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Unlock the Power of Zoom on Your Chromebook

Video conferencing has become an essential part of our lives in the current pandemic. Zoom is one of the most popular video conferencing applications, and it is now available on Chromebooks. With Zoom on your Chromebook, you can stay connected with your friends, family, and colleagues from anywhere in the world. Here are some tips to help you unlock the power of Zoom on your Chromebook.

Install Zoom on Your Chromebook

The first step to using Zoom on your Chromebook is to install it. You can do this by going to the Chrome Web Store and searching for “Zoom”. Once you find it, click “Add to Chrome” and then click “Add App”. This will install the app onto your Chromebook and you will be ready to start using it.

Set Up Your Account

Once you have installed Zoom on your Chromebook, you will need to set up an account. To do this, open the app and click “Sign Up”. You will then be prompted to enter your name, email address, and a password. Once you have done this, you will be ready to start using Zoom on your Chromebook.

Start a Meeting

Now that you have installed Zoom and set up an account, it’s time to start a meeting. To do this, open the app and click “Start a Meeting”. You will then be prompted to enter a meeting name and password (if applicable). Once you have done this, you can invite people to join your meeting by entering their email addresses or sending them an invitation link.

Using Zoom on your Chromebook is easy and convenient. With these tips, you can quickly get started with video conferencing from anywhere in the world.

This text was generated using a large language model, and select text has been reviewed and moderated for purposes such as readability.

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Magnify a slide in Slide Show view

While delivering your PowerPoint presentation using Presenter view, you can magnify slide content on the screen.

Note: The process steps below replace the previous zoom method which used the magnifying glass cursor and bright rectangle selection. Additionally, zooming out does not open the see-all-slides view. To see all slides, use the shortcut 'G'.  

In the lower-left corner of the screen, select the magnifying glass icon. Note that your slide has been centrally zoomed by 200% and the cursor is now a hand.

Click and drag with the hand to move the zoom effect to a different area of the slide.

To exit zoom mode and return to standard view, press Esc or re-click the magnifying glass icon.

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Blog / PowerPoint Tips / How to use Zoom in PowerPoint for interactive presentations.

How to use Zoom in PowerPoint for interactive presentations.

Use PowerPoint’s Zoom feature to add navigation to your presentations, without breaking a sweat. 

Regular readers will know that Buffalo 7 is basically PowerPoint’s unofficial fan club. We rave about the possibilities of PowerPoint on a daily basis. Sometimes we’ll talk about  other presentation software , but it’s always being compared to the OG of presentation programs.  

However, we work with PowerPoint day in, day out, and we’re certainly not looking through rose-tinted glasses. We know all her weaknesses, all too well. And, naturally, we’ve found a way around each one. But we understand that you don’t have the time or inclination to hack your presentation software until it does everything you need it to. 

And if what you need it to do is crazy, nauseating menus, we can see why you might lean towards  Prezi  as your preferred presentation program. 

But before you make your final choice, give us just a few moments of your time. It seems as though Microsoft has been listening to your Prezi praising. Sort of. Enter Zoom: PowerPoint’s quick menu-making magic wand. 

Before we begin, we need to preface this article by saying this:

“We never use the Zoom feature.” Buffalo 7

However, if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands and you need to have the option to move around your presentation freely, Zoom might be the answer to your prayers.

What is Zoom?

The name is confusing in this modern world where a pandemic has changed every aspect of our lives and one of the innovations keeping the earth turning is also called  Zoom . But we’re not talking about the  VC software now . 

Originally launched in 2016, the Zoom feature in PowerPoint allows you to present your slides in any order you want. PowerPoint presentations have traditionally followed a strict linear format. They start at the start, end at the end and should you have cause to jump back to an earlier slide, well, your audience is just gonna have to wait while you cycle through them.

Not anymore. With just a couple of click, PowerPoint will create a menu slide and all the hyperlinks for you, giving you the freedom to move around your slides in whatever order you, or your audience, want.

Why use Zoom?

Interactivity can be the difference between an okay presentation and a next-level one. Interactivity puts your audience at the heart of your story, hands the reins over to them, and builds trust between viewer and speaker. It breaks down imaginary walls between those on the stage and those off it. Walls are never a good thing if you’re trying to build relationships.

By implementing a menu system in PowerPoint, you can let your audience choose where they want to go next and, in just one click, you’ll be able to get to the slide that supports the conversation. While menu systems have always been possible in PowerPoint, before Zoom they required a lot of manual labour, duplicated slides, invisible triggers, and hyperlinks up the wazoo. Now PowerPoint does all the heavy lifting for you.

What do each of the Zoom features do?

Zoom options can be found in your top ribbon, by clicking the  Insert  drop down. The keen-eyed amongst you will see there are three different types of Zoom. Let’s take a look at each one.

