video calls are not something new. But many had no need for them. The coronavirus pandemic has made this technological tool become a fundamental pillar of the daily routine of millions of people. Talk with work colleagues or clients, take distance classes from teachers to students or simply to contact family and friends. He has even starred in movies and series in the last year. And among the most popular video calling solutions, an expensive winner has been Zoom . So here are some tips for Zoom to help you get the most out of it. Whether you initiate the meetings or if you are a participant.
Zoom has achieved great popularity as a video calling tool thanks to its ease of use and that you can use it from any device. He even managed to unseat the veteran Skype or the also long-lived Google Meet . Only Microsoft Teams has managed to keep up with him at a certain distance and with the help of its integration in Office . All in all, Zoom has more than 300 million daily users and is the preferred tool for countries such as the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Russia or Germany.
But let's get to the important thing. Let's say you are already a user of Zoom . Either on your PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet. You may use it directly from the web browser. Here are some Zoom tricks to make your daily virtual meetings more bearable.
Precautions before entering a Zoom meeting
The camera and microphone are essentials for a Zoom video call. But an oversight can turn a boring meeting into a viral video that will be seen by thousands of people on social networks. Everyone has seen the “I'm not a cat” video and even Zoom had to post a tutorial to avoid things like that. Let's see what tricks for Zoom will save you from going viral.
To avoid scares or inconveniences, it is best to enter a meeting with the microphone turned off. We will activate it when we need it. In the Audio settings of the Zoom app for Windows and macOS you can activate the option Mute microphone when joining a meeting or similar.
It is convenient to do the same with the camera. It is not going to be that you are not yet ready to go on screen. From Settings> Video you must activate the option Disable my video when joining a meeting .
Funds and filters for your meetings
Let's go to the tips for Zoom that can improve or worsen your meetings, depending on the context. The filters. They are a lot of fun in conversation with friends but a disaster if you talk to your boss or a client. If you want to use the filters , click the up arrow next to the icon Stop video and select the option Select video filter . The first time you may have to download them by clicking on Studio Effects .
To deactivate the filters you will have to go to Settings> Background and filters and, in the section Video filters , choose None. You can make this change before a meeting from Settings or during it from the up arrow next to Stop video , by clicking on Select video filter> None .
There are third-party filters that work separately. Instead of choosing the filter from Zoom, you select a virtual camera with the name of that filter app. You choose the filter in that same application.
Filters are for fun gatherings with friends and family. But the funds are good for everything. From Settings> Background and filters> Virtual backgrounds you can activate the backgrounds so that you can appear alone and, behind, an image or video. Zoom offers some but you can add your own images. You can also choose to blur the background or just not use any background. And if you use green screen, tell Zoom to make the background look more professional.
Don't forget you have a meeting with this Zoom trick
If you spend the day in virtual meetings, this trick for Zoom won't do you much good. But if meetings are occasional throughout the day, you don't want to be late for them. Even if it only consists of open the app and enter the meeting .
Zoom can alert you before a meeting to give you time to prepare and be ready in front of the camera when everyone starts the meeting. In principle, in the desktop version of Zoom this option is activated. In Settings> General you will see “Remind me 5 minutes before my next meetings” activated. You can change those 5 minutes for 10 or 15 minutes.
Obviously, to receive the reminder you must have the Zoom app open, even if it is in the background .
These Zoom tricks they will allow you to get more out of it using only the keyboard
Among the tricks for Zoom that will make your day more bearable are the keyboard shortcuts +. Thanks to them you can activate functions or perform actions by pressing a few keys instead of moving through the Zoom menus and buttons. These are the keyboard shortcuts that you will use the most. And they will save you from any problem or misunderstanding.
Quick invitations to a meeting: ALT + i or CMD + i Deactivate and activate your microphone: ALT + A or CMD + Shift + A Deactivate and activate your camera: ALT + V or CMD + Shift + V Mute everyone: ALT + M or CMD + Control + M Record meetings: ALT + R or CMD + Shift + R Pause and resume a recording: ALT + P or CMD + Shift + P Screen sharing: ALT + Shift + S or CMD + Shift + S Pause and resume screen sharing: ALT + T or CMD + Shift + T
Schedule recurring meetings
There are Zoom meetings that happen once. Others, on the other hand, are frequent and recurrent . That is, the typical Monday meeting to organize the week's work or the Friday meeting to see if everything went well. Or, in virtual classes, daily or weekly classes. In short, you can create a meeting that will repeat itself every so often so that you don't have to create it from scratch over and over again . One of the tricks for Zoom that will save you time.
To do this you will have to be the one who creates the meetings. From the desktop app itself you can activate Recurring meeting after clicking on the icon Schedule . After creating that meeting, the calendar you have chosen will open, for example Google Calendar . There you can configure the repetition frequency of the Zoom meeting. If you prefer not to use an external calendar, you can configure recurring meetings from the Zoom website.
