Using iPad as separate whiteboard in Teams




So you want to use your iPad a whiteboard in a Teams meeting? Well this is one way in which you can do this easily. You will need an iPad (obviously), a whiteboard or drawing app and it helps to have another device (main computer) to interact with the meeting as well as using the iPad to draw from.

This post came about after seeing this tweet on the Twitter from Charles Knight.

It got me thinking about whether this was possible, but also how you would do it. So I quickly tried it out and it worked fine. I did tweet a response, but have now written it up as a blog post so others can refer to it (and I can remind myself how to do it as well).

Though you can screenshare direct from the iPad, once you are screen sharing on the iPad, you can’t see the chat or other members on the Teams call.

One solution is to join the meeting from both your main computer and your iPad at the same time.

As well as screen sharing you can also share other content or video from your iPad as well.

So on the main computer start or join a Teams meeting.

If you start an adhoc meeting on the iPad you will not be prompted to join from your main computer, so always start the adhoc meeting on the main computer.

If you are joining a scheduled meeting then you can join from both the iPad and the main computer.

After clicking Join now and being part of the meeting.

Start Teams on your iPad. Under Chat you should see a meeting in progress or across the top of the screen an opportunity to join the meeting. Tap Join.

It says at the top of the screen Join to share content from this device so this is a planned feature of Teams.

You on your iPad you will then join the meeting.

Tap ••• to open the options menu.

Select Share.

From the next menu tap Share screen.

You will then see this dialogue box. I think this is rather confusing. I have Zoom mentioned as I have Zoom on my iPad.

Ensure Microsoft Teams is ticked and then tap Start Broadcast.

The iPad recording icon will go red, as though it is Screen Recording, but it will not record what you are doing to the camera roll as with a normal screen recording.

At this point your colleagues in the Teams meeting will be able to see your iPad screen.

On the iPad swipe up to access the main screen. This is the view of that from the Teams meeting. All participants in the meeting will be able to see what you are doing on your iPad, so it can be useful to turn on Do Not Disturb model to turn off all notifications.

You can then share content from any app on your device, though some video applications don’t share the video content.

One thing you can do is to use the iPad as a meeting whiteboard. So start your favourite drawing or whiteboard app, I like using Paper by 53.

I can use an Apple Pencil to draw and write and this will be shared with my colleagues in my Team meeting.

They will not be able to add to the drawing or take control, so it is a limited in that respect.

To stop broadcasting switch to the Teams App by either bringing back the iPad home screen and tapping the Teams App icon or through the app switcher.

You will then see this screen. Tap Stop Broadcast to stop sharing your iPad screen with the Teams meeting.

To go back to the Teams app from here, tap anywhere else on the screen.

 

10 Replies to “Using iPad as separate whiteboard in Teams”

  1. Thanks for the article. I had mixed results on macos catalina and ipad pro. i could not join an adhoc meeting from the ipad. i could join a pre-arranged meeting from the ipad (along with the computer), but audio settings gave me feedback(had to mute etc.) and then after sharing the whiteboard i lost the video picture. this feels like the programmer finished the work, but the testing team didn’t bother.

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