Use zoom for PowerPoint to bring your presentation to life
If you would like to make your presentations more dynamic and exciting, try using zoom for PowerPoint .
To add a zoom, go to Insert > Zoom .
To summarize the entire presentation on one slide, choose Summary Zoom
To show selected slides only, choose Slide Zoom
To show a single section only, choose Section Zoom
When you create a zoom in PowerPoint, you can jump to and from specific slides, sections, and portions of your presentation in an order you decide while you're presenting.
Note: See the Requirements table below regarding which versions of PowerPoint support the features described in this article.
Summary zoom
A summary zoom is like a landing page where you can see the pieces of your presentation all at once. When you're presenting, you can use the zoom to go from one place in your presentation to another in any order you like. You can get creative, skip ahead, or revisit pieces of your slide show without interrupting the flow of your presentation.
Create a summary zoom
Go to Insert > Zoom .
Select Summary Zoom .
The Insert Summary Zoom dialog box opens.
Select slides you want to include in your summary zoom. These become the first slides of your summary zoom sections . To learn more about using sections in PowerPoint, see Organize your PowerPoint slides into sections .
If you already have sections in your presentation, the first slide of each section is preselected by default. If you don't want to include certain sections in your zoom, deselect them. Then, if you want PowerPoint to get rid of any sections you didn't include in your summary zoom, clear the check box next to Keep unused sections in your presentation . Don't worry—the slides in the sections you're discarding will still be part of your presentation.
Once you've selected all the slides you want to use for your summary zoom, select Insert . Your summary zoom is created, and it appears as a new slide just before the first slide you included in your summary zoom.
Add or remove sections from your summary zoom
Once you've created a summary zoom, you might still want to add or remove sections of your presentation. If you've made changes since first making your summary zoom that you want to capture, you don't have to start from scratch—just update your summary zoom.
Select your zoom, and then select the Format tab on the ribbon.
Select Edit Summary , choose the sections you want to have in your summary zoom, and then select Update .
Note: You won't be able to add or remove sections from your presentation in this view, just from your summary zoom.
A slide zoom can help you make your presentation more dynamic, allowing you to navigate freely between slides in any order you choose without interrupting the flow of your presentation. They're a good option for shorter presentations without lots of sections, but you can use slide zooms for lots of different presentation scenarios.
Slide zooms help you drill down into multiple pieces of information while feeling as though you're staying on the same canvas.
Create a slide zoom
Select Slide Zoom .
The Slide Zoom dialog box opens. Select the slides you want to use in your slide zoom.
Once you've selected all the slides you want to use, select Insert .
An item for each slide you selected in step 3 is added to the slide. Select each item in turn and drag to arrange them on the slide.
Tip: If you want to, you can create a slide zoom quickly by simply selecting the slide you want from the thumbnail pane and dragging it onto the slide you'd like to have your slide zoom on. This way, you can create slide zooms and change them quickly, and arrange them however you like simply by clicking and dragging.
Change the preview image of your slide zoom
Your slide zoom by default will be a preview thumbnail image of the slide, but you can choose a new image from your PC or the web to represent the section or slide you'll be going to.
Select Change Image to choose a new picture from the web or your PC to use instead of the thumbnail.
Choose or search the web for the image you want. When you've selected the image you want, select Insert .
You can also choose various looks for your zooms from Zoom Styles —you can change the border, add visual effects, or pick from any of the border and effect combinations in the gallery.
Section zoom
A section zoom is a link to a section already in your presentation. You can use them to go back to sections you want to really emphasize, or to highlight how certain pieces of your presentation connect. To learn more about using sections in PowerPoint, see Organize your PowerPoint slides into sections .
Create a section zoom
Select Section Zoom .
Select the section you want to use as a section zoom.
Select Insert . Your section zoom will be created.
Tip: If you want to, you can create a section zoom quickly by simply selecting the section name you want in the thumbnail pane and dragging it onto the slide you'd like to have a section zoom on.
Change the preview image of your section zoom
Your section zoom by default will be a preview thumbnail image of the slide, but you can choose a new image from your PC or the web to represent the section or slide you'll be going to.
More zoom options
Zoom for PowerPoint truly lights up when you make it your own. Select the Format tab of the ribbon to get to the Zoom Tools , which you can choose to create just the look and feel you're going for when you present.
Choose to return to the home page or continue through your presentation
If you want to return to the zoom slide after viewing sections or slides in your summary, slide, or section zoom, make sure the Return to Zoom check box is selected. If you want to move on to the next slide after viewing part of your zoom, uncheck it.
(If you're working with a summary zoom or a section zoom, you'll return to the zoom slide by default when you're presenting after going to the section. If you're using a slide zoom, you'll move on to the next slide by default after viewing your slide zoom.)
Make the background of your zoom transparent
Another way you can change the look of your zoom is by choosing to adopt the background of the slide where your zoom lives to make the zoom almost indistinguishable from the main canvas while you present. Select Zoom Background to make your summary, section, or slide zooms blend in to their home slide.
In the Zoom Styles group, select Zoom Background . The zoom will adopt the background of the home slide.
Change the transition options of your zoom
By default, your zooms will use the zoom transition when you present, which is what helps make the zooms feel so lively. However, if you don't want to use the zoom transition, or if you want to change the duration of the transition, you can do so.
In the Zoom Options group, make sure the box next to Zoom Transition is checked if you want to use the zoom transition when presenting your zoom.
If you don't want to use the zoom transition when presenting, uncheck the box next to Zoom Transition .
To change the timing of the zoom transition, use the up and down arrows next to the Duration indicator to change how long the zoom transition lasts.
Requirements
See the following table for details on the minimum version numbers required in PowerPoint to create or play zoom links.
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How-To Geek
How to zoom in and out on part of a powerpoint presentation.
Magnify parts of your presentation by taking advantage of PowerPoint's different zoom features.
Microsoft PowerPoint lets you zoom in and out on a specific part of your PowerPoint slideshow, which can be handy both while editing and for drawing attention to important objects or ideas during the presentation. Here’s how to do it.
Whether you’re in normal view or slideshow view, PowerPoint lets you zoom in and out as the need arises. There are a few ways you can do this, depending on which view you're in.
The first method is by using the zoom bar at the bottom-right of the window (which isn’t available in the slideshow view). This method is convenient as the zoom bar is immediately accessible. To use the zoom bar, click and drag the bar left or right to zoom out or in, respectively. You can also resize the slide to fit your current window by clicking the box to the right of the zoom bar.
Another method is using the “Zoom” tool, found on the “View” tab.
In the “Zoom” window, you can select a zoom percentage from the list of available options or enter a precise percentage into the “Percent” box. Once ready, click “OK,” and your slide will zoom to the selected amount.
Those two methods are great for when you're editing and need to take a closer look at something. But if you’re in the middle of giving your presentation and want to zoom in on a specific part for emphasis, you can do that too.
Select the magnifying glass from the presenter view and then click the part of the slide you want to zoom. Once zoomed in, you can click and drag to move the slide around. When you’re finished, click the magnifying glass again to zoom back out.
One last tip: In both normal and slideshow view, you can hold the Ctrl key while scrolling your mouse wheel to zoom in and out. This also works if you want to resize your slide thumbnails .
That’s all there is to it!
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15 Tips for Engaging Zoom Presentations + Examples
Your next Zoom presentation is a week away. And your mind is racing.
What presentation software should you use?
What if the other attendees can hear your neighbor’s loud music?
Will they find your presentation boring?
Relax and take a deep breath.
You don’t have to figure out the answers to these questions by yourself. This guide will cover everything you need to know about planning and delivering engaging Zoom presentations without stress and anxiety!
After reading this article, you’ll be brimming with confidence and competence on your next Zoom presentation.
Table of contents :
The science behind your Zoom presentation anxiety
- Downloadable Zoom presentation checklist
Part 1: Tips on how to plan and prepare for your Zoom presentation
Part 2: tips during your zoom presentation.
- How to share your Piktochart slide deck on Zoom
- Present with ease on Zoom using Piktochart presentations
Before we get into all the other Zoom presentation tips, perhaps the most important is to deal with your Zoom presentation anxiety. And you’re not alone – anxiety over Zoom presentations is more common than you think .
A 2021 paper on why students have difficulties learning during synchronous presentations over Zoom found that 80 percent of the students polled experienced anxiety and trouble focusing during their virtual classes. But what causes this worry? In a peer-reviewed article, Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab , highlighted the results of their research and cited four primary reasons behind Zoom fatigue, stress, and anxiety:
- Your brain interprets excessive amounts of close-up eye contact during video chats as an “intense situation.”
- Like looking at the mirror, you become more critical of yourself as you see yourself on camera.
- Limited movements while you’re chained in your chair and table.
- Video chats require a higher cognitive load than face-to-face presentations.
“You’ve got to make sure that your head is framed within the center of the video. If you want to show someone that you agree with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod or put your thumbs up. That adds cognitive load as you’re using mental calories in order to communicate,” shares Bailenson.
Finally, you have to consider tech troubles and presentation software fiascos, as well as dealing with the pressure of public speaking.
15 Zoom presentation tips and tricks to help you own the room like a pro
Now that you understand why Zoom presentations give you sweaty palms, let’s go through 15 actionable steps to prepare for the slides.
We created a checklist of the Zoom presentation tips so you can cross off each task.
Prefer video learning instead? Watch the video below.
The success of your Zoom presentation is the result of thoughtful planning and preparation.
Get ready for your online class, product webinar, or job interview on Zoom with the following pre-presentation tips:
1. Decide on the scope of your Zoom presentation
Before presenting on Zoom, ask yourself — what one particular idea or insight would you want your audience to learn from you?
“Defining the scope is the most critical step. What are the boundaries, what are the deliverables, what is the topic that you are covering?”, recommends Linda Parry Murphy , CEO of Product Launchers, Inc.
Trying to cover every subject will only make you more nervous.
Remember the Stanford study earlier about too much cognitive load as one of the reasons behind Zoom presentation anxiety?
Limiting the scope of your presentation can significantly reduce your cognitive load while keeping your audience focused on the key points.
2. Plan for the structure of your online presentation
It’s important to master the sequence and structure of your presentation as part of your preparation. Creating a framework guides the meeting participants so they understand what the data means, why it’s important, and what the implications are in this situation.
A solid structure in place also makes it easier to go back to what you’re saying. As a result, you will feel more confident because you can keep track of your talking points with a quick glance at your outline if you lose your train of thought.
Matt Abrahams, a lecturer in Organizational Behavior and author of Speaking Up Without Freaking Out , recommends the following examples of presentation structures that you can use:
- Past-Present-Future – review a process or share a timeline
- Comparison-Contrast – show the benefits of a certain idea, insight, product, or service
- Cause-Effect – explain the rationale behind a decision
- Problem-Solution-Benefit – motivate or convince your audience
- What?-So What?-Now What? – convince people to do a specific action after your presentation
Another simple presentation structure you can work on is to start with an introduction, the meat of your presentation where you can highlight 3 points, and wrap up with the summary and call-to-action.
3. Prepare your presentation visuals
Plenty of research and evidence shows that including images is more effective in getting your message across than written text or oral communications alone.
For instance, a captivating visual is four times more effective in conveying information than words alone. People remember 80 percent of what they see and do, compared to 20 percent through reading and 10 percent through hearing, respectively.
If your goal is to convince your audience during your Zoom presentation, you’ll also be delighted to know that using visuals can help you become more persuasive.
A Wharton School of Business research found that around a third of the audiences they polled felt that presenters who used visuals were more persuasive.
So remember that well-chosen images, even stock photos, can do wonders to augment your slides.
When making visuals for your presentation, use these questions as your guide:
- Is there an icon, illustration, or image that could represent your point in a more meaningful way?
- What types of diagrams , such as a timeline, flowchart, pie chart, arrows, or graphs, will help get your point across to your audience?
- Who are my target audiences? When choosing visuals for my presentation, are there certain cultural taboos or inappropriate humor that I should be aware of?
One more thing – consider using bullet points if you find slides with walls of text. They’ll be easier to digest without taking the focus away from you.
