How to use Zoom in a meeting or webinar

You can mute or unmute yourself by clicking the microphone icon.

You can change your audio settings (e.g., the speaker or microphone being used, or the input or output volume) using the small arrow to the right of the microphone icon. For more information on the available audio settings, visit the manufacturer’s support page (in English).

In webinars, regular participants are always muted.

You can turn your video feed on or off by clicking the camera icon. Hosts can disable the video feed for individual participants or all participants.

You can also adjust your video settings using the small arrow to the right of the Video button (e.g., change the camera being used, apply a filter to your video, or set a background image).

Regular participants can only join webinars without video.

The Participants button allows you to show or hide the list of participants in the current meeting or webinar. There, you’ll find additional moderation features:

Invite

Using the “Invite” button at the bottom left of the “Participants” panel, you can invite additional people to the current meeting—by name, via email, or by simply copying the invitation link and sending it via another method.

Mute

Using the “Mute All” button at the bottom of the “Participants” panel, you can mute all other participants in the meeting. You can choose whether they can unmute themselves or not.

Using the three-dot menu in the bottom right corner, you can also prompt all muted participants to unmute themselves.

To mute individual participants, simply hover your mouse over the corresponding name in the list and then click the Mute button.

Disable Video

Use the three-dot menu in the bottom-right corner to access the Host Tools for Participants, where you can allow or disallow all participants from turning on their video.

To disable video for individual participants, hover your mouse over the corresponding name in the list and then select the option from the three-dot menu to the right of the name.

Renaming

To allow or disallow participants from renaming themselves, open the Host Tools for Participants and enable or disable the Rename option there.

You can use the speech bubble icon to show or hide the meeting chat. There, you can exchange text messages and file attachments with all or individual participants in the current meeting.

In a webinar, regular participants (viewers) can only chat with hosts and panelists, not with each other.

By tapping the heart icon, you can send reactions in the form of emojis, which will briefly appear in your video tile.

If you have your camera enabled, you can also turn on automatic hand gesture detection here.

You can use the hand icon to virtually raise your hand, for example, to signal that you’d like to speak. A hand icon will then appear in your video tile and next to your name in the list of meeting participants until you or a (co-)host lowers the virtual hand. To do this, right-click on the video tile with the raised hand and then click the “Lower Hand” option.

Video tiles of participants with a raised virtual hand are positioned further forward or higher up in the gallery view.

If you have enabled automatic hand gesture recognition, you can also raise and lower your virtual hand using the camera.

You can use the “Share” button to share various types of content with the meeting participants. When you click the button, a dialog box opens where you can select what you want to share:

Screens

You can share your entire screen so that meeting participants can follow your actions in real time.

Application Window

Instead of sharing your entire screen, you can also share just the window of a specific application for live streaming.

Part of the Screen

This option is located in the “Advanced” tab. It allows you to stream a specific area of your screen live to the meeting.

Whiteboard

This option is located in the “Documents” tab. It allows you to open a drawing area that you can then fill with content. Other participants can export the whiteboard along with its contents as a file and download it for themselves.

Settings

By clicking the arrow to the right of the Share button in the menu bar (or right-clicking the Share menu item in the More submenu), you can access and adjust the sharing settings (full-screen mode, window sharing, etc.).

Here you will find all the controls that are not located directly in the menu bar at the bottom of the window. By default, this includes all menu items except for the following:

• Audio
• Video
• Participants
• Chat
• React
• Raise hand
• Release
• More
• End

At the bottom of this submenu, you can also restore the default order of the menu items by clicking Reset.

Recording a standard Zoom meeting is not permitted for privacy reasons!

If you absolutely need a recording, you must request a Zoom Webinar.

By clicking the arrow next to the Record button in the menu bar (or right-clicking the Record menu item in the More submenu), you can access and edit the recording settings (recording location and content).

Once started, you can stop or pause the webinar recording early by clicking the Stop Recording or Pause Recording button on the right side of the Zoom window’s title bar.

Only (co-)hosts and panelists may be seen and heard in recordings—no regular participants!

By clicking the “Captions” button, you can enable automatic captions for the spoken word during the meeting.

For this feature to be available, the host must enable the Automatic Captions option in the settings on the Zoom portal before the meeting.

Translation

You can also have captions automatically translated:

1. If you are the host of the upcoming meeting, enable the Translated Captions option in the settings on the Zoom portal. Otherwise, ask the host to enable this setting in advance.
2. Start the Zoom meeting or join the meeting.
3. Open the subtitles menu by clicking the arrow next to the subtitles icon.
4. Turn on translation.
5. Under “My subtitle language,” select the language into which the spoken word should be translated.

Clicking the “Transcript” button opens a panel where you can view the subtitles of the current meeting.

Clicking the “Save Transcript” button at the bottom of the panel allows you to download the meeting transcript as a text file to your device.

As the host, you can use the “Breakout Sessions” button to split the current meeting into several groups.

