SunForum Whiteboard

The Whiteboard enables you to exchange ideas and graphics with other conference participants. It is fully compatible with the NetMeeting Whiteboard, allowing you to use a complete range of drawing tools and page manipulation functions.


Drawing graphical objects
Creating and editing text objects
Moving and deleting graphical objects
Highlighting text and images
Importing and exporting graphics
Using the remote pointer
Using the "rubber stamps"
Copying graphics to the clipboard
Identifing all users
Accessing rarely used options
Navigating and organizing pages
Adding a new page
"Zooming" the whiteboard
Stopping others from making changes to the whiteboard contents
Saving and loading the whiteboard contents to disk
Printing the whiteboard contents

Drawing Graphical Objects

To draw graphical objects in the whiteboard, first select the tool type by clicking one of the following buttons on the toolbar:

Freehand pen
Straight line
Rectangle
Filled rectangle
Circle
Filled circle

(These tools can also be selected on the Tools menu.)

Set the pen color and line thickness using the option buttons at the bottom and left of the drawing area, then draw the object by clicking and dragging the mouse. Releasing the mouse button adds the object to the whiteboard, where it will be seen by all other conference participants.

Creating and Editing Text Objects

To work with text objects, click the text tool button or select Text from the Tools menu.

To create a text object:

Click on the place in the drawing area where you want to add some text.
Type in the text of the message into the text entry dialog, and press OK.

To edit a text object:

Click on the text object you wish to edit.
Edit the text of the message in the text entry dialog, and press OK.

The color and font can be changed with the option buttons at the bottom of the drawing area.

Moving and Deleting Graphical Objects

To move or delete a graphic in the whiteboard, first click on the selector tool button (or select Selector from the Tools menu), then click on the graphic you wish to move/delete. If the graphic is hidden under another graphic, click again until the desired graphic is selected (indicated by the dashed outline).

To move the graphic, drag it to its new position with the mouse.

To delete the graphic, select Delete on the Edit menu or press the Delete key. If you delete an object by mistake, you can retrieve it by selecting Undelete on the Edit menu.

Highlighting Text and Images

To highlight areas of the whiteboard, click the highlight tool button (or select Highlighter from the Tools menu), then draw the area to highlight using the mouse.

Note that the highlighted colors may not appear exactly the same on each system in the conference, especially where the X servers are using different visual types.

Capturing an Area of the Screen

To capture the contents of a window as an image to the whiteboard, click the capture window button or select Capture Window from the Tools menu. The whiteboard window is hidden. Select the window to capture simply by clicking on it.
To capture an area of the desktop (not necessarily a whole window), click the capture area button or select Capture Area from the Tools menu. The whiteboard window is hidden. Click and drag the mouse to select the area to capture.

Importing and Exporting Graphics

To import an image from a file, select Import from the File menu. In the Import dialog, specify the file to import and click OK. The image will be added to the current page.

To export the current page to a graphics file, select Export from the file menu. In the Export dialog, specify the name of the file to export to, and the desired image format and click OK. The contents of the current page will be written to the file.

Using the Remote Pointer

Click the remote pointer button, or choose Remote Pointer on the Tools menu, to show or hide your remote pointer. This is a colored pointing hand which everyone in the call can see. When you have the Select tool enabled, you can click on the pointer and drag it around, so that you can point out areas of interest on the page.

Using Rubber Stamps

Click the rubber stamps button, and a sub-window will provide a number of images to "stamp" on the whiteboard. These are user configurable. SunForum enables you to use bitmap files (such as GIF) in user defined locations.

Copying Graphics to the Clipboard

You can transfer graphics to and from the X system clipboard in two ways.

Quick method for text: Select the text in the Whiteboard or another source window such as a Terminal. Use the middle mouse button to paste the text selections to the Whiteboard or another window.
Using the Cut/Copy/Paste commands on the Edit menu. These transfer objects via the system clipboard and allow graphics to be pasted back into the whiteboard, possibly to a different page, with their original formatting, or to other programs as pixmaps (or text in the case of text objects). To cut or copy an object, first select the object then choose the Cut or Copy command from the Edit menu. To paste an object into the Whiteboard, simply select Paste from the Edit menu: the object appears on the current page.

Participant Window

Click the "users" button, and a sub-window will appear. In this window, you will be provided the name of every whiteboard participant. You will also see their assigned pointer color and current pen/highlighter colors.

Options Window

Click the "options" button, and a new sub-window will appear. All of the non-essential whiteboard options are available from this window. Users can alter:
Text: Change size, style, font.
Pen: Change width and choose from 36 colors.
Highlighter: Change width and choose from 8 colors.

Navigating and Organizing Pages

To move between existing pages, use one of the following buttons:

Move to the first page.
Move back one page.
Move forward one page.
Move to the last page.

To move to a specific page number, choose Go to Page from the Edit menu. Enter the page number in the dialog and select OK.

You can remove all graphics on the current page by selecting Clear Page from the Edit menu.

You can delete the current page by selecting Delete Page from the Edit menu.

To change the page order, select Move Page from the Edit menu. You are then presented with a submenu: select Back to move the current page before the previous page, or Forward to move the current page after the next page.

Adding a New Page

Press new page button to insert a page after the current page.

The Insert Page item on the Edit menu also allows you to add a page, but additionally enables you to specify whether the page should be added before or after the current page.

"Zooming" the Whiteboard

Use the Zoom button (or select Zoom from the Tools menu) to change the magnification at which you view the whiteboard contents.

Locking the Whiteboard

Pressing the Lock button (or selecting Lock from the Tools menu) requests the whiteboard lock. After a short delay, either you will have successfully got the lock (in which case the lock button will be shown in the "down" position), or you will be notified that the lock could not be obtained because another user already has the lock or is in the middle of an operation which cannot be interrupted.

When you have the lock, no one else in the call can make any changes to the whiteboard contents. Similarly, when someone else has the lock, all the drawing functions are disabled. To release the lock, simply click the lock button a second time.

Saving and Loading the Whiteboard Contents to Disk

Pressing the Open File button will bring up a subwindow. This will query for a whiteboard file to be opened.

Pressing the Save File button will also bring up a subwindow. This will query for a name to assign a saved whiteboard file.

Or you can choose to Open or Save from the File menu to load or save the whiteboard contents.
The SunForum whiteboard format is compatible with the Microsoft NetMeeting whiteboard, therefore, SunForum Whiteboard can read files created by a NetMeeting Whiteboard and NetMeeting Whiteboard can read files created by a SunForum Whiteboard.

Printing the Whiteboard Contents

Pressing the Print button, or selecting Print from the File menu will print the whiteboard contents. In the print window, specify the printer or file name to print to, and which pages you want to print.

Note: The printer name must specify a valid printer device. SunForum allows you to also specify a networked printer name.


Copyright 1997 - 1998 Data Connection Ltd.

Copyright 1998 Sun Microsystems, Inc