Zoom software Usage is at its peak . While you work from home, Zoom has enough features to host virtual meetings and webinars. From teachers teaching online to small, medium-sized offices engaging with their clients, everyone can make the most of it. And whenever such an exchange is involved, users should take advantage of the screen sharing and whiteboard functions in Zoom. But many wonder how to use a whiteboard in Zoom.

While standard screen sharing is still popular for everyone, the whiteboard feature remains a bit elusive. Whiteboard is useful in situations like brainstorming plans with a team, explaining a topic in detail, sharing your ideas, and you can always get more creative.

In this post, we’re going to talk about the zoom whiteboard feature. Where to find it, its features, and other whiteboard tips and tricks.

Where is the whiteboard function in zoom

As mentioned earlier, the whiteboard function is not available in advance. It is available through the screen sharing option during meetings. Follow the steps below to access it.

Step 1: Open the Zoom app and select New Meeting to start a new meeting. Share the meeting ID and password with team members.

Step 3: Before you start screen sharing, you need to enable some options in the advanced sharing options. Click the little up arrow in the upper-right corner of the split-screen button and choose Advanced Sharing Options.

Step 4: In the window that will open, select “One participant can share at the same time” from the first option. Then select Host only for Who can share? Opportunity. If you select these two options, Zoom turns off screen sharing with other participants.

Step 5: Now tap on Split Screen or use the keyboard shortcut Alt + S to open the screen sharing menu.

Step 6: Here you have a number of options for splitting the screen. You can select the open app windows and add files from OneDrive or Google Drive, use the part of the screen or opt for the whiteboard feature.

Step 7: Select Whiteboard and tap Share in the lower right corner.

Zoom opens the whiteboard with a toolbar that contains a number of functions that can be used on the whiteboard. Let’s go through it.

Whiteboard editing functions

In contrast to the simple Microsoft Teams whiteboard, Zoom offers a bundle of useful functions for the presenter on the whiteboard. Let’s take a look at some of the main options available.

To draw: The drawing menu consists of a number of shapes that you can choose from. You can use an arrow, circle, rectangle, and other tools from the drawing menu. It’s much better than Microsoft’s highlighter and pen tool in Teams.

Rubber stamp: As the name suggests, the stamp menu has several ready-to-use stamps. These include arrow, star, heart, question mark, cross, etc. You can simply select the appropriate stamp from the menu and tap the whiteboard to add it.

Text and Format menu: This is one of the many reasons many would prefer Zoom to Microsoft Teams for whiteboarding. You can use Zoom to add text on the whiteboard. You can also change text color, size, bold or italic effect.

In addition, you can use the Undo, Redo, and Delete options to make the changes. The save button is a must for everyone. After brainstorming ideas with team members, it’s time to save the current whiteboard on your PC. You can click Save and the whiteboard will be saved as an image in the Zoom folder on the device.

If the single whiteboard is small enough for you, you can tap the little icon under the whiteboard and the new whiteboard will open for you. Use the arrows to switch between them.

A safety feature to keep in mind when sharing the whiteboard in Zoom. During the live video call, you can tap the Security button at the top of the screen sharing window and deselect the Allow Annotations on Shared Content option in the Allow Participants menu. This will prevent other members from annotating the split screen in Zoom.

Chat while sharing your screen

You can also chat with other team members during live screen sharing. Press the key combination Alt + H to bring up the group chat window. Otherwise, you’ll have to move the cursor at the top of the screen to view the options menu and tap the More option at the right end.

Select Chat in the following menu and the chat window will open to send everyone a message. You can also use the file integration from the chat windows and share the relevant files with the team members.

Record meeting

You can also use Zoom to record a meeting for future reference. To record the meeting, you can press Alt + R to start recording. Alternatively, tap the More option in the options bar at the top of the window and select Record to start recording.

You can either record a simple video or a video with audio of your screen sharing session or whiteboard activities.

Use the whiteboard like a pro

I can see Zoom’s whiteboarding feature becoming popular in the education sector. I’ve seen tutors use it to mimic the physical classroom blackboard on Zoom’s whiteboard and teach the lengthy subjects with the multiple blackboards in Zoom. As for us, we use Zoom Whiteboard to discuss code logic among the junior developers on the team.

Next Up:

Would you like to learn to use Zoom like a power user? We have a great guide to help you with this. See below.