4. Eliminate clutter in your surroundings
Staying in one place with no room to maneuver probably doesn’t spark joy for anyone. KonMari your environment by eliminating clutter on your desk and in the space around you. This means extra keyboards, unused notebooks, pens, food boxes, and books can go.
Eliminating clutter gives your brain the impression that there’s more room for you to move around during your Zoom event.
If the space you’re presenting in makes it difficult to clear off clutter, you could find a plain wall to present against. And if that’s not an option, you can use a clean virtual Zoom background . Keeping your surroundings out of sight means it’s out of mind for you and your audience; one less thing to worry about while presenting.
5. Do a tech prep
Presenting in Zoom while you’re at home or traveling is a technological wonder in itself. But technology can be frustrating at times too.
Spending some time optimizing your Zoom settings by clicking in the toolbar while you’re in a Zoom meeting. Under video settings, you’ll find a few options that can help with the visuals, such as focus assist.
Before your presentation, double-check the following:
- Make sure that your laptop, computer, lighting, headset, webcam, microphone, and internet connection are working. Have backup equipment if possible.
- Familiarize yourself with the Zoom app and other relevant software you’re going to use during the presentation.
- Close unnecessary browsers, applications, or software before the presentation. Turn off your laptop or desktop notifications. The goal is to optimize and speed up the device to have a smooth presentation.
- Prepare a PDF version of your presentation slides and have an extra copy of your presenter notes in case of technical mishaps with your slides. It also makes sense to have a short link to your presentation that you can share with the audience.
- Position your notes in the right spot so you know where to find them while presenting.
- Check Zoom settings and do a quick audio and video check.
6. Rehearse your presentation
After taking care of your surroundings and equipment, the next step is to prepare yourself.
Practicing your Zoom presentation in advance can help boost your confidence. Here are some tips to help you rehearse well for your presentation:
- Screen record yourself. Afterward, check your recorded video for technical issues, your body language, and whether or not your voice is audible or not.
- Practice with a family member or friend who can give feedback on any distracting nonverbal communication habits like too many hand gestures.
- Rehearse in the same room where you’ll be presenting. Use the same lighting, computer setup, and everything.
- Practice speaking to the camera, not your computer screen.
If you’re not used to face-to-face presentations, you could record your presentation and watch it back. I know, I know – it can feel so uncomfortable watching yourself. But a quick analysis will reveal if you use too many hand gestures, that can be distracting, and also if you need to reposition your camera so it shows your upper body while presenting.
The time has come for presentation day! You already know the ins and outs of your presentation, and you’ve practiced your Zoom presentation skills to a T. A couple of checks you can do before you start are:
- Make sure you’re in a quiet area to minimize any potential interruptions.
- Do a test call with a friend to check the internet connection and if you’ll stay connected.
Take note of the following tips and hacks to make your Zoom presentation engaging and anxiety-free during your webinar or talk:
7. Dress the part
Wear clothes that are appropriate for your presentation and audience. It also helps to be more mindful of your accessories and hairstyle. The outfits and accessories you wear during your Zoom meeting will speak volumes about you as a person.
For example, if you’re presenting to your coworkers, wear work clothes. If you’re pitching to a group of angel investors, wearing a tie can help convey that you’re serious and trustworthy. However, this may not be a good idea if you’re presenting to a group that is more open to change and tends to be more relaxed when it comes to conventional standards.
Another benefit of dressing the part is what you wear actually impacts how you think. Wearing formal clothes can improve abstract thinking and give you a broader sense of perspective, which is influential in helping you make better decisions.
8. Ditch the chair
Standing up when presenting in Zoom rather than sitting down helps you become more confident because you’re not hunched down on your chair.
Standing straight with your shoulders back also enables you to breathe easily, making your voice sound more powerful and confident. Finally, it allows you to move more and make explanatory gestures which is a charisma boost.
The more confident you appear in your presentation, the more confident you’re likely to feel.
“When your mind starts to feel more confident and powerful — it starts to see those challenging situations not as threats but as opportunities,” shares Harvard psychologist professor Amy Cuddy.
If you can’t stand up during your presentation, try to sit straight in your chair and back up your camera a little to show your upper body and not just your face.
9. Have a memorable introduction
National best-selling author and founder at Science of People Vanessa Van Edwards specifically recommends opening your presentation with IISSAAQQ to make it more memorable. IISSAAQQ stands for:
- I cebreaker
- I llustration
- S hort story
- S tatistic or surprising fact
- A nalogy or metaphor
Bonus points if you can weave in humor with some background information with a relevant fact. Research found that more popular talks used humor 12.92 times, whereas less popular talks used humor only 3.92 times on average.
You don’t have to force a joke – humor could just be a play on words or surprising the audience with a funny image or meme that contrasts with a statement. Nothing breaks the ice better than laughter.
10. Look your audience in the eye (or rather your webcam)
Looking your audience in the eye is easier during face-to presentations than Zoom presentations. It can be a little tricky during online meetings because we tend to look at people’s faces on the computer screen. Maintain eye contact by looking into your webcam.
“A good idea is to lower the monitor camera a little so that you don’t have to tilt your head back to gaze up at it. If you can’t help looking at someone’s face on the screen instead of their camera, it helps to move the Zoom window to the part of the screen nearest to the camera so at least you’re looking at approximately the right place when you’re looking at their face,” shares Carol Kinsey Goman , Ph.D., executive coach and international keynote speaker.
You could treat the camera as if you were doing a face-to-face presentation. This way, it’ll be a bit simpler to hold eye contact with your audience when you’re not looking at your notes.
11. Think happy thoughts
Find ways to boost your mood before your presentation. Aside from helping you feel good (which in turn can boost your confidence), you’re also likely to smile often with happy thoughts.
When you smile at your audience, they will also likely “mirror” your action and think happy thoughts.
“Mirroring is relevant to our tendency to be empathetic. When I see you smiling, my mirror neurons for smiling fire up, and I get your state of mind right away. I feel it as you feel it. We need that mirroring in order to create a full empathic response to other people,” describes Marco Iacoboni , author of Mirroring People and UCLA professor.
When you’re having a good time and sharing enthusiasm with your audience, they’ll reciprocate through their nonverbal communication. This means fewer folded arms and blank stares and more nodding along and smiles.
12. Delegate the chatbox
Have someone else take care of Zoom chat or manage the waiting room to keep you from being distracted. This person could be the meeting host, a colleague, or someone you trust who has your back during your presentation.
13. Engage your audience
A boring presentation is when there’s no interaction, and you’re being spoken at (hello, university lectures). You’ll be able to tell from everyone’s body language in the meeting room.
Make your presentation a two-way street. Here are some ways to encourage interaction and participation amongst your audience during your Zoom meetings:
- Ask questions. For example, if you’re presenting a team productivity software in Zoom, ask your audience about their top productivity problems at work. You can also use this time as an opportunity to transition to your next presentation slide.
- If you have a small audience, remember each person’s name and address them using their first names.
- Use visuals like illustrations, infographics, or a short video clip in your slide show. Tool recommendation : Use Piktochart Video to transform a long video into short clips.
- Use interactive quizzes while presenting online to change the pace and keep your audience engaged.
14. Talk like a human and avoid too much jargon
Alright, what does talking like a human mean in Zoom presentations?
For a start, avoid talking too much jargon and corporate speak. It makes you more relatable, keep your audience’s attention longer because your points will be easier to understand, and also helps you stand out from other presenters.
Just because you’re presenting in virtual meetings doesn’t mean you’re not talking to people. The only difference is you’re sharing your presentation in front of your camera instead of in front of the lecture room.
Next, improve your visual storytelling skills . Your presentation will be more memorable if you briefly share a story and pair it with visuals. Sign up for our free visual storytelling course . Check out the teaser video below.
15. Slow down
When you’re anxious and not too confident about your Zoom presentation, you’ll tend to speak fast, which in turn will make you more nervous. It’s a vicious cycle.
When presenting in Zoom, be mindful of your pace. Slowing down will not only take the edge off your nerves but also make you appear more confident.
Don’t be scared of pauses or gaps between your statements. Sometimes, you might need a sip of water to hydrate your throat. Other times, you could use the pauses as extra emphasis to drive key points.
Slowing down and changing up your talking pace will help you deliver an impactful presentation because you’ll have more control and be better able to drive the point home.
5 presentation examples and templates
To make presenting your Zoom presentation easy, here are some presentation templates and examples for inspiration.
Quarterly finance update
Have a big meeting coming up where you need to share sales performance and revenue figures? We’ve got you covered with this template.
It’s equipped with graphs where you can easily drop your revenue figures in and share performance with customizable graphs. There are also template slides for customer feedback and if your team is planning to introduce new processes.
Marketing strategy plan template
This marketing strategy slide deck is perfect if you’re onboarding a new client and want to walk them through your research, analysis, and proposed actions.
Group project
Presenting your collaborative project in a Zoom meeting to your classmates? Take the worry off so you can focus on sharing the results by using this science group project template .
Despite the name, you can use it for any kind of school or university project because the structure works for any type of research presentation. The template has slides for:
- Group introduction
- Your hypothesis/basis for the project
- Your theory
- How you tested the theory
- Key takeaways
Buyer persona template
The customer buying journey is always evolving, and you might need to present a case study to leadership or your team on recent findings. Our template makes it simple to share your customer’s story, as the template has slides for:
- The customer profile
- Motivations/goals
- Personal insights
- Responsibilities
Team update in the all-hands meeting
It’s common for managers, or project leads to update the company with their results in company meetings. In these cases, you might just need a single slide to share your progress.
This work breakdown structure template does the job, giving you space to share what your team’s objectives were, what the key results were, who was involved, and what the shipping date was for these goals.
How to share your Piktochart slide deck on Zoom
Step 1 : On the Piktochart editor, click Share to get the link to your presentation.
By default, your presentation is not publicly visible.
Step 2 : Copy and paste the link into your browser bar. Then, click the Show Presentation button. This will launch in fullscreen presentation mode, and now you’re ready to shine.
Step 3: Click Share Screen on your Zoom account and choose the browser with the Piktochart link.
For a visual demonstration, watch the short tutorial below with detailed instructions.
Ready to deliver your presentation?
That’s it for our Zoom presentation tips; now over to you.
You have a brilliant idea or insight to present, and you need to share them with your audience in your next Zoom presentation. It’s high time you nail it with the virtual presentation tips we outlined in this guide.
Take Piktochart for a test drive today and create your next presentation slide minus the stress using our free presentation maker .
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Zoom in and out of presentations with Prezi
I like the ability to escape the rigid structure of the PowerPoint presentation, and this seems like an answer to Edward Tufte’s criticisms of the pedantic linearity of PowerPoint. But the free version has a 100 MB storage limit, is not embeddable, comes watermarked with the Prezi logo, and stores your presentation online. You can purchase premium versions, but I’m not sure many people who already have PowerPoint or Keynote installed will shell out.
Plus, I’m so anal about orchestrating presentations that I don’t like to leave room for any deviation. I know, it’s not very Tufte-ian, but I’ve seen too many people left totally speechless after a software glitch. So while I’d play around with Prezi in class, I think I’ll wait ’til it’s totally stable and more prevalent to use it for a big presentation.
(Via Lifehacker .)
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How to Be Effective and Keep Participants Engaged When Presenting Remotely
Posted august 23, 2021 by eleanor hecks.
Whether you’re doing a more traditional presentation via Zoom , giving a live interview, or conducting a webinar, the experience is very different from doing so in person. There won’t be a physical audience in front of you, and sometimes timing is extremely challenging to sync up — people often try to talk over others during conference calls. What’s more, it can be just as difficult to convey the appropriate emotions and body language, especially when just the top half of you — or sometimes even just your head — is visible.
It makes one wonder: What are some things you can do to prepare for the presentation or conference? Are there any tips you should keep in mind during the live event? What else should you know?
How to prepare your Zoom presentation
The planning phase is one of the most critical, as it’s where you’ll decide your topics, your major discussion beats, and where you’ll elaborate. You may not be using a teleprompter, but you will be creating a loose script. In addition, you’ll need to create the media that will go along with your presentation, which should be error-free, captivating, and on point.
