how to make a presentation interactive on zoom

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5 interactive Zoom presentation ideas to jump-start your virtual meetings

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Meghan Ryan October 22, 2021

Now that more people are working from home, Zoom presentations are becoming a daily staple. Depending on your day, you may sit through multiple Zoom presentations in one day, or give a few yourself, which can eventually lead to a feeling of meeting fatigue . But the real challenge many people have with virtual meetings isn’t the quantity; it’s the fact that it can be hard to distinguish one meeting from another. A presenter might simply share their screen to show you new information, which wouldn’t be that different of an experience than meeting with a colleague to work on a shared screen.

Presenters on Zoom also have difficulties that they never had to experience in person. For starters, the screen just doesn’t have the same impact as a person standing in front of you, and listening in on a presentation by yourself is less exciting and has less emotional impact than being in the same room as the speaker. You also have to remember that your audience is sitting in front of their computers for most of the day, so the temptation to open up other windows and multitask is a lot higher. Not only that, but the things they watch after work on these very same screens tend to have a very high production value that most of us (even the best presenters) cannot dream to compete with.

So with all these challenges, how can presenters improve their Zoom presentations and create engaging, impactful experiences? Here are 5 interactive Zoom presentation tips to help get you started.

Start with a great presentation design

As you start preparing your presentation, take a beat to put on your design thinking cap. Your audience has tuned into your presentation because they want to hear what you have to say, and the design of your presentation plays a big part in keeping them hooked.

The design of your presentation isn’t just about putting colors together and making sure the layout looks nice, though. You need to consider the medium your audience is using to view your presentation. In an age of virtual presentations , your audience is likely tuning in on a small laptop screen (or even a phone screen). That means that text-heavy slides are probably not effective and, conversely, intricate designs could actually be overwhelming.

This is when you can start getting creative with incorporating interactive Zoom presentation ideas into your design. Think about the most engaging content that your audience has access to virtually. Much of it comes from huge steaming platforms, like Netflix and YouTube. What keeps people interested and coming back to these platforms is not the designs or the high-quality production (although those are nice, too) — it’s the storytelling.

Be sure to use storytelling principles in the design of your Zoom presentation. Rather than creating an excessively designed presentation that can easily overwhelm audiences, consider how the design is enhancing the narrative you’re telling. Simple designs can have a huge visual impact when they’re timed well.

Joshua Peterse , a designer at the presentation powerhouse Missing Link , points out that we’re now in the business of designing scenes, not slides. Watch his video to see six examples of using Prezi Video to set the scene and make your presentations more impactful:

As Joshua mentions, Prezi does a good job of incorporating you into your content, and that’s thanks to Prezi Video . Prezi Video is a virtual presentation tool that shows your content next to you as you present. With the ability to connect to Zoom and other top virtual meeting platforms out there, it’s the perfect way to connect with people in remote and hybrid work.

Here are a couple of ways that you can start designing an engaging presentation in Prezi.

Use a professionally designed template

If design isn’t your thing, start with a template . Prezi has over 200 presentation templates to help you get started on anything from sales pitches and training presentations to internal meetings . Customize these with your own content to make them your own.

For more interactive Zoom presentations, use a video template that displays your content next to you on screen. Take a look at the “design thinking template,” for instance:

Reuse slides or a previous presentation

You can edit any presentation made with Prezi, PowerPoint, or Google Slides in Prezi. This allows you to seamlessly bring your existing content with you on screen instead of having to share your screen.

Take a look at our favorite examples of presentations and videos , curated by our editors. Get inspired or reuse what you like for your own presentation.

Give everyone in your audience a front row seat

Rich Mulholland , founder of Missing Link , knows the power of face time with your audience. In his Prezi video, he recommends getting right in front of the camera so your audience can see you better. This gives you a chance to show your enthusiasm, expressions, and body language throughout your presentation. Those are the most interesting elements of a presentation that keep people engaged, but they’re easy to leave by the wayside in a Zoom meeting.

Oftentimes, organizers for webinars or virtual presentations will make the mistake of setting up presenters far from the camera and have them face one another when there are multiple presenters. This doesn’t engage audiences, though, and it doesn’t take into account the real benefit of using Zoom for your presentation – that you can give every person in your audience a front-row seat to your presentation.

Watch Rich’s Prezi video, where he describes the significance of being close to the camera and shares other interactive Zoom presentation ideas:

Use movement 

Another great interactive Zoom presentation tip is to incorporate more movement. Adding movement to your presentation is going to spike your audience’s attention, give them a little boost in serotonin, and keep them focused on the screen.

Lorraine Lee , Prezi’s Editorial Director, depicts how powerful movement is in grabbing attention, even compared to static visuals and the presenter. Watch her video on creating engaging virtual presentations to see this example in action and to learn more interactive Zoom presentation tips to keep your audience engaged:

Lorraine recommends at least two slides or movements per minute in a Zoom presentation. These don’t have to be big movements to have a big impact — just enough to add some variety to your presentation and give your audience something new to pay attention to. 

There are a lot of ways to add movement to your Zoom presentation, but it’s safe to start with two standbys – GIFs and videos. GIFs are a fun way to elicit an emotional reaction from your audience and to show a little bit of your personality, while video is one of the most popular forms of media out there.

Read our article to learn how to use GIFs and videos in your virtual presentations.

Get your audience involved

No one wants to hear the same person talk for the entire duration of a long meeting, so mix things up by getting your audience to participate. Ask them questions and get them to answer in the chat, raise their hands, or show an on-screen response. What you’re aiming for isn’t just participation for the sake of participation; you want them to interact with your ideas and get closer to the main point of your presentation. That’s what makes this one of the most useful interactive Zoom presentation tips.

To that end, your audience doesn’t need to actually speak in order to get involved with your presentation. Zoom allows your audience to show reactions like a thumbs up or a raised hand. Prezi helps you take this a step further and lets your audience share their own questions, comments, or images on their screens. This way you can read everyone’s screens to get a lay of the land and respond to questions quickly.

See how on-screen responses can get your audience to participate more meaningfully online in this example:

Practice and record yourself

Of course, your presentation is going to go a lot smoother if you feel confident when you deliver it. Practice your presentation before you get in front of the camera to work out all the little details. Get acquainted with the tools you’ll use, like Prezi Video and Zoom, as well as your accessories like the mic, camera, and lighting.

Recording yourself is a good way to view yourself from the audience’s perspective and spot areas of improvement. Try recording your presentation in Prezi Video , where you can practice everything from using your tools to practicing your timing.

As long as people are working remotely or in hybrid offices, Zoom presentations are going to be the standard, so now is a great time to learn how to make them engaging and interactive. Check out the Video Gallery to see more examples of great virtual presentations. Have a helpful interactive Zoom presentation tip of your own? Record a video and tag it with #Zoom for a chance to be featured in the gallery.

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7 Fun Ways to Make Zoom Meetings More Engaging and Interactive

One semester in college, (yes, I know it has been a couple of decades, but I still remember it,) I had an 8 AM marketing lecture. At any given moment in the class, I could look around and see 60%+ of the class drifting off to sleep. A lot of my classmates showed up to the class in their pajamas. Very few actually showered and/or made themselves presentable. (Sound familiar?)

The next year, I drew an 8 AM Business Law class. I was expecting the same type of atmosphere. This class was totally different. No one wore a suit, but the entire class dressed in what is now known as business-casual. The professor didn’t just lecture us. Instead, he asked us questions. In fact, in each class, we were speaking almost as much as he did.

Want to beat stage fright, articulate with poise, and land your dream job? Take the 2-minute public speaking assessment and get the Fearless Presenter’s Playbook for FREE!

So my question is, which of these examples describes your Zoom meetings?

1) Give Your Team Clear Instructions Ahead of the Meeting.

You can do this in the Calendar invite. Here is an example…

Doug Staneart has invited you to a Zoom Meeting. This will be an interactive meeting delivered entirely through Zoom. To participate, it is best to login via a computer or laptop versus a phone or tablet. Your computer will need to have video and microphone access to be able to interact with your teammates. We will try to wrap the meeting up within 30 minutes. See you there!

Usually, this warning ahead of time will fix many of the pajama, muffled hair, and 80’s Rock t-shirt challenges. If you find that one of your team members has a less than professional appearance, talk to that person personally. It’s okay to give a global suggestion during the meeting if multiple team members are creating a distraction.

For additional tips on virtual meeting fundamentals, see How to Deliver Great Virtual Meetings . This post gives a lot of great tips on how to organize the meeting and how to pick the right camera and microphone, etc.

2) Create an Agenda And Assign Roles Ahead of Time to Make Your Virtual Meeting More Engaging.

Identify the three to five major points that you want to cover in the meeting. Then, add these meeting points to the calendar invite. Don’t assume that just because you put “Project Reports from Team Leaders” into the agenda, that your team leaders will prepare a report. Instead, after you send the invite, contact each team leader to prep them. This can be done in a simple Slack or text message like, “Jane, can you give a 2-minute update on the Permian Project in the meeting tomorrow?”

If you don’t do this, you will get a lot of, “Nothing new to report,” or “Things are still great,” reports.

3) Break Up Non-Engaging Monologues with the “Can You Give Me An Example?” Question.

“That sounds interesting. Can you give me an example?”

This light coaching interrupts the boring recitation without embarrassing the speaker. Typically, you only have to do this a couple of times before the team catches on. Many of the upcoming speakers will start thinking of examples for their reports as well.

Here is an example.

“We have cut expenditures on all of our marketing campaigns because of reduced return on investment. The positive return is coming from social media, but it is small right now. Our marketing team is brainstorming new ideas though.” “Can you give me an example of what we are doing on social media?” “Yeah, the video team recently created a YouTube video that we really like. In fact, here, let me pull it up and show it to you…”

4) Use Zoom Breakout Rooms to Get Participants to Engage with Each other More.

For instance, let’s say that you have people from sales, marketing, logistics, and finance on the Zoom call. Each group has five or six team members. You as the leader can break the group into breakout rooms by their department. Give them five minutes to come up with the top three things that have happened since the last meeting. Have them nominate one team member (not the team leader) to give a report to the group based on the discussion.

This is just one idea. You can get creative and use the breakout rooms in really effective ways.

5) Use Collaborative Cloud Apps to Make the Meeting More Interactive.

For instance, you can set up a simple spreadsheet with the weekly sales revenue. Then each sales rep can enter his or her sales while the meeting is going on. As the numbers get added to the sheet in real-time, the total increases. Then, the sales manager can give positive comments as new additions are made.

You can also use PowerPoint or Google Slides as a storyboard. Participants can enter their ideas during a brainstorming session by accessing the document on their own computer. As they add ideas to the storyboard the entire team can also see these new ideas.

6) Make the Zoom Meeting More Engaging by Opening the Zoom Whiteboard.

If you have a touchscreen computer, this tool is pretty awesome. Just share your screen in Zoom, select the whiteboard, and start drawing on your screen. (By the way, if you don’t have a touchscreen, just logon a second time from your phone or tablet.)

Showing something on the screen from time-to-time breaks up the monologue. It gives your participants something else to focus on.

You can also use this as a way to poll the group without forcing their choices. When you use the poll function of Zoom, you have to pick the answers that people are likely to give. It is a multiple-choice option. However, using the whiteboard, you can ask an open-ended question and log the responses.

7) Add a Game to Make the Virtual Meeting More Fun and Engaging.

Create three different games that each have a “top-five answer question.” For instance, “What were the top five industries that we sold to last year?” Or, “What were the five most popular words that appeared in customer reviews last year?”

Divide the group into two teams. Flip a coin to see which team goes first. Give the winner the option to “play” or “pass.” If they decide to “Play,” send them to a breakout room for two minutes (or less) to come up with team answers. Make sure they know to list the answers in order from most-popular to least-popular. The Playing team gets to give answers until they get three strikes.

The other team can “Steal” if the first team gets three strikes and they can uncover one of the remaining answers.

If you want a list of fun games to play on Zoom with your team , click this link. This post from The Leaders Institute ® gives a few free games that you can play along with a few of the best premium games available.

Get Creative and Make Your Zoom Meeting More Fun and Interactive.

The key to online meetings is similar to in-person meetings. The more that the leader talks, the more the participants will hate it. So if you make your Zoom meetings more engaging (get the participants talking,) you will make them more interesting as well!

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15 Tips for Engaging Zoom Presentations + Examples

Your next Zoom presentation is a week away. And your mind is racing.

What presentation software should you use?

What if the other attendees can hear your neighbor’s loud music?

Will they find your presentation boring?

Relax and take a deep breath.

You don’t have to figure out the answers to these questions by yourself. This guide will cover everything you need to know about planning and delivering engaging Zoom presentations without stress and anxiety!

After reading this article, you’ll be brimming with confidence and competence on your next Zoom presentation.

Table of contents :

The science behind your Zoom presentation anxiety

• Downloadable Zoom presentation checklist

Part 1: Tips on how to plan and prepare for your Zoom presentation

Part 2: tips during your zoom presentation.

• How to share your Piktochart slide deck on Zoom
• Present with ease on Zoom using Piktochart presentations

Before we get into all the other Zoom presentation tips, perhaps the most important is to deal with your Zoom presentation anxiety. And you’re not alone – anxiety over Zoom presentations is more common than you think . 

A  2021 paper  on why students have difficulties learning during synchronous presentations over Zoom found that 80 percent of the students polled experienced anxiety and trouble focusing during their virtual classes. But what causes this worry? In a peer-reviewed article, Professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the  Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab , highlighted the  results of their research  and cited four primary reasons behind Zoom fatigue, stress, and anxiety:

• Your brain interprets excessive amounts of close-up eye contact during video chats as an “intense situation.”
• Like looking at the mirror, you become more critical of yourself as you see yourself on camera.
• Limited movements while you’re chained in your chair and table.
• Video chats require a higher cognitive load than face-to-face presentations. 

“You’ve got to make sure that your head is framed within the center of the video. If you want to show someone that you agree with them, you have to do an exaggerated nod or put your thumbs up. That adds cognitive load as you’re using mental calories in order to communicate,” shares Bailenson.

Finally, you have to consider tech troubles and presentation software fiascos, as well as dealing with the pressure of public speaking.

15 Zoom presentation tips and tricks to help you own the room like a pro

Now that you understand why Zoom presentations give you sweaty palms, let’s go through 15 actionable steps to prepare for the slides.

We created a checklist of the Zoom presentation tips so you can cross off each task.

Prefer video learning instead? Watch the video below.

The success of your Zoom presentation is the result of thoughtful planning and preparation.

Get ready for your online class, product webinar, or job interview on Zoom with the following pre-presentation tips:

1. Decide on the scope of your Zoom presentation

Before presenting on Zoom, ask yourself — what one particular idea or insight would you want your audience to learn from you?

“Defining the scope is the most critical step. What are the boundaries, what are the deliverables, what is the topic that you are covering?”, recommends Linda Parry Murphy , CEO of Product Launchers, Inc.

Trying to cover every subject will only make you more nervous.

Remember the Stanford study earlier about too much cognitive load as one of the reasons behind Zoom presentation anxiety?

Limiting the scope of your presentation can significantly reduce your cognitive load while keeping your audience focused on the key points.

2. Plan for the structure of your online presentation

It’s important to master the sequence and structure of your presentation as part of your preparation. Creating a framework guides the meeting participants so they understand what the data means, why it’s important, and what the implications are in this situation.

A solid structure in place also makes it easier to go back to what you’re saying. As a result, you will feel more confident because you can keep track of your talking points with a quick glance at your outline if you lose your train of thought.

Matt Abrahams, a lecturer in Organizational Behavior and author of Speaking Up Without Freaking Out , recommends the following examples of presentation structures that you can use:

• Past-Present-Future – review a process or share a timeline
• Comparison-Contrast – show the benefits of a certain idea, insight, product, or service
• Cause-Effect – explain the rationale behind a decision
• Problem-Solution-Benefit – motivate or convince your audience
• What?-So What?-Now What? – convince people to do a specific action after your presentation

Another simple presentation structure you can work on is to start with an introduction, the meat of your presentation where you can highlight 3 points, and wrap up with the summary and call-to-action.

3. Prepare your presentation visuals

Plenty of research and evidence shows that including images is more effective in getting your message across than written text or oral communications alone.

For instance, a captivating visual is  four times more effective  in conveying information than words alone. People remember 80 percent of what they see and do, compared to 20 percent through reading and 10 percent through hearing, respectively.

If your goal is to convince your audience during your Zoom presentation, you’ll also be delighted to know that using visuals can help you become more persuasive.

A Wharton School of Business research found that around a third of the audiences they polled felt that presenters who used visuals were more persuasive.

So remember that well-chosen images, even stock photos, can do wonders to augment your slides.

When making visuals for your presentation, use these questions as your guide:

• Is there an icon, illustration, or image that could represent your point in a more meaningful way?
• What types of diagrams , such as a timeline, flowchart, pie chart, arrows, or graphs, will help get your point across to your audience?
• Who are my target audiences? When choosing visuals for my presentation, are there certain cultural taboos or inappropriate humor that I should be aware of?

One more thing – consider using bullet points if you find slides with walls of text. They’ll be easier to digest without taking the focus away from you.

4. Eliminate clutter in your surroundings

Staying in one place with no room to maneuver probably doesn’t spark joy for anyone. KonMari your environment by eliminating clutter on your desk and in the space around you. This means extra keyboards, unused notebooks, pens, food boxes, and books can go.

Eliminating clutter gives your brain the impression that there’s more room for you to move around during your Zoom event.

If the space you’re presenting in makes it difficult to clear off clutter, you could find a plain wall to present against. And if that’s not an option, you can use a clean virtual Zoom background . Keeping your surroundings out of sight means it’s out of mind for you and your audience; one less thing to worry about while presenting.

5. Do a tech prep

Presenting in Zoom while you’re at home or traveling is a technological wonder in itself. But technology can be frustrating at times too.

Spending some time optimizing your Zoom settings by clicking in the toolbar while you’re in a Zoom meeting. Under video settings, you’ll find a few options that can help with the visuals, such as focus assist.

Before your presentation, double-check the following:

• Make sure that your laptop, computer, lighting, headset, webcam, microphone, and internet connection are working. Have backup equipment if possible.
• Familiarize yourself with the Zoom app and other relevant software you’re going to use during the presentation.
• Close unnecessary browsers, applications, or software before the presentation. Turn off your laptop or desktop notifications. The goal is to optimize and speed up the device to have a smooth presentation.
• Prepare a PDF version of your presentation slides and have an extra copy of your presenter notes in case of technical mishaps with your slides. It also makes sense to have a short link to your presentation that you can share with the audience.
• Position your notes in the right spot so you know where to find them while presenting.
• Check Zoom settings and do a quick audio and video check.

6. Rehearse your presentation

After taking care of your surroundings and equipment, the next step is to prepare yourself.

Practicing your Zoom presentation in advance can help boost your confidence. Here are some tips to help you rehearse well for your presentation:

• Screen record yourself. Afterward, check your recorded video for technical issues, your body language, and whether or not your voice is audible or not.
• Practice with a family member or friend who can give feedback on any distracting nonverbal communication habits like too many hand gestures.
• Rehearse in the same room where you’ll be presenting. Use the same lighting, computer setup, and everything.
• Practice speaking to the camera, not your computer screen.

If you’re not used to face-to-face presentations, you could record your presentation and watch it back. I know, I know – it can feel so uncomfortable watching yourself. But a quick analysis will reveal if you use too many hand gestures, that can be distracting, and also if you need to reposition your camera so it shows your upper body while presenting.

The time has come for presentation day! You already know the ins and outs of your presentation, and you’ve practiced your Zoom presentation skills to a T. A couple of checks you can do before you start are:

• Make sure you’re in a quiet area to minimize any potential interruptions.
• Do a test call with a friend to check the internet connection and if you’ll stay connected.

Take note of the following tips and hacks to make your Zoom presentation engaging and anxiety-free during your webinar or talk:

7. Dress the part

Wear clothes that are appropriate for your presentation and audience. It also helps to be more mindful of your accessories and hairstyle. The outfits and accessories you wear during your Zoom meeting will speak volumes about you as a person.

For example, if you’re presenting to your coworkers, wear work clothes. If you’re pitching to a group of angel investors, wearing a tie can help convey that you’re serious and trustworthy. However, this may not be a good idea if you’re presenting to a group that is more open to change and tends to be more relaxed when it comes to conventional standards.

Another benefit of dressing the part is what you wear actually impacts how you think. Wearing formal clothes can improve abstract thinking and give you a broader sense of perspective, which is influential in helping you make better decisions.

8. Ditch the chair

Standing up when presenting in Zoom rather than sitting down helps you become more confident because you’re not hunched down on your chair.

Standing straight with your shoulders back also enables you to breathe easily, making your voice sound more powerful and confident. Finally, it allows you to move more and make explanatory gestures which is a charisma boost.

The more confident you appear in your presentation, the more confident you’re likely to feel.

“When your mind starts to feel more confident and powerful — it starts to see those challenging situations not as threats but as opportunities,” shares Harvard psychologist professor Amy Cuddy.

If you can’t stand up during your presentation, try to sit straight in your chair and back up your camera a little to show your upper body and not just your face.

9. Have a memorable introduction

National best-selling author and founder at Science of People Vanessa Van Edwards specifically recommends opening your presentation with IISSAAQQ to make it more memorable. IISSAAQQ stands for: 

• I cebreaker
• I llustration
• S hort story
• S tatistic or surprising fact
• A nalogy or metaphor

Bonus points if you can weave in humor with some background information with a relevant fact. Research found that more popular talks used humor 12.92 times, whereas less popular talks used humor only 3.92 times on average.

