Author Archives: MrsGeek

Traveling the country in an RV with her husband, Jim. We present seminars at RV rallies and computer clubs all over the country and run this website.

187. What does a Zoom online meeting look like?

Everyone can view any episode for free. Just click on the play button above. Geeks on Tour premium members get detailed show notes below.

Note: Zoom is not one of our normal topics, but we do use it a lot and recognize that many more people are needing to use it now in the era of Coronavirus quarantines. That was our motivation for showing this topic, and also for that reason, we are making the show notes free for anyone. Stay healthy my friends.

Download .pdf (you’ll see a dropbox login, but you can just close it – no Dropbox account is needed)

0:00 Intro

Chris explains that this episode is a follow-up to Episode 186. In Episode 186 we taught the basics of Zoom meetings. Then, the next week we invited GeeksOnTour.com premium members to join us for a live meeting. This is a recording of that real Zoom meeting, warts and all. We include some of the time before the meeting where participants are gathering and getting comfortable. The screen being recorded is Chris’ screen, as if you were sitting in her place at the computer, so you see when she clicks on the controls.

1:47 Beginning of recorded meeting

Just some chit-chat while people get comfortable in the meeting. You’re looking at what’s called the “Gallery” view which shows everyone in their own cubicle. Notice the yellow outline around whoever is speaking. When participants first gather, they should always test their microphones and be sure they know how to mute and unmute. (more on that later)

4:22 Multiple screens of people

Showing how to view multiple screens of people when there are more participants than fit on one screen. There are blue arrows in the middle right and middle left side to scroll back and forth between multiple screens.

8:15 Start of meeting

9:00 Start Poll

Chris starts by using a feature of Zoom called “Polls.” She created a poll ahead of time and now presents it. Each particpant sees the Poll on their screen and can click on their choices and Submit. Chris’ screen sees the cumulative results of the poll. When she ends the poll, she has the option to show everyone the results.

Getting Help

The Zoom website has in-depth help. Just go to Zoom.us and click Support in the upper right – that will open up the Help Center.

14:18  Mute and Unmute

The first, and most important tool to master is Mute/Unmute. It works with both sound – microphone, and video – camera, but it is most important with sound. Especially in large meetings, people should remain muted unless they are speaking. In smaller meetings when everyone is in a quiet place, you can stay unmuted, making it easier to have a comfortable meeting. Whenever someone makes noise, Zoom assumes you are talking and highlights you as the speaker.

You can also turn off your camera. If you have a Zoom account, and you’ve uploaded a profile image, that image will be displayed when your camera is off. Otherwise, just your name will appear.

Audio and Video settings – You may have more than one microphone attached to your computer, you may also have more than one camera. You need to tell Zoom which one to use, and there are lots of adjustments that can be made as well.

18:10 Changing the name displayed on your cubicle

Move your mouse and you should see a 3-dot menu in the upper right of your cubicle, click that and then Rename. Enter whatever you want and  OK

Chat

There’s a chat button at the bottom that you can click to open up a right sidebar. You can send a message to everyone, or you can click on the down arrow and choose one person to send a private message. If you have a lot of participants, you should assign a person to pay attention to this chat. This way people’s messages won’t get ignored.

Participants

Participants is another button at the bottom that opens up a right sidebar panel. In that panel you can see all the people, you should also see buttons for “non-verbal feedback.” If the speaker asks a question like, “Do you have a Zoom account?” Everyone can answer Yes, or No by clicking that feedback button and a Yes or No icon will appear next to their name.

29:00 Gallery vs Speaker View

Each participant has control over whether they are seeing the entire group in “Gallery” view or just the person who is speaking, known as “Speaker” view. When in Speaker view the person speaking (making noise) will be taking up the main stage. That person will switch when someone else starts talking. The rest of the people will have “thumbnails” above the speaker. You can scroll thru those thumbnails by clicking the blue arrow at the right side, then scroll back with the blue arrow at the left side.