Here are some tips to improve planning and design:
1. Design for everyone
While creating your media — the slides — understand that you are creating for a wide audience who will likely be tuning in from multiple devices and platforms. The media is going to look very different on a large, HD-ready computer monitor than it will on a smartphone or tablet. Design the content, images, and layouts so that they are compatible and friendly for all. Someone browsing on their phone should be able to see precisely the same information as someone on a laptop or computer.
Be sure to test out your presentation on different devices and resolutions. Also, try to remember that too much screen time can cause focus and stimulation problems in both children and adults. Try to limit the total presentation time, so that it’s accommodating for everyone.
2. Tone down the visuals
Yes, every presentation needs captivating visual content to go along with the text and audio. But you don’t want it to take away from the meat of the experience. It’s okay to use maps, charts, graphs, videos, photos, including stock images, GIFs, memes, and more.
Just don’t overdo it on a single slide. Try to keep it relatively confined so your audience doesn’t go into a stimulation overload. If they’re trying to read a ton of text, listen to you speak, and process several images — especially animated ones — things can get really hectic.
3. Get your area ready
On a live stream, everything around you is as much the star of the show as you. Figurines, pictures on the wall, and even clutter will all feature prominently unless you alter the background — which Zoom allows you to do. Be sure to tidy up your space before the event and remove anything from the frame that you don’t want your audience to see.
4. Brighten up the room
Webcams, even UHD cams, tend to work much better in bright conditions. If you haven’t already, open your blinds to let in some natural light. Test out the camera conditions beforehand to see whether it’s too bright, or not enough. If you’re using a laptop, you can move around your home to find the best spot.
Audiences should have a clear view of your face. Most importantly, they should be able to see when you’re speaking and what gestures you’re making.
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5. Test your equipment
You can make a test call to a friend or family member, or just test out the equipment locally, but make sure everything is working. Check your audio and your microphone, be sure the video is clear and bright, check your internet signal and speeds, and ensure all equipment is plugged in and not running on battery power. You should be doing this as close to the conference or event as possible. It doesn’t help if you check out your equipment days in advance and then run into issues the day of.
People do not like to encounter technical errors. For instance, when a page’s load speed increases by just 1-3 seconds, the bounce rate also increases by 32% . A 5-second increase boosts that bounce rate to 90%. So, the longer it takes to set up your presentation and get things moving, the more likely it is that people will tune you out or leave altogether.
6. Rehearse
Practice in front of a mirror, or hop on a call with friends and family and allow them to provide feedback. Never go into a presentation unprepared, especially if you’ve never given one before via Zoom or anywhere.
7. Create a checklist
A checklist is always a good way to review what you need to get done before an event or activity. Professionals use them to avoid costly mistakes , and you should be taking inspiration from that.
Try to remember every small detail or requirement that you need to complete before the presentation. You can even create a multi-tier checklist that deals with before, during, and after the big event.
Hosting the Zoom presentation
So, you’re all ready for the big event? Now, it’s time to make sure everything goes smoothly during your presentation. Here are some helpful tips.
1. Speak plainly
It helps if you write the script or guidelines similar to how you will be presenting, however, you should speak plainly and enunciate as much as possible. Unless the subject matter explicitly calls for it, try to avoid industry or specialized jargon. That will also mitigate how much you need to explain or move off-topic. Furthermore, it ensures your entire audience can follow along, regardless of skill level or expertise.
2. Minimize potential interruptions
You can’t control what happens on the other end of that presentation, but you can certainly control things on your side. Try to mitigate potential distractions as much as possible. Put your phone on silent. Wear headphones so there’s no audio echo or distortion. Close your door or isolate yourself so no one comes in to interrupt. You might also consider turning on Do Not Disturb mode on your computer to pause notifications during the meeting.
3. Keep your materials handy
Two points. First, you want to keep your notes or script handy so that if you get stuck you can continue with little to no pause. Second, those materials should be in a place that has you facing the camera. If you have a document up on a monitor, for example, you don’t want to be glancing sideways all the time to read what’s next.
Situate the screen and camera so they’re at the same angle, so you’re constantly looking at the camera while you read. It’s a lot easier to do with a laptop because the camera is usually in the top bezel. With a desktop, you might have to move your display(s) around, or reposition your webcam. If you’re using a phone or tablet, you should have those propped up on a stand or tripod to keep them stable.
4. Dress to impress
Dress just as you would if you were paying a visit to the office or making a presentation in public. Put on the whole outfit too, and not just the shirt, because you never know what’s going to happen. If the camera falls, you don’t want it to expose that you’re just wearing underpants along with that collared shirt.
5. Have your media ready
It’s a simple tip, but a crucial one. Have your slides and other media ready to go and queued up for sharing. Don’t wait until the presentation to get things in order. You should be able to swap to the necessary screen, share the content, and go. Have all hyperlinks, videos, and interactive elements prepared beforehand, as well.
6. Pause for effect and questions
After each major beat, pause for a moment to allow your audience to ask questions, raise concerns, or ask for you to reiterate the message. This is much more difficult when you’re dealing with a large audience, but most Zoom meetings are relatively intimate with a local group.
7. Pay attention to chat
Alongside every Zoom event or meeting, there is a live chat window that can sometimes be forgotten if you’re busy focusing on your presentation. Don’t neglect it. Your audience may be asking more questions, providing valuable feedback, or even pointing out something wrong — like your mic cutting out.
8. Record your presentation
Make sure you’re recording the presentation to reference later, not just for everyone else but for yourself too. It allows you to rewatch the feed to review questions and commentary, and also to perceive your mannerisms and dynamic content. You can use that information to build a better presentation later.
9. Leverage the Zoom tools
There’s a host of tools you can use with Zoom , including screen sharing, annotations, live polling, and much more. Incorporate them into your presentation whenever possible, and don’t forget they exist! They can help make the experience more fun, engaging, and memorable.
10. Keep it interesting
It’s easy when you’re talking, especially about dull subjects, to lose your audience. One way to keep them invested and interested is to add the occasional “boom” moment. It’s an impactful instant, like a shocking statistic, joke, or alarming point, that ties together everything you’ve been talking about up until that moment.
The follow-up
After the presentation is completed, don’t make the mistake of thinking your work is all done. The first thing to do is make the media and the recording of the presentation available so that anyone who wants to can go back and review the experience.
Next, you need channels in place to collect feedback. People will have follow-up questions and concerns, and they may want you to clarify certain points. Also, you’ll want people to share their experiences. What did they enjoy? What did they dislike? How could you have improved as a presenter? Don’t be too scared to ask these questions, as they’ll help improve your Zoom presentation skills.
Finally, consider wrapping it all up with a nice bow by giving away free content or materials to those who attended the event, like a free e-book written by you or your colleagues, or a promo code to your storefront.
With these ideas in mind, you’ll be ready to knock your next Zoom presentation or remote meeting out of the park!
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CAUSE AN EFFECT
Blog on science communication
How to give a professional presentation in Zoom
You have a presentation scheduled in Zoom – a common sight since 2020. But as it’s a pretty new phenomenon, you’ve probably seen it done badly more often than not (we certainly have..). How can you avoid that from happening to you? Don’t worry: The Online Scientist is here to help.
Use our tips and tricks to avoid the most common blunders when presenting in Zoom, and to enhance the success of your online talk! If you get comfortable with it, you will probably enjoy presenting online just as much as you do in an auditorium full of people.
Design a clear and beautiful presentation
Just like with any other presentation, the success of a Zoom presentation starts with the preparation. This is so basic and important that we’ve written an entire book on the subject: Cause an Effect . Were you planning to design slide after slide with bullet points that you’re going to read out loud? If so, we can almost guarantee that your audience sneaks off to check Twitter or the news. Use the tips from our book to come up with a good story and nice slides without too much text. Or: present without PowerPoint slides if you can.
Prevent accidental faulty clicks
No, this is not about your audience clicking away from your presentation. This is something that could happen to the best of presenters: instead of clicking the right arrow for the next slide, you click on the END button that takes you to the end of your slide deck. Awkward! A solution for this is to use a remote control for your presentation, even when you’re at home (we like this remote control by Logitech for example). It ensures that you don’t have to rely on your keyboard, and that gives peace of mind when you’re telling your story.
Be up to date and unavailable
Make sure that you’re up to speed technically: install the latest Zoom update in time for your presentation. But then, close all the tabs of your browser and other software running on your computer: an e-mail pop-up or calendar notification is not very professional…
Same goes for your phone: put it in flight mode, so you can’t be distracted nor disturbed during your talk. Finally, take care not to select the time of your Zoom meeting for any deliveries!
Put your phone on silent, and close all other programs.
Check your Zoom settings
Take your time to explore all the settings in Zoom – maybe you’ll run into something useful (and no.. we’re not talking about that feature that gives you blue lips, new eyebrows or a Santa hat). Useful functionalities are background noise reduction, lighting effects for your camera, or whether or not you want to enter any Zoom call muted and with camera turned off to see if it all works. By the way, it might be good to do this periodically, because new and handy features are added all the time.
Test your audio and video
This is also quite basic: your presentation will be better if people can see and hear you properly. Thankfully, you can test your audio and video quite easily on the Zoom website: https://www.zoom.us/test
Make sure bad audio or video can’t distract from your story
Are the webcam, speaker and microphone you have in your laptop of sufficient quality? Maybe it’s possible to increase the quality of your audio or video by using an external webcam and/or microphone. If you have online meetings more regularly, a headset, lavalier microphone or even a studio microphone might be an investment to think about. If you’ve heard more than once that you should speak louder during online meetings, then definitely take this into consideration.
Check whether you’re presenting during a meeting or a webinar
If you’re invited to present but don’t organize the meeting itself, it’s good to check the format of the event. Is it a Webinar (during which you have no interaction with the audience besides the chat function) or is it a Meeting (during which the audience can participate actively)?
Furthermore, it’s good to check how the event is set up. Is there a waiting room so that everyone enters the meeting simultaneously, or do people enter whenever they join the session? In the latter case it’s good to have a first slide up that shows information about the meeting. Another question is who will take care of the questions in the chat? Are you doing that yourself? Or do you interact with the meeting host who does it for you?
Which options for interaction are there? Is the chat turned on? Will there be break-out rooms? Does the audience have access to hand raise, reactions, annotations or whiteboard? It would be a waste if you’re counting on a whiteboard, and the setting isn’t turned on.
Change your Zoom screen name
Another thing you can change in the settings. Nobody is logging on to see ‘Karen’s iPad’ speaking! For extra clarity you could add “Speaker” behind your name to make sure people know right from the introduction who you are and that you are the one presenting.
Change your name! Nobody wants to see a presentation by ‘Karen’s iPad’
Arrange proper lighting
Find two lamps, preferably lamps that you can adjust the brightness of, and that provide diffuse light. Put them on either side of your laptop or camera, or, if you only have lamps with direct light, aim them at the wall you’re facing while presenting. This setup will ensure that you are well-lit from two sides, without sharp contrasts or shadows. An easy alternative option is to turn up the brightness of your second screen; this will also light up your face a little (tip if you do this: find a yellowish website or image to show on that screen, so the light will be softer than a bright white Google Search homepage for example).
Put your camera at eye level
As you can see above, it looks odd if you’re looking down at everybody while presenting. It’s not a very flattering angle for your (double) chin, and your background will only be interesting to ceiling fans. If you put your webcam at eye level you look at your audience and not down on them – not just unflattering but also not a nice sensation for the viewers. Even better is the next tip:
Present standing up!
Your energy levels are much higher when you are standing up to present. Consider the opposite: can you imagine doing a live presentation from a chair? It’s not professional nor engaging to watch a slouched speaker. Be inventive: if you don’t have a standing desk, shelves or cupboard, put a crate, stool, block or stack of books on your desk and put your laptop on top of it! But don’t forget the tip about eye level. If you’re not able to present standing up, you can boost the energy level of your talk by using your hands.
Present standing up for a high-energy presentation.
Check your internet connection
You’re trying to wrap up your talk with a closing statement that sweeps everybody off their feet, but….your connection falters. What a waste of momentum! To prevent this, it’s best to connect your computer using a cable instead of WiFi. If this is not an option, free up your connection by making sure your housemates aren’t using Netflix, putting your phone in flight mode, and turning off WiFi-heavy appliances.