You don’t have to force a joke – humor could just be a play on words or surprising the audience with a funny image or meme that contrasts with a statement. Nothing breaks the ice better than laughter.

10. Look your audience in the eye (or rather your webcam)

Looking your audience in the eye is easier during face-to presentations than Zoom presentations. It can be a little tricky during online meetings because we tend to look at people’s faces on the computer screen. Maintain eye contact by looking into your webcam.

“A good idea is to lower the monitor camera a little so that you don’t have to tilt your head back to gaze up at it. If you can’t help looking at someone’s face on the screen instead of their camera, it helps to move the Zoom window to the part of the screen nearest to the camera so at least you’re looking at approximately the right place when you’re looking at their face,” shares Carol Kinsey Goman , Ph.D., executive coach and international keynote speaker.

You could treat the camera as if you were doing a face-to-face presentation. This way, it’ll be a bit simpler to hold eye contact with your audience when you’re not looking at your notes.

11. Think happy thoughts

Find ways to boost your mood before your presentation. Aside from helping you feel good (which in turn can boost your confidence), you’re also likely to smile often with happy thoughts. 

When you smile at your audience, they will also likely “mirror” your action and think happy thoughts. 

“Mirroring is relevant to our tendency to be empathetic. When I see you smiling, my mirror neurons for smiling fire up, and I get your state of mind right away. I feel it as you feel it. We need that mirroring in order to create a full empathic response to other people,” describes Marco Iacoboni , author of  Mirroring People  and UCLA professor. 

When you’re having a good time and sharing enthusiasm with your audience, they’ll reciprocate through their nonverbal communication. This means fewer folded arms and blank stares and more nodding along and smiles.

12. Delegate the chatbox

Have someone else take care of Zoom chat or manage the waiting room to keep you from being distracted. This person could be the meeting host, a colleague, or someone you trust who has your back during your presentation.

13. Engage your audience

A boring presentation is when there’s no interaction, and you’re being spoken at (hello, university lectures). You’ll be able to tell from everyone’s body language in the meeting room.

Make your presentation a two-way street. Here are some ways to encourage interaction and participation amongst your audience during your Zoom meetings:

• Ask questions. For example, if you’re presenting a team productivity software in Zoom, ask your audience about their top productivity problems at work. You can also use this time as an opportunity to transition to your next presentation slide.
• If you have a small audience, remember each person’s name and address them using their first names.
• Use visuals like illustrations, infographics, or a short video clip in your slide show. Tool recommendation : Use Piktochart Video to transform a long video into short clips.
• Use interactive quizzes while presenting online to change the pace and keep your audience engaged.

14. Talk like a human and avoid too much jargon

Alright, what does talking like a human mean in Zoom presentations?

For a start, avoid talking too much jargon and corporate speak. It makes you more relatable, keep your audience’s attention longer because your points will be easier to understand, and also helps you stand out from other presenters.

Just because you’re presenting in virtual meetings doesn’t mean you’re not talking to people. The only difference is you’re sharing your presentation in front of your camera instead of in front of the lecture room.

Next, improve your visual storytelling skills . Your presentation will be more memorable if you briefly share a story and pair it with visuals. Sign up for our free visual storytelling course . Check out the teaser video below.

15. Slow down

When you’re anxious and not too confident about your Zoom presentation, you’ll tend to speak fast, which in turn will make you more nervous. It’s a vicious cycle.

When presenting in Zoom, be mindful of your pace. Slowing down will not only take the edge off your nerves but also make you appear more confident.

Don’t be scared of pauses or gaps between your statements. Sometimes, you might need a sip of water to hydrate your throat. Other times, you could use the pauses as extra emphasis to drive key points.

Slowing down and changing up your talking pace will help you deliver an impactful presentation because you’ll have more control and be better able to drive the point home.

5 presentation examples and templates

To make presenting your Zoom presentation easy, here are some presentation templates and examples for inspiration.

Quarterly finance update

Have a big meeting coming up where you need to share sales performance and revenue figures? We’ve got you covered with this template.

It’s equipped with graphs where you can easily drop your revenue figures in and share performance with customizable graphs. There are also template slides for customer feedback and if your team is planning to introduce new processes.

Marketing strategy plan template

This marketing strategy slide deck is perfect if you’re onboarding a new client and want to walk them through your research, analysis, and proposed actions.

Group project

Presenting your collaborative project in a Zoom meeting to your classmates? Take the worry off so you can focus on sharing the results by using this science group project template .

Despite the name, you can use it for any kind of school or university project because the structure works for any type of research presentation. The template has slides for:

• Group introduction
• Your hypothesis/basis for the project
• Your theory
• How you tested the theory
• Key takeaways

Buyer persona template

The customer buying journey is always evolving, and you might need to present a case study to leadership or your team on recent findings. Our template makes it simple to share your customer’s story, as the template has slides for:

• The customer profile
• Motivations/goals
• Personal insights
• Responsibilities

Team update in the all-hands meeting

It’s common for managers, or project leads to update the company with their results in company meetings. In these cases, you might just need a single slide to share your progress.

This work breakdown structure template does the job, giving you space to share what your team’s objectives were, what the key results were, who was involved, and what the shipping date was for these goals.

How to share your Piktochart slide deck on Zoom 

Step 1 : On the Piktochart editor, click Share to get the link to your presentation. 

By default, your presentation is not publicly visible.

Step 2 : Copy and paste the link into your browser bar. Then, click the Show Presentation button. This will launch in fullscreen presentation mode, and now you’re ready to shine. 

Step 3: Click Share Screen on your Zoom account and choose the browser with the Piktochart link.

For a visual demonstration, watch the short tutorial below with detailed instructions.

Ready to deliver your presentation? 

That’s it for our Zoom presentation tips; now over to you.

You have a brilliant idea or insight to present, and you need to share them with your audience in your next Zoom presentation. It’s high time you nail it with the virtual presentation tips we outlined in this guide. 

Take Piktochart for a test drive  today and create your next presentation slide minus the stress using our free presentation maker .

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5 ways to make zoom presentations engaging and irresistible.

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Dry. Dull. Boring. Exhausting. Painful. Waste of time. Forgettable. Those are the words and phrases that came up when I asked people this question: What word would you use to describe the Zoom Presentations/webinars you attend?

And it’s true, most webinars are likely to be uninspiring … and forgotten shortly after you attend them. They aren’t wildly engaging, and their impact on your success is likely minimal. One thing that impedes their ability to wow is that they aren’t very different from other meetings you attend online. Also, those who create and deliver online presentations neglect the importance of understanding the medium. Online presentations have to do a lot more work to captivate you simply because:

• The screen is a poor substitute for a real person standing in front of you
• The temptation to multitask is heightened
• Participating by yourself reduces the energy and emotional connection
• Other things we watch on these very same screens—from Netflix to YouTube videos—have very high production value

To counteract the challenges that this medium imposes, consider these five enhancements:

1. Sizzle from the start

If your opening is similar to the one from the meeting your audience attended an hour before your presentations, you’ve already lost them. You need to make it clear from the moment you kick off that this is going to be different. Fun. Engaging. Valuable. Interesting. First impressions are so important. Now that everything has moved online, your presentation is being lumped into the five other meetings and events that your audience is participating in each day. You need to dazzle your audience from the very first second of your presentation. Make your start surprising, and your viewers will sit up from their slouch and take note.

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2. Banish the bullet

If the slides you’re presenting have more than 15 words on them (I challenge you to have 12 or fewer), you’re adding an extra helping of the ingredient called boring to your webinar. Bulleted slides are not effective for inspiring people or engaging them in your content. If you have information you want to share that requires the use of lots of words, make it available as a supplemental resource. Nothing says “it’s time to tune out” like a slide with 10 bullets on it. Think tantalizing tweet, not wordy whitepaper. When you do display words, use 32-point font or greater on every slide. This provides two huge benefits: First, it ensures you can’t get too many words on the slide. And second, it makes it easier for participants to see. Your slides are small on the devices of your audience members—especially if they’re using their phone.

3. Fluctuate the format

When you’re delivering a presentation online, you have to deal with one major challenge that’s much less prevalent in live sessions: the temptation to multitask. When you’re physically in a room of people, they’re less likely to answer an email while you’re presenting. But when you’re delivering online, it’s almost an invitation to multitask; after all, the device they’re watching you on has all these other tools to keep them busy: email, Instagram, instant messaging. That’s a lot of competition. To keep people from checking out other things on their device, you need to keep things dynamic. The best way to do this is to vary the way you convey your content. Move between stories, information, data, models, formulas, lists, etc. In fact, change the content format every two to four minutes to keep things dynamic and magnetic.

4. Heighten the humanity

If you’re delivering a presentation from a stage, it’s automatically more visceral and emotionally compelling. When you’re beamed onto someone’s laptop or phone thanks to the power of the internet, your humanity is diluted. The screen they’re watching you on serves as a scrim to suppress your scintillating style. To counteract that, you need to amp up the energy, double the empathy and exaggerate your expressions. Just don’t overdo it. You don’t want to seem like a parody of yourself like this.

5. Maximize the media

You’ve heard that a picture is worth a thousand words, and according to Gartner Research, one minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. When you use rich media, you make your presentation more persuasive and potent. And you make it much more visually interesting too. So as you build your presentation, ask yourself: Where can I replace words with pictures and video? Then go through it again when it’s done and ask the question again. Your audience will thank you for replacing the 26 letters of the alphabet with meaningful, magnetic media.

You need to be more deliberate when you deliver a virtual presentation if you want to have real impact on your audience. When you build and deliver your presentation with these five elements in mind, you’re sure to stand out, make your mark and add a giant deposit to your personal brand bank.

William Arruda  is a founder of  CareerBlast  and co-creator of  BrandBoost  - a video-based personal branding talent development experience.

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13 Zoom Presentation Tips to Ace Your Next Online Meeting

Written by: Mahnoor Sheikh

Now that more people are working from home, online presentations using tools like Zoom have started to become the norm.

But giving a Zoom presentation is very different from presenting in person. The lack of physical presence and body language can make it difficult to engage and inspire your audience.

If you’re still getting used to presenting on Zoom, this article has some great tips to help you succeed and make an impact in your next meeting.

Preparing Your Zoom Presentation

Getting ready for your Zoom presentation is just as important as giving the actual presentation. There are tons of potential issues you can face, like a faulty microphone or your dog walking in right in the middle of an important slide.

By preparing well, you ensure your presentation is as smooth and error-free as possible. After all, you only get one chance to make a great first impression and get a great ROI .

Here are some tips to help you get ready to deliver a powerful Zoom presentation.

1 Design a Great Online Presentation

The first thing you need to do is make sure your presentation is designed to look its best on your audiences’ tiny computer screens.

Follow these three rules to create an effective Zoom presentation.

Keep it simple.

The best online presentations are simple and straightforward.

You don’t want your audience to be squinting at their screens trying to navigate through a tangled web of text, colors, graphs and other content.

You need them to look at a slide and get the point at a single glance.

Use a plain background for your slides, preferably white, and focus each slide on only one point or idea. Don’t stuff too many bullet points or text into your slides.

Also, make sure you center your text in case the edges of the slides are cut off for some of the participants.

Lastly, use a large and bold font that doesn’t require participants to strain their eyes, even if they’re viewing your slides on their phone.

Use relevant visuals.

Visuals make information much easier to digest and retain than plain text. And let’s face it—they keep things entertaining.

Here are some types of visuals you can use to make your Zoom presentation more engaging:

• Charts and graphs. Visualizing data can bring the most boring numbers and statistics to life. If you’re using research findings to show a trend or back up your point, consider presenting them in the form of a bar graph or pie chart. Not only will it add some color to your slides, it will make it easier for your audience to interpret the data.
• Maps.  If you're presenting geographic data, you can easily visualize it in the form of maps. In Visme, you can add interactive maps for a single country or the world.
• Icons and illustrations.  Adding creative graphics like icons and illustrations can break up walls of text, make your information look more visual and interesting, and help explain your point better.
• Videos. Adding videos into your slides is a great way to make your presentation more engaging. Videos can help you explain a point more clearly, show a product in action or give some background information on your subject. You can embed YouTube or Vimeo videos into your slides or upload them directly.
• Stock photos. If used intelligently, stock photos can add value to your slides by helping you set the tone, tell a story or visualize an idea. You can also use relevant stock photos in the background with text overlay to add some color to your slides.
• GIFs and Memes. Make your online presentations fun and engaging by adding relevant memes and GIFs into slides that would otherwise look quite dry. Be careful not to overdo it, and only use humor if appropriate. You don’t want to risk looking unprofessional.

Here's a presentation template from Visme with just the right balance of visuals and text to help you get started. Simply customize it to use for your next Zoom presentation.

Using visuals in your online presentation is great, but this doesn’t mean you should stuff all your slides with images. Make sure the visuals you’re using add value to your content and emphasize your point instead of taking attention away from it.

Make it interactive.

It can be tough to keep your audience engaged when you’re not interacting with them face-to-face.

So, why not do the next best thing? Make your slides interactive!

If you’re creating your presentation in Visme, you can access a bunch of interactivity tools to spice up your slides:

• Animation. Add beautiful slide transitions, or animate objects separately. A good tip is to animate bullet points to appear one at a time to draw focus to each one. You can also choose from pre-animated illustrations, icons and characters to make your Zoom presentation more engaging.
• Links. In Visme, you can link any text or graphic element to a web page, or a slide or object inside your presentation. Get creative with this tool to add interactive quizzes, slides and more to your Zoom presentation. For example, you can link two text boxes together so when you click on the question, the answer appears.
• Hover effects. If you’re linking one object in your slide to another, you can enable it to show up on either click or hover. If you’re creating a quiz, for example, you can link two text boxes together so when you hover on the question, the answer appears.

A healthy dose of interactivity can make your audience feel more involved with your Zoom presentation.

2 Tidy Up Your Background

If you want your audience to take you seriously, clean up any clutter behind you.

A messy background can make you look unprofessional and distract people from focusing on your presentation. Ideally, your background should be a plain wall.

If you can’t manage to find a clean, empty background, consider using a virtual Zoom background. There are tons of different styles out there, so make sure to pick one that looks realistic and professional.

3 Draw Attention to Your Face

An online presentation can quickly start to feel distant and impersonal, like watching a pre-recorded video.

To remind your audience that they’re interacting with a real human, you need to draw focus to your face and expressions as you present.

Make sure you’re presenting in a well-lit room, where the source of light is in front of you. If the light source is directly behind you, you might end up looking like a dark blob.

4 Check Your Equipment

Make sure you check all your technical equipment to see if everything is working properly. This will help minimize issues like awkward camera angles or a malfunctioning microphone.

Here are a few things you should take care of before your presentation:

• Check internet connection. No one wants to listen to a presenter with laggy audio and video. Use a reliable, high-speed internet connection to ensure a smooth Zoom presentation.
• Test audio and video. Check if your camera and microphone are working properly by joining a Zoom test meeting . You can also test out your equipment from inside the Zoom app by clicking on Settings → Audio or Settings → Video .
• Ensure your laptop is plugged in. Imagine if your laptop dies out in the middle of your presentation just because you didn’t plug it in properly. Don’t let that happen.
• Adjust your camera level. Make sure your audience is looking at your face instead of the top of your head. Decide whether you want to sit or stand during your presentation, and adjust the webcam so it’s at eye level.

Keep in mind that technical issues can arise unexpectedly, even if you do everything right. Doing tech prep beforehand, though, keeps the chances at a minimum.

5 Minimize Potential Interruptions

Whether you’re giving your Zoom presentation at home or in a nearby cafe, there are tons of potential interruptions that can disrupt your flow and make you look unprofessional.

During your prep, your goal should be to minimize these interruptions as much as possible.

Find a quiet area to begin with, and lock the door so no one comes in unexpectedly. It’s a good idea to inform your family members or roommates that you’re going to be busy prior to the presentation.

Another tip is to close all other open applications and windows on your computer. Notifications and sounds can interrupt your meeting and distract you. You can also use the “Do Not Disturb” mode on MacOS or “Focus Assist” on Windows 10 to mute notifications.

6 Stick Your Notes in the Right Place

Just like when you’re presenting in person, you’d likely want to keep notes or pointers nearby in case you forget something important.

During a Zoom presentation, though, you need to be careful about where you place your notes. It can look very unprofessional and awkward if your eyes keep moving away from the camera when everyone is staring at your face.

Avoid keeping a notepad next to you or pasting them on the side of your monitor. A better alternative is to stick a post-it right below or next to your webcam. So, even if you take a peek, you will still be looking somewhat directly at your audience.

If you’re using Visme to create your Zoom presentation, you can simply use the presenter notes feature and skip all the hassle of keeping physical notes.

While you’re presenting, your presenter notes will open up in another window, so you can look at them while presenting without even letting your audience know.

7 Ditch the Pajamas

We get it. Nobody wants to get dressed when they’re at home.

But really, if you’re giving a professional presentation, it’s a good idea to ditch your PJs and wear something presentable .

Even if everyone knows you’re at home, you don’t want to look sloppy while sharing important information. This can prevent your audience from taking you seriously.

Plus, dressing up can help you feel more confident and motivated. Wear something that not only looks smart, but also makes you feel good about yourself.

8 Rehearse Before the Presentation

Never walk into a presentation unprepared. This is especially important for Zoom presentations, as it can be even more difficult to wing it when you’re not interacting in person.

Plus, rehearsing is a good idea if you want to overcome the fear of being on camera. Do a demo Zoom meeting with a friend or family member, or just practice alone before the presentation.

Delivering Your Zoom Presentation

Now that you’re all prepped up to give your Zoom presentation, here are some tips to help you make the most of your time while you’re presenting.

9 Start With a Bang

Did you know that people take as little as five seconds to judge how charismatic a speaker is?

Figuring out how to start your presentation is one of the most important parts of your Zoom presentation. It can either get your audience to sit up in their seats or prepare to doze off.

Here's an infographic on some tried-and-true ways to start a presentation that keeps your audience hooked . Keep reading for an explanation of all seven points below.

• Reveal a shocking statistic. A relevant and powerful statistic can set the tone for your presentation and show your audience the importance of your message.
• Tell a relevant joke. Humor is a great way to break the ice and keep your audience engaged. A boring presentation can quickly cause the listener to zone out.
• Ask a question. Get your audience involved by asking them a question relevant to your presentation topic. The more you interact with them, the more likely they’ll be to listen to what you’re saying.
• Quote an influential person. A powerful quote can often motivate or inspire your audience to sit up and listen to what you have to say.
• Tell a short story. Stories are personal and can evoke emotions. Telling a relatable story that also gets the audience curious to know more is a great way to start your presentation.
• Use an interesting prop. Using a prop can break the monotony of your presentation. Using motion and a visual object can also help attract your audience’s gaze.
• Show a captivating visual. Pictures speak louder than words, which is why using a powerful image that tells a story or shows the importance of your topic is an effective way to start your presentation.

Along with starting impressively, you should also try to end your presentation in a way that it drives your audience to take action or think about your message. A good idea is to end with a powerful statement or a thought-provoking question.

10 Make Eye Contact With the Audience

While you’re speaking, it’s just as important to make eye contact with your audience as it is during a face-to-face presentation.

The problem with Zoom presentations, though, is that you often end up looking at your own video or at the video of your audience.

To make eye contact online, however, you need to look directly at your camera. To make things easier, you can place the video boxes of your audience at the top of your screen, directly under your webcam.

11 Regularly Pause to Engage

Online presentations can get monotonous really quickly, and it’s common for people to zone out in the middle of it.

If you want to ensure your message hits home, take regular breaks throughout your Zoom presentation and engage your audience in conversation.

You could pause to ask them questions, or simply ask what they think about a certain topic. You could also try switching up the pace of your presentation, show a short video clip or tell an interesting or humorous story that helps bring wandering minds back.

12 Use the Chat Feature to Your Benefit

Zoom’s chat feature is a great way to get your audience involved without disrupting the flow of your presentation.

You can use Zoom chat to your advantage in several different ways:

• Questions. Ask your audience questions and let them answer through chat, or get them to ask you questions in the chat.
• Feedback. Let your audience know beforehand that they can leave their feedback and comments related to your presentation or topic in the chat. For example, if someone comments that they can’t hear you properly you can try fixing your mic or raising your voice.

Get creative with your use of the chat feature to keep your audience engaged. Ask them to send a hand emoji if they can relate to something, or ask what they want to see first in your presentation.

13 Record Your Presentation

The best way to improve your Zoom presentation skills is to learn from your past mistakes. Thankfully, Zoom lets you record your presentations so you can revisit them later and analyze your performance.

Are you using too many hand gestures? Are you walking around too much? Are you speaking at a reasonable pace? Understanding how you did can help you do even better in the future.

You can also send your Zoom presentation recordings to a friend or family member so they can review it for you. It always helps to get the opinion of someone you trust.

How to Share Your Visme Presentation on Zoom

Thinking of creating your Zoom presentation in Visme? Great choice!

The best part is that you can easily share your Visme slides with your audience without needing to download the presentation on your computer.

Of course, you can still download your presentation in PowerPoint or PDF format if you need to.

Follow the steps below to share your Visme presentation on Zoom without downloading anything.

Step 1: Publish your presentation.

When you’re finished designing your presentation in Visme, navigate over to the top right corner of your screen, and click on “Share”.

