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Playing Video/Audio

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As with in-person training, playing a video/audio and finding the sound is not working happens frustratingly often.

Playing Videos:

The easiest way to play a video is for you to share your screen with participants:

1. Click on ‘Share Screen’ – highlighted in green in the options bar along the bottom of your screen*.

2. Choose the window you want to share (e.g. a YouTube video) and make sure the two boxes at the bottom – ‘Share Computer Sound’ and ‘Optimize Screen Sharing for Video Clips’ – are ticked, then click ‘Share’.

3. To prevent background interruptions, you might want to mute yourself and your participants while you play the video (only if necessary, usually fine without).

Playing Audio Only:

1. Click on ‘Share Screen’ – highlighted in green in the options bar along the bottom of your screen*.

2. Click on ‘Advanced’ at the top of the menu.

3. Select ‘Music or Computer Sound Only’

4. Make sure the little box at the bottom left ‘Share computer sound’ is ticked  and click ‘Share’.

5. You are now just sharing your audio, not your screen, so your participants can hear any sound your computer makes (whether that’s an incoming email, the audio clip you’re playing or nothing if your sound is off), so be mindful of that.

6. You can check if you’re still sharing sound and stop at the top of your Zoom screen:

* Alternatively, if you’re already sharing content (e.g. a PowerPoint slide) and want to seamlessly change to your video/audio, hover over the top of your screen and select ‘New Share’ (also green).

Remember:

Often, the default option is that ‘share computer sound’ is disabled so you have to actively remember to tick that box.

Sometimes participants end up hearing your computer sound louder or quieter than you – do a quick test to find a comfortable volume for everybody at the beginning or have a way for participants to tell you to turn up/down the sound (e.g. in the chat).