what is zoom?

Lots of our parish community are finding Zoom a really helpful way to stay in touch through prayer groups, formation courses, and other meetings while we can’t meet in person. Zoom is an online video conferencing platform. If you’d like to use it, here’s all the information you need.
Download the Zoom App
Prerequisites
  • Webcam, built in or external
  • Microphone, such as the built in microphone, a USB microphone or an inline microphone on headphones
  • Speaker or headphones

hOW TO USE ZOOM

Sign in and Join
After launching Zoom, click Join a Meeting to join a meeting without signing in. If you want to log in and start or schedule your own meeting, click Sign In.
To sign in, use your Zoom, Google, or Facebook account. If you don't have an account, click Sign Up Free. If you have a Zoom account but cannot remember your password, click Forgot.
Home
After signing in, you will see the Home tab, where you can click these options:
How to join a meeting
Option 1: clicking on the URL link via email
Option 2: entering Meeting ID (eg: 111-222-3333)
With either of these, it should open up the application / browser. The Meeting ID is the key piece of information that will gain you access to the video call.
Password: After entering your Meeting ID, you may be asked to enter a password. This is to keep the video call secure. This information should be given to you at the time you receive the Meeting ID.
Audio and video
Once you join the meeting, a window will appear asking you to "Join with Computer Audio". Check the box for "Automatically join audio by computer when joining a meeting"* in the bottom left corner of the Audio window.
Click the "Join with Computer Audio" button.

*Selecting “Automatically join audio by computer when joining a meeting” allows your audio connection to be automatically established the next time you join a Zoom meeting from your computer. 
Click the "Join with Video" button.
Registration
To help us with registration it would be really useful if you could make sure that the name that appears when you log in to the call is your name. For example, a few people appear with the name of the device they are using, e.g. "iPad".

If you access the meeting through your browser you should be invited to add your name before you join the meeting (see image below).
You can also change the name when you enter the meeting space. Click on "Participants" and click on your name. Click on "Rename" and change your name (see image below).
General reminders
  • ​Remember to mute your microphone when you’re not speaking. You can mute yourself by clicking on the microphone icon in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  • Adjust your camera accordingly
    • Make sure your face is visible
    • Use front lighting instead of back-lighting to prevent appearing as a shadow
  • Zoom has two viewing options that can be toggled in the top right corner
    • Speaker view allows you to view only the person that’s speaking
    • Gallery view allows you to see all participants in the meeting