Next, click on “Publish for Web” on your left, type in a title and description for your presentation, and click on “Publish and get my link”.

Step 2: Click on the Present button.

Once you’ve published your presentation, you can go back and click on the “Present” button at the top right of your screen. This will open up the Presenter view.

If you want to access your presenter notes, click on the video camera icon at the bottom right corner of your screen, and your notes will appear in a new window.

Step 3: Share your screen on Zoom.

From your Zoom meeting window, click on “Share Screen” and select the window with the Presenter view of your presentation.

That’s it! You’ll now be able to look at the presenter notes on your screen while your audience views the slide open in your Presenter view window.

Alternatively, you can also download your presentation as a PowerPoint or PDF file, and share your screen in Zoom to present your slides.

Ready to Give a Memorable Zoom Presentation?

If you’re still getting used to the idea of presenting on Zoom, this article will help you prepare well and deliver an impactful presentation that people won’t be able to forget any time soon.

Remember, while Zoom presentations are different from presenting in person, you still need to be just as confident, dress to impress and make eye contact.

The only difference is that you need to put more effort into engaging your audience and keep them from dozing off in front of their computers.

Design a beautiful Zoom presentation and present online using Visme’s presentation maker. Sign up now for free and take it for a test drive!

Create beautiful presentations faster with Visme.

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About the Author

Mahnoor Sheikh is the content marketing manager at Visme. She has years of experience in content strategy and execution, SEO copywriting and graphic design. She is also the founder of MASH Content and is passionate about tea, kittens and traveling with her husband. Get in touch with her on LinkedIn .

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Blog Marketing 15 Interactive Presentation Ideas to Elevate Engagement

15 Interactive Presentation Ideas to Elevate Engagement

Written by: Krystle Wong Aug 04, 2023

As attention spans continue to shrink, the challenge of engaging audiences in a short timeframe has never been more significant. Let’s face it — grabbing and keeping your audience’s attention can be quite the challenge, especially when time is ticking away. But fear not, I’ve got the perfect solution: interactive presentations!

Believe it or not, creating an interactive presentation is easier than you might think. In this guide, I’ll show you how to effortlessly turn ordinary slides into captivating experiences with 15 interactive presentation ideas that will leave your audience begging for more. From quirky polls and fun games to storytelling adventures and multimedia magic, these ideas will take your presentation game to the next level.

Venngage is a game-changer when it comes to empowering interactive presentations. With just a few clicks, users can customize their favorite presentation templates , add multimedia content and create immersive experiences that leave a lasting impact. Whether you’re a seasoned presenter or a newcomer, get started with Venngage to elevate your presentation game to new heights of engagement and creativity.

Click to jump ahead:

What is an interactive presentation?

15 ways to make a presentation interactive, 7 best interactive presentation software, what are some common mistakes to avoid when creating interactive presentations, interactive presentation faqs, how to create an interactive presentation with venngage.

An interactive presentation is a dynamic and engaging communication format that involves active participation and collaboration between the presenter and the audience. Unlike traditional presentations where information is delivered in a one-way manner, interactive presentations invite the audience to interact, respond and contribute throughout the session.

Think of it as a two-way street where you and your audience have a friendly chat. It’s like playing a fun game where you ask questions, get live feedback and encourage people to share their thoughts. 

To make a good presentation , you can utilize various tools and techniques such as clickable buttons, polls, quizzes, discussions and multimedia elements to transform your slides into an interactive presentation. Whether you’re presenting in-person or giving a virtual presentation — when people are actively participating, they’re more likely to remember the stuff you’re talking about.

Interactive presentations leave a lasting impression on the audience. By encouraging active participation and feedback, interactive presentations facilitate better understanding and knowledge retention. Here are 15 innovative 5-minute interactive presentation ideas to captivate your audience from start to finish:

1. Ice-breaker questions

Start your presentation with intriguing and thought-provoking questions or a fun icebreaker game. These questions should be designed to pique the audience’s curiosity and encourage them to think about the topic you’ll be covering. By doing so, you create an immediate connection with your audience and set the stage for a more engaged and attentive audience.

For example, if you’re giving a business presentation about management and leadership training, you could ask audience questions such as “What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received, and how has it impacted your career?”

2. Live polling

Incorporate live polls during your presentation using audience response systems or polling apps . This allows you to collect real-time feedback, opinions and insights from active participants. Live polling encourages active participation and involvement, making your presentation feel like a collaborative and interactive experience.

3. Q&A sessions

Encourage the audience to ask questions throughout your presentation, especially for pitch deck presentations . Address these questions in real-time, which fosters a more interactive and dynamic atmosphere. This approach shows that you value the audience’s input and promotes a two-way communication flow.

4. Clickable buttons

Add clickable buttons to your slides, allowing the audience to navigate to specific sections or external resources at their own pace. For example, you could include links to your social media accounts or extra reading materials in your education presentation to give further information about the topic and get your students engaged.

By providing this autonomy, you empower the audience to explore areas of particular interest, creating a more personalized and engaging experience through your interactive slideshow.

5. Storytelling

Incorporate anecdotes or personal stories related to your topic. Storytelling is a powerful way to emotionally connect with your audience, making your presentation more relatable and memorable. A little storytelling along with a set of creative slides draws the audience in and keeps them engaged as they follow the narrative.

6. Interactive charts and graphs

Use interactive charts and graphs that respond to user input to make your presentation interactive. For instance, allow the audience to click on data points to view more detailed information or to change the displayed data series. Creating charts with interactive visuals help the audience interact with the data, fostering better understanding and engagement.

7. Animated infographics

Add animations to your infographics, making them visually dynamic and progressive. Animated infographics reveal information gradually, keeping the audience curious and attentive. This transforms complex data into an easily digestible and engaging format.

Venngage’s extensive library of infographic templates is a powerful tool to visualize data and elevate the interactivity of your presentations. Personalizing the visuals ensures a cohesive and professional look throughout your interactive presentation. The templates are highly customizable, allowing you to adjust colors, fonts, and styles to match your presentation’s theme and branding. 

8. Gamification

Introduce an interactive quiz, puzzles, or challenges related to your presentation content. Gamification adds an element of fun and competition, motivating the audience to participate actively and boosting their learning experience. Here are some gaming presentation templates you could use. 

9. Virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR)

If applicable, leverage VR or AR technologies to provide immersive experiences. These interactive presentation tools transport the audience into a virtual or augmented environment, making your presentation more captivating and memorable.

10. Collaborative whiteboarding

Get your audience involved in your presentation by utilizing digital whiteboards or collaborative tools to brainstorm ideas collectively. This fosters teamwork and creativity, enabling the audience to actively contribute and feel a sense of involvement in the presentation.

11. Hyperlinked text

Keep the information in your slides minimal with a simple presentation and incorporate hyperlinks to direct viewers to relevant websites or blogs , resources, or additional information. This encourages self-exploration and gives the audience the opportunity to delve deeper into topics of interest.

12. Role-playing

Engage the audience in role-playing scenarios to explore different perspectives. Role-playing promotes active learning and helps the audience relate the content to real-life situations, enhancing their understanding and retention.

13. Embedded videos

Include video clips in your slides to provide visual explanations, demonstrations, or interviews. Videos add a dynamic element to your presentation, enriching the content and keeping the audience engaged.

14. Audience-generated content

Encourage the audience to contribute ideas, stories or examples related to your professional presentation . Audience-generated content fosters a sense of ownership and involvement, making the presentation more interactive and personalized.

15. Slide transitions

Use slide transitions to create smooth animations between slides. Well-planned transitions maintain the audience’s interest and keep the presentation slides flowing seamlessly.

Interactive elements aside, enhance your presentation with these guides on how to summarize information for a captivating presentation and how to make a persuasive presentation to captivate your audience. 

If you’re looking to create engaging and interactive presentation slides that captivate your audience, these presentation software options are sure to elevate your game:

Prezi is renowned for its dynamic and non-linear presentation style, enabling users to craft visually stunning and interactive presentations. With an array of templates and animation effects, Prezi enhances audience engagement, making your presentations more captivating and memorable.

2. Mentimeter

Mentimeter serves as an audience response system, empowering real-time interaction during presentations. Users can create interactive polls, quizzes, word clouds and more, allowing the audience to respond using their smartphones or other devices. This fosters active participation and provides valuable feedback instantly.

3. Google Slides

Google Slides is a free cloud-based presentation software that not only offers collaboration features but also enables real-time interactions. It includes add-ons and third-party integrations to further enhance interactivity, making it an excellent choice for collaborative and engaging presentations.

4. Microsoft PowerPoint

PowerPoint, a classic presentation software, has evolved to incorporate more interactive features like live captions, real-time collaboration and interactive elements such as quizzes and forms. With its familiar interface and versatile functionalities, PowerPoint remains a reliable choice for interactive presentations.

5. Prezentor

Prezentor caters to sales-oriented presentations focusing on interactive storytelling and data-driven content. It offers analytics to track audience engagement and behavior during presentations, allowing you to fine-tune your approach and keep your audience hooked.

6. Opinion Stage

Opinion Stage is a visual and interactive data collection tool designed to engage and excite audiences whether sitting in a lecture hall, participating in a live Zoom, or watching an on-demand webinar. The Opinion Stage tools are simple and intuitive, making it easy to create attention-grabbing quizzes, surveys, and polls in minutes. A great way to spice up any presentation, encourage audience participation, and collect authentic feedback.

7 . Venngage

Venngage stands out as a versatile design tool that facilitates the creation of interactive infographics, data visualizations and presentations with ease. Offering various interactive elements and animations, Venngage empowers you to craft visually appealing and engaging presentations effortlessly.

With these interactive presentation software options at your disposal, you can unleash your creativity and deliver presentations that leave a lasting impact on your audience. So, go ahead and make your presentations interactive, captivating and memorable!

For more presentation software options, check out this blog on the 12 best presentation software for 2023.

Creating interactive presentations can be a game-changer for engaging your audience and enhancing your presentation skills, but steering clear of common pitfalls is essential. Here are some key mistakes to avoid when crafting your interactive presentations:

1. Overloading with interactivity

While interactivity is fantastic, bombarding your audience with too many interactive elements can backfire. Strive for a balanced approach that enhances engagement without overwhelming your listeners.

2. Ignoring audience relevance

Failing to tailor interactive elements to your audience’s interests and preferences can lead to disconnection. Make sure your interactions resonate with your specific audience for a more meaningful experience.

3. Not testing interactive elements

Skipping thorough testing of interactive features before showtime can spell disaster. Avoid technical glitches by diligently testing all interactive components in advance.

4. Poor timing and pace

Timing is everything, especially with interactive activities. Ensure seamless integration by planning your key points and the timing of your interactive elements carefully.

5. Lack of clear purpose

Every interactive element should serve a purpose and contribute to your presentation’s objectives. Don’t add interactions just for the sake of it — ensure they add value and align with your message.

6. Failing to engage beyond interactivity

While interactive elements are powerful tools, remember that content is king. Combine your interactive features with compelling storytelling and valuable insights to create an immersive and impactful presentation.

Incorporating animated slides into your interactive presentations enhances the overall appeal and interaction, turning an ordinary presentation into an engaging experience. Try it out with one of our animated presentation templates to get started. 

How do you start an interactive presentation?

Begin by grabbing the audience’s attention with an intriguing question or a surprising fact, setting the tone for a dynamic and engaging session.

Which type of presentation is the most interactive?

Workshops and seminars are often the most interactive types of presentations as they encourage active participation, discussions and hands-on activities.

How can interactive presentations enhance audience engagement?

Interactive presentations foster a two-way communication flow, involving the audience through polls, quizzes, discussions and multimedia elements, leading to increased interest, attentiveness and better retention of information.

What are some common interactive elements to include in a presentation?

Common interactive elements include clickable buttons, hyperlinked text, polls, quizzes, interactive charts, multimedia content and audience participation activities.

Can interactive presentations be used for educational purposes?

Absolutely! Interactive presentations are highly effective for educational purposes as they promote active learning, encourage critical thinking, and provide real-time feedback and knowledge exchange opportunities.

Need inspiration on how to give an engaging presentation ? Here are 120+ presentation ideas you could use. 

Venngage makes it easy for anyone to infuse interactivity into their presentations. From clickable buttons and hyperlinked text to interactive infographics and dynamic charts, Venngage offers a diverse range of interactive elements to captivate and engage the audience. Here’s how you can make your presentation more fun and interesting with Venngage:

• Sign up or log in to Venngage to access the platform.
• Choose a presentation template or start with a blank canvas to begin designing your interactive presentation.
• Add and edit slides in the Venngage editor to structure your presentation content effectively.
• Customize the design by selecting themes, fonts, colors and backgrounds to match your style and branding.
• Use interactive elements like buttons, links, pop-ups and hover effects to engage the audience during the presentation.
• Enhance engagement by incorporating interactive media such as videos and audio clips.
• Preview and test your entire presentation to ensure everything works smoothly before presenting it to your audience.
• Save your interactive presentation on Venngage and share it online or download it in various formats for presenting purposes.

Well, I hope these 15 5-minute interactive presentation examples can help unlock a new level of audience engagement for your next presentation. From fun quizzes and interactive storytelling to multimedia magic and gamified challenges, the possibilities are endless. So, don’t be afraid to experiment, tailor the ideas to suit your audience members and let your creativity shine.  

That said, remember to strike a balance and keep the interactivity purposeful and relevant. Some common mistakes to avoid when creating interactive slides include overloading the presentation with too many interactive elements and failing to align the interactive elements with the overall presentation goals and content. 

Got it? Great. Now let’s turn that boring presentation around!

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The Ultimate Guide to Giving Virtual Presentations on Zoom

Part 1: an introduction to giving virtual presentations on zoom.

PART I Introduction 1 – Cool Zoom Features 2 – Virtual Presentation Do’s 3 – Virtual Presentation Don’ts PART II 4 – Presentation Purpose 5 – Structure & Flow 6 – Slide Design PART III 7 – Connect with the audience 8 – Audience Participation 9 – Sharing Content PART IV 10 – Video & Audio Recordings 11 – Post-production 12 – Your Phone as a Webcam PART V 13 – When Things Go Wrong 14 – How to Ground Yourself PART VI 15 – Advanced Techniques 16 – Zoom Webinars vs Meetings 17 – 23 Essential Settings

There are three things I hate about Zoom…

#1 the super awkward must-click-two-buttons-to-leave-the-meeting debacle.

You say goodbye, search the bottom-right corner of the screen for the red button, click the red button, continue to stare awkwardly at the corner of the screen because the call is still open and you need to click a second red button.

Never fear, this can be turned off. In General Preferences simply uncheck the “Ask me to confirm when I leave a meeting” setting and poof! One-click exits. You’re welcome.

#2 Inviting someone and never knowing what the difference is between these two options: “Copy invite link” and “Copy invitation”.

I can sense you nodding along with me.

Just remember that it’s “invite link” you want 99% of the time vs “invitation”, and you can set an option that copies the link to your clipboard as soon as you start a meeting.

#3 The dropdown to change video settings is part of the “Stop Video” button. What the actual?!

Are you trying to make me screw up my presentation?

I also love Zoom.

Why? Because it works.

A year into our forced isolation, Zoom fatigue has set in. We’re avoiding calls and talking about concepts like Zoom holidays, just to get a break.

But the answer isn’t fewer Zoom calls, it’s better Zoom calls. Almost every Zoom presentation is boring, ugly, terribly structured, poorly executed, and designed to make you fall asleep.

In this guide I’ll show you

• How to create beautiful slides that communicate with clarity and class
• Unknown and awesome features of Zoom that you can use to your advantage
• How to overcome your nerves and survive technical problems
• And how to look like a total pro every time you give a presentation—or run a meeting—on the platform we all love to hate.

Note: for the sake of brevity, unless I’m talking about Zoom-specific functionality, these tips are applicable to any platform that offers meeting and presentation software such as GotoMeeting, Google Meet, Webinar Jam etc.

There are instructional videos throughout the guide to demonstrate the best parts in more depth. You can binge watch the videos on the “Presenting on Zoom” video channel here , or read on for the word and pictures.

If you want to stand out from your peers it’s good to understand the full power of the platform and know the features most people don’t know about.

#1 Set up your own configurable ‘personal meeting room’

It can be really distracting to hear a bunch of people talking over one another when you kick off a meeting. A good solution is to use what’s called a Personal Meeting ID (PID) which gives you control of the Zoom environment right from the start.

Features of your PID include:

• Using the same invite ID and URL whenever you start a meeting, bypassing the need to repeatedly check the settings. Note: because it’s a permanent URL,you should uncheck the “Allow participants to join anytime” setting to prevent randoms dropping in unannounced.
• Placing participants into a “waiting room” which lets them in when you are ready to begin– either individually or all at once.
• Automatically recording your meetings on your computer. Having a video of your presentation is always a good idea so you can re-use your content.

#2 Press the ‘spacebar to temporarily un-mute yourself’

You can help to ensure a quality audio recording by placing everyone on mute by default. And while this feature is more appropriate for meetings vs. presentations, it’s a great thing to know about – and to tell your audience about. It’s easy to use, hold down the spacebar to un-mute yourself and let it go to turn your audio off again. It prevents people from forgetting to re-mute when they walk off to do something else forcing you to listen to their snoring dog or screaming baby.

Even if it doesn’t get used during your presentation (unless it’s a workshop you won’t want people to randomly chime in), many of your audience will thank you for learning this tip.

Note: You may need to enable it in your Zoom Preferences.

#3 Record ‘separate audio files’ for each speaker, host, or panelist in the presentation

If you have a host or a co-presenter there will be content in the session that’s not yours. Having separate audio recordings lets you use only the audio that was from your part of the presentation.

You can enable this in Preferences > Recording.

#4 Enable the ‘non-verbal feedback’ feature to allow audience interactions

Cool zoom feature #4 – enable non-verbal feedback.

To make your presentations interactive you can enable the non-verbal feedback feature. This allows participants to express reactions to your presentation.

This is not to be confused with ‘meeting reaction emojis’ which are temporary reactions that disappear after 5 seconds. To be honest, it’s hard not to be confused when there are two sets of interactions with different names.

Non-verbal feedback is for direct feedback to the speaker or host that others can agree with by clicking the same icon. The result is that the speaker can see how many people are expressing the feedback.

The options for non-verbal feedback are shown in the image below:

An example of how this would be used in a presentation is to ask the speaker to speed up or slow down. This might seem like a weird thing to be told during your talk, and if it’s just one person asking you’d most likely ignore it. But if 50 people are saying to slow down, that’s a pretty good indication that your current presentation style isn’t working for them.

It provides a pretty amazing insight – something I wish I’d had that feedback during an on-stage talk.

You can also use it to ask binary questions to the audience that they can respond yes or no to – a great way to segment the audience so you can tailor your content based on their responses.

Combine this feature with a QTINTA audience participation question for a really engaging experience. You’ll have to watch the video to know what QTINTA means.

#5 Use the Zoom ‘beauty mode’ to soften your appearance

Zoom includes a “Touch up my appearance” filter in the “Preferences > Video” settings, which gives your skin a softer appearance. There’s a slider that lets you control how much it applies the effect. It can look weird if you crank it too much, but having just a little can really help – especially if you’re looking a big bedraggled.

Settings are maintained when you quit so you can expect to look the same way every time.

#6 Use Zoom ‘video filters’ to add a cinematic high-contrast appearance

We’re all familiar with Zoom backgrounds, but a more impressive feature in my mind are the video filters. You can access them via the “Stop Video” dropdown arrow. Yes, there are some silly ones which can be funny when in a meeting, but for presenting stick to the non-silly ones. They can help improve the quality of your on-camera look. I particularly like the first option “Boost” which kicks your contrast up a notch removing any bland washed out lighting, it also removed some warmer tones which I like as it reduces the redness I often have in my skin.

You can see that it increases the contrast but also cuts down on the redness in my face.

Unlike the “Touch up my appearance” feature, your video filter settings are not maintained between sessions, which is a frustrating extra step each time if you found a setting you like.

#7 Encourage attendees to use ‘side-by-side mode’ to view you and your slides

This can be a good setting if you want to make your talk feel more personal. It shows your camera video beside your slides, and viewers can resize the videos as they see fit.

It can be a good idea to point this out as not everyone will know.

E.g. “You should be viewing this presentation in side by side mode so you see me and the slides. If you want to make the slides bigger (or smaller) you can resize them by dragging the slider between my video and the slides.”

#8 Use Zoom ‘annotations’ to mark up your slides live, or a ‘whiteboard’ for a blank canvas

A really cool feature of Zoom is Annotations. This lets you write or draw on top of the screen you are sharing. Once the feature is activated , you can access it from the menu at the top when you are sharing your screen.

This is really helpful when you have a complex slide and you want to focus people’s attention on different areas of the screen as you talk. When presenting live on a stage you can gesture towards a particular area, but it’s not as easy in a virtual presentation which is why it’s handy.

There is also a Whiteboard feature that gives you, well, a whiteboard. This could be useful if you find that you need to dig into a point you’re making in a more detailed way or discover during your talk that you need a different way to explain it.

You might want to take a quick screenshot when you’re done if you happened to get some interesting ideas marked up.

Rock open a whiteboard and sketch a diagram. Having a tablet and pen would be very helpful for this, versus trying to draw with a mouse. It might be wise to use the non-verbal feedback feature to get folks to say “Yes” to a “Let me know if you’re ready to move on” question.

