Zoom Tips

Creating a Free Zoom Account 

Most of our Spring Family Weekend events will be hosted via Zoom, which is a video conferencing program. Creating a Zoom account is free and can be done by following these steps:  

  • Go to https://www.zoom.us/signup to create an account
  • First enter your birthday and then your email address
  • An activation email will be sent to the email provided, click on the “Activate Account” button in the email message
  • Continue the Zoom setup by entering your name and a password

Once the account is created, you will be prompted to host or join a test meeting. This is not mandatory. When signing into Zoom, your Zoom Account Username is your specified email address. 

Downloading Zoom 

Zoom is available for Apple, Windows, and Google products.  

  • Windows and Mac: Go to http://zoom.us/download and download the “Zoom Client for Meetings”.  Run the downloaded program to install it on your computer.
  • iOS (iPhone): Click here or search “ZOOM Cloud Meetings” in the App Store. 
  • Android: Click here or search for “Zoom Meetings” in Google Play.

Updating to the latest version of Zoom 

Zoom releases frequent updates to release new features and fix bugs. To have the best user experience, we recommend using the latest version released.  

  • Windows and Mac: Zoom provides a pop-up notification when there is a new mandatory or optional update within 24 hours of logging in. To manually update Zoom, click this link and run the download: https://zoom.us/support/download. Visit this Zoom article for more information. 
  • Mobile App:  Zoom will display an update notification in the app store whenever there is a new update. 

If you want to check for the current version of Zoom you are running, please visit this Zoom article. 

Closed Captioning  

Closed Captioning during a Zoom meeting must be enabled by the host prior to the start of the meeting. If the host has enabled Closed Captioning, there will be a CC button on the task bar. Participants will be able to use this button to toggle the Live Transcription and view the meeting transcript.

Quick Tips and Recommendations

  • Check out the Zoom FAQs for more assistance.
  • Plug in any external camera and/or microphone devices before joining the Zoom meeting.
  • Avoid using more than one microphone and/or speaker application as it can cause interference.