How to use Summary Zoom in PowerPoint

Think of Summary Zoom as a master menu. Once you’ve built your presentation, simply click  Insert > Zoom > Summary   Zoom  to open the dialogue box. You select which slides you want to be able to jump to, and PowerPoint will not only create the links, but the menu slide as well. PowerPoint will automatically put your menu slide to the front, but you can move it to wherever you want it to sit within  your narrative , without worrying about breaking the links.

You’ll also see that PowerPoint creates sections in the thumbnail slide view down the left-hand column of your window, based on which slides you choose. More on this later, but if you want to get super organised, it could be a good idea to rename these to reflect the section content.

In Slide Show mode, click the slide image within your menu that represents the slide you want to move to, and, like magic, you’ll end up there. If only life was that simple. Once you reach the end of the section, another click will see you navigate right back to your main menu. 

If you need to edit your menu at any time, select  Zoom > Format > Edit Summary . Here you can update the sections that feature on your summary page. When you’re done, select  Update  and that’s a wrap.

How to use Section Zoom in PowerPoint

Like the chapters in a book, a lengthy or complex presentation can be divided into sections. This makes it easier for your audience to follow along and gives you the opportunity to ask them which solution they’d like to see first. Whether it’s to revisit a section or skip one altogether, Section Zoom removes the need for embarrassing, unprofessional, and seemingly-endless scrolling. 

For Section Zoom to work, you will need to section off your slides first. You can do this by clicking the first slide in the section in the slide thumbnail view of your PowerPoint window. Then, under the  Home  tab, click  Section and  Add Section . 

Once you’ve got your sections in order, select  Insert > Zoom , click on  Section Zoom , make your navigation choices, and hit  Insert . It’s that simple.

At this point you might be thinking, if PowerPoint creates sections after you’ve chosen your navigable slides in Summary Zoom, why would I bother making sections to be able to use Section Zoom? It’s a good question, and one we don’t know the answer to either. We did start this blog by saying she’s not perfect. 

How to use Slide Zoom in PowerPoint

Slide Zoom gives you the option to navigate to any slide you like, from any slide. Instead of creating a separate main menu slide to house your navigation buttons, Slide Zoom adds the button to your chosen slide.

This is a great way to hide excess information that doesn’t need to form part of your main presentation, but that one particularly pernickety audience member may challenge you on. In just one click you can navigate to a deep dive slide and leave them reeling that you could be so prepared.

As before, you simply choose which slide you want to navigate from, then  Insert > Zoom > Slide  Zoom and choose the slide you want to navigate to.

Zoom really is super easy to use. But is it worth it?

Design matters

One of the reasons we don’t use the Zoom function is because we’re damn fussy about design. We don’t want to compromise; we want to have beautiful presentations that also have intricate menu systems and interactive elements. There are very limited ways to customise your Zoom menus in PowerPoint. You can move them around a bit, change the size, add an ugly border and mess with the transition effects. But that sort of limitation just doesn’t fly around here.

That being said, you can change the button image by right-clicking and choosing  Change Image.  For all other customisation options, click the button in edit mode and you’ll see  Zoom Tools  in your ribbon, if you’re on a Mac, and  Zoom Styles  if you’re on a PC.

Zoom Background in PowerPoint

To help with the lack of design options available, Zoom Background makes your buttons transparent, so your beautiful slide design can shine. Just make sure you remember where the trigger is. We find it works to place the invisible button over a design element, such as your company logo, so it looks as though you’re clicking on that to trigger the navigation. You’ll find Zoom Background in the  Zoom Tools/Styles  tab. 

We can see why Microsoft felt the need to introduce Zoom. After 7 years of hearing about how ‘cool’ Prezi’s menus were, they probably caved just to shut people up. But, unless you don’t know the first thing about creating hyperlinks, or you promised your boss an interactive PowerPoint and you only remembered at the very last minute, we can’t see many reasons why you’d want to use Zoom. 

At Buffalo 7, we’re proud of the work we create. We pour innovation and passion and creativity into every deck, and we sure as hell never cut corners. If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. Why not get in touch today and talk about a fully-interactive, navigable deck that won’t make your audience sea sick?

Here are just a few examples of our carefully-crafted menu systems in action. None of which were created with Zoom. 

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How to zoom in on small details in PowerPoint

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Use this zooming effect to draw attention to a small or important detail in your next PowerPoint presentation.

Some Microsoft PowerPoint slides have a lot going on. There’s might be a lot of small details or some important content, and editing that content isn’t practical. When this happens, you can create a zoom shape and use the grow animation to zoom in on the detail or content you’re talking about. Doing so allows you to retain the big picture, both visually and conceptually, while focusing on the heart of the discussion. In this article, we’ll create a zoom effect by animating a special shape, which I’ll call the zoom shape.

