Zoom has taken the video conferencing scene by storm; growing virtually overnight to 300 million daily meeting participants! Now we have all been thrown into this virtual meeting space with little to no idea how it works or how to use it effectively. Let’s take a look at five tips to improve your Zoom meeting experience on your computer.
1. Keyboard Shortcuts
Almost every program has a set of keyboard shortcuts, although most go unused. Zoom is no exception and comes complete with a set of shortcuts to make your life easier. You can find a full list in the app by going to Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts, but some of the most useful are listed here.
- Hold Spacebar to Temporarily unmute yourself
- Alt+V Start/Stop your video
- Alt+M Mute everyone but host
- Alt+Y Raise/Lower Hand
2. Virtual Backgrounds
Lets face it, sometimes our backgrounds are a little busy. Dirty clothes, kids running around, and roommates can all be a distraction for other participants. But what if you could make them all disappear? With a virtual background you can, and they work surprisingly well too. Change your virtual background by going to Settings > Virtual Background.
3. Add Invitation to Clipboard
Sending participants connection information for a quick meeting can be a hassle. Luckily Zoom can copy all of the information to your clipboard for easy sending when you start a meeting. Enable the feature by going to Settings > General and checking Automatically copy invitation URL once the meeting starts.
4. Hide Non-Video Participants
With limited screen real estate, it doesn’t make sense to clutter it with non-video participants. Hide those users automatically by going to Settings > Video and checking Hide non-video participants.
5. Stop Participants from Unmuting Themselves
We have all been in meetings where someone forgets to mute themselves after speaking or keeps trying to butt into a conversation. Well, as the host, you can stop this by opening Participants > Settings and unchecking Allow Users to Unmute Themselves. Note this is an option only available to the Host of the meeting. With this option unchecked, the host will need to unmute new speakers.