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.

Easy Start to Google Hangouts

As part of the Google Apps suite of tools, MacEwan University has access to Google Hangouts. Think of Hangouts as conversations - you can carry on a conversation through text (like different messenger apps), through audio (like a telephone) or video (like Skype). Best of all, if you’re using Chrome, they’re all easily available through your browser - you don’t need to run a separate app or download any plugins.

If you’re using Google Chrome, I recommend downloading the Google Hangouts extension (https://goo.gl/JXPtm). This places a button at the top of your window that will allow you to start a Hangout. It will also listen for an invitation to Hangouts and open the conversation window. As this is a Chrome extension, Chrome must be running for this to work.

Here’s a quick video (https://goo.gl/mUoIQq) that explains the installation process and what you can do with it. Although I didn't mention it in the video, you can also use Hangouts to make free calls to phone numbers in Canada and the United States.

For information on Hangouts visit Google’s Help Centre: https://goo.gl/0p3Uzw.

Use Custom Graphics for Link Placeholders Added in Youtube

When you're doing a Hangout on Air (HOA), you may want to direct your viewers to other videos on the web. Unfortunately, you can only add active links to your video after you've completed your HOA. Once it's been archived, you can use the Annotations tool in YouTube to add text and links. 

+Ronnie Bincer uses a great technique where he will point his finger in the air where he will later put in the link. When I tried this method, however, I always pointed to the wrong side of the screen (it looked correct to me, but in playback was not). I also often had trouble finding the location where I wanted to place the links because I tend to wave my hands around and would mistake that for pointing.

My solution: create graphics that I could load up when I wanted to refer to a link. I named the graphics something like Banner 1 (only 1 banner on the left side) and Banner 2 (2 banners). Banners were easy to find and I never got confused which side to put it on.

To do this, you use the Lower Thirds App from the Hangout Toolbox.

1. Start a Google Hangout (you don't need to invite anyone else).
2. Launch the Hangout Toolbox (if it's not available on the left, select if from the View more apps at the bottom).
3. Select the first tab from the toolbox (see Step 1). This is where you create your lower thirds (be sure to check out +Ray Hiltz tutorial on using lower thirds).
4. Select the Choose File button underneath Custom Overlay and navigate your graphic  (see Step 2).  Upload the file.
5. Click the on switch to the right of Custom Overlay. Your graphic will now appear on your screen.
6. Add a name for the graphic in the field below Presets and hit save  (see Step 3).  The present and graphic will be added to the list below.
7. Repeat for the second graphic.

You can see it in action in the short video below.

You can create your own graphic or you use the ones I've provided. Just right-click and each image and save to your desktop.

Easily Schedule Hangouts with Google Calendar

A few months ago +Ronnie Bincer  and I were discussing the pros and cons of organizing Hangouts using Google+ Events versus Google Calendar (check out our results). As much as I like Events tool, I still believe Google Calendar is the easiest way to schedule a regular Hangouts for one simple reason:

Everyone understands how calendars work

Events have some great advantages over an appointment created in Google Calendar, but for something as simple as "let schedule a time to meet" and do it as a Hangout, this is it.

The image below shows a typical appointment window. The important items to note are

1. Add a Google+ hangout. Clicking on this will generate a URL for your hangout and now becomes attached to this appointment
2. Add guests. You can type in contacts from your address book or an email address. The beauty of this is you already have their contact info.
3. World Clock. When creating an appointment, you can see what time it is in other places. This is one of the tools in Gmail Labs (http://goo.gl/5P8c0). You can select a number of different world timezones to be displayed when you create an appointment.

Another important thing to note: when you create an appointment and invite someone, the time is shifted to their time zone. For example, when I invited +Michael Daniels to an appointment I created that started at 1p.m., it showed up in his calendar at 3 p.m. ( 

Question: for the majority of your regular Hangouts, would Google Calendar work for you?

Using Google Presentations in a Hangout

Created January 8, 2013 by Trevor Beck and Ronnie Bincer

Using Presentations

Setup before starting your hangout

1. From Google Drive (not the Google Drive for Hangouts tool) open your presentation document (typically will open in a new tab).
2. Move new tab (Presentation) into a new browser window.
3. Using the dropdown menu (Present) in the upper right, select “Present with Speaker Notes”.
4. Resize the presentation window to remove any black bars (optional).

Once the hangout has started and you’re ready to give your presentation:

1. Select Screenshare App from within the Hangout window.
2. Select the presentation browser window to share.
3. Bluebox yourself to keep your presentation window front even when others speak.
4. Use the speaker notes window to drive the presentation forward by clicking on the thumbnail for the next slide.

