Once you have joined a meeting you’ll need to know how to “mute” and “unmute” your audio. Also you may need to do other tasks such as chat with others or “raise your hand.”  Start by finding the control bar.  You’ll see this at the bottom of the screen on most devices, or top of the screen on some devices such as iPads. 

Where?! The control bar may be hidden at first to reveal it . . .

·         If you have a mouse, move the pointer over the screen area.

·         If you have a touch screen (smart phone, pad …) just touch the screen area.

·         On a PC or Chromebook, you can tap the ALT key to reveal or hide the controls.

The control bar is a series of icons.  The appearance varies across devices but each should be clearly labeled.

The first two icons from the left of the screen are used to control your audio and video. The audio button appears as a microphone or headphone, the video as a video camera.

When you see:

	You have not joined the meeting with audio. Click (tap) the icon to join.  On a smart phone you will then select “Device audio”.
	If you see a microphone you have joined the meeting and can be heard.  Click (tap) the icon to mute your audio.
	A red strike-out through the microphone icon means you are “muted”. Other participants cannot hear you. Click (tap) the icon to “unmute” so you may be heard.

 

	The video camera tells you that your camera is active.  Click (tap) the icon to stop video.
	A strike out line indicates that the video is stopped.  Participants will see only your name or your profile picture.

 

A number of icons may follow to the right of these two. These are the ones most commonly used in our meetings.

	Displays a list of meeting participants and other options.
	Displays a ‘chat dialog’ that allows you to send messages to everyone or selected participants.
	Allows you to briefly display a wave or thumbs-up symbol.
	If your screen is too narrow to display all the controls. Click or tap the ellipsis (…) icon. You should find what you need on the menu that pops up.

 

Muting / Unmuting

On all devices, you may mute or unmute yourself by clicking (tapping) the microphone icon:

    

On devices with a keyboard you have a convenient short-cut:  Press hand hold the space bar to temporarily un-mute.  Release the spacebar to mute again.

If you are joining with an ordinary phone,  press *6 to mute or un-mute.