Howard Learns to Zoom

"Hi Howard, how're things?"


 "Oh wow, the Library is going to have a virtual program!  But they say it
will be 'by Zoom,' what does that mean, Bob?"



"Well, that's easy," said Bob.  "Zoom is a program platform that lets you see other people wherever they are using Zoom and you can even talk to them, like a video-phone!  And they can see you, too, if you have a web-camera.  All you have to do is click on the link they give you or cut-and-paste the link into a browser, and you can join in!"

"Great!" wiggled Howard.  "Uh, what does that mean?"

"A little before the program is to start, the Library host will post a link, an address that looks like https://zoom.us/ and a bunch of numbers or such.  Should be able to mouse-click on that and it will take you to another page in the browser," Bob informed.

A Zoom invitation

"Browser?" Howard was unsure.

"The window on the computer where you see other websites and places, like the Facebook LVPL Summer Reading group page you started from," Bob stated patiently.

"Ok," Howard nodded.

"If that doesn't work for some reason, you can highlight the address--click the mouse at the beginning of the address and drag it across the address line to the end--it turns another color like using a highlighter pen. 

Highlighting

Let go without clicking anywhere, then click the right mouse button on that color line to see a drop-down menu.  

Copying

 

Choose Copy and click on that, then click on a new browser tab 

Opening a new tab

 
and right-click into the search bar at the top, choosing and clicking on Paste this time,"  Bob breathed in deeply.

Pasting

 

"Wow," said Howard.  "I dunno if I can do all that."

"You can also press down on the Control button and letter C key at the same time on your keyboard in order to copy, and Control plus the letter V key to paste.  It's actually a snap," insisted Bob.

Zoom!

 

 "Sure," muttered Howard.  "Anyway, then what?"

"Your browser will go to the Zoom site and a little pop-up box will inform you that you need to install a little Zoom program for the meeting.  You just click on that and it will do that for you.  Then just follow the instructions.  Sometimes you'll need the Meeting ID code--the other line given to you with the meeting address with a bunch of numbers--in order to get into the right meeting, so you'll need to cut-and-paste that into a join-meeting box, if it asks for that, and a password."

"Mm hmm," Harold agreed rather skeptically.

"Click on this link, it shows a short video of a lady named Marcia explaining how to do all this, probably a lot better than I am,"  Bob happily provided the link below to Howard.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9isp3qPeQ0E
Joining a Zoom Call for the First Time; 
Fun and Easy Online Connection
--Marcia Chadly from the Creative Life Center

"There are a lot of other videos to help you with this, too, but I happened to like this one," Bob added.

After Howard watched the video, he was relieved.
"I guess that isn't quite so hard to do," Howard admitted.

Bob approved, "When you've done it a time or two, you'll be a master at it!"

"Howard the Zoom-Master!" Howard chuckled.