host works on the problem. Nothing makes troubleshooting more difficult than volleys of unsolicited instructions, especially from several disembodied voices at once. Chances are, you do not understand what the host is trying to do or, even more likely, how they are trying to do it, because with Zoom, there are often several ways to do the same thing. Please wait quietly until the problem is solved.
••••••
BASICS
(for beginning attendees and students, hosts and teachers)
Getting to a Zoom Meeting
When someone invites you to a meeting, they send you email containing a link (also called a URL). You click the link, and presto, you are in the meeting. Well, maybe not the first time; but after that, it really is that easy.
If you have already attended a Zoom meeting on your device, click the meeting link just below, and go directly to the next section, entitled Keeping meeting controls in view.
Meeting Link
Password, if requested: olli
But if this is your first try with Zoom, read on.
It's easier to learn about this and the rest of Zoom functions if you have a meeting to go to, and can try out everything. So let's try that.
Click the meeting link above, and carefully follow the instructions that come up on the screen. Be sure to read all instructions carefully before clicking anything. If your device has been to a Zoom meeting before, it will remember how, and you'll pop right into the meeting. If you haven't ever used Zoom before, you will be asked to download the program or to join from your browser.
Joining from your browser is the easiest solution, but it requires a standard browser like Chrome or Firefox; Apple's Safari browser can't do it. So if you are using an Apple device, either a) follow the Zoom installation instructions that arrive with your first attempts to go to a meeting, or b) get Chrome and use it whenever you use Zoom. I prefer the former, because Apple devices with Zoom installed work very well, and Chrome can be annoyingly intrusive on Apple devices.
If you hope eventually to be the host for meetings (classes or gatherings of family and friends), go ahead and set up a personal account with Zoom when you are invited to do so during the installation. You do not need Zoom's professional features at first, so the free personal account is all you need. But if you are college student or staff, you probably have free access to the professional version. Ask the appropriate administrator how. (If you are a member of OLLI USM, contact the OLLI office.)
I hope you have now arrived at the meeting. If not, click the meeting link above and try again. If you have arrived, you are probably the only one there. Still, you can continue with this tutorial, and you will be able to try out Zoom functions under realistic conditions.
SUGGESTION: Ask one or two acquaintances to join you at the meeting by clicking the meeting link above. You can assemble a small group and work together to learn basic Zoom functions. This meeting is always open.*
On a computer, your screen should look something like this:
Main screen, participants list (right), all controls visible.
(Click to enlarge.)
If you do not see the white Participants column on the right, pass your cursor over the bottom of your Zoom window (or touch your pad or phone screen), and click "Participants" along the bottom. The participants list should appear.
Keeping Meeting Controls in View All the Time
("Always show meeting controls")
As you probably noticed already, controls on your Zoom screen hide a few seconds after you use them. They reappear when you move the cursor or touch the screen. You can turn off this often-confusing behavior, and see controls all the time, as follows:
• On computer, under the zoom.us menu, pick Preferences. (Or, click either of the little ^ symbols next to "Mute" or "Stop Video". ) A large white palette appears, entitled Settings. In the left column, click on the first option, General. Click the small box next to Always show meeting controls.
• On pad, click More in upper right. Click Meeting Settings, and select Always show meeting controls.
• On phone, at bottom right, click More, then Meeting Settings, and select Always Show Meeting Controls.
• Close settings by clicking on the red dot on its upper left (on Mac).
Renaming Yourself
Pass your cursor over, or touch, your name in the Participants List. You should either see "Rename" or find it under a little menu marked "more" or "•••". Select it, and type your name as you want it displayed during a Zoom meeting. When I am teaching, I ask students to rename with their given and family names, printed in caps, like this: GALE RHODES. This makes it very easy for your instructor to call you by name, even if you are in a large group of postage-stamp-size images.
How To Be Seen and Heard in Zoom
Note the location of mute/unmute and video on/off buttons on computer (bottom left), pad (top right), phone (bottom left).
• Both buttons are toggles, which means same button for on / off.
• At your first class, ask your instructor if they prefer all students stay muted and unmute to talk, or all stay unmuted.
• When you are muted, you can hold down space to talk (computer or pad with external keyboard), then release to resume mute. On phone, find this function by swiping the main screen to the right. (On pads without external keyboard, someone help me out.)
