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How to Hide and Unhide a Zoom Video

If you don’t want to see your own face during a Zoom video meeting, here’s how to hide, unhide and tweak your video settings.

A lot of us used to working in offices have found ourselves working at home due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus and that means a lot of virtual meetings. Users new to Zoom’s desktop app may find it a bit odd when their face appears while speaking. If you want to hide your own video, adjust it so you don’t take over the screen or bring it back once it’s hidden, then this post is for you.

There are several options for hiding and unhiding videos during a Zoom meeting, both for yourself and other. Lets get started.

This if for a PC, Macs, iPhone/iPad and Android devices that support Zoom

Dilbert and Instagram — *Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS*

Accessing Zoom Settings

First, fire up Zoom and join an active meeting. Then click on your small profile photo in upper right-hand corner. This will open up the dialog options window. From here, click on the Settings option. See below image:

Zoom Video 1 — Accessomg the Settings option

The Video Settings

Once you click on the Settings option, the Settings dialog window will be revealed. Now, click on the Video tab. The below image only shows some of the settings.

Note! The black area on the below screens would show your online video image.

The Video tab has numerous options for configuring video in meetings that will change the way Zoom handles all videos in a meeting. The below image shows the rest of the settings.

Hide/Unhide a Video

During a meeting, if you wish to hide your video from your own screen to make room for other participants, just right-click on your video and choose Hide Myself. If you want to bring your own video back onto your screen, just right-click on any other user and select Show Myself.

Note! This won’t disable your video from showing up for other participants; only from from your screen.

To disable your own video completely, you can select the checkbox in the Video Settings screen shown above that says Turn off my video when joining a meeting to disable it, or click the Stop Video button in a meeting to temporary turn it off for the video session.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help us out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

How to Join a Zoom Meeting Without Installing the App

There is a way to have a Zoom web client meeting without the participates having to install the Zoom app. We are going to learn how to enable this option to make digital meetings even easier.

Zoom’s web client based system has many of the same features as the desktop app, but for users only needing to join meetings as participants it’s very useful. All a attendee has to do is click on the meeting invite link from the host and the web client will do the rest of the work.

There is a sticky problem in doing this type of meeting. The participtes joining a meeting without the app is not enabled by default. The host needs to turn this default on.

If you want your meeting attendees to be able to use the Zoom web client based system, you’ll have to start by logging into your Zoom account on Zoom’s website.

Note! We are NOT using the Zoom app; rather the Zoom web site program.

This if for a PCs and Macs browsers and smartdevices that support Zoom

Dilbert and Working — **Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS**

Sign in or Sign up to Zoom

Open your browser and click here to sign in or sign up for Zoom. If the link does not work, with your browser open, type in https://zoom.us/signin in the search field. You will see the following screen for sign in or sign up. For my example, I have already signed up.

Zoom Web Meeting A — **Sign in to Zoom web based client program**

Once you’ve logged in, you should see your Profile screen:

Zoom Web Meeting B — **Your Profile screen**

Access the Settings Menu

Click on the Settings menu option. Refer to below image:

Zoom Web Meeting 1 — **Accessing the Setttings**

Now, click on In Meeting (Advanced) menu option. Refer to below screen:

Zoom Web Meeting 2 — **Chosing the In Meeting settings option**

Join Using Your Browser

Then scroll down until you see the following screen displayed. Look for the option labeled Show a “Join From Your Browser” link.

Zoom Web Meeting 3 — **The Join a Meeting option**

Now click the toggle switch to the On position. See below image:

Zoom Web Meeting 4 — **Enabling Join a Meeting option**

Schedule a Meeting

If you want to schedule a meeting at this time, click on the link SCHEDULE MEETING in the top menu bar. If you perfer to schedule a meeting later, you may want to set the following options as displayed on the next three screens. Refer to following image:

Zoom Web Meeting 5 — Selecting Schedule a Meeting option

Options for Scheduling a Meeting

There are two options you may want to enable. Select Schedule A Meeting>Meetings>My Meetings and scroll down till you see the option Video>Host which allows you to record a video of the meeting. Also, at the bottom, checkmark the option Record the meeting automatically on the local computer. You have the option to let the parcipates also record the meeting as well. It is recommended not to enable this option in order to save bandwidth during the on-line meeting. See following image:

Zoom Web Meeting 6 — **Two Options to enable**

Additionally, under the In Meeting (Basic) menu option, you can turn on a sound when particpates either join or leave a meeting by enabling the Play sound when participates join or leave toggle. See below image:

Zoom Web Meeting 7 — **The Sound option to enable**

Invitation to Join a Meeting

When a meeting attendee clicks on your invitation link to join a meeting they’ll have the option to download and install Zoom or Start From Your Browser. Tell your attendees to select the latter option, install the plugin for your browser and follow the on-screen instructions. Refer to below image:

Zoom Web Meeting 8 — **The participate invitation to Join a Meeting screen**

There are fewer options, buttons and clicks required to join a meeting using the web client based Zoom, so hopefully it will eliminate some of the confusion that comes with using Zoom. Remember you are using your web browser to join a Zoom meeting, NOT the Zoom app on a smartdevice or the Zoom program on a PC or Mac.

