How to Use Zoom: A Starter Guide for Beginners and Tips & Tricks for Professionals

How to Use Zoom

What is Zoom

Zoom is a wireless collaboration service for video conferencing, webinars, and group chats. The platform allows you to communicate via video and/or audio communication, like Google Meet but with some extra features. Zoom is now becoming more than just video chat – a platform for a new kind of marketing – Zoom Marketing.

Zoom service can be used both on a personal computer and on a smartphone using the official mobile app. That makes it a perfect solution to make work-life easier.

During a videoconference, not only can you talk but also write chat messages, exchange files, turn on screen demonstration and leave notes on it using the built-in tools.

Conference calls and webinars in Zoom

With Zoom, you can hold private online conferences that can’t be accessed by unauthorized users. Only users who have been given a special link will be able to access the private group video call. Once all invited users have entered the private video conference, the creator can “lock” it so that no one else can join it.

Zoom is currently one of the best applications for online video conferencing. It is quite difficult to find an analog that works stably and allows video conferencing with 100 participants.

Using the Pro, Business, and Enterprise plans, you can take advantage of the webinars option. Set up webinars to broadcast to up to 10,000 viewers at a time. Screens, video, and audio can be shared; chat sessions can be held between viewers and panelists, and webinars can be held on a pre-recorded or public basis.

Hotkeys

If you want to master Zoom, remember some useful keyboard shortcuts. You can mute/enable the sound just by holding down the space bar. But apart from that, there are many other hotkeys. Here are some keyboard shortcuts for Windows and macOS.

  • Enable / disable video: Alt + V or Command + Shift + V
  • Enable / disable screen sharing: Alt + S or Command + Shift + S
  • Take a screenshot: Alt + Shift + T or Command + T
  • Enable / disable local video recording: Alt + R or Command + Shift + R
  • Read the name of the active speaker: Ctrl + 2 or Command + 2

Virtual Background 

You can participate in a video conference from anywhere there is internet access. However, if the place where you are is not tidy or you simply do not want to show it, it can be masked. To do this, Zoom has a feature that adds a virtual backdrop. There are several types of Zoom backgrounds available to the user. In addition to existing backdrops, it is possible to create and add your own. To use this option go to the settings section and select the “Virtual Background” tab.

Share screen

Screen sharing is one of Zoom’s best features, and you should take advantage of it. Although many organizations use it for remote assistance, some users share the screen and watch videos and movies together.

So to use it just start a meeting and click on “Share Screen” at the bottom. You can then turn on the whole screen or just the active window, you can also turn on the computer sound for a better experience.

Meeting recording

Many users wonder how to record a Zoom meeting. This is a very convenient feature for sharing a meeting with other people.

When registering, choose whether to use the local or cloud option. The first option means that the video file is stored locally on your computer or in other storage, such as a flash drive or an external hard drive. In the cloud, which is reserved for those who use a paid rate, Zoom stores the video in its cloud storage. This is handy for streaming video. 

There is an interesting hint that can be used, with the help of an online screen recorder, like the screen capture feature in Windows 10, you can stream your conference or webinar for free. It’s not the only option you’ve got, you can also try a recording tool or another screen recorder.

Charts annotations

If your project at the conference includes consideration of visual materials you can share your images with other participants. The conference organizer can provide all attendees with annotation information or turn it off. To take advantage of this feature you need to go to the Zoom service on the web in the “Account Management” section, then go to the settings and select the “Conferences” tab. For the participants of the conference, who decided to work with the image together with the other participants, it is necessary to select the “View Options” section in the toolbar and go to “Annotations.”

Charts annotations

Gallery View

With the Zoom gallery view, you can see more meeting participants on your screen simultaneously. It allows to see up to 49 participants at the same time and to scroll to all other Zoom participants by arrow or swipe. 

Snap Camera

Snap Camera is the desktop version of Snapchat, where you can apply many cosmetic Snapchat filters. Integrating Snap Camera with Zoom is a lot of fun, especially when you have a group call with friends. To use it, all you have to do is download the Snap Camera app for Windows or macOS and then click the image using any of the lenses available there. After that, just open Zoom and go to Settings.

Zoom App Marketplace

Zoom users can access Slack chats or Dropbox documents directly in the Zoom conference window without switching to other windows. It is enough to select the desired service by clicking on the Zapps button at the bottom of the screen. All Zoom users will have access to Zapps, regardless of their data plan. There are plenty of different third-party apps you can use that make service abilities almost unlimited.

Zoom Audio Transcript

No need to rely on your memory or notes to recall information discussed in meetings. With a Zoom meeting transcription, you don’t have to worry about missing something important. 

You can enable the Audio transcript option in the settings of your Zoom account. Once enabled, a transcript automatically will be generated for each new meeting you schedule.

Waiting room

If you initiate a call you have the option of sending different participants to the waiting room. As a result, participants can call you at once together or in the order you prefer. With this approach, you will optimize the interaction with the conference participants and stop constant calls. You also have the option of setting the screen when you observe participants in the waiting room. Thus, by sending participants to the waiting room, you can get rid of empty conversations and spend your time more efficiently during the conference.

Conclusion

By using the features you find above, you will greatly simplify your communication in the Zoom platform, and you will have the opportunity to create a favorable basis for your business development or to improve your relationships with your colleagues at work and friends. We hope this article has helped you understand how to use Zoom a little bit better.