Windows XP Hacks [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

Hack 78 Going Beyond Messaging with Windows Messenger

Share a common whiteboard where you can
collaborate on work in real-time over the Internet, and get alerts
delivered to your desktop with Microsoft's instant
messaging tool.

Windows
Messenger can do far more than
merely let you chat with other people. Hidden inside it are powerful
collaboration tools for working with others over the Internet, as
well as the ability to get automated alerts delivered to your
desktop.

Don't confuse the instant messaging program Windows Messenger with the XP Messenger Service, which is used to send notifications over local area networksfor example, when a network administrator wants to notify network users that a server is about to go down. They're completely separate programs with different purposes. The XP Messenger Service has been used by spammers as a backdoor way of sending spam pop ups. To see how to turn the XP Messenger Service off so you don't get spam, see [Hack #33].

8.7.1 Using .NET Alerts with Messenger

One of Windows
Messenger's more useful features is its ability to
deliver to you a variety of alerts called .NET
alertsmessages, reports, or bulletins, such
as weather reports, stock quotes, breaking news, and traffic reports.
I'm a news junkie, and, where I live in New England,
weather-watching is considered a contact sport (if you
don't believe me, try making your way through a
February Nor'easter with your body intact). So, I
use .NET alerts to stay on top of breaking events and get the latest
bad news about the weather. Here's how I do it.

First, sign up for alerts by clicking on the
Alerts tab (the one that looks like a bell). If for some reason
Messenger doesn't show
you any tabs, choose Tools Show Tabs Microsoft
.NET Alerts. You'll be prompted to sign up for an
Alert provider, as shown in Figure 8-15.

Figure 8-15. Signing up for .NET alerts

Next, you'll be sent to a web page where you can
choose from a variety of alerts. Choose the alert you want, and fill
out the form. The form for each alert is different and requires
different information and different steps. In my instance, I signed
up for MSNBC News to get its breaking news, and Weather.com alerts
for the weather. I'm an eBay fan, so I signed up for
alerts that will track auctions I'm interested in.
And, like any long-suffering Bostonian with a taste for the tragic,
I'm a Red Sox fan, so I also sign up for ESPN.com.

When you're
done adding alerts, use the navigation on
the web page to go to your My Alerts page, shown in
Figure 8-16. From here you can edit, manage, add and
delete alerts.

Figure 8-16. Managing all your alerts from your My Alerts page

Alerts will now be delivered to you on
the schedule that you chose. They'll appear as a
small window near the Notification area, as shown in Figure 8-17. As you can see, it's another
lovely day in Cambridge, with a high reaching all the way up to a
stratospheric reading of 30 degrees. To read the full alert, click on
it and you'll be sent to a web page with the full
alert.

Figure 8-17. Alerts appearing as small windows near the Notification area

If you want to read all your recent alerts, click on the Alerts tab.
You'll be able to view them by date or alert
provider.

8.7.2 Collaborate Long-Distance with the Whiteboard

Chat
windows are fine for simple communication, but when
you're working with others at long distance, very
often you need more collaboration than that. In particular, you might
want to share

drawings,
images, and text. You can do that using the
whiteboard, a tool that lets you collaborate in
real time over the Internet or a network with other Windows Messenger
users. It's a drawing program, similar to Microsoft
Paint, that allows you to share drawings, diagrams, images, and text.
The same whiteboard appears on the systems of both participants, and
each person can draw, annotate, and mark up the whiteboard in any way
they want. The other participant sees the markup, in real time, and
can in turn mark it up as well.

To start a
whiteboard with
someone, double-click on their contact name and click on the Start
Whiteboard link on the right side of the Messenger conversation
screen. An invitation goes out to the contact, and, if he agrees, a
small Sharing Session windows appears, as shown in Figure 8-18.

Figure 8-18. Launching a whiteboard session

Click on the Whiteboard button, and the whiteboard appears. You can
both now use the markup tools. They're largely
self-explanatory and work like Windows Paint or another graphics
program. You can see the whiteboard in action in Figure 8-19. Make sure, though, to use the remote pointer,
a small hand that you can drag around the screen that helps you
better highlight what you're currently working on
together. If you look closely at Figure 8-19, you
can see it.

Figure 8-19. The whiteboard in action

The buttons along the lower right of the screen let you create new
pages and navigate among those pages. When you create a new page and
navigate among pages, the other participant comes along with you to
those pages. Additionally, there are four buttons in the left part of
the whiteboard that serve special purposes:

Lock Contents

When you click this button, it locks
the whiteboard and prevents anyone else from making changes to it. To
unlock the contents, click the button again.

Unsynchronize

When you click this button, you can
jump to another page or create another page, and
you'll do that privately; for the purposes of
creating and navigating among pages, you're not
synchronized with the other participant. When you click on the button
again, other participants' whiteboards will switch
to the page you're viewing.

Select Window

Click on this button, and then
the next window you click on anywhere in XP or any application will
automatically be pasted into the whiteboard.

Select Area

Click on this button, and
you'll be able to select an area anywhere in XP or
an XP application and paste it into the whiteboard.

When you're done
using the whiteboard, click on the Close button in the Sharing
Session window. You'll be given the option of saving
the whiteboard. If you save it, it will be saved in its own
proprietary format (as an .nmw file). To view
that whiteboard again, double-click on it in Windows
Explorer.

8.7.3 Share Applications with Messenger

The whiteboard is useful for basic
collaboration, but an even more powerful tool is
Messenger's application sharing. It allows two
people to work in the same application on the same document. Whatever
is on your screen appears on the other person's
screen, and the two of you can work on the document together.
I've found it to be ideal for collaborating on
spreadsheetsit's easy to share
"what-if" scenarios this way.

To start a whiteboard with someone, double-click on the contact name
and click on the Start Whiteboard link on the right side of the
Messenger conversation screen. An invitation goes out to the contact,
and, if he agrees, a small Sharing Session windows appears, as shown
previously in Figure 8-18. Once he agrees, click on
App Sharing, and you'll be able to choose which file
and application to share, as shown in Figure 8-20.
You can share only programs and files that are already open on your
PC.

Figure 8-20. Choosing an application or applications to share

Click on one or more programs and click Share; the applications open
in a window on the other person's computer. You have
full control over the application; they can only watch what you do.
In that sense, it's not full collaboration. If you
want the other person to also be able to control the document, click
on the Allow Control button; they will be able to work on the
application and document after they request your permission. Only one
person at a time can control the document; you can pass control over
it back and forth.