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Teleconference details

Agenda

Discuss the new idea about PowerPoint presentation

Subject: New PowerPoint

Hadi,

(sorry for the length of the email)
Our intention with the new PowerPoint development is to make it extremely
simple to do, and at the same time make it even more accessible.
From a moderator standpoint, it would look something like this:

The moderator clicks a button in the client and browses to find the
PowerPoint presentation and then clicks Open.
Within a few seconds, the presentation will be displayed in the browser
section of the room (browser is actually removed and replaced by the
presentation).
Within seconds, all participants will be seeing the same presentation as
well.
The presentation is actual PowerPoint and has the same functionality as a
normal PowerPoint, including the drawing utility.
This is actually utilizing Desktop sharing to display the presentation, so
any animations will be seen by sighted users.
In addition, blind users may choose to receive the presentation in
accessible format. This format will be basically a read only text box
containing the text of the PowerPoint slide as well as descriptions of any
images in the PowerPoint (provided they used the alt tags in PowerPoint).

Finally, the recording will record static images of the PowerPoint
presentation that is presented, so no animations will show in the
recordings, but all slides will get displayed. The recording will also
contain all the slides in text format. This should be able to be read with
the most recent version of JAWS. If necessary, we can also provide a kind of
transcript of all slides that a blind user listening to a recording could
simply arrow down through.

So that is the plan. It will actually eliminate the need for the document
center (which sometimes causes issues) and eliminate the need to pre-upload
a presentation. However, it will mean that whoever is presenting needs to
have the presentation on their machine locally and have PowerPoint
installed.

We don’t intend to actually discontinue the document center unless we find
down the road that it is no longer being used.

Also, for those on a Mac, it would mean that we need to have the ability to
view desktop. This is being developed as we speak, so I am not too concerned
on that. However, I don’t know yet exactly what it would mean with Mac users
who want to be presenters. On this end, if you have potential Mac
presenters, we are looking to try and find out exactly what a Mac user uses
to present. Do they use Office PowerPoint on their Mac? Do they use Open
Office? Something else? This would help us figure out the best route for Mac
moderator features.

So that’s it. If you have any questions or comments or especially
suggestions on how we might make the experience better for both ends, please
let me know. I am hoping to wrap up the specs of this development in a week
and begin developing immediately.

—End of forwarded e-mail

Hi Steve,

It is definitely an interesting idea. Here’s my initial feedback:

Benefit to moderator/end-users:
1. Users can enjoy the full power of PowerPoint presentation.
2. A quick way for application sharing.
3. Moderator doesn’t have to go through sometimes cumbersome Document Center
to load the presentation.

questions/concerns:
1. Where the moderator will be controlling the presentation? From the
powerPoint program in Presentation mode or from TC specific window/dialogue
box?
2. Can the moderator use the function for presenting other types of files
such as HTML, Excel, image, or MS Word files?
3. I am not sure about the quality and accuracy of the built-in PPT to Text
function? How well has it been tested? How does it convert tables into HTML?
What does it do with the animation? How if there are embedded audio/video?
What does it do with captions?
4. How an end-user can choose which mode of the presentation to see? Does he
have to set in the TC preference or he needs to choose upon application
sharing startup?
5. I have problem with the way you are proposing for recording. Recording
means recording and everyone expects to see the presentation as close as the
live session. I think recording should have both graphical and textual mode
of the presentation. I can envision that user toggles between graphical and
textual playback mode; the same way he can do during the live session.

Minutes

Coming soon!