Participating in Web Discussions
PowerPoint's online collaboration capabilities don't stop with presentation broadcasts and online meetings. You can also access Office 2000's new Web-based discussion forums from PowerPoint (as you can with all the other Office applications).
These forums work like an Internet newsgroup (you may have used one before), and enable you to carry on a discussion with co-workers without all of you having to be present at the same time. Presentation broadcasts and online meetings work in real-time. Web forums aren't real-time; they're there whenever you have a chance to check in to see what's new. It's handy to have the choice between the two approaches.
Starting a Web Discussion
To start a new Web discussion (or access a previously created one), choose Tools, Online Collaboration, Web Discussions. The first time you run the command, you'll see the Add or Edit Discussion Servers window (see Figure 17.30), which asks you for the name of your discussion server.
Note
A discussion server is something your network administrator has to set up ahead of time. It's a Web server with special software, called the Office Server Extensions, installed on it.
Type in the server name your network administrator has provided into the top box of this window and, if you want, an easy-to-remember name into the bottom box of the window. Then choose OK to finish this step.
You'll then see PowerPoint's Discussion Options window (see Figure 17.31). Here you can add, edit, or remove Office discussion servers, as well as decide which fields you'd like to see displayed on the discussion server. The default settings are fine, so you can just choose OK to see the server.
Figure 17.30. You need to type in the server name and, if you want, an easy-to-remember friendly name of your Office discussion server to access a Web discussion.
Figure 17.31. You can add new discussion servers here, as well as configure what kind of information you'll see displayed on them.
When the Discussion Options window goes away, it may look as though nothing's happened, but if you look closely, you'll see PowerPoint's Web Discussions toolbar has appeared on your screen (look for it at the bottom of your screen). I've dragged it out onto my presentation (see Figure 17.32) so it's easier to see.
Figure 17.32. The Web Discussions toolbar enables you to add comments to a Web discussion or to be notified by email whenever new comments are added by someone else.
Adding Comments to a Web Discussion
Insert a comment into the discussions database by selecting Discussions, Insert About the Presentation. You'll see the Enter Discussion Text window, which enables you to enter a comment about the presentation. You'll see your comment show up at the bottom of your screen (see Figure 17.33).
The point of Web discussions is that anyone else who opens up the presentation will also be able to see your comment and reply to it. If you want to reply to someone else's comment, you can do so by clicking the little yellow notepaper icon at the end of each comment and choosing Reply.
Figure 17.33. You can enter your own Web discussion comments or reply to other comments by clicking the Insert Discussion About the Presentation button on the Web Discussions toolbar.
Caution
Web discussion comments are indexed using the exact name of the file you have open. If the file is later moved or renamed, or if you open the file locally from your hard drive and others get at it through a network connection, you won't see the same comments. It's best to put any presentations you want to discuss using Web discussions on a network server and then leave them there.
The Subscribe command on the Web Discussions toolbar is the other big part of Web discussions. When you choose it, you'll see the Document Subscription window come up (see Figure 17.34). Here you can tell the Office Discussion Server you'd like to be notified by email when this document changes or when someone else adds a comment to the discussion database. You can also choose to be notified either right away or less often, such as once a day or once a week.
Figure 17.34. You don't have to manually check to see if anyone has added a comment to your presentation. The Document Subscription window enables you to configure the Office Discussion Server to notify you automatically when a change occurs.
Tip
You don't have to start PowerPoint to view a Web discussion, although it's the most convenient way. You can also start up a Web browser (you need to use Internet Explorer 3.0 or Netscape Navigator 3.0 or later) and go to the Web site http://discussion_server/msoffice (where "discussion_server" is the name of your Office Discussion Server) to see comments made on any presentation (see Figure 17.35). When you get to the start page, enter the full network location of the presentation you want to load up, and choose Go.
Figure 17.35. You can use a Web browser to see a Web discussion in progress. You can also add, edit, and delete comments the same as you can from within PowerPoint.
