Tips and Tricks to Zoom Like a Pro

By Daniel Johnson, Section Manager

With OLLI at TTU courses moving to the Zoom video platform in summer and fall, most members are getting pretty familiar with the ins and outs of the video meeting app. These tips can help you go from a regular user to a Zoom meeting pro.

Change your background

Have you seen friends and family members appearing to be on the beach, in front of mountains or in outer space while on Zoom calls? Or what if you don't want everyone seeing inside of your home? Consider using a virtual background next time you are on a Zoom call. With this feature you can place any image as your background.

• Open the Zoom app
• Click the gear icon under your profile image
• Select the "Virtual Background" option
• Select an image/video or upload your own

A pop-up will show, allowing you to upload a photo from your computer. Click on your image and it will appear alongside the other default pictures as an option for you to choose.

Mute your audio and turn off your camera by default

Sometimes you want to enter a meeting with the audio already muted or the video turned off by default. By changing these options in settings, it keeps other participants from seeing where you are or what is going on around you while you are getting situated.

You can always turn video and microphone back on at any time when you are ready.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Open the Zoom app
2. Click the gear icon
3. Click the "Video" option
4. Check the box next to "Turn off my video when joining meetings"
5. Click the "Audio" option
6. Check the box next to "Mute my microphone when joining a meeting"

Mute and unmute with the space bar

If you are in a meeting where you will not be doing much speaking, it is usually best practice to keep your mic muted. You do not want to be the one interrupting the meeting with barking dogs in the background or a ringing cell phone.

If you are called on to speak, don't worry about having to find the microphone button. You can press and hold the spacebar to mute and unmute your mic.

Turn on Gallery View

Zoom's default layout is called "Active Speaker" and shows the person speaking in the main window, while the rest of the participants are shown above it.
Gallery View lets you see everyone in the meeting all at once. To turn that option on click the tab that says "Gallery View" in the top right corner.

• Click the "Gallery View" option in the top-right corner of the screen.
• Click the arrow on the left/right side to move between pages if there are more than 49 participants in a meeting
• Change it back by clicking speaker view in the top right corner

Share your screen

There might be a time in your meeting where you will need to share your screen with all the participants. You'll have the option to share your entire desktop, or just one of the opened windows.

• Click the "Share Screen" option in the taskbar
• Click the red "Stop Share" button to end screen sharing

Touch up your appearance

Nobody wants to be seen not looking their best. Maybe you had a busy day or long night but still have a meeting to attend. The Zoom feature called "Touch up my appearance" basically puts a filter on your video that softens the lens and adds a slight blur to smooth out wrinkles and little imperfections.

• Open the Zoom app on your PC
• Click the gear icon under your profile image
• Select the "Video" option
• Check the box next to "Touch up my appearance"

Raise your hand

Anytime you would like to speak but do not want to interrupt a presenter, you can signal it to the host by virtually raising your hand. The host can then give you the chance to ask a question or speak.

This feature helps prevents multiple people from talking at once, especially in a large meeting.

Step-by-step instructions:

1. Select the "Participants" option from the taskbar
2. Click the "Raise Hand" option at the bottom of the section that shows up
3. Wait for the host or presenter to give you the floor to speak