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How to Format a Zip Code in Microsoft Excel

When entering numbers into Microsoft Excel, leading zeros are removed by default. This can be problematic for ZIP codes, phone numbers, credit/debit card numbers and IDs that you type into a cell. We are going to explore some options on fixing this Excel behavior.

If you want to keep a leading zero on the fly, you can enter an apostrophe (‘) before you enter the number that begins with zero. Excel treats the number as a text field. The apostrophe (‘) is not displayed and calculations will still work. But who wants to do this every time, there has to be a better way.

This is for Excel for Office 365 Windows and Mac versions. Other versions of Excel will be similar.

Create the Excel Sheet

Create a simple Excel sheet like the example below:

Zip Code Format 1 — Excel Sheet for Zip Codes

Setup the Zip Code Format

Select a cell or range of cells to format; in my case G2 thru G6
Click “Ctrl+1” to load Format Cells dialog. Also, you can right click and select Format Cells.
Select the Number tab
Select Custom from the Category list
In the Type box, type in 00000 for a five digit zip code or 00000-0000 for a nine digit zip code. This allows leading zeros to be placed in the cell, you only have to enter the Zip code numbers. This is not intuitive, you think you have to select a format from the list. Refer to the following image:

Zip Code Format 3 — Setup Excel Sheet format

Using the Special Zip Code Format

You can also click Special, then select Zip Code or Zip Code + 4. In Google Sheets, this special Zip code format is not available, but you can enter the format of leading zeros. See the following example:

Zip Code Format 2 — Excel Special Zip Code format

Click OK to apply the format. The 00000 or 00000-0000 format is saved in the Type list for future use.

This will only effect Zip Codes that are entered after the format is applied.

You can also format the Zip Code as Plain Text. Anything you enter will show exactly how you typed it in text.

To do this:

Select your data range
Press “Ctrl+1” to launch the Format Cells dialog box
On the Number tab, click Text

What about Zip Codes entries that have more than 5 digits? We can use a Conditional Format in an adjacent column to flag the invalid Zip codes. I used the formula; if the length (cell reference)>5 is True then present an “Invalid Zip” message, if the expression is False, then no message is presented.

Flagging Invalid Zip Codes

Create a column adjacent to the Zip Code and label it Error Message
Set the Conditional Format for the first cell adjacent to the Zip Code. In my example, it is cell G2
Type in this formula, =IF (LEN(your cell reference)>5,”Invalid Zip”,””)
Copy this formula, then highlight a range of cells, then Paste

See the following image for the Invalid Zip message related to cell G2 and G6, both have more than 5 numbers. An important note, Excel lets you enter as many digits as allowed, there is no truncation. The template of 00000 formatting is for adding leading zeros if the number of digits is less than 5.

Zip Code Format 5 — Flagging Invalid Zip Codes screen

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How to Switch to the New Facebook Interface

Facebook’s new website interface change is not well known. At some point, it will probably be the new standard. The interface is getting a visual overhaul that almost everyone can access. You can now update to this brand new, less cluttered design with the click of a button. If you don’t like the change, you can easily switch back to the classic interface.

This if for a desktop/laptop, Macs and smartphones supporting Facebook

Dilbert and Human Interaction — *Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS*

Enabling the New Interface

Note! This post relates to a PC, other devices will be similar. If you don’t see the new Facebook option then Facebook has yet to rollout the change to your device.

Fire up your device and log in to your Facebook account.

Next, click on the down arrow in the top-right corner of the interface. Select the Switch To New Facebook option. The page will refresh and the new interface design will load. Refer to below image:

Facebook New 1 — Switch to the new Facebook option

A welcome message will appear the first time that you switch to the new Facebook design. Facebook claims that the redesign has faster loading time, cleaner look and bigger text. Additionally, Facebook now includes a dark mode that you can enable whenever you want.

Additionally, this update comes with a user-friendly redesign of the Groups tab and an overhaul of the News Feed. See below image:

Facebook New 2 — The Welcome message for the new interface

Simply click the Next button. You will see the following image allowing you to select how yout interface will look.

