One of the things I hear comment on from time to time is that the share pod in Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro just lists things and holds onto stuff. Well that’s true. It’s actually a great feature that most of us take for granted in that we can upload a ppt file, an image, some flash paper content or a custom pod and whether we return tomorrow, next week or next month the content is still there. Unless you implicitly delete it off the server or remove the content using the “Organize pods” feature under the pods menu to delete the content there.
That is really what I am going talk about here. That fun little menu choice “Organize pods” located under the Pods menu in the main UI of your Connect meeting room. Here you can not only “Delete” content, “Select Unused” content but “Rename” content and renaming things can help Hosts and Presenters alike in a meeting room. By default content you have loaded in the share pod is listed in alphabetical order but often I (and more often than not someone using my room or co-presenting with me) want to have things displayed in a logical order that matches the presentation I have outlined on paper or the order in which I have the content and presentation ordered in my mind.
I have found the best way is to go into the “Organize pods” dialog box, select the content, select “Rename” and add a #1 or #2 and so on to the front of the content items; especially useful if your PowerPoint files have similar names of titles or if you have multiple presenter or speakers. This forces the numbered ppt files to appear at the top of the list in the Share pod when you load them using the “What do you want to share? – Documents” accordion menu. I also tend to put a blank space, or two, in front of any file that I use in the share pod that might serve as the first item, welcome slide or such item that needs to be the first thing attendees see when they enter that layout. This is especially useful when someone else in using the room and making the same or similar presentation or if you have a newbie whose comfort level with Connect is not as high as yours.
So simple yet and yet so easy a way to keep your content, your presenter’s content and all the various files you upload into the share pod organized. So don’t just upload “stuff” and have it listed there take a few seconds and put some order to the material. It may save you minutes down the road and make all your meetings all the better.
There’s a helpful discussion on managing secure web conferencing with Acrobat Connect Pro available on the connectusers.com site available here:
Topic of the Month, April 09, Secure and Scalable Web Conferencing – Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro User Community
From the site: “With an ever growing list of security standards and compliance initiatives that IT applications must adhere to, deciding exactly how to set up your Connect Pro account can be a confusing. Similarly, as your implementation grows so do the demands on providing a platform that is going to scale with increased usage. This month we’ve decided to focus on helping Connect Pro administrators configure your deployments to best meet these increasing demands and provide tips and tricks for end users on managing meeting security.”
I’ve had the opportunity to work with Peter Ryce for over six years. During that time, I’ve seen him do more incredible things with Acrobat Connect Pro than I can possibly count, but until yesterday, I had never seen him in a suit… I hope this doesn’t rattle the Acrobat Connect Pro community to much! 
I am very excited to announce a new member of the ConnectSolutions family today! Cyrus Mirakhor has over 12 years experience in real-time web communication technology and IP based video communications, and joins the company to work directly with our customers and partners to ensure their success with ConnectSolutions platform and technology.
Prior to working with ConnectSolutions, Cyrus was a Collaborations Architect where he managed on number of installations of Adobe Connect Pro for the NIH (National Institutes of Health), DISA (Defense Information Systems Agency), RAND Corporation, General Dynamics, and the DOE (Department of Energy). A specialist in streaming media and video teleconferencing networks, Cyrus designed and integrated video communication networks for the NIH, NARA (National Archives and Records Administration), and the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission). His career in the IP based communication arena started in 1998 when he was put in charge of integrating the NIH’s first PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) for the Clinical Centers Department of Radiology. Cyrus holds a bachelors degree from George Mason University, Masters Certification from George Washington University, and currently resides in Los Angeles.
Welcome Cyrus!
ConnectSolutions has produced a few tools over the past two years that come in handy for regular users of Connect Pro. All of these are completely free, and we hope you enjoy:
MeetingPulse - Real-time Metrics on your Desktop
MeetingPulse: A desktop application providing easy access to your Connect Pro meetings, reports, and notifications (toasts) when users enter any of your meeting rooms
ConnectMonitor: A desktop application that pings your server using a specific monitoring point to verify all is well.
QuickMeeting: A pleasant beginning to every meeting! See a tutorial on connectusers.com available here.
Looking for something else? Have a great idea, but don’t know much about how to make it work with Connect Pro? Drop us a line in the comments and we’ll follow-up!
