Zoom: Screen Sharing
Screen Sharing in Zoom
- Click Share in the meeting control toolbar.
- Select the screen, application, or browser you want to share.
- (Optional) Select a different Presenter layout for viewers to see your screen and camera feed on the upper left-hand side.
- (Optional) Select Share option features on the lower left-hand side.
- Share Sound: Share any audio played by your computer with the meeting (necessary if you will be playing a video and want participants to hear the audio).
- Optimize for video sharing: Increases video playback smoothness but lowers the resolution as a tradeoff.
- Click the blue Share button at the bottom.
Troubleshooting Screen Sharing
Allowing Participants to Share Their Screen
- Click the up arrow icon next to the Share button in the meeting control toolbar.
- Click Host tools for share.
- Select All participants as the setting under Who can share?
- (Optional) Adjust other settings as needed:
- How many participants can share at a time?
- One participant can share at a time: Others must stop sharing their screen before someone else can share theirs.
- Multiple participants can share simultaneously: Participants will be able to toggle between the shared screens.
- Who can share when someone else is sharing?
- Host only: The host and co-host can interrupt someone else's screen share and share their own screen instead.
- All participants: Anyone in the meeting can interrupt someone else's screen share and share their own screen instead.
- How many participants can share at a time?
- Click the "X" at the top right to close the Share setting options.
Grey Boxes Obstructing Window While Screen-Sharing
Other participants may report seeing gray boxes obscuring the screen while you are screen sharing. These gray boxes are the windows for your Zoom controls and chat. This can be fixed by changing your screen sharing settings:
- Click the green Share button in the meeting control toolbar.
- In the pop-up window, deselect Optimize for sharing video.
- Select the screen, application, or browser you want to share.
- Click the blue Share button at the bottom.
Sharing a PowerPoint Without Using the Full Screen
By default, PowerPoint slideshows will use the full screen when entering a presentation mode. This can make it difficult to monitor the Chat and Participants since they will expand in a pop-up window over the slides if opened. For ease of use, one can edit their PowerPoint settings to have PowerPoint launch presentations within a window rather than using the full screen. Please note your PowerPoint settings may look a bit different from the ones below if you are on Windows or a different version of PowerPoint.
- Open the PowerPoint slideshow you want to present.
- Click Slide Show in the top menu toolbar and click Set Up Slide Show.
- Under "Show type," select Browsed by an individual (window) and click OK.
Your slideshows will now be presented within a window instead of using your full screen. Share your PowerPoint application screen as normal within Zoom.
For more information about screen sharing, see Zoom's "Sharing your screen or desktop on Zoom" support article.