Clean up your room!
Any speech can lose some of its luster when there’s a pile of dirty laundry in the background. Our rooms are not spotless – we’re only human – but when we present, we look for flattering angles not just for ourselves but also for the room. We turn the camera towards a wall, where we’ve created a little scene with plants and a colorful painting. An entirely white wall may seem ideal, but we think it’s a bit boring. A featureless wall reminds us of a badly designed dorm room, which is not what you want to associate with the star of the meeting! Nothing wrong with a bit of smoke and mirrors… But:
The ideal background is one that doesn’t distract from your talk.
Do you have pets? Make sure they can’t just come in (or scratch the door for ages trying to get you to open the door). A goldfish might be the only exception to this rule (do trim its nails beforehand).
Pros and cons of virtual backgrounds
If it so happens that you’re presenting from your daughter’s room in front of pink unicorn wallpaper, a virtual background might be something to consider. Zoom has a few backgrounds available, but so does Canva . Or perform a search for copyright-free “Office backgrounds” on Unsplash or Pexels . Do check if the setting doesn’t end up providing a very unnatural perspective; it looks a bit strange if you’re not sitting behind a table, but in front of it:
Don’t pick a tropical island or NASA photo as virtual background – unless you actually are a surfer or astronaut (respectively).
Watch out though: virtual backgrounds have one MAJOR disadvantage. If you’re not sitting in front of a green screen or very uniform background, or if the lighting is insufficient, then it will look very strange if you move your hands. Just look at the video below. If you use your hands as much as we do during a presentation, it’s not really an option without distracting your audience.
Dress to impress (like a professional)
Wear your nicest clothes, it’s as simple as that. We don’t get that many opportunities to show our best side anymore, so it’s most likely a welcome break from the eternal sweatpants/onesie situation. Show off that power-suit, that nice dress, the excellent jacket! It helps to choose clothes that contrast with your background. Go easy on the jewelry though, because dangling earrings, necklaces or a bracelet scraping the desk scan make quite the ruckus (especially if your microphone is also on there).
Share the right window (the most common mistake)
By now, you have probably encountered a presentation during which the speaker made the error of not sharing the PowerPoint Slide Show, but the editing window including the notes. It’s quite sloppy and – worse – distracting. Besides that, it made the slides smaller on screen and therefore harder to read.
How to prevent this? When you go to Zoom and select ‘Share screen’, you see all your open tabs and windows. This is where it often goes wrong: you accidentally select the PowerPoint presentation without it being in presenting mode.
So, make sure you put your presentation in presenting mode FIRST (using F5 or F8 or a similar button). Then go to Zoom and share your screen. If you do it like this, you see three options for PowerPoint (as shown below). There is a subtle difference: one is your editing window, one shows the presentation notes, and one is called PowerPoint Slide Show . This last one is the right one; it shows your presentation in its entirety.
Organize your windows and screens
When you turn on your PowerPoint presentation mode, it automatically maximizes your PowerPoint window to fullscreen. But then you don’t see Zoom anymore, so the chats and participants are hidden and you can’t see what everyone’s doing. This can be very annoying if you’re not prepared for this.
It’s good practice to organize your windows and screens so that they are next to each other (you may have to make the windows smaller for this). Do this right after you start to share your screen, perhaps during the introduction. This allows you to simultaneously see your presentation including notes, the participants’ video (or yourself if you like), and the chat. Now you have a complete overview of all that is important!
Make use of the handy features in PowerPoint and Zoom
Since you can’t use a real laser pointer when presenting online, you could use the laser pointer function in PowerPoint instead. You can even highlight text, or write in your presentation while you’re presenting. Keep in mind though, that if you think you really need a laser pointer to do your presentation, the real problem could be that you have too much text or data crammed on your slides…
Note that highlighting, pointing, and writing in your presentation is also possible in Zoom. If you have shared your screen, you see the “Annotate” function in your view. If you unfold that, you see all kinds of options to draw or write on the screen, or to highlight information. In the example below, you see how you can use stamps to put little hearts in your presentation. And your audience can do this too! It’s a really nice feature to use in interactive exercises (for example: use those heart stamps to vote for a correct answer or favorite design). It’s a great way to keep your audience engaged too.
Interactive presentations are appreciated more!
Plan for low-threshold interaction
Tell your audience at the beginning of your presentation whether you have time for questions at the end. Do you prefer interaction at the end? Remind them during your presentation that they can put their questions in the chat. This puts your audience at ease because they know you will deal with their questions, and also allows you to get going with the questions right away when you’re ready, instead of awkwardly waiting for the first question to pop up.
If you prefer to have more feedback, you can ask the participants to react during the presentation using the available icons (clap, thumbs up, heart, smile, etc). Compared to a live talk there is very little visual feedback to go on otherwise, so this might be good to have, but to be honest it can be distracting too.
Another kind of reaction can be found in the “Participants” menu: f.i. Yes/No replies, hand raise, thumbs up/down, coffee break icons. You can use these for creative moments of interaction to keep your audience attentive (though actual coffee might work better sometimes)
Wrap up with a call to action
What do you want people to do after your presentation? Do you want them to follow you on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram? Do you want them to use a hashtag? Do you have a book, workshop or course you want them to purchase? Whatever it is – let them know!
So, NO slide with that 3D guy with the red question mark (or his confused Clipart colleague – you know who we mean!). It doesn’t add anything for anybody. If you have a round for questions, put your name, social media handles and/or website on screen, so that participants have the time to write it down.
At the end of the day (or presentation), what do you want people to do or remember? End with that!
If you have a presentation that you give more often, and you know from experience that there are more questions than time to answer them, you can give your audience a hand-out PDF afterwards. In the hand-out you can put the most frequently asked questions with answers. It’s also good practice to share a website on which you collect all the tips and resources from the presentation. Announce this at the beginning, so that participants don’t have to take notes. Note: it’s not advisable to share the slides from the presentation, because they were (or shouldn’t be) designed as hand-out, but as a visual support for your spoken words.
Why Zoom is (or can be) so much nicer than a live presentation
If you consider the options, online presentations using Zoom are a really nice development. You have your notes at hand, and you can set it up so that you feel most comfortable and supported. You also have more options for interactivity online, and it also provides a lower threshold for those who are uncomfortable in the spotlight; they can just ask a question in the chat. It allows for people from all over the world to see you speak, and you can do it from the comfort of your own home. We don’t all relish in the attention of being center-stage in a huge auditorium… Although the downside is that the informal drinks afterwards are much better in person.
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The Ultimate Guide to Giving Virtual Presentations on Zoom
Part 1: an introduction to giving virtual presentations on zoom.
PART I Introduction 1 – Cool Zoom Features 2 – Virtual Presentation Do’s 3 – Virtual Presentation Don’ts PART II 4 – Presentation Purpose 5 – Structure & Flow 6 – Slide Design PART III 7 – Connect with the audience 8 – Audience Participation 9 – Sharing Content PART IV 10 – Video & Audio Recordings 11 – Post-production 12 – Your Phone as a Webcam PART V 13 – When Things Go Wrong 14 – How to Ground Yourself PART VI 15 – Advanced Techniques 16 – Zoom Webinars vs Meetings 17 – 23 Essential Settings
There are three things I hate about Zoom…
#1 the super awkward must-click-two-buttons-to-leave-the-meeting debacle.
You say goodbye, search the bottom-right corner of the screen for the red button, click the red button, continue to stare awkwardly at the corner of the screen because the call is still open and you need to click a second red button.
Never fear, this can be turned off. In General Preferences simply uncheck the “Ask me to confirm when I leave a meeting” setting and poof! One-click exits. You’re welcome.
#2 Inviting someone and never knowing what the difference is between these two options: “Copy invite link” and “Copy invitation”.
I can sense you nodding along with me.
Just remember that it’s “invite link” you want 99% of the time vs “invitation”, and you can set an option that copies the link to your clipboard as soon as you start a meeting.
#3 The dropdown to change video settings is part of the “Stop Video” button. What the actual?!
Are you trying to make me screw up my presentation?
I also love Zoom.
Why? Because it works.
A year into our forced isolation, Zoom fatigue has set in. We’re avoiding calls and talking about concepts like Zoom holidays, just to get a break.
But the answer isn’t fewer Zoom calls, it’s better Zoom calls. Almost every Zoom presentation is boring, ugly, terribly structured, poorly executed, and designed to make you fall asleep.
In this guide I’ll show you
- How to create beautiful slides that communicate with clarity and class
- Unknown and awesome features of Zoom that you can use to your advantage
- How to overcome your nerves and survive technical problems
- And how to look like a total pro every time you give a presentation—or run a meeting—on the platform we all love to hate.
Note: for the sake of brevity, unless I’m talking about Zoom-specific functionality, these tips are applicable to any platform that offers meeting and presentation software such as GotoMeeting, Google Meet, Webinar Jam etc.
There are instructional videos throughout the guide to demonstrate the best parts in more depth. You can binge watch the videos on the “Presenting on Zoom” video channel here , or read on for the word and pictures.
If you want to stand out from your peers it’s good to understand the full power of the platform and know the features most people don’t know about.
#1 Set up your own configurable ‘personal meeting room’
It can be really distracting to hear a bunch of people talking over one another when you kick off a meeting. A good solution is to use what’s called a Personal Meeting ID (PID) which gives you control of the Zoom environment right from the start.
Features of your PID include:
- Using the same invite ID and URL whenever you start a meeting, bypassing the need to repeatedly check the settings. Note: because it’s a permanent URL,you should uncheck the “Allow participants to join anytime” setting to prevent randoms dropping in unannounced.
- Placing participants into a “waiting room” which lets them in when you are ready to begin– either individually or all at once.
- Automatically recording your meetings on your computer. Having a video of your presentation is always a good idea so you can re-use your content.
#2 Press the ‘spacebar to temporarily un-mute yourself’
You can help to ensure a quality audio recording by placing everyone on mute by default. And while this feature is more appropriate for meetings vs. presentations, it’s a great thing to know about – and to tell your audience about. It’s easy to use, hold down the spacebar to un-mute yourself and let it go to turn your audio off again. It prevents people from forgetting to re-mute when they walk off to do something else forcing you to listen to their snoring dog or screaming baby.
Even if it doesn’t get used during your presentation (unless it’s a workshop you won’t want people to randomly chime in), many of your audience will thank you for learning this tip.
Note: You may need to enable it in your Zoom Preferences.
#3 Record ‘separate audio files’ for each speaker, host, or panelist in the presentation
If you have a host or a co-presenter there will be content in the session that’s not yours. Having separate audio recordings lets you use only the audio that was from your part of the presentation.
You can enable this in Preferences > Recording.
#4 Enable the ‘non-verbal feedback’ feature to allow audience interactions
Cool zoom feature #4 – enable non-verbal feedback.
To make your presentations interactive you can enable the non-verbal feedback feature. This allows participants to express reactions to your presentation.
This is not to be confused with ‘meeting reaction emojis’ which are temporary reactions that disappear after 5 seconds. To be honest, it’s hard not to be confused when there are two sets of interactions with different names.
Non-verbal feedback is for direct feedback to the speaker or host that others can agree with by clicking the same icon. The result is that the speaker can see how many people are expressing the feedback.
The options for non-verbal feedback are shown in the image below:
An example of how this would be used in a presentation is to ask the speaker to speed up or slow down. This might seem like a weird thing to be told during your talk, and if it’s just one person asking you’d most likely ignore it. But if 50 people are saying to slow down, that’s a pretty good indication that your current presentation style isn’t working for them.
It provides a pretty amazing insight – something I wish I’d had that feedback during an on-stage talk.
You can also use it to ask binary questions to the audience that they can respond yes or no to – a great way to segment the audience so you can tailor your content based on their responses.
Combine this feature with a QTINTA audience participation question for a really engaging experience. You’ll have to watch the video to know what QTINTA means.
#5 Use the Zoom ‘beauty mode’ to soften your appearance
Zoom includes a “Touch up my appearance” filter in the “Preferences > Video” settings, which gives your skin a softer appearance. There’s a slider that lets you control how much it applies the effect. It can look weird if you crank it too much, but having just a little can really help – especially if you’re looking a big bedraggled.
