Lync Team Blog

Staying Active

2012-01-25T06:22:00Z

Dear Mr. Presence,

Microsoft Lync has a great status note that I can set to let others know about my status. Often times, though, I just want to know what is going on with others in my team. Is there a way to view everyone’s note, with the most recent first?

-Actively Engaged

Dear Actively Engaged,

You are in luck! With Lync 2010 you can view the notes of all the Contacts in your Lync Contacts List sorted chronologically. Just click on the Activity Feed Environment button.

The Activity Feed Tab

The Activity Feed

You will then see a list of all the Personal Status Notes, Out of Office Messages as well as changes to Photo, Office Location and Title (based on Active Directory). This information will help you keep up with what your colleagues are doing in their professional lives.

Depending on how your system administrator has configured Lync Server, it is possible that the Activity feed could be entirely absent. Also, the number of Personal Status Notes that are kept and displayed can vary based on administrative settings.

If you don’t want any information other than your current Personal Status Note and current Out of Office message to appear in the Activity Feed, you can always opt-out via the Lync options dialog.

Opt-out of the Activity Feed

-Mr. Presence

Welcome to the New Lync Team Blog!

2011-05-04T22:11:00Z

We have found our new home on TechNet! This blog is still your source for great information on all Lync Client products directly from the Lync Client engineering team. All the articles that were hosted on our old blog site have been migrated over so you can find and reference that content. Expect new articles on Lync 2010 to be forthcoming soon!

IM an Expert

2011-03-23T18:31:00Z

Are there experts in your enterprise that would like to share their knowledge? Do you find yourself trying to find the right person to answer a particular question?

IM an Expert for Lync Server 2010 can help connect experts in an organization with those seeking their advice. Unlike forums, distribution lists or other existing methods, IM an Expert can provide almost immediate assistance by searching for available experts and using IM to contact them.

Interested? More information is below.

-----------------------------------------------

IM an Expert for Lync Server 2010 is an instant messaging question and answer service that you can set up within your organization. With the IM an Expert service, you can use Microsoft Lync or the IM an Expert Welcome page to submit a text question to the service. The IM an Expert service will locate an expert for you within your company and initiate an IM session between you and an expert. Answers are recorded and can be made available for later reference. You can specify your privacy and question preferences on the IM an Expert Website. IM an Expert is based on UCMA 3.0 and at a high-level, consist of a BOT, a Web Site, and SQL database.

Download IM an Expert

IM an Expert Documentation

“Connect while Roaming” Feature in Communicator Mobile (CoMo) for Nokia

2010-12-22T19:34:00Z

Data overage occurs when the user’s cellular network download data goes over the limits of the subscribed cellular data plan, and subsequently user incurs charges beyond the set tariff. Although data overage may happen in home network, the chances for it are heightened while in roaming network. The Connect while Roaming (CWR) feature in CoMo for Nokia has been devised to avoid incurring data overage while in roaming network. To turn ‘on’ or ‘off’ the roaming settings, go to Options in the CoMo screen, select OptionsàSettingsàset “Connect While Roaming” as Yes/No as shown below.

If CWR is configured as ‘Yes’, the user will be able to use the roaming cellular network with charges defined as per the subscribed data plan. If CWR is configured as ‘No’, the device will overlook the roaming cellular network and will not connect to other types of network that are available. There is a known limitation around CWR setting. In a roaming network if CWR is set as 'No' then user would not be able to sign-in even with the Wi-Fi data network. Instead, Como for Nokia prompts the user to turn on the roaming settings as shown below.

In this scenario, the most obvious solution would be to turn on the roaming settings by configuring CWR as ‘Yes’. But, when they move out of the Wi-Fi network, the device would automatically switch to the roaming cellular network to continue using the CoMo for Nokia resulting in possible data overage. The alternative solution, and a better one, is to create another network destination with Wi-Fi as the sole network connection, and assign that network destination connect as CoMo for Nokia’s network connection and turn on the roaming settings in Settings window as shown below.

With the CoMo for Nokia network connection setting being assigned to the network destination that contains only Wi-Fi network, though the device will detect roaming, it will still connect only to the Wi-Fi network and not to roaming cellular network.

Do you have a comment to share or question? Feel free to leave a comment below.

The new and improved Contact List

2010-11-19T09:10:00Z

Introducing the new and improved Contact List

The contact list is one of the most important components of the Lync experience. In the latest version of Lync, we have made a bunch of enhancements to the contact list to help you stay connected your contacts. One of the first things you’ll notice after installing Microsoft Lync is the photos in the contact list! Photo is one of the many things we added to the contact list to improve the contacts experience. In this blog article, I’m going to touch on a few things including tips on how to customize the contact list to help you get the most out of your Lync experience.

There are a few new features in the Lync contact list that deserve some attention:

1. Frequent Contacts
If you were a Microsoft Communicator 2007 user, you’ll notice that “Frequent Contacts” has replaced “Recent Contacts” as the first group in the contact list (the recent contacts group has been moved to the “conversations environment”).

Frequent contacts group is intended to bubble up contacts you frequently IM and/or call via Lync to the top of the contact list without user intervention. When you start Microsoft Lync for the first time, the Frequent Contacts group is auto-populated with your manager