Note: this will provide you with a browser window that will allow you to display your presentation, as well as open additional tabs to surf the web. Any tabs opened on this window will be viewable through the screenshare.

Tips:

• you can adjust the size of the fonts for the speaker notes using the minus and plus signs at the top right of the Speaker Notes window. Or you can start the speaker notes at a larger size to begin with.
• for a more focused presentation, you can present the window without tabs by selecting “Present in new window” first.
• you can resize the slide window to a smaller size to give you more room on your desktop. Caution: this may slightly affect the displayed content size in the hangout.
• if you add animation to objects or transitions between slides that are set to appear on click, you can click on the thumbnail in the speaker notes. Do not advance by using the slide numbers drop-down menu below the thumbnails.
• your cursor will be visible to your audience (it’s a screenshare). Place your cursor away from the window if you don’t want it visible. (Could be a Bonus... for pointing to things in the live presentation... like a laser pointer). If you do utilize the pointer as part of the presentation, then use your Arrow Keys to advance the presentation.
• if you are presenting by yourself through Hangouts on Air (HOA), your screenshare will automatically display at full screen (no filmstrip will be visible to your audience). If there are other participants in the HOA, you can achieve the same effect of full screen by video-muting the participants’ video thumbnails in the filmstrip (Cameraman technique).
• remember to bluebox yourself/your screenshare so that others can talk without interrupting the display
• participants using mobile devices will be able to view the screenshare - they cannot collaborate on documents within the Hangout.
• remember not to use fast transitions for slides and objects (minimum of 2 seconds)
• if using your mouse as a pointer, make it larger
• Macs: System Preferences → Accessibility → Display
• Windows: Control Panel → Hardware and Sound → Devices and Printers → Mouse

#hangouttips #hangouts #googledriveinhangouts

Associated videos:

1. Google Drive Hangout App is NOT for Presentationshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zgd8ZXYz10
2. Using Google Presentations in a Hangout or HOAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD-UqlC8CuI
3. Summary with Q & A for Presentations in a Hangout or HOAhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb4ljgq77lE

The Google Drive Hangout App is NOT for Presentations

Discover the proper way to use the Hangout App for Google Drive

Using Google Drive Documents inside a Hangout has a lot of value, but it is not very useful if you are trying to do a presentation to a group within the hangout or to a group watching it from the outside. The main problem is everyone in the hangout can open up their own version of the document and may be at a different place than the ‘leader’ or ‘presenter’ is. We have some great ideas on how to utilize Google Drive docs as a presentation method which will be shown in our example HOA/video.

What the Hangout App called Google Drive is really quite useful for is online collaboration inside the hangout. Inside a hangout, you can have a virtual meeting where each party involved can brainstorm, discuss, etc. and get those thoughts into a shared document all at the same time in the same meeting.

If you're any kind of a power user of Google Docs (i.e. Google Drive), you know about the power of collaboration. Your document lives in "the cloud" (i.e. Google Drive) and is only available to you. However, by "sharing" your document, you can assign specific rights (view, comment or edit) to individuals. Now a group of people can work on a document together - either at the same time or at a time convenient for the individual (how to set up document sharing: http://goo.gl/DnLsg).

If you understand this, then it's easy to see the purpose of the Google Drive tool within Hangouts - it allows you to *edit* collaboratively within a Hangout. You basically see the same window, except it’s within the Hangout. With Google Drive for Hangouts (GDH), you choose from the files you have access to that you want to work on with the participants of your Hangout. Just like working on a document together from Google Drive (web app) you can see changes being made in real time *if you're both looking at the same page*. This is where the confusion comes in.

Let's assume we're both working on a Google word processing document in a Hangout. By default, it opens on the first page and as I make changes, you see it happen in real time. Same thing goes for a spreadsheet or presentation. However, we can actually work on different parts of the document at the same time. With word processing, I could be editing on page 2 while you’re adding new text on page 5. However, because the default view for both of us is page 1, we can’t see the edits happening.

This is why many people are confused about using the presentation tool. When GDH is loaded, we both see slide 1. Here again, we could both be working on different slides. However, you’ll also notice there’s no way to actually view it as a presentation within the Hangout - the purpose of GDH is to *edit* the document collaboratively.

So, is there a way to present a presentation? Yes there is and we’re working on instructions on how to do that and will be presenting that very soon.

#googledrive #hangouttips #hangouts #googledriveinhangouts #HOA