Share content during an Adobe Connect meeting

Hosts, Presenters, and participants who are given appropriate rights, use the Share pod to display content to attendees.

When you share content in the Share pod, attendees see your pointer move in the Share pod window. All activities you perform in a shared window, application, or document are visible to attendees. The file formats supported in the Share pod are JPG, PNG, SWF, PPT, PPTX, PDF, FLV, F4V, MP3, MP4, and ZIP.

Content you can share:

• Selected items on your computer screen, including one or more windows, one or more open applications, or the entire desktop. See Share your screen.

• A document, such as a presentation, Adobe PDF file, FLV file, a JPEG, or other file format. See Share a document or PDF.

• A whiteboard with various writing and drawing tools. You can share a stand-alone whiteboard, or a whiteboard overlay that appears on top of other shared content. See Share a whiteboard.

Attendees can view all documents shared in the Share pod but cannot download them. To enable attendees to download documents, a host or presenter must share them through the File Share pod instead.

Currently, attendees who join a meeting using the HTML client can only view your screen, windows, or open applications that you share in the Share pod. They can also view all supported files in the Share pod, except PDF files. Attendees using the HTML client cannot view shared whiteboards.

The stand-alone Adobe Connect application replaces the old add-in. It is compatible with Adobe Connect 9 and later versions. If you do not have the required Adobe Connect application or add-in installed, Adobe Connect prompts you to download and install it. You can install the latest Adobe Connect application (and other updates) from the Downloads and Updates page. 

The Share pod controls let Hosts and Presenters share content in various ways. You can maximize the pod to make contents larger.

When you share content in the Share pod, attendees see your pointer move in the Share pod window. All activities you perform in a shared window, application, or document are visible to attendees. The file formats supported in the Share pod are JPG, PNG, SWF, PPT, PPTX, PDF, FLV, F4V, MP3, MP4, and ZIP.

In the upper-right corner of the Share pod, click the menu icon , select Share, and choose My Screen, Document, or Whiteboard. You can also share items that you recently shared.

Using My Screen option, hosts and presenters can choose to share your entire desktop, the open applications, or some or all of the currently open windows.

Using the Document option, Hosts and Presenters can share whiteboards, previously uploaded files, content from the content library, and content shared with them.

You can maximize the pod to make contents larger or share in full screen mode. To display the Share pod at full screen size, click Full Screen in the upper-right corner of the pod. Click the button again to return to normal display size.

To prevent attendees from switching Share pod to full screen or change the view, hide the title bar. To hide the title bar of a Share pod, Hosts and Presenters can click the menu icon and select Hide Title Bar. 

If you choose to display changes in the presenter’s pod to all attendees, the presenter controls the pod size for attendees. For example, if the presenter sets the Share pod to Full Screen mode, the pod also fills the screen of attendees.

When content is displayed in the Share pod, you can use a pointer to beckon users to focus on particular areas.

As a host or presenter in a meeting, you can share windows, applications, or your entire desktop. Your account administrator can restrict the applications and processes that you can share. As a participant in a meeting, to share your screen, a host must give you permission or promote you to a presenter or host. If users have a dual monitor setup, upon clicking Share My Screen, users get an option to share either of the two monitors. However, only one screen can be shared at a time.

When you share anything on your computer screen, actions you take in the shared region are visible to all participants in the meeting. Participants follow the progress of your cursor as you move it across your screen. When starting a screen share, the hosts and the presenters can enforce their settings for the participants. The Share pod can be opened in full screen mode for all attendees for a better viewing experience.

The region or regions that you share must be visible on your desktop to be visible in the Share pod to other participants. Overlapping windows on the desktop appear as a blue crosshatched pattern in the Share pod. If you are sharing an application and showing the native cursor of the application, you can enable the Show Application Cursor option in the Screen Share tab in the Preferences dialog.

Hosts and Presenters who share their screen, can share, collaborate, and take some in-meeting actions directly from a MiniControl that opens in the Compact mode. The palette is displayed only for the user sharing the screen.

