Collaboration and application sharing made EASY

NetMeeting BackPak^™

During the Meeting

Tips for the meeting host

Multi-tasking as meeting host
If you are hosting the meeting and sharing a program, multi-tasking, such as reading e-mail or working on other projects, is not recommended. If you cover the shared program window with another program, such as Outlook, other participants in the meeting cannot see the shared program window.

If you are the meeting host and you hang up, all other meeting participants are disconnected.
If you must hang up, inform the other meeting participants before doing so.

Tips for meeting participants

Practice using NetMeeting before joining a live meeting.
Practice beforehand to see how Chat, Whiteboard, shared programs, and file transfer work. Displaying Chat or the Whiteboard unexpectedly in a meeting can be disruptive because these windows open on all the participants’ computers at once. If need to use Chat during the meeting, use the whisper feature to minimize the disruption to other participants.
Avoid sharing a program during meeting presentations.
Sharing a program can cause significant network delays for the host, who may be trying to share a program or give a presentation.

Tips for sharing programs and collaborating

Any participant can share a program.
Someone in location A can share Microsoft Excel and someone in location B can share Microsoft PowerPoint during the same meeting. However, for best results, it is recommended that you only share one program at a time, especially if there are multiple participants in the meeting.
You can prevent or allow others to work in a shared program.
When sharing a program, it is recommended that you prevent control of the program unless you want others to work in the shared file. When you are just sharing the program, you are the only one who can make changes. To allow other participants to make changes click the Share Programs button under Tools and then click on the button named Allow Control.
Minimize other windows so all participants can see the shared program.
If you open windows while sharing a program, the shared program may be obscured from view. Participants cannot see under the new window that is covering the shared program.

Tips for better performance

Using audio to communicate clearly.
Sometimes network traffic can cause a delay in what other participants see in the shared program. As you move to another screen, audio allows you to tell others what page you are on and to make sure they can see what you are displaying.
Make sure NetMeeting is using the correct connection.
If performance seems slow during the meeting, check the network bandwidth setting to make sure it is set correctly. To check the bandwidth click on the Local Settings button, and then on the General tab click Bandwidth Settings.
Sharing program or documents with many graphics can affect speed.
If you are sharing Microsoft PowerPoint, using a simple white background will yield better performance than using a colored or marbled background, which can cause 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 slows down program sharing.
If you are sharing a program, you will get better performance if all participants pause video transmissions.