Chris calls the Gallery view, “Hollywood Squares” some others call it the Brady Bunch.

32:25 Browser version of Zoom is missing some basic controls like Gallery View.

38:39 Virtual Background

This feature of Zoom allows you to designate a virtual background even if you don’t have a green screen. If you want it to be even better, then you need to buy a green screen – it’s green fabric that you put behind you and the computer system is programmed to replace the green color with whatever graphic you choose.

You can have any graphic you want. Chris says that she has searched the web for backgrounds and found images she really likes. Make sure they are copyright free, download them to your computer, then you can use the + to add them to your choices for Virtual Backgrounds.

46:36 Share Screen

People often have a Powerpoint slide deck they want to present while they speak, or some computer screens that they need to demonstrate some procedures, or just a photo slide show etc. That’s what screen share is for. It is quite easy, the hard part is just knowing whether or not your audience is seeing it. Since you’re already seeing your screen, it’s hard to tell when you’ve been successful at sharing. It’s common to ask your audience, “Are you seeing my slide that says ….” Everybody needs a little reassurance!

Which screen to share? When you share a desktop screen, anything you put on that screen will be shared. When you share one single app or browser tab – that is the only thing that will be shared.

If you’re sharing a video, make sure that the option (in bottom left) for Share computer sound is checked.

54:22 How to learn more

Zoom.us – you don’t need to log in, you don’t even need an account. Click on Support in the upper right and you’re at their Help Center. Here is the Zoom.us video that we showed. Sharing your screen

Video on How to use the Polls feature

186. How do I use Zoom for online meetings?

Everyone can view any episode for free. Just click on the play button above. Geeks on Tour premium members get detailed show notes below.

Note: Zoom is not one of our normal topics, but we do use it a lot and recognize that many more people are needing to use it now in the era of Coronavirus quarantines. That was our motivation for showing this topic, and also for that reason, we are making the show notes free for anyone. Stay healthy my friends.

Download .pdf (you’ll see a dropbox login, but you can just close it – no Dropbox account is needed)

0:00

zoom meetings

Quick Start: Demonstration of using an iPad to host a meeting. It is so quick and easy – anyone can do it. In this demo, Chris already has a Zoom account and knows her instant meeting ID to send to people (instructions for this later). She shows just how easy starting a meeting can be.

  • Install the Zoom meetings app from the App store
  • Make sure you have an account with Zoom
  • Open the app, tap on New meeting, Start meeting
  • She already sent link to meeting ID to the people you want to join you, when they join they will appear
  • Tap the screen to see controls like “Gallery view” to put everyone in their own box.
  • Other controls include turning audio on/off and also turning video on/off
  • Note: the poor sound in this demo is due to our feeding Zoom sound into the YouTube stream. The zoom sound itself is good.

7:14 Hello and introduction

We use Zoom a lot for Toastmasters meetings. You can see a sample meeting where our Online Presenters Toastmasters club teaches how we use Zoom to hold a meeting including participants from around the world! How to host an online Toastmasters meeting. Note: if you watch the Toastmaster video, within the first 2 minutes you will see why it can be so important for participants to remain muted (microphone off) unless they are speaking. The unintentional noise is very distracting. The meeting host therefore has the power to mute ALL. You will also notice that some participant’s video pops up in unwanted places – that is also because their microphone is on. The “active speaker” view automatically gives video focus to whoever is talking – or making any noise.

Zoom can also be used to bring a remote speaker into a live meeting. Here’s a very short video: Remote speaker via Zoom

10:18 What is Zoom?

Many people have experience with video calling apps like Facetime, Skype, Hangouts and Facebook messenger. For all of those, each participant needs an account and one person needs to call the others. When someone gets a call, they can answer.

Zoom is built for video meetings – the “host” sets up the meeting and sends a link to the others. The people who are invited do NOT need a Zoom account, all they need is the link. Think of it like the host sets up in a room and all the participants need to do is enter that room.

