Today I'm sharing a few Zoom hacks that I use regularly and are less known than your typical tips. I hope these help you with the constant Zooms we're currently finding ourselves in!
Easier Slide Sharing
Here's a hack for sharing your slides that allows you to share your slides without needing to go into full screen mode and monopolize your desktop. In PowerPoint, navigate to Set up Slideshow and select "Browse by individual window". Go into slideshow mode. Back in Zoom, go to Share and then click the Advanced tab and select "Share portion of screen". A green box will appear that you can resize to fit your slides. Another tip for meetings when multiple people are presenting from one slide deck is to use the Pass Remote Control feature. While you're sharing the slide deck, hover over your Zoom menu and select Remote Control. You can then select who you want to pass remote control of your screen to. That person will be able to advance the slides themselves after clicking once on the middle of the screen. An important note is to remember that when you've passed remote control to someone, you can not click anything on your computer. If you do, it will take back control of the screen. How Zoom Has Changed Meetings
Zoom has opened up meetings and events to a much wider audience. Whereas travel may have been cost prohibitive before, virtual conferences allow people from all over the globe to join and participate. Zoom has also created closer relationships with coworkers in many ways. We're often seeing into each others homes and experiencing unexpected drop-ins from pets, children and partners, showing aspects of your personal life that an office environment doesn't allow for. This can lead to team bonding, and more empathy in the workplace. The better we understand each other, the more flexible and understanding we can be.
Zoom Drawbacks One drawback to Zoom is the unpredictable audio and video quality. As you've likely seen, video can appear pixelated and audio can fade in and out. This is largely due to the participant's internet connection speed. I always recommend that users join with a wired (ethernet) connection for improved stability. Another option is for participants to turn their video off if their audio or video is breaking up. This will lessen the bandwidth that Zoom uses (which is high!) and should improve their audio.
That's it for now. Did you know about these hacks? Know of any others I should be using?