Introduction
This page covers how to share a document, annotate
the document in a live online meeting, and save the document
with annotations.
Most web conferencing products take a screenshot for
participants to annotate; and many do not offer the ability to
save their annotations at all. Nefsis lets presenters annotate
documents, presentations and even highlight LIVE applications.
At the time this article was written, Nefsis was the only vendor
with this capability. Nefsis provides the most advanced
web collaboration
tools in any multipoint
video conferencing product worldwide.
Saving multi-page shared documents with full annotations
Sharing a document is a big productivity tool in an online meeting.
Participants can discuss, annotate and mark up the document while everybody
is looking at it. And the greatest use of document sharing comes when:
• Participants can see the documents simultaneously
• There is no limit to the number of pages in the document
• The presenter can allow any or all participants to make their own annotations
• Everyone in the meeting can see and discuss annotations in real-time
• All of the notes and annotations are saved and available after the online meeting
Nefsis offers all of this functionality, enabling you to make
the most of shared documents in your online meetings.
All participants see the document simultaneously
In the Nefsis conference room, the
presenter clicks on the icon to share a document:
Nefsis opens the document, processes it on-the-fly and presents it in
the Share pane of the conference room. For example:
Instantly, the participants see the same view of the document
that the presenter sees. From the toolbar on the left, the
presenter can annotate with lines, highlighting, circles, boxes,
images and text, as in this example:
(The presenter can also grant annotation privileges to any or
all conference participants. More details below.)
This is ideal for marking up a variety of files:
• Office productivity source files (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, database reports)
• Desktop publishing/design source files (Adobe Photoshop, Quark Xpress, FrameMaker)
• Output files (PDFs)
A Nefsis conference is invaluable in reviewing source files
(image, diagram, chart, photo, etc.), created in high-end
applications which most participants are not likely to have. For
source files, the presenter must have the associated application
installed on the presenting PC; participants need only be in the
conference room to see them.
NOTE: The shared image is not the source document itself, so it
is not possible to add, edit or delete text and objects in the
document. Nefsis creates an image of the document as if it had
been printed out, then shares it in the conference room for
annotation and markup. To add, edit or delete text and objects
in the source document, open the document in its application,
then share the application in the Nefsis conference room.
Unlimited number of pages in the document
Unlike video conferencing products that
display only a single page, Nefsis can display all of the pages
in a document, regardless of its length. Nefsis allows
navigation to any point in the document:
Nefsis also allows an unlimited number of open documents in the
conference room, with each document on its own separate tab:
Participants can make their own annotations
Once the presenter has shared the document, she may grant
privileges beyond the default to any or all participants so
that they too may mark up and annotate the document in the
conference room:
With the annotation privilege, participants may also select from
a palette of six different pointers, giving each participant a
distinctive marker.
Participants can share their own files
The presenter can in turn make presenters of any or all
participants in the conference room:
This extends to them additional privileges, including sharing
documents in the conference room so that they can display,
discuss and annotate files from their own computers. Nefsis
appends participants’ names to the tab corresponding to their
open documents:
Presenters can save all annotations
Most importantantly, Nefsis makes it easy to save all of the
annotations for later reference, when participants can
incorporate changes to the source documents.
Since the annotations live in the online meeting session, the
presenter clicks on the Save button above the Share pane. Nefsis
prompts for a filename, then saves the shared document with all
annotations and markup to a Nefsis document (.nfd) file.
Nefsis includes a document viewer, which is the default
application for the .nfd extension:
Any Nefsis user may launch the document viewer off-line, then
print or continue annotating the .nfd file. To incorporate the
annotated changes to the source document file, the user can
launch the source document in its appropriate application (e.g.,
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, text editor, etc.), then enter
the changes indicated in the .nfd file.
The .nfd file is a meta-file, storing mosty rich text and vector graphics. The
only raster images are image components from the original source file. As such,
all text and annotations are smoothly legible at any degree of magnification. This
prevents pixilation and ensures that all annotations remain crisp and legible when
enlarged:
Contact us
Click here to schedule a live demo and
see Nefsis video conferencing with built-in document and application sharing
with annotation tools.
You
can also take a free trial or contact us with
any questions you may have regarding these features.
Related Pages
Web Conferencing and
Group Collaboration Software Features
Complete Online User Guide