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	Linktivity WebDemo

Desktop - Application Sharing

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In Linktivity WebDemo Desktop and Application Sharing are implemented differently than in most other web conferencing tools. In WebDemo they are two separate features, called Desktop Sharing and Application Sharing. Both features will be discussed in this review together because they are closely related.

Definition
The main difference between desktop sharing and application sharing in WebDemo is that the desktop sharing option allows the presenter to exactly determine which portion of the screen (called viewport) will be shown and shared with the meeting participants, whereas the application sharing option allows the presenter/moderator to select which of the applications currently running on his system will be shared full-screen with the meeting participants.

Desktop Sharing

Review Overview
This review discusses the following aspects of the desktop sharing option within Linktivity WebDemo:

Starting desktop sharing

Excluding participants

Viewport characteristics

Advanced finetuning

Participants' perspective

Remote control

Conclusion

Starting Desktop Sharing
The session presenter opens the desktop sharing feature by clicking on its icon in the WebDemo host control panel.

Starting desktop sharing

All participants will immediately see a rectangular portion of the presenter's screen, called the "viewport". A viewport may include any application running on the presenter's computer, a browser window or even a full-screen PowerPoint presentation. This way of showing one's desktop is a very smart and not so common implementation of Desktop Sharing.

A dashed border clearly marks off the rectangular area that will be shared

Excluding Participants From Desktop Sharing
The presenter/moderator may exclude selected participants from the desktop sharing session by right-clicking in the attendee list and deselecting Viewport > Broadcast Viewport from the menu.

Viewport Characteristics
Below the viewport a toolbar is displayed that helps to control many aspects of the viewport's behavior and performance. The toolbar allows the presenter to

change the position of the viewport

change the size of the viewport to full screen, to any desired size or to one of three preset screen sizes (800x600, 640x480,352x288)

pause the viewport

use annotation tools (discussed separately in the hyperlinked article) to mark up the screen

create a snapshot of the viewport

Advanced Finetuning
To find a balance between quality and timely performance the presenter/moderator may adjust the compression rate and color settings by right-clicking on the viewport toolbar. The compression rate (scan rate) may be set to low, medium or high. A low compression rate is the best setting for participants on a fast DSL connection. Except for very specific graphic applications the color setting is best set to 256 colors. Alternatives are 16-bit and 24-bit color. Software demos, for example, may easily be run at 256 colors without any perceivable visual degradation.

Participants' Perspective
Once the desktop sharing facility is enabled, the participants see a simple window called "Viewer". It shows exactly which portion of the screen the presenter made available to them.

Remote Control
The remote control options of Linktivity WebDemo are reviewed in a separate section in this Guide.

Conclusion
The Desktop Sharing feature in Linktivity WebDemo is well-designed and rich with useful features.

Application Sharing

The Application Sharing feature allows a WebDemo meeting presenter to show and share applications and documents to his remote attendees.

Review Overview
This review discusses the following aspects of the Application sharing option within Linktivity WebDemo:

Starting application sharing

Excluding participants

Selecting applications

Enabling remote control in applications

Cons

Conclusion

Starting Application Sharing
The meeting host needs to turn application sharing on by clicking on the application sharing icon in the top toolbar of the host control panel.

Starting Application sharing

Excluding Participants From Application Sharing
The presenter/moderator may exclude selected participants from the application sharing session by right-clicking in the attendee list and deselecting Viewport > Broadcast Viewport from the menu.

Selecting Applications
Once application sharing is enabled, a dialog box is displayed on the presenter/moderator's screen.The dialog box lists which applications are currently running.The presenter clicks on each application that is to be shared with the meeting attendees. Until this selection process is done the attendees only see a grey window. The application selection window remains open during the application sharing session, preferably minimized (see Cons).

Selecting applications

Enabling Remote Control In The Shared Applications
The presenter/moderator can allow attendees to take control of an application by giving them Remote Control (separate review in this Guide).

Cons

The session presenter must minimize any running application (including the Linktivity WebDemo host control panel) except the ones selected for sharing. Otherwise these other applications show up as rectangular areas on the participants screen.

The presenter should have minimized the application selection dialog box

Even on a DSL connection the performance of the remote control feature needs the attention of the WebDemo programming team. A seemingly simple shared WordPad session, for example, resulted in a jumpy text cursor, making it impossible to determine which characters had actually been inserted in the document on the remote screen.