• If a noise occurs in your house (dog, phone, doorbell, scream) please mute yourself, or check to be sure you are muted, then deal with the noise. The noise is more noticeable to the class than it is to you. (And just so you know, little noises you make when unmuted are much more noticeable to the class than they are to you. Slurps and smacking lips are particularly audible, and not particularly pleasant.)
• If you need to do something you do not want seen (like eating or drinking), turn video off. Other attendees will see only your name (or profile picture if you have one).
• Please follow your instructor's instructions on how they want you to be seen and heard.
Adjusting Your Own Screen View
NOTE: View settings affect ONLY your view of things. Your instructor and your classmates may not be seeing things the way you are.
• Speaker View brings the image of the speaking person to full screen (or if you are not muted, and you sniff or cough or slurp, it brings you to full screen -- remember that).
• Gallery View shows as many thumbnail images of students as possible on your screen. The person currently speaking (or sniffing, or coughing... ) gets a bright frame around their image. Thumbnail images sometimes move around, for secret reasons. Pads limit you to seeing nine attendees, but you can scroll left or right to see additional ones. With phones, you only see the speaker.
• Phones only have Speaker View, and you will only see current speaker.
• Older computers might only have Speaker View, and you will only see current speaker.
Raising and Lowering your Digital Hand
This is, in many ways, the best way to raise your hand, because the digital hand remains in the instructor's view until she or he responds to you. Then you or they can lower (hide) your hand. Some instructors might prefer that you wave your hand at your camera, or just speak out. Let them tell you what they prefer.
To raise your digital hand (mysteriously different for each device):
• on computer: bottom middle of screen, find and click "Participants". List of participants appears. Look for Raise Hand button at bottom of list. On more recent versions of Zoom, a hand towards the right end of the controls at the bottom of the Zoom screen.
• on pad: "Participants" at top right of screen. List of participants appears. Look for Raise Hand button at bottom of list.
Pad users ALSO SEE https://assortedtools.blogspot.com/p/ipad-user-guide-to-zoom.html
• on phone: "more" at bottom right of main screen offers a menu that includes Raise Hand near the bottom.
Phone users ALSO SEE https://assortedtools.blogspot.com/p/iphone-user-guide-to-zoom.html
Now you have tried the basic functions you need for attending class and participating as a student.
If you have no current plans to be a host for a meeting, skip down to Help Your Instructor to Have a Good Discussion. Don't leave this tutorial until you have read that section.
Changing Your Screen Background
Normally, other Zoom guests see you and whatever is behind you. If your background is too busy, or poorly lighted (both too dark and too light are not good), or if you just want to show off a favorite image or have others see you in a more interesting setting, you can change the background using a picture of your choice. This background can be one you find on the web (search for "Zoom background images"), or a photo from your own album. The image should be at least 1280 x 720 pixels. I know from experience that jpg and png formats are acceptable, and probably others.
First, find a background picture, and put the file on your desktop for easy access in the following steps.
Open a Zoom meeting (you can use the dummy meeting link above). At the lower left, next to the Video Off/On icon, there is a small upward-pointing arrowhead (^). Click it to reveal a small menu. Pick "Choose Virtual Background...". This opens the main Settings screen (described earlier) to the Background and Filters section, where you see a live image of yourself with your normal background, and below that, a selection of other backgrounds that Zoom provides.
Click any one of those images to make it your background. Try one, to see yourself in a different setting. Then click the black one (labelled "None") to get back to normal.
To the lower right of your live image is a small square containing a "+". Click it to begin the process of adding your desired image to the background choices. Click "Add Image" and, perhaps after a slight pause, a file-finder or navigation dialog appears. It works just as any "open a file" or "upload" dialog works on your computer. Navigate to the desktop and select the image file you placed there earlier (if the desired file is not a type that Zoom accepts, it will be grayed out and not selectable). Click "Open" to upload it and return to the Settings screen. You should now find the new image among your choices.
Click the desired image and dismiss the Settings screen. You should now be seen in front of the new background.
If your background is a familiar object, such as a map of the US, you might see it reversed, but your guests will see it correctly. To make it look right on your own screen, go to Settings:Video and uncheck "Mirror my video.". Now your background will look right to you, but you will be reversed (move left and your image moves right). In either setting, both you and your background image will look correct for your guests. (You have a choice about how you see yourself, either mirrored or reversed, but either way, your guests see you and the background correctly.)
