Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro

Keeping colleagues and prospects engaged in your meetings is a common challenge. Through chat, breakout rooms, whiteboards, high quality video and more, Acrobat Connect Pro enables you to create high-impact online sessions. However, the distractions of upcoming summer activities and vacations may make it even more difficult for you to get your audience’s attention in the first place. So it is even more important to begin your meetings with highly engaging and interactive content.

Continue reading "Start with Engaging Content" »

Posted by Jody Plotkin at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because of the current economic conditions and the increased awareness of the impact of travel on the planet, many organizations are promoting virtual meetings as a replacement for face to face meetings. Yet, as people get more comfortable with web conferencing thanks to engaging tools like Connect Pro, they realize that both type of meetings are very complimentary and combined can effectively drive individual and group productivity.

Continue reading "Connect Pro virtual meetings and Face to Face meetings" »

Posted by Guillaume Privat at 11:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We are pleased to announce of the Online Professional Development Resource Center. This library of resources targeted at Connect Pro and Adobe Presenter users in K-12 education offers resources on how to use online professional development in a variety of ways.

While targeted at those in Elementary and Secondary Education, these resources can be used by any Connect Pro user. Whether you need to create and distribute on-demand professional development content, deliver live professional development sessions, or deliver a hybrid of both models, you'll find help here.

>> Go to the Online Professional Development Resource Center

Posted by David Yun at 3:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have just launched the Connect Pro Best Practices User Group open to all users of the product around the world. The Connect Pro Best Practices User Group was created by Adobe as a way to facilitate the sharing of product usage and implementation information to help the user community to maximize their product knowledge and ensure their Connect Pro implementation is a success.

Our inaugural meeting will be held via Connect Pro on October 30, 2008 at 12 PM Pacific where Eric Lerner of Adobe will be presenting on: Lessons Learned - Rolling out Connect Pro Meeting at Adobe

To learn more or to join the Best Practices User Group visit: http://www.connectusers.com/groups/bestpractices/

Continue reading "Connect Pro Best Practices User Group Launched" »

Posted by David Yun at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another great tip from one of our resident Connect Pro experts, Jason Parker!

Have you ever had the brief panic attack when switching back and forth between a presentation and desktop share (or video) only to have the presentation reload on the first slide then “catch up” to the last slide you were on?

Fortunately there’s an easy and quick way to eliminate the slide “catch up” effect. Simply include your presentation on every layout. This will keep your slides in sync throughout your meeting. Note: You can hide your presentation behind other pods...see this screen shot:

http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/hidepod/

To conceal the presentation pod, simply select the pod you’d like to overlap it with by clicking on the title bar which will bring it to the front. To verify your presentation pod is hidden, select Pods from the menu option and verify your pod name has a checkmark next to it.

It’s that simple!

JP

Posted by David Slater at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A great tip for Mac users from one of our super power users here at Adobe, Jason Parker...

Nowadays presentations are becoming more complex with dynamic movie backgrounds, embedded videos,
and flashy builds. Unfortunately presentations created in Keynote (Apple's equivlant to PowerPoint) are not
upload compatible with Acrobat Connect Pro yet. Keynote does offer an export to PPT option, however often times
text is reformatted, slide builds and transitions are lost or inconsistent, and there is no option to embed
videos.

At a recent event we supported all of the presentations were in Keynote and included embedded videos.
The challenge we faced was maintaining the original look and feel of the uploaded the
presentation and playing the embedded videos.

Following our best practices, we created our Connect Pro room layouts to reflect the meeting agenda along with
an additional layout for the videos. We layered/stacked the Share pods in the order in which they were to
be played in on the “videos” layout. During the event we switched between the presenters layout to the
videos layout in sync with the live presentation mimicking the Keynote version.

Here’s a quick summary of the conversion process we used to convert the Keynote presentations (and
videos) to an upload compatible (PPT) Acrobat Connect Pro format.

Please note: PowerPoint for Mac does not have the same import features as the Windows PowerPoint
application. For this process we used a MacBook Pro with Keynote ’08 and Office 2007 (installed on
VMware running Windows XP).

1. From Keynote select File -> Export and select the Image option. Select ‘PNG (high quality)’ and
check the ‘Create an image for each stage of builds’ option (Mac side).
2. Create a New Folder to copy the files into and select Export.
3. The .MOV files will be saved to a sub-folder in your newly created export folder. Alternatively
you can select ‘Show Package Contents’ from the Keynote file cut out the .MOV files.
4. Copy newly created folder and files to a PC for importing.
5. From PowerPoint select ‘Insert Photo Album’ choose ‘Insert picture from File/Disk – browse to
the folder you exported the PNGs to and select Ctrl+A then to insert/import the PNG files
then click Create.
6. Review the newly created slides removing extra transitions/slide duplicates.
7. To reduce the file size click on a picture/image in the presentation then select ‘Picture Tools’ from
the menu options then click on ‘Compress Pictures’. Under options select 96ppi and delete
cropped areas.
8. After compressing – save and close, then upload the PPT to the Connect content folder or Connect
meeting room.

Using a video conversion application such as Flash Video Encoder convert the video(s) from .MOV to
.FLV. Upload the files to the Acrobat Connect content folder or Connect meeting room.

Posted by David Slater at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

An entry from Jason Parker, one of our internal Connect Pro seminar gurus...

How many of us have been distracted while watching a demonstration or sharing our screens by a little message pop-up (also known as a toast).

There is an easy way to disable this occasional nuisance. Select Pod options for the Chat pod and click on Disable Chat Notifications.

IMPORTANT: This setting will need to be selected for each person sharing/presenting as this setting is per Chat pod and on the individual (local) machine(s).

