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	Linktivity WebDemo

Annotation Features - WhiteBoard

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Linktivity WebDemo is very well equipped with a transparent whiteboard that is available throughout the entire meeting session. In WebDemo this feature is referred to as the WhiteBoard Tool. The annotation tools of the whiteboard feature allow the presenter to mark up key areas of the content being presented. In WebDemo the annotation tools are generally referred to as Transparency Tools.

Review Overview
This review discusses the following aspects of the annotation features within Linktivity WebDemo:

Annotations everywhere

ViewPort toolbar

Usual objects, tools and features

Unusual features

Allowing participants to annotate

Cons

Conclusion

Annotations Everywhere
In WebDemo annotation tools are not tied up to any specific feature, but it is required that the WebDemo ViewPort is enabled. Essentially this means that either the Desktop Sharing or the Application Sharing feature needs to be activated first before the annotation tools can be used.

ViewPort Toolbar
The Desktop Sharing feature contains a convenient viewport toolbar providing access to several options controlling the behavior of the annotations (transparency tools). For example, annotations may be temporarily hidden from view or erased all together. Another option on the viewport toolbar is the very handy Hide Desktop Icons button, which magically hides all of your private shortcuts and files sitting on your PC desktop from prying eyes.

The Hide Desktop Icons button on the WebDemo viewport toolbar

The viewport may be minimized and opened again through the Viewer browser icon in the Windows desktop toolbar at the bottom of the screen. In addition to the ViewPort toolbar the transparency tools options are also available to the meeting host by right-clicking on the Viewer browser icon in the Windows desktop toolbar.

Context menu of the Viewer toolbar icon

The viewport context menu and the viewport toolbar contain a toggle button called Show/Hide Transparency Tools. This is where the actual annotation tools are organized.

Opening the WebDemo transparency tools dialog box

Alternatively, the meeting host enables the transparency tools (also referred to as WhiteBoard) by right-clicking on the attendee list and choosing ViewPort > Enable WhiteBoard.

Usual Objects, Tools and Features
When the presenter/moderator clicks on the Show Transparency Tools button on the viewport toolbar, a separate dialog box opens named Transparency Tools.

The Transparency Tools dialog box

The transparency tools in this dialog box comprise the usual set of freehand, rectangle, ellipse, eraser, scissor and text objects and a number of other unusual, but highly useful features.

Text can be placed on the screen at any position and in any available font and size. Font formatting is done through the built-in attributes of the font, which means that only normal, bold and italic are available. It is not possible to underline or strike-out text. Nonetheless the formatting tools are very complete and thorough and provide one of the best facilities I have seen for live whiteboarding and annotation. The line style selection feature is also well implemented in WebDemo.

Selecting line thickness

Unusual Features
WebDemo contains these two unusual features:

A snapshot of the entire viewport may be saved to disk in the common bitmap (.bmp) format.

One unique tool stamps the screen with sequentially numbered arrows. This is quite useful to visually point out different steps or actions to take.

Annotating a screen using numbered arrows

Allowing participants to annotate
The meeting presenter/moderator may involve selected participants in the annotating process by clicking on the pencil button in the toolbar at the bottom of the host control panel.

Cons

When the Desktop Sharing viewport is set to full screen, the viewport toolbar containing the annotation tools disappears and cannot be used.

There is an illogical redundancy between the buttons on the viewport toolbar and the transparency tools dialog box. Both interfaces contain the buttons for Pen, Hide Transparency, Erase Transparency and Viewport Snapshot.

Advanced features like pasted screenshots and advanced highlighting tools are not available.

Conclusion
Linktivity WebDemo contains a complete toolbox for live annotation. Both the presenter and participants may annotate the screen. Its usability would be even further enhanced if more advanced highlighting tools would be implemented.

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Posted on June 20, 2003 at 09:56 PM

Updated on November 29, 2004 at 12:13 PM

Overview

Key Strengths

Weak Points

PowerPoint Presentation Facilities

Web Touring - Co-Browsing

Presence Awareness

Multi-Protocol IM

Text Chat

Audio Conferencing - VoIP