Facebook New 3 — Selecting your interface look

Just click the Get Started button. That’s it, you are all set with the new desktop interface. If you aren’t a fan of the Dark mode, you can switch back to Light whenever you like.

Switching Back to the Classic Interface

Once you’ve enabled the new interface, you can always revert the change from your Facebook account’s front page. Just click on the down arrow in the top-right and then select Switch To Classic Facebook. See following image:

Facebook New 4 — Reverting back to the Classic interface

At some point in the future, Facebook may decide to roll out the new design permentally for all platforms. If so, reverting back to the classic interface will no longer be an option.

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The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

How to Record a Zoom Meeting

Why take notes during a Zoom meeting when you can refer back to a recording of the entire call? Here’s how to record a Zoom meeting, whether you’re the host or not.

Important meetings need good records, and anyone who has taken notes knows that some details can be missed. The best way to preserve a record of a meeting is to have a video recording.

That goes doubly for remote meetings, where distractions, tech issues and other problems can lead to you missing out on essential information.

If you are using an Enterprise account to host a meeting, you may not be able to record a Zoom meeting unless your IT team has given you permission. Be sure to check with your administrator before the meeting to grant you access if you don’t have it.

If using a PC or Mac, be sure your computer has a microphone and/or camera to use Zoom to its fullest. You may also use your smartphone to record the meeting.

This if for a PC, Macs, iPhone/iPad and Android devices that support Zoom

Dilbert and Future 1 — *Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS*

Accessing Zoom Settings

First, fire up Zoom and join an active meeting. Then click on your small profile photo in upper right-hand corner. This will open up the dialog options window. See below image:

Zoom Record 1 — Zoom dialog Options window

Recording a Zoom Meeting

Next, click on the Settings option. The Settings options will be displayed. The Record video during screen sharing option should be checkmarked. Also, at the top of the screen is the location where your video will be stored upon completion. This folder was created when you installed Zoom. Refer to below image:

Zoom Record 2 — Settings options for recording a video

By default, only the meeting host can record the meeting, but it’s easy to grant other participants the ability to do so. The meeting host can do so by clicking on Participants while in a meeting, looking for the More button next to an individual’s name and selecting Allow Record.

Once in a meeting, those wanting to record only need to click the Record button to start capture, at which point the Record button will change into two buttons: One to Pause the recording and one to Stop recording.

When you’re done recording video, Zoom stores it temporarily in the location mentioned above. The video is encoded into MP4 format once the meeting has ended.

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The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

How to Add an Excel Watermark to Your Sheet

In Microsoft Excel, you can add a watermark, sort of, to an Excel sheet. How to do this is not intuitive. In Microsoft Word you have templates to chose from such as “Confidential” or “Do Not Copy” for a watermark.

I am going to discuss one method; adding an image background as a watermark. We are going to insert an image which could be a photo or a company logo. Let’s see how to implement this watermark.

This is for Excel for Office 365 Windows and Mac versions. Other versions of Excel will be similar.

Your Excel Sheet

Create an Excel spreadsheet or use an existing one. Refer to my newly created sheet (Sheet1) below:

Click Insert>Text>Header & Footer

xcel Watermark 3 — Inserting a Header in the middle column

Select Picture

Select Your Watermark

Select your option for inserting a picture. Refer to following screenshot

Excel Watermark 4 — Options for selecting a watermark image

Select your image
Click Insert
You will see &[Picture] in the Header.

Excel Watermark 5 — Your Header screen without the watermark being shown

View Your Watermark

Tap anywhere outside the Header to see your watermark. Refer to following screenshot for my selection of a logo:

Excel Watermark 8 — My Excel sheet with a logo as a watermark

Formatting Your Watermark

To format the image:

Tap anywhere outside the Header
Click Insert>Text>Header & Footer
Select Format Picture. You will see the following screen:

Excel Watermark 9 — Resize your watermark

From here you can resize the image

Click the Picture tab
Select the Color box and change it to the Washout option
Click OK. This allows the background image to be less intrusive.

Excel Watermark 10 — Using the Washout option

Refer below to my final capture of the watermark screen:

Excel Watermark 11 — My final screen with the watermark background dimmed in order to see the cells contents

Save your spreadsheet and close or exit Excel

For a Microsoft Word look-a-like watermark, use the WordArt feature in Excel.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

Online Conferencing Solutions

In this Coronavirus pandemic, many people are working from home. Our local TV news and weather people have live audio and video streaming from their homes for the daily news broadcast. Working from home has become the new norm.