To do this, first specify how many breakout rooms (groups) you want to create and whether participants should be assigned to a breakout room (group) automatically, by the host, or by themselves.

View, join, and manage rooms

When a breakout session is in progress, you can open a dialog for the current session using the “Breakout Session” button in the menu bar. There, you can view the session’s rooms and join a room if desired.

As the host, you can also end the breakout session (bottom left) and manage options for the current session (bottom right). There, you can, among other things, set whether participants are allowed to leave the breakout rooms on their own.

Leave Room

To leave a breakout room and return to the meeting, click the Leave Room button at the bottom right of the menu bar. The meeting host must have enabled the option for participants to return to the meeting in the breakout session settings.

By clicking the “Polls/Quizzes” button, you, as the host, can conduct polls during the meeting or view and share the results of past polls from that meeting.

Create a poll

To create a new poll, click either the “Create” button or the blue plus sign in the top-right corner of the dialog window.

Alternatively, you can create polls in your browser before the meeting.

Edit Poll

To edit a poll, click the three-dot menu to the right of one of the listed polls and then select the “Edit” option.

Now you can add as many questions as you like to your poll, reorder questions, and edit existing questions.

Using the three-dot menu to the left of the “Save” button, you can convert the poll into a quiz. You will then need to specify an answer for each question.

Create Breakout Rooms

If your poll contains single-choice questions, you can enable the “Create Breakout Rooms” option there.

Meeting participants will then be assigned to an automatically created breakout room based on their answer to the question.

By clicking the “Documents” button, you can view the shared documents for the current meeting and, if you are hosting the meeting, add or import new documents.

The documents are stored in the cloud and linked to the meeting ID, so they can be used again when the same meeting room is reopened.

For more information on “Zoom Docs,” visit the manufacturer's website.

Using the Notes button, you can view, create, and edit your own notes and notes shared with you for this meeting.

Notes you create are saved even after the meeting ends and remain linked to the meeting ID, so you can reopen and continue editing them the next time you use the same meeting room.

To share a note with the other participants in the current meeting or with specific participants, open the note and then click the blue “Share” arrow button in the top-right corner of the title bar. You can choose whether other participants can only read the note or also edit it.

To stop sharing, click the red “Stop Collaboration” button in the note's title bar, to the left of the Share button.

Through the Q&A feature, meeting participants can submit questions in text form, which can then be answered by the (co-)hosts. Answered questions can then be viewed by all participants.

To use this feature, as the host, you must enable the Q&A in Meetings option in the settings on the Zoom portal before scheduling or editing a meeting, and then enable the advanced Q&A option when scheduling or editing the meeting, before you start the meeting.

To use this feature in a webinar, as the host, you must enable the Questions and Answers option in the webinar settings in the Zoom portal before scheduling or editing the webinar, and then enable the Q&A option when scheduling or editing the webinar, before you start the webinar.

Click the “End” button to leave the current meeting or, if you are the meeting host, to end it for all participants.

During the meeting, you can start, pause, and resume time tracking at any time. The elapsed time will then appear in the meeting details under the heading Billing Information.

You can either select a meeting participant to whom the invoice should be issued right at the start, or do so later by editing the billing information in the meeting details. After the meeting ends, a time tracking report is generated and linked to the selected person.

By clicking the “Meeting Information” button, you can view the join details (meeting ID, passcode, invitation link, etc.), the meeting description, and the meeting agenda.

Meeting Agenda

As the host, you can create an agenda for your meeting. This is then saved as a Zoom document in the cloud and can be viewed by meeting participants.

Using the “Share” button in the agenda's title bar, you can also grant meeting participants editing or commenting rights for the agenda. Additionally, you can allow access to the agenda for all members of the University of Hamburg or for the general public. Outside of the meeting, the link to the agenda is required for access.

You can join the meeting on a Zoom Rooms device in a conference room by entering the room code displayed on the device.

The white shield button gives you access to several features for moderating the meeting:

Lock meeting

When this option is enabled, no one can join the meeting.

Release waiting room

When this option is enabled,

Hide profile pictures

When this option is enabled, the names or initials of meeting participants are displayed in the video tiles and in the participant list instead of profile pictures.

Share Screen

When this option is enabled, all participants are allowed to share their screen in the meeting.

Chat

When this option is enabled, the meeting chat is available to all participants.

Rename

When this option is enabled, participants can change their display name during the meeting.

Unmute yourself

When this option is enabled, muted participants can unmute their microphone themselves.

Start video

When this option is enabled, participants can turn on their camera themselves.

Share Documents

When this option is enabled, all participants can share Zoom documents with other meeting participants for viewing and collaborative editing.

Share Notes

When this option is enabled, all participants can share meeting notes with other participants for viewing and collaborative editing.

Here you can configure settings for various aspects of the meeting:

• Video
• Audio
• Layout
• Recordings
• Share
• Accessibility features

These settings apply only to you, not to other meeting participants.