Note, this is a screen sharing feature, so in order to get to the whiteboard, you need to stop sharing your screen, then share once more but choose Whiteboard as the option. Then you’ll have to stop sharing and share your slides again. Make sure you’ve practiced this if you think you’ll be using it.

#9 Use ‘closed captions’ to increase the accessibility of your virtual presentation and video recording

Zoom has transcription features that let you add closed captions to your session. You can do it manually for free, but that means someone will have to type them live, which is a pretty specific skill to have, and requires someone to do it for you.

If you have a paid Zoom account (roughly $20/month) live transcriptions are included. An alternative is to integrate with a platform like Otter.ai, to add closed captions in real time. You can also use Otter for transcribing any other audio or video files you have which makes it a much better value.

There are several reasons why closed captions are a good thing to do.

• No headphones: if an attendee doesn’t have or forgot their headphones and they’re in an environment where they can’t have the volume on, closed captions are a life saver that could be the difference between them staying or leaving.
• Accessibility: Captions allow meetings to be accessible to all. For the deaf, hard of hearing, or non-native speakers, they are an absolute necessity to understand what’s going on.
• Attention and recall: closed captioning can increase the amount of your content that an attendee comprehends and remembers. This is because they are getting it using two senses, and you have to focus more intently when you are reading.

You can check out Otter here to set up live captions.

#10 Use Zoom ‘breakout rooms’ to split workshop participants into groups

Without question, one of the most popular Zoom features is Breakout Rooms. They are exactly as they sound, allowing you to break out attendees into separate rooms. This could be for hosting a multi-track event where there is a speaker in each breakout room, or more commonly it is to allow groups to work together away from the “Main Room” and then come back in to rejoin you as the speaker.

This is a wonderful feature if you are running workshops that require groups to work through some of your worksheets or tasks for example.

There’s a good demo of how to use Zoom breakout rooms here.

#11 Use a Zoom ‘waiting room’ to hold attendees before you let them in at the same time

Nobody shows up at the same time to a presentation, and you don’t always want to start until an acceptable threshold of attendees have arrived. Particularly if the beginning of your talk is fundamental to your big idea.

The waiting room is basically a holding area where attendees are listed as they show up. They get to see a simple welcome screen (annoyingly simple really – I’d much prefer to have the options to have a fully custom slide in there), and you can admit them one by one, or all at once, when you are ready to begin.

It also allows you to block people from entering, although for the most part there’s not much reason to do this when you are presenting to a large audience. Useful if someone becomes disruptive for any reason.

Caution: it’s very easy to forget about the waiting room and have people sitting around unable to get in after you’ve started. I recommend assigning this task to your co-host.

Cool Zoom Feature to Avoid – ‘Present with your PowerPoint or Keynote slides as a virtual background’.

This is an interesting feature that’s worth discussing both for why it’s cool and why it’s uncool.

What it does

Instead of a regular screen share, it takes your slide deck and sets it as the background much like any other Zoom background. As such it places a ‘mini you’ floating on top of the slides in cutout mode which is kinda fun. Kinda.

To access the feature (beta at time of writing) click the “Advanced” tab in the “Share Screen” popup, and select “Slides as Virtual Background”.

This is what it looks like from the attendee’s perspective. And yes, you appear twice on the screen. Once on top of your slides, and again beside them. Silly.

Note: you must download a local copy of your slide deck to your computer as it doesn’t connect to cloud-based slides.

If you have audio and video in your slides, checking the “Share Sound” option at the bottom-left of the share popup should make that transmit to the audience. However, it doesn’t. In fact I couldn’t get any video or audio to play at all.

There’s also a second “Split Video from Slides” option which kinda defeats the purpose. As you can see below, you are back with your regular background in a separate window, and you are only on the screen once.

With the split setting in place, it would be a fair to wonder why you’d use this feature as it looks just the same as the regular view.

There are however, a few key differences.

The major difference is that you don’t need to have your slides in fullscreen mode on your computer. In the screenshot below you’ll see that I’m looking at a Zoom window with my slides inside it. I can now move through my slides while having other windows open such as the chat and participant windows. This is actually pretty great as the audience doesn’t see your layout, they see what they would normally see.

A nice side effect of this setting is the audience won’t see the awkward moment at the start of your talk where your whole screen is visible until you start the slides.

Looking at the main window, you can clean up the view a bit by having attendee video off by un-checking “More > Allow Participants to Start Video” in the Participants panel, and then selecting “Hide non-video participants” from the “…” menu on one of the participant video boxes.

You can take it a step further if you select “Hide self view” from the … on your video thumbnail. This will give you a view of just your slides. As much as the layout annoys me (I’d rather pop the self view out to the side with the chat), it can be important to see yourself to make sure you’re not moving out of frame – particularly if you are speaking standing up.

However, at this point in the beta it’s just not usable enough to be a serious and professional solution because of a few technical failings:

• It’s buggy like most beta features are
• It doesn’t show any animations or slide transitions
• If you are recording the screen, the merge view while fun, is a little unprofessional looking
• Audio and video didn’t work at all for me, despite there being a setting to allow slide audio to work. I think this might be because the videos didn’t play.
• When you start the share it has to process the slides before it starts which causes a delay if you aren’t expecting it.

Overall, it’s a feature with some exciting elements, although to be perfectly honest, the good aspects are nothing to do with the feature itself, but are side effects. I’d prefer to see a new feature that allows you to avoid presenting in fullscreen to allow a much greater degree of presenter screen setup.

The chapter title says it all. Do these things and your virtual presentations will be better. If you don’t, your presentation won’t be better than the last one you did, missing an important opportunity grow your skills as a virtual presenter.

Seriously. Do these things.

#1 Test your slides from the ‘attendee perspective’ using another laptop or tablet

Your slides might look amazing on your retina laptop or 5K monitor, but not all screens are alike, and your super-detailed tiny-text “revolutionary new marketing method” process diagram might look more like a dot-matrix printout to someone with a lesser screen.

Viewing your slides on a smaller or alternative screen isn’t enough. You also need to view them on Zoom on that screen, because virtual presentation software tends to change things you wouldn’t expect.

The golden rule of presentation QA is to run through every slide on the platform you’re going to be delivering on (Zoom, GotoWebinar, etc.) watching out for the things below:

• Any virtual presentation platform will add small visual artifacts to the video stream—they’re imperfect degenerative medium where some quality will be lost in transmission. As a result, your slides will never be quite as sharp as directly viewing your slides.
• If you have audio in your slides, check that the audio levels are balanced and not too loud or quiet. Remember to also test it with headphones on as that’s a common listening scenario for your audience.
• If you have video in your slides it may not come across well when presenting virtually. There’s usually some lag or choppiness that makes it skip frames. This can make the audio look out of sync.
• If you have multiple slides with audio, set them at the exact same level so people don’t get deafened. A common problem in that scenario is that the attendees will turn down their audio if you blast them, and then the next time you have audio it’s too quiet to hear properly. Your presentation software will have a setting for the audio or video volume. The best way to make sure they are the same is to move your slides to be one after the other (you can reorder them afterwards), then step through them to gauge the balance.
• If you have complex animations or transitions, they may render more slowly or less smoothly when piped through Zoom and a wifi connection. If they don’t work the way you want them to, consider simplifying them (fewer animations) or removing them altogether – replacing them with static slides. You can still use a technique like the Progressive Reveal to create a pseudo animation effect.

To prevent an audio feedback loop when testing your audio and video slides, have your partner/friend/colleague be on the viewer/attendee side in another room.

Whatever your specific case is, there’s a good chance that on the viewer’s side it’s not as perfect. So double, triple, and quadruple check.

I guess you should also single check. Why does nobody say that?

“You should single check your work to make sure it’s awesome.”

The best way to QA is to record some video of it from the viewer’s perspective. Have your QA buddy record their screen (with audio). If you don’t have anyone to help you, just set up your extra laptop (hopefully you have one somewhere) in another room and record the screen from there. If you’re using a Mac, Quicktime is an easy way to get a recording. On a PC, you can use PowerPoint to do a screen recording (more on that later), or find some free screen recording software for a test.

If you do have a helper, you can also reverse roles where they present and you observe on their machine. This will give you the truest sense of what might need to be fixed. It’ll no doubt be quite hilarious to watch, unless they turn out to be better at it than you.

#2 Remove all hashtags from your slides

My typical advice regarding hashtags is to make sure you update them to use the current event’s hashtag if you’ve used this slide deck before. If you don’t it looks awful to the audience and makes them feel like you didn’t put in the effort to make a presentation just for them.

However, the main goal of this entire guide —primarily covered in chapters 10 and 11— is to ensure you create a professional-grade recording of your virtual presentation that you can repurpose over and over for multiple virtual events.

If you leave event hashtags in your slides they will be forever embedded in your recording, rendering it useless for re-use. And trust me, once you’ve created a high-resolution awesomely edited recording of your talk, you will feel amazing about it.

It may feel counterintuitive, but you should delete all the hashtags from your slides.

If the event mentions it and asks you why or asks you to include them, just politely let them know your rationale. I’ve found that many virtual events have interactive chat in the interface they use which tends to dilute the number of people hanging out on a Twitter hashtag anyway.

#3 Have a wired Internet connection

If attendees have a poor connection they can always leave and download the video and slides later on.

But the presenter is the one person who absolutely must have a great Internet connection, and the best way to do that is to have directly wired Ethernet.

A side benefit of this is that it will help you end the endless debate over who’s connection is causing the problem. I’m sure you’ve been in a meeting where someone suggests your Internet is slow, and you say yours is fine, and they say that theirs has been working brilliantly all week.

Just say “Yeah, but I have a hardwired Ethernet connection.” End of conversation.

If you don’t have a wired connection, work on getting one set up, and in the meantime tell your eager tech wannabe roommates NOT to reset the ******* wifi while you’re presenting.

#4 Have a backup audio input device

“Is this mic on? Can you hear me at the back?”

Sometimes your mic will stop working, and it’s one of the most uncomfortable panic-ridden things that can happen to a speaker (see When Things Go Wrong ). It could be a dead battery issue, or your headphone cable could be old and the internal wiring failed.

Whatever the cause, you need to have a way to deal with the problem.

If you are using a posh external mic that stops working, ditching it for the internal microphone of your laptop will likely degrade the audio quality significantly, but it’s better than nothing.

In a later chapter I do a deep dive comparison video about microphone options for virtual presenting .

Probably the simplest backup is another set of headphones. The classic Apple headphones are only $25 now. Make sure you get the ones with the 3.5mm jack, and not the lightning cable, (especially if you’re not an Apple person) as that’s only useful for your iPhone. And if you aren’t an Apple person, there are a million other options on Amazon.

However, be warned that these headphones are rife with audio problems such as noisy cables (you’ll need to sit still which sucks), and they should only be used on Zoom. When using them with any other audio recording software they have a horrific background hiss that destroys your audio, but Zoom’s noise removal feature (on by default) actually does a fantastic job of removing it, making them a viable last minute solution. Hopefully, you’ll never need to use them.

#5 Have a slide dedicated to encouraging non-verbal feedback

The non-verbal feedback feature of Zoom is a great way to make your talk more dynamic. But you don’t want to try and explain it in the middle of your talk as it’ll break the flow and screw up the fluidity of your recording.

Instead, consider which aspects of the feature you want to use, and have a slide at the start of your presentation (slide 2 for example) that focuses on this. You can quickly walk people through how it works, and tell them how you’ll be using it throughout.

#6 Have everyone muted by default

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. You don’t want attendees, whether it’s 5 or 500, to be chatting before or during your presentation. So this one is simple. Make sure you mute everyone. If you’re using your Personal Meeting ID you might have this already set up.

You can mute everyone in the Participants sidebar, or as a global default setting in the web portal administration settings “Settings > Schedule Meeting > Mute all participants when they join a meeting”.

#7 Wear confidence clothes

Just because you can present in your PJs it doesn’t mean you should present in your PJs. Treat it like an on-stage talk and get ready in your mojo outfit. You’ll gain confidence and look more professional.

Something I like to do when I’m on the road presenting, is lay out my clothes the night before. It helps me get in the right mindset and also saves time the next day when you might be stressing out.

#8 Close all of your other software to prevent your machine slowing down

Take a look at your computer right now and count A) how many different apps are running, and B) how many tabs you have open in your browser.

Here’s a screenshot of mine, for reference.

Tabs open in Chrome? 39. Apps open? 20

You need to be concerned about two things, the amount of memory and processing power being hogged by all the apps you have open, and the number of ways you might receive a notification during your talk.

For PCs running Windows 10, there’s a built-in function to silence notifications when presenting . But if you’re a Mac user the settings for this are horrendous (slightly better in Big Sur). Fortunately there’s a free app called Muzzle that silences all of your notifications as soon as you share your screen.

#9 Have two pre-made slides ready for Q&A at the end of your virtual presentation

It’s common for your host to ask questions that the audience has submitted in the chat window (or the Q&A window for Zoom Webinars) at the end of your session. The best way to utilize this opportunity—if you’re still in control of the screen—is to have two slides prepared.

The first slide should simply have Q&A written on it, really big.

The second slide should be a promo slide with a special offer you have.

I like to leave up the Q&A slide until the questions start, then flip it to the promo slide so it can sit there for the next 5-10 minutes. It’s a great way to have it visible for a long period of time without actually having to be salesy in your presentation.

It’s fairly common that an event organizer will ask you if you have something to promote, but if they don’t, ask them if it’s okay that you use a slide at the end like this.

#10 Build a background set to make your virtual presentations look professional

If you spend a lot of time on Zoom, instead of using a Zoom background, start thinking about how you can built a bit of a set where you do your presentations. Not only will it look more professional, but it will fill you with confidence and make you feel like you’re in presentation mode when you’re there.

I’m fortunate to have a space for my office/studio, and I’ve seen and felt the difference a well-designed environment makes when I show up to work. It took me months to get it right, so don’t think you have to suddenly have something perfect. Just chip away at it over time, turning on your webcam every day and giving a little thought as to how you can make the space more special. Small shelves with plants or books can work great, and Pinterest is definitely your friend for this type of thing.

Many folks won’t have a dedicated workspace to claim as your “stage”, but I’m pretty sure your significant other won’t complain if you make your home that little bit nicer.

Speaking of “stages”, I actually built a stage in my studio—almost burning down the house in the process —but that’s a story for another time. Like I said, it took months to get to this stage. I keep saying stage.

#11 Reboot your computer the night before your virtual presentation

Restarting your computer can help speed it up a bit, especially if you haven’t done it in ages. Any little performance advantage you can get is valuable for a live presentation. It will help clear out any processes that are stuck or hogging the CPU.

However, it’s best not to do this right before your talk, as you risk it doing some weird software updates that take hours to complete.

#12 Do a test Zoom meeting to check your camera angles and lighting

As Springsteen said in Dancing in the Dark—”I check my look in the mirror, I wanna change my clothes, my hair, my face.”—you should always check how you look on camera before the presentation starts. Adjust the angle of the camera for your most flattering look and the best view of your background, which of course is a well-decorated wall, and not a zoom background of a beach or mountaintop.

Make sure to turn on the lights you’ll be using to light your lovely face, wick away any sweat using blotting wipes, and apply some simple makeup to remove shiny reflections from your head. More details on those techniques in the lighting section .

Here’s the smart part, record your test meeting and play it back to make sure there are no weird things in the background, it’s often easier to analyze a recording as opposed to your webcam view.

#13 Double-check your audio for background noise

At the same time as your camera check, watch your test recording and listen very carefully for any noise in the background. You’ll be surprised at how oblivious you can be to background noise when you’re busy and/or nervous.

Sounds to watch out for:

• Laundry sounds: Depending on where your washer/dryer are it may not be an issue, but the low hum can travel far. Start a Zoom recording, making sure to use which ever audio (mic) input you plan on using, go turn on your washer or dryer or dishwasher, then come back and replay the recording to see if it’s discernible. Crank the volume to make sure. There is NOTHING worse than doing a badass presentation then finding out the recording is ruined by a persistent hum in the background, or the sound of someone’s hoody zip clattering round and round in the dryer.
• Tube lights: If you have any tube lights where you are recording, or even in a nearby room, turn them off. They can be soooo noisy. Then put in the effort to replace them with silent LED tube bulbs when you have time. It does require some rewiring, but it’s not that hard—I did it recently and I made sure to choose bulbs with the same colour temperature as the lights I’ll be using to light me up in the video–more on that in the A/V chapter .
• Ceiling fans: Another subtle and repetitive sound. Turn ’em off unless the resulting heat will make you sweat to the point of scaring the audience.
• Heating: Not all heating is noisy, but many houses in North America use what’s called forced air. It’s noisy. A low hum, yes, but it’s an audio killer.
• Noisy clothes: Your clothes can cause bad scratching sounds—even if you use a shotgun microphone that’s not attached to your clothes—which is an audio killer. What happens is that any loose clothing rubs against you when you gesticulate with your arms. Tighter clothes like a t-shirt are the solution to this. I go into more depth including a comparison video in What to do When Noisy Clothes Ruin Your Audio .
• Noisy shoes: if you’re wearing any kind of heels, they will cause irritating sounds if you shuffle your feet (while presenting standing up, which you should do). The simplest solution is to take them off and present in your socks (or bare feet).
• Analog watches: I’m kidding.

And make sure everyone in the house knows not to bother you while you’re presenting. If you are in a room with a door, hang a sign on it with the time of your event, and say not to disturb you until you take the sign off the door.

Guess what? Not every thing you can do as a virtual presenter is something you should be doing—I’m talking about you, speaker who likes to take a bathroom break while mic’d up, two minutes before the session starts.

Similarly, not every feature of Zoom has a positive impact on the audience or speaker experience. In this short and not-so-sweet chapter I’ll give you some tips about things to avoid so your talks go more smoothly.

#1 Don’t use a free Zoom account for your presentation

If you’re running the show yourself this is an important one. The free Zoom plan allows up to 100 attendees which is great, and more than enough for a small event, however there is also a 40-minute time limit, which would be very embarrassing if you didn’t know that and all of a sudden everyone gets kicked out of your virtual event.

#2 Try to avoid saying “Can you hear me?”

This is a classic intro statement that nervous presenters ask, but it makes you sound unprofessional. Instead, make a subtle change to how you position it, like this:

“Thanks {host name}, let’s get started, and let us know in the chat window if you have any issues hearing my audio.”

#3 Don’t use your laptop’s microphone if your webcam is sitting on an external monitor

When you do this, the laptop will be off to one side and your audio will be really quiet and sound like you’re in a different room.

#4 Don’t use stock photos in your slides

Just as you shouldn’t use a stock photo as the header background on your website, you shouldn’t use them in your presentations. To illustrate my point, it’s way too common for software companies to think it’s cool to use an overhead shot of a laptop and a coffee cup. It’s actually hilarious how prevalent it is. I recommend entering the URL of any image you’re considering using into tineye.com which will tell you how many times it’s been used.

If you absolutely have to use one, try hard to find one that’s not so widely used. Unsplash.com is a good resource for free photography that’s typically got less of a stock feel to it.

But all in all, the best way to avoid using stock photos is to develop an original content mindset (in chapter 6) .

#5 Don’t use a Zoom background. You heard me.

Zoom backgrounds can be fun in meetings, but when you’re presenting it can look unprofessional and can be really distracting. It can also make some of your head/hair disappear and speaking for myself, I need all the hair I can get.

#6 Don’t record the call without permission

This is a big no-no on certain types of call. For a presentation you can make a statement that it’s being recorded, as this is always helpful information for attendees to know (no permission needed) but if it’s a meeting with a client, customer, or coworker, you should be explicit that you are recording and why: “If it’s okay with you I’d like to record the call so I don’t miss any of the details.” This is important when you are a guest in an interview too. Asking for permission will add a level of trust and respect in the eyes of who you are asking – and in the very rare occasion that they say no, be graceful and say okay no worries. Then follow up with,”I may be taking notes throughout so bare with me if I’m scribbling”.

Also be aware, that if you  are recording the session, everyone on the other side will see a blinking “recording” signal in the top-left corner, so there’s no creeping allowed.

To recap, remember these rules when it comes to recordings:

• Meetings: Ask for permission, and don’t record if your guest is uncomfortable with it.
• Presentations: Let people know that it’s being recorded and that you will be making it available after. Ideally after some post-production enhancements in chapter 11.

#7 Don’t be the host if you might leave early

This is a nightmare as the other participants are suddenly without a meeting and they might not know why. Then they have to re-coordinate to set up a new meeting, which is always a chore and often involves Slack or text messages or even worse, emails.

Intro Introduction to Virtual Presentations on Zoom

Chapter 1 18 Cool Zoom Features You Should Know About

Chapter 2 12 Things You Should Do in Your Zoom Presentation

Chapter 3 8 Things You Shouldn’t Do in Your Zoom Presentation

Chapter 4 Defining Your Presentation’s Purpose

Chapter 5 How to Define Your Talk’s Structure, Story, & Flow

Chapter 6 41 Slide Design Tips for Virtual Presentations

Chapter 7 6 Ways to Make Eye Contact With an Invisible Audience

Chapter 8 How to do Audience Participation in a Virtual Presentation

Chapter 9 How to Share Content during a Zoom Presentation

Chapter 10 How to Create a Stunning Video and Audio Recording

Chapter 11 Using Post-Production to Add Value to Your Zoom Recording

Chapter 12 How to Use Your Phone as a Beautiful Webcam

Chapter 13 What to Do When Things go Wrong in Your Presentation

Chapter 14 How to Ground Yourself and Get Ready to Present

Chapter 15 Advanced & Creative Zoom Presentation Techniques

Chapter 16 The Difference Between Zoom Meetings and Zoom Webinars

Chapter 17 23 Zoom Settings to Enable or Disable for a Smooth Presentation

Home Blog Business How to Ace Your Zoom Presentation: Tips for Successful Virtual Presenting

How to Ace Your Zoom Presentation: Tips for Successful Virtual Presenting

It’s your turn to speak during a Zoom social event in your company when your cat decides to make an impromptu appearance, climbing onto your keyboard and causing a flurry of emojis to flood the screen. Thankfully, everyone loved your feline co-worker and joked about the hilarious scene.

