How to use Zoom
Latest info and manuals
First create your ETHZ Zoom account
- Go to https://ethz.zoom.us
- Click on 'Create account'
- Enter your username@ethz.ch (username = your ETHZ username)
- You will get an email from Zoom with an activation link for your Basic account
Zoom client and setup
- We strongly recommend to install the zoom client. In Windows, ZOOM is preinstalled. Mac users, please install ZOOM via the ETH Self Service App in your Applications Folder. LINUX or all others, please us this download link:Download Zoom Client
- Zoom Test Meeting (check Mic/Speaker/Camera setup): https://ethz.zoom.us/test
- During the meeting, you will be able to adjust the media settings
Basic Account
- Basic users can host meetings with up to 300 participants. Meetings with 2 participants have no time restrictions.
- If 3 or more participants join, the meeting is restricted to 40 minutes and cannot be recorded.
Licensed Account
- If possible try to work with a Basic account
- For ETH employees only: If you need more features contact servicedesk@id.ethz.ch with a request to upgrade your account to a Licensed Account. Please include your Zoom Basic Account username (
username@ethz.ch)
Recommended Devices
- Consider to use a stereo Bluetooth headset for better audio quality.
- For presentations use a virtual pointer/presenter. For example Logitech Spotlight
Important Remarks
- If you are lecture, please read Infos zum Lehrbetrieb für Dozierende
- For sharing Powerpoint slides: Always start Powerpoint first. Start the slideshow and then start Zoom Meeting go to share screen and select Powerpoint.
- You can either share the Slide Show View in a Window or the Slide Show in Full Screen. For more info see this Zoom Help article
- Be sure to have your laptop plugged into a power source when using Zoom. It uses quite a bit of battery power, and Zoom will not work properly, especially when presenting, if the battery is at low power.
Record and stream a lecture with zoom
- With a Basic Zoom Account you can only record a meeting in case not more than 2 participants are joining
- If needed upgrade to Licensed Account (see above)
- Share the Meeting Link in advance with your students (see below)
- When the Meeting is finished, your recording will be converted to mp4 and stored locally on your computer
- You can then upload the file to polybox and share the link with your students
- IAC users can also use the IAC FTP Server or for password protected access (recommended) the IAC webserver
- See this tutorial in German or in English for more info
Record a Power Point presentation with Zoom
- With an ETH Basic Zoom Account you can record a Power Point presentation to share later via Moodle, Polybox, Website...
- When the presentation is finished, your recording will be converted to mp4 and stored locally on your computer
- See this tutorial on Youtube
Share the lecture link with your students
- With a Basic Zoom Account you can only share your personal meeting ID
- With a Licensed Account. You will get an own Meeting ID for each meeting. Click 'Meetings' and 'Schedule A New Meeting'
- Send the link (the URL is
https://ethz.zoom.us/j/Meeting_ID) to students beforehand through edoz
- Note that in order to join a meeting no zoom account is needed
- Ask students to mute their microphones or turn their microphones off (see below)
Prevent students from unmuting their microphones
- This can be set by the host or co-host once the meeting has started
- Once in the meeting, click on Manage Participants
- Click on Mute All
- Deselect Allow participants to unmute themselves and click continue
- All participants are now muted and cannot unmute themselves. Host and co-hosts can now unmute individual participants
Getting help
Important Links
Fun with zoom
- Recod yourself while pretending to be in a meeting. Your recording will be converted to mp4 and stored locally on your computer.
- Go to a meeting and use the ^ arrow symbol next to the Video button and go to "choose a virtual background". Choose the recording of yourself.
- Now you can sneak out of any boring zoom meeting: https://twitter.com/dz/status/1240344847292170240
Zoom recordings of PowerPoint presentations (long version)
(Checklist by
ChristophSchaer)
To record a lecture, proceed as follows
- Start a Zoom session with you alone, using "New Meeting"
- If you have several screens be careful. Use ONE of the screens for both your Zoom window and the ppt-presentation window. If the zoom window is on another screen, pull it to the desired screen, preferably the one with your micro. Check whether ppt really presents in the desired screen. If not, use “swap displays” of PowerPoint.
- Start the recording. You are asked to record it on your computer, or in the cloud. I only explored the version on the computer, but the cloud option appears to work as well.
- You will see a small window with the camera view. I recommend you close this window during ppt-presentations. This saves a lot of disk space, and students will not be able to laugh about funny moments
- You can record yourself (audio and camera), or you can record a ppt show (audio and ppt-slide).
- To record your ppt presentation, you first need to share the screen with Zoom. When initiating “Share Screen”, you are asked to select a screen or a window. I recommend to choose the “Desktop” selected for the presentation. Be careful about this, if you choose the ppt-window, or the wrong desktop, it is possible that you will record the screen with the presenter view, or your mailbox or the like. You might note this only at the end of the lecture.
- Put your ppt into presentation mode and hold your lecture. Use the pointer in the recorded window. Be careful with the ppt pointer options (with some I lost the ability to control animations). With some
- At the end of the session, stop ppt presentation mode, stop the recording, and end the Zoom session.
- Zoom will automatically save your presentation to your hard disk. This may take 10’ or so. It is in MP4 format.
How to do minor edits to your file
- You might want to cut the beginning and/or end of the recording. You might also want to cut sequences when you switch between a recording of you and that of the ppt lecture, unless you are really good and fast with switching between the different formats.
- If you get lost during a slide, you can also restart that slide again, and then cut the bad version. If you do so, make sure to use a couple of seconds of quiet time, this will help the editing.
- I used QuickTime Player on a Mac. It has all editing features needed.
- Start your video using QuickTime Player. You can start editing mode with cmd-e. You can split the video with cmd-y, at the location of the red cursor. You can grab individual pieces of the video separated by splits, and delete them with “delete”. If you are finished with the edits, use “save as” to save the file. It will be saved as an MP4 file.
- In principle it is possible to copy/paste sequences from one MP4-file to another. This can be used if you badly mess up the explanation of one slide. In principle you can record the slide again, and then replace the bad version. However, this is time consuming, and I recommend to avoid perfectionism.
Further tips
- Please provide the students with the raw pdf-file of the slides (as we did in the past), and with the recorded MP4-file. Some students write notes to the pdf.
- On the first slide of the lecture I use the disclaimer “This recording is provided as replacement for the oral lecture, which cannot take place due to the Corona virus. The recording is meant for the students and should not be spread beyond its intended use. Thanks!”
IMPORTANT: Legal information regarding Zoom usage at ETH 
Go to ETH Zoom Manual and check out 
How to protect your Zoom live lecture
(password protected)