MEETINGWEB HELP DESK

The MeetingWeb 2.0 Five Minute Guide

| CONTENTS | YOUR FIRST MEETING | POSTING | NAVIGATION OPTIONS | MANAGING YOUR MEETING | PERFORMANCE | MORE HELP |

CONTENTS

It's My First Visit: Get Me Oriented in 5 Minutes or Less

How Do I Participate in a Meeting? Help Me Manage the Meeting Comments to Suit My Needs

Quick Navigation Summary

What If My Internet Connection Is Slow Or Unreliable?

Reminder: MeetingWeb inserts how to instructions when and where you need them. Just click on the special incontext help buttons or help links to get instructions and suggestions at the bottom of the page. Every MeetingWeb page also has a Help Desk button that links to the Help Desk index and this guide.


Your First Meeting: Getting Oriented to MeetingWeb

Getting to a Meeting and Signing in Your First Meeting View - Ordered by Conversation

The default Meeting View is ordered according to who says what to whom. We refer to this as "ordered by conversation. The total number of comments available* in a meeting is listed at the top of the Meeting View page. Your first visit to a meeting is designed to orient you quickly to the meeting.All topic comments are "expanded", indicated by a downward facing arrow before the topic title. Indented below a topic are any replies posted to that topic. On your first visit, comments are labeled with an [N] (New) or an [M] modified* (moved or edited by a moderator).

Reading Comments for the First Time

From the Meeting View, just click on a highlighted comment title to display the comment's full text in Comment View. If a meeting has "0 comments", see below for details on how to start a new topic [link button] After you display a "new" comment and return to Meeting View, the comment's status changes to "recent." Recent comments remain active, automatically listed in your Meeting View for 24 hours unless you mark them "persistent" or change your Preference settings.

On your first visit, all available comments are active; available comments are all those that have been posted to the meeting unless they have been deleted or moved to another meeting.

To redisplay the list of all available replies to a topic to a Meeting View or Topic Index, press the Show All button under the topic title.

Options for Expanding and Collapsing Topics in Meeting Views

You collapse a single expanded topic by clicking on its down arrow. Collapsed topics list the author's name, and the total comments including the number of comments that are available and their status.

Toggle a collapsed topic back to an expanded state by clicking on its right-facing arrow.

  1. Collapse all the meeting's active* comments at once.
    Press the Collapse Topics button at the top of the Meeting View. Each topic's down arrow changes to a right arrow to indicate that all the topics are collapsed.

  2. Expand one topic at a time.
    Click on a collapsed topic's right-facing arrow to display that topic's active * replies.

  3. Expand a single topic on its own page With the topic collapsed, press the Topic Index button under the topic title. On the Topic Index page, all active reply comment titles are displayed.
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Options for Displaying and Reading Comments

Coming Back to This Meeting

The meeting's direct address, just as any web address (URL,) is listed in the location text window at the top of your browser. The Meeting View URL begins with the domain name of the site (such as www.meetingweb.com) followed by a directory location and then "meetingview?meeting="meeting name"".

You can bookmark this address in your browser, access it indirectly from a directory page, or copy and paste this address to a file to use later. If you have access to Meeting Administrator, you will be given a web address that lists links to all the meetings on a particular site to which you have access.
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Knowing When Someone Has Posted

New comments are labeled with a bright yellow [N], but you don't have to go to a meeting to see if anyone has posted a new comment. Let MeetingWeb send you e-mail whenever a new comment is posted in your meeting.


Participating in a Meeting

Your level of participation in a meeting is determined by the level of moderation set and the level of access given you by the moderator or administrator. You contribute to a meeting either by posting a reply to an existing topic or by starting a new topic. Moderators have the option of restricting new topic creation to the moderator. In such "directed" meetings or screened meetings you should send e-mail to the moderator to request a new topic be started.

User access
You or a group you belong to must be listed in the meeting setup as a "participant" in order to post or suggest a comment. If you're listed only as a "guest" you can read comments, but not post or suggest comments.

