Share slides and see your notes in Presenter View if Zoom doesn’t show the “Portion of the screen” sharing option

The problem: the Portion of the screen sharing option disappears

Many presenters who have only one screen use Zoom’s “portion of the screen” sharing option to share the current slide portion of Presenter View preview so that the audience sees the slides while they see full Presenter View with their speaking notes. (I used to recommend this approach but now have a better approach which you will see below.) I’ve had a few people report that on some Zoom meetings this option is missing from the Advanced tab in the Sharing dialog. Here are three possible problems that could be the cause and a solution that works more reliably.

Possible problem #1: Zoom app screen sharing setting

The first possible problem is that the setting to show all sharing options in the Zoom app is not set properly. In Zoom, click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of the Zoom app. If you are already in a meeting you can also click on the gear icon in the Meeting Information pane that appears when you click on the shield in the top left of the meeting window. In the Share Screen section make sure the When I share my screen in a meeting setting is set to Show all sharing options.

Possible problem #2: Zoom account Desktop sharing disabled setting

The second possible problem is a Zoom account setting. Login to your Zoom account on the Zoom website and go to the Settings. Scroll down to the In Meeting (Basic) settings section. Make sure the Disable desktop sharing for meetings you host setting is turned off (which is the default). If you are not the meeting host, this setting may need to be changed on the host’s Zoom account.

Possible problem #3: It is a webinar not a meeting

I have heard that if the meeting is actually a Zoom webinar as opposed to a Zoom meeting, the portion of a screen option is not available. This is not a setting that can be changed, this is a limitation of Zoom.

Solution: Share the Slide Show window instead of a portion of the screen

After you check that the two settings above are correct, here’s what to do next. Instead of sharing a portion of the Slide Show Preview screen, use a method that shares high-resolution slides with the meeting attendees while you see your notes. When you show Presenter View, it actually opens up a Slide Show window and a Presenter View window. By sharing the Slide Show window in the Zoom meeting, you are using one of the basic sharing options and do not need to rely on an advanced option. This works no matter whether it is a meeting or webinar. This also provides your attendees with better quality slides. Below are videos that show how to do this in Windows and on a Mac.

Video for Windows

Video for Mac

Where to go next
–>More articles on virtual presenting –>Training for your team on presenting virtually
–>More articles on virtual & hybrid sales presentations –>Training for your sales team