Author: Phil Simon. Narrator: Gary Bennett. Unabridged: 11 hr 25 min. Format: Digital Audiobook. Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc. Stay connected despite the distance Have you ever wondered why it's so difficult to hold a videoconference or to share your screen with a colleague?
We can put a man on the moon, but we can't seem to get videoconferencing right. At least until now. More than million people have seen the light in the form of Zoom, the world's hottest communications tool. You will be prompted to type in your email or sign in through either Google or Facebook.
Businesses can also provide you with a single sign-on key SSO to attend meetings, although you will also need to know the company's. Alternatively, you can look up the domain by performing a search based on your company email address. At the next sign up prompt, Zoom will ask for permission to send resources including product videos and how-to guides your way.
Either click "confirm" or "Set Preferences;" the latter option being to receive emails once a week, once a month, or never. Make your selection. By now, a confirmation email should have landed in your inbox. Open the message, click "Activate Account" or paste the included confirmation link into your browser, and then at the next prompt, you will need to complete account creation with your name and a strong password.
If you wish, on the next screen, you can invite your colleagues to also create an account. If not, click "Skip this step. Now you can choose to create a test meeting if you like, as well as add Zoom as an extension. If you will be using Zoom for the foreseeable future for work purposes, you may want to select and install appropriate add-ons now.
You can choose to launch a test meeting, which contains the meeting's URL and the option to invite others. We will go through the core features of the meeting system in a moment, but for now, let's head over to the web portal, zoom.
On the Zoom website , head to " Your Account " in the top-right to manage your profile. You can change details under the " Profile " tab such as your name, picture, default meeting ID, password and time zone. Next, head to " Settings. Also: The modern workplace: Will remote tech workers tolerate being monitored? In the interests of security and to prevent scammers from hijacking a meeting , you should make sure you use strong passwords.
Passwords were not always enabled by default, but after Zoom apologized for "falling short of the community's -- and our own -- privacy and security expectations," a rush of security changes were made, including the enabling, by default, of passcodes for scheduled, instant, and personal meetings.
The security tab is now extensive and includes options to allow or restrict public and private chats when you host a meeting; you can give permission for files to be transferred, select who can screen share, enable end-to-end encryption but you will need to verify your phone number first to select this option , and you can even impose blocks on users coming from specific countries or regions.
The Zoom desktop app has a similar layout, with "preferences" accessible from the top-right corner. The options you can access here are related to your PC, such as whether or not you want to use dual monitors or automatically enter a full-screen mode when a meeting starts.
You can also test your microphone and speaker setup, choose a color theme, select a default location for recordings, and tweak accessibility controls, among other functions. With your basic preferences in place, let's go to the " Meetings " tab in your profile. The first screen you will see reveals any scheduled meetings in your diary. Click "schedule a new meeting" and a new screen will appear, in which you can name your meeting, add a description if you want, and choose the date and timezone.
If this is to be a continual meet up with colleagues, there is a handy " recurring meeting " checkbox under the timezone tab. If you select it, you can then choose how often the meeting needs to be repeated -- whether daily, weekly, or monthly, and how many times during a day you want the meeting to repeat. The short answer is: you must do so manually.
There are two ways to do this: through calendar invites, or via your own email account. If you wish to invite others through a calendar, links to Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and Yahoo Calendar are displayed once your meeting has been saved. Alternatively, next to the "join URL" link on this screen, there is an option to "copy this invitation. See: Want to be a developer?
These are the coding skills that can get you hired. Clicking on this page element brings up a screen with all of the important information required for the meeting, including the URL, of which the meeting ID is already embedded. Copy this to your clipboard, open your email client, paste the details into a new message, and invite away. So, in short, all participants need is the meeting URL , date and time , and a passcode.
If you want to try out features before bringing other people in, create a test meeting at this stage and select "Start this meeting.
