Tips and Tricks 07: How ShowTime's unique chat experience enhances real-time discussions.

Online discussion boards and chat applications are often used in traditional courses, hybrid sessions, and virtual classrooms. While traditional courses, and even some hybrid courses, generally have the benefit of in-class discussions, fully online courses often use the discussion board or chat functions as a means of class interaction, to give learners the opportunity to connect with each other and share ideas in an open forum.  

 

Zoho ShowTime offers various types of chat functions where all enrolled learners can participate in a group chat or chat with the trainer privately, as well as secure channels for trainers to discuss their work. In this tips and tricks post, we'll be highlighting the different kinds of chat options available in ShowTime.

Group chats

Full-course group chats allow attendees to exchange messages and ideas with the entire class, helping you host effective brain-storming sessions. Learners can ask the trainer questions and discuss their thoughts with other attendees while the trainer guides their in-depth discussions.

 

Private chats for trainers 

Whether it's getting the training content right, having keynotes ready, or moderating discussions, every training session has a lot of organizing to do. In the midst of all this, it's important for trainers to be able to discuss their work, plan upcoming lessons, and share course information. ShowTime offers trainers private chat channels to help them plan and collaborate effectively in real time. You can click on the People tab and click Chat with trainers to start a private chat.

 

 

Private chat for learners

A one-on-one learning connection can empower trainees to take control over their education, have the confidence to communicate what they need, and receive the personalized attention that will enable them to succeed. In ShowTime, an attendee can also initiate a private chat with the trainers in a session by clicking Chat with trainers in the chats pane. 

 

 

We hope ShowTime's chat capabilities promote real-time discussion and gives your learners a direct connection to both the educator and their classmates. Check out this feature and let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.

• Topic Participants

• Meshach Abhishek J

• Sticky Posts

• Video tip 02: Customize your feedback and evaluation forms in Zoho ShowTime

  Hello everyone,  Here's a new video tip for all our ShowTime users. Today we will learn few quick, effective ways to evaluate your participants and assess your trainings conducted on Showtime, like MCQs (multiple choice questions), text-boxes, and ratings scale.   Watch the below video to learn how these assessment systems help you effectively evaluate course-related knowledge and skills of your trainees on a regular basis.      Follow this page to learn more such tips and stay updated on all the

• Video tip 05: Host training courses under your own personalized domain and white-label your email communications.

  Hello everyone,  As a trainer, having your own domain name increases your brand's positioning and reach through search results on top search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Prospective customers will more readily pay for courses from an organization with a professional, established online presence. A custom domain establishes you as a leader in your area of subject expertise, helping you promote your courses and build brand recognition with your global audience.   In today's video tip, we at

• Video tip 04: Do you want to set up repeated training sessions at regular intervals? Learn how.

  Hello everyone,    Sometimes it is difficult to organize and manage your everyday work and training sessions. Scheduling recurring or repeated sessions can be even more time-consuming as you need to create and maintain the training content, schedule multiple time slots for the training, manage registrants across each session, and more.    Zoho ShowTime offers a smarter option for these cases that only takes a few clicks. Play the video below to learn how to use the same presentation content and set

• Spotlight 03: Connect and deliver more effective trainings with ShowTimes' Viewer app

  With the growing need for virtual classroom learning, the use of mobile and tablet software is quickly becoming the most convenient way to share knowledge between educators and students. According to a 2018 study, nearly 67% of digital learners now use mobile devices to complete their online coursework. Additionally, smartphone learners complete course material 45% faster than those using a computer.  Considering these facts, we now introduce our next community spotlight series that will focus on Zoho

• Video tip 1: Record and share trainings on Zoho ShowTime.

  Hello everyone,   We are excited to launch our video tip of the month series within our ShowTime's community, aimed to help our trainers and educators with brief and practical tips on delivering more effective and comprehensive training.   In this month's video tip, we will show you how to record your training sessions quickly and share them with your attendees and other prospective learners externally. We hope this tip was useful. ShowTime also allows you to automatically record your live trainings

• Recent Topics

• How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign

  How can i resend a campaign to only one of the recipients on the original campaign ? Sincererly, Mike

• How to show branch instead of org name on invoice template?

  Not sure why invoices are showing the org name not the branch name? I can insert the branch name using the ${ORGANIZATION.BRANCHNAME} placeholder, but then it isn't bold text anymore. Any other ideas?

• Create CRM Deal from Books Quote and Auto Update Deal Stage

  I want to set up an automation where, whenever a Quote is created in Zoho Books, a Deal is automatically created in Zoho CRM with the Quote amount, customer details, and some custom fields from Zoho Books. Additionally, when the Sales Order is converted

• Marketing Automation Requirements Questions

  I would like to set up a multi-email drip campaign- please see the structure below and confirm if I can achieve this set up in Zoho marketing automation. Where applicable, highlight gaps and workarounds. Thanks Drip email campaign- Can I create one drip

• Zoho CRM for Gmail Extension Not Working in Brave Browser?