You might have noticed during this process that you can also have a video background, and a sample (aurora) is among the background choices provided. Try the aurora background, and if you want a moving background, search online for "Zoom background videos", and add it to Zoom the same way you did for a still image.
Recommendations about backgrounds
If you are the instructor or host, very busy or moving backgrounds might be distracting. Or there may be what photographers call a "false connection", such as a tree growing out of your head. Look at yourself and your background carefully on the Zoom screen to decide if there are undesirable effects. Cropping the image to move a distraction to one side might work.
Who's that on my head?
If parts of your body keep disappearing or changing shape, Zoom is having trouble distinguishing you from the background image. You, or your real background, might be too similar to the virtual background image. If you are determined to make the image work, you need a real background that Zoom can easily recognize. The best one is a solid green background (a "green screen"). You can buy a green screen to erect behind you, or suspend a green sheet behind you. Even at best, the edges of your own image are not going to be as sharp and stable as they are against a real background, like the real wall behind you.
••••••
ADVANCED
(for aspiring hosts and teachers)
Now that you know the basics, take a look at the variety of Zoom settings that you can change to customize Zoom for yourself.
Under the zoom.us menu on your device's main menu bar, pick "Preferences". A white palette appears. On the left is a list of types of settings, such as "General", "Video", and "Screen Sharing". If you click on any type, at the right will appear controls for changing all the settings of that type. Spend some time looking over the settings you can change. Try them. You can always go back and change them. Your Zoom account saves your settings when you quit Zoom, and they will be the same when you use Zoom next time. One setting is Feedback, which you can use to ask the Zoom gods for improvements you hope they will make. (I've sent them a wish list of features for the shared Whiteboard (below).
To dismiss settings, click the red dot on its upper left (on Mac).
Advanced: Being the Host
To start a meeting and invite people to join you, you need a personal Zoom account. When you are first invited to a meeting, you are invited to set up such an account. Follow the onscreen instructions to do so, and then you will have an account to log into, from which you can start meetings of your own.
To start a meeting immediately, log in to your personal account and select Profile from the left-hand column. In the upper right of the Profile page, click "HOST A MEETING", then select "With Video On". You will see a mostly white web page, with this message:
Advanced: Sharing your screen
One of Zoom's best teaching and information-sharing features is Screen Sharing. It allows you to show pictures, illustrations, videos, web pages, drawings on Zoom's Whiteboard ---- almost anything you can look at or listen to on your own computer. Some hosts will allow attendees to share their screens and contribute content to the class. If you use Zoom to visit with friends or family, screen sharing makes it easy to share.
I have not yet figured out a secure way to allow you to share your screen at our dummy meeting. So to try screen sharing, you will need to start a meeting of your own, using your personal Zoom account.
In Screen Sharing, you will not see what other attendees see. You will still see and have access to all open windows on your computer. The window you are sharing will have a thin green frame. So how do you know it's working right? You can use another device (a different computer, pad, or smartphone) to come to this same meeting. When you do, turn off the sound on both devices to prevent noisy feedback. Then share your screen on one device to see how it looks on another.
[ By the way, to share your screen gracefully, you need to know how to move from one application (say, browser) to another (say, image display or Powerpoint), that is, how to move the desired app to the front of all your windows. On Macs, simply hold down command and press tab. Icons for all running apps will appear in a row in the middle of the screen, with one of them highlighted. Keep pressing tab (while holding down command) until the desired app icon is highlighted, then release the keys, and the highlighted app comes to the front. (Other brands of computers have different ways to do this, which I call "switching" apps. Learn how to do it with your computer.) ]
How To Share
You Zoom screen contains a green button marked Share Screen. Click it. You will see a white window I call the "sharing palette":
Somewhat like an artist's palette, it shows all the things you can share and thus show to your attendees.
At the top right of the palette is Share Desktop. It has a blue border because it is currently selected for sharing, and it would be shared if you were to click the blue "Share" button at the lower right. Click any other item to select it (give it a blue frame) for sharing. The palette shows, in addition to Desktop, all windows that are currently open on your device (second and lower rows of the palette -- scroll down to see all), and in the first row, the Whiteboard, and other devices that might be nearby, like your pad or phone. More about each of those later.