Get Help

Got questions? the Zoom.us website has all the help you could ever want. Just go to Zoom.us and click the Support link in the upper right. You will see a search box to type in your question, or you can browse popular topics and one minute video introductions. I especially like the Live Training section at the bottom. If you can’t attend a live session, just scroll down to see past lives session recordings.

13:40 How to Join a meeting

Most people will never Host a meeting, but many will have occasion to join a meeting – so our first tutorial is on Joining your first Zoom meeting.

614.OT-Zoom How to Join a Meeting

What equipment do you need? A laptop is perfect because it has a camera and microphone built in. If you’re in a noisy environment, you may want a headset.

You DO NOT need a Zoom account to join a meeting. Just go to Zoom.us and enter the ID of the meeting you want to join. Or, if you received a link to the meeting, just click the link. If this is the first time you’ve ever joined a meeting, you will be prompted to download a small zoom app. You can enter your name, and you can choose to have your video and audio start active.

Clicking on Gallery view puts each participant in their own box. Speaker view puts the speaker in the big window and shrinks everyone else.

It is very important to know how to turn your microphone on and off and also your video camera.

While you’re in a meeting, if you open some other window on your computer, you can return to the Zoom meeting by clicking the Zoom icon at the bottom of your screen in the task bar.

When you’re ready to leave the meeting, just move your mouse and a link to “Leave Meeting” should appear, just click it.

21:27 Meeting controls

  • Gallery
  • Speaker View
  • Your Sound
  • Your Video
  • Exit meeting

615.OT-Basic Zoom Meeting Controls

Gallery vs Speaker View
To see the Gallery view, click the 9-dot grid in the upper corner (on computer). When you’re in Gallery view, the button will now read Speaker view – click that to go back to the view where the person talking has the big screen and everyone else is shrunk. You can go back and forth between Gallery and Speaker view as often as you like, this only affects your view of the meeting – it does not affect anyone else. Each person controls what view they see.

Pinning
When in Speaker view, the person in the main window will switch to whoever is speaking – or making any noise. If you want to stay on one person regardless of who is speaking, you “pin” them. You can click on the 3-dot menu in that person’s box and choose Pin, OR you can right-click on their name or their face and you should also see the pin option there.

To UNpin, you should see a link in the upper left of the speaker’s box that reads, “Unpin”

Your video and audio settings
Click the up arrow next to the microphone and you will see all the possible microphones available to your computer. You will also see Settings where you can adjust things like Volume.

Same with the video camera – click the up arrow and you’ll see any possible cameras available, you’ll also see the Virtual Background setting, and just Settings

Share screen
The green button in the bottom middle allows you to share your screen. The default choice will share whatever is on your monitor. You also have options just to share specific windows or tabs. When you share your screen, you do take over the main stage for everyone in the meeting. Notice the checkbox in the lower left to “share computer sound” – that is important if you will be sharing a video.

Chat
The Chat… button at the bottom will open up a sidebar where you can chat with the entire room, or just one individual.

25:35 A real live meeting with our YouTube viewers.

At this point we posted the link to our Zoom meeting in the YouTube chat and let anyone who wanted to, join the meeting. Yes we’re crazy! Here’s what it looked like:

Zoom meeting

As expected, it was a bit of a cacophony.

33:49 Joining meetings with a mobile device – Android demo

Video 616: Join a Zoom meeting with an Android phone

Chris started a meeting on her laptop, Jim demonstrates how he joins with his phone. He opens the email and taps the link to the meeting, that opens the Zoom app which he already had installed, gives him a chance to edit his name, then clicks OK.

Audio – he taps the icon for Join Audio in the lower left so he can be heard, then he taps the Start Video icon so he can be seen. At first he sees the meeting in Speaker view so he only sees Chris. To get to Gallery view, he swipes left (to go the the rightmost screen) He can swipe left or right among 3 different screens. the furthest left screen puts him in Driving mode and mutes both his audio and video. When he swipes back to the middle screen, his audio and video automatically return.