The first prompt, in either case, will ask you to join with computer audio if you are on PC, and will also give you the option to test your speaker and microphone. At the top right of the meeting window, you can choose to go full screen. We are now going to go over the basic settings you need to know about in meetings for management purposes.
If you are using an external microphone, speaker, or camera, open up the arrow tabs next to these options to choose which equipment you want to use external or inbuilt. Moving on, the " Manage Participants " tab is particularly important. Under this tab, you can find " invite ," which is useful if you've forgotten to bring someone into a session.
Clicking this option will bring up a box with everyone connected to the meeting. In the interests of privacy, however, hosts and other participants cannot control individual camera feeds. A handy feature to note here under " Security " is " lock ," which stops anyone else from joining an active session.
Different views : You can pick one of four view options -- but this only impacts how you view a meeting, and not others.
By default, Active Speaker is the default video layout -- in which the person talking is ramped up to a larger screen -- but there is also a gallery layout that brings in every participant on one screen through a grid, an " immersive " view that puts participants in the same 'room' through a virtual background, and a floating thumbnail option.
The " Share Screen " tab allows you to share your PC screen with others, including your full desktop, browser, or open applications, and also permit others to share their own screens simultaneously. Now, let's talk about messaging. The " Chat " tab on the main bar is designed for users to type out questions and messages, as well as share files either hosted by cloud storage providers or stored directly on your PC, as long as the "Send files via meeting chat" option in Account Settings has been enabled.
As a host, you can also select the " The final tab of note is the " Record " option, which you may want to use if you are discussing work matters and want to save the session in order to email a copy of it to others later.
The complete Zoom guide: From basic help to advanced tips and tricks | ZDNet - More Books by Phil Simon
Passwords were not always enabled by default, but after Zoom apologized for "falling short of the community's -- and our own -- privacy and security expectations," a rush of security changes were made, including the enabling, by default, of passcodes for scheduled, instant, and personal meetings. The security tab is now extensive and includes options to allow or restrict public and private chats when you host a meeting; you can give permission for files to be transferred, select who can screen share, enable end-to-end encryption but you will need to verify your phone number first to select this option , and you can even impose blocks on users coming from specific countries or regions.
The Zoom desktop app has a similar layout, with "preferences" accessible from the top-right corner. The options you can access here are related to your PC, such as whether or not you want to use dual monitors or automatically enter a full-screen mode when a meeting starts.
You can also test your microphone and speaker setup, choose a color theme, select a default location for recordings, and tweak accessibility controls, among other functions. With your basic preferences in place, let's go to the " Meetings " tab in your profile. The first screen you will see reveals any scheduled meetings in your diary.
Click "schedule a new meeting" and a new screen will appear, in which you can name your meeting, add a description if you want, and choose the date and timezone. If this is to be a continual meet up with colleagues, there is a handy " recurring meeting " checkbox under the timezone tab. If you select it, you can then choose how often the meeting needs to be repeated -- whether daily, weekly, or monthly, and how many times during a day you want the meeting to repeat. The short answer is: you must do so manually.
There are two ways to do this: through calendar invites, or via your own email account. If you wish to invite others through a calendar, links to Google Calendar, Outlook Calendar, and Yahoo Calendar are displayed once your meeting has been saved.
Alternatively, next to the "join URL" link on this screen, there is an option to "copy this invitation. See: Want to be a developer? These are the coding skills that can get you hired.
Clicking on this page element brings up a screen with all of the important information required for the meeting, including the URL, of which the meeting ID is already embedded. Copy this to your clipboard, open your email client, paste the details into a new message, and invite away. So, in short, all participants need is the meeting URL , date and time , and a passcode.
If you want to try out features before bringing other people in, create a test meeting at this stage and select "Start this meeting. The first prompt, in either case, will ask you to join with computer audio if you are on PC, and will also give you the option to test your speaker and microphone.
