Zoom: Using the Whiteboard in Breakout Rooms

A guide to using Zoom's Whiteboard feature in Breakout Rooms.

NOTE: Make sure that you are using the most recent version of Zoom to ensure that the information in these pages matches what you see. This documentation from Zoom explains how to check for updates. After updating, restart your computer. 

The Zoom Whiteboard feature is a great way to collect participants' ideas in a space where everyone can contribute and see others' contributions. The following are steps for using the Whiteboard feature in breakout rooms and sharing your Whiteboard in the main room.

Please note that you will be unable to use Whiteboard if the host has screen sharing for participants disabled. You can ask them to enable screen sharing before moving into breakout rooms or use the "call for help" feature once in the rooms to ask them enable it.

Creating and Using your Whiteboard in the Breakout Room

  1. Once in your breakout room, click Share Screen from the toolbar.

    Screenshot of bottom toolbar in Zoom breakout room, with "Share Screen" highlighted in the middle.

  2. A window will pop up with a view of all of the applications that you have open on your computer along with a few other options. Click the application labeled Whiteboard. Then click share in the bottom right corner.

    Screenshot of screensharing window, with "whiteboard" selected. The whiteboard option shows a writing utensil and is labeled.

  3. When you create the Whiteboard, everyone should automatically be able to draw on it. To change users' ability/inability to also draw on the Whiteboard click More >Enable/Disable Annotations for Others in the toolbar at the bottom of your screen.

    Screenshot of Whiteboard settings, with "enable annotation for others" selected about halfway down the screen.

  4. If enabled, the other breakout room participants can annotate the Whiteboard by clicking View options > Annotate in the window at the top of their screen that tells them that they are viewing a user's shared screen.

Sharing your Whiteboard with the Main Meeting

  1. Within breakout rooms, locate the button that says "Save" in the Whiteboard toolbar. Before clicking "Save", you can click the small arrow next to the button and choose whether to save your Whiteboard as a PNG or a PDF file. When you are satisfied with your file output type, click Save.

    Save option, showing "PNG" and "PDF" as options. Save button for saving whiteboard-- shows a small arrow pointing down into a box.

  2. After clicking save, you will see a confirmation below "Save". Click Show in Folder next to confirmation. This will open up where the Whiteboard image is saved on your computer. If you lose the confirmation (it will go away after a few seconds), you can click Save again to make it reappear. This will also save another copy of your Whiteboard image.

    Screenshot of "save" locations; Zoom will show in folder.

  3. If you would like to manually locate your Whiteboard image, it will most likely appear in a folder named "Zoom" that the Zoom desktop application automatically creates the first time you request Zoom to save something for you, such as a meeting recording, chat transcript, or Whiteboard image.

    Within this folder, there are folders labeled by the dates and times during which you've had Zoom meetings. There will only be folders for meetings during which you saved something from the meeting. However, sometimes the Zoom desktop application will save chat transcripts automatically, so there may be folders from meetings where you didn't manually save anything.

    Your Whiteboard image will be in the folder from the meeting where you made the Whiteboard.

    Screenshot of how Whiteboard image will appear as file.

  4. Open the file containing the Whiteboard image that you have saved to the computer. If you saved your Whiteboard as a PNG, the application will be a photo viewer. If you saved your Whiteboard as a PDF, the application will be a PDF viewer.

  5. Once you have rejoined the main meeting and you are ready to share, click Share Screen from your toolbar again.

    Screenshot of Zoom toolbar, with "Share screen" highlighted in the middle of the screen.

  6. This time, select the window for the application that contains your Whiteboard image.

    Screenshot of screen-sharing window, with "photos" selected as the place the Whiteboard image was stored and displayed.

  7. Users will be unable to interact with your saved Whiteboard image the same way as an actual Zoom Whiteboard, but you can use this image to show the other participants what you did within your breakout room!

    You can learn more about using whiteboards through Zoom Support. 


KeywordsZoom, "Guide to", "how do I", "can I draw", "white board", whiteboard, breakout, "breakout room*"   Doc ID129751
OwneriSchool U.GroupSchool of Information Sciences
Created2023-07-14 13:07:53Updated2024-07-03 15:11:29
SitesUniversity of Illinois School of Information Sciences
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