Settings are maintained when you quit so you can expect to look the same way every time.
#6 Use Zoom ‘video filters’ to add a cinematic high-contrast appearance
We’re all familiar with Zoom backgrounds, but a more impressive feature in my mind are the video filters. You can access them via the “Stop Video” dropdown arrow. Yes, there are some silly ones which can be funny when in a meeting, but for presenting stick to the non-silly ones. They can help improve the quality of your on-camera look. I particularly like the first option “Boost” which kicks your contrast up a notch removing any bland washed out lighting, it also removed some warmer tones which I like as it reduces the redness I often have in my skin.
You can see that it increases the contrast but also cuts down on the redness in my face.
Unlike the “Touch up my appearance” feature, your video filter settings are not maintained between sessions, which is a frustrating extra step each time if you found a setting you like.
#7 Encourage attendees to use ‘side-by-side mode’ to view you and your slides
This can be a good setting if you want to make your talk feel more personal. It shows your camera video beside your slides, and viewers can resize the videos as they see fit.
It can be a good idea to point this out as not everyone will know.
E.g. “You should be viewing this presentation in side by side mode so you see me and the slides. If you want to make the slides bigger (or smaller) you can resize them by dragging the slider between my video and the slides.”
#8 Use Zoom ‘annotations’ to mark up your slides live, or a ‘whiteboard’ for a blank canvas
A really cool feature of Zoom is Annotations. This lets you write or draw on top of the screen you are sharing. Once the feature is activated , you can access it from the menu at the top when you are sharing your screen.
This is really helpful when you have a complex slide and you want to focus people’s attention on different areas of the screen as you talk. When presenting live on a stage you can gesture towards a particular area, but it’s not as easy in a virtual presentation which is why it’s handy.
There is also a Whiteboard feature that gives you, well, a whiteboard. This could be useful if you find that you need to dig into a point you’re making in a more detailed way or discover during your talk that you need a different way to explain it.
You might want to take a quick screenshot when you’re done if you happened to get some interesting ideas marked up.
Rock open a whiteboard and sketch a diagram. Having a tablet and pen would be very helpful for this, versus trying to draw with a mouse. It might be wise to use the non-verbal feedback feature to get folks to say “Yes” to a “Let me know if you’re ready to move on” question.
Note, this is a screen sharing feature, so in order to get to the whiteboard, you need to stop sharing your screen, then share once more but choose Whiteboard as the option. Then you’ll have to stop sharing and share your slides again. Make sure you’ve practiced this if you think you’ll be using it.
#9 Use ‘closed captions’ to increase the accessibility of your virtual presentation and video recording
Zoom has transcription features that let you add closed captions to your session. You can do it manually for free, but that means someone will have to type them live, which is a pretty specific skill to have, and requires someone to do it for you.
If you have a paid Zoom account (roughly $20/month) live transcriptions are included. An alternative is to integrate with a platform like Otter.ai, to add closed captions in real time. You can also use Otter for transcribing any other audio or video files you have which makes it a much better value.
There are several reasons why closed captions are a good thing to do.
- No headphones: if an attendee doesn’t have or forgot their headphones and they’re in an environment where they can’t have the volume on, closed captions are a life saver that could be the difference between them staying or leaving.
- Accessibility: Captions allow meetings to be accessible to all. For the deaf, hard of hearing, or non-native speakers, they are an absolute necessity to understand what’s going on.
- Attention and recall: closed captioning can increase the amount of your content that an attendee comprehends and remembers. This is because they are getting it using two senses, and you have to focus more intently when you are reading.
You can check out Otter here to set up live captions.
#10 Use Zoom ‘breakout rooms’ to split workshop participants into groups
Without question, one of the most popular Zoom features is Breakout Rooms. They are exactly as they sound, allowing you to break out attendees into separate rooms. This could be for hosting a multi-track event where there is a speaker in each breakout room, or more commonly it is to allow groups to work together away from the “Main Room” and then come back in to rejoin you as the speaker.
This is a wonderful feature if you are running workshops that require groups to work through some of your worksheets or tasks for example.
There’s a good demo of how to use Zoom breakout rooms here.
#11 Use a Zoom ‘waiting room’ to hold attendees before you let them in at the same time
Nobody shows up at the same time to a presentation, and you don’t always want to start until an acceptable threshold of attendees have arrived. Particularly if the beginning of your talk is fundamental to your big idea.
The waiting room is basically a holding area where attendees are listed as they show up. They get to see a simple welcome screen (annoyingly simple really – I’d much prefer to have the options to have a fully custom slide in there), and you can admit them one by one, or all at once, when you are ready to begin.
It also allows you to block people from entering, although for the most part there’s not much reason to do this when you are presenting to a large audience. Useful if someone becomes disruptive for any reason.
Caution: it’s very easy to forget about the waiting room and have people sitting around unable to get in after you’ve started. I recommend assigning this task to your co-host.
Cool Zoom Feature to Avoid – ‘Present with your PowerPoint or Keynote slides as a virtual background’.
This is an interesting feature that’s worth discussing both for why it’s cool and why it’s uncool.
What it does
Instead of a regular screen share, it takes your slide deck and sets it as the background much like any other Zoom background. As such it places a ‘mini you’ floating on top of the slides in cutout mode which is kinda fun. Kinda.
To access the feature (beta at time of writing) click the “Advanced” tab in the “Share Screen” popup, and select “Slides as Virtual Background”.
This is what it looks like from the attendee’s perspective. And yes, you appear twice on the screen. Once on top of your slides, and again beside them. Silly.
Note: you must download a local copy of your slide deck to your computer as it doesn’t connect to cloud-based slides.
If you have audio and video in your slides, checking the “Share Sound” option at the bottom-left of the share popup should make that transmit to the audience. However, it doesn’t. In fact I couldn’t get any video or audio to play at all.
There’s also a second “Split Video from Slides” option which kinda defeats the purpose. As you can see below, you are back with your regular background in a separate window, and you are only on the screen once.
With the split setting in place, it would be a fair to wonder why you’d use this feature as it looks just the same as the regular view.
There are however, a few key differences.
The major difference is that you don’t need to have your slides in fullscreen mode on your computer. In the screenshot below you’ll see that I’m looking at a Zoom window with my slides inside it. I can now move through my slides while having other windows open such as the chat and participant windows. This is actually pretty great as the audience doesn’t see your layout, they see what they would normally see.
A nice side effect of this setting is the audience won’t see the awkward moment at the start of your talk where your whole screen is visible until you start the slides.
Looking at the main window, you can clean up the view a bit by having attendee video off by un-checking “More > Allow Participants to Start Video” in the Participants panel, and then selecting “Hide non-video participants” from the “…” menu on one of the participant video boxes.
You can take it a step further if you select “Hide self view” from the … on your video thumbnail. This will give you a view of just your slides. As much as the layout annoys me (I’d rather pop the self view out to the side with the chat), it can be important to see yourself to make sure you’re not moving out of frame – particularly if you are speaking standing up.
However, at this point in the beta it’s just not usable enough to be a serious and professional solution because of a few technical failings:
- It’s buggy like most beta features are
- It doesn’t show any animations or slide transitions
- If you are recording the screen, the merge view while fun, is a little unprofessional looking
- Audio and video didn’t work at all for me, despite there being a setting to allow slide audio to work. I think this might be because the videos didn’t play.
- When you start the share it has to process the slides before it starts which causes a delay if you aren’t expecting it.
Overall, it’s a feature with some exciting elements, although to be perfectly honest, the good aspects are nothing to do with the feature itself, but are side effects. I’d prefer to see a new feature that allows you to avoid presenting in fullscreen to allow a much greater degree of presenter screen setup.
The chapter title says it all. Do these things and your virtual presentations will be better. If you don’t, your presentation won’t be better than the last one you did, missing an important opportunity grow your skills as a virtual presenter.
Seriously. Do these things.
#1 Test your slides from the ‘attendee perspective’ using another laptop or tablet
Your slides might look amazing on your retina laptop or 5K monitor, but not all screens are alike, and your super-detailed tiny-text “revolutionary new marketing method” process diagram might look more like a dot-matrix printout to someone with a lesser screen.
Viewing your slides on a smaller or alternative screen isn’t enough. You also need to view them on Zoom on that screen, because virtual presentation software tends to change things you wouldn’t expect.
The golden rule of presentation QA is to run through every slide on the platform you’re going to be delivering on (Zoom, GotoWebinar, etc.) watching out for the things below:
- Any virtual presentation platform will add small visual artifacts to the video stream—they’re imperfect degenerative medium where some quality will be lost in transmission. As a result, your slides will never be quite as sharp as directly viewing your slides.
- If you have audio in your slides, check that the audio levels are balanced and not too loud or quiet. Remember to also test it with headphones on as that’s a common listening scenario for your audience.
- If you have video in your slides it may not come across well when presenting virtually. There’s usually some lag or choppiness that makes it skip frames. This can make the audio look out of sync.
- If you have multiple slides with audio, set them at the exact same level so people don’t get deafened. A common problem in that scenario is that the attendees will turn down their audio if you blast them, and then the next time you have audio it’s too quiet to hear properly. Your presentation software will have a setting for the audio or video volume. The best way to make sure they are the same is to move your slides to be one after the other (you can reorder them afterwards), then step through them to gauge the balance.
- If you have complex animations or transitions, they may render more slowly or less smoothly when piped through Zoom and a wifi connection. If they don’t work the way you want them to, consider simplifying them (fewer animations) or removing them altogether – replacing them with static slides. You can still use a technique like the Progressive Reveal to create a pseudo animation effect.
To prevent an audio feedback loop when testing your audio and video slides, have your partner/friend/colleague be on the viewer/attendee side in another room.
Whatever your specific case is, there’s a good chance that on the viewer’s side it’s not as perfect. So double, triple, and quadruple check.
I guess you should also single check. Why does nobody say that?
“You should single check your work to make sure it’s awesome.”
The best way to QA is to record some video of it from the viewer’s perspective. Have your QA buddy record their screen (with audio). If you don’t have anyone to help you, just set up your extra laptop (hopefully you have one somewhere) in another room and record the screen from there. If you’re using a Mac, Quicktime is an easy way to get a recording. On a PC, you can use PowerPoint to do a screen recording (more on that later), or find some free screen recording software for a test.
If you do have a helper, you can also reverse roles where they present and you observe on their machine. This will give you the truest sense of what might need to be fixed. It’ll no doubt be quite hilarious to watch, unless they turn out to be better at it than you.
#2 Remove all hashtags from your slides
My typical advice regarding hashtags is to make sure you update them to use the current event’s hashtag if you’ve used this slide deck before. If you don’t it looks awful to the audience and makes them feel like you didn’t put in the effort to make a presentation just for them.
However, the main goal of this entire guide —primarily covered in chapters 10 and 11— is to ensure you create a professional-grade recording of your virtual presentation that you can repurpose over and over for multiple virtual events.
If you leave event hashtags in your slides they will be forever embedded in your recording, rendering it useless for re-use. And trust me, once you’ve created a high-resolution awesomely edited recording of your talk, you will feel amazing about it.
It may feel counterintuitive, but you should delete all the hashtags from your slides.
If the event mentions it and asks you why or asks you to include them, just politely let them know your rationale. I’ve found that many virtual events have interactive chat in the interface they use which tends to dilute the number of people hanging out on a Twitter hashtag anyway.
#3 Have a wired Internet connection
If attendees have a poor connection they can always leave and download the video and slides later on.
But the presenter is the one person who absolutely must have a great Internet connection, and the best way to do that is to have directly wired Ethernet.
A side benefit of this is that it will help you end the endless debate over who’s connection is causing the problem. I’m sure you’ve been in a meeting where someone suggests your Internet is slow, and you say yours is fine, and they say that theirs has been working brilliantly all week.
Just say “Yeah, but I have a hardwired Ethernet connection.” End of conversation.
If you don’t have a wired connection, work on getting one set up, and in the meantime tell your eager tech wannabe roommates NOT to reset the ******* wifi while you’re presenting.
#4 Have a backup audio input device
“Is this mic on? Can you hear me at the back?”
