Zoom is a video, screen-sharing, and online meeting solution that allows virtual assistants from the Philippines to connect with their clients around the globe through secure video, voice, and content-sharing capabilities. It offers advanced team collaboration tools like intelligence analytics and enterprise integrations that help replace traditional business meetings.

No-Nonsense Guide on How To Use Zoom For Beginners

As a virtual assistant from the Philippines, you know how painful it is to schedule, attend, and record meetings. Zoom makes it easier for small teams and large corporations by offering multiple features that can replace conference calls and mere “meetings” in general, and it’s now the most powerful and easy to use remote conferencing system available.

To help you get the most out of Zoom and have the best meeting ever, we created this Zoom training guide for beginners.

How To Join a Zoom Meeting Without An Account

You can still join a Zoom meeting even if you don’t have an account. Just make sure you have internet connection and a smartphone or computer with a camera, then there’s no need to create an account to join a meeting.

Follow these steps to join a Zoom meeting without an account

Regardless of whether you join a meeting using a computer or mobile device, you do not need a zoom account. You can simply click the link provided on the invitation email and then enter your name to join a meeting.

If you are on a desktop or laptop, you can join a meeting using either the zoom app or a desktop browser. If you don’t have the app installed, it will begin downloading automatically.

If you’d rather not install the app click on the blue “Launch meeting’’ button, and this will give you the additional option to open the meeting in a browser window.

You’ll then be prompted to verify. You’re not a robot and provide your name for the purposes of the meeting. Alternatively, if you decide to install the app, your meeting will launch automatically once you’re prompted to provide your name.

If you are connecting via a mobile device start by downloading and installing the zoom app from the app store once the app is installed, clicking the meeting link will automatically launch the app pop your name in and wait for the host to admit you to the meeting and that is how you can join a zoom meeting without creating a zoom account.

How to Register for Zoom

If you’re a brand new user, you’ll need to register an account with Zoom before you can start using the service.

First, visit zoom.us and click on signup option. You will be required to enter your date of birth first. 

After adding your date of birth, click “Continue”. You’ll be redirected to a new page where you need to enter your email address.

The link will open up a new page where you need to provide your first name and last name, and password. (Or, you can create an account by selecting one of the “Sign in with SSO,” “Sign in with Google,” or “Sign in with Facebook” buttons. This process will need you to install zoom desktop app.)

Zoom will send an activation email to the address you entered. 

Click the “Activate Account” link in the email or copy and paste the activation URL into your browser to activate your account.

 After providing name and password, you’ll be given a meeting URL and an orange “Start Meeting Now” button. You will need to paste that URL into your desktop browser or click the orange button to get the zoom desktop app downloaded automatically. Now, follow the on-screen instruction to install the app.

After installing the app, you have to sign in first. Now you can see ‘join a meeting’ button along with other option.

Remember. You must stay on the ‘Home’ tab, if you want to host a meeting. Press the orange ‘New Meeting’ button to start the meeting.

Is Zoom Free To Use

In addition to the subscription plans, Zoom provides a free Basic Plan that includes unlimited meetings and almost all of the capabilities of the paid plans. The Basic Plan is ad-funded. You can use the basic plan as long as you wish – there is no time limit on how long you can use it for free.

In your Basic plan, meetings are limited to a total of 40 minutes in length per meeting while All Pro subscriptions feature an unlimited number of meetings that can last for up to 24 hours.

The Basic plan can be a great choice, if you’re a small business owner or freelancer who wants to collaborate in real time with colleagues and clients around the world.

How to Join A Zoom Meeting For The First Time

If you’re joining a Zoom meeting, you can use the web app to join from any device. The web app is optimized for laptop and mobile browsers and works with most major browsers.

On a Computer

1. Open the Zoom app

2. Click on the blue “Join” button to participate a meeting.

3. A new window will open, where you have to provide the ‘Meeting ID’ and then click the ‘Join’ button below.

On Your Phone

1. Open the App on your phone

2. Press the blue ‘Join’ button

3. After clicking the “Join” button, you will have to provide the “Meeting ID” and the “Password” that you were send by the host in order to join the meeting.

Scheduling a Zoom Meeting

To schedule a Zoom meeting, go to your App dashboard and perform the following steps:

Using the Web App

1. Click on “Schedule” button

2. It will appear in a pop-up window with the meeting topic, timing, along with some advance options. Set them as per your requirements.

3. After you have set all the details, go down and press “save.”

Inviting People Thru the Web App To Your Meeting

1. You just scheduled a meeting. Now, you have to invite people for the meeting which you have to do manually. You can do this via calendar invites or using your email.

2. Click on “Meeting” tap.

3. This will open a new window. Now, can you see the “Copy Invitation” just right site of “Start” button. Click that button to copy all the information (this button contains your Meeting ID, URL, and Passcode). Send the information to the people you want to invite through your email or as text message.

Using the Mobile App

1. Go to your mobile app and press “Schedule” button. You will find it right on the top.

2. Write down the topic of the meeting

3. Set the date and time of the meeting. You can also set the duration of the meeting.

4. Create a Meeting ID (You can either use your Personal Meeting ID but we recommend you to create a meeting ID for each meeting rather than using your personal one) and a passcode.

Inviting People Thru the Mobile App To Your Meeting

1. Open zoom mobile app and click on the “Meeting” option at the screen’s bottom.

2. Can you see the “Send invitation” button just click on it?

3. Now, you have multiple options thru which you can send an invitation to anyone. you can copy the link to clipboard and then sent the clipboard link to the invitees. Alternatively, you can go with, email, messenger or message.

Two Things You Must Do while In A Zoom Meeting

• Always mute your mic when not speaking.
• When it is your turn to talk, make sure the microphone is unmuted.

Call to Action

So now that you have familiarized yourself with all of the core features, you are ready to start using Zoom.

There are many ways to use the tool, and depending on your situation, one may be better than another.

If you aren’t sure where to begin, follow the process outlined above.

After a few months of use, you will probably develop your own routine for how you prefer to use Zoom when talking with remote team members and clients.