Getting Started FAQs
Using PictureTalk
What
are the recommended system requirements for PictureTalk?
Windows native client: OS: Windows 95, 98, NT, Win2K, Me or XP.
CPU: Pentium class 166Mhz with 32MB RAM. Browser: MS Internet Explorer
4.x + or Netscape Communicator 4.x + Bandwidth: 28.8 Kbps connection
or better.
- Macintosh native client:
OS: 9.2 (and higher) or OS X (10.1 and higher) CPU: Power
PC Browser: MS Internet Explorer 4.x + or Netscape Communicator
4.x + Bandwidth: 28.8 Kbps connection or better.
- UNIX (Solaris) native
client: OS: CPU: Browser: MS Internet Explorer
4.x + or Netscape Communicator 4.x + Bandwidth:
28.8 Kbps connection or better.
- The Java client
requires: Any Platform running a Java enabled
browser. Bandwidth: 28.8 Kbps connection or better.
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What
about a native client for Macintosh and UNIX users?
Native Macintosh and UNIX (Solaris) versions of PictureTalk are
available and can be downloaded by clicking here.
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What
is the difference between the Native client and the
Java client?
The Java client doesn't require any software to be downloaded and
enables attendees to get into a meeting with no setup. The Java
client has all the functionality generally required for attendees
of a meeting. The only meeting participants that must have the
native client setup are those that may be presenting live applications
and/or presentations from their computers desktop.
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Do
I have to download any software to have a PictureTalk
meeting?
If you will be Presenting in a PictureTalk session you will be
required to set up your system initially with a small helper application.
When you first go to join a meeting PictureTalk will detect if
your system is setup with its latest version available and upon
authorization will automatically setup your system and place you
directly in to the meeting you've selected.
For anyone joining the meeting as an attendee
they can opt to join either by going through the same setup
procedure or simply connecting via the Java version within
their web browser, which requires no initial setup.
Can
you give me a brief description
of your Enterprise Level Clustering solution?
Clustering refers to the ability to join many PictureTalk servers
together so that users can connect to a local server. This also
allows users in different parts of the country or the world to
connect to a local PictureTalk server and thus at a much higher
speed. Clustering also allows our customers to scale the number
of connections to one meeting as far as their bandwidth will allow.
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How
many participants can you support in a single meeting?
PictureTalk works well in small collaborative sessions of one-to-one
or one-to-few but works equally as well when giving presentations
to hundreds or even thousands. For our enterprise customers that
license PictureTalk to run on their corporate network an added
benefit is the ability to cluster PictureTalk servers together
which not only works well when meetings need to scale to large
sizes it works very well in managing bandwidth over wide area networks
(WAN) for meetings which are widely dispersed (i.e. meetings that
have larger groups of attendees connecting from different regions
across the globe can set up servers in each of their given regions
and have each group connecting via a local servers that communicate
via a single connection to each regions PictureTalk server thus
using less transcontinental bandwidth).
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How
can I install PictureTalk?
When you first go to join a meeting PictureTalk will detect if
your system is setup with its latest version available and upon
authorization will automatically setup your system and place you
directly in to the meeting you've selected.
The latest versions of PictureTalk are also
available and can be downloaded by clicking here if you
prefer to manually set up your system.
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How
can I uninstall PictureTalk?
Clicking on the Start button in your task bar and then selecting
Programs/PictureTalk/Communicator/Uninstall Communicator will uninstall
PictureTalk. You can also use Add/Remove Programs from the Windows
Control Panel to uninstall PictureTalk.
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Using PictureTalk
What
types of files or applications can be shared with PictureTalk?
Any file and/or application that can be opened on your desktop
can be presented and/or shared through PictureTalk.
How
can I prevent uninvited users from attending my meeting?
Here are three methods:
- Create a password or passwords for your
meeting.
- Lock your meeting. Once all attendees
have arrived, you can select "Lock Meeting" from
the Meeting menu and prevent anyone else from
entering the meeting.
- Global lockout can also be set
up if there is an interest in not allowing any
attendees from a given domain or IP address.
(i.e. if you want to lock out all meetings so
no one coming in from a competitors office can
join)
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Can
I save marked up documents and view them off-line?