Sometimes your mic will stop working, and it’s one of the most uncomfortable panic-ridden things that can happen to a speaker (see When Things Go Wrong ). It could be a dead battery issue, or your headphone cable could be old and the internal wiring failed.
Whatever the cause, you need to have a way to deal with the problem.
If you are using a posh external mic that stops working, ditching it for the internal microphone of your laptop will likely degrade the audio quality significantly, but it’s better than nothing.
In a later chapter I do a deep dive comparison video about microphone options for virtual presenting .
Probably the simplest backup is another set of headphones. The classic Apple headphones are only $25 now. Make sure you get the ones with the 3.5mm jack, and not the lightning cable, (especially if you’re not an Apple person) as that’s only useful for your iPhone. And if you aren’t an Apple person, there are a million other options on Amazon.
However, be warned that these headphones are rife with audio problems such as noisy cables (you’ll need to sit still which sucks), and they should only be used on Zoom. When using them with any other audio recording software they have a horrific background hiss that destroys your audio, but Zoom’s noise removal feature (on by default) actually does a fantastic job of removing it, making them a viable last minute solution. Hopefully, you’ll never need to use them.
#5 Have a slide dedicated to encouraging non-verbal feedback
The non-verbal feedback feature of Zoom is a great way to make your talk more dynamic. But you don’t want to try and explain it in the middle of your talk as it’ll break the flow and screw up the fluidity of your recording.
Instead, consider which aspects of the feature you want to use, and have a slide at the start of your presentation (slide 2 for example) that focuses on this. You can quickly walk people through how it works, and tell them how you’ll be using it throughout.
#6 Have everyone muted by default
It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. You don’t want attendees, whether it’s 5 or 500, to be chatting before or during your presentation. So this one is simple. Make sure you mute everyone. If you’re using your Personal Meeting ID you might have this already set up.
You can mute everyone in the Participants sidebar, or as a global default setting in the web portal administration settings “Settings > Schedule Meeting > Mute all participants when they join a meeting”.
#7 Wear confidence clothes
Just because you can present in your PJs it doesn’t mean you should present in your PJs. Treat it like an on-stage talk and get ready in your mojo outfit. You’ll gain confidence and look more professional.
Something I like to do when I’m on the road presenting, is lay out my clothes the night before. It helps me get in the right mindset and also saves time the next day when you might be stressing out.
#8 Close all of your other software to prevent your machine slowing down
Take a look at your computer right now and count A) how many different apps are running, and B) how many tabs you have open in your browser.
Here’s a screenshot of mine, for reference.
Tabs open in Chrome? 39. Apps open? 20
You need to be concerned about two things, the amount of memory and processing power being hogged by all the apps you have open, and the number of ways you might receive a notification during your talk.
For PCs running Windows 10, there’s a built-in function to silence notifications when presenting . But if you’re a Mac user the settings for this are horrendous (slightly better in Big Sur). Fortunately there’s a free app called Muzzle that silences all of your notifications as soon as you share your screen.
#9 Have two pre-made slides ready for Q&A at the end of your virtual presentation
It’s common for your host to ask questions that the audience has submitted in the chat window (or the Q&A window for Zoom Webinars) at the end of your session. The best way to utilize this opportunity—if you’re still in control of the screen—is to have two slides prepared.
The first slide should simply have Q&A written on it, really big.
The second slide should be a promo slide with a special offer you have.
I like to leave up the Q&A slide until the questions start, then flip it to the promo slide so it can sit there for the next 5-10 minutes. It’s a great way to have it visible for a long period of time without actually having to be salesy in your presentation.
It’s fairly common that an event organizer will ask you if you have something to promote, but if they don’t, ask them if it’s okay that you use a slide at the end like this.
#10 Build a background set to make your virtual presentations look professional
If you spend a lot of time on Zoom, instead of using a Zoom background, start thinking about how you can built a bit of a set where you do your presentations. Not only will it look more professional, but it will fill you with confidence and make you feel like you’re in presentation mode when you’re there.
I’m fortunate to have a space for my office/studio, and I’ve seen and felt the difference a well-designed environment makes when I show up to work. It took me months to get it right, so don’t think you have to suddenly have something perfect. Just chip away at it over time, turning on your webcam every day and giving a little thought as to how you can make the space more special. Small shelves with plants or books can work great, and Pinterest is definitely your friend for this type of thing.
Many folks won’t have a dedicated workspace to claim as your “stage”, but I’m pretty sure your significant other won’t complain if you make your home that little bit nicer.
Speaking of “stages”, I actually built a stage in my studio—almost burning down the house in the process —but that’s a story for another time. Like I said, it took months to get to this stage. I keep saying stage.
#11 Reboot your computer the night before your virtual presentation
Restarting your computer can help speed it up a bit, especially if you haven’t done it in ages. Any little performance advantage you can get is valuable for a live presentation. It will help clear out any processes that are stuck or hogging the CPU.
However, it’s best not to do this right before your talk, as you risk it doing some weird software updates that take hours to complete.
#12 Do a test Zoom meeting to check your camera angles and lighting
As Springsteen said in Dancing in the Dark—”I check my look in the mirror, I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face.”—you should always check how you look on camera before the presentation starts. Adjust the angle of the camera for your most flattering look and the best view of your background, which of course is a well-decorated wall, and not a zoom background of a beach or mountaintop.
Make sure to turn on the lights you’ll be using to light your lovely face, wick away any sweat using blotting wipes, and apply some simple makeup to remove shiny reflections from your head. More details on those techniques in the lighting section .
Here’s the smart part, record your test meeting and play it back to make sure there are no weird things in the background, it’s often easier to analyze a recording as opposed to your webcam view.
#13 Double-check your audio for background noise
At the same time as your camera check, watch your test recording and listen very carefully for any noise in the background. You’ll be surprised at how oblivious you can be to background noise when you’re busy and/or nervous.
Sounds to watch out for:
- Laundry sounds: Depending on where your washer/dryer are it may not be an issue, but the low hum can travel far. Start a Zoom recording, making sure to use which ever audio (mic) input you plan on using, go turn on your washer or dryer or dishwasher, then come back and replay the recording to see if it’s discernible. Crank the volume to make sure. There is NOTHING worse than doing a badass presentation then finding out the recording is ruined by a persistent hum in the background, or the sound of someone’s hoody zip clattering round and round in the dryer.
- Tube lights: If you have any tube lights where you are recording, or even in a nearby room, turn them off. They can be soooo noisy. Then put in the effort to replace them with silent LED tube bulbs when you have time. It does require some rewiring, but it’s not that hard—I did it recently and I made sure to choose bulbs with the same colour temperature as the lights I’ll be using to light me up in the video–more on that in the A/V chapter .
- Ceiling fans: Another subtle and repetitive sound. Turn ’em off unless the resulting heat will make you sweat to the point of scaring the audience.
- Heating: Not all heating is noisy, but many houses in North America use what’s called forced air. It’s noisy. A low hum, yes, but it’s an audio killer.
- Noisy clothes: Your clothes can cause bad scratching sounds—even if you use a shotgun microphone that’s not attached to your clothes—which is an audio killer. What happens is that any loose clothing rubs against you when you gesticulate with your arms. Tighter clothes like a t-shirt are the solution to this. I go into more depth including a comparison video in What to do When Noisy Clothes Ruin Your Audio .
- Noisy shoes: if you’re wearing any kind of heels, they will cause irritating sounds if you shuffle your feet (while presenting standing up, which you should do). The simplest solution is to take them off and present in your socks (or bare feet).
- Analog watches: I’m kidding.
And make sure everyone in the house knows not to bother you while you’re presenting. If you are in a room with a door, hang a sign on it with the time of your event, and say not to disturb you until you take the sign off the door.
Guess what? Not every thing you can do as a virtual presenter is something you should be doing—I’m talking about you, speaker who likes to take a bathroom break while mic’d up, two minutes before the session starts.
Similarly, not every feature of Zoom has a positive impact on the audience or speaker experience. In this short and not-so-sweet chapter I’ll give you some tips about things to avoid so your talks go more smoothly.
#1 Don’t use a free Zoom account for your presentation
If you’re running the show yourself this is an important one. The free Zoom plan allows up to 100 attendees which is great, and more than enough for a small event, however there is also a 40-minute time limit, which would be very embarrassing if you didn’t know that and all of a sudden everyone gets kicked out of your virtual event.
#2 Try to avoid saying “Can you hear me?”
This is a classic intro statement that nervous presenters ask, but it makes you sound unprofessional. Instead, make a subtle change to how you position it, like this:
“Thanks {host name}, let’s get started, and let us know in the chat window if you have any issues hearing my audio.”
#3 Don’t use your laptop’s microphone if your webcam is sitting on an external monitor
When you do this, the laptop will be off to one side and your audio will be really quiet and sound like you’re in a different room.
#4 Don’t use stock photos in your slides
Just as you shouldn’t use a stock photo as the header background on your website, you shouldn’t use them in your presentations. To illustrate my point, it’s way too common for software companies to think it’s cool to use an overhead shot of a laptop and a coffee cup. It’s actually hilarious how prevalent it is. I recommend entering the URL of any image you’re considering using into tineye.com which will tell you how many times it’s been used.
If you absolutely have to use one, try hard to find one that’s not so widely used. Unsplash.com is a good resource for free photography that’s typically got less of a stock feel to it.
But all in all, the best way to avoid using stock photos is to develop an original content mindset (in chapter 6) .
#5 Don’t use a Zoom background. You heard me.
Zoom backgrounds can be fun in meetings, but when you’re presenting it can look unprofessional and can be really distracting. It can also make some of your head/hair disappear and speaking for myself, I need all the hair I can get.
#6 Don’t record the call without permission
This is a big no-no on certain types of call. For a presentation you can make a statement that it’s being recorded, as this is always helpful information for attendees to know (no permission needed) but if it’s a meeting with a client, customer, or coworker, you should be explicit that you are recording and why: “If it’s okay with you I’d like to record the call so I don’t miss any of the details.” This is important when you are a guest in an interview too. Asking for permission will add a level of trust and respect in the eyes of who you are asking – and in the very rare occasion that they say no, be graceful and say okay no worries. Then follow up with,”I may be taking notes throughout so bare with me if I’m scribbling”.
Also be aware, that if you are recording the session, everyone on the other side will see a blinking “recording” signal in the top-left corner, so there’s no creeping allowed.
To recap, remember these rules when it comes to recordings:
- Meetings: Ask for permission, and don’t record if your guest is uncomfortable with it.
- Presentations: Let people know that it’s being recorded and that you will be making it available after. Ideally after some post-production enhancements in chapter 11.
#7 Don’t be the host if you might leave early
This is a nightmare as the other participants are suddenly without a meeting and they might not know why. Then they have to re-coordinate to set up a new meeting, which is always a chore and often involves Slack or text messages or even worse, emails.
Intro Introduction to Virtual Presentations on Zoom
Chapter 1 18 Cool Zoom Features You Should Know About
Chapter 2 12 Things You Should Do in Your Zoom Presentation
Chapter 3 8 Things You Shouldn’t Do in Your Zoom Presentation
Chapter 4 Defining Your Presentation’s Purpose
Chapter 5 How to Define Your Talk’s Structure, Story, & Flow
Chapter 6 41 Slide Design Tips for Virtual Presentations
Chapter 7 6 Ways to Make Eye Contact With an Invisible Audience
Chapter 8 How to do Audience Participation in a Virtual Presentation
Chapter 9 How to Share Content during a Zoom Presentation
Chapter 10 How to Create a Stunning Video and Audio Recording
Chapter 11 Using Post-Production to Add Value to Your Zoom Recording
Chapter 12 How to Use Your Phone as a Beautiful Webcam
Chapter 13 What to Do When Things go Wrong in Your Presentation
Chapter 14 How to Ground Yourself and Get Ready to Present
Chapter 15 Advanced & Creative Zoom Presentation Techniques
Chapter 16 The Difference Between Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars
Chapter 17 23 Zoom Settings to Enable or Disable for a Smooth Presentation
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11 Essential Tips for Presenting on Zoom
January 24, 2022 - Dom Barnard
A boss unwittingly disguised as a potato during Zoom meetings, cries of “you’re on mute!” and guest appearances by kids and pets, are among the hilarious anecdotes attached to this hugely popular app.
