186. How do I use Zoom for online meetings?

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Note: Zoom is not one of our normal topics, but we do use it a lot and recognize that many more people are needing to use it now in the era of Coronavirus quarantines. That was our motivation for showing this topic, and also for that reason, we are making the show notes free for anyone. Stay healthy my friends.

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0:00

zoom meetings

Quick Start: Demonstration of using an iPad to host a meeting. It is so quick and easy – anyone can do it. In this demo, Chris already has a Zoom account and knows her instant meeting ID to send to people (instructions for this later). She shows just how easy starting a meeting can be.

  • Install the Zoom meetings app from the App store
  • Make sure you have an account with Zoom
  • Open the app, tap on New meeting, Start meeting
  • She already sent link to meeting ID to the people you want to join you, when they join they will appear
  • Tap the screen to see controls like “Gallery view” to put everyone in their own box.
  • Other controls include turning audio on/off and also turning video on/off
  • Note: the poor sound in this demo is due to our feeding Zoom sound into the YouTube stream. The zoom sound itself is good.

7:14 Hello and introduction

We use Zoom a lot for Toastmasters meetings. You can see a sample meeting where our Online Presenters Toastmasters club teaches how we use Zoom to hold a meeting including participants from around the world! How to host an online Toastmasters meeting. Note: if you watch the Toastmaster video, within the first 2 minutes you will see why it can be so important for participants to remain muted (microphone off) unless they are speaking. The unintentional noise is very distracting. The meeting host therefore has the power to mute ALL. You will also notice that some participant’s video pops up in unwanted places – that is also because their microphone is on. The “active speaker” view automatically gives video focus to whoever is talking – or making any noise.

Zoom can also be used to bring a remote speaker into a live meeting. Here’s a very short video: Remote speaker via Zoom

10:18 What is Zoom?

Many people have experience with video calling apps like Facetime, Skype, Hangouts and Facebook messenger. For all of those, each participant needs an account and one person needs to call the others. When someone gets a call, they can answer.

Zoom is built for video meetings – the “host” sets up the meeting and sends a link to the others. The people who are invited do NOT need a Zoom account, all they need is the link. Think of it like the host sets up in a room and all the participants need to do is enter that room.

Get Help

Got questions? the Zoom.us website has all the help you could ever want. Just go to Zoom.us and click the Support link in the upper right. You will see a search box to type in your question, or you can browse popular topics and one minute video introductions. I especially like the Live Training section at the bottom. If you can’t attend a live session, just scroll down to see past lives session recordings.

13:40 How to Join a meeting

Most people will never Host a meeting, but many will have occasion to join a meeting – so our first tutorial is on Joining your first Zoom meeting.

614.OT-Zoom How to Join a Meeting

What equipment do you need? A laptop is perfect because it has a camera and microphone built in. If you’re in a noisy environment, you may want a headset.

You DO NOT need a Zoom account to join a meeting. Just go to Zoom.us and enter the ID of the meeting you want to join. Or, if you received a link to the meeting, just click the link. If this is the first time you’ve ever joined a meeting, you will be prompted to download a small zoom app. You can enter your name, and you can choose to have your video and audio start active.

Clicking on Gallery view puts each participant in their own box. Speaker view puts the speaker in the big window and shrinks everyone else.

It is very important to know how to turn your microphone on and off and also your video camera.

While you’re in a meeting, if you open some other window on your computer, you can return to the Zoom meeting by clicking the Zoom icon at the bottom of your screen in the task bar.

When you’re ready to leave the meeting, just move your mouse and a link to “Leave Meeting” should appear, just click it.

21:27 Meeting controls

  • Gallery
  • Speaker View
  • Your Sound
  • Your Video
  • Exit meeting

615.OT-Basic Zoom Meeting Controls

Gallery vs Speaker View
To see the Gallery view, click the 9-dot grid in the upper corner (on computer). When you’re in Gallery view, the button will now read Speaker view – click that to go back to the view where the person talking has the big screen and everyone else is shrunk. You can go back and forth between Gallery and Speaker view as often as you like, this only affects your view of the meeting – it does not affect anyone else. Each person controls what view they see.