Switch to rear camera
It can be very useful in a meeting to switch from selfie mode to the rear camera. That way the meeting participants are seeing what you’re looking at rather than seeing you.

  • tap the screen so that the controls appear
  • tap the switch camera icon

Share Screen
Tap the green “Share” button at the bottom, then choose Screen, and your other participants will now be seeing exactly what is showing on your phone’s screen. Really cool! While you’re sharing, the Share button becomes “Stop Sharing” – tap that to … stop sharing!

37:38 Get a Zoom account to host a meeting

Video 617 Create a Zoom account and get an instant meeting ID

  • Go to Zoom.us
  • Click Sign up, it’s free
  • Enter an email address, and it says you will receive an email with the link to set up your account
  • Open that email and click the link, Enter your name and create a password
  • You now have an account!
  • Notice you now have a Personal Meeting ID (PMI) It is a URL that you can send to anyone and have a meeting. Note: check your settings if you want to use the PMI for instant meetings without a password.

40:49 Settings

There are LOTS of settings for hosting Zoom meetings. Go to Zoom.us and click on “My Account” in the upper right. You should now see a left sidebar with an options for Settings.

Notice the menu option for Meetings – here’s where you can schedule meetings, even recurring meetings. The same meeting ID can be used for up to one year.

44:50 Review Questions

Mar 2020 Newsletter: Map of Dive sites, Text on Photos, Google Photos Book

March 2020 | Issue 151  | Archives
What’s Up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks?


Denver airport for Google Product Experts Conference

February was a busy month, we’d just finished the Discovery Owners rally in Tampa, then went to Riverside RV Park in Arcadia to teach more smartphone photography and Google Photos. We were especially happy with our hands-on workshops there on editing photos and making albums. This was the 4th time we’ve been invited to teach at Riverside since 2013.
Next up was the RVillage rally in Live Oak, FL. Wow! It has really grown since last year – over 1,000 RVs there. Lots of energy and lots of fun. We taught 2 seminars: Maps and Apps for RV Trip Planning, and Google Photos: What to do with all those photos. We had 200+ attendees for each seminar. Then, we ended the month with a short dive trip to the Bahamas with our USA Dive Club. See Jim’s video here. See our February Google Photos album for lots more pictures.
March is going to be a catch up month as I am way behind on updating my Google Photos book, and I’m starting to hear about it from our readers! Yes! Keep bugging me. I have set a launch date for May 1 now and am determined to get it done. See article later.
What Does This Button Do?
We added one new episodes to our YouTube “Button” shows in February:
Tutorial Videos
We also added a few of our short tutorial videos. See the complete list here.

What’s coming up – Our Calendar

We’ve had a busy January and February.
Only one Technology Club presentation in March.
We have a big personal dive trip planned, though.
There is a Roadtrek rally after we return in April and nothing in May.

Ask the Geeks

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum. Anyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions:

  1. Bypass Windows 10 Login
  2. Adding descriptions after editing in Snapseed
  3. Help removing duplicate photos
  4. Arranging and sorting photos in Windows 10
  5. Can’t email photos out of Picasa
Jim and I are scuba divers and I’ve come up with a way of plotting dive sites on a custom map. This same technique could be used for RV boondocking sites, or backpacking campsites, or fishing sites. These are all places that need GPS coordinates in order to locate them.
Read More
It was a long time in coming, but Google Photos now can add text right to a photo. At least, the Android version of Google Photos can do that. It’s called the “Markup” tool and it’s pretty simple.

Even if you know how to add text to photos with Google Photos, you should watch this short video because I add a very important little tip!
Read More
Have you been waiting for the next edition of Mrs. Geek’s Guide to Google Photos? I had hoped to have it out before now, but it’s not. There’s still time to let me know what you hope to see in the book. You can just reply to this email, or read the article and leave a comment.
I have now set a launch date of May 1.
Meanwhile, check out my online course below.