However, it becomes serious when you need to make a good impression in a virtual meeting, job interview or presentation.
Zoom became a massively popular communications tool for business, education and social meetings during the Pandemic. In 2020, there were 485 million Zoom downloads , which is 30 times more than the year before!
Of course, some of the top Zoom presentations tips apply equally well to in-person or online delivery. Such as establishing your end goals, preparing a flowing framework and strong content, then practising your speech more than once. However, there are particular advantages and disadvantages to Zoom, to get the right results for presenting online.
These Zoom presentation tips will help grow your competence, confidence and success.
1. Put some trousers on!
One of the great things about Zoom presentations is there is a degree of informality and comfort.
You can dress just your top half smartly, have a hot beverage just off-screen, and do your best public speaking in familiar surroundings.
One of the worst things about Zoom presentations is …there is a degree of informality and comfort!
You can find yourself easily distracted, lacking in focus and slower in your responses.
The best way to present well on Zoom – when the stakes are high – is to create a wholly business-like environment and attitude. Use a space in your home or field location that’s as bland and clinical as possible, with no potential noise disturbance. Dress smartly from head to toe to create the best mindset.
Site your technology in front of you and imagine it’s a lectern and a set of multi-media tools in a meeting room or lecture theatre.
2. Use the superpower of data
While you’re using technology to communicate or collaborate, it’s common sense to optimise ways to enhance your presentations.
As part of your extensive preparation for important Zoom meetings, consider what documents, images and graphics to share, to add credibility and professionalism to your pitch. Or, simply to hold the attention of a Zoom audience from start to finish.
Familiarise yourself with the Share Screen option on Zoom, and the best ways of displaying videos during a Zoom call, including advanced share methods for online presentations.
There are good Zoom share screen tips here, including how to add a video to presentations on Zoom.
Zoom presentations with visual content are 43% more persuasive . Also, 90% of the information we process comes from visual input. So your Zoom presentation materials could be what gets you that job, funding or agreement.
3. Non-verbal communications tips for Zoom
Don’t assume that online presentations release you from many of the body language pitfalls and best practices. The opposite is true, as you need to focus on non-verbal cues even more.
If you deliver your Zoom presentation in a rigid, static and clinical way, you are missing out on some of the best ways to be successful in communications.
People respond to people. Effective communication requires warmth, authenticity and establishing a strong personal connection with your audience. Being robotic when presenting online won’t help you to succeed.
If this is an intense online meeting, then showing empathy can also increase the engagement and openness you achieve.
How do you communicate non-verbally on Zoom?
Without going over the top, be purposeful and slightly exaggerated in your body language. Sit straight and lean subtly towards the screen. Never away from it and certainly no slumping, crossed arms or chin/elbow leaning!
Smile, nod and keep strong eye contact, including showing your attention passing from person to person across a split-screen. Use hand gestures and show subtle movement in your upper body to add emphasis to key points.
4. Verbal communications skills
Zoom presentations also make it too easy to slip into a monotone voice or race through a presentation. You may even find the process of talking to technology – not live people – causes you to ramble, or get lost in your ad-libs or Q&A responses.
Make sure you articulate clearly, add emphasis when needed, and generally modify your tone regularly but logically.
Don’t be afraid to leave small pauses to drive a point home, or to take a deep breath while you construct your next point. If you look directly at the screen and hold eye contact, this ‘white space’ is perfectly acceptable.
5. Is everyone listening?
One of the most important presentation skills, in general, is reading the room. Is your potential boss or buyer looking bored? Are the panel of decision-makers getting confused? In contentious presentations, being able to spot your biggest dissenter from their non-verbal communication can help you shift your focus to winning them over.
It’s challenging to gain that sort of body language intel from online meetings. So, the best Zoom presentations compensate for that.
It can be as simple as adding more direct questions to your content and literally pausing regularly to ask your audience about queries or concerns. Make your questions open-ended, not a yes or no response.
“Let’s take a minute. What else do you need to know about that part of my presentation?”
Also, keep Zoom presentations succinct, flowing and animated. Your audience will drift away subconsciously if your delivery is pedestrian or you talk for too long without involving them.
Remember, attention spans are even shorter on technology!
Practice your video presentation and get feedback on your performance with VirtualSpeech .
6. Opening Zoom presentations with pizazz
No, this doesn’t refer to grabbing your audience’s attention with a juggling trick or wearing your most colourful or glamourous finery.
How you start a Zoom presentation sets the tone. If you instantly engage their interest with a compelling opening, the attention and engagement last.
This should primarily be 100% clarity on the purpose of your presentation and the desired outcome. As well as establishing your credibility and methods to achieve the end goal.
Vague introductions and slowly revealing your key points drains your time and your audience’s attention.
What makes a good opening for Zoom presentations?
7. Icebreakers
You can’t shake their hand, but you can issue a quick, warm greeting and a short, relevant fact about yourself that helps them to warm to you.
8. Storytelling techniques
These work for a myriad of business communication tasks. Give a short (that word again) anecdote or illustration, to give context to your Zoom presentation. That could be about you, your product or the outcome you are requesting, for example.
9. Meaningful quotes in presentations
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw.
Good quotes can work!
10. High impact fact
Another great opening for Zoom presentations is a little known fact or ‘behind the scenes’ secret that grabs attention. Did you know, one-third of adults still sleep with a ‘comforter’ like a soft toy or blanket? (Not relevant to many presentations but it’s a memorable statistic that caught OUR attention.)
Wake your audience up with something they want to remember – and share with others – and they will be alert and ready to listen.
11. End Zoom presentations correctly
One last piece of advice on Zoom presentations. Don’t get so relieved when you get to the end, that you forget your call to action.
All communication should include an invitation of some kind, in clear language. What would you like your audience to do, now your Zoom time is over? Tell them that and thank them for your attention, with one last warm smile.
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How to zoom in on PowerPoint slides (3 different techniques)
- PowerPoint Tutorials
- Shortcuts & Hacks
- December 27, 2017
How do you zoom in on something in PowerPoint without PowerPoint first centering in on your slide?
This was a great question we got from subscriber Derek (thanks Derek!).
And it’s not so intuitive…
For example, let’s say you want to zoom in on a specific icon or two to edit them, like in the picture below. How do you do it without scrolling around, driving yourself crazy?
In this tutorial, you’ll learn 3 different ways to zoom in PowerPoint, plus a few sneaky places you might never have thought of zooming in PowerPoint before.
Looking for the NEW Zoom Transition?
If you want to learn all about the brand new Zoom Transition in PowerPoint that was added in 2016, see our other guide here .
The problem with the standard PowerPoint zoom
The problem with the standard PowerPoint zoom, is that PowerPoint automatically goes to the center of your slide as you zoom in.
The center zoom is great if the object that you want to edit is in the center of your slide, but if it’s not, that means you have to use the scroll bars to find what you are looking for.
The problem with the scroll bars is that they are hard to control, often jumping you over to the next slide as you try to find the object that you want to edit.
So instead of making your life easier (which is what they were designed to do), they make it harder.
3 Ways to Zoom in on an Object
There are three different ways you can zoom in on a PowerPoint slide:
- The View tab Zoom command (zoom dialog box)
- The Zoom slider at the bottom of the screen
- The CTRL + mouse spin wheel shortcut (my personal favorite because it’s universal, as you’ll see in a second)
If you are looking for the new zoom transition, you can learn more about what that is on the Microsoft blog here .
Pro Tip: Use the ‘Fit to Window’ tools
After zooming in on something in PowerPoint, you can quickly refit your PowerPoint window in one of two ways:
- ‘Fit slide to current window’ in the lower right-hand corner your screen
- ‘Fit to Window’ in the View tab
Zoom in on a Picture in PowerPoint
To zoom in a on a specific picture (or object) in PowerPoint, all you need to do is first select the object before you zoom. Once you select an object, any of the 3 zoom methods described above will zoom you specifically in on the object:
- The zoom dialog box
- The zoom slider
- Using CTRL plus your mouse spin wheel
This zoom trick works on anything that you can select in PowerPoint, including zooming in on a table, zooming in on a chart, zooming in on a text box, etc.
Note: If you are trying to zoom in on a picture to show a specific part of it, you can also just crop your picture down to the desired piece.
To learn all about how to crop pictures in PowerPoint, read our step-by-step guide here .
If you have multiple objects that you want to zoom into and edit in PowerPoint, the fastest way to do that is to:
- Select and zoom in on your first object
- Edit or format your first object
- Hit Fit Slide to Current Window
- Select and zoom in on your second object
- Edit or format your second object
If you have more than two objects, you can continue zooming in and out of your slide in this way to make all of your adjustments.
PowerPoint Thumbnail Zoom
Besides zooming in on a slide while editing it, you can also use the CTRL + mouse spin wheel shortcut to zoom in on the thumbnail images of your PowerPoint slides on the left.
Zooming in on the thumbnail images allows you to control how much of your presentation you see, and how much slide editing space you give yourself on the right.
Zooming in allows you to get a big thumbnail image of each of the preceding and following slides, while zooming out gives you an idea of how many slides are in your presentation.
Slide Sorter View Zoom
Another place you can zoom in PowerPoint to see the overall flow of your presentation, is Slide Sorter View. To open the Slide Sorter View, simply click the slide Sorter command at the bottom of your screen.
All three zoom methods work in the Slide Sorter View:
Zooming in and out of the Slide Sorter View is useful when you want to see the overall flow of your slides within your presentation at varying levels of detail.
Slide Show View zoom
Two other places you can zoom in PowerPoint are the Slide Show Mode (F5) and Presenter View (SHIFT + F5) of your presentation. To see these PowerPoint shortcuts in action, check out the video below.
Start Slide Show PowerPoint Shortcuts
There are four keyboard shortcuts for starting slide show in PowerPoint:
Once you are in one of the presentation views of your slides, you can zoom in or zoom out by either using the CTRL + mouse spin wheel shortcut (if you have a mouse), or you can use the keyboard shortcuts listed below.
- Zooming in allows you to focus on a specific section of your slide (focusing your audience’s attention on that section).
- Zooming out allows you to see all the slides in your presentation as thumbnails.
This is often an easier way to navigate the slides in your presentation if someone wants to go back and see something, rather than trying to remember where it was in your presentation.
Knowing how to properly zoom in and out of the objects you want to edit in PowerPoint will save you a ton of time.
The key to remember is that PowerPoint will use the object you have selected as the focal point of your zoom.
If you enjoyed this tutorial and want to learn more about our other PowerPoint tutorials and free resources, visit us here .
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Screen sharing a PowerPoint presentation
There are three methods you can use to screen share a PowerPoint presentation in a Zoom meeting. If you have dual monitors, you can share a slide show while viewing the presenter's notes on another monitor. If you have a single monitor, you can also start the slide show in a window so you have access to other meeting features while sharing your presentation.
If you have other participants presenting portions of the PowerPoint, you can give them slide control in Zoom, so that they can control the slideshow on their end, without needing to ask you to move the slides forward. Additionally, PowerPoint slides can be shared as a Virtual Background for a more immersive sharing experience.
This article covers:
Dual monitors with slide show and presenter's views
Single-monitor setup with slide show view in a window, single-monitor setup with slide show in full screen.
Follow these steps if you are using multiple monitors and want to present your PowerPoint in one monitor, while viewing the presenter's notes in another monitor.
- Open the PowerPoint file you want to present.
- Start or join a Zoom meeting.
- Select your primary monitor then click Share . If you are not sure which monitor is your primary, select the one that PowerPoint opens in.
- Switch back to Powerpoint and click the Slide Show tab.
Follow these steps if you have a single monitor and want to share your PowerPoint presentation in slide show view, but have it contained in a window rather than in full screen. This is useful if you need to access meeting features, such as in-meeting chat or managing participants, while sharing your PowerPoint presentation.
- Click the Slide Show tab and then select Set Up Slide Show .
- Under Show type , select Browsed by an individual (window) and then click OK .
- In Zoom, start or join a meeting .
- Select the PowerPoint window and then click Share .