  Is anyone able to get the Zoho CRM Chrome Extension working in the Brave browser? They're both built on the Chromium platform and every other Chrome Extension works with the exception of Zoho CRM for Gmail so any ideas here?

• Sharing URLs and direct access

  Hello, I am storing my team's email signature images on Workdrive. I am creating a public image download share and adding “?directDownload=true” so that the image can be accessed without the Workdrive interface. A few questions: 1) Can we generate friendly

• how to change the page signers see after signing a document in zoho sign

  Hello, How can I please change the page a signer sees after signing a document in Zoho Sign? I cannot seem to find it. As it is now, it shows a default landing page "return to Zoho Sign Home". Thanks!

• Question about using custom_fields in Storefront Add-to-Cart API (error 2003 – required details)

  Hi everyone, I’m working with the Zoho Commerce Storefront API, specifically the Add to Cart endpoint: POST /storefront/api/v1/cart According to the documentation, this endpoint supports a custom_fields parameter for adding line-item custom data. I’m

• Can a project be cloned?

  Good afternoon, greetings. I would like to ask if it's possible to clone a project in Microsoft Project. I found a way to do it using templates, but I'm not sure if there's a direct way to clone a project. Thank you in advance for your attention, and

• Timesheet Tasks in Zoho Books: associate to service item

  How do we associate a service item to timesheet tasks in Zoho Books? For example: Joe spent 5 hours on project:task1 which is Service Item#1 (Income:Service1). When the invoice is issued thru the Project Invoice section, this is not available. When the

• Why Sharing Rules do Not support relative date comparison???

  I am creating a Sharing Rule and simply want to share where "Last Day of Coverage" (Date field) is Greater than TODAY (Starting Tomorrow). However, sharing rules don't have the option to compare a date field to a relative date (like today), only to Static

• Task/Activity indicator in SalesPipeline overview has disappeared

  I Just logged in my ZOHO CRM first 2026 checking my salespipeline overview , Every record card used to show an indication that there was an open task (Yellow if the expiry date was close, red if the expiry date was today and grey when it had expired).

• Tip #56- Accessibility Controls in Zoho Assist: Hearing- 'Insider Insights'

  As we begin the new year, it’s a great time to focus on making our tools more inclusive and accessible for everyone. Remote support often involves long hours in front of screens, varying lighting conditions, and users with diverse accessibility needs.

• Zoho Desk Android app update: Table view for All Departments view, custom button

  Hello everyone! In the latest version(v2.9.25) of the Zoho Desk Android app update, we have introduced Table view for the 'All Departments' view in the ticket module. We also have supported an option that allows tickets in the Table view to be sorted

• What's New - December 2025 | Zoho Backstage

  In December, Backstage introduced a focused set of updates that improve how you manage registrations, communicate with attendees, and track participation. These enhancements are designed to give organizers greater flexibility and clearer control across

• Need code format to specify default values

  Can someone please direct me to the code syntax or the proper translation per the instructions circled below. These instructions don't seem correct.

• Problem with CRM Connection not Refreshing Token

  I've setup a connection with Zoom in the CRM. I'm using this connection to automate some registrations, so my team doesn't have to manually create them in both the CRM and Zoom. Connection works great in my function until the token expires. It does not refresh and I have to manually revoke the connection and connect it again. I've chatted with Zoho about this and after emailing me that it couldn't be done I asked for specifics on why and they responded. "The connection is CRM is not a feature to

• Task Deletion Restriction & Strict Stage Control

  Hello Zoho Community, We have the following two issues currently pending and under testing, for which we require a workable and reliable solution: 1. Task Deletion Restriction We are testing ways to ensure that staff users are not able to delete tasks

• Add multiple users to a task

  When I´m assigning a task it is almost always related to more than one person. Practical situation: When a client request some improvement the related department opens the task with the situation and people related to it as the client itself, the salesman

• A Roundup of Zoho Sprints 2025

• Sorting Custom Date in API isn't working w pagination limit

  How can we sort a custom field with DATE using pagination? Starting at page=1 then moving to page=2 with a limit of 10 each, its all messed up and even shows some of the same records as page 1? https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v2/INVOICE_MODULE/search?criteria=(FM_Contact_ID:equals:1234)&sort_by=Invoice_Date&sort_order=desc&per_page=10&page='

• SAP Business One(B1) integration is now live in Zoho Flow

  We’re excited to share that SAP Business One (B1) is now available in Zoho Flow! This means you can now build workflows that connect SAP B1 with other apps and automate routine processes without relying on custom code. Note: SAP Business One integration