Step by Step course to learn the right way to use Google Photos and never lose your pictures.

As long as everything is set up right, you can just sit back and relax while Google Photos does all the work to store and organize your lifetime of photos.
How do you be sure that everything is set up right? Take our course.
Read all about it at GeeksOnTour.com/School.

Leave us a Review

Have you learned something from Geeks on Tour?

If so, we’d love to get a review from you. Click on this link

 If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! If you received this issue forwarded by a friend you can subscribe to get your own copy delivered to your in box – it’s free. You can also visit the archives of past newsletters. If you’ve learned something from us along the way, we’d love a Google Review from you!

Mrs. Geek’s Guide to Google Photos – an update

I first wrote Mrs. Geek’s Guide to Google Photos and published it in December of 2016. The second edition was published in July of 2018. I’ve been promising another new edition for a few months now because so much has changed.

I am working on it … honest! I am setting a launch date for May 1, 2020 for it to be available on Amazon, and we will be offering a special package just like we did in 2016. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, to see what all has changed, see this post at my LearnGooglePhotos.com blog. It’s all about the changes I’ve noticed during 2019.

Other resources from Geeks on Tour include a Facebook group: Learn Google Photos, and an online course, Google Photos: 12 Steps to Success.

Tell me what you need

If you have particular requests for what you want covered in the book, now is the time to ask! Just leave a comment here and I’ll see if I can work it into the book.

Make your own map of scuba diving sites

Jim and I are scuba divers and I’ve come up with a way of plotting dive sites on a custom map. This same technique could be used for RV boondocking sites, or backpacking campsites, or fishing sites. These are all places that need GPS coordinates in order to locate them.

Click the picture to go to the live, interactive map – then you can click on markers and see photos. Notice the markers off the north shore? Those are the sites where we dove. How did I know where to place them? Read on …

Get the GPS Coordinates

The only way to plot these locations is with GPS coordinates. If you have your phone with you on the dive boat, and if you remembered, and if your phone has a data connection, you could open Google Maps and get the GPS coordinates for your current location, then copy and save.

I may never remember to do that, but I will think to take a photo with my phone. My phone has the setting turned on to record the GPS coordinates with the photo. Now, when I look at the photo using Google Photos, I can just swipe up to see all the “metadata” recorded with the photo, including a map. Just tap on the map and you’re taken to Google Maps. The GPS coordinates will show up at the top, in the search box. You can also tap on the marker and see the coordinates in a pop-up box at the bottom. Copy them for use in your custom map.

If your photos don’t have maps, that means your camera settings for location are turned off. Here’s how to turn them on:

  • Android: Open the camera: Camera setting, Location Tags (or GeoTags) Turn on
  • iPhone: Open the system settings: Privacy, Location=on, Camera – turn on
  • See episode 161 for demonstration

Make a map with Google My Maps

We use Google My Maps to create all our custom maps. For a new map:

  • Open MyMaps.Google.com – be sure you’re signed in with your Google account
  • Click in the Search box and paste the GPS coordinates, press Enter
  • Click on the marker that was created on your map
  • Click +Add to map

That adds the place to your map. Once the placemark is there, you can change the title, write a description, add photos, and more.

Learn More

We use Google My Maps a lot. For our Geeks on Tour members, we’ve created a Learning Guide here. Google My Maps – How to make your own maps

We’ve also done a few episodes of our YouTube “Button” Shows on Google My Maps: #176: How to make a map with Google My Maps #111 Adding Photos to Google My Maps And we just did a new one this week specifically about making maps with GPS coordinates using our Dive Sites example.

February 2020 Newsletter: RVillage Rally, Google Lens, Remote presentations with Zoom, Snapseed course

Geeks on Tour

February 2020 | Issue 150  | Archives

What’s Up with Jim and Chris – the Geeks?

