Zoom Advanced Screen Share

If you are presenting in Zoom, and the people watching do not have two screens -- which is most of the time -- you really want to look into Zoom's "Advanced" screen share mode.

Normally, when you screen share in Zoom, the slides fill the screen and the speaker's video is put in a small box on the top or to the side, or you may not even see it at all.

In advanced screen share, the speaker is placed inside the slides (usually in the bottom right corner but you can change it) using the virtual background system. It's amazing how much more connected you feel with the speaker. It's a bit like seeing the speaker on a stage standing in front of a big projected view of their slides. The normal mode is almost like a disembodied voice compared to it.

In a good talk, the speaker is more important than the slides, but ordinary screen share reverses that. This can fix it.

Unfortunately, you can't always use this mode. It only works with Powerpoint and Keynote on Windows and Mac. It only works with simple slide decks with no videos or animations. Your computer must have enough CPU to do virtual background (though even if not, you can put yourself in a rectangle in the corner which is still better.) Because it is different from normal presentation mode, it is essential you rehearse it in advance.

In particular, you should make sure your slides don't have anything vital in the lower right (or lower left) corner, where you will be placed. Frankly, slides should rarely have important small print, especially down there, so this is a good idea anyway. But if you designed the slides for full screen, you will want to check and make minor adjustments.

Using it

As normally, click "Screen Share" and you will see the dialog box for it. At the top you may notice three options -- "Basic," which you are used to, and next to it "Advanced" and "Files." Click "Advanced."

There you will see "PowerPoint as Virtual Background." Click it and select your slide deck. If you move the mouse to get Zoom's Toolbar, you will see the controls. (Press the Alt key on its own to make the controls not fade away, or set this in your Zomm settings.)

This control will be how you advance your slides. For some reason you can't use the keyboard or a remote. Just click your mouse. In the "..." menu you can "Resize my video" and you will get a box that lets you resize or move where your video goes. I recommend you make your video as large as you can make it without blocking important parts of your slides. In fact, I recommend doing some work to rearrange your slide deck to make a large region for this -- usually it's not a problem to cover a few words or part of a picture. Reading the words is not what your slide deck should be about.

If you want to be fancy, move everything in your deck to the left to clear the entire right column. Then stand back from your camera so we can see your whole body, and it will be like you are on stage.

Rehearse to make it all work, then wow them with your next presentation.

More Advanced

There are more advanced ways to do this that work in all programs, if you have a greenscreen and a video editing tool like OBS, or if you use Prezi in video mode (which puts your slide items into your video rather than putting you into the slides.)

You can read about How to mix your slides and face in videos or see a video demo.