Web sharing, or screen sharing, is appropriate when it’s more important for people to see documents, videos, or other kinds of files than it is for them to see each other’s faces or surroundings. Here are a few specific examples:

• Delivering PowerPoint or Prezi presentations to remote colleagues
• Sharing spreadsheet data
• Showing videos
• Editing or marking up documents or graphics

Usually, screen sharing happens in conjunction with an audio call. In environments like Google Hangouts or Amazon Chime, where it’s easy to switch from a video feed to a screen share and where you can have audio, video, and screen sharing going on simultaneously, but this does take some practice.

To share your screen and talk about it at the same time, you can establish a separate dial-in number for the call and log in for the screensharing on a site such as Join.Me, WebEx, or GoToMeeting. You can also use the audio function that comes with those sites; the benefit of doing this is having a single login. However, the potential drawback is that the VOIP signal can, on occasion, get choppy if the Wi-Fi___33 network is overloaded.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting a web sharing call can involve any of the audio issues we’ve already discussed. In addition, the following solutions may be helpful:

• If someone has not downloaded the app but is joining the meeting through the host platform’s website, they should be aware that not all sites work with all browsers, and some are fully functional only with the app.
• If you are the presenter or host, have the files you’ll be talking about ready to attach to an email and send just in case you can’t get the web sharing to work for one or more people.
  • If this happens, remind them to stay on the audio part of the call.
  • Add the slide number or page number to your navigation language since they will be advancing the slides or pages themselves.