The Whiteboard enables you to exchange ideas and graphics with other
conference participants, using a complete range of drawing tools
and page manipulation functions.
To interoperate with other conferencing products, the Whiteboard can
operate either in a mode that is compatible with the NetMeeting Whiteboard,
or in a mode that is compatible with the T.126
standard for whiteboards.
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The Whiteboard window appears and is automatically started on the other conference participants' systems. (Equally, if somebody else in the conference starts the Whiteboard, it will start automatically on your system.)
NetMeeting version 3 supports both Proprietary mode (named "1.0 - 2.x" mode) and T.126 mode (the default). The NetMeeting T.126 whiteboard uses extensions to the T.126 standard protocol. In order to interoperate fully with the NetMeeting T.126 whiteboard you must set the compatibility mode to NetMeeting 3. Note that if NetMeeting 3 compatibility mode is selected then interoperation with other vendors' T.126 whiteboards may be adversely affected.
To select the appropriate mode, use the "Load Whiteboard in" field in the Configuring Tool Settings Options.
If you are in a conference that includes both NetMeeting and T.126-only products, you can run two copies of the Whiteboard, one in each mode. You can then use the Proprietary mode copy of the Whiteboard to communicate with NetMeeting, and the T.126 mode copy to communicate with the T.126 products. To do this:
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Freehand pen |
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Straight Line |
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Unfilled Rectangle |
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Filled Rectangle |
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Unfilled Ellipse |
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Filled Ellipse |
(These tools can also be selected on the Tools menu.)
Set the pen color and line thickness using the option buttons at the bottom and left of the drawing area, then draw the object by clicking and dragging the mouse. Releasing the mouse button adds the object to the whiteboard, where it will be seen by all other conference participants.
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To work with text objects, click the text tool button or select Text from the Tools menu. |
To create a text object:
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Click on the place in the drawing area where you want to add some text. |
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Type in the text of the message into the text entry dialog, and press OK. |
To edit a text object:
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Click on the text object you wish to edit. |
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Edit the text of the message in the text entry dialog, and press OK. |
The color and font can be changed with the option buttons at the bottom of the drawing area.
You cannot edit a text object in T.126 mode. Instead, delete the object and then create the new version.
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To move or delete a graphic in the whiteboard, first click on the selector
tool button (or select Selector from the Tools menu), then click on the
graphic you wish to move/delete. If the graphic is hidden under another
graphic, click again until the desired graphic is selected (indicated by
the dashed outline).
To move the graphic, drag it to its new position with the mouse. To delete the graphic, select Delete on the Edit menu or press the Delete key. If you delete an object by mistake, you can retrieve it by selecting Undelete on the Edit menu. |
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To highlight areas of the whiteboard, click the highlight tool button
(or select Highlighter from the Tools menu), then draw the area to highlight
using the mouse.
Note that the highlighted colors may not appear exactly the same on each system in the conference, especially where the X servers are using different visual types. |
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To capture the contents of a window as an image to the whiteboard,
click the Capture Window button or select the Capture Window command on
the Tools menu.
The Whiteboard window is hidden. Click on the window that you want to capture. The Whiteboard window reappears, including an image of the captured window. |
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To capture an area of the desktop (not necessarily a whole window),
click the Capture Area button or select the Capture Area command
on the Tools menu.
The Whiteboard window is hidden. Click and drag the mouse to select the area to capture. The Whiteboard window reappears, including an image of the captured screen area. |
Copying from the My Video window
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To capture your image from the My Video window and copy it as an image
to the whiteboard, click the Snap My Video button or select the Snap My
Video command on the Tools menu.
The image appears in the top left corner of the Whiteboard window. |
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If you have an IEEE 1394 camera, you can use a different method:
Click the Enable Camera button on the Whiteboard toolbar. This enables the pushbutton on the camera for a period of 10 seconds. During this period, each time you press the pushbutton on the camera, your image is captured to the whiteboard as above. You can capture your image as many times as you like during this period. If you want to disable the pushbutton on the camera before the timeout period has expired, simply press the Escape key. |
If you want to import a PostScript image file, note that the ghostscript program must be installed on your computer (although other Whiteboard users do not need ghostscript to view the image after you have imported it).
