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Comment by conductr | Hacker News Reader

I think the problem I have is more so that people want my font sizes to be 3x what I have them. Usually I’m presenting a spreadsheet (financial statements and such) and people ask me to zoom in. Which I can but it breaks the whole thing and throws me off because I can no longer read my document anymore and I’m trying to present it. For that reason, I evangelize that attendees use the Zoom feature on their device if it’s too small.

As I understand the issue it’s not that font is too small on my device, it’s that Teams has a tiny viewport and so it gets shrunk down. Most people aren’t doing full screen. They have a sidebar for chat and such and a top bar of other options. These don’t leave much real estate for my presentation.

Would something like this help my problem or anyone know a better solution?

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OK, I have a series of steps you can follow:

- Start DeskPad

- Go to System Settings and set the resolution of the virtual display to 1920x1080 (just to be a standard size/resolution and not retina, saves on resources and hassle)

- Still in System Settings, set Accessibility Zoom to render a magnified version on the virtual display:

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/zoom-in-on-whats-on....

- Resize the DeskPad window to be a nice little preview on the corner of your screen.

- Start your call, share the virtual display (which will be the zoomed version of what you are pointing at with your mouse)

I often call into meetings where I am also presenting twice. Once on my phone and once from my computer. I use my computer for sharing, audio, video, etc. I use my phone to see what the other people see. Shared screens are always difficult to predict. If you have a 4K screen, it will almost always get downsampled somehow for meetings… it can be too slow otherwise.

In my experience, the problem isn’t that the font is too small on your device, but rather that you’re sharing too much screen. Even if I’m sharing a terminal window (common for me), instead of changing the font, I try to make the window smaller. This has the same effect and is much easier to control. On the viewing device, the video you send it always scaled (either for a different resolution or viewport size), so it helps to limit the size of the screen/window that you’re sharing.

Telling viewers to zoom in if they can’t read anything sounds like you’re blaming them for the problem. If you have a different device connected, you might be in a better position to find a solution on your end.

+1 to learning how to share a window, doing it fast when you’re changing windows, and reducing the size of the window. It shows that you care for the audience.

The UX for window sharing is just too crappy for this suggestion. I do this, and the single hardest part is locating the window in the list of windows to share.

Combine that with a workflow that involves 2 or more windows (e.g., switching between a terminal & a browser … or just wanting to display them both at the same time¹), and it's not really workable.

¹… and while there's no technical reason I couldn't share two windows … there's no support for it.

No really: Learn this UX to share your screen.

- The last window is always suggested FIRST when sharing,

- Learn what to look at: Look at the appearance of your browser window before you go click Share my screen.

The second will provide a visual confirmation that you’re clicking the right button. Don’t pass as a boomer when you can be a Millennial!

> - The last window is always suggested FIRST when sharing,

It most definitely isn't. (I just checked, just to humor you.)

> - Learn what to look at: Look at the appearance of your browser window before you go click Share my screen.

I'm often staring at it the window I intend to share as I'm going through the list so as to be able to find it. I don't think it's as useful as you think it is.

> Don’t pass as a boomer when you can be a Millennial!

… right …

You're probably making some assumptions about the exact OS/browser/VC SW combination that I'm using, your suggestions simply don't apply to the one I am using.

> Telling viewers to zoom in if they can’t read anything sounds like you’re blaming them for the problem

yeah I wouldn't disagree, have been ignorant to the solution on this one. It's a recent concern as I'm new to Teams and working at a company with an older demographic than I'm used to so I'm kind of new to getting this request so much tbh. When people complain about having "aging eyes" my default response has been to zoom up to 150% but beyond that I can't even use my own computer as a presentation device for myself which is a showstopper, so my initial thought was tell them to use the Zoom, it's what you do on your phone to read small text, browser to read news, etc. and honestly I zoom in when I can't read someone elses screen (I've never asked someone to increase a font size mid-presentation). Part of the problem is the content kind of requires a lot of columns of data to be visible at once. Bouncing around from YTD to MTD sections by section kind of breaks the flow of the meeting, especially because while I'm presenting they are all individually consuming the content differently (one guy only care's about Margins, one guy only cares about Expenses, etc so it helps to have a lot on the screen at once and let them zoom into what they care about)

All said, I'm definitely going to try out all the suggestions here and see if I can figure out a better solution. Thanks HN!

> As I understand the issue it’s not that font is too small on my device, it’s that Teams has a tiny viewport and so it gets shrunk down. Most people aren’t doing full screen.

AFAIK, teams literally does not have a way to put the viewport in full screen mode!

As someone often on the receiving end of screenshares, I cannot recommend enough that you do not maximize your shared window itself unless it's absolutely necessary. On a typical 15" laptop, 2/3 the width and ¾ the height is great. (for a 4K/5K monitor this will probably be a smaller fraction). Even assuming everyone else has eyesight on par with your own, it's wise to leave room for the chat on one side and a toolbar on the bottom. (And please never maximize a shared window on those 21:9 displays; that is so painful for everyone on a laptop. We get giant black bars at top and bottom, and your text at like 2px.)

People can zoom, yes, but it's going to require scrolling which can be distracting even if it's set to "follow pointer" -- and your pointer may be zipping all over (like, going to the toolbar when the users are looking at a row near the bottom of the screen).

I know it is a challenge to limit yourself to a small canvas -- we all love using a big screen for certain tasks -- but I believe it's going to be easier and make for a more engaging and productive session when you control both the viewport size and the scroll position at all times. One nice thing about Zoom is that it is dynamic, so if you are sharing a window and you realize you need more horizontal real-estate for a certain part of your preso, you can momentarily resize your window for that, and then go back to a more manageable size when done, with no re-sharing needed.

I ended up buying a bigger monitor for screen share. For most purposes I prefer my setup with multiple 19" monitors running at 1280x1024 but it's a nightmare if someone with a higher desktop wants to share. I have found the bigger monitor nice for games also.

I am presenting SAP t-codes on a daily basis and can relate – especially for presentations I tried to show always only the most important things and use fonts like 2 or 3 times bigger, especially with monospace fonts not so easy to find good readable narrow fonts.

Yeah, if you create a virtual monitor with low resolution like 1280x720 or 1024x768 people will be able to see what you're sharing.

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