The presenter can take multiple actions from the MiniControl and can access some pods, like the Chat pod and the Attendees pod. If a pod is not available in the meeting room, its icon in the MiniControl is disabled. The presenter can also see the in-meeting notifications in the palette.

You can perform the following actions from the palette, depending on your access permissions:

• Switch to the traditional meeting room by clicking Switch to Meeting Room in the upper right corner of the MiniControl.

• Start and stop screen sharing and preview your screen being shared.

• Pause and annotate the screen being shared.

• Control the camera, speaker, and microphone options in the meeting room. View the webcam feeds available in the meeting room in Grid or Filmstrip layout and switch the primary feed.

• Access and use the Attendees pod.

• Access and use the Chat pod.

• View and take action on the in-meeting notifications.

You can disable the MiniControl from the Meeting Preferences. In the Meeting Preferences, select Screen Share, and deselect Enable MiniControl panel for Screen Share. By default, this option is selected.

While screen sharing, you can transfer control of the shared desktop, window, or application to another host or presenter.

Hosts and presenters can request control of the screen. They can take control once they receive the necessary permissions.

If another presenter is sharing a screen with you, you can scale the screen to fit entirely within the Share pod. In addition, you can zoom in for a clearer image.

When sharing an application, window, or desktop on your computer, you can see a preview that shows what participants see in their Share pod.

As a host or presenter, you can share documents that have been uploaded to the Content library, or share documents directly from your computer. Sharing documents from the Content library has the following advantages over sharing your screen:

• Better and higher fidelity viewing experience for participants.

• Lower bandwidth requirement for presenters and participants.

• More navigation options with the Adobe Presenter sidebar.

• Pre-loading and organizing documents in the meeting room.

• Easier presentation when multiple presenters are involved.

If you turn off sharing, change the content in a Share pod, or close the Share pod, the document is still part of the meeting room. It can be displayed again. To edit a shared document, edit the source document and reload it into the meeting.

In the Content library, PDF files are stored as is. When shared in a meeting room, PDF files are converted to SWF files to enable synchronized navigation and whiteboard capabilities.

From the Share pod, hosts and presenters can download PDF files. Participants can download PDF files if hosts and presenters click the Sync button to turn off display synchronization.

PDF Portfolios and PDF files that are password protected cannot be converted into SWF files, preventing them from being shared in Adobe Connect. In addition, certain PDF features are not supported when sharing PDF files in Adobe Connect. In some cases objects within the PDF are either dropped, or only a simple image preview is displayed.

The following objects are dropped in Adobe Connect:

• Comment text (only the sticky note icon is shown)

• Attachments

• Bookmarks

• Audio clips (only the play button icon is shown)

The following objects retain a simple image preview (an image representing the object) in Adobe Connect:

• Forms

• 3D objects

• Multimedia objects (audio, video, and SWF files)

As a host or presenter, you can share the supported file types from the Content library or your computer. The Content library is available in Adobe Connect Central. In a meeting, you can share GIF content from the Content Library. However, GIF format is not supported when you share content by browsing to your local file system using the file picker dialog.

By default, Adobe Connect synchronizes display of documents so that attendees see the frame that the presenter sees. A host or presenter can use the Sync button to turn off synchronization. This functionality lets attendees go through presentations or PDF documents at their own pace.

For hosts or presenters who share a presentation in the Share pod, special controls are available for navigating and displaying the presentation. A presentation layout has the following areas:

Presentation

The main part of the window, which displays the presentation slides.

Presentation sidebar

Area on the right of the browser window that shows the name of the presentation, the presenter information, Outline, Thumb, Notes, and Search tabs. If you cannot see the sidebar, click Show Sidebar  to the lower left of the presentation.

Presentation control bar

A bar at the bottom of the presentation that gives you control over the presentation playback, audio, attachments, and screen size. The bar is visible to hosts only, unless a host chooses to display it to participants. (To see all presentation toolbar options, load the presentation file to the Content library from Adobe Presenter. If you load the PowerPoint PPT or PPTX file directly into the Share pod from your computer, not all presentation toolbar options are visible. Click Sync in the lower right corner of the presentation.