If you are using multiple Chat pods you will need to adjust this preference for each pod. If you are using the Q&A pod linked to the Chat pod it works the same, however you need to select the Disable Chat Notifications option before linking. If you forgot to disable notifications you can unlink (Pod options on the Q&A pod) select the disable option and re-link without loosing your Q&A Chat history.

Posted by David Slater at 10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And once again... yet another posting from one of our internal Connect experts here at Adobe..Ryan Monger from our conferencing services group...

One of the most powerful features in Acrobat Connect is the ability to create different layouts in your meeting rooms. We all know that you can prepare as much as possible for a meeting/eSeminar, but inevitably, there are always changes that occur during the meeting.

This brings us to the awesome feature that is "prepare mode". This feature allows a host to go behind the scenes and add or change layouts. For example, did you need to add a note to your current layout but don't want to disturb the meeting in progress? Go into prepare mode, make a copy of the current layout, and then add a new note pod to the desired location. When you are finished, exit prepare mode and switch to the new layout. Because you copied the current layout, whatever is being shared (ie - another presenter's screen share or a ppt) will be cloned in the new layout, and your note will "magically" appear. I use this all the time to add information to layout when I don't want to distract the participants.

There are two easy ways to enter into prepare mode. First, you can click on the Prepare mode button, which is located on the layout bar underneath the stage. It's the first one and it looks like a ruler. Or, you can go to Meeting>Prepare mode. Once you are in prepare mode, an icon with a pop up will appear in the upper right corner of your screen. The current layout will be slightly gray, and you won't be able to make changes to anything in the presenter only area.

Another great trick with the prepare mode is to turn on/off a voice/camera pod that is hidden underneath another pod. Instead of moving the overlaying pod to start the voice/camera pod, go into prepare mode and move to the next layout. In the next layout, move the pod covering the camera voice and then start your voice/camera. This is a magic trick I use for all the eSeminars I produce. Be sure to have a voice/camera pod in each layout or your voice/camera will be unshared when you switch to a layout without one.

One last advanced trick that I use with prepare mode is to stage multiple screen shares from multiple presenters. For example, we have a quarterly employee meeting that we also broadcast over Acrobat Connect. Because this is a live meeting in front of a large in house audience, it is often cumbersome to have each presenter share their screen when it is their turn to demo. To make the transitions between demos go smoother, I have all the presenters login before the meeting as hosts. I have each of them enter into prepare mode and switch to their preset layout. Then I have them share their desktop. Because they are in prepare mode, their shared desktop is "staged" until the producer makes that layout active for all participants. You can stage multiple presenters at once, with each presenter in a different layout. As soon as the producer switches layouts, the previous desktop share is deactivated. The best part about this trick is that it is transparent to the audience.

What do you use the prepare mode for? Use your imagination!

Posted by David Slater at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Here's a posting from one of our most active internal Connect pros here at Adobe..Ryan Monger from our conferencing services group...

When I first started working with Acrobat Connect Professional (formerly Breeze Meeting) I was blown away by the ability to dynamically create different layouts during a meeting. This feature is powerful because it not only allows you to stage content in different layouts, but it also puts a marker in the recording when the layout gets changed. This allows me to create a "Table of Contents" for a recording when I have multiple presentations and content. For example, our eSeminars consist of multiple layouts: Lobby, Intro Polls, Presentation, Demo, Exit Polls, and Q&A. Instead of being constrained to one layout, I am able to prepare a layout depending on the content or pods I am trying to share.

Creating layouts is easy. Either click on the "Plus" sign at then end of your listed layouts, or go to Layout>New Layout... You will be given an option to create a new blank layout, or duplicate an existing one. The feature I use the most is the "Duplicate the selected layout". Obviously, duplicating a layout will copy everything from the previous layout, but more importantly, it also copies the content in the previous layout. I can have multiple layouts with the same set of slides but change the size and position of the pods on new layouts. This way, every time the slide changes in the original layout, it also changes in the copied layouts.

Another great way to use the duplicate layout feature is to make changes to a layout but still have a backup incase you didn't like the changes you made.

-RM

Posted by David Slater at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Amy Brooks, manager of Adobe Connect Event Services, provides the following guidelines for ensuring a successful presentation experience:

Internet Connection/Audio: 

1. Directly connect to the fastest internet connection available
2. No wireless, no exceptions!  Wireless connections frequently disconnect, so in order to ensure no interuptions, use a hard-wired connection.
3. Shut down Email/IM and any programs NOT being used for the presentation.
4. Shut down any VPNs.
5. If using a telephone for audio, use a handset or quality headset, no speakerphone as it will cause voice fluctuations and background audio will be picked up during the recording.

Presentation:

1. Have programs that you are screen sharing open to the appropriate window and ready to demonstrate - avoid launching and logging into programs.
2. Turn off computer "sleep" especially if a re-log in is required.
3. Optimize room bandwidth to DSL, regardless of your setting -
   1. In a Acrobat Connect Meeting, at the top of the screen click on MEETING/Optimize Room Bandwidth/DSL
4. Room screen resolution recommendation = 1024 x768. Please note if you are using a very large screen, the optimum settings may be 800 x 600. It's best to experiment prior to the actual meeting.
   1. In a Acrobat Connect Meeting, at the top of the screen click on MEETING/Room Screen Resolution/1024x768
5. Optical Moderation - Avoid quickly moving cursor's, polls, windows, anything viewable to participants. This could be a poor experience for some of your participants who may be on really slow connections and/or computers.
6. Pre-load and rehearse your presentation! Make sure that all animations, videos, and screen shares are working as you anticipate PRIOR to your live meeting.
7. Have FUN!! Remember, your audience is live and they will enjoy a lively and fun presentation.

Have other tips?  Please provide comments so that we can share with other users.

Posted by Michael Fitzpatrick Jr at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)