Conducting Online Meetings with NetMeeting

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Word, and other Office applications, work with Internet Explorer to provide online collaboration. This pairing of technologies enables you to conduct online interactive meetings by using NetMeeting. NetMeeting is a conferencing application that includes the following components:

• Application sharing
• Audio capabilities
• File distribution and sharing
• Text-based chat
• Video capabilities
• Virtual whiteboard

As you might imagine, using the audio and video capabilities requires that participants have speakers, microphones, and Web cameras installed on their systems. To use NetMeeting in Word, you must first configure NetMeeting in Internet Explorer, as described next.

Installing and Getting Familiar with NetMeeting

NetMeeting can be installed when you install Internet Explorer, so your system might already have NetMeeting installed. To find out whether NetMeeting is installed on your computer, open Internet Explorer and choose File, New, Internet Call. If NetMeeting is installed but you've never configured the application, the NetMeeting Wizard will appear. Simply complete the information in the NetMeeting Wizard welcome page, shown in Figure 30-15, and then work through the wizard to set up your NetMeeting application.

Figure 30-15. The NetMeeting Wizard walks you through the NetMeeting setup process.

If NetMeeting isn't installed on your computer, you can download the latest version of NetMeeting from the Microsoft Web site, at www.microsoft.com/netmeeting. After you download NetMeeting, you'll need to work through the NetMeeting Wizard to configure your settings.

After you work through the NetMeeting Wizard, the NetMeeting window opens. You can check your video camera's operation and angle by clicking the Start Video button. Figure 30-16 shows the NetMeeting interface with video turned on.

Figure 30-16. The NetMeeting interface provides features you need to collaborate on line with others who have NetMeeting installed on their systems.

To get you up and running quickly, Table 30-1 describes the buttons available in the NetMeeting window.

Table 30-1. NetMeeting Tools

Button	Name	Description
	Place Call	Opens the Place A Call dialog box, from which you can place a call to another NetMeeting user.
	End Call	Disconnects your computer from the conference.
	Find Someone In	Opens the Find Someone dialog box and A Directory displays directory contents.
	Start Video/ Stop Video	Starts and pauses video transmission.
	Picture-In-Picture	Displays your video as a small picture in the lower right corner of the video screen so that you can see your video as well as the video of the other conference participant. (Note that only two people at a time can use video during a meeting, even if more than two people have video cameras.)
	Adjust Audio Volume / View Participant List	Displays microphone and speaker audio controls. When speaker controls are displayed,the button changes to the View Participant List button; click this button to redisplay the list of meeting participants' user names.
	Share Program	Opens the Sharing dialog box, which enables you to share your computer's resources with other meeting participants.
	Chat	Opens the Chat window, which lets meeting participants communicate by entering text.
	Whiteboard	Opens the Whiteboard, which offers typical paint program capabilities.
	Transfer Files	Opens the File Transfer window, which enables you to transfer files to meeting participants.

For a full review of NetMeeting and its features, refer to Running Microsoft Internet Explorer 5 also from Microsoft Press.

Initiating and Joining NetMeeting Conferences

You can participate in NetMeeting conferences by initiating a call or accepting a call from another computer user. You can initiate a call in the following ways:

• In Word, choose Tools, Online Collaboration, Meet Now, and then click the name of the person you want to meet with in the Find Someone dialog box.
• In NetMeeting, click the Place Call button to open the Place A Call dialog box, complete the To box information, and click Call.

Tip - Place a NetMeeting call directly

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The most direct way to initiate a call with another user is to open NetMeeting, click Place Call, and enter the other computer's IP address in the To box. You can easily find your computer's IP address in NetMeeting by choosing Help, About Windows NetMeeting. Your IP address is displayed at the bottom of the About Windows NetMeeting dialog box.

When you initiate a NetMeeting call while you're working in Word, Word displays the Online Meeting toolbar, shown in Figure 30-17, and displays your Word window to other meeting participants.

Figure 30-17. The Online Meeting toolbar is displayed automatically when you initiate a NetMeeting call from within Word.

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Troubleshooting

I Can't Print or Save a File Shown During an Online Meeting

When you view a meeting participant's Word file during an online meeting, you can't print or save the file to your local resources. Instead, if you click Print while viewing a file, the document will be printed on the printer of the person hosting the online meeting. Similarly, if you click Save, the file will be saved on the meeting host's hard disk or server.

If you want a copy of the shared file that you can store or print, you should ask the meeting host to send you a copy of the file, or you can copy the document's contents to a file on your computer after the host grants you permission to make changes to the file.

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Table 30-2 describes Word's Online Meeting toolbar buttons.

Table 30-2. Online Meeting Toolbar Buttons

Button	Name	Description
	Participant List	Displays a drop-down list containing the names of all meeting participants
	Call Participant	Opens the Find Someone dialog box
	Remove Participants	Disconnects the participant displayed in the Participant list
	Allow Others To Edit/Stop Others From Editing	Allows others to edit the current Word document, or stops others from editing the Word document
	Display Chat Window	Opens the Chat window for real- time text communication
	Display Whiteboard	Opens the Whiteboard, which provides basic paint program capabilities
	End Meeting	Disconnects your computer from the conference

When another user initiates a NetMeeting conference with you, the NetMeeting – Incoming Call dialog box, shown in Figure 30-18, appears on your desktop along with the NetMeeting window. To join the conference, click Accept.

Figure 30-18. The NetMeeting – Incoming Call dialog box opens on your desktop automatically when someone attempts to start a NetMeeting conference with you.

Scheduling Meetings

You can schedule a meeting from within Word. To do so, choose Tools, Online Collaboration, Schedule Meeting. The Untitled – Meeting dialog box opens, as shown in Figure 30-19. The Untitled – Meeting dialog box is the same as the Meeting dialog box found in Outlook 2002. To schedule a meeting, enter meeting participant names, configure the meeting's particulars in the appropriate boxes, and click Send.

Figure 30-19. You can schedule a meeting from within Word, without opening Outlook.

For more information about setting up meetings, refer to the Outlook Help files or consult an Outlook-specific resource.