Zoom Annotation Tools: Shortcut, How to Annotate in Zoom

Zoom is a key platform for virtual meetings, webinars, and classrooms. With its powerful set of features, it’s not just about seeing and hearing each other—it’s about actively engaging, collaborating, and communicating.

One new feature that stands out is Zoom’s annotation tool. Whether you’re leading a team brainstorm, teaching a lesson, or reviewing project visuals, annotations can enhance interaction and ensure everyone is on the same page.

In this article, we’ll look into what annotation in Zoom is, why it’s valuable, and how to use it effectively. With clear instructions on using Zoom annotation tool, this guide will help you make the most of Zoom’s annotation feature.

What is Annotation in Zoom?

Annotation in Zoom allows users to draw, highlight, and make notes on shared content during a meeting. This can include adding text, shapes, stamps, and even spotlighting certain areas on the screen.

Annotations are a great way to emphasize important information, add context to visuals, or invite participants to contribute in a more hands-on way.

With virtual engagement being more important than ever, studies have shown that interactive tools can boost audience attention and retention by up to 20% in online learning and business settings. So, using annotation effectively can make your meetings not only more engaging but also more productive.

Why Use Zoom’s Annotation Tool?

Using Zoom’s annotation tool is about more than just adding marks to a shared screen. Here are a few key benefits of using annotation in your Zoom sessions.

With annotation, you can clearly illustrate your points or call attention to specific details on a document or presentation. Visuals are powerful: in fact, people remember 65% of visual information three days later, compared to just 10% of spoken information.

Zoom annotation tools invite participation and input from meeting participants. You can let others add their own notes, questions, or suggestions directly onto the screen, making meetings and presentations feel more interactive and collaborative.

With the ability to highlight, underline, and mark up key points, Zoom annotations help keep your audience’s attention focused on what matters most. Zoom polls indicate that meetings with visual interaction have 30% higher engagement compared to traditional screen shares.

How to Use Zoom Annotation Tools

Now that we know why annotation can be valuable, let’s go through a step-by-step guide on how to use it in Zoom.

1. Start Screen Sharing

To access Zoom’s annotation tools, you’ll need to start by sharing your screen:

• Open Zoom and join or start a meeting.
• Select the Share Screen button located at the bottom of the meeting window.
• Choose the screen or window you’d like to share and click Share.
• Once you’ve started sharing, you’ll be able to access the annotation toolbar.

2. Use Annotation Shortcut in Zoom

Once you’re sharing your screen, follow these steps to open the annotation toolbar:

• Hover over the top of the Zoom window until the meeting controls toolbar appears.
• Select Annotate from the toolbar options.

This will open a set of tools you can use to mark up the screen. Here’s a quick overview of what each tool does:

• Text: Add text boxes to type comments or explanations on the screen.
• Draw: Draw lines, arrows, shapes, or freeform lines to highlight or emphasize parts of the screen.
• Stamp: Use pre-made stamps, like check marks, stars, or arrows, to quickly mark or approve areas.
• Spotlight: Turn your cursor into a “spotlight” to draw attention, or use the arrow to point to specific elements.
• Eraser: Remove specific annotations if they’re no longer needed or were made by mistake.
• Clear: Remove all annotations at once or select specific users’ annotations to delete.

How to Annotate in Zoom Effectively: Tips

Now that you know how to access and use the annotation tools, let’s look at some tips for making the most out of this feature in your meetings.

1. Use text and stamps to organize feedback

When reviewing documents or project plans, try using the text tool to create labels or add quick notes next to items. Stamps can be helpful for marking specific areas without overloading the screen—check marks for completed items or stars for ideas that need further exploration. In a team meeting, stamps can also allow participants to quickly “vote” on choices or express approval without disrupting the conversation.

2. Spotlight key areas for focus

The spotlight tool is particularly effective when you want to draw attention to specific points without cluttering the screen with marks.

