| by Network Depo Staff
There are countless helpful tips and tricks you may want to utilize to make your deposition via Zoom the best experience possible. By now most of us have attended Zoom depositions and feel well-versed with Zoom, but have you ever taken the opportunity to adjust your settings to your liking?
Our three simple tips and tricks for your Zoom deposition are: pinning the deponent, the quick unmute, and finding the meeting controls faster.
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PINNING THE DEPONENT: One of the most useful ways to make the Zoom deposition more like an in-person deposition is to pin the deponent. You are likely an expert in selecting gallery view or speaker view (*see below for a refresher if needed). However, by pinning a particular participant you can allow their video to be the central focus of your screen allowing a better visual of body language and facial expressions and less distractions from other participants. Simply toggle over the deponent’s tile and in the upper right-hand corner of their video you should see three dots, click on the dots and select, “pin.” Once a pin is selected, you can always click on “Remove Pin” which is displayed on the top left-hand corner of their tile.
- THE QUICK UNMUTE: There is a much faster way to unmute yourself which you may not be aware of. This is particularly useful if you are defending a deposition and plan on not speaking for long periods of time. A best practice is for all participants to be muted except for the deponent and taking attorney to help minimize background noises. A quick way to unmute yourself and object is to hold down spacebar on your keyboard while speaking and release the spacebar to return to being muted.
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FINDING THE MEETING CONTROLS FASTER: And if you are like many of us, the disappearing Zoom icons/meeting controls can be frustrating at times. Constantly hovering your mouse to find a control and your mouse deciding to have a mind of its own at that moment can waste valuable time during a deposition. If using a PC, you can simply use the ALT key to show and hide meeting controls and on a Mac CTRL+\ will do the same. To ensure your meeting controls are always visible, you can visit the “Video Settings” (brought up by clicking on the (^) next to the start video/stop video icon) and go to the general tab to select and check “Always show meeting controls.”
We look forward to providing additional Zoom tips and tricks including advanced settings to utilize dual monitors and more setting customizations as well as technical tips and tricks for a strong deposition connection each and every time.
*Gallery view vs. Speaker View: In the upper right-hand corner of the main Zoom screen the “View” button allows you to select speaker view, gallery view, and fullscreen). Speaker view is the default and will always predominately show the person speaking by highlighting their image on your screen. Gallery view will allow all images of individuals to be equal tiles and shown at all times. Speaker view can sometimes be distracting as Zoom may pick up on someone’s shuffling of papers, a cough, or typing as talking and switch to them as the focus. Gallery view tends to be more useable for meetings and depositions.