Mute Host Show Screen Gallery View Speaker View
The “new words” in our vocabulary are really easy…and it’s fun!!!!
As more and more activities are held remotely, Zoom has become a very popular way to communicate. Here are some tips that might help take the fear away:
- Participants can join a Zoom call at no cost – but you need to put the free Zoom app on your computer or smart phone (go to https://zoom.us). Each participant can hear and can see (and be seen by) others.
- Free accounts are available for hosting meetings (time is limited to about 40 minutes if there’s more than one participant). Up to 100 participants can join in for the short time period. A paid subscription is needed for hosting calls longer than 40 minutes or for more than 100 participants at a time.
- Participants can (and usually should) mute their audio to avoid distracting background noise … dogs barking, phones ringing, babies crying, etc. Click the microphone button on the lower left corner to mute/unmute.
- Participants can turn off their video … useful if you’re participating in your pajamas. You can also change the background on your video feed … useful if your house is a mess, or you want to show a historic background, or if you want to disguise the fact that you’re actually at the beach.
- You can also enhance your look by turning on the Beauty Filter: click the up arrow next to Start Video. Click Video Settings, and under My Video, check the box for Touch Up My Appearance … useful if you don’t like how you look on a video.
- You can share your screen … automatic for the Host, who can also grant this privilege to participants… useful if you want to show a document or picture or PowerPoint.
- You have the option of Speaker View (if you just want to see the person who’s speaking) or Gallery View (if you want to see each person on the call … up to 49 people). Click the button in the upper right corner to choose.
- Any host can record the meeting to his/her computer, or to the computer or the Cloud for paid subscribers. Click the Record button at the bottom of the screen.
These tips may sound like a commercial or endorsement … they aren’t. They are just a way to help take away the fear of using this very helpful technology during Covid shutdowns.