No Projector in Your Meeting Room? Use Google Hangouts Screenshare!

Recently our Web Services department met to review web pages and some of the development work that was going on. This usually involves one of our designers sharing their screen on the large monitor or project. Unfortunately, this meeting room didn't have anything and people started spinning their laptop screens back and forth to show their work.

As I was on the other side of the table and didn't want to be walking back and forth, I realized we could do this just as easy with a Hangout Video Call! I quickly got everyone setup (Tip: Use Google Chrome to avoid needing to downloading a plugin), gave them the name of the Hangout "room" (feature only available to Google Apps for Education/Work) and had everyone start screen sharing. Be sure to mute microphones and cameras.

Although everyone is screen sharing, it won't necessarily show up on everyone's screen until someone selects "Present to Everyone".

Here's the trick: once you're done, just stop presenting (but not screen sharing)! It does 2 important things

• allows the next person to present to the group
• still keeps you screen sharing. This means you don't have to go back in and choose which screen/window to share, and you can quickly start presenting again

A couple of caveats:

• if someone pins a user (i.e. clicks on the icon of a user in the filmstrip) that will override the presenter window
• when you're still sharing, someone can pin your screen and still see what you're doing

Remember, with Hangouts you can have up to 25 people participating - and don't forget to take advantage of the built-in chat in your Hangout to pass URLs back and forth.

Collaborating with Google Apps

A lot of people belief collaboration means having your Microsoft Word files in a shared folder, but that's not collaboration — that's sharing a folder.

Collaboration means work on a file together. Whether at the same time, or at different times of the day, Google's collaboration tools (Comments and Suggested Edits) removes the needs of multiple copies of a document as it gets sent back and forth between collaborators.

In this new video from Google, you'll see the best of the collaboration tips in action. Specfically, Comments and Suggested Edits, Notifications and Revisions (ie. versioning).

Another tool that is often under-used is the Email Collaborators command from under the File Menu. The best part is that it automatically include a link to the document you are currently working on.

What's your favorite collaboration tool?

Easily Send Email to Everyone Working on a Google Apps Document

There are many times while working on a document that I want to send an email out to everyone who's working on it (example: upcoming deadline). The Comments function (http://goo.gl/AljfqM) is great when want to ask a question about a piece of text, but it's really not the right tool for general messages.

I used to spend time trying to remember who I shared the document with or actually went looking under the Shared settings, but there's a better way. From within the document, select Email Collaborators from under the File menu. Google will display an email window with all the collaborators of the document listed. Now it's just a matter of updating the subject line, the message, and select who I want receive the email.

Sharing Your Agenda/Minutes with Google Docs

Sending out agendas, updating them before the meeting and then sending out follow-up minutes can be time consuming, especially if there's an error that needs to be corrected and you have to send it out again. However, by creating your agenda with Google Docs and sharing it with your group, they will have a link to the most up-to-date information that can quickly be updated. Best part - no downloading or emailing necessary!

Setup

1. Create a folder where all your agenda/minutes documents will be stored. Be sure to include your committee/department's name (eg: Web Services Meeting Agendas/Minutes).
    
2. Share the folder with your committee members. As only you will be responsible for updating the content, the others only need the ability to provide comments. Information on how to setup sharing can be found at http://goo.gl/sk03rp.
    
3. Create a document that will act as your template, including sharing (you can see an example at: http://goo.gl/7M6OkQ). As you create a new meeting's agenda, you can either create a copy of your template or duplicate/edit your previous meeting's agenda.

The Process

As long as you agenda documents are stored in the proper folder,  the committee members will have access at any time to see the agenda.

Here is the process for each meeting:

1. Create your document for the meeting and update the agenda.
    
2. Send out the agenda for feedback (you can use the Email collaborators command under the File menu).
    
3. Committee members can leave comments (http://goo.gl/AljfqM) or suggest edit changes (http://goo.gl/2yOEy7).
    
4. Before the meeting, go through and add/approve any changes to the agenda.
    
5. During the meeting, make notes in the same document.
    
6. After the meeting, clean up the notes and make any changes.
    
7. Send our a message (see Step 2) letting everyone know the minutes are complete.

Multiple Individuals Working on the Same File at the Same Time

As a document stored in Google Drive (i.e. the cloud), you never have to download or email a file — you just connect to it through your browser and start working. However, working with Google Apps is more than just cloud storage — it's about collaboration on a whole new level.

Collaborators can access the same document at the same time. You see other people's changes happen on your screen while you're making your own. In fact, you can have up to 50 people making changes on the document at the same time! For students, this means group work can be easily accomplished anywhere there's an internet connection - on a desktop or mobile device.

Faculty and administration can also take advantage of the collaboration features of Google Apps. With individuals working different hours and different locations (both on and off campus) the ability to work on a single document instead of trying to remember where the most recent version is stored, is invaluable.



What ways can you think of to take advantage of this exciting feature?

Originally published on Tips for Google Apps.