Do you wanna look better, sound better and just overall have a better Zoom experience?
Well, in today's video, I'm gonna show you seven settings that you should tweak or at the very least review so that you can get the very best out of Zoom.
Hello everyone, it's Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress.
And we're gonna be spending our time right here in these Zoom settings.
How to check for Zoom updates
Now, when you open up your desktop settings, just in case you see something that is different in your settings, what I want you to do is come up here to your profile picture, and I wanna show you how to check for updates.
Now, if it's a major update, Zoom will probably prompt you anyhow, but just in case you don't see one of these settings in your Zoom account, you wanna come up here hit your profile picture and select Check for Updates.
Make sure that you're on the latest release.
Okay, next up let's hit that gear icon
Upload a profile picture to Zoom
And jump into tip number one and this one has to do with looking good, especially when we are off camera.
You don't know how many times people have asked Scott, how do I get my profile picture within my Zoom account?
Well, all you need to do is come down here to profile.
It's pretty easy to upload or change an existing picture.
Now, the reason why I think this comes in handy is that whenever your video is off this profile picture will appear and it just looks that much more professional.
Especially when you are joining a meeting such as when you are waiting in the waiting room and it makes it a lot easier for the other host and other people to see who you are, in things like the chat window and the participant list as well.
So I would highly recommend that you upload your best profile picture, but let's stick with looking good.
Touch up your appearance in Zoom
And we're gonna come back here to our video.
And Zoom has recently added a few new things that we can do to adjust the quality of our video.
The first one here has to do with touch up my appearance.
Now this isn't exactly brand new, it's just that they've given us a few more options.
This used to be just a checkbox on and off, but you can see now we have a slider here to the right, so we can see how much do we actually want or need to touch up our appearance.
The more you drag it to the right, the more it will tend to soften up your skin and facial characteristics.
If you pull it all the way back to the left, it's almost the same as unchecking this.
So again, depending on your profile, you may wanna adjust what is the right setting for you for touching up your appearance.
Adjust for low light in Zoom
But the other one on this same screen has to do with adjusting our light and this is really, really useful, especially for those of us who may not have professional lighting or proper lighting in front of us.
Now, again, we can turn it on and off, but we can also choose a manual option.
If we want to get a sliding bar here.
Now that's a little bright, right?
I'm starting to look like a bit of a ghost there, but I've ever bring it too far back, maybe somewhere in the middle, just so that you can see me nice and clear.
If you don't like that, you can always go back to auto.
I think auto does a relatively good job, but again, just a little more control to make sure that we look our best within our Zoom calls.
Show video preview when joining Zoom meeting
All right, let's stick here with our video and the one I wanna show you down below, you might have to scroll down on these settings.
But something that is typically turned on by default, but I encourage you, strongly encourage you to make sure it's turned on is this checkbox.
It says always show video preview dialogue when joining a video meeting.
Now for myself, I'm typically the host and so I typically have my video set up.
I know where everything is and I'll take a quick glance ahead of time.
But when you are joining a meeting, it's a lot better to get that first preview, just to make sure that nothing is funny in the background, that the camera's at the right angle, that you're looking at the right camera, if you happen to have multiple cameras.
So leaving this check, it's gonna give you that little preview.
So you don't just arrive into a video with everything over the place and Oh my goodness, the video's zoomed in on my chin or something funny like that.
So just make sure that this one is checked on as well.
Now, the next one in our list.
Suppress Zoom background noise
Might be the most important one or what I feel is the biggest update here on Zoom.
And this one actually has to do with our audio settings.
Now, of course, you can always test your speaker and test your mic, which I do encourage from time to time, especially if you have multiple inputs or as I mentioned before, multiple webcams that you use.
But it's the one here in the middle of the screen, which I think is so crucial, suppress background noise.
So what does this setting do?
Well, chances are, you may be typing on your keyboard during a meeting, or perhaps you have a fan in the background that may be noisy, perhaps you are a dog owner, perhaps you have small children at home.
What this setting is going to do is it is going to try and suppress that background noise.
Now, we have a few different choices here.
It is going to be set to auto by default, but depending on your particular situation or just the particular day, you can choose low, medium or high.
So again, if you're worried about other participants hearing the background noise in your home or in your office, you can adjust this level here.
This is really helpful again, for typing on a keyboard or any other sound that may be distracting to other participants.
Hold space bar to unmute yourself in Zoom
Now sticking with our audio here, I wanna go down to the second last option here on this screen and this has to do with pressing and holding the space bar to temporarily unmute yourself.
Now, again, this is typically selected by default.
So I hope this has already on for you, but what this will do is that if you are joining, if you're participating in a Zoom meeting and maybe you're not talking most of the time, you're only contributing here and there.
What this allows you to do is that when you are muted, you can simply press and hold that space bar.
You can speak, you can give your answer or give your input and then release the space bar and you will go back to being muted.
So you can almost think of it like a red button, like in a recording studio or maybe something that you would see in a TV broadcast studio, where you're just holding the button down, you're talking, everyone can hear you, but as soon as you release it, you go back to being muted.
I use this one quite frequently when I'm participating in a meeting and I'm not doing the bulk of the talk and I'm not the one who's presenting, but I'm just interjecting here and there.
It keeps my background noise absolutely to zero unless when I am talking.
Zoom video filters
And then the last one that I wanna share with you today is a little bit of a fun one.
Now I've talked to you before about how you can set up a virtual background, like the one that you see here.
If you'd like to learn more about how to set up your own virtual custom background, complete with a logo, I'll leave a link to that in the description below.
But something that Zoom just added frequently was video filters.
And yes, maybe this is only applicable to those of you who are a teacher or those who want to have a little more fun with your Zoom meetings.
You can put on some fancy shades if you want and if you feel it's necessary to wear a mask, even though it's a Zoom meeting, you can do so as well.
Just remember to select none here in the top left hand corner before your next meeting, just so you don't look a little foolish or look a little silly for your next Zoom meeting.
Now, if you'd like even more Zoom tips, I'm gonna leave a link below to a playlist of my very best Zoom meeting tips, everything from learning how to use breakout rooms, to sharing your screen, including sharing video in an optimal way.
So be sure to click that playlist for more.
Thank you so much for watching today's video and remember being productive does not need to be difficult.
In fact, it's very simple.