Pinning
When in Speaker view, the person in the main window will switch to whoever is speaking – or making any noise. If you want to stay on one person regardless of who is speaking, you “pin” them. You can click on the 3-dot menu in that person’s box and choose Pin, OR you can right-click on their name or their face and you should also see the pin option there.

To UNpin, you should see a link in the upper left of the speaker’s box that reads, “Unpin”

Your video and audio settings
Click the up arrow next to the microphone and you will see all the possible microphones available to your computer. You will also see Settings where you can adjust things like Volume.

Same with the video camera – click the up arrow and you’ll see any possible cameras available, you’ll also see the Virtual Background setting, and just Settings

Share screen
The green button in the bottom middle allows you to share your screen. The default choice will share whatever is on your monitor. You also have options just to share specific windows or tabs. When you share your screen, you do take over the main stage for everyone in the meeting. Notice the checkbox in the lower left to “share computer sound” – that is important if you will be sharing a video.

Chat
The Chat… button at the bottom will open up a sidebar where you can chat with the entire room, or just one individual.

25:35 A real live meeting with our YouTube viewers.

At this point we posted the link to our Zoom meeting in the YouTube chat and let anyone who wanted to, join the meeting. Yes we’re crazy! Here’s what it looked like:

Zoom meeting

As expected, it was a bit of a cacophony.

33:49 Joining meetings with a mobile device – Android demo

Video 616: Join a Zoom meeting with an Android phone

Chris started a meeting on her laptop, Jim demonstrates how he joins with his phone. He opens the email and taps the link to the meeting, that opens the Zoom app which he already had installed, gives him a chance to edit his name, then clicks OK.

Audio – he taps the icon for Join Audio in the lower left so he can be heard, then he taps the Start Video icon so he can be seen. At first he sees the meeting in Speaker view so he only sees Chris. To get to Gallery view, he swipes left (to go the the rightmost screen) He can swipe left or right among 3 different screens. the furthest left screen puts him in Driving mode and mutes both his audio and video. When he swipes back to the middle screen, his audio and video automatically return.

Switch to rear camera
It can be very useful in a meeting to switch from selfie mode to the rear camera. That way the meeting participants are seeing what you’re looking at rather than seeing you.

  • tap the screen so that the controls appear
  • tap the switch camera icon

Share Screen
Tap the green “Share” button at the bottom, then choose Screen, and your other participants will now be seeing exactly what is showing on your phone’s screen. Really cool! While you’re sharing, the Share button becomes “Stop Sharing” – tap that to … stop sharing!

37:38 Get a Zoom account to host a meeting

Video 617 Create a Zoom account and get an instant meeting ID

  • Go to Zoom.us
  • Click Sign up, it’s free
  • Enter an email address, and it says you will receive an email with the link to set up your account
  • Open that email and click the link, Enter your name and create a password
  • You now have an account!
  • Notice you now have a Personal Meeting ID (PMI) It is a URL that you can send to anyone and have a meeting. Note: check your settings if you want to use the PMI for instant meetings without a password.

40:49 Settings

There are LOTS of settings for hosting Zoom meetings. Go to Zoom.us and click on “My Account” in the upper right. You should now see a left sidebar with an options for Settings.

Notice the menu option for Meetings – here’s where you can schedule meetings, even recurring meetings. The same meeting ID can be used for up to one year.

44:50 Review Questions

MrsGeek
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2 replies on “186. How do I use Zoom for online meetings?”

  1. There are a couple of different ways to send an invitation:
    1. Before starting the meeting: Schedule a meeting by logging in to your Zoom account, click “Meetings” at the left sidebar, then schedule a meeting. After it is Saved, you will see the option for “Join URL” that is the link to copy and send to whoever you want to join you.
    2. After a meeting is started: At the bottom of the Zoom meeting screen, you will see a button to “Invite+” Click that and you can specify the emails of people you want to invite.

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