Whiteboard
In order to use this feature, you must turn it on in your Room Configuration Panel.
Whiteboarding is available as a "beta testing" feature. Please experiment with it before using it in an important meeting so you will learn how to use it and to know its limitations.
When you are using the Whiteboard feature, you are publishing graphic images from your own PC to our servers which are broadcasting those visuals to your guests. So Whiteboarding uses much more bandwidth than the basic voice/follow-me browser, and text chat features. Therefore, it is important to not publish large file sizes. Also, we do not recommend using it with more than 10 participants, and everyone should have high speed connections to the internet.
While it is possible for all participants to publish and annotate, it works best if only one person is doing so.
We would appreciate hearing from you to know how you are using it, if you find bugs (please provide as much detail and if possible screenshots), and other general comments that will help us make this feature work better.
The Whiteboard feature allows you to display visuals on your PC to everyone in your Room. Visuals include screenshots, pictures, graphs, drawings, or most anything you can copy to your "windows clipboard". This is a very quick way of showing visuals directly from your PC without having to load them to a website on the Internet.
You start with a blank page, but then you can paste anything you are able to copy to the 'windows clipboard'... While you can copy and paste almost anything into your Whiteboard, it is best to show things that can be contained within the space of the viewing area of the Room. Large visuals such as a screenshot of an entire desktop or maximized application will take longer to load on your guest’s computers, and it will require them to scroll to see the whole thing. This can make annotation more cumbersome, and can interfere with voice quality. So it is best to keep your visuals as small and concise as possible.
To take a screenshot of the currently selected window (the application that is "on top"), you need to press the 
and 
at the same time to copy that screenshot to your clipboard. This allows you to target that specific window and nothing else. In other words, simply bring the desired application to the forefront on your computer screen and press the key combination and . To avoid unnecessary size, you may want to shrink the window to a size that only shows the area of the application you want to show such as around a paragraph, a picture, a graphic, or a chart.
The key may appear differently depending on the manufacturer of your keyboard but the standard position is usually located at the upper right hand corner of your keyboard next to the Scroll Lock and Pause/Break keys. Often abbreviated PrtScr, the sole function of the Print Screen key is to take a snapshot or picture of your computer screen and copy it to the clipboard (the clipboard is an invisible holding area for content that is copied). Its the same thing as if you copied something from a document and it is now on your clipboard waiting to be pasted in its final destination. Use of the Print Screen key is necessary to capture screenshots to be displayed on the Whiteboard.
To show what you have copied to your clipboard, simply click the 
icon and publish the visual in your clipboard to everyone's whiteboard. Then you can draw, type or annotate right on top of the visual.
Tools on the Whiteboard toolbar.
Move Object: This allows you to "select" annotation objects to move them.
Freehand: Currently in development, this will allow you to draw 'freestyle' with your mouse. This icon is currently “grayed out”. When it becomes available, the icon will be activated.
Line: This allows you to draw straight lines. You left-click and drag your mouse in the direction you want the line to appear.
Square: This allows you to draw squares or rectangles.
Circle: This allows you to draw circles or ovals
Text: This gives you the ability to create a 'box' which you can type within. You left-click and drag your mouse to the desired size for your textbox.
Stamp: This allows you to 'stamp' different 'icons' from the dropdown list when you click on the 'Stamp' icon.
Eraser: This allows you to 'erase' part of your drawing.
Color: This gives you the ability to change the color of the items you will draw.
Fill Color: This gives you the ability to change the fill color of the items you will draw.
Line Width: This gives you the ability to change the size of the borders for the items you draw.
Font: This gives you the ability to change the font and font size for your textboxes.
Clipboard: This will paste the contents that is currently stored in the Windows Clipboard.
New Canvas: This will erase everything on the canvas.
Auto Capture: This creates an 'auto-capture' option to have a frequently updating window automatically refreshed in the Whiteboard.
Refresh: This will 'refresh' a auto screen capture.
Open Whiteboard: This allows you to open a previously saved whiteboard.
Save Whiteboard: This allows you to save the current whiteboard.
Other Screen Capture Options
There are several tools available that can make this very simple to do if you do not wish to use the built-in features of Microsoft Windows. You can also use a screen capture program like SnagIt, Print Screen Deluxe, or SPX Instant Screen Capture to capture those Windows screenshots with one keystroke! These programs offers more ways to capture images and more flexibility for working with your images than the Windows Print Screen key. However, none of these are necessary.
Why would you want to use one of these tools when you already have the Print Screen key?
| Key |
Dedicated |
|
| Captures: | Captures the onscreen image. | Captures everything you want: Scrolling web pages, specific regions, text and digital camera pictures. Captures only what you want: Leave behind sidebars, extra space and surrounding areas. |
| Editing: | Grab the windows screen, open a graphics editor, paste it, crop, paste somewhere else, and print. | Use filters to crop, edit, and annotate images as you perform screen captures. |
| Output: | Outputs to the clipboard. | Output to the clipboard, printer, a file, the web, as an email attachment, catalog or preview window. Send screen captures to anyone, anywhere. |
| Flexibility: | Only performs the screen capture. | Performs the Windows screen capture the way you want and remembers how you want it done. |
So, as you can see, using a screen capture program like SnagIt, Print Screen Deluxe, or SPX Instant Screen Capture can greatly improve your effectiveness while using this Whiteboard tool.