Set up audio and video, share screen and chat

Learn the basics of the Zoom controls.

On this page:

Audio

Use your computer audio

When starting/joining a meeting, you are presented with the choice to join the audio by phone or computer. We encourage everyone to choose Join with computer audio option when you join the meeting.

Choose computer audio source

To tell Zoom which of your connected microphones or speakers to use during a meeting, click the arrow next to the microphone icon in the lower left of the meeting window and select the desired device for both your microphone and speaker:

Mute / unmute your audio

Clicking on the microphone icon will let you mute and unmute your audio once connected.

Test your audio

  • When joining a meeting, choose Test Computer Audio
  • At anytime, click the arrow next to the microphone icon > Audio Settings... 

To tell Zoom which of your connected microphones or speakers to use during a meeting, click the arrow next to the microphone icon in the lower left of the meeting window and select the desired devices.

Participants may select stereo audio or original audio during a meeting. These settings may be helpful for music instruction or performance.

Video

Set up your video

Access video settings before or during a meeting by clicking on the Settings icon on your Zoom Desktop Application.  On the Video tab you can preview and change your camera source via the down arrow.

Mute video

Clicking on the Stop Video icon  in the lower left of the meeting window will let you start and stop your video feed. The meeting will continue.

Share screen

By default, screen sharing is set to Host Only.  During screen sharing you and your attendees can use the Annotation tools for drawing, pointing, highlighting, etc.

To share your screen in a meeting

  1. Click Share Screen
  2. Choose to share your: desktop, specific application, whiteboard or camera feed

To permit others to share their screens in the current meeting you are hosting

  • Click the arrow to the right of the Screen Sharing icon
  • Select Advanced Sharing Options
  • Select All Participants

To permit others to share their screens by default in any meeting you host

  1. Go to https://buffalo.zoom.com/profile/setting
  2. Select In Meeting (Basic)
  3. Scroll down to Screen sharing
  4. Under Who can share? select All Participants
  5. Click Save

From this window you can also control annotation, whiteboard and remote control settings.

Chat

Auto saving chats enabled by default

By default at UB, Zoom saves chats automatically on the host’s computer (or the computer from which the host joins the meeting).

  • The saved chat includes messages sent to everyone and messages sent privately to the host.
  • Participants in a meeting can save chat by default; a host can disable this setting. Chat saved by a participant includes messages sent to everyone in the meeting and messages sent privately to that participant. 
  • Chat saved along with a Zoom cloud recording only includes messages sent to everyone; it does not include any private chats.

Enable or disable chat auto save

  1. Sign in to the Zoom web portal.
  2. In the navigation panel, click Settings.
  3. Click the Meeting tab.
  4. Under In Meeting (Basic), click the Meeting chat - Auto-save toggle to enable or disable it.

Start a chat manually

If you disabled auto save for chat:

  1. Click Chat to start an in-meeting message with participants in the meeting
  2. The dropdown on the chat window will allow you to message Everyone, or a specific participant

Save a chat manually

  1. During the meeting, click the three-dot menu on the bottom-right of the chat window
  2. Click Save Chat

Need help? Contact the UBIT Help Center or your departmental IT support.