10 tips to have productive Zoom work meetings while working from home

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Office closed, travel restricted, people work from home, and video conferencing has become a ritual in our lives, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

With coronavirus wreaking havoc across the world, Zoom has become a wildly popular and essential tool for almost everyone who wants to keep in touch with their friends/colleagues and continue their daily workflows with minimal disturbance.

Apart from business meetings, the Zoom app is being used in various places including schools to conduct classes, experts to conduct their webinars, and more. Have you ever wondered, what makes the Zoom app so popular? No, it’s only its simple and light interface, but also numerous functionality in the free version. 

If you are planning to Zoom pretty much heavily in the foreseeable future, these 10 tips and tricks below will help you to use the app better:

1) Change your background

This cool feature allows you to virtually transport yourself to space or UFO’s or anywhere else by customising background during Zoom meetings. Notably, you can also upload an image of anything you want as well.

How to enable: Settings -> Virtual background and select/upload image of your choice

2) Mute and unmute with the spacebar

Too much of cross-talks and background noises? Well, mute yourself in Zoom, and when you want to talk briefly simply hold the space bar to enable mic and speak. Simple!

3) Turn on beauty filter

Zoom app has a native option (instant filter) to enhance your look by softening your skin tone and smooths out any blemishes! Sounds familiar? Yes, it’s the same beautify mode we see on smartphones these days. 

How to enable: Settings -> Video -> Tick “Touch up my appearence”

4) Record the meeting on computer

Do you want to keep a copy of your meeting for future reference? Fortunately, Zoom’s built-in recording feature allows you to record on mobile (paid app) and laptop/desktop (free and paid).

How to enable: Settings -> Recording -> Toggle on. 

Note: When you are conducting the Zoom meeting, click the record icon on the bottom toolbar. 

5) Activate dual monitors

If you have two monitors by any chance, you must try this! The dual-monitor display feature allows the video layout and screen share content to be placed on two separate monitors/screens. Check out here on how to enable the dual monitor’s feature. 

6) Share your screen

Screen sharing is one of the best features Zoom has and does better than any other video conferencing platform. Through this option, you can either share your entire screen or just a part of it. You can enable screen sharing by clicking the ‘Share screen’ icon on the bottom toolbar. 

7) Connect to Google Calendar

This Zoom for Google Calendar add-on enables you to seamlessly schedule, join, and manage meetings directly from Google Calendar. After installing the add-on, you can use it on Google Calendar desktop or on the mobile app. You can also schedule for another user with scheduling privilege. Check out the procedure here.

8) Gallery view

By turning on the gallery view, you see/monitor up to 49 meeting participants at once on the same page, instead of just the person speaking. To enable it, click the “Gallery view” tab on the top right corner during the Zoom meeting. If you wish to switch it back, you can tap again on the ‘”Speaker view” in the same place. 

9) Audio Transcript

This option automatically transcribes the audio of a meeting or webinar that you record. However, this option is available only for paid users who have opted for cloud recording. 

How to enable: Zoom Record Settings -> Toggle on “Cloud Recording”. Now click on “Advanced cloud recording settings” -> tick the “Audio transcript” checkbox.   

10) Waiting Room

By default, Zoom has turned on a couple of privacy-related settings including the ‘Waiting Room’ after strangers and hackers showed up in meetings without any authorized access on many instances. This feature allows you to admit participants one by one. However, there are options to turn it off as well. 

How to disable: Settings -> In Meeting (Advanced) > Waiting room -> Toggle off

Main image credits: Ink Drop/Shutterstock

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