It is possible to take a snap shot of any image you are viewing
to review at a later time. Simply select "Print Screen" under
the File menu. The Presenter also has the ability to easily upload
the actual document which can be password protected for downloading
as well.
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Why
is PictureTalk sometimes slow? Is there a way to speed
things up?
As with any network solutions there will be times when transmission
speeds are slower than others due to bandwidth constraints or strict
firewall settings. Presenters of a PictureTalk meeting do have
the ability to choose between optimizing their presentations for
best quality or best performance so depending on what they are
presenting they can select to send a loss less image of what is
on their desktop if it is important for attendees to get an exact
view or they can increase the performance of the presentation by
selecting speed optimization. To alter your speed/quality settings
select "Advanced" under the Options menu.
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Why
is it that sometimes the images being presented don't
look the same to attendees as what the presenter sees?
If the presenter has selected the optimize for best performance
the information they are presenting will automatically be converted
to 8 Bit (256) color regardless of what their system is set to.
If the presenters system is set to a higher color level (i.e. 16
or 32 bit) there is a chance, depending on what is being presented,
that the attendees will see an image with some color degradation.
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What
happens if people in a meeting have different sized
monitors or resolutions?
Presenters are in control of what size image is viewed by attendees.
If as the presenter you choose to present your entire desktop that
is at a higher resolution than an attendee the attendee will automatically
get scroll bars within their PictureTalk window so they can scroll
as needed. If required the display resolution setting can be changed
for Windows in the Settings tab in the Display Control Panel, and
for Mac OS, in the Monitors Control Panel. A good rule for presenters
if they are presenting to a larger group is to keep their Capture
Frame ® to a size less than 800X600, which should be viewable
with no scrolling by the majority of desktops.
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How
many levels of security does PictureTalk support?
PictureTalk supports multiple levels of password security on a
per meeting basis as well as different levels of administrative
security at the server level. For the highest levels of security
PictureTalk can be licensed and setup completely behind a Corporations
firewalls allowing the greatest level of security for internal
corporate online meetings.
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Are
there any compatibility issues with clients accessing
demonstrations on a Macintosh platform?
Macintosh users have all the features that PC users have. We support
a full-featured native client for the Macintosh that is included
with our PictureTalk along with the PC, Unix (Solaris) and Java
clients.
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Are
there any limitations to a file size that can be shown?
No. There aren't any limitations regarding file size. You can show
any size image within the Capture Frame ®. Just keep in mind
that a higher color depth and higher resolution will take little
longer to transmit.
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Occasionally
we need to run our PictureTalk presentations from a
slow speed connection. What can we do to optimize our
transmission speed given our slow connection?
PictureTalk works fine over a dial up connection. To optimize the
performance you can select "Optimized Transmission" from
the "Advanced" link under Options menu.
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How
do I pause a PictureTalk recording?
To achieve a "pause" in your recording you will need
to "stop" the recording, "start" it again and
select "append" to achieve the result.
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If
a presenter is recording a presentation, then hands
it over to a 2nd person to present, will the recording
continue, cease or have to be restarted by the 2nd
presenter?
The recording continues even if the presenter hands the presentation
over to someone else. The original person that starts the recording
maintains the control over stopping the recording.
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How
do I pause the Capture Frame®?
There are times when you may wish to temporarily pause your presentation.
For instance, you may want to prepare the next stage of your presentation
or simply make some changes without distracting from the attendee's
view. To pause the current presentation, click the pause button
(2 red lines) on the far left of the Capture Frame's title bar.
Alternatively, you can select "Pause" from the "Presentation" menu.
The Capture Frame® will turn red and the title bar will change
to "OFF AIR" to alert you that you are paused. To resume
the presentation, click on the play button (green triangle) on
the far left of Capture Frame's title bar or deselect "Pause" from
the "Presentation" menu.
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How
do I activate the Mouse Pointer?
The mouse pointer allows the presenter or the attendees to draw
attention to a particular section of the presentation. To activate
your pointer, select "Pointer On" from the "Presentation" menu.
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When
would I use the "Snap On" feature and how
does it work?
Snap On is a useful feature for automatically sizing the Capture
Frame ® to cover a whole application window or your desktop.