The level of moderation determines what buttons appear to the users. In a monitored meeting (the default setting) participants can start topics and a moderator can delete, reorder, retitle, or move comments. In a directed meeting only a moderator can start new topics as well as edit. Participants do not see the Start new topic button in directed meetings. In a screened meeting, the moderator controls all postings and start all topics. Instead of a Post reply button, participants see a Suggest button in Comment View. In an unmoderated meeting, only a Meeting Administrator can change moderation levels, access, and comment editing. Any participant in an unmoderated meeting can read, post and start a new topic.

Posting a Reply to a Comment
Note: In-context help is available on the Post Reply form.
Just click the special help button containing a down arrow to reach in-context help on entering, formatting, summarizing, adding keywords, and attaching files to your comment. There are also direct links to the help desk and instructions within the posting form.

If you have participant access to a meeting you'll see a Post Reply button below each comment in Comment View and below comment titles in Meeting View, Topic Index and Search Results pages that are ordered by conversation.

Starting a New Topic
You can start a new topic in moderated and unmoderated meetings, if you have participant access. Only moderators can start new topics in directed and screened meetings which do not display the Start new topic button to non-moderators.

Deleting a Comment You Wish You Hadn't Sent
You can delete any comment you have posted and to which there have been no replies. Contact the meeting moderator to delete or edit your comment if it has replies. The Moderator's control of the meeting
In a moderated meeting, the moderator(s) can delete comments, re-order topics, copy or move comments to other meetings, re-position any comment, and edit the title, summary or keywords of any comment. A recently moderated comment with have a [M] preceding its title in any meeting index.
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Quick Navigation Summary


Managing Meeting Comments to Suit Your Needs
Select a view and comment number that work for you Change which comments are visible
You can determine which available comment sets on the MeetingWeb server will be listed and/or downloaded to your computer display. You use the Preferences, Search, and Export commands to set which comments appear and how those comments are ordered. Each of these options pages has incontext help. Just click the red and white help button with the down arrow at the top of each page.

All available topics are listed in Meeting View ordered by conversation. Previously viewed topic comment titles are listed as unlinked text with underlying navigation buttons.

Keep up with what's new
New comments are labeled with a bright yellow [N], but you don't have to go to a meeting to see if anyone has posted a new comment. Let MeetingWeb send you e-mail whenever a new comment is posted in your meeting.

Displaying only what's new [Search]

Readability
Make use of multiple windows and resizing of windows to view related information at the same time in adjacent windows. Select a meeting and comment view that works for you. Use the Search or Export button to pull out just the comment set you need. Use Export to download that special set for offline viewing or printing.

When entering your replies, make use of the option to edit the reply title and enter a brief summary line to make clear from the index entry what your content is about.

If you have a large graphic or text file, consider posting it as an attachment to a brief introduction, rather than forcing all users to download it when they enter the meeting.

Use short paragraphs in your comments. Press the Return [or Enter] key twice between paragraphs to create easily visible paragraph breaks.
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Suggested Settings for Slow Network Connections

Speeding up MeetingWeb and your computer's performance

Network performance problems

Many network delays occurs at the junctions of Internet backbones, when your message is passed from one backbone provider to another, for example Sprint to MCI to Cable and Wireless. If you experience problems, try to avoid peak periods on the Internet backbone (most weekdays between 2 and 5 PM EST). If network performance and reliability is a high priority for you, we recommend you choose an Internet access provider connected to least two different backbone providers.

Note: Services offering "gateways" to the Internet (such as AOL) are generally much slower accessing the Web than direct Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Also some custom browsers used by online services are slower than standard versions.

MeetingWeb has been designed for universal access and efficiency. If you are having problems with your browser program and/or you are using an underpowered machine, you may find using an older, smaller browser or a telnet program is more efficient. Check with your meeting administrator for assistance.
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More Help: MeetingWeb's Interactive User Manual

If you can't find what you need in this Help Desk or in MeetingWeb's incontext help, try our Customer Service Meetings. If you are a MeetingWeb service customer, go the Customer Service Meeting set up for your group.

If you are a software customer, go to our live user guide meeting. If you don't see the answer to your question, select a topic and suggest a comment. We will answer your question or respond to your comment in the meeting, via e-mail or both.

Contact us and we promise to respond.

Send your questions, comments, frustrations, and suggestions to help@meetingweb.com and we will respond in e-mail or you can call us at (617) 497-7220.
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