• Enhancement in Role and Profile mapping of agents in Sandbox

  Hello everyone! We have brought in a modification in the way users are mapped to a particular role and profile in Sandbox. What has changed? When agents are copied from production to Sandbox: If a user's current role and profile is available in Sandbox,

• The reason I switched away from Zoho Notebook

  My main reason for switching to Zoho was driven by three core principles: moving away from US-based products, keeping my data within India as much as possible, and supporting Indian companies. With that intent, I’ve been actively de-Googling my digital

• Decimal places settings for exchange rates

  Hello, We are facing issues while matching vendor payments with banking feeds. As we often import products/services exchange rate comes into play. Currently, ZOHO allows only six digits for decimal places. We feel that conversions like JPY to INR require

• Zoho removed ability to see all Scheduled Reports!

  If you are not the owner of a scheduled report, Zoho recently removed the capability to see each scheduled report. As an admin who relies on seeing all scheduled reports being sent, this is a terrible update. Now I cannot see ANY scheduled reports...even the ones I am being sent!!  This should be a setting for admins to control.  This is a bad update.

• Automate Backups

  This is a feature request. Consider adding an auto backup feature. Where when you turn it on, it will auto backup on the 15-day schedule. For additional consideration, allow for the export of module data via API calls. Thank you for your consideration.

• GCLID and Zoho Bookings

  Is there anyway to embed a Zoho Bookings signup on a landing page and pass the GCLID information? More specifically, can this be done using auto-tagging and not manual tagging the GCLID? I know Zappier has an integration to do this but is there a better

• Merge Items

  Is there a work around for merging items? We currently have three names for one item, all have had a transaction associated so there is no deleting (just deactivating, which doesn't really help. It still appears so people are continuing to use it). I also can't assign inventory tracking to items used in past transactions, which I don't understand, this is an important feature moving forward.. It would be nice to merge into one item and be able to track inventory. Let me know if this is possible.

• Create PO from an invoice

  We are a hardware and software sales company which receives orders over the internet. We drop ship most of our products from a warehouse outside of our company. Our orders get sync'd into Zoho from our store via onesaas as invoices. It would be great

• Blueprint or Validation Rules for Invoices in Zoho Books

  Can I implement Blueprint or Validation Rules for Invoices in Zoho Books? Example, use case could be, Agent confirms from client that payment is done, but bank only syncs transactions tomorrow. in this case, Agent can update invoice status to done, and

• Resetting auto-number on new year

  Hi everyone! We have an auto-number with prefix "D{YYYY}-", it generates numbers like D2025-1, D2025-2, etc... How can we have it auto-reset at the beginning of the next year, so that it goes to D2026-1? Thanks!

• The Social Wall: December 2025

  Hello everyone! As we wrap up the final edition of the Social Wall for 2025, it’s the perfect time to look at what went live during December. QR code generator From paying for coffee to scanning metro tickets, QR codes are everywhere and have made everyday

• Custom AI solutions with QuickML for Zoho CRM

  Hello everyone, Earlier, we introduced Custom AI Solutions in CRM that let you access QuickML for your custom AI needs. Building on that foundation, we’ve now enabled a deeper integration: QuickML models can be seamlessly integrated into CRM, and surface

• Helper Functions and DRY principle

  Hello everyone, I believe Deluge should be able to use 'Helper functions' inside the main function. I know I can create different standalones, but this is not helpful and confusing. I don't want 10000 different standalones, and I dont want to have to

• Add specific field value to URL

  Hi Everyone. I have the following code which is set to run from a subform when the user selects a value from a lookup field "Plant_Key" the URL opens a report but i want the report to be filtered on the matching field/value. so in the report there is

• Introducing workflow automation for the Products module

  Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a few recent enhancements we've made to Bigin's Products module. The Products module in Bigin now supports Workflows, enabling you to automate routine actions. Along with this update,

• Power up your Kiosk Studio with Real-Time Data Capture, Client Scripts & More!

  Hello Everyone, We’re thrilled to announce a powerful set of enhancements to Kiosk Studio in Zoho CRM. These new updates give you more flexibility, faster record handling, and real-time data capture, making your Kiosk flows smarter and more efficient

• Zia Formula Expression Generator for Formula fields

  Hello everyone! Formula fields are super useful when you want your CRM to calculate things for you but writing the expression is where most people slow down. You know what you want, but you’re not fully sure which function to use, how the syntax should

• Issue with Zoho Creator Form Full-Screen View in CRM Related List Integration

  Hi Team, We have created a custom application in Zoho Creator and integrated it into Zoho CRM as a related list under the Vendor module, which we have renamed as Consignors. Within the Creator application, there is a form named “Pickup Request.” Inside

• Next Page