Sharing your desktop
The simplest, if not the most elegant, way to share items flexibly is to share your desktop. Your attendees will see just what you are seeing on your screen. Your Zoom window will hide, leaving only the controls on a black bar that, on a computer, migrates to the top of the screen, with its green Screen Sharing button replaced by a red Stop Sharing button. If you bring a photo to the front on your screen, it will come to the front for your attendees. If you click a link to go to a website, the new window will be shared. To stop sharing, click the red Stop Share button.
Before sharing your desktop, make sure you do not have open windows you do not want to share, such as open emails or other private information, such as bank statements or Quicken account windows. Otherwise, just navigate to the materials you want to show, as you would if you were browsing around on your own. For example, to show images from your photo app, do exactly what you would do to see them yourself: start the photo app and find the desired images.
IMPORTANT: If you plan to share videos (with or without sound), then be sure to click "Optimize Screen Share for Video Clip" (which also turns on "Share Computer Sound"). When you start the video, it will fill the Zoom window on the devices of your classmates, but only while the video is playing. If you plan to share music or other sounds, turn on "Share Computer Sound". Zoom will remember these sound and video settings only until the current meeting ends, so you always need to turn them on the first time you share your screen in the next meeting.
Again, when you share your desktop, your attendees are seeing just what you see. If you switch to your notes and they hide the desired window for you, they hide it for attendees.
Sharing a specific window
The second and lower rows of the palette show other windows that are currently open (on a computer) or apps that are running (pad or phone) on your device. It shows all windows open in your browser, and all active tabs in each browser window, as separate items on the palette. If you share one of them, then your classmates will see only that window. This allows you to look at notes or other items while your classmates are seeing only the shared window -- handy for structured teaching. But if you click a link (in the shared window) that opens another window, you and your attendees will not see it, because you are sharing only the window you picked from the sharing palette. If your shared browser window has several active tabs, you can go to them within the shared window.
So the procedure for sharing only a specific window is as follows:
FIRST, open the window you want to share. For example, if it's a YouTube video, open a browser window and go to the YouTube page you want to share. You can do this before the meeting starts, or you can do it in the background while your Zoom meeting is going on. Then when you want to show the video to your attendees, click Share Screen and pick from the sharing palette the specific window that is displaying the video. Don't just pick any browser window; you want to pick the ONE open window that contains what you want to share. Click it to give it a blue border, then click Share to show it. It will now be seen (by you) in a green frame. Your attendees are seeing ONLY what you see in the green frame. You can look at your notes, for example, by moving them to the front of your view, without hiding the shared window from attendees. To do anything on the shared screen (like clicking play, or changing the volume), bring it to the front as you normally would. Attendees will never know it was behind anything on your screen.
By the way, if a shared browser window has tabs set for other websites, you can click them to see the other sites in this same shared window.
If you need access to a Zoom control while sharing a window (for example, if you want to stop sharing , and you can't see any controls, use your computers switching trick (control -- tab on Mac) to bring Zoom to the front for yourself. (If Zoom controls are not always on, you also need to move your cursor.)
Sharing the Whiteboard
The Whiteboard is a very simple graphics device that allows you to make simple drawings, type text, or pasted text (like equations) or images (like graphs from spreadsheets) onto an otherwise white screen. All of its controls are on a moveable black bar. All I know about Whiteboard I learned by simply playing with it. Try it. You can save Whiteboard contents using the save button (far right on Whiteboard controls). The result is a .png file (on Mac). Unfortunately, you cannot reload it into the Whiteboard and modify it; you can only share as you would any image file. (The Zoom folks need to add lots of features to Whiteboard to make it really useful. In particular, it needs to allow saving images and reloading them for further manipulation or modification on the Whiteboard.)
Here's the Whiteboard in action:
Sharing the screens of other devices
The other items on the top row of the sharing palette depend on what you have near your computer. Mine says "iPhone/iPad via Airplay" and "iPhone/iPad via Cable". I can turn on my phone, then select and share "iPhone via Airplay", follow the instructions that appear on my phone, and then my phone and whatever I do with it can be seen by classmates. If you turn on your phone's camera, you are in essence sharing the views of a live, wireless, hand-held camera. Unfortunately, Zoom shows your phone only in portrait mode; turn your phone on its side, and your attendees will see the scene sideways. (I hope the Zoom folks fix that.)
