Tips & Tricks for Zoom

1. Automatically schedule meetings and let people know about them
If you run a lot of meetings—for example, with clients—but don't have an assistant, you might want to connect your scheduling app, Zoom, and your calendar. Whenever someone books an appointment in a scheduling app, for example, Zapier can automatically create a new Zoom meeting and add it to whatever app you use for your personal calendar. Here are some pre-built Zaps to power this workflow, but you can create a Zap with whatever apps you use.

2. Create recurring meetings with saved settings and one URL
For weekly meetings, monthly check-ins, and other regularly-scheduled calls, Zoom lets you create a recurring meeting. There are two benefits to using this setting. First, it lets you lock in all the call settings you want once and have them be in place every time you meet. Second, recurring calls use the same join URL each time, so you never have to send a fresh one to attendees. Additionally, if you meet with the same group regularly but not on a regular schedule, you can choose an option called No Fixed Time, which lets you use the same settings and meeting ID over and over with the same group, no matter when you get together. This option is popular with educational groups who use Zoom as their virtual classroom.

3. See who attended
The attendee list for all meetings lives in the Zoom Account Management > Reports section. Look for Usage Reports, and then click Meeting to find the meeting you want, select the report type and date range, and generate the report.
Requirements: To generate an attendee list, you need to be the 1) the host of the meeting, 2) in a role with Usage Reports enabled, or 3) an account administrator or owner. You also need a Pro, API Partner, Business, or Education plan.

4. Collect information from attendees
To collect this information, first you need to require Registration, an option found in the My Meetings tab of the Zoom web app. Then, you can set up a form that attendees must fill out before they can join the meeting. For the registration form, Zoom provides standard fields, such as name and company affiliation, that you add using checkboxes. To add new questions or fields, jump over to the tab called Custom Questions.
Requirements: To require attendee information in Zoom, the host must have a Pro account. Additionally, the meeting cannot be your Personal Meeting ID.

5. Record the call as a video
Requirements: To record videos, you need Zoom on macOS, Windows, or Linux. If you don't see the option to record, check your settings in the web app (under My Meeting Settings) or have your account administrator enable it.

6. Have a collaborative annotation session
To annotate while viewing someone else's shared screen, select View Option from the top of the Zoom window, and then choose Annotate. A toolbar appears with all your options for annotating, including text, draw, arrow, and so forth. The presenter can use the save button on the toolbar to capture the complete image with annotations as a screenshot. You can also disable attendee annotation altogether.

7. Co-host calls
To use co-hosting tools, you first must enable it in Zoom's Meeting Settings. Look for the Meeting tab and choose the Co-host option. Then, when you start a meeting, wait for your co-host to join, and add the person by clicking the three dots that appear when you hover over their video box. Alternatively, you can go to the Participants window, choose Manage Participants, hover over the co-host's name, and select More to find the Make Co-Host option.
Requirements: To use co-hosting, you need a Pro, Business, Education, or API Partner account with Zoom, and you need to run on macOS, Windows, Android, or iOS (not Linux or web). If the option doesn't appear, ask your account administrator to enable the settings in the Meeting tab for co-hosting privileges.

8. Give attendees a waiting room
Precisely how you enable a waiting room depends on the type of account you have. When you set one up, however, you can customize what the attendees see while they await your grand entrance.

9. Let someone else schedule your meetings
To set up the scheduling assistant privilege, log into Zoom, open Meeting Settings, and look under Other. You'll see a plus sign next to Assign Scheduling Privilege. Add your scheduling assistants by typing their email addresses and finish by clicking Assign.

10. Learn a few essential keyboard shortcuts
If you use Zoom more than once a week, there are a couple of keyboard shortcuts worth learning to save you oodles of time.
I is for invite. Press Cmd+I (macOS) or Alt+I (Windows) to jump to the Invite window, where you can grab the link to the meeting or send invitations to others via email.
M is for mute. Press Cmd+Ctrl+M (macOS) or Alt+M (Windows) when you are the meeting host and want to mute everyone else on the line.
S is for share. Press Cmd+Shift+S (macOS) or Alt+Shift+S (Windows) to share your screen.