This will continue after the crisis is over. Instead of going to an office or to a clients location, you will collaborate through an audio and video service.

I researched some web sites for the top call services. They have a similar mix of apps, just in a different order. Some of the web sites have organizations I never heard of. So, I like the ranking from Office Watch. Click here to read their review.

This is for modern web browsers and apps on Apple, Android and Microsoft platforms

Their top seven online call services are as follows:

FaceTime – handles up to 32 people
Skype – up to 50 people
WhatsApp – handles 4 people
Signal – one-on-one calls only
Zoom and Meetings – up to 100 people for the free version; 1000 for their enterprise paid version
Microsoft Teams and Live Events – can handle 4 participates, up to 10,000 for the paid version
Google Hangouts – up to 150 people

I recommend Facetime or Skype for a small busines; Zoom for a medium business; and Zoom Meetings for a large enterprise. Facetime and basic Zoom are free. Click here to read the review of their rankings.

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The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

How to Setup Contacts in Zoom

Is your business using Zoom for collaboration during the Coronavirus outbreak? Zoom has become a key tool for working at home and a top choice for vittual meetings. Zoom is free for one-on-one calls that last as long as you like. For three or more people, your calls are limited to 40 minutes. Zoom also has a paid version for an enterprise; it can handle 1000 people.There’s also a plan for small and medium businesses that supports up to 300 participates per call..

Click here for a detailed review of Zoom from PCMag Labs

Click here for setup and install of Zoom from Office Watch

Zoom Meeting’s free account is generous. You can host up to 100 people on a call for free and you can see as many as 49 people on an active call in a gallery-style view. There’s no limit on how many meetings you can host.

So, how do we setup our contacts with coworkers using Zoom? In this post we offer insight on how to do this.

This post is for Windows 7 or greater, iPhone or iPad with iOS 7 or later, Android 4 or greater, Web browsers, Macs and the Zoom app or program

Dilber and Ted Talk — *Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS*

Before you Begin

Of course, you have already setup the app. Linking to other people in Zoom is necessary before you can call them. A person has to be added to your Zoom contacts list and they have to add you before a call is made.

Zoom contacts are separate from Outlook and other contacts list.

Zoom links people by matching email addresses. Some people have multiple email addresses; for example, personal and work or different ones for different purposes or multiple old email addresses.

Which Email Address to Use?

Before adding a person to your contacts list it’s a good idea to check with them on which email address they use to login to Zoom.

To check, they can click on their Zoom Profile in the top right where their name and address is displayed. Refer to below image:

Zoom Contacts 1 — Locate the correct email address

Invite a Contact

To link with someone, in the Zoom app, go to the Contacts section, then click the plus “+ “symbol. See following image:

Zoom Contacts 2 — Linking a Zoom contact

Enter the email address of the contact you want to add to Zoom. See below image:

Then you have two options:

Add Contact – sends a contact request to that person’s Zoom account.
Copy Invitation – copies to your clipboard with web link. Paste that into an email or instant message.

Refer to below image:

Zoom Contacts 4 — Web address for the Zoom contact

There is no need to paste the entire text, change it to suit you. The web link is the important part to pass along. Make sure you include the whole web link; it’s a long link using multiple lines.

Accept a Contact Request

If a participate adds you to their Zoom contact list, you’ll see a pop-up alert. See following image:

Zoom Contacts 5 — Pop-up box for a contact request

Or open your Zoom app/web page. Under Contacts look at Contact Requests. The request will be displayed with options to Accept or Decline. Refer to below image:

Zoom Contacts 6 — Accept or Decline a contact request

As you can see above, the Contact Requests you’ve made will also appear with their current status.

What to Do Next?

Now that you’ve linked with someone on Zoom, you can call them (voice, video, text, etc). If someone wants to invite you into a Zoom meeting, give them you Zoom linked email address.

That’s it on setting up your Zoom contacts. Try it out.

I Would Like to Hear from You

Please feel free to leave a comment. I would love hearing from you. Do you have a computer or smart device tech question? I will do my best to answer your inquiry. Please mention the device, app and version that you are using. To help me out, you can send screenshots of your data related to your question.

The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

How to Create Rolling Credits in PowerPoint

Do you need to give people credit for your PowerPoint presentation? If so, you can add these credits to your final slide by using the scrolling text animation feature. You can use an existing presentation or add this to your next one. In our example, we are using an existing PowerPoint slide show.

This is for PowerPoint for Office 365 Windows and Mac versions. Other versions of PowerPoint will be similar.