To Snap On to a window, select "Snap On" from the "Presentation" menu
and then click onto the application window you wish to capture.
The Capture Frame® will automatically resize and place itself
around that window. If you wish to move or resize the application's
window just move or resize the Capture Frame® and the application
within will also resize. The application window will track the
size and location of the Capture Frame® as long as the Snap
On feature is active. To return the Capture Frame® to its previous
size and position, select "Unsnap" from the "Presentation" menu.
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How
do I request Presentation Control?
If you are attending a meeting using the native PictureTalk client
and wish to present, select "Raise Hand" from the "Presentation" menu.
Your icon in the Icon Bar and your name in the User List will become
red to signal that you have raised your hand. The presenter is
also notified that you wish to present. If the presenter wishes
to yield the presentation to you, your Capture Frame will appear
and you can start presenting. For this reason, you may want to
ready your Capture Frame before raising your hand. You can do this
by selecting "Show Capture Frame" from the "Presentation" menu.
If the presenter ignores your request, you may lower your hand
by selecting "Lower Hand" from the "Presentation" menu.
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How
do I answer Quiz Questions?
Quiz questions or polls may be used at any time during a meeting.
Presenters often use this feature to gauge audience knowledge on
a topic or to achieve consensus where a group decision is needed.
Questions can be yes/no, multiple-choice, multiple response or
short answer (textual). When a question is asked, the question
and the possible answers will appear on your screen. Click the
desired response, or type in your answer and press "OK".
The results will be recorded automatically and may be saved for
later analysis.
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How
do I use the Chat Feature?
The PictureTalk solution provides a text chat feature to allow
attendees to communicate with each other and the presenter. To
start chatting, select "Chat" from the "View" menu
or click on the chat button on the toolbar. To send a chat to everyone
in the meeting, type your text into the window and press enter
or click the "Send" button. To chat with one individual,
select their name from the "Talk To" drop down box and
press enter or click the "Send" button.
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We
have seen other web conferencing solutions where high-speed
connections in a presentation are affected (slowed
down due to synchronization/contention) when slower
(dialup) connections join. How does PictureTalk handle
this?
This is one of the major benefits of PictureTalk. PictureTalk was
developed with the Internet in mind with an understanding that
people connecting to a meeting via the Internet will ultimately
be connecting at various speeds (i.e. T1, DSL/Cable, Dial up, etc.).
While it is imperative that everyone in a live meeting views the
same information at the same time it is not possible to transmit
the same amount of data over a slow connection as it is a faster
connection. PictureTalk's intelligent server understands each connection
and makes sure that only the latest most relevant information is
passed to each attendee so if the presenter rapidly goes through
multiple changes just to show an end result those people connected
over high speed may follow each iterative change while anyone connected
over dialup may just see the end result keeping them in pace with
the overall presentation. The presenter is also always aware of
when the slower connections receive the image due to the CaptureFrame
feedback (it will turn from yellow to green when everyone has it).
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How
does someone request Application Sharing using the
Java Applet?
Hold down the key and Right Click the mouse. A menu will appear
where you can select "Request Application Sharing."
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What
is Controlled Control?
"Controlled Control" refers to PictureTalk's Application Sharing functionality
combined with the Capture Frame®. This combination allows the presenter to
share an application on their system with an attendee and have them control it,
but the presenter maintains control of exactly how much of the application is
shared by re-sizing the Capture Frame®. Other solutions are less secure because
they require you to share the entire application or desktop.
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What
do attendees see when the presenter takes the Capture
Frame® off-air by clicking the pause button in
the upper left hand corner of the Capture Frame®?
The attendee screen will continue to show the image that was last
sent by the presenter before they went off-air until the presenter
comes back on air and sends another image.
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Can
I change the size of the PictureTalk toolbar icons
to make them larger?
Yes. Select Preferences from the Options menu and check the box
titled "Use big buttons on toolbar."
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How
do I upload file attachments to a PictureTalk meeting?
Join the PictureTalk meeting you want to attach the file to and
drag the file you want to upload onto any part of PictureTalk attendee
window. A dialog box will appear that will allow you to ad a description
of the file you are uploading as well as give you the opportunity
to password protect the file for downloads.
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