But what if it happens in a more meaningful setting, like a virtual sales pitch you’ve been looking forward to for weeks? You wouldn’t want to risk losing a client – and your job – just because a pet rains on your parade.

In this article, we will provide you with essential tips and tricks on how to ace your Zoom presentation like a pro. From preparing your visual aids and keeping your audience engaged to handling technical glitches with finesse, we’ve got you covered.

Table of Contents

Preparing Your Zoom Presentation

Tips for delivering a successful zoom presentation.

• How to Share PowerPoint on Zoom

Handling Technical Issues During a Zoom Presentation

Follow up after a zoom presentation.

Like in-person presentations, a successful Zoom presentation requires careful preparation to ensure you can send your audience the right message. Here are some tips to help you prepare presentations for Zoom.

Use Relevant Visuals

There are many ways you can present information besides plain boring texts. Sixty-five percent of humans are visual learners , so your audience might retain the information you share better if you present them in charts, graphs, images, or other visualizations.

You may use several types of visuals throughout your Zoom presentation, but make sure they are easy to understand in a virtual setting and are relevant to your subject.

For instance, if you present a new product, you may record a video demonstration highlighting its features. Using Zoom’s built-in video player, you can then embed the video into PowerPoint or play it during your presentation.

Use a Simple Presentation Template

A simple presentation template can help you create a cohesive and professional-looking presentation on Zoom. Choose a template that complements your content and aligns with your branding, but avoid overly complex designs that may distract your audience.

You may use a roadmap PowerPoint template or include an agenda slide to set the timeline of your presentation and provide an overview of the topics you will cover. Aside from it keeps the presentation flowing smoothly, it helps your audience orient their thoughts on what will happen in the meeting.

Make It Interactive

Just because you are the presenter doesn’t mean you have to do all the talking – you can let your audience speak too! One of the key aspects of delivering a successful Zoom presentation is to make it interactive and engage your audience.

Think of some icebreakers that will keep your audience involved. It can be a simple open-ended question or a poll to stimulate discussion. You can also use breakout rooms to facilitate small group interactions or collaborative activities.

Interactive presentations help to break the monotony of one-way communication and make your Zoom presentation more dynamic and engaging. Having no activities encouraging interaction makes losing your audience’s interest during virtual meetings easier.

Practice the Presentation and Timing

Aside from the content of your presentation, you also have to worry about the technicalities of presenting on Zoom, so having a dry run before the real thing is important to ensure a smooth delivery.

Practice your presentation multiple times before the event to ensure you are comfortable with the content, pacing, and timing. This will familiarize you with the Zoom platform and its features, such as screen sharing, chat, and breakout rooms.

You have a killer Zoom PowerPoint. Now it’s time to focus on delivering it effectively. Here are some Zoom presentation tips:

Use a Neutral Background

Your background in a Zoom presentation can impact how your audience perceives your professionalism and credibility. Choose a neutral background that is free from distractions and clutter.

If you have an office space at home, that will work even better. Pick from Zoom’s virtual backgrounds, preferably plain and clean. Make your background boring so your audience’s attention is drawn to you. Stay away from bed!

Dress Appropriately

Even though you may be presenting from the comfort of your home, it’s important to dress professionally for your Zoom presentation. It’s not bad to wear your usual duds when attending a casual game night with your team. But if it’s a formal setup, like a business proposal, you must suit up to invite success.

Dressing up smartly may improve your mood and confidence. In a 2014 study , two groups of male subjects were asked to put on business suits and sweatpants before engaging in a negotiation task. Those who dressed up obtained more profitable negotiations than the other group.

As a rule of thumb, avoid wearing loud colors or busy patterns that may distract your audience.

Keep an Eye Contact

Maintaining eye contact is essential in any presentation, whether in person or on Zoom. Making eye contact helps you connect with your audience and convey your message more effectively.

The common advice you’ll get to achieve this on Zoom is to look directly into the camera to create the impression of eye contact with your audience. We agree with these, but as the speaker, you also have to read the facial expressions of your audience and see how they react to what you are saying.

If you are using a desktop or laptop, the simplest solution to achieving these two is to reduce Zoom to a smaller window and place it directly below your webcam. This way, you can glance at their faces occasionally while keeping the illusion of eye contact.

Keep Your Notes Minimal

If you are an expert in the topic you are presenting, it would be best to ditch your notes during Zoom events. Constantly looking down at your notes can be distracting for your audience.

But if the need calls for it, make sure to keep your notes minimal and stick them in the right place. You can use a second screen or a tablet, or position your notes close to the camera to refer to them without breaking eye contact. This way, you can stay focused on engaging with your audience and delivering your presentation smoothly.

How to Share PowerPoint on Zoom (Step by Step)

How to present on Zoom? Once you understand what Zoom presentations are and the tips for Zoom presentations, it is time to give the presentation using Zoom. Let’s see this step by step:

Step 1. Open the PowerPoint file you want to present.

Step 2. Join the Zoom meeting and click on the Share Screen icon in the meeting control panel at the bottom of your screen.

[Optional] You can customize who can share their screen in the Zoom meeting. Click on the small arrow in the corner of the Share Screen icon and select Advanced Sharing Options.

Select Hosts Only or All Participants.

Step 3. Select the window you want to share – in this case, the one that contains the PowerPoint slide – and click on Share.

If you are playing audio or video within your presentation, make sure to tick Share sound and Optimize for video clip.

Step 4. Click on the Slide Show tab in the PowerPoint window and begin the presentation by selecting Play from Start or Play from Current Slide.

Step 5. To stop screen sharing of PowerPoint, hover over the meeting controls at the top of your screen and select Stop Share.

It’s not uncommon for technicalities to derail a live Zoom presentation – video, Wi-Fi, or audio may fail. But there are things you can do to prevent them, or at least minimize their impact on your presentation when they happen.

First, test your equipment before your presentation and make sure everything is in place. You can join a meeting test on Zoom to check your internet connection, camera, audio, and microphone.

You may also send a PDF copy of your presentation to the attendees before the meeting if sharing your screen won’t work. This will allow you to carry on as you or your technical team figures out the problem.

If the technical issues persist, you should have a good Plan B and be prepared to continue on a different platform like Google Meet. Send the alternative link with the meeting invitation and give clear action steps when technical difficulties happen.

Following up after a Zoom presentation is a crucial step in maintaining momentum and maximizing the impact of your presentation. For example, if you are selling a product, you can use a follow-up email to make the final push of your sales pitch.

Start your email by expressing appreciation for their participation and summarizing the key points of your presentation. Include any additional resources, such as presentation slides or a video presentation recording, to reinforce your message. Offer yourself as a resource for further questions or discussions, and encourage feedback or comments from your audience.

Here’s an example of a well-executed follow-up email for a Zoom workshop event:

Conducting a virtual presentation sounds overwhelming as you must consider technical aspects in addition to delivering your message and keeping it engaging.

Remember, there’s no such thing as overpreparing when you have bosses or potential clients to impress. Follow the tips in this article to nail your next Zoom presentation!

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Business Presentations, Video Filed under Business

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Easy PowerPoint Zoom Tutorial (Free Templates & Examples)

Sara Wanasek

Tired of navigating your slides in a chronological order? Looking for ways to spice up the way you interact with your presentation and engage your audience?

Transform your boring presentations into something more engaging and captivating with PowerPoint’s Zoom feature. PowerPoint Zoom allows you to create dynamic, non-linear presentations. Think of it as building a Prezi inside PowerPoint. Jump from one point in your presentation to the next seamlessly by creating links to the different sections of your presentation.

By utilizing PowerPoint’s Slide Zoom, Section Zoom, and Summary Zoom, you can easily create an entertaining and engaging presentation for your audience. There are many different ways to add these to your presentation, so read on to learn how to use PowerPoint Zoom and implement it in the best ways!

Table of Contents

What is powerpoint zoom.

PowerPoint’s Zoom feature is a tool that allows you to create interactive PowerPoint presentations . It enables you to zoom in and out of specific sections or slides, creating a more dynamic and immersive experience for your audience. With PowerPoint Zoom , you can easily create links or “zoom areas” on your slides such that when clicked during a presentation, can allow you to navigate to specific slides or sections and focus on the content that is most relevant at any given time—there’s no need to be stuck with whatever slide is chronologically next.

Why Use PowerPoint Zoom?

PowerPoint Zoom lets you present in a more flexible and interactive way. For instance, you can create a dynamic menu that allows your audience to help you choose which topics to cover first. With just a click, you can jump to that slide or section and relay that information.

PowerPoint Zoom is also particularly useful for storytelling , guiding your audience through a series of complex information without being restricted to a traditional linear slide progression.

No need for hyperlinks, tedious work, or coding—PowerPoint Zoom allows for a seamless setup and flow of your presentation.

Let’s dive right in and discover how to make a zoom effect in PowerPoint!

How to Make a Zoom Effect in PowerPoint?

PowerPoint’s Zoom feature consists of three different options: Slide Zoom, Section Zoom, and Summary Zoom. While their setups are similar, the reasons for using each one vary.

Below we will delve into each of these PowerPoint Zoom options in depth.

Download our FREE PowerPoint Zoom template to follow along! 👇

Slide Zoom PowerPoint Templates

Turn your PowerPoint into an interactive experience today with this Slide Zoom template!

When to use Slide Zoom? ⏲️

Slide Zoom, as the name suggests, allows you to create links and “zoom in” on the content of another slide without following the traditional slide-to-slide progression. This comes in especially handy when you want to direct your audience’s attention to a particular image, chart, or piece of information on a slide instantly.

How to use Slide Zoom? 💻

1. Select the Main Starting Slide : To use PowerPoint Slide Zoom, first select the starting slide where you intend to apply the Zoom effect. In our example, we are using the Iceberg Model illustration as our starting slide. We want to zoom into the different description slides from our Iceberg Model slide.

2. Access the Slide Zoom Feature : Next, click Insert > Zoom > Slide Zoom . From here, choose the slide, or slides, that you want to zoom into. Click Insert and a thumbnail or thumbnails of the slides will appear on your current slide.

3. Rearrange the Thumbnails : Rearrange the thumbnails on your slide to match your design and layout.

4. Test the Slide Zoom: Now, in presentation mode, when you click on the slide thumbnails, you can zoom into the particular slides!

With a smooth Slide Zoom effect, you will notice that transitioning from slide to slide has become significantly more engaging!

Zoom Option: Zoom Background

Notice the thick outline of each slide you added to Zoom? Let’s remove that for a cleaner, more professional look on your slides. 

To do that, click on the added Zoom slide thumbnail , then click the Zoom tab in the PowerPoint ribbon. Now, click on the Zoom Background option to hide the default background and match the background of the thumbnail to the background of your current slide.

Zoom Option: Return to Zoom

Another customizable option is the Return to Zoom feature.

With the current setup of Slide Zoom, once you click on the Zoom thumbnail and navigate to the zoomed in slide, you cannot return to the main starting slide. In other words, you will move on to the next slide in a linear order, with essentially an added zoom transition.

On the other hand, by applying Return to Zoom, you will be brought back to your main starting slide every time instead. This way you can click change the order of your slides. For example, with Return to Zoom enabled, when I can click on next slide after clicking on the “Phase #3 The Structure” slide, I will be brought back to the main starting slide instead of the “Phase #4 Mental Models” slide.

To make this happen, after selecting each of your Zoom slide thumbnails, simply click on the Return to Zoom option from the Zoom tab. 

Section Zoom

When to use section zoom ⏲️.

While Slide Zoom allows you to zoom into one slide at a time, Section Zoom allows you to zoom into a specific section containing multiple related slides of your presentation. This is especially helpful for longer presentations or presentations with multiple topics. 

How to use Section Zoom? 💻

Here, we have a deck about the Solar System. Each planet has its own section with a couple slides underneath each section. Our main slide has an overview of the whole Solar System. In this case, I would like to be able to click on a planet, then be able to learn more about that planet. You can easily do this with Section Zoom!

1. Select the Main Starting Slide : Similar to PowerPoint Slide Zoom, you have to select a starting slide where you intend to apply the Zoom effect for Section Zoom. Here we are using the Solar System slide as our main starting slide where we can zoom into the different planet sections.

2. Access the Section Zoom Feature : On the overview slide, click Insert > Zoom > Section Zoom . Then choose the sections you would like to Zoom into and click Insert . The thumbnails of the first slide of each section will appear in your current slide.

Zoom Option: Change the Image

Don’t like how the different thumbnails are making your slide looks cluttered, fret not, you can change the thumbnail image of your slides for easier viewing. 

To do this, right-click on the zoom slide thumbnail and select Change Image . Then, substitute it with an image or screenshot from your device. For instance, you can take screenshots of the different segments in your slide to “hide” the zoom slide thumbnails underneath these screenshots.

Now, when you enter presentation mode, instead of clicking z zoom slide thumbnail, you can click on a planet to zoom into a desired section! Watch this video to learn exactly how to do it! 

Summary Zoom

When to use summary zoom ⏲️.

The third and final PowerPoint Zoom feature is Summary Zoom. It lets you create a summary or overview slide that acts as a hub for your presentation. It is perfect for those times when you want to give your audience a quick recap or provide them with a visual roadmap of your presentation.

Similar to Section Zoom, Summary Zoom contains links to specific sections or slides in your presentation, allowing you to navigate to the most relevant parts of your presentation. The main distinction lies in the fact that the Summary Zoom feature will automatically generate a summary slide containing thumbnails of each section or slide for your convenience.

How to use Summary Zoom? 💻

1. Select the Main Starting Slide : Similar to both PowerPoint Slide Zoom and Section Zoom, you have to select a starting slide where you intend to apply the Zoom effect for Summary

2. Access the Summary Soon Feature : To use PowerPoint Summary Zoom, click Insert > Zoom > Summary Zoom . This will create a new slide that displays a summary of your presentation, with thumbnails of each slide.

3. Customize Appearance : You can customize the appearance of the Summary Zoom slide by selecting the Format tab. Here, you can choose from various layouts, fonts, and colors to make the slide visually appealing and aligned with your presentation’s theme.

During your presentation, easily navigate to any slide by clicking on the different Zoom slide thumbnails. It’s a great way to give your audience an easy-to-follow roadmap and ensure they stay engaged and focused throughout your presentation.

Real-World PowerPoint Zoom Examples to Engage Your Audience

Here are some real-life examples of how to use PowerPoint Zoom to create engaging and immersive presentations: 

• Sales Pitch

Create interactive slides with zoomed-in images and key features for your products or services. By allowing the audience to explore products in detail, you can generate more interest and engagement during a pitch.

• Educational Lecture with Organised Sections

Similar to our Solar System deck, you can organize your presentation into sections so that students can go through the presentations at their own pace starting with what interests them the most.

Add interactive questions to the presentation using ClassPoint , to make it even more engaging. 

• Team Meeting Roadmap

Create an engaging team meeting with Summary Zoom. Highlight key milestones and deliverables in a visual and clear roadmap to help the team stay focused and engaged throughout the meeting.

• Interactive Visuals 

Use maps and charts as your overview slide and add zoom slide thumbnails of added information to showcase further data, information, and analytics. 

• Virtual Tours or Walkthroughs

Simulate a virtual tour or walkthrough using images on your slides. Add the Zoom feature to replicate “moving” from one “location” to another.

PowerPoint Zoom FAQ

Here are some common FAQ’s about this powerful tool:

What are the differences between the PowerPoint Zoom Options? 

Slide Zoom zooms from one slide to the next while Section Zoom zooms into a whole section of your presentation before bringing you back to the overview slide. The Summary Zoom option provides you with a Table-of-Contents-like slide for an easy overview of your whole presentation. 

How to make Prezi in PowerPoint? 

You can make a PowerPoint that looks similar to Prezi with PowerPoint’s Zoom feature. With your selected slide to Zoom into, click on the Insert tab, Zoom, and select Slide, Section, or Summary Zoom.

Can I use PowerPoint Zoom on any version of PowerPoint?

PowerPoint Zoom is available on PowerPoint 2019, PowerPoint 2016, and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365. Make sure you have the latest version to take advantage of this feature.

Will my audience need any special software to view the Zoom features?

No, your audience does not need any special software. The Zoom features will work seamlessly when you present your PowerPoint file on any device with PowerPoint installed.

Can I use Zoom in combination with other PowerPoint animations and transitions?

Yes, you can! PowerPoint Zoom works well with other animations and transitions, allowing you to create a truly immersive and engaging presentation.

Can I edit or remove Zoom features from my presentation?

Absolutely! You can easily edit or remove Zoom features from your presentation at any time. Just follow the steps outlined in this blog post to make any necessary changes.

Yay! You now can create an even more engaging presentation with PowerPoint’s Zoom feature. 

The versatility and impact of PowerPoint Zoom can be used in various settings. By incorporating this feature into your presentations, you can captivate your audience, enhance information retention, and create a memorable experience for your listeners. 

Experience the power of PowerPoint Slide Zoom firsthand! Begin by exploring our templates and seamlessly integrate this feature into your upcoming presentations.

About Sara Wanasek

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How to Make a Presentation Interactive | 7 Great Ways

Lakshmi Puthanveedu • 29 July, 2024 • 11 min read

Are your presentations putting people to sleep faster than a bedtime story? It’s time to shock some life back into your lessons with interactivity🚀

Let's defibrillate “Death by PowerPoint” and show you lightning-quick ways how to make a presentation interactive .

With these tips, you'll be able to activate that dopamine drip and get butts in seats leaning in - not delving deep into the chairs!

Table of Contents

What is an interactive presentation.

• Why Use an Interactive Presentation?

#1. Create icebreaker games🧊

• #2. Make use of props 📝

#3. Create interactive presentation games and quizzes 🎲

#4. tell a compelling story, #5. organise a brainstorming session, #6. make a word cloud for the topic, #7. bring out the poll express, easy interactive activities for presentations, more presentation examples you could learn from.

Keeping your audience engaged is the most critical and challenging part, regardless of the topic or how casual or formal the presentation is. 

An interactive presentation is a presentation that works two ways. The presenter asks questions during the production, and the audience responds directly to those questions.

Let's take an example of an interactive poll .

The presenter displays a poll question on the screen. The audience can then submit their answers live through their mobile phones, and the results are immediately displayed on the screen, as shown in the image below. Yay, it's an interactive slide presentation .

Making an interactive presentation does not have to be complex or stressful. It’s all about letting go of the static, linear presentation format and using some tools and techniques to create a personal, more involved experience for the audience.

With software like AhaSlides , you can easily create interactive presentations with tons of interactive quizzes, polls, and live Q&A sessions for your audience. Keep reading to find out fired tips on how to make a presentation interactive 👇

Why Interactive Presentation?

Presentations are still one of the commonly used methods to pass on information. Still, no one likes to sit through long, monotonous presentations where the host doesn’t stop talking.

Interactive presentations can help. They...

• Increase audience engagement , allowing them to connect with you and the purpose of the presentation. 64% of people believe a flexible presentation with two-way interaction is more engaging than a linear one.
• Improve retention capacity . 68% say that it’s easier to remember the information when the presentation is interactive.
• Tips: Use a rating scale to gather feedback !
• Act as a break from the routine and allow participants to have an enjoyable experience.

How to Make a Presentation Interactive

Whether you are hosting a virtual or offline presentation, there are many ways to make presentations interactive, exciting and two-way for your audience.

Starting a presentation is always one of the most challenging parts. You are nervous; the audience might still be settling, there might be people not familiar with the topic - the list could go on. Get to know your audience, ask them questions about how they are feeling and how their day was, or maybe share a funny story to get them hooked and excited.

🎊 Here are 180 Fun General Knowledge Quiz Questions and Answers to gain better engagement.

#2. Make use of Props 📝

Making a presentation interactive does not mean you have to let go of traditional tricks of engaging the audience. You could bring a lighting stick or a ball to pass around to the audience when they want to ask a question or share something.

Games and quizzes will always remain the star of the show, no matter how complex the presentation is. You don’t necessarily have to create them related to the topic; these could also be introduced into the presentation as fillers or as a fun activity.

💡 Want more? Get 10 interactive presentation techniques here!

Stories work like a charm in any situation. Introducing a complex physics topic? You could tell a story about Nicola Tesla or Albert Einstein. Want to beat the Monday blues in the classroom? Tell a story! Want to break the ice ? 

Well, you know… ask the audience to tell a story! 

There are many ways you could use storytelling in a presentation. In a marketing presentation , for instance, you can create empathy with your audience by telling an engaging story or asking them if they have any interesting marketing stories or situations to share. If you're a teacher, you could pitch an outline to the students and ask them to build the rest of the story. 

Or, you could tell a story till just before the ending and ask the audience how they think the story ended.

You’ve created a stellar presentation. You’ve introduced the topic and are mid-way through the exhibition. Wouldn’t it be nice to sit back, take a break and see how your students put some effort into taking the presentation forward?

