USING the ZOOM platform
To join and participate in a meeting
- Click on the link that you will have been sent, either as the group is assembling or a day or two beforehand, in order to join the group.
- You can use a computer, a tablet or a Chromebook, or a smartphone, although the phone has such a small screen that it is hard to see the videos of the participants.
- You will be asked to activate audio and then will likely have to wait until the host of the meeting admits you.
- When you move your cursor (scroll) on your screen, various symbols will appear, either along the bottom (on most computers) or along the top (on most tablet-type devices). Do not hesitate to use them. They include
Video, a camera icon usually first appearing with a red line through it. Click on that line to activate the picture of you that will appear to you and all participants. Mute, which shows a microphone. Click on this to mute yourself (a red line will appear) or unmute if you wish to speak. In a group of any size, muting yourself is a good idea, as that also prevents any background noise from your surroundings, such as a telephone call or a crying child, from being overheard by all attendees and interfering with the discussion. Chat function. If you click on it, you can make written comments that you can send to Everyone or privately to a particular attendee. If there are items in the Chat function because someone has entered a comment, a number will show up next to the word Chat. Participants. Tells you how many people are attending the session. Click on the upward arrow to see a list of attendees and whether their audio and video are on or off. Q & A or raise hand feature. These are controlled by the host and will appear only in some circumstances, usually for larger meetings. They allow you to ask a question by typing it into the area that will appear for you to do so or raise your hand (virtually) so the host knows that you want to speak. Reactions function. Click on it to see what types of reactions are available to you. If you choose one while someone else is speaking, the symbol you have clicked will appear on your video. The raised hand symbol is especially useful. - In the upper righthand corner of your screen, you’ll see a series of small squares arranged in a grid and labeled View. Clicking on the grid allows you to switch between seeing all participants on small screens (gallery view) or having the speaker fill the screen (speaker view). If you are in gallery view, the thumbnail screen showing the person who is speaking is outlined in yellow.
- If you need to leave the meeting (or at its end), scroll on the screen. A red sign saying Leave will appear on the lower right. Click on that, reconfirm that you wish to leave the meeting, and you will be signed off and out of the Zoom platform. The host can also end the meeting for all participants when the business for which you gathered is completed.
Hosting a meeting
- zoom.us is the website that allows you to download the software app that you will need to host a meeting. Your choices for a download are Basic and Pro, as the other categories are for very large (more than 100 participants) or more complex meetings. The Basic category is free and lets you hold any number of meetings with up to 100 participants, but the meetings can run no longer than 40 minutes, except that meetings with only two of you can run as long as you like. The Pro category has the same participant constraint, but lets you run meetings of unlimited length and costs $14.99 (plus sales tax) per month. Once downloaded, the Zoom app icon will appear on your device screens. It is much easier to run the software from a computer, but it can also be done relatively easily from a tablet. Hosting on a smartphone is not recommended.
- Once downloaded, you will have four choices appear on your screen:
New Meeting — allows you to set up an immediate meeting and then invite participants via email or by using the contacts you have previous entered (see c. below) to join that meeting. Once you have set up the meeting, in which you will start off as the only participant, click on the Participants tab and then on the Invite tab at the bottom of the column that will appear on the right of your screen and follow those directions. Your invitees will receive an email with a link to the meeting. You will be told when they have asked to join and must admit them by using the Admit button that will appear on your screen in the same right-hand area. Join — clicking on this allows you to join someone else’s meeting (if you have the meeting ID code in hand). They will have previously sent you an invitation, and it will contain the meeting ID. Schedule — allows you to schedule a meeting at the date and time of your choice. Note that there are various choices that you can make in setting up this meeting, such as requiring a meeting passcode (the meeting ID, above) or not. Once established, you will be asked whether to send it to your calendar, which is recommended, as it will have all of the sign-in information. You can then copy and paste the invitation into an email to be sent to anyone you are inviting to the meeting. An alternative method for scheduling a meeting is to do so via your email account and then tell those who will be attending that you’ll be sending an invitation a minute or two before the time for which you’ve called the meeting. Share Screen — this allows you to share audio, but it’s probably a good idea to ignore that possibility. - Once your meeting has begun, if you wish to show a document or a picture, the Share Screen function that appears in the same area along the bottom of the screen as the items discussed in 1(b) above is very useful. Simply click on the icon, locate on your device the file you wish to share, and click the Share button appearing on the lower right of the screen.
Those are the basics as I’ve discovered them so far. I think many people by now are used to using the Zoom app, know that minor malfunctions and freezes occur from time to time, and are very tolerant of such glitches. Good luck!
Martha Ferry 1/16/2021
(212) 254-7162
(646) 221-4563 (mobile)
martha.m.ferry@gmail.com