SEE: 69 Excel tips every user should master (TechRepublic)

This technique is simple but has a few steps:

• We’ll create a duplicate slide with the same image.
• Using a shape, we’ll outline the zoom area to create a zoom shape—the area we want to draw attention to by making it larger. This is a term I made up; you won’t find it as a shape option or setting.
• We’ll merge the image and the zoom shape to remove everything but the zoom shape.
• Finally, we’ll move the zoom shape to the original slide and add the grow animation.

I’m using Microsoft 365 on a Windows 10 64-bit system, but you can use earlier versions. You can work with your own image or download the demonstration .pptx and .ppt file s. This article assumes you have basic PowerPoint skills, such as inserting shapes and applying settings.

SEE: Windows 10: Lists of vocal commands for speech recognition and dictation (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

How to create the zoom shape

We’re going to need two copies of the map image shown in Figure A . One will be the actual slide; the second will supply the zoom shape. To create a duplicate slide, right-click the original map slide in the Navigation pane and choose Duplicate Slide from the resulting submenu ( Figure A ). PowerPoint will add the second slide, which you’ll see in the Navigation pane just below the original.

Now we’re ready to create the zoom shape by covering that area with an oval shape and then merging the map image and the shape. Move to the second slide (if necessary) and then click the Insert tab. Grab the oval shape (in the Basic Shapes section) and while dragging it over the southern tip of South America hold down the Shift key to get a perfect circle, as shown in Figure B .

With the shape still selected, use the Shape Outline option on the contextual Shape Format tab to set the outline color to red and the weight to 3 points (or anything you like).

The next step is to merge the map and the zoom shape. To do so, select both objects by selecting one, holding down the Shift key and clicking the other. With both the map and the shape selected, click the Merge Shapes dropdown (in the Insert Shapes group), and choose Intersect. Figure C shows the results; PowerPoint hides everything but the image in the zoom shape. If the Merge Shapes option is dimmed, make sure to select both the map and the shape; this feature doesn’t work with only one selected object.

At this point, I want to mention that this effect won’t always be easy to apply if the zoom area has lots of surrounding or overlapping content. In Figure C , you can see that the zoom shape includes the longitude and latitude lines on the map. I did this on purpose; a picture is worth a thousand words. If those lines distract from the zoom shape, you can look for a new map that doesn’t include those lines. Or you can continue—that’s what we’re going to do. With the zoom shape created, it’s time to move it to the original slide and add the animation.

How to animate the zoom shape

We’re ready to add the zoom shape (in the duplicate slide) to the original slide and add the animation that “zooms in.” To do so, simply paste the zoom shape to the original slide and drag it until it’s a perfect match, as shown in Figure D . In this case, those lines we talked about are helpful! If you can’t line it up perfectly, use the Nudge feature to move the zoom shape a tad. To do so, hold down the Ctrl key and click the appropriate arrow key.

With the zoom shape in place, we’re ready to move on to the last step. Before applying the animation, let’s determine how we want to trigger it. Most likely, you’ll want to use a click event; that way you can trigger the animation when you’re ready. When applying this to your own work, you can choose any event you like.

With the zoom shape selected, click the Animations tab and then click the gallery’s More button (circled in Figure E ) to expose all the animations. In the Emphasis section, click Grow/Shrink. Next, from the Effect Options dropdown, choose Huge.

You’re done! To see the effect, run the show by pressing F5. When you’re ready to see the zoom effect, as shown in Figure F , click the slide.

This zoom technique requires a few steps and as shown, a bit of thought when selecting the best image, but it’s easy to implement considering the results.

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How to Use the Zoom Effect in PowerPoint

Here are some tips on how to use the Zoom effect in PowerPoint to make your presentation more interactive.

PowerPoint offers many ways to make your presentations more interesting, and the zoom tool is one of the best, as it's attractive and practical.

Let’s explore what this feature is and how to use its zoom effect in your PowerPoint projects to quickly jump between slides, draw attention to important sections, and more.

What Is the Zoom Tool in PowerPoint?

As the name suggests, PowerPoint’s zoom lets you hone in on parts of your presentation while the slideshow is running. You may need to revisit slides you already mentioned, for example, or want to keep the presentation small.

All-in-all, there are three formats for your zoom effect: summary, section, and slide. With these at your disposal, as well as additional settings, you can make your project very impressive and interactive. There are some requirements in order to be able to use zooms, so check Microsoft’s support guide for more details on the feature.

How to Use Zoom on PowerPoint

On PowerPoint, go to Insert , and you’ll find the Zoom button in your Links section. If you click the arrow, you’ll find your three formats, which will open more options once set up.

Here’s a more detailed breakdown of what Zoom tools you have and how you can make the most of them. They can really come in handy when building engaging presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint .

1. Use Summary Zoom

Once you’ve created a few slides, select Summary Zoom to open a new window, where you select the slides your zoom is to highlight as your presentation’s milestones, whether you added actual sections or not.

