Teaching with Technology

Information Technology

Annotating a slidedeck with Zoom

Zoom has a number of annotation tools that go beyond annotation tools available within presentation software (such as PowerPoint). To annotate a slidedeck in Zoom:

  1. Open your presentation software.
  2. Open Zoom. Make sure that audio is enabled. (Note: you can choose to enable video, if you would like to be on camera).
  3. Click Share Screen, select your slidedeck, and click Share.
  4. Go to your presentation software of choice and present your slidedeck.
  5. When you are on a slide you want to annotate, click on the Annotate tool. Annotate the slide, click on "Clear" and then "Clear All Drawings," then close the Annotate tool.
  6. Click on the slide to advance to the next slide. Repeat the annotation steps as needed.

Tip: After about 3 seconds of inactivity, the mouse cursor may disappear, making it hard to see where your cursor is if you are still annotating a slide. To recover the cursor, you have two options:

  • choose command+tab to switch your application to the Zoom app. Doing so will then make your cursor visible again. Either close the Annotate tool, or continue annotating, as needed.
  • Control-click will make your cursor visible again, and revert it to the mouse tool.

 Here's a help video that takes you through these steps: