Hangouts

Quick guide

Create a calendar event with a link to a Hangout

1. When you create a calendar event from the detailed view. Click on "Add a video call"

2. Invite attendees and they will see the link in their calendar event

Start a Hangout from Gmail

1. Click the name of the person you want to Hangout with

2. Click the video icon and an invitation will be sent to the recipient.

Invite more participants

Click "Add more people" icon in the upper screen

Enter their email address (es) (must be a Google account with a Google+ profile) and send.

Your new participants will now be able to join the hangout.

Open a hangout from the calendar

Open your calendar event and click the link "Join the video calls".

Join hangout from chat

When someone invites you to a hangout, click "Join Hangout" button in the chat.

Virtual meeting best practices

Here are a few tips for making your virtual meetings very effective: (ADD ICONS)

• Give your full attention by going fullscreen. It's easy to get distracted when you meet virtually. To keep your head in the game, close other applications. Then go into fullscreen mode with just a few keystrokes:

  • use F11 (Windows and Linux)

  • and ⌘-Shift-F (Mac).

  • If you're using Chrome OS, you can also press at the top of your keyboard.

• Make a bad connection better by updating bandwidth settings. If you are in a hangout and others say your audio or video is choppy, you might need to limit your bandwidth. If someone else is in your hangout is not presenting smoothly, then they might need to limit their hangout bandwidth. It’s very quick and easy to do. Just click the bandwidth icon at the top of the screen and simply drag the slider to another bandwidth setting.

• Drive discussion with Google Drive. Add more detail to your discussion by sharing files from your Google Drive in the Hangout. At anytime, you can add Google Docs to the hangout by clicking the Google Drive button on the left side of your screen. If it’s not visible, click , Add apps, and the find and select Google Drive.

• Get a better view by using your browser's zoom feature. Sometimes, it can be hard to see very detailed files shared in a Hangout. You can zoom to make the file easier for you to see. If you are using the Google Chrome browser, use these keyboard shortcuts :

  • Zoom out: Ctrl and - (Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS) and ⌘ and - (Mac)

  • Zoom in: Ctrl and + (Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS) and ⌘ and + (Mac)

Meetings made easy

Do you have regular meetings with your team and need a simpler and more easily accessible way to organize your agenda, notes, and action items? With Google Apps, you can save time searching for meeting information by keeping everything in one place.

Create a group for your team

1. Access your Google Groups at groups.google.com.

2. Click Create Group.

3. Enter the Group Name and Group Description.

4. Click Create.

5. You’ll get a message that the group was created successfully.

6. Next, click Invite people to join the group.

7. Enter the email addresses of the people you’d like to include in the group, separated by commas.

8. Write an invitation message.

9. Click Send invites.

Note: You can use this group for scheduling meetings, sharing files, or sending email communications. When you add people to the group in the future, new group members will automatically be added to meetings you’ve scheduled with this group, and to files you’ve shared with the group.

Set up your meeting minutes

1. Access your Google Drive at drive.google.com.

2. Click New > Google Docs.

3. Change the title by selecting Untitled document and typing a new title like “Team meeting notes.”

4. Type the date of the next meeting and apply a heading.

5. Click Insert > Table of contents.

Now, you have one document only your meeting notes and a table of contents listing each meeting.

Add your most recent meeting notes to the top of the document to so you don’t have to scroll through old meeting notes.

Create your recurring meeting

Now you can set up your team’s regular meeting, attach your meeting notes document, and invite your team.

1. Access your Google Calendar at calendar.google.com.

2. Click Create.

3. Enter a Title for your event like “Weekly Team Meeting.”

4. Update the date and time information with the information about the first meeting.

5. Select Repeat to set up a recurring meeting.

6. In the Repeat window, select the frequency of your meeting.

7. Click Done.

8. Enter a Description for the meeting.

9. Click Add attachment to attach the document with your meeting notes.