Brainstorming helps get the students excited about the topic and allows them to think creatively and critically.

💡 Get an engaged class with 6 more interactive presentation ideas

Want to make sure your audience gets the concept or topic of the presentation without making it feel like an interrogation? 

Live word clouds are fun and interactive and ensure the main topic is not lost in the presentation. Using a word cloud free , you can ask the audience what they think is the main topic for the production.

How do you feel about using visual aids in your presentation? It's not anything new, right? 

But what if you can merge funny pictures with an interactive poll? That's got to be interesting! 

“How do you feel right now?” 

This simple question could be turned into an interactive fun activity with the help of images and GIFs describing your mood. Present it to the audience in a poll, and you could display the results on the screen for everyone to see.

This is a great, super simple icebreaker activity that can help revitalise team meetings, especially when some folks are working remotely.

💡 We've got more - 10 interactive presentation ideas for work .

Whether you’re hosting something for your colleagues, students or friends, retaining their attention for a while can be a daunting task.

Games such as What Would You Do? and 4 Corners are easy interactive activities to help the audience get back on track with your presentation …

What Would You Do?

Isn’t it interesting to know what someone would do in a particular situation or how they would handle it? In this game, you give the audience a scenario and ask how they would deal with it.

Say, for example, you are having a fun night with your friends and family. You could ask questions like, “What would you do if you could be invisible to the human eye?” and see how they handle the given situation.

If you've got remote players, this is a great interactive Zoom game .

This is a perfect game for anyone with an opinion. It’s a great way to start a conversation on your presentation's topic before diving into the meat of it.

You announce a statement and see how everyone feels about it. Each participant shows how they think by moving to one corner of the room. The corners are labelled ‘strongly agree’, ‘agree’, ‘strongly disagree’, and ‘disagree’. 

Once everyone has taken their place in the corners, you could have a debate or discussion between the teams.

🎲 Looking for more? Check out 11 interactive presentation games !

The 5 Best Interactive Presentation Software

Making a presentation interactive is so much easier with the right tool.

Many interactive presentation websites let your audience respond directly to the content of your presentation and see the results on the big screen. You ask them a question in the form of a poll, word cloud, brainstorming or even a live quiz, and they respond with their phones.

#1 - AhaSlides

AhaSlides presentation platform will let you host fun, interactive presentations for all your needs, with quizzes, live Q&As, word clouds, brainstorming slides, and such.

The audience can join the presentation from their phones and interact with it live. Whether you are presenting to your students, a businessman who wants to hold team-building activities, or someone who wants to have a fun quiz game for your friends and family, this is a great tool you can use, with a ton of fun interactive options.

If you are looking for ways to boost your team’s creativity at your workplace, then Prezi is an excellent tool.

It is a bit similar to how a standard linear presentation would be but more imaginative and creative. With a huge template library and many animated elements, Prezi lets you create a cool, interactive display in no time.

Although the free version does not come with many features, spending a little on the tool is worth it to create content for any occasion.

🎊 Learn more: Top 5+ Prezi Alternatives | 2024 Reveal From AhaSlides

NearPod is a good tool that most educators would get a kick out of. It is specifically designed to cater to educational needs, and the free basic version lets you host a presentation for up to 40 students.

Teachers can build lessons, share them with students and monitor their results. One of the best features of NearPod is the Zoom integration, where you can merge your ongoing Zoom lesson with the interactive presentation.

The tool also has various interactive features such as memory tests, polls, quizzes and video embedding features.

Canva is an easy-to-use kit that even a person with no design experience could master in a few minutes.

With the drag-and-drop feature of Canva, you can create your slides in no time and that too with copyright-free images and a ton of design templates to choose from.

🎉 Learn more: Canva Alternatives | 2024 Reveal | Updated 12 Free and Paid Plans

Keynote for Mac

Keynote is one of the most popular bits of presentation software for Mac . It comes pre-installed and can be easily synced to iCloud, making it accessible across all Apple devices. Along with creating engaging presentations, you can also add a little bit of creativity by adding doodles and illustrations to your presentation.

Keynote presentations can also be exported to PowerPoint, allowing flexibility for the presenter.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do i make my presentation more interactive.

You can make a presentation more interactive with these 7 simple strategies: 1. Create icebreaker games 2. Make use of props 3. Create interactive presentation games and quizzes 4. Tell a compelling story 5. Organise a session using a brainstorming tool 6. Make a word cloud for the topic 7. Bring out the Poll Express

Can I make my PowerPoint interactive?

Yes, you can use PowerPoint's AhaSlides add-in to save time and effort while still being able to create interactive activities like polls, Q&A or quizzes.

How can you make presentations interactive to get students involved?

Here are some effective ways to make presentations more interactive and get students involved: 1. Use polls/surveys 2. Use quizzes, leaderboards, and points to make the content feel more game-like and fun. 3. Pose questions and cold call on students to answer and discuss their thinking. 4. Insert relevant videos and have students analyse or reflect on what they saw.

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To help you craft an impactful presentation, let's explore some common pitfalls and how to overcome them

• Bad speeches
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• Death by PowerPoint

Lakshmi Puthanveedu

A small-town girl enthralled by culture, languages, and sunsets. Casual artist and musician looking to make memories every step of the way. Now changing the way humans live and have virtual interactions with AhaSlides.

Tips to Engage with Polls & Trivia

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7 Zoom Apps to Elevate Your Presentation Game

Updated on April 25, 2022

Published on March 08, 2022

• 01 What are Zoom Apps? - Jumplink to What are Zoom Apps?
• 02 Applause Studio - Jumplink to Applause Studio
• 03 Classkick - Jumplink to Classkick
• 04 Karma by Goodera - Jumplink to Karma by Goodera
• 05 Prezi Video - Jumplink to Prezi Video
• 06 Read Dashboard - Jumplink to Read Dashboard
• 07 Shared Backgrounds - Jumplink to Shared Backgrounds
• 08 Warmly - Jumplink to Warmly
• 09 Ready to get started?  - Jumplink to Ready to get started? 

2022 is in full swing, and as we prepare for upcoming virtual events, we’re all on the lookout for tools to take our presentations from mundane to magical. In order to inspire and engage our audiences virtually, we need to elevate our online presentations. Whether you’re preparing for an All-Hands meeting, class, or that big presentation, Zoom Apps has you covered. 

What are Zoom Apps?

Zoom Apps are in-product integrations that let you bring your favorite apps right into your Zoom Meetings. You can enrich your Zoom experience with apps for whiteboarding , note-taking, project management, games, and more!

We know video meetings have become a big part of how you stay connected across your community, and Zoom Apps can help you make your meetings, lessons, and events more efficient, engaging, and fun! 

Here are some of our favorite Zoom Apps for presentation support:

Applause Studio

With virtual applause you can hear, funny GIFs, and animated reactions, Applause Studio makes all virtual meetings and events more engaging and fun – whether a team meeting, class, fundraiser, or religious service. 

If you’re a creator or musician, consider creating a free Applause event to help grow your community. Applause events inspire your audience through a customized landing page, an interactive waiting room, and a unique in-event experience. You can also charge for tickets, earn tips (no link sharing required!), set fundraising goals, link to your merch, and more.

If you want to turn your presentation into a hands-on learning experience, Classkick App for Zoom is for you!

Classkick lets your whole group collaborate and learn together. It’s as easy as sharing a notebook in person. As the presenter, you can watch everyone in the group follow your presentation in Classkick at once. Easily give individual or group feedback and encourage participation with pens, highlighters, voice recordings, picture uploads, digital stickers, and more. You can use auto-graded multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, or use text box Q&A prompts for deeper discussion. 

For more tips and tricks on how to use Zoom in the classroom, be sure to check out our Educator’s Guide for Using Zoom in the Classroom . 

Karma by Goodera

Powered by Goodera, the world's largest platform for virtual volunteering experiences, the Karma app helps teams to do good and, feel good during their Zoom meetings. The app intends to elevate team engagement during calls with a value addition of social impact through volunteering. Whether it’s a weekly review, a monthly all-hands, or just another ad hoc meeting, attendees can take simple actions together to support a cause they care about in just 10 minutes!

The app features a variety of “micro” actions curated with nonprofit partners across 100+ countries. Hosts can also choose from featured actions to celebrate ongoing international days and themes, such as International Women’s Day, BlackHistory Month, Earth day, to name a few.

Prezi Video

Create professional, branded presentations over Zoom that engage and inspire your audience.  Prezi Video displays you and your content together on screen so meeting participants can enjoy a more personal and interactive presentation. This helps bring life to your sales pitches, trainings, team meetings, and more while keeping your audience focused. And turn any presentation into a two-way interaction by enabling attendees to share on-screen responses (including GIPHY GIFs, Unsplash images, and stickers). 

Read Dashboard

Presentations are hard, online presentations are harder. The Read Dashboard for Zoom tips the scales in your favor by measuring the sentiment and engagement of your audience just like you would if you were in the physical room.

Acting as your meeting navigator, Read tells you how the audience is reacting in real-time so you can adjust your delivery. And better yet, after each presentation, you receive detailed meeting reports to learn from and track your improvements. Read Dashboard is a free service available on Zoom Apps.

Shared Backgrounds

Bring your team’s A-game to any meeting with the Shared Backgrounds app for Zoom. This app enables you to ensure your team members all have the same virtual backgrounds at the click of a button, helping you create a coordinated and professional experience. 

Whether you’re preparing for All-Hands, class, or seminar, Warmly’s free app for Zoom has you covered.

The Warmly App for Zoom lets you create a customizable business card that you can magically hover in front of you in every meeting. Include your title, location, a unique bio, your social links, and more. Warmly’s intelligence recommends how to present yourself for different types of meetings; like sharing your current weather or your name pronunciation. 

Take it a step further by presenting anything you’d like hovering over your shoulder in just 1-click: like instantly adding the logo of your client for external meetings or adding a fun conversation starter for internal meetings. 

Ready to get started? 

Getting started with Zoom Apps is easier than ever! To access Zoom Apps in your meetings:

• Make sure you’ve downloaded the latest version of our client. 
• Open Zoom and click the Apps tab in the desktop client or in the toolbar of your next Zoom Meeting. For some accounts, users may need admins to enable the Zoom Apps icon in the account settings for it to be visible in the desktop client and meeting toolbar.
• Click Discover to see the list of available Zoom Apps and add your favorites. 

You can also go to the Zoom App Marketplace, navigate to the Zoom Apps category , and add the apps of your choice. Once added, you can find your chosen apps under the Apps icon in the My Apps tab in your client and in the interface of your Zoom Meetings.

Your company’s IT admins can also control how Zoom Apps are used across your organization with admin settings. Your system admin may require that you get pre-approval before adding specific Zoom Apps, so be sure that they have pre-approved the apps you would like to use in your meetings.

For more tips to help you prepare for a successful presentation or virtual event on Zoom, check out our blog.

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10 (Realistic) Ways to Make Your Virtual Meetings More Interactive

Melissa Chua

December 5, 2022

You’ve been talking into a laptop camera for 10 minutes straight. You look over the faces of your fellow attendees on screen and they look bored, disengaged, or distracted. You ask a question and silence reigns, so you grit your teeth and barrel through your presentation, hoping to get things over as quickly as possible.

As remote work becomes the new normal, virtual meetings are now an integral part of employee engagement and interaction.

But virtual meetings have a prevailing pain point – without in-person interaction, it’s harder to create a communal atmosphere and easier for people to get distracted and tune out.

In one study of in-person meetings, 91% of respondents admitted to daydreaming while 39% have even fallen asleep! Can you imagine the results for virtual meetings?

So how do you make virtual meetings more interactive?

First, make sure you actually need to hold a virtual meeting.

To get your attendees to interact, you need to ensure their voices and opinions are actually being solicited.

This means: cut the monologues. If you’re making an announcement or sharing information that only requires your audience to listen, consider simply sending out an email.

Once a virtual meeting has been deemed necessary, try implementing these 10 realistic tips (read: does not require fancy new software or expensive meeting tools) to banish boredom, keep things interactive, and encourage participation.

1. Set expectations

Before the meeting even starts, allow attendees to get into the right mindset by setting expectations for their participation.

Present a problem in the agenda and ask everyone prepare and present ideas for solutions; request that all attendees be on video mode and in a quiet (or at least a private) space during the meeting; and set ground rules for conduct, such as “thou shalt put away phones and not work on other tasks”.

2. Dedicate time to checking in

Remote work can get lonely and isolating, so take some time before the meeting proper to let everyone share what they’ve been up to. Ask them about the highlights of their week or what challenges they’re currently facing. Better yet, get everyone to show appreciation to their fellow colleagues .

Social bonding keeps team members engaged and encourages creativity, teamwork, and collaboration, so be sure to cultivate it even when on virtual platforms.

3. Let people take ownership

Assign people with tasks like time keeping, facilitating, and note taking. If you’re running an ice breaker or conducting a warm up (see below), you can assign one of the attendees to be in charge.

Also, ensuring that every attendee has a role – whether it’s decision maker, adviser, recommender, or executor – helps you keep meetings small, which is great because the more people at a meeting, the less engaged each person will be . 

4. Start with an ice breaker

Jumpstart communication and break through awkwardness with ice breakers ! Conducting a fun ice breaker will help activate the right brain , set the stage for creativity and participation, and get your attendees comfortable with speaking and interacting with each other – the perfect conditions for an effective virtual meeting. 

5. Jazz up your material

Did you know that visuals increase engagement by as much as 94% ? They also help increase audience attention and memory, boost feelings of inclusiveness, and encourage interaction.

Try using visuals throughout your meeting to give context, illustrate a point, or provide levity. If you have a presentation deck, here are some ideas on how to leverage videos and photos to drive engagement and capture your audience’s attention.

6. Get physical

Simple warm up exercises are a great way to break through sluggishness and get people comfortable with interaction.

At the start of the meeting, try a unique vocal warm up exercise that will (literally) loosen up your attendees. Or take a break half way through and have everyone do some stretches for 2-3 minutes to relieve muscle tension and give the brain a jolt.

The University of California Irvine has a Guide to Healthy Meetings & Events that outlines some easy desk stretches.

Treat your virtual meetings like panel discussions and appoint a moderator to facilitate interaction and keep attendees engaged.

Like at a conference, the moderator’s responsibilities in a virtual meeting can include calling on individual attendees to share their opinions; asking questions that provoke discussion; and managing everyone’s talk time by keeping discussions on track.

8. Conduct fun interactive polls

Break the monotony with live polls and surveys and show off your results in real time. Beyond being a fun activity to keep your attendees engaged, polls and surveys can serve as a decision-making tool in virtual meetings, where attendees can vote on follow-up actions and next steps.

Try this out with Pigeonhole Live, which offers a huge range of polling and survey formats that are beautiful, fun, and interactive. Our platform even integrates seamlessly with many video conferencing tools, including Zoom , Microsoft Teams , Cisco Webex , and BlueJeans , which means added convenience for you.

9. Collate and collaborate

Actively soliciting ideas and getting people to collaborate is a sure-fire way to keep your virtual meetings interactive. There are lots of free digital tools to help you with this.

Conduct brainstorming on free virtual whiteboard apps or sticky note tools like Miro and IdeaBoardz . Implement collective note-taking on Google Docs or Confluence so that everyone gets involved (and invested) in meeting outcomes.

10. Use gamification

Gamification techniques are a good way to embed two-way communication, boost participation, and incentivise active listening in meetings, and it can be supremely easy to implement. Here are some ideas:

• Randomly insert Wally in your presentation slides and ask how many times he appeared at the end of the meeting
• Collect quotes from attendees throughout the meeting and conduct a “who said this?” quiz at the end
• Throw in some misspelled or incorrectly used words and phrases, and get people to list them down; the one(s) with the most correctly identified errors win(s)

Have fun and keep your energy up, and be sure to follow these other simple tips for more effective virtual meetings !

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25 Strategies to Engage Students on Your Next Zoom Meeting

Now that we have all been thrust into the world of online learning, we have to figure out ways as educators to engage our students when they are online. Some of the first things schools did when shifting to remote learning was to hold regular video meetings with their students. These can vary based on the ages of the students and the frequency of when a teacher interacts with their students, but most teachers realized quickly that they can’t use the same behavioral strategies (like proximity) that they use in a physical classroom. This can lead to a lack of student engagement and involvement in what is trying to be taught regardless of age.

These 25 strategies listed here are not meant to take the place of deeper learning. That kind of learning is generally better when done with a mix of asynchronous learning. That said, in order to get our students to that deeper state of learning with greater depth of knowledge (DOK) levels, we need to make sure they are engaged when we have synchronous conversations and discussions. Some of these strategies take little set-up while others might take more time and energy to make them really successful. The purpose of these tools is to draw students into the lesson/activity and make them engaged and looking forward to your next virtual class meeting.

While there are a lot of video meeting solutions out there, I’m going to focus many of the tools around the Zoom platform as it has some of the best interactive features and seems to be the most widely accepted in K-12 schools across the country. However, as many of these strategies can be used with any video platform or device, I only focused on Zoom-centric ideas on the first 5 strategies, the rest you can use on any platform. Also, kids (especially teenagers) can say and do that darnedest things, especially when being remotely hidden behind a screen. As you would with the physical classroom, I would strongly encourage teachers discuss norms when it comes to interacting over video chat with their students prior to any of these strategies.

Here are 25 strategies to engage students on your next Zoom meeting:

1. share your screen .

I’m going to start out with one of the basics. While you may be doing many of your chats with just video, don’t forget that you have the ability to share part or all of your screen with your students. This can be something as simple as sharing a question of the day to an entire slide show. If you have a slideshow that you’ve already created for use in your classroom, don’t recreate the wheel, just launch it on your share screen and use built in Zoom tools like ‘raise hand’ or the chat room to have a floating backchannel as you go through your slides. One bit of advice, check what items you have on your desktop and in your “favorites” bar of an internet browser before you share that with your students. There’s nothing more embarrassing than you students seeing your latest beach pic or maybe your bookmark for you favorite drink recipe.

2. Use the Whiteboard feature

Of course, if you don’t want to share your screen you can always use the built-in whiteboard feature that comes with Zoom. This feature can take some getting used to, especially if you are using a mouse or trackpad. To use it, simply go to share your screen and choose “whiteboard”. A little tip – if you have tablet like an iPad, install the Zoom app and then join the meeting with your iPad as well. This works better for drawing especially if you have a nice stylus or Apple Pencil. (just be careful you have one of the devices muted to avoid echoes) Of course, as you get more comfortable with Zoom and student expectations, let your students also use the whiteboard feature to share their understanding. If you are not using Zoom, a tool like Classroomscreen.com has a bevy of tools including a whiteboard if you share your screen with your students.

3. Enable the Annotation Features

4. Create breakout rooms for collaboration

My favorite of all the Zoom features for learning is the ability to create breakout rooms for your students. Unlike whiteboard and annotation features, the ability to create breakout rooms are not enabled by default. You’ll want to go into your account settings to enable this ability before using it with your students. Once enabled, you can have Zoom either automatically or manually assign students into rooms. Even if it’s automatically assigning, you can swap students out depending on group dynamics (note: it helps to have your students put their name on their Zoom login). You can even rename the rooms depending on group names or topics before assigning certain students to each room. The great thing about these rooms is that it can create a more collaborative setting than the large whole-group zoom experience. As the moderator you can float around and join rooms to check in on the discussion, post an announcement to all rooms, or even place a time limit on them. Once you ask students to rejoin the whole group and end the breakouts, they’ll have 60-seconds to wrap-up their discussion and rejoin. A powerful way to enable collaboration remotely! Check out the video below for a quick how-to:

5. Virtual backgrounds can be more than just fun

If you’ve been in any Zoom meeting the past couple of months, you’ve probably seen all sorts of crazy and fun virtual backgrounds. These can be hilarious but also distracting so some educators have disabled this feature for their group meetings. However, there could be some productive uses of these virtual backgrounds. Some examples of using virtual backgrounds might be re-enacting moments in history with the appropriate backdrop, selecting a geographic landmark they might be studying or “visiting” virtually, or just having students select either a solid green or red background to quickly show if they agree or disagree with a topic (hint: use Grid view for this). No matter the reason, virtual backgrounds can be much more than everyone acting like they are a character from The Office.

6. Play “I Spy” Backgrounds

If you really want your students to focus on everyone in the classroom, play a game of “I Spy” backgrounds. You can do this either with or without virtual backgrounds, but in essence you are describing things that you notice in the background of someone’s zoom call. Students then quickly have to search all the attendees and see which student’s background is being described. A fun, 5-minute way to get students hooked into their next Zoom meeting.

7. Scavenger Hunts

Probably one of the most popular games to play with students is a virtual scavenger hunt . The premise is simple, you have a list of items and then ask students to run through their house or apartment attempting to find the items and show them on the screen. A quick word of advice on this is to be sure you are not picking exact objects for them to find like “a toy cell phone”. Rather, create a category that could involve all sorts of different objects that qualify like “an object with numbers on it.”  This will reveal a lot of different interpretations of the clue as well as not limiting what students can find around them. You could also use software like Eventzee or Goosechase to do a virtual scavenger hunt throughout the day or week where students capture items you’ve identified with their camera.