For example, here are two screen shots of sharing my iPhone screen by Airplay (third item from left, top row of sharing palette):
Other Zoom Features
Most of the remaining Zoom features are primarily for teachers and other hosts. These include such things as break-out rooms for breaking a group into smaller discussion groups, and a waiting room for controlling admittance into the main classroom.
When I get to know them myself, I'll add some tips here.
••••••
Help Your Instructor to Have a Good Discussion
A discussion leader who asks a question already knows the answer, of course. If you already know the answer without much thought, don't blurt it out. Just raise your digital hand and wait.
Why wait? Good discussion leaders often ask questions not to get an answer, but to get students to think about something. If someone answers the question quickly and completely, they rob others of the opportunity to think, and to wonder. Even if their thinking does not lead them to an answer, it is satisfying, once the question is answered, for them to see if they were on the right track, and how far they moved towards an answer. The quick answerer short-circuits this process, and forces the other students to stop thinking in order to listen to them. Don't be a quick-answerer; be a host-helper instead. Avoid the temptation to try to show others how much you know. Instead, think about learning and helping others to learn.
Discussion often makes for better learning if it stops and goes, takes detours, includes silences, and finally arrives at something interesting. A quick and complete-sounding answer (from student or leader!) stops discussion, rather than making it more effective. Help your discussion leader by giving your classmates the time to wonder.
Discussion leaders might apply this advice to themselves as well. For instructors, the short version of all this verbiage is this:
Don't fill every silence with your own voice.
••••••
••••••
It's worth repeating:
The First Rule: Sometimes your host might have a problem with Zoom, such as getting the right thing to show on the screen. Unless you are assigned as Technical Assistant for the meeting, DO NOT give the instructor ANY advice -- please wait SILENTLY (mute yourself) while your host works on the problem. Nothing makes troubleshooting more difficult than volleys of unsolicited instructions, especially from several disembodied voices at once. Chances are, you do not understand what the host is trying to do or, even more likely, how they are trying to do it. Wait quietly until the problem is solved.
••••••
Do your part to make Zoom meetings productive and pleasant for all attendees and the host. While you might feel a sense of remoteness with Zoom, much about the Zoom experience is, or can be depending on the View settings of others, very close-up.
While you might think of attending a Zoom meeting as like watching TV, think of it instead as like BEING ON TV! Dress and behave for the occasion.
1) Please follow your host's preferences about how to be seen and heard. This is especially important in discussions. The best way to contribute to a discussion is to raise your digital blue hand and leave it raised until the instructor recognizes you. Then unmute yourself and speak; interrupting someone else makes it impossible for the class to understand either of you.
2) Please don't eat or drink during a meeting, or if you must, please mute yourself and turn off your video. Remember that you are being seen by all class members and the instructor, and that anyone curious about what you are doing can "pin" you and see you full screen. (Is that oatmeal on your chin? Ewww.)
3) Noises around you or in your home can be heard clearly by all attendees, and most sounds are louder and more distracting through Zoom than they might seem to you. Seemingly quiet sounds that you make are particularly audible -- for example, things like sniffing, smacking your lips, adjusting a blanket, squirming in a squeaky chair, and the like. Running water can sound like Niagara Falls. The sound of a flushing toilet is unmistakable. Clearing your throat can be deafening. If you are prone to making such sounds, keep yourself muted except when speaking. Remember the space bar for temporarily un-muting yourself when speaking.
4) Deal with unexpected sounds quickly, by first muting yourself, then dealing with the noise. This mean doorbells, loud outside sounds, email coming in on your computer, barking dogs, cries for help.
5) Don't constantly be saying things like "Yes," or "uh huh," or "MMmmm," or "Ahh!", as if you and the host were in a private conversation. This kind of thing is annoying in a classroom, and even more so with Zoom's "close-up" feeling.
••••••
* The dummy meeting has no host, so host functions like screen sharing are not available. If you want to try such functions, email me (find my address on this page, under Contact Me near the end of right hand column). If you happen to catch me near my computer, I can briefly join you at the meeting and give you host functions. Or we can agree on a time to do this.
Thanks for using this tutorial. If you find errors or unclear passages, let me know by email to the address on this page (down in the right column).
This tutorial is the property of the author, Gale Rhodes, and may be freely distributed. Please request permission and make me an attractive offer if you wish to include this work in some grand money-making scheme. My contact information is at One Culture Home.
