Last week we posted a How-To on connecting to a Zoom session. This week, we’re continuing that series with a How-To on setting up a Zoom meeting yourself.
Once you’ve got down on how to connect to a Zoom session, you might want to set up your own Zoom meetings. But it’s a bit of a different process to do this, so here’s a How-To.
How to Set-up a Zoom Meeting
First things first, you’ll need to set-up a Zoom account to create a meeting. Go to the website here:
If you don’t have an account already, that’s ok. It’s free to set-up an account – you just need to remember you’re only allowed 40-minute meetings with 3 people or more. Otherwise, you will need to set-up a paid account.
Click on the orange button in the top-right-hand corner of the page, and it will take you to the set-up page.
You’ll need to enter your birthdate and a valid email address, and then a pop-up box will appear asking you to confirm. A side-note, Zoom will ask you if you want to receive a newsletter – this is optional, and you only select the tick-box if you want to receive the newsletter.
Once you’ve signed up, you’ll receive an email into your account, asking you to activate your account. Simply select the orange button in the email, and your account will then be live.
Whenever you login via the link above, therefore, you’ll see the main Zoom screen.
There are several options available to you on this main screen, but for this post we’re focusing on setting up a Zoom meeting. To schedule a meeting, you need to first click on ‘Your Account’.
Once in your account page, it offers you the choice to schedule a meeting at the top right-hand-corner.
When you select ‘Schedule a Meeting’ it brings up a list of boxes and options that you will need to fill out.
Complete the questions asked, from typing out your meeting name, including a description of your meeting (this is optional), selecting the time and date (the calendar icon next to ‘date’ brings up a miniature calendar you can select the date through), and select duration.
As it states, if you have the free account, it will only allow you to have 40 minutes free if you have 3 or more people in the meeting. However, if it’s just two people, it has an unlimited timeframe.
You shouldn’t need to change the time zone as it will automatically pick up your time zone, but it may be useful to know if you ever have meetings with people in other time zones.
If you want to create a meeting that occurs regularly, you can select ‘Recurring Meeting’ and it will automatically bring up various options
When selecting the different ‘Recurrence’ options, it will also show up different options. Simply select the options that work best for your recurring meeting, and at the end select an ‘end date’.
Your meeting will automatically create a passcode for recipients, and it also offers a ‘Waiting Room’.
A ‘Waiting Room’ means that when you run the meeting and other people join, they go into a ‘Waiting Room’ where you as the meeting host must then admit them to the meeting. You can deselect this option if you want to have users connect automatically to the meeting.
There’s also the option on video for both Host and Participant. This means when you go into the meeting, your video is not showing automatically, and you can choose to show your video or not.
The last options you can select are some additional Meeting Options.
As the title suggests, these are options. You have the choice of allowing participants to join anytime, mute participants upon entry, record the meeting (which you can also do when in the actual meeting, but it is useful if you want to record the meeting from the start), and approve or block entry for users from specific countries/regions – useful if you are doing a meeting or workshop for people only in Devon, for example.
Once you’ve entered all the required information, click ‘Save’.
It will bring up a screen with all the details of the meeting.
You can add to your calendars with the buttons shown under the time.
To create the information for Participants, go down to the ‘Invite Link’ option and select ‘Copy Invitation’.
A new pop-up will then appear, with all of the meeting details and the option to copy the meeting invitation. You can then share all the meeting information with Participants in an email.
Now your meeting is all set-up and ready to go!
Once you’re ready to start the meeting, you can either access it in your calendar, or go to your Meeting Screen, as shown above, and select ‘Start This Meeting’.
You will be required to admit Participants to the meeting, and these will appear on your Zoom meeting screen with the option ‘admit’.
If at any point you are unable to hear, you may be having one of the following issues:
- Using a desktop? You may need external speakers, or use headphones
- Turn the speakers on/up
- If neither of those things help, you can use the phone number and reference code to access the ‘Audio Only’ of the session.
- Or, you can restart your computer to see if that will help.
Useful Zoom Actions
Mute - toggles on/off, use this for when the presenter is speaking - it means everyone
doesn't hear your background noise. Try it now - switch it on and off!
Video on/video off - if you don't have much broadband, then switch your video off. If you
still don't have enough broadband, then dial the number in the invite.
Arrow next to video on/off - Set background (optional) - this can hide the background and
be a bit of fun!
Participants - click on this to see who is on the call and to virtually raise or lower your hand!
Share screen - You can share your screen with the whole call.
(Sometimes this option will be turned off by the meeting host)
Chat - Click on Chat and you can see a new box appear on the right-hand side. This is
where you can ask questions when you are on mute or share ideas and thoughts.