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Click the remote pointer button, or choose Remote Pointer on the Tools menu, to show or hide your remote pointer. This is a colored pointing hand which everyone in the call can see. When you have the Select tool enabled, you can click on the pointer and drag it around, so that you can point out areas of interest on the page. |
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Click the rubber stamps button, and a sub-window will provide a number of images to "stamp" on the whiteboard. These are user configurable. SunForum enables you to use bitmap files (such as GIF) in user defined locations. |
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Quick method for text: Select the text in the Whiteboard or another source window such as a Terminal. Use the middle mouse button to paste the text selections to the Whiteboard or another window. |
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Using the Cut/Copy/Paste commands on the Edit menu. These transfer
objects via the system clipboard and allow graphics to be pasted back into
the whiteboard, possibly to a different page, with their original formatting,
or to other programs as pixmaps (or text in the case of text objects).
To cut or copy an object, first select the object then choose the Cut or
Copy command from the Edit menu. To paste an object into the Whiteboard,
simply select Paste from the Edit menu: the object appears on the current
page.
To cut or copy an object, first select the object, then choose the Cut or Copy command on the Edit menu. To paste an object into the Whiteboard, simply select the Paste command on the Edit menu. The object appears on the current page. |
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Click the "users" button, and a sub-window will appear. In this window, you will be provided the name of every whiteboard participant. You will also see their assigned pointer color and current pen/highlighter colors. |
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Click the "options" button, and a new sub-window will appear. All of
the non-essential whiteboard options are available from this window. Users
can alter:
Text: Change size, style, font. Pen: Change width and choose from 36 colors. Highlighter: Change width and choose from 8 colors. |
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Move to the first page. |
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Move back one page. |
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Move forward one page. |
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Move to the last page. |
To move to a specific page number, choose Go to Page from the Edit menu. Enter the page number in the dialog and select OK.
You can remove all graphics on the current page by selecting Clear Page from the Edit menu.
You can delete the current page by selecting Delete Page from the Edit menu.
To change the page order, select Move Page from the Edit menu. You are then presented with a submenu: select Back to move the current page before the previous page, or Forward to move the current page after the next page. (You cannot change the page order in T.126 mode.).
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Press "new page" button to insert a page after the current page. The Insert Page command on the Edit menu also allows you to add a page. In proprietary mode, using the menu option enables you to specify whether the page should be added before or after the current in T.126 mode, the new page is always added at the end. |
To do this, use the Synchronize command on the Tools menu:
If Synchronize is selected, and you scroll or zoom the Whiteboard window, any other people who have selected the Synchronize option see the display change in the same way as you do. Similarly, if anyone else has the Synchronize option selected and scrolls or zooms the window, you see the display change in the same way as they do.
If Synchronize is selected, and you scroll or zoom the Whiteboard window, any other people who have selected the Synchronize option see the display change in the same way as you do. Similarly, if anyone else has the Synchronize option selected and scrolls or zooms the window, you see the display change in the same way as they do.
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Use the Zoom button (or select Zoom from the Tools menu) to change
the magnification at which you view the whiteboard contents.
If you are running the Whiteboard in proprietary mode and have the Synchronize option selected, this changes the display of all other people in the conference who have this option selected. If you do not have this option selected, or if you are running the Whiteboard in T.126 mode, this changes only your own display. |
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Pressing the Lock button (or selecting Lock from the Tools menu) requests
the whiteboard lock. After a short delay, either you will have successfully
got the lock (in which case the lock button will be shown in the "down"
position), or you will be notified that the lock could not be obtained
because another user already has the lock or is in the middle of an operation
which cannot be interrupted.
To release the lock, simply click the lock button a second time. |
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Pressing the Open File button will bring up a subwindow. This will query for a whiteboard file to be opened. |
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Pressing the Save File button will also bring up a subwindow. This
will query for a name to assign a saved whiteboard file.
Or you can choose to Open or Save from the File menu to load or save the whiteboard contents. The SunForum Whiteboard format is compatible with the Microsoft NetMeeting
1.0 to 2.x Whiteboard, therefore, the SunForum Whiteboard can read files
created by a NetMeeting Whiteboard and NetMeeting Whiteboard can read files
created by a SunForum Whiteboard.
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To export the current page to a graphics file, select the Export command
on the File menu.
In the Export dialog, specify the name of the output file and the desired
image format, and click OK.
The contents of the current page will be written to the
file.
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Pressing the Print button, or selecting Print from the File menu will
print the whiteboard contents. In the print window, specify the printer
or file name to print to, and which pages you want to print.
Note: The printer name must specify a valid printer device. SunForum allows you to also specify a networked printer name. |
Copyright1998 - 2000Sun Microsystems, Inc
