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During the meeting

Tips for the meeting host

• If you are hosting the meeting and sharing an application, don’t multi-task. In other words, you can't read e-mail or work on other things if you are sharing a document. Keep the window that you want others to see in front. If you cover the shared window with another application, such as your e-mail, the shared window will be obscured for everyone in the meeting.
• If you hang up, you will disconnect everyone else in the meeting.  If you must hang up, let the other participants know that you are going to do so.

Tips for meeting participants

• If you are participating in an online meeting for the first time, don't experiment to see what NetMeeting can do while you are in the meeting. Practice beforehand to see what Chat or the Whiteboard look like. Bringing up the Chat window or the Whiteboard in a meeting disrupts everyone because these windows open on all the participants’ computers at once. If you must use chat to communicate with someone during the meeting, use the whisper feature to minimize the disruption to other participants.

• Avoid sharing an application while somebody else is trying to present something to the entire meeting. This can cause significant network delays for the host, who is trying to share an application or give a presentation.

Tips for sharing applications and collaborating

• Any participant can share an application. For example, someone in location A can share Microsoft Excel and someone in location B can share PowerPoint during the same meeting. However, for best results, it is recommended that you only share one application at a time, especially if there are multiple participants in the meeting.

• You can click the NetMeeting icon in the Windows system tray (next to the clock) to access NetMeeting commands, without switching away from the application you are sharing or are about to share.

• When sharing an application, don't collaborate unless you want others in the meeting to be able to take control of that application. When you are just sharing the application, you are in "view only" mode until you click the Collaborate button in the NetMeeting toolbar. This is the preferred mode if you giving a presentation and don't need others to make changes in the application. In other words, share the application, but don't collaborate unless others' input is required.

• Remember that the clipboard is always shared.   The clipboard is shared as soon as you join the meeting. This means that any time you copy something to the clipboard, even if it's from an application that you are not sharing, it can get transferred to everyone else in the meeting. For the same reason, if you copy a lot of information to the clipboard, it can slow down performance.

• If you are sharing an application, minimize all other windows on your desktop so that the shared application does not get covered up. Try not to open any windows in front of the application being shared, or everyone else in the conference will see only part or none of the shared window . Participants cannot see "under" the overlaid portion of the shared application. If you must cover the shared window, it is a good idea to let everyone know what you are doing.

• When collaborating, tell people when you are about to take control of the application.  This will prevent unnecessary contention for control, which can be confusing. The initials of the person who has control appear next to the cursor.

Tips for better performance

• Audio communication is essential to ensuring that everyone is looking at the same thing.  Sometimes network traffic can cause a delay in what other participants see in the shared application. As you move to another screen, make sure you tell others what page you are on and take time to ask them whether they can see what you are displaying.

• Make sure that NetMeeting is set to use the proper type of connection.  If performance seems slow during the meeting, check the Network Bandwidth setting (on the Tools menu in NetMeeting, click Options) to make sure it is set correctly.

• Sharing applications or documents with highly graphical content is slower than sharing those with less graphical content. For example, if you are sharing PowerPoint, using a simple white background will yield better performance than using a colored or marbled background, which can cause a lot of extra network traffic and slow down the performance for everyone in the meeting. It is also helpful to disable animation effects when sharing slide presentations.

• Sending and receiving video will slow down application sharing. If you are sharing or collaborating on an application or document, you will get better performance if you pause the sending and/or receiving of video.

Before the Meeting Starts  |  Troubleshooting  |  Glossary |  Main page