Most presentations have an Outline tab on the sidebar. The Outline tab lists the title and duration of each slide. You can use the Outline tab to display information and to move to a specific slide in the presentation. The current slide is highlighted with a glow color, which you can change in the theme. You can choose to display the highlight outline to all attendees or to hosts and presenters only.

Presentations can have a Thumb tab on the sidebar. The Thumb tab shows a small picture of each slide, the slide title, and the slide duration. The current slide is highlighted with a glow color, which you can change in the theme. You can use the Thumb tab to see the contents each slide quickly and to move to a specific slide in the presentation.

When creating a presentation in PowerPoint, you can enter notes for individual slides. If any slide notes exist, they can be displayed in the presentation. Slide notes appear on the right side of the presentation window. You cannot change the size of the slide Notes tab.

You can control the presentation appearance and playback by using the toolbar at the bottom of the presentation. (To see all presentation toolbar options, load the presentation file in the Content library from Adobe Presenter. If you load the PowerPoint PPT or PPTX file directly into the Share pod from your computer, not all presentation toolbar options are visible. Click Sync in the lower right corner.)

A host or presenter (or a participant with the necessary rights) can use a whiteboard to create collaborative text, drawings, and annotations in a meeting.

Hosts and Presenters can let any participant draw on whiteboard by granting the drawing rights in three ways.

• To provide drawing rights to individuals, select the name from the Attendee list and from the pop up menu, select Enable Drawing. You can revoke the rights by selecting Disable Drawing.

• To provide drawing rights in a specific whiteboard to all the participants, select Enable Participants to draw from the pod's context menu. Deselect the option to revoke the rights in the whiteboard, for all the participants.

• You can grant universal drawing rights to all participants in all pods, from the in-meeting Preferences dialog. This preference is remembered for every session using the meeting room.

A whiteboard allows hosts or presenters to create text, shapes, insert some symbols, and draw freehand drawings in real time during a meeting. By providing drawing rights to some or all the participants, meeting hosts can facilitate better collaboration. Users can zoom in and pan the whiteboard for a better experience.

You can use a whiteboard in two different ways in a Share pod:

• A stand-alone whiteboard allows presenters to create content on a white background.

• An overlay whiteboard allows presenters to create content over an existing document in a Share pod, adding annotations to and drawing on the document. You can lay a whiteboard over presentations, JPG, SWF content, FLV file, and PDF documents.

  If you turn off sharing, change the content in a Share pod, or close the Share pod, the whiteboard is still part of the meeting room. It can be displayed again.

A stand-alone whiteboard contains multiple pages that you can move between during a presentation.

The tools available to create text and drawings on the whiteboard are displayed below.

To save your whiteboard content locally you can either print a whiteboard or export the contents in a local file.

• In the upper-right corner of the Share pod, click the menu icon , and select Print.
• Click the menu icon , and select Export Snapshot > Save As PNG, to create a local snapshot.
  Note: In the Meeting Preferences or the Whiteboard Preferences, you can provide rights to meeting participants to export a PNG snapshot of a whiteboard. In the Meeting Preferences, in Whiteboard settings, click Enable Participants to export check box.
• Click the menu icon , select Export Snapshot > Send Snapshot, and provide an email address to send a PNG snapshot via email.

Hosts and presenters can upload files to share with meeting attendees either from their computers or from the Content library. Unless a host changes a participant’s status, participants cannot upload files. Participants who want to upload files can request a host to change their attendee role or to grant enhanced rights for the File Share pod.

Meeting attendees can download files from the File Share pod to their computers.

If you are using the HTML client, click Download beside the shared file in the Files pod to download the file.

To quickly download multiple files, meeting attendees can download all files simultaneously from the File Share pod, instead of downloading one by one.

If you are using the HTML client, choose Download All after clicking the Menu icon. The shared files are downloaded as a ZIP file.

This operation changes only the label that appears in the File Share pod; it doesn’t change the actual filename.

During meetings, hosts or presenters may want participants to view websites. You can use the Web Links pod to force attendees’ browsers to open a designated URL. Participants who want to add links ask the host to change their attendee role.