Our WFH – work from home – series looks at how to best work from home.
So you’re going to give a speech but you want to use a teleprompter on Zoom. Well, lucky for you there are a few ways you can do that. Check out your options below. P.S. This page may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more information.
websites
There are websites like EasyPrompter which give you access to a prompter on your computer. You can use the basic version or you can pay to upgrade for more features.
MORE: Read from a teleprompter like a pro
prompters
You can also set up a second camera, like a DSLR, that you connect to your computer and change your Zoom camera to reroute from your computer to your DSLR. Here’s where you’d change that camera source under “Select a Camera:”
Then you can put a prompter over the DSLR. I like the Parrot Teleprompter which is easy to use and transport.
Word document
A Microsoft Word document works really well too as a teleprompter on Zoom. First, write out your speech in Word. Then I recommend making the font bigger and the margins smaller so the text is more aligned in the center of the screen. You want it this way so your eyes aren’t moving across the entire page (people will notice you are reading by your eye movement). So keeping everything aligned and centered will help limit your eye movement.
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Align the Word document on your screen so the top line sits just below your computer’s camera. The line you’re reading should always be at the top of your screen (if your camera is at the top). This is because you want to give the illusion you are looking into the camera.
Practice reading the page by having the top line as close to the camera as possible throughout your speech. Keep the current line at the very top (near the camera) because if you’re reading text centered on your screen, people will notice your eyes are looking down.
Test it out before you try it. Practice makes perfect here.
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And a pro tip: attach a bluetooth mouse to your computer so you can smoothly scroll down the page as you read and your hand will be out of sight.
Of course, there are more complicated and advanced techniques, but these are some straightforward and simple ways you can use a teleprompter on Zoom!
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