Setting Up the Slide

Open an existing presentation or create a new one
Navigate to the final slide
Click the Insert tab
Insert a blank text box by clicking the Text Box icon in the Text group. Your cursor will turn into an down arrow. After you click, the cursor changes to a crossbar. Click and drag the cursor to draw the text box. See followin image:

Rolling Credits 1 — PowerPoint drawing the text box for the Credits

Entering Your Presentation Credits

Enter your credits. The text box will expand, if necessary, as you enter the names.
Highlight your entries
Select the Home tab
Since credits are usually centered, select the Center alignment icon in the Paragraph group. See following screen:

Rolling Credits 2 — PowerPoint Credits completed and centered

Adding the Animation Effects

Now lets add the animation to the text box. With the textbox selected:

Click the Animations tab
Select Add Animation button in the Advanced Animation group. See following image:

Rolling Credits 3 — PowerPoint about to add the animations

A drop down menu will appear. Scroll to the bottom and select More Entrance effects. The Add Entrance Effect window will be shown. See following image:

Rolling Credits 4 — PowerPoint Add Entrance Effect drop down menu

Setting the Credits Animation

Scroll down to the Exciting group and select Credits. You will see the credits animation scrolling effect in the background.
Click OK to save your changes

Rolling Credits 5 — PowerPoint selecting the Credits animation

The rolling credits will be added to your presentation. You may now view your slideshow from the beginning or from the current slide to see the Rolling Credits in action.

Thats it. You are finished.

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The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

How to Loop a PowerPoint Presentation

At times, you will want to entertain your guests before an event, like at a wedding or a trade show. You’ll want to loop your PowerPoint presentation so your guests aren’t staring at a blank screen. I have included a link to a sample slideshow using the loop feature.

Here is a link to a sample slideshow demonstrating the PowerPoint looping feature. I am using a presentation available from TechRepublic.

Lets examine how this is done.

This is for PowerPoint for Office 365 Windows and Mac versions. Other versions of PowerPoint will be similar.

Dilbert Money — *Copyright Scott Adams, Inc./Distributed by Universal Uclick for UFS*

Setting Up your Slideshow

First, open your PowerPoint presentation in which you would like to use the loop feature. Once open, navigate to the Set Up group of the Slide Show tab and select the Set Up Slide Show option.

The Set Up Show window will open. Check the box next to Loop continuously until Esc. After selection, click OK. Refer to below image:

Powerpoint Loop 1 — Setting the Loop feature

When you play your slideshow, it will loop until you press the “Esc” key. Now we want to set up the presentation for automatic slide transitions.

Applying the Loop Feature

Navigate back to the Set Up group of the Slide Show tab and select the Set Up Slide Show option. There is one option you need to set, the Using Timings, if Present under the Advance Slides group.

Now, under the Show Type group, select Browsed at a kiosk (full screen). The Loop continuously until Esc option will be enabled automatically (we turned it on above) Also, select the Using timings, if present option. Select OK to proceed. See following image:

Powerpoint Loop 2 — Setting the kiosk feature

By setting the Browsed at a kiosh (full screen) option, the Forward and Back keys are locked, thus allowing unattended playback without the fear of someone breaking it.

Setting Up Transitions

Now, lets setup the timings of your slides. Click on the Transitions tab and check the box next to After and set the timing for slide transition. In my example, I have the timining set to 10 seconds. If On Mouse Click is enabled, it won’t work because we have previously selected to loop the slideshow until the presenter has pressed the “Esc” key. To finish the loop feature, select the Apply To All option. See following image:

Now when you play your presentation, it will continuously loop until you press the “Esc” key.

How to use the Dim feature in PowerPoint which is demonstrated in Slide 3 of the sample slideshow.

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The author’s Vietnam eBook on the Battle for Tra Bong: Events and Aftermath

Accessing Zoom Settings

The Video Settings

Hide/Unhide a Video

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Sign in or Sign up to Zoom

Access the Settings Menu

Join Using Your Browser

Schedule a Meeting

Options for Scheduling a Meeting

Invitation to Join a Meeting

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Create the Excel Sheet

Setup the Zip Code Format

Using the Special Zip Code Format

Flagging Invalid Zip Codes

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Enabling the New Interface

Switching Back to the Classic Interface

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Accessing Zoom Settings

Recording a Zoom Meeting

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Your Excel Sheet

Select Your Watermark

View Your Watermark

Formatting Your Watermark

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Before you Begin

Which Email Address to Use?

Invite a Contact

Accept a Contact Request

What to Do Next?

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Setting Up the Slide

Entering Your Presentation Credits

Adding the Animation Effects

Setting the Credits Animation

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Setting Up your Slideshow

Applying the Loop Feature

Setting Up Transitions

Related

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