8. Live Quiz or Trivia

Last week, I got to host a virtual trivia night via Zoom. We had over 150 people during the event that drew lots of positive feedback for keeping them engaged while also doing something fun during this stressful time. I used a pro-level software called Crowdpurr to run my event, but I could just as easily do something similar using a tool like Kahoot ! or Quizziz . These quizzes or trivia can either be done live or student-paced. Having the scores decrease as time dwindles down on each question also prevents students from “googling” the answers as it will affect their score. Check out the latest “ Challenge ” feature within Kahoot to create more of a self-paced challenge for your students that might have limited access to technology or can’t participate synchronously.

9. Survey your students

In the classroom, we use the classic “raise your hand” to gather feedback from students. In Zoom, it’s no different as there is a “Raise hand” button available to students, but some savvy teachers have also figured out that the chat room can act as an impromptu survey as long as it involves brief responses. For better tracking, you could always use a tools like Nearpod , Polleverywhere, or Peardeck to gather feedback via a second screen or browser tab. Playing a game like “would you rather” would work well to test this out before using it more in-depth in later lessons.

10. Brainstorming ideas 

Gathering feedback in polls is one way to interact with students, but you could also use a shared collaborative space like a Padlet or Ziteboard to have students discuss and brainstorm ideas on shared spaces. You could also combine this with the breakout rooms (#4 from above) to have each group brainstorm a topic while you navigate from board to board. A tip here is to create the “walls” or spaces for the students to collaborate on so that you have a live link to what they are working on. Once you’ve split them into groups, share your link to each group to work on.

11. Interactive presentations

Yes, you can share your screen and even your slides with your students via a tool like Google Slides, Keynote or Powerpoint. But since you have them live, why not use a tool like Nearpod to actually guide them through the learning with you. Ideally, this would work best with two screens, but since everything these days is web-based you could guide them through the presentation on one screen while they follow along to your voice on the other. Doing this on an iPad? Share the join code with your students and then have them switch to the Nearpod app while leaving the Zoom app open in the background so they can hear your voice while following along. Of course, one of the best parts of using a tool like Nearpod is all the extra features like Virtual field trips, 3D models, Microsoft Sway, collaborative boards and more. One thing I’ve tried that worked well was embedding a PollEverywhere poll within my Nearpod. That way students didn’t have to jump out of the app ever.

12. Embrace the pause

Silence can be awkward in the classroom. It’s even more awkward when you are looking at more than two dozen teenagers on the screen. That said, it’s important to let students pause and reflect throughout the lesson. Using a countdown timer either on a slide, video or on a tool like ClassroomScreen.com helps students know when they should break from their pause or reflection. As I will mention on my next point, students need breaks from lengthy instruction throughout their day whether they be on a screen or not. If you are hosting a 50-minute lesson online, build in a 5 minute break for students to stretch or get a glass of water to keep their brain active.

13. Brainbreaks

Taking breaks throughout a lengthy lesson are important whether it be for a reflective pause or just an opportunity to stretch. Using tools like GoNoodle, teachers can lead a virtual dance party in their remote classroom to get the kids up and moving. One word of advice here, if you are playing a video through your system speakers, make sure you don’t have headphones on or adjust the audio source in Zoom by clicking on the up-carrot symbol next to “Mute” to change your selection of audio output. (see image on the right)

14. Reveal your answer

With everything being digital, it’s also nice to take a break from digital as you already have a Zoom meeting occupying the students’ screens. There are a wide variety of analog strategies you could use with your students by using paper and pencil. One might be sharing a math problem on your screen while students work out the results. Then, countdown and have them reveal their answers to their cameras at the same time. I’ve also seen teachers have success doing a “directed drawing” by pointing their webcam or phone camera down to a sheet a paper while they give instruction and then have students share their creations at the end.

15. Box of Lies

A big struggle with online learning via video is keeping students focus and attention, especially to the finer details. The game “Box of Lies” was made popular by Jimmy Fallon (video below) and would be a creative way to see if students are paying attention. The premise would be that the teacher or student has an object out of camera view and then has to describe the object. You could do this with all sorts of other ideas from historical figures to using descriptive words in another language.

16. Monster drawing

Taking that directed drawing from #14 to the next level by doing a Monster drawing. In this activity, a teacher or student read aloud descriptions of their drawing but don’t let other students see it. They have listen for information like “my monster has a rectangle body” or “my monster has 5 eyes, one of them is big and in the middle” to figure out the drawing. This helps kids both with descriptive words but also with listening and translating. In the end, have students show their creations on the screen to see who got closest to the description. This activity could be used in other areas as well such as re-creating a story character or describing a graph in math.

17. Organize projects online

Distance learning doesn’t just have to be about kids filling out digital worksheets or playing online learning games. Students can still do long-term projects either individually or in groups even though they final results may be different than what was done traditionally in the classroom. Using online project management and productivity tools like Trello , MeisterTask or ClickUp can help students struggling with organization and timelines. Coupling those tools with video meeting check-ins can help kids learn how to collaborate and complete a project online over a length of time.

18. Breakout a Digital BreakOut EDU

BreakoutEDU has always been one of my favorite ways to engage students of all ages by creating a series of clues and challenges that the students have to uncover. For the last couple of years they’ve been offering Digital BreakOutEDU as an online version of their platform. Teachers could leverage the “breakout” room feature of Zoom with a Digital BreakOutEDU and have teams solve the challenges within a certain timeframe. The great thing about their platform is they have already done most of the heavy lifting in creating the BreakOuts for you based on subject and age level. You can also check out this “ Build Your Own ” resource if you don’t have the funds to purchase a subscription.

19. Who’s who?

A fun non-tech game to play is “Who’s who?”.  In this game, students privately message the teacher some facts about themselves and then the teacher reveals the clues. Students then write down their guesses as to who the person is based on the clues. This could also be turned into “Two truths and a lie” fairly easily. Other adaptations could be students sending clues about historical figures, book characters, etc. that the class has to figure out.

20. Play BINGO

Who doesn’t love a good game of BINGO? While this isn’t the classic game with numbers, balls, and clever calls, it is using the set-up of Bingo as a way to review facts, geographical locations, scientific terms, or even mathematical applications. Using the Flippity.net BINGO tool, you create what goes in the squares and then you read out the clues while students fill out their own digital square or by printing a game card. Flippity actually lets you send out the cards via link or QR code as kids can fill in their cards digitally. Then when it’s over, have them share their screen and review their answers to see who wins!

21. Host a Game Show

Amongst some of the other Flippity.net tools is the classic Jeopardy-like game show. A great way to review information for a unit or novel study, you can fill in the back-end answers using a Google spreadsheet and then share your screen with the game board. Students can play individually, or you could pre-assign teams and then send them to breakout rooms to discuss what they think the answer might be.

22. Story Progression

You remember the “telephone game” or maybe the game “one-word stories”? This is a similar concept where you start the story and have random students add the next line. A story could start with “Once upon a time….” and then you could select the student by unmuting their mic. By doing it randomly rather than in a specific order, you cause all students to be thinking of a response rather than just waiting until their turn. Mix it up with story recaps or historical fiction to see what they come up with.

23. Autodraw Slam

For those of us that are not budding artists or struggle with drawing with a mouse, I’ve long been a fan of Autodraw.com . This web-based application has you draw out a shape as close as you can while the AI guesses what it might be. When you see an object that is close to what you are drawing, you select it to place into your drawing. One fun thing I’ve tried with this is having students draw their favorite movie scene and then putting the picture on a Padlet wall for everyone to guess the movie.

24. Digital Flashcards

Flashcards can be pretty boring, especially if you are just using them yourself to practice terms, definitions or maybe even a foreign language. Now that we are remote, it becomes even more challenging to find a partner or group to practice with. Using tools like Fishbowl and Quizlet Live can be leveraged to create fun and energizing ways to have kids practice their terms either as a group or in breakout rooms.

25. Polygraph Questions

One of the hidden nuggets I always love showing teachers is the Polygraph feature contained within the free, web-based math app called Desmos . This tool acts creates a “Guess who? ” like game where 2 students are randomly paired up via a join code you share with them on the screen. You create the cards and student A choses one of the items to be their “mystery item”. As you can upload any image, the mystery item could be a person, place, thing, word, math problem, etc. Then student B has to ask yes or no questions and decide which items they can eliminate. Polygraph creates a private loop between the students and the teacher can see the questions and guesses that each student is making to better check for understanding.

Additional Resources:

Want more of these kinds of resources? Check out my new course The Remote Learning Coach ! Most of these are mentioned in my module centered around student engagement. The course also includes modules around assessment, collaboration, and more!

While most of these activities I either have done with students or teachers (both live and online), there are hundreds of other resources and games out there available to use freely with your students as you teach remotely. Here are two that I’ll give shout-outs to as I found them while writing this post:

TCEA Tech Notes – Zoom Games – This post came out while I was writing this post and contains many other games like the scavenger hunt and Pictionary that teachers could benefit from using.

Quarantine Games – This google doc compiled by @ihartnia has pages of board games, card games, and other things that you can play online.

I hope you enjoy my list and please feel free to share any other games or ideas you have in the comments below and give my new course a look. Here’s an infographic with all 25 of the strategies (ironically) on a Zoom call. 🙂

Stay safe and stay sane!

Share this:, 28 comments on “ 25 strategies to engage students on your next zoom meeting ”.

Brilliant. I am an old fashion teacher (67y.o) class based, with minimum clumsy IT knowledge (i get by in classroom – IWB whiteboard, video on YouTube etc.. but this new online teaching is very new to me. So many ideas but i need to learn how to handle the zoom.us platform technique first. I can see the fun potential for learning languages. Thank you for your post. Christine Ugur Christine [email protected]

Thanks so much for the ideas! I teach K so Zoom meetings are pretty interesting and busy. I have a theme for each meeting. Tomorrow is We Love Animals Day. Bring an animal toy, use Play-doh to create one, draw a picture, or wear one on your shirt. Be ready to tell us a cool fact about your chosen animal. Gives each busy kiddo their own moment.

Great ideas!

Thank you, this is very useful.

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Great resource to make Zoom a more useful tool! As someone who’s working remotely for the foreseeable future, tools such as this and Google Hangouts have been commonplace. Those tools can be daunting at first, but in time, they become seamless.

These are amazing! Thank you so much, after 4 months of leading virtual social skills groups via zoom, I loved some new ideas you listed here and am excited to try them with my middle school groups.

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Nice variety. Had a mentor who began the course with a classmate bingo session. Yes, we became more attuned to our peers as a result.

Thank you so much for these! ZOOM was becoming a bore and there’s only so much you can do with the breakout rooms. Once I began reading, the ideas started to flow. Thanks for the inspiration!!🥰🥰🥰

Thanks for taking the time to write a note! Glad these will be of some help or you and your students!

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Thank you! Shared it because I know other teachers will appreciate it!

Thank you for sharing.This is helpful

You presentation was awesome! Very helpful. Quick question, how did you get the 60 sec timer that you used between each strategy? Thank you!

It’s basically built in Keynote. You can download a timer off of YouTube and put a frame around it. That’s all that is. 🙂

Thank you very much for the ideas. I cannot wait to use them.

very usefull information to online teaching and learning

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Another fun game to play on Zoom is the 9 Truths Game. In the game, players anonymously answer True/False questions on their laptop, phone, or tablet, and then guess how many of the other players also answered “True”. Points are scored based on how close you are to the correct number, but the real fun of the game is stories that go along with people’s answers. And the best part is that it’s free to play and there are no ads. 9 Truths Game – http://www.9Truths.com

Thanks for these tips! I teach university classes, but many of these are applicable for young adults as well.

Great tips for engaging students. I enjoyed, I spy, Scavenger hunt, Box of lies, Reminder for brainbreaks. Who’s Who looks fun, and Story Progression.

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This is a really great content, I can see how detailed you have gone through and explained about 25 strategies to engage zoom. I love this article, thanks for producing such great contents. I love your posts always.

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Is there an interactive way to do an attendance (rather than a report after the lesson).

Polls are great for this. I’ll have them answer a poll question at the beginning or even post a comment or meme on a Padlet wall.

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5 Ways to Make Zoom Meetings More Interactive & Engaging

Hayley Spooner , Jun 28, 2022

Virtual meetings are an important way of staying connected with colleagues and customers, but they can feel like a bit of a slog if they’re not approached in the right way. In this article, we’ll share our best tips on how to make Zoom meetings more interactive and engaging .

Key takeaways:

• By collaborating on an agenda, utilizing the chat feature for discussion and questions and using breakout rooms, you can create a better Zoom meeting experience.
• Avoiding common Zoom meeting missteps can also make your meetings more engaging for participants.
• To ensure that employees have a positive experience in virtual meetings, use survey tools to elicit feedback.
• Using advanced virtual conferencing technology will take your Zoom meetings to the next level.

How to make virtual meetings more interactive

We’re not going to tell you to play Name That Tune, nor will we encourage you to have your employees wear their craziest hats to your next meeting. Ideas like that can be fun for some but feel patronizing for others. These are interactive Zoom meeting ideas that actually work.

1. Collaborate on an agenda with attendees beforehand

When you’re planning a Zoom meeting, it’s important to involve the attendees in the process. Collaborating on an agenda with your team beforehand will help ensure that everyone is on the same page and knows what to expect from the meeting. It will also help you determine which topics are most important to discuss and who should be invited.

Send out an email asking everyone to contribute ideas, then put them together in an agenda. Or, even better, use Zoom’s virtual whiteboard tool that allows everyone to add their ideas in real-time.

2. Use the chat feature

The chat feature in Zoom is a great way to keep everyone engaged and allow people to ask questions without interrupting the flow of the meeting. It also gives people who might not feel comfortable speaking the opportunity to share what they have to say.

It’s also a good idea to let everyone know that you’d like them to use the chat feature at the beginning of your meeting. When you’re meeting with the same co-workers time after time, reiterating the ground rules isn’t really necessary once they’ve been established, but it can be helpful when you’re meeting with new employees, clients or vendors.

3. Schedule an optional virtual coffee chat

Some people have Zoom meeting fatigue , while others can’t get enough of them. (They’re usually the co-workers who will beg you to take a five minute phone call to video because “I want to see you!”) The optional virtual coffee chat satisfies the needs of both of these employees.

One of the contributors to virtual meeting fatigue is the length of meetings. The people who love seeing everyone and catching up spend 20 minutes chit-chatting about the latest primetime TV show or their kids’ Little League games, while everyone else sits on the meeting with gritted teeth, thinking, “Can we just get on with it?!!” and mentally disengaging.

The optional coffee chat gives the chatters the opportunity to catch up without taking up time in important business meetings. This ensures that all participants are engaged in your work-related meetings.

4. Make use of breakout rooms

If you have a large meeting (or even a small one where people tend to talk over each other), breakout rooms can be a game-changer. 

Zoom breakout rooms allow you to split your participants into smaller groups so that everyone has a chance to be heard. Not everyone feels comfortable speaking in a company-wide Zoom meeting with hundreds of co-workers, and breakout rooms can foster connection, creativity and better problem-solving.

You can use breakout rooms for brainstorming sessions, small group discussions, or even just to give people a chance to take a break from the main meeting. Depending on the topic at hand, you may want to set a time limit for the breakout sessions or let them go as long as they need to in order to give employees time to brainstorm and roll with new ideas. 

5. Use Zoom certified technology

The built-in webcam on your computer isn’t the only option for video meetings. If you want to up your game, consider investing in Zoom-certified technology . For example, external webcams generally have better image quality than built-in ones, and innovative devices like Neat Frame boasts advanced features like auto framing and facial tracking in a sleek desktop design.

If you’re looking for an even higher-quality video experience, you may want to consider using a dedicated meeting room system . These solutions are designed specifically for video meetings, and they offer features like integrated audio, multiple camera angles and impressive video displays. Neat Bar Pro and Neat Board can completely transform your virtual meeting experience. If you want to know how to make Zoom or Microsoft meetings higher quality and more engaging, this is how!

Common Zoom meeting mistakes to avoid

We’ve gone over what you should do in a virtual meeting. Now, here are some missteps to avoid.

Lack of preparation

Learning is great, but learning in real-time as you lead an important work meeting… well, that’s a problem. You should always do a trial run before a meeting if you’re using a new feature or doing something you haven’t done before, like sharing your screen or using a Zoom Whiteboard. 

This goes for both you and your participants. If you’re using a new feature, make sure you let everyone know what they should expect before you start the meeting. That way, there are no surprises, and people aren’t trying to figure out how to use the features while you try to lead the meeting.

Not looking professional

No, we don’t mean you should wear a suit when you’re working from home, but perhaps your tie-dyed Grateful Dead tee isn’t the best choice, either. Strike the right balance between work-from-home casual and the clothes you wear for doing yard work on the weekend. (And definitely don’t attend your video meetings in pyjamas.)

You’ll also want to make sure your background looks professional. If you’re working from home, giving everyone a peek into your actual home is a way to build connection and rapport, but you want to make sure your home office is clean and uncluttered. Neat Boundary is a feature on all Neat devices that allows you to set the area that you want to be in view. Whether someone else enters the room or a television is playing in the background, Neat cameras can ignore distractions and help users stay focused.

Looking professional also means having the right camera set-up. Make sure you’re well-lit and that your webcam settings are optimized. Luckily, Neat can help you out with that, too — it optimizes settings automatically so you don’t have to fuss with figuring out the right white balance and contrast every time you attend a meeting.

Not having a clear agenda

You should go into your meeting with a clear agenda and objectives — because every meeting should have a purpose. If you’re not sure what the purpose of your meeting is, ask yourself if a meeting is even necessary. Could this be an email? A Slack message?

If you’ve determined that a meeting is the best way to accomplish your goals, make sure everyone knows what those goals are before the meeting starts. Meeting fatigue starts setting in around 30 to 40 minutes in, so staying on topic is important.

Interrupting speakers

This one is tough, especially if you’re used to free-wheeling in-person meetings where people naturally take turns speaking. On Zoom, there can be a tendency for people to talk over each other because they can’t see the visual cues that indicate when it’s someone else’s turn to speak. 

Neat devices help overcome this through superior image quality and visual equity. It is so much more life-like, that you catch all the non-verbal cues and micro-expressions that let you know someone is about to speak. Neat’s advanced Audio Processing also allows everyone in your meeting to enjoy clear dialogue when those interruptions do occasionallyoccur. The sound won’t be muffled, clipped or muted.

There’s also the hand-raising feature (if your video conferencing platform has one). This allows people to virtually raise their hand when they want to speak, and the host can then unmute them when it’s their turn. 

One-sided meetings

One of the most common ways employees become disengaged from meetings is when they’re one-sided and a single person does all the talking. It will start to feel like a college lecture, and just like in Econ 101, the participants will begin to mentally check out.

To avoid this, try to keep your meetings as interactive as possible . Ask questions, solicit feedback from individuals and give people opportunities to share their ideas. Leave room for collaboration and open discussion, and your meetings will be better for it.

Making everything a Zoom meeting

Quality over quantity! Not everything requires a Zoom meeting. Email, Slack, and Airtable are all great tools for collaboration that don’t require real-time video interaction. If you can accomplish your goals without a meeting, don’t have one. 

How to gather feedback on your Zoom meetings

Now that you know some tips for making your Zoom meetings more engaging and exciting, as well as some common mistakes to avoid, you may be wondering how you can get feedback on your meetings. After all, it’s not like you can ask people during the meeting if they’re having a rollicking good time.

One way to get feedback is to simply ask people for their thoughts and opinions after the meeting. You can do this over email, via Slack or in-person if that’s an available option. Ask if there was anything they liked or didn’t like about the meeting, what could be improved etc. The downside of this is that some people may feel shy about giving you direct feedback, which is when some anonymity comes in handy.

An anonymous way to gather feedback is to send out a short survey after the meeting. Zoom has its own built-in tool for this, which is suitable for simple surveys. Or if you want more granular feedback, you can use a tool that allows for more detail like Typeform, SurveyMonkey or Google Forms to create an anonymous survey for participants to fill out.

Learn more about Neat 

Ready to get started with Neat? Visit our website to learn more about Neat devices and experiences before making your purchase.

How to Make Zoom Meetings More Engaging. Fellow.

7 Fun Ways to Make Zoom Meetings More Engaging and Interactive. Fearless Presentations.

Here are 5 Strategies to Make Virtual Meetings More Engaging. CNBC.

How to Avoid 7 of the Most Common Zoom Mistakes. CNET.

10 Common Virtual Meeting Mistakes to Avoid. HubSpot.

Using Post-Meeting Surveys and Reporting. Zoom.

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How to Involve Your Audience in a Presentation

Learn effective strategies to engage your audience and make your presentations interactive and memorable.

Understand Your Audience

• Conduct surveys or pre-event questionnaires to gather insights about your audience.
• Review feedback from past presentations to see what worked and what didn’t.

Start Strong

How To Present Powerpoint On Zoom

• How-To Guides
• Software Tutorials

Choosing the Right Presentation Format

When it comes to presenting your PowerPoint on Zoom, choosing the right format is crucial to ensure that your audience can view and interact with your slides effectively. Whether you’re conducting a business meeting, delivering a training session, or giving a presentation, consider the following factors when deciding on the best format for your presentation:

• Full Screen: This format allows you to occupy the entire Zoom window with your slides. It’s ideal for presentations that heavily rely on visuals or require your audience to focus solely on the content.
• Presenter View: If you need to access your notes, manage your slides, or view upcoming slides while presenting, the Presenter View format is your best bet. It gives you a separate window with additional tools and features.
• Side-by-Side: This format enables you to display your PowerPoint slides alongside other applications or materials, such as a video conferencing window or a shared document. It’s useful if you need to refer to external resources during your presentation.
• Custom Layout: Zoom allows you to customize the layout of your presentation, allowing you to combine multiple formats or adjust the size and position of your slides and other elements on the screen.