Denver airport for Google Product Experts Conference

This January we actually went camping! We attended a Roadtrek group rally just for the fun of it.  See our January Google Photos album for lots more pictures. We also presented seminars at the Discovery Owner’s rally at Lazy Days in Tampa.

What Does This Button Do?

We added two new episodes to our YouTube “Button” shows this month:

What’s coming up – Our Calendar

We’ve had a busy January and February.

The only thing left this month as we send this newsletter is the big RVillage Rally up in Live Oak, FL. We have some personal dive trips planned, though.

Ask the Geeks Q&A forum.

Ask the GeeksAnyone can read the forum, only members can ask questions. This is a valuable benefit of membership. Join Today! Here are some recent discussions:

  1. Facebook Collage Pictures
  2. Get a texted picture to Google Photos
  3. Making a Thumbnail sized Photo
  4. Navigating to a Photo
  5. Clickfree Backup?

Using Google Lens to identify items in a photo

Google Lens will identify this and give you a link to buy it.

When you open any photo in Google Photos, you will see a button at the bottom meant to look like a camera lens. That is Google Lens and it is amazing. Open any photo, using Google Photos, and tap that button – it will analyze the current photo and tell you all sorts of things! Identify flowers, birds, insects. Translate and copy text, scan QR codes, identify products and give you links to buy them. And much more.

Read More

We’ll see you at the RVillage Rally

Image

This week, from Feb 12-16, we will be in Live Oak, Florida for the RVillage rally.

If you’ll be attending, please come visit us in the Vendor Village – we will be offering free half-hour Smartphone Help Desk sessions.

We are also presenting 2 seminars:

MAPS AND APPS FOR RV TRIP PLANNING WITH GEEKS ON TOUR
Thurs. 12:00pm – 1:00pm / Music Hall
Jim and Chris, of GeeksOnTour.com have been RVing since 2003, mostly full time. They will share their current list of the most useful apps and maps including step-by-step demos of how they plan their trips.
GOOGLE PHOTOS: WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THOSE PICTURES
Sat. 2:45pm – 3:45pm / Music Hall
You will learn how to privately store your thousands of smartphone photos, and videos, for free, with Google Photos. You can find any photo from your past just by searching: “kayaking in La Jolla” or “alligators in Okefenokee”. Taught by Chris Guld – a Platinum level Google Product Expert.

Geeks on Tour offer Live Remote Seminars using Zoom.us

Image

As we travel the country, we’ve presented seminars from Southern California to upstate New York, and all points in between. But, what if your California group wants us to present a seminar and we happen to be in Florida at that time? That’s when we use an online meeting software called Zoom. It allows the audience to see and hear us and we can see and hear the audience. We can display slides as well as demonstrate on our smartphones. In some ways, it can be even better than being there in person.

Read More

Step by Step course to learn photo editing with Snapseed

Image

You may have heard about the free app called Snapseed and how it can improve your photos. You want to learn how to do it, but you don’t know where to start. We now have a standalone course on Snapseed.

The course will take you about an hour or two and it costs $30. If you are a GeeksOnTour.com premium member, you get the courses free.

Read all about it at GeeksOnTour.com/School.

Leave us a Review

Review

Have you learned something from Geeks on Tour?

If so, we’d love to get a review from you. Click on this link

If you like this newsletter, please forward it on to your friends! If you received this issue forwarded by a friend you can subscribe to get your own copy delivered to your in box – it’s free. You can also visit the archives of past newsletters. If you’ve learned something from us along the way, we’d love a Google Review from you!

183. How to relax and keep your photos organized

Everyone can view any episode for free. Just click on the play button above.

Members get access to the extensive show-notes Chris writes up after each show. Read them online and follow links directly to the parts you’re interested in. We recommend you print them out and keep them in a notebook. It’s a great way to learn.

Not a member? Join here. This episode covers:

  1. Tip of the Day: Prevent mirror image selfies
  2. Beginner’s Lesson: Photo Organizing
  3. App of the Day: — none
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