To present well on Zoom or Teams, keep your eyes on the camera lens instead of the slides, use a private notes view only you can see, share just the slide window instead of your whole screen, and slow your pacing since remote audiences process information a beat slower than a live room. Do these four things and you will look composed and confident even if you are nervous underneath.
Why looking at the camera matters more than looking at your slides
In a live room, glancing at your slides for a second is fine because your audience feels your presence the whole time. On a video call, that same glance reads as looking away entirely, because the camera is the only place your eye contact exists. Every time you look down at notes or across at your slide preview, the audience sees the top of your head or your eyes drifting sideways.
The fix is simple but takes practice: treat the camera lens as a person you are talking to. Not the slide thumbnail in the corner, not the gallery of faces, the actual lens. If your laptop camera sits above your screen, position whatever you're presenting from as close to that lens as possible so your eye line barely has to move.
This is also why reading a script word for word rarely works on video. Your eyes betray the reading motion, moving left to right in a way that looks nothing like natural speech. Notes that sit right at the camera and scroll as you talk, the way a teleprompter works, let you keep your eyes roughly forward while still having your material in front of you.
How do I keep my notes private during a screen share?
This is one of the most common worries presenters have, and the answer depends on what you're sharing. If you share your entire desktop, anything open on a second monitor or window is fair game for the audience to see, which is risky if your notes are a Word document or a sticky note app.
The safest setup is to share only the application window with your slides, not your full screen, and keep your notes on a separate device or a separate monitor that is never part of the share. Many presenters use a phone or tablet propped near their webcam for this, or a teleprompter tool that runs on a second screen while the shared window shows only the deck.
This is exactly the gap Aitho is built to close. You import your deck, your script scrolls in sync with your voice on your own screen, and the audience only ever sees the slide window you've shared. Your notes stay completely private, and because the text sits near your camera, your eye line barely shifts when you check it.
What should I actually share on the call?
Share the specific application window for your slides, not your whole desktop. In Zoom, choose Share Screen and pick the PowerPoint or Keynote window directly rather than your entire monitor. In Teams, do the same under Share Content. This one habit prevents the classic mishap of a notification, a messy desktop, or a private tab popping up mid-presentation.
Before you start, close everything you don't need open. Turn off notifications. If you're running slides in presenter mode, check that the audience view (not your presenter view with notes and next-slide preview) is what's actually being shared. It's worth doing a solo test call with a colleague once to confirm they only see what you intend.
- Share the specific app window, not the full desktop
- Close unrelated tabs, documents, and notifications before you start
- Confirm your presenter notes and next-slide preview are not visible to others
- Do a one-time test share with a colleague to check what they actually see
Why remote pacing needs to be slower than in-person pacing
Video calls add a small but real lag, whether it's network latency, a moment for the audience to process audio without the full-body cues of a live room, or simply the fatigue of staring at a screen. A pace that feels natural in person can feel rushed and hard to follow on a call.
Build in slightly longer pauses after key points, especially before you advance a slide. Say the point, let it land for a second, then move on. If you're taking questions, expect a beat of silence before someone unmutes; that silence is not the sign of a bad presentation, it's just the normal friction of virtual conversation.
It also helps to narrate transitions out loud, like saying 'moving to the next point' before you advance the slide. In a live room, body language does this for you. On a call, your voice has to do all the work of signaling where you are in the talk.
Handling questions without losing your place
Q&A is where a lot of remote presentations fall apart, because the presenter has to mentally juggle the question, the answer, and where they were in the deck before the interruption. Jot a quick note of the slide number or section you were on before you address a question, so you can return smoothly.
If you're fielding harder questions, having a private way to jot quick facts or figures without fumbling for a document mid-call makes a real difference. This is where a tool like Aitho's Q&A copilot is useful: you can quietly pull up context or a reminder on your own screen while you answer, without the audience ever seeing anything but your slides and your face.
Wrapping up, presenting on video calls rewards the same fundamentals as presenting in person, just with the volume turned up on a few specific things: eye contact through the lens, a clean and controlled screen share, deliberate pacing, and a private way to keep your material in front of you. Get those four right and a video call stops feeling like a handicap and starts feeling like just another room you know how to work.
Frequently asked questions
Should I use presenter view or audience view when sharing slides on Zoom?
Share the audience view (the clean, full-screen slide view) rather than presenter view, which shows your notes and next-slide preview. If you need your notes visible, keep them on a separate device or window that is never part of the shared screen.
Where should I position my notes so I still look like I'm making eye contact?
Place your notes as close to your webcam lens as possible, ideally directly above or below it, so your eyes barely have to move away from the camera to read them.
Is it better to share my whole screen or just one window on a video call?
Share just the specific application window with your slides. Sharing your entire screen risks exposing notifications, other open documents, or private notes you don't want the audience to see.
Why do video call presentations feel harder to pace than in-person ones?
Network lag, the lack of live body language cues, and screen fatigue all slow down how quickly a remote audience processes what you're saying, so pacing that feels natural in person can come across as rushed on a call.
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