This is useful in presentations or training sessions where you need your audience’s eyes on a specific part of a slide. With the spotlight, you can subtly guide attention without distracting from the overall content.

3. Encourage others to use annotation tool in Zoom

Annotations aren’t just for hosts! By inviting participants to use the annotation tool, you can make your meetings more interactive and gather instant feedback.

For example, in brainstorming sessions, ask attendees to jot down ideas or questions directly on the screen, creating a shared, visual space for input. To allow participants to annotate, simply enable this option in your meeting settings.

According to virtual meeting studies, engagement increases by up to 40% when attendees are actively involved, so don’t hesitate to make it a team effort.

Using Zoom Annotation Tools on a Shared Whiteboard

Zoom also offers a whiteboard feature that’s perfect for free-form brainstorming and note-taking. Here’s how to use it:

• Click Share Screen and select Whiteboard instead of a window or app.
• Once the whiteboard opens, the annotation toolbar will appear automatically.

The whiteboard works just like a blank canvas, where you can use all the annotation tools to sketch ideas, outline processes, or jot down meeting notes. The whiteboard is great for interactive sessions, particularly when the group needs to brainstorm or map out concepts visually.

READ MORE: How to Blur Background in Zoom

Managing Zoom Annotation Settings

Zoom offers a few settings to help manage and control annotations during a meeting. As the host, you can control who can annotate and clear all annotations when needed:

Enable/Disable participant annotations: To control whether participants can use annotation, go to Zoom Settings > In Meeting (Basic), and toggle Annotation on or off.

Show or hide names of annotators: To keep track of who is adding what, enable the Show Names of Annotators option. This is helpful in collaborative sessions to keep feedback organized.

Save annotations: After a meeting, you might want to save annotations for reference. Zoom allows you to save the annotated screen as an image file. Simply click Save in the annotation toolbar to capture the current state of the annotations.

Common Zoom Annotation Tool Challenges and How to Overcome Them

While annotation is a valuable tool, some common challenges can arise. Here are a few tips on how to handle them:

Overlapping annotations: In larger meetings, too many annotations can crowd the screen. To keep things organized, ask participants to use specific colors or stamps, or designate turns for adding annotations.

Technical difficulties: If participants have trouble accessing the annotation tools, remind them to update their Zoom client, as older versions may not support certain features.

Accidental markings: If you or a participant makes an annotation by mistake, use the eraser tool or select Clear to quickly remove it.

LEARN MORE: Are You a Visual Thinker? Take This Quiz!

Real-World Applications of Zoom Annotations

Annotations are widely used in a range of industries and scenarios. Here are a few real-life examples of how different fields make use of this feature:

Education: Teachers use annotation to highlight important points on slides, add explanations to visuals, or invite students to participate by answering questions directly on the screen. Studies show that interactive features like annotation can improve online learning engagement by up to 50%.

Marketing and creative agencies: In collaborative brainstorming sessions, team members can mark up visual assets, add suggestions, and identify elements that need improvement. Annotations are especially useful during design reviews, allowing stakeholders to give feedback directly on the artwork.

Project management: Managers and team leads use annotations to go through project timelines, mark completed tasks, and identify areas that need attention. By visually tracking progress, teams can stay on the same page and make adjustments in real time.

Final Thoughts: Making the Most of Zoom’s Annotation Tools

Zoom’s annotation feature offers a simple yet powerful way to boost engagement and improve collaboration in virtual meetings. With easy-to-use tools for drawing, highlighting, and adding comments, annotations make it possible to create a more interactive experience for everyone involved.

Whether you’re leading a training session, reviewing creative work, or mapping out a project plan, annotations can bring clarity and focus to your content.

By understanding how to use annotations effectively—and encouraging participants to do the same—you can make your Zoom meetings more productive, engaging, and memorable.

So, next time you’re on a Zoom call, don’t just share your screen—start annotating, and see how it transforms your virtual collaboration.