Web Meeting Tutorial

Step 1 - Enter Your Profile

The profile is used to identify you in a meeting. Only the name is required.

Step 2 - Create a meeting room

Select "New Meeting Room" in the File menu to create a new meeting room. After the meeting room is created, you can run a meeting room check to verify if the meeting room is set up properly. Click "Meeting Room Check..." under the "Tools" menu and then click "Run Tests". Meeting Room Check will also test your Web site's upload and download speeds.

Step 3 - Create a meeting

Click "New Meeting" under the "Meeting" menu to create a meeting. The meeting will be named "My Meeting" by default. You can double-click the meeting to change its name or other properties, such as meeting date and time, password, voice options, etc. For now, we will use the default properties.

Step 4 - Invite others to a meeting

You can invite others to a meeting by sending its URL via email or Instant Messenger. Right-click the meeting and select "Send Invitation" from the pop-up menu. An invitation Web page will show up in your browser window. You can click the "Send Mail" button in the Web page to send email with your default email program. (To launch your default email program directly, click "Options" on the "Edit" menu and then click the "Invitations" tab. Check "Launch my preferred email program".)

Step 5 - Start a meeting

Select the meeting and click the "Start meeting" icon on the toolbar. If you use Web Meeting, you will be asked to record the meeting. Click "Yes" if you wish to record it. You should have set up "Audio Devices" if you wish to record the audio.

Attendees can join a meeting by clicking the "Attend Meeting" link in the meeting page you send out. Attendees need a Web browser and Flash to join a meeting.

Step 6 - Conduct a meeting

After a meeting is started, you will see a list of attendees. You can right-click an attendee's name and give him permission to draw on a whiteboard or present in a meeting (only those using Web Meeting to attend the meeting can be a presenter).

Select the "Messages" tab to see messages. You can send text messages, files, or Web pages to anyone in the meeting. To send a file, you can drag a file from the desktop to the Messages tab or click the "Send file" button. When you send a file, it will be uploaded to your meeting site first. Once the upload is completed, a message, which contains the uploaded file's URL, will pop up in the Messages tab to allow anyone to download the file. The file is removed from the Web site when you end the meeting.

To share your desktop, click the "Share screen" icon on the toolbar. A sharing window frame will show up. You can move the frame to the region of the screen that you want to share. You need to click "Start Sharing" in the popup menu of the sharing window frame to start sharing your screen. You can use the Pen tool to annotate the shared screen. Click "Stop Sharing" to end the sharing session.

Click the "Share whiteboard" icon in the toolbar to share a whiteboard with all the meeting attendees. A browser window which contains the whiteboard will pop up. Everyone in the meeting can draw on the whiteboard but only the meeting host can erase the entire whiteboard.

Other functions you can use in a meeting include showing presentation slides and polling.

Step 7 - End a meeting

Click the "End meeting" icon on the toolbar to end the meeting. You have the option to save the meeting recording for playback if you click "Yes" to record the meeting when it started. The recorded meeting will appear in your Meetings tab as a new entry shortly.