Note If you want to use Conference to make and receive voice calls, your computer must include a sound card, microphone, and speakers or headphones. However, you don't need these features in order to use Conference to communicate with a remote colleague.
Note If you need to change your Conference preferences later, choose Preferences from the Call menu in Conference. (If you later add a new sound card or make other changes to your computer, rerun the Setup Wizard by choosing Setup Wizard from the Help menu.)
Getting started (Macintosh and Unix)
Before you can use Conference for the first time, Communicator asks you for some information so it can set up your Conference preferences.
Note If you want to use Conference to make and receive voice calls, your computer must include a microphone and speakers or headphones. However, you don't need these features in order to use Conference to communicate with your colleague remotely.
Note If you need to change your Conference preferences later, choose Preferences from the Call menu in Conference.
Note In order to receive Conference calls, your remote colleague must have the Netscape Conference window open or hidden as a desktop icon. See "Receiving a call" for more information.
Finding someone for a conference
To call your remote colleague, all you need is that person's email address. If you don't know or don't remember the email address, you can look for it in Communicator's address book or you can use Conference's Web Phonebook.
Calling from Communicator's address book
Tip
Once you begin talking, it's a good idea to use the Chat tool to ask the
other person if they can hear you.
Note This feature is only available for Windows 95 and Unix versions.
If the person you are calling is not available, Conference asks you if you want to leave a voicemail message. Conference sends the voicemail message as an attachment to an email message.
You can also send a voice mail message at any time by choosing Voice Mail from Conference's Communicator menu.
Receiving a call
Conference must be running in order to receive calls.
To receive a call:
Tip
(Windows) To hide the Conference window and still listen for incoming calls,
choose Hide Window from the Call menu. A conference attendant icon appears
in your task bar tray. Double-click it to display the Conference window.
(Macintosh) To hide the Conference window and still listen for incoming calls,
choose Hide Netscape Conference from the Finder's Application menu.
(Unix) To hide the Conference window and still listen for incoming calls,
minimize the Conference window.
ImportantIf you have chosen Auto Answer and you're using the Whiteboard while not participating in a Conference session, it's a good idea to save your Whiteboard edits often. Otherwise, an incoming call might cause you to lose your unsaved Whiteboard edits.
Note Collaborative browsing provides limited support for web pages that contain frames. The person in control of the browsing session sees all the frames the page contains, but the person who's not controlling the session only sees the page's active frame.
Editing an image together
Using Conference's shared Whiteboard, you and your remote colleague can look at, mark up, or make changes to the same image using a set of drawing, zoom, and markup tools. You can then print your marked-up images or save them for future use. The images you work on can be ones that you've created or captured on your computer, copied from a web site, received as a fax or as an attachment in an email message, or scanned in from a printed page. You can also create new images directly on the Whiteboard.
Using an image stored on your computer
Windows and
Macintosh users
You can drag a file from a folder on your desktop and drop it into the "Files to
send" window.
Note Although you don't need to enter all the information in the business card, you must enter your name and email address in order to use Conference.