At the top right of the meeting window, you can choose to go full screen. We are now going to go over the basic settings you need to know about in meetings for management purposes. If you are using an external microphone, speaker, or camera, open up the arrow tabs next to these options to choose which equipment you want to use external or inbuilt. Moving on, the " Manage Participants " tab is particularly important. Under this tab, you can find " invite ," which is useful if you've forgotten to bring someone into a session.
Clicking this option will bring up a box with everyone connected to the meeting. In the interests of privacy, however, hosts and other participants cannot control individual camera feeds. A handy feature to note here under " Security " is " lock ," which stops anyone else from joining an active session.
Different views : You can pick one of four view options -- but this only impacts how you view a meeting, and not others. By default, Active Speaker is the default video layout -- in which the person talking is ramped up to a larger screen -- but there is also a gallery layout that brings in every participant on one screen through a grid, an " immersive " view that puts participants in the same 'room' through a virtual background, and a floating thumbnail option.
The " Share Screen " tab allows you to share your PC screen with others, including your full desktop, browser, or open applications, and also permit others to share their own screens simultaneously. Now, let's talk about messaging. The " Chat " tab on the main bar is designed for users to type out questions and messages, as well as share files either hosted by cloud storage providers or stored directly on your PC, as long as the "Send files via meeting chat" option in Account Settings has been enabled.
As a host, you can also select the " The final tab of note is the " Record " option, which you may want to use if you are discussing work matters and want to save the session in order to email a copy of it to others later. By default, no one except the host can record a session unless the host gives permission to do so. Participants will be warned that the meeting is being recorded through an automatic audio message. Finally, the " End Meeting " tab finishes the session.
If the host needs to leave but the meeting should carry on, they can assign the host status to another participant -- but enabling co-hosts has to be selected first in the "Meetings" tab and can only be selected by subscription holders.
Alternatively, you can leave the meeting or end the meeting for all. Now that the basics have been covered, there is a range of settings and features that more experienced users might want to use. Let's head back over to the web portal to run through a few options. If you are using the desktop application , you can quickly access this area by going to "Settings". If you have a Pro, Business, or Enterprise plan, you can take advantage of the webinars option.
Webinars can be set up that broadcast to up to 50, view-only attendees at a time. Screens, video, and audio can be shared; chat sessions between attendees and panelists can be hosted, and webinars can be run on either a pre-registration or open basis.
In , Zoom introduced the option for enabling language interpretation. Up to 20 participants can be designated as interpreters during a Zoom session, and they can create their own audio channels for participants to select in their preferred language. Virtual backgrounds can be used to hide the chaos and clutter of your home. There are specific hardware requirements, which can be accessed here.
Most modern PC setups should be able to manage -- but the virtual background, either made up of images or video, works best with a green screen and uniform lighting. There is also "studio effects," a beta service for adding filters. To set up a virtual background, go to the desktop app, "Settings," and choose "Virtual Background.
You may see a warning that says your hardware isn't good enough -- but give it a go, anyway. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Before the pandemic, many companies were already using the videoconferencing app Zoom for business meetings, interviews, and other purposes.
These days, many individuals facing long days without contact with friends and family have moved to Zoom for face-to-face and group get-togethers. It featuring tips on how to get started using the free version. One thing to keep in mind: while one-to-one video calls can go as long as you want, any group calls on Zoom are limited to 40 minutes. Note: there have been reports that the 40 minutes is sometimes extended — at least one staffer from The Verge found that an evening meeting with five friends was sent an extension when time started running out — but there has been no official word of any change from Zoom.
The first thing to do, of course, is to register for the service. You can do this either from your laptop or from your mobile phone. If you sign up for Zoom using the mobile app, the process is similar to how it is on the web. We tested the signup process using the iOS app.
The scheduled meeting will be visible on the initial Zoom window, where you can start it or delete it. You can invite people to a Zoom meeting in a few different ways. From there:. Subscribe to get the best Verge-approved tech deals of the week. Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. By choosing I Accept , you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.
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