Consider the nature of your presentation, your objectives, and the visual elements you plan to incorporate when selecting the presentation format. Additionally, take into account the size of your audience, the devices they’ll be using, and the level of interactivity you wish to achieve.

Remember, a well-chosen presentation format can enhance your delivery and engage your audience more effectively. Spend some time experimenting with different formats in Zoom’s settings before your presentation to determine the layout that works best for your needs.

Preparing Your PowerPoint Slides

Before presenting your PowerPoint on Zoom, it’s important to ensure that your slides are well-prepared and optimized for the virtual environment. Here are some essential tips to consider:

• Simplify Your Content: Keep your slides concise and focused. Use bullet points, short sentences, and key phrases to convey your message effectively. Avoid overcrowding slides with excessive text or complex images.
• Use High-Quality Visuals: Choose high-resolution images and graphics that align with your topic and enhance understanding. Avoid pixelated or distorted visuals that may hinder audience comprehension.
• Consider Font Size and Typeface: Use a clear and legible font size, typically around 24-32 points, to ensure readability on different screen sizes. Stick to standard fonts like Arial or Calibri to avoid technical issues.
• Contrast Colors: Opt for high contrast between the background and text colors to ensure visibility. Dark text on a light background or vice versa works best. Avoid using color combinations that strain the eyes or make text illegible.
• Include Engaging Multimedia: Incorporate videos, animations, or interactive elements to enhance audience engagement. However, ensure that the multimedia elements are relevant, purposeful, and do not distract from your main points.
• Consistent Design: Maintain a consistent design across your slides for a professional and cohesive look. Use the same font styles, colors, and layout throughout your presentation to create a visually appealing and easily navigable experience for your audience.
• Proofread and Edit: Check for spelling, grammar, and content errors in your slides. Ensure that all text is grammatically correct and appropriate for your target audience. Consider seeking feedback from colleagues or friends to validate the clarity and effectiveness of your slides.

By following these tips, you can create visually appealing and well-structured PowerPoint slides for your Zoom presentations. Investing time and effort in the preparation phase will translate into a more engaging and impactful virtual presentation experience.

Optimizing Your Zoom Settings

Before you start presenting your PowerPoint on Zoom, it’s essential to optimize your Zoom settings to ensure a smooth and hassle-free experience for both you and your audience. Consider the following settings to enhance the quality and functionality of your presentation:

• Audio Settings: Test your microphone and speakers to ensure clear audio. Adjust the microphone sensitivity and speaker volume as needed. Consider using an external microphone for better sound quality.
• Video Settings: Check your camera settings and ensure that you’re well-lit and in focus. Adjust the video resolution based on your internet connection to maintain a stable presentation stream.
• Screen Sharing: Familiarize yourself with the screen sharing options in Zoom. Choose the appropriate settings to optimize the display of your PowerPoint slides. Select the “Optimize for full screen video” option for a smoother playback experience.
• Virtual Background: If desired, experiment with Zoom’s virtual background feature to create a professional and distraction-free backdrop. Choose a background image that aligns with your presentation topic and enhances your visual presence.
• Chat and Q&A: Decide whether you want to enable the chat or Q&A feature during your presentation. This allows your audience to ask questions or provide feedback. Determine how you want to manage and address these interactions during your presentation.
• Recording: If you plan to record your presentation, ensure that you have sufficient storage space and that you’ve enabled the recording function in Zoom. Inform your audience in advance if you intend to record the session.
• Mute and Unmute: Familiarize yourself with the mute and unmute controls in Zoom. During your presentation, be mindful of muting yourself when not speaking to minimize background noise and distractions.
• Practice and Test: Before your actual presentation, conduct a practice session to test your Zoom settings. Ensure that everything is working as expected, including audio, video, screen sharing, and any interactive features you plan to use.

By optimizing your Zoom settings in advance, you can ensure a seamless and professional presentation experience. Paying attention to audio, video, screen sharing, and other essential settings will help you deliver a high-quality presentation that engages your audience effectively.

Sharing Your Screen on Zoom

One of the key features of Zoom is the ability to share your screen, allowing you to display your PowerPoint slides to your audience. Follow these steps to successfully share your screen during a Zoom presentation:

• Start a Zoom Meeting: Open Zoom and start a meeting. You can choose to start a new meeting or join an existing one.
• Open Your PowerPoint Presentation: Open the PowerPoint file that contains your presentation. Make sure it’s ready to be displayed.
• Click the “Share Screen” Button: In the Zoom meeting window, locate the green “Share Screen” button at the bottom of the screen and click on it.
• Select Your PowerPoint Window: A dialog box will appear with a list of available screens and windows to share. Choose the window that has your PowerPoint presentation open.
• Ensure “Share Computer Sound” is Checked: If your PowerPoint presentation includes audio or video, make sure to check the “Share computer sound” checkbox in the dialog box. This will transmit the audio along with your slides.
• Click “Share”: Once you have selected the appropriate window, click on the “Share” button in the bottom right corner of the dialog box.
• Start Presenting: Your PowerPoint presentation will now be visible to your audience in the Zoom meeting. Begin presenting your slides as you normally would.
• Stop Sharing: To stop sharing your screen, locate the “Stop Share” button at the top of your screen or in the Zoom meeting controls and click on it.

Remember to ensure that your PowerPoint slides are visible and legible to your audience. Check the Zoom meeting preview window to verify the quality of your shared screen. Adjust the size and position of your slides if necessary to optimize visibility.

Sharing your screen on Zoom allows your audience to view your PowerPoint presentation in real-time, enhancing their engagement and understanding of your content. Practice this process before your actual presentation to become familiar with the steps and ensure a smooth screen sharing experience.

Using Presenter View

Presenter View is a powerful feature in PowerPoint that allows you to view your speaker notes, manage your slides, and have better control over your presentation while presenting on Zoom. Follow these steps to use Presenter View effectively:

• Enable Presenter View: Before you start your presentation, click on the “Slide Show” tab in PowerPoint and check the “Use Presenter View” box. This will activate Presenter View on your screen.
• Start the Slide Show: Begin your presentation by selecting the “From Beginning” or “From Current Slide” option under the “Slide Show” tab, depending on where you want to start.
• Access Presenter View: Once your presentation starts, you’ll see two different windows. The main window displays the current slide that your audience sees, while the Presenter View window contains your speaker notes, thumbnails of upcoming slides, and slide navigation controls.
• View Speaker Notes: In the Presenter View window, you can see your speaker notes for each slide, allowing you to stay on track with your talking points and key information.
• Preview Upcoming Slides: Take advantage of the thumbnail view in Presenter View to preview the next few slides. This helps you anticipate and smoothly transition to the next topic without losing your flow.
• Annotate Slides: Use the annotation tools available in Presenter View to highlight important points or draw attention to specific areas of your slides. This can enhance your audience’s understanding and engagement during your presentation.
• Manage Slides: In Presenter View, you can easily navigate between slides using the arrow keys or the slide navigation controls. This allows you to jump back and forth between slides or quickly go to a specific slide as needed.
• End the Presentation: Once you’ve completed your presentation, press the Esc key or click on the “End Slide Show” button in the Presenter View window to exit the presentation mode.

Presenter View in PowerPoint and Zoom provides you with the tools and flexibility to deliver a seamless and professional presentation. Take advantage of its features to stay organized, deliver your content effectively, and engage your audience during your Zoom presentation.

Navigating Slide Show Controls

When presenting your PowerPoint on Zoom, it’s important to familiarize yourself with the slide show controls to navigate through your slides smoothly and deliver an engaging presentation. Here are the key controls you can use while in slide show mode:

• Advance to Next Slide: To proceed to the next slide, simply press the right arrow key on your keyboard, click the mouse, or use a presenter remote if available. This allows you to progress through your presentation at your desired pace.
• Go Back to Previous Slide: If you need to revisit a previous slide, press the left arrow key on your keyboard or click the mouse’s left button. This enables you to go back and address questions or clarify information for your audience.
• Jump to a Specific Slide: If you want to navigate to a specific slide in your presentation, press the slide number on your keyboard followed by the Enter key. Alternatively, you can right-click on the slide and choose the desired slide from the context menu.
• Access Slide Thumbnails: In PowerPoint’s slide show mode, you can access a thumbnail view of your slides by pressing the Ctrl key and clicking on any slide. This enables you to quickly navigate to a specific slide without disrupting the flow of your presentation.
• Zoom In and Out: If you need to highlight specific details or make text more readable to your audience, use the Ctrl key and the plus (+) or minus (-) keys to zoom in and out, respectively. This feature is especially useful when showing complex diagrams or small texts.
• End the Slide Show: To exit the slide show mode, press the Esc key on your keyboard or right-click anywhere on the screen and select “End Show” from the context menu. This will bring you back to the normal editing view in PowerPoint.
• Use Presenter View: If you have enabled Presenter View, you can access additional controls and features to manage your presentation more effectively. Refer to the “Using Presenter View” section for more details on how to utilize this feature.

By familiarizing yourself with these slide show controls, you can navigate through your PowerPoint presentation confidently and deliver a more dynamic and interactive experience for your audience on Zoom.

Engaging Your Audience in a Zoom Presentation

Engaging your audience is crucial when presenting on Zoom to maintain their attention and ensure the effectiveness of your message. Here are some strategies to actively involve your audience and make your Zoom presentation interactive:

• Ask Questions: Pose questions to your audience throughout your presentation to encourage participation. You can use the chat feature in Zoom or ask attendees to unmute themselves and speak up.
• Use Polls: Take advantage of Zoom’s polling feature to gather instant feedback or opinions from your audience. Create engaging poll questions related to your presentation topic to encourage active participation.
• Encourage Chat Participation: Remind your audience to use the chat feature to ask questions, share insights, or provide feedback. Monitor the chat regularly and respond to messages to make attendees feel heard and valued.
• Incorporate Interactive Activities: Break up your presentation with interactive activities to keep your audience engaged. This could include case studies, brainstorming sessions, group discussions, or virtual simulations.
• Share Relevant Resources: Provide links to additional resources related to your topic in the chat or through screen sharing. This encourages further exploration and engagement even after the presentation ends.
• Use Visual Aid: Utilize visual aids such as charts, graphs, and images to enhance understanding and engagement. Visuals can help convey complex information in a more digestible and memorable way.
• Tell Stories: Incorporate relevant stories or anecdotes to make your content more relatable and captivating. Personal experiences are powerful tools for capturing your audience’s attention and keeping them engaged.
• Interact with Body Language: Use appropriate facial expressions, gestures, and body language to convey enthusiasm and connect with your audience. Non-verbal cues can enhance engagement and create a more memorable experience.
• Pause for Questions: Give your audience regular opportunities to ask questions or seek clarification. Pause after key points or at designated breaks to allow for interaction and address any queries.
• Display Empathy: Be attentive and empathetic towards your audience’s needs and emotions. Show genuine interest in their thoughts and perspectives, and create a safe and inclusive environment for discussion and interaction.

By incorporating these strategies, you can create a more interactive and engaging Zoom presentation that captivates your audience’s attention and encourages their active participation throughout the session.

Troubleshooting Audio and Video Issues

Technical difficulties with audio and video can disrupt the flow of your Zoom presentation. To ensure a smooth experience, it’s important to be familiar with troubleshooting common issues that may arise. Here are some troubleshooting tips for audio and video problems during your Zoom presentation:

• Check Your Internet Connection: A stable and reliable internet connection is crucial for smooth audio and video. Ensure that you have a strong connection and consider connecting via an Ethernet cable for a more stable connection.
• Test Your Audio and Video Devices: Before your presentation, test your microphone and camera to ensure they are functioning properly. Use the Zoom audio and video settings to select the correct devices and adjust their settings if needed.
• Adjust Your Audio Settings: If your audio is distorted, low, or inconsistent, check the audio settings in Zoom. Increase the volume, adjust the microphone sensitivity, and ensure that the correct audio device is selected.
• Restart Your Devices: If you experience audio or video issues during your presentation, try restarting your computer and reopening the Zoom application. This can resolve any temporary glitches that may be affecting your devices.
• Close Unnecessary Applications: Close any unnecessary applications or software running in the background during your presentation. This can free up system resources and prevent audio or video lag or interference.
• Use Headphones or External Microphones: If you are experiencing audio issues, consider using headphones or an external microphone. This can help eliminate background noise, improve audio quality, and minimize the chance of audio feedback.
• Optimize Camera Placement: Ensure that your camera is positioned correctly and at eye level. Avoid backlighting or excessive lighting that may affect the quality of your video. Adjust the camera angle and lighting as needed for the best visual appearance.
• Update Your Software: Keep your Zoom application and other relevant software up to date. Updates often include bug fixes and performance enhancements that can solve audio and video issues.
• Seek Technical Support: If you encounter persistent audio or video issues that you cannot resolve, consider contacting Zoom technical support or consulting with a technical expert for assistance.

By following these troubleshooting tips, you can minimize audio and video issues during your Zoom presentation and deliver a seamless and professional experience for your audience.

Tips for a Successful PowerPoint Presentation on Zoom

When delivering a PowerPoint presentation on Zoom, it’s essential to adapt your approach to the virtual environment. Here are some valuable tips to help you create a successful and impactful presentation:

• Practice and Rehearse: Familiarize yourself with your presentation and practice it multiple times before your actual Zoom presentation. This will boost your confidence, help you refine your delivery, and ensure a smoother flow.
• Create a Engaging Opening: Capture your audience’s attention with a strong opening that introduces the topic and highlights its relevance. Use a compelling anecdote, surprising statistic, or thought-provoking question to hook your audience from the start.
• Use Visuals Wisely: Leverage the power of visuals to support your message. Incorporate impactful images, charts, and graphs that enhance understanding and engagement. Avoid overwhelming your slides with excessive text or cluttered visuals.
• Speak Clearly and Slowly: Pay attention to your diction and pace of speech. Enunciate your words clearly and speak slowly and deliberately to ensure that every participant can follow along easily.
• Engage with Eye Contact: Look directly into the camera to establish eye contact with your virtual audience. This creates a stronger connection and helps maintain engagement throughout your presentation.
• Use Gestures and Body Language: Incorporate appropriate gestures and body language to enhance your presentation. It adds dynamism and visual interest, making your delivery more engaging and authentic.
• Encourage Interaction: Foster audience engagement by inviting questions, encouraging comments, or conducting interactive activities. This promotes a two-way communication and keeps participants actively involved.
• Time Management: Keep track of time and pace yourself accordingly. Avoid rushing through slides or going over time. Practice beforehand to ensure your presentation fits within the allocated timeframe.
• Use Breaks Strategically: Incorporate short breaks throughout your presentation to give your audience a chance to process information, ask questions, or engage in discussions. This helps maintain energy and prevents Zoom fatigue.
• Be Mindful of Your Background: Choose a clean and uncluttered background for your video. Consider using a virtual background or a well-organized physical setting that is visually appealing and free from distractions.
• Technical Backup: Have a backup plan in case of technical issues. Keep a secondary device ready, ensure you have a stable internet connection, and have a contact person to help troubleshoot any unforeseen problems.

By implementing these tips, you can maximize the impact of your PowerPoint presentation on Zoom. Remember to adapt to the virtual medium while maintaining your confidence, engaging your audience, and delivering a compelling presentation.

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PowerPoint Zoom: A Great Way to Make Interactive Presentations

• December 27, 2022
• 101 Comments

The PowerPoint zoom feature is a great way to make the presentation dynamic and interactive. When you use this feature, the slides are not presented in a usual order. This feature helps present slides in any order as one likes during the presentation making it more interactive .

This feature is available in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft office 2019. It is not available in other modules.

Have you read our blog on  80 PowerPoint Shortcut Keys

Understanding the Zoom Feature

Zoom feature can be leveraged in just 2 steps

Step 1 – Create basic slides

Create the slides you want to have in your presentation.

For our example, we have 5 slides showing the Presentation rules.

Step 2 – Insert the Zoom Feature

To insert the Zoom feature. Insert an additional blank slide. Then Go to  Insert > Zoom

Then Select  Slide Zoom.

Choose the slides you want in the Zoom Summary slide. Then  click insert.  You get the screen shots of the selected slides on one slide. This slide becomes your  Summary Zoom Slide .

Format the Summary Zoom Slide. Change the background (if required) and place the screen shots as required (Example shown below).

Now when you go to the presentation mode, you have the option to jump to specific slides and portions of your presentation by clicking on the relevant screen shot.

You can decide where to go based on the flow of the presentation . Summary Zoom Slide helps you control your presentation. You can get move ahead, skip a section, or revisit slides of your presentation without interrupting the flow of your presentation.

Now let us discuss a few other important points.

Here is  Free PowerPoint course to learn basic skills

Section Zoom

This feature is useful if your presentation has multiple slides in one section. In such case, divide your presentation to the appropriate sections. Then insert a blank Slide and Go to Insert > Zoom > Insert Section Zoom. Seen Screen shots below.

Once you  click insert.  You get the screen shots of the selected sections on one slide. This slide becomes your  Summary Zoom Slide .

Now you can choose specific sections you want to present based on the flow of your presentation.

Read our blog on  How to Create an Effective Business Presentation in 5 Steps

Change Image

Instead of screenshots (as shown in the example) if you want to use any other image, click on the slide screenshot then Click on  Zoom > Change Image

Once you click on Change image, you can select the images from a file , or select online. You can also use icons.

Once you make the relevant selection, the slide screen shot changes to the chosen image.

Return to Zoom

If you want to move to the Zoom Summary slide after discussing the chosen slide or section, you should select Return to Zoom.

Click on the slide screenshot then Click on  Zoom >Return to Zoom

You should repeat this step for all the slides in the Summary Zoom slide. For select slides/section, if you do not want to move back to the Summary Zoom slide then do not choose this option.

Zoom Transition

The Zoom Transition feature helps create an impressive visual effect when you move from one slide to the other. The default option chosen is Zoom Transition. If you do not want this transition effect, then Go to  Zoom> Deselect Zoom Transition

Want to  master in Presentation Skills , Join our  PowerPoint Online Course  right here.

There are multiple design options/border/effects options available in the Zoom Feature. These can be chosen to change the images on the Zoom Summary slide.

This is how we can make our presentation lively. Rather than following the usual flow of slides, with the help of the new Zoom feature we can navigate between slides depending on the flow of our presentation.

Keep learning new things and have fun.

Sign up for our  PowerPoint Presentation Skills Training Online

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Comment définir des en-têtes et des pieds de page dans Google Sheets

Table of Contents

Simplifiez votre expérience Google Sheets en maîtrisant l'art de la configuration des en-têtes et des pieds de page. Améliorez l'organisation de vos documents avec des en-têtes et des pieds de page personnalisés, augmentant ainsi la clarté et le professionnalisme. Ce guide complet vous guide à travers le processus fluide de configuration des en-têtes et des pieds de page dans Google Sheets, vous permettant d'optimiser la présentation de vos tableaux pour une documentation plus efficace et soignée.

Pour qui Google Sheets est-il le mieux adapté ?

Google Sheets est idéal pour une large gamme de professionnels, y compris les analystes commerciaux, les comptables et les coordinateurs marketing. Par exemple, les analystes commerciaux peuvent utiliser Google Sheets pour l'analyse des données et les rapports, les comptables pour le suivi financier et la budgétisation, et les coordinateurs marketing pour la planification des campagnes et le suivi des performances, tous bénéficiant de ses fonctionnalités collaboratives et de ses outils puissants de traitement des données.

Comment configurer les en-têtes et les pieds de page dans Google Sheets

1. commencez par localiser et sélectionner l'option 'fichier'..

2. Ensuite, trouvez l'option 'Imprimer' dans le menu déroulant et cliquez dessus.

3. Ensuite, recherchez la sélection 'En-têtes et pieds de page' et cliquez dessus.

4. Ensuite, identifiez la case à cocher souhaitée pour votre type spécifique d'en-tête ou de pied de page et cochez-la.

5. Enfin, après avoir complété vos choix, trouvez et sélectionnez le bouton 'Suivant'.

Questions fréquentes sur Google Sheets

Comment créer une nouvelle feuille de calcul dans google sheets .

Pour créer une nouvelle feuille de calcul, accédez à Google Sheets et cliquez sur l'option « Document vierge » ou sélectionnez un modèle dans la galerie de modèles. Vous pouvez également accéder à Google Sheets depuis Google Drive en cliquant sur le bouton « + Nouveau » et en choisissant « Google Sheets » dans le menu déroulant.

Comment partager un document Google Sheets avec d'autres ?

Pour partager un document Google Sheets, ouvrez la feuille que vous souhaitez partager et cliquez sur le bouton « Partager » dans le coin supérieur droit. Entrez les adresses e-mail des personnes avec lesquelles vous souhaitez partager ou générez un lien partageable. Vous pouvez définir des autorisations pour chaque personne, leur permettant de visualiser, commenter ou modifier le document.

Puis-je utiliser Google Sheets hors ligne ?

Oui, vous pouvez utiliser Google Sheets hors ligne. Pour activer l'accès hors ligne, installez l'extension Google Docs hors ligne pour Chrome et activez le mode hors ligne dans les paramètres de Google Drive. Cela vous permet de voir et de modifier vos feuilles de calcul sans connexion Internet, et les modifications seront synchronisées automatiquement dès que vous serez de nouveau en ligne.

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