With your selection ticked, hit the Insert button, and a new slide will appear under Summary Section and containing your whole presentation behind the milestones you chose.

Basically, whatever comes after each of these slides will appear in your slideshow, but you can choose to zoom out of that section, move to another, and return later to go through these slides.

This is the beauty of Summary Zoom . It replaces your slideshow, putting it all onto a single slide instead, where you can easily jump in and out of the sections you need.

Finally, if you select the zoom feature on your summary slide, its toolbar will open and offer you options specific to this format, also available on the zoom’s menu when you right-click it:

• Edit Summary , taking you back to the slide selection window.
• Reset Layout , in case you regret adjustments you made to the summary.
• Change Image for the slides displayed in the summary.

2. Use Section Zoom

This effect is for jumping to a section from a particular slide. Let’s say you put a simple outline of your complex presentation on a slide, and you want to be able to quickly refer to it at different stages of the slideshow. PowerPoint has the answer.

Select a slide, go to your Zoom menu, and click Section Zoom . You’ll get a similar window as before, so you can choose the section you need to jump to.

Once done, PowerPoint will insert the zoom effect to your slide in the form of another slide, the one that starts the section you chose. It will also display how many additional slides the section contains.

You can resize and move the zoom feature around, as well as choose a better image for it from the Zoom toolbar or the feature’s right-click menu. So, even if you download PowerPoint templates from sites , you can add and customize zooms to your heart’s content.

3. Use Slide Zoom

If your presentation doesn’t have sections, but you want to jump to specific parts, try Slide Zoom . When setting it up, you only need to choose one or multiple slides you want to zoom to while presenting.

Like with Section Zoom , the feature will sit on a slide of your choice and will activate when you click on it, at which point you can run through its subsequent slides or go back to the feature’s home slide.

Keep in mind that you can go back and forth on PowerPoint presentations by clicking the arrow icons on each slide or using the arrows on your keyboard. Additionally, you can change the image of each Slide Zoom feature you add to your presentation using the same button as before.

How to Customize Your Zoom's Actions in PowerPoint

You can change many things about your zooms from their toolbar, starting with how they behave during your PowerPoint presentation.

These settings are in Zoom Options alongside the customization tools for each zoom type. You get three extra tools:

• Return to Zoom , which ensures that the presentation jumps back to your zoom’s home slide or section.
• Zoom Transition , which automates the return to your zoom.
• Duration refers to the above transition.

If you like using PowerPoint’s animations pane , feel free to explore how to make your zooms fly in and out of the screen in a pleasing way.

Choose Your Zoom's Style

The best thing you can customize is the zoom’s appearance, from its frame to its effects. This means you can blend it into your presentation very smoothly.

In the Zoom Style toolbar, you’ll find a range of outlines for your feature, which you can adjust further with the Zoom Border tool. Then, you have Zoom Effects , containing all sorts of impressive ways to make the feature pop, including Shadow , Glow , and 3D Rotation .

If you’d rather not deal with frames and effects, however, you can just click Zoom Background and use the home slide as the feature’s backdrop. Further changes may be necessary to blend the zoom and slide in effectively. You could even make your image’s background transparent before attaching it to the slide.

Arrange Your Zoom's Objects

PowerPoint also offers tools to rearrange zooms on their slides. First off, click on Selection Pane to see all the slide’s objects.

Then, you can bring any object forward or backward, change its alignment, and rotate them. So, it’s not just your zoom you can adjust, but everything else on the slide, too.

Change the Size of Your Zoom

While you can simply click and drag the edges of a zoom to make it bigger or smaller, you also have the Size section on the toolbar.

At first glance, you can only adjust the height and width of the zoom, but if you click the task pane icon, you’ll find several more options for the zoom’s size and position.

For example, besides choosing the dimensions and placement of your zoom, you can lock the aspect ratio you chose and even set the best resolution for your slideshow.

Add Alt Text to Your Zoom

A final cool tool for your presentation’s zoom effects lets you add alt text to them, so you can accommodate viewers who have low vision or blindness.

All you do is select a zoom and click Alt Text on the toolbar. A pane opens, where you can type in a description for the zoom or mark it as decorative.

Screen readers and apps for the blind and visually impaired , with the right tools, will be able to tell their users whether the zoom as a feature is informative or just an ornament.

Put PowerPoint’s Zoom Effects to Good Use

Now that you know what zooms can do for PowerPoint projects, consider how you can use them. Structure your slideshows well, and you’ll be able to create some highly interactive presentations, whether you’re there to present them or not.

A photographer, author, or job seeker could set up a portfolio that zooms into their works and achievements. Whole training sessions could be made compact and easier to follow thanks to PowerPoint’s zoom tool. Get to know its full capabilities.