Note : Be sure you select the PowerPoint window, not the entire screen. Sharing the PowerPoint window only will allow you to use other features without interrupting the view of the presentation.
- Select your monitor then click Share .
- Presentation Design
2 Simple Ways to Zoom In and Out on PowerPoint
- By: Amy Boone
Last night my family was hanging out in our living room. We like to pile on our huge sectional because even if we are not actively engaged in conversation, at least we are all together. At one point, my husband looked up and asked, “hey—what is everyone doing on their phones?” One daughter was playing a game on her phone, the other was watching Instagram reels, my husband was deleting junk email, and, well, I was watching YouTube videos of advanced PowerPoint tricks . I know—totally nerdy. But I love learning how to use presentation technology to the fullest.
So, courtesy of my couch surf session, I want to share a couple tips on how to easily create a more dynamic presentation slide deck. Presentations with movement are more engaging for your audience. And our eyes are naturally drawn to new or moving things . So here are two ways to zoom in or out of pictures or graphics using morph transitions or the zoom function. I’ll be using PowerPoint templates so you can easily follow along.
Using Morph Transitions
The morph transition in PowerPoint is simple to use. It quickly breaks up the linear feel of a slide deck. And you can easily add zoom motion to presentations you’ve already created using the following process.
I’ll use the PowerPoint template called “nature ecology education photo presentation” as an example so that you can find the same temple and practice along with me. For my zoom motion, I chose slide 5 in the template which has a 5-step circular process graphic. Say I want to cover each of these 5 steps in more detail and zoom into each one of them as I do.
Here’s how:
1. Start by duplicating the slide you want to zoom into. Since I want to zoom in 5 times, I’ll duplicate it 5 times, as shown below. It is crucial that you are working from a duplicated slide because that is what PowerPoint uses to create the morph effect.
Now I have a couple of choices to make. Do I want to stay at the zoomed-out level and simply move from step 1 to step 2? If so, I’ll follow the steps above, just adjusting the step that is featured large in the center of the screen each time. My slide sorter menu will look something like this.
Using the Zoom Feature
The Morph transition works best if you want to show different parts of the same image. The Zoom feature works best if you have different sections you want to jump to. With the Zoom feature, you are actually creating one landing/overview slide that has live links to other slides in your deck. For this example, I’m going to use the PowerPoint template called “movie night posters.” Say you want to talk about these three movie posters, but instead of simply clicking through a regular slide deck, you want to zoom in on each poster as you talk about it.
2. Next, I’m going to select my Insert menu and click on Zoom .
4. Now I have a landing slide with links to my 3 movie posters. From here, I can arrange my posters however I like. I’ll put them in a line in the order I’ll address them in during my presentation, like this:
When you create a landing slide with live links, you need to tell PowerPoint what to do when you are done with a slide. If you don’t do anything it will just move to the next slide in the deck. But, I can select the Zoom menu and click in the box that says Return to Zoom . That means it will jump back to my landing page when I’m done with each section/slide, as shown below. Just make sure to check this box for each slide that you are zooming in to.
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Home PowerPoint Templates Zoom
Zoom Templates for PowerPoint and Google Slides
The Zoom PowerPoint Templates are predesigned and ready-to-use pictorial designs that depict the zoom-in effect of your presentation content to your audiences. It is available in a variety of layouts and sizes. These templates are adaptable and can be used in various industries and organizations, and you can download and modify any of these templates to suit your needs.
Our Zoom PPT Templates are professionally designed and are made up of PowerPoint shapes, icons, colors, and other essential elements that make them visually appealing. You can use Zoom PowerPoint Templates to help you create engaging presentations that effectively communicate with your audiences.
Featured Templates
Zoom Footprint Path PowerPoint Timeline
4-Item Zoom In Diagram PowerPoint Template
Zig Zag Process Flow Zoom Template for PowerPoint
Animated Business Navigational Zoom PowerPoint Template
Latest templates.
Animated All Into One Circle PowerPoint Template
Animated 6-Item Cycle Diagram PowerPoint Template
5-Phase Animated Roadmap Concept PowerPoint Template
Research Cards PowerPoint Template with Zoom Animation
Ocean Floor PowerPoint Template
Editable El Salvador Map PowerPoint Template
Animated 3D Square Connected Block PowerPoint Templates
Navigational Business PowerPoint Timeline
Gear Zoom PowerPoint Timeline
3D Model Segmented Core PowerPoint Templates
Animated Navigational PowerPoint Template
Magnifier Glass Shape for PowerPoint
A Zoom Template is an informative template that gives your audience a close-up view of your presentation contents. The idea of zooming began in filmmaking as a technique to take a close-up shot of the scene. This technique helps focus on an important part of the scene.
It is used to depict cogent points and help your audience to understand them. You can use any of these templates for informal or formal presentations. They help save time, energy, and resources. Using these templates makes your presentation visually appealing and communicates efficiently to your audience without hassle.
Browse through our collection of Zoom Powerpoint Templates to select the one suitable for your next presentation. Also, our Zoom PowerPoint Templates are Mac and Windows-supported. You can also run them on Keynotes, Office365, and Google Slides. You can edit the templates’ placeholder content, color, fonts, and font size. It makes the slides personal, and your audience will pay attention.
What is the purpose of the Zoom PowerPoint Template?
Zoom PowerPoint Templates are used to return to sections of your presentation that you want to emphasize or to highlight how different parts of your presentation connect. It is significant because it depicts essential points and allows your audience to understand them quickly at a glance.
What Powerpoint Format Is Best For Zoom?
When giving a presentation, the best slide size for your PowerPoint is 16:9 or a widescreen layout. By default, PowerPoint presentations display content in a widescreen layout. On an iPad and other mobile devices, you can use the 4:3 format.
What should a Zoom PowerPoint Template include?
These templates should include the title of the presentation as well as the presenter’s title, organization, and department. The final slide should include contact information such as an address, phone number, website, email, and social media links.
Importantly, create a strong presentation by keeping your points simple and using examples. On the other hand, our Zoom PowerPoint Presentation Templates are designed to accommodate all necessary and required contents. These templates also include placeholder content that you can change to suit your needs.
How Can You Make A Zoom Slide?
You must follow the following Do-It-Yourself procedures to create a Zoom Slide:
- Click on insert.
- Scroll to Zoom and right-click.
- Open the Slide Zoom dialog box that appears.
- Choose which slides to use in your slide zoom.
- After you’ve chosen your preferred layout, click insert. Your slide zoom has been created.
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COMMENTS
Click outside of the object or text to zoom back out and continue on your path. Adding zoom animation. Add animations to highlight specific areas, zoom in on a detail, or zoom back out to give an overall picture of the topic or subtopic. You can use zoom with objects, text, and any area on your presentation you want to highlight. To access ...
If you would like to make your presentations more dynamic and exciting, try using zoom for PowerPoint . To add a zoom, go to Insert > Zoom. To summarize the entire presentation on one slide, choose Summary Zoom. To show selected slides only, choose Slide Zoom. To show a single section only, choose Section Zoom.
Select the magnifying glass from the presenter view and then click the part of the slide you want to zoom. Once zoomed in, you can click and drag to move the slide around. When you're finished, click the magnifying glass again to zoom back out. One last tip: In both normal and slideshow view, you can hold the Ctrl key while scrolling your ...
Roughly speaking—and by that I mean super specific—the Ultimate Guide to Giving Virtual Presentations on Zoom contains six thematic parts, seventeen chapters, 29,584 words, eighty four precision-crafted interface screenshots to show you how to do cool things, high-production instructional videos full of fun, insights, marvellous techniques to marvel at, and did I mention that it's twenty ...
Step 3: Share your screen on Zoom. From your Zoom meeting window, click on "Share Screen" and select the window with the Presenter view of your presentation. That's it! You'll now be able to look at the presenter notes on your screen while your audience views the slide open in your Presenter view window.
First, you can introduce a question in the beginning or middle of your presentation and answer it in a funny, surprising way at the end. Second, you can end a story you started but stopped in the beginning or middle of the presentation. Some really good people to draw inspiration from are stand-up comedians.
Make sure that your laptop, computer, lighting, headset, webcam, microphone, and internet connection are working. Have backup equipment if possible. Familiarize yourself with the Zoom app and other relevant software you're going to use during the presentation. Close unnecessary browsers, applications, or software before the presentation.
Welcome to Prezi, the presentation software that uses motion, zoom, and spatial relationships to bring your ideas to life and make you a great presenter. Products. Videos. Presentations. Infographics. ... stand out, and capture imaginations Unlimited presentations. 100+ templates. 1M+ assets. The most engaging presentations happen on Prezi ...
Prezi is a presentation maker (still in beta) that avoids the standard linear slideshow model. Instead, you can zoom in and out of one big presentation, hopping between ideas however you want. Here's an example of Prezi in action. I like the ability to escape the rigid structure of the PowerPoint presentation, and this seems like an answer to ...
6. Pause for effect and questions. After each major beat, pause for a moment to allow your audience to ask questions, raise concerns, or ask for you to reiterate the message. This is much more difficult when you're dealing with a large audience, but most Zoom meetings are relatively intimate with a local group. 7.
Enhance your Canva presentations by zooming in and out! Discover how to do this effectively in this video tutorial.Using Canva for your business needs is an ...
2. Use Zoom to present. Now that the windows have been separated, you can easily use Zoom to present the slideshow window. While in a meeting, click on the 'Share Screen' button and select the browser window with Google Slides on top. Finally, hit 'Share' to start the screen-sharing session.
Note: it's not advisable to share the slides from the presentation, because they were (or shouldn't be) designed as hand-out, but as a visual support for your spoken words. Why Zoom is (or can be) so much nicer than a live presentation . If you consider the options, online presentations using Zoom are a really nice development.
Kinda. To access the feature (beta at time of writing) click the "Advanced" tab in the "Share Screen" popup, and select "Slides as Virtual Background". This is what it looks like from the attendee's perspective. And yes, you appear twice on the screen. Once on top of your slides, and again beside them.
However, there are particular advantages and disadvantages to Zoom, to get the right results for presenting online. These Zoom presentation tips will help grow your competence, confidence and success. 1. Put some trousers on! One of the great things about Zoom presentations is there is a degree of informality and comfort.
ALT + SHIFT + F5. Once you are in one of the presentation views of your slides, you can zoom in or zoom out by either using the CTRL + mouse spin wheel shortcut (if you have a mouse), or you can use the keyboard shortcuts listed below. Zoom in (Slide Show Mode) CTRL + =. Zoom out (Slide Show Mode) CTRL + -.
Switch back to Powerpoint and click the Slide Show tab. Begin the presentation by selecting the Play from Start or Play from Current Slide options. PowerPoint will display the slide show in a window. In Zoom, start or join a meeting. Click Share Screen in the meeting controls. Select the PowerPoint window and then click Share.
This is an edited version of a workshop I delivered to my club (Capitol Speakers) on effective online presentations in ZOOM. To conduct similar workshops, re...
You need high-quality business presentation software to take your slides to the next level. Some of the best presentation software include Visme, Haiku Deck, Prezi, Microsoft Powerpoint, Canva and Google Slides. In this comparison guide, we'll analyze each of these tools and many more to understand what the difference is between them so you ...
2. Select your first duplicated slide (the one you want to zoom into). Then, expand the image and put the item you want featured in the center of the screen. Here, we are featuring step 1, so I have adjusted the image so that step 1 is large and centered on the screen. 3.
The Zoom PowerPoint Templates are predesigned and ready-to-use pictorial designs that depict the zoom-in effect of your presentation content to your audiences. It is available in a variety of layouts and sizes. These templates are adaptable and can be used in various industries and organizations, and you can download and modify any of these ...
Responsive cushioning provides a springy ride for any run. Experience lighter-weight energy return in this latest version with a combination of Zoom Air units and React foam. Plus, the redesigned midfoot and upper provides an improved, super comfortable fit. Shown: Light Iron Ore/Flat Pewter/Mica Green/Black. Style: FN7498-012.
Custom copilot is pre-populated with information from the file/folder selection. The copilot has a default folder name, branding, description, sources you've selected, and other fields already. You can keep these fields and parameters as-is, or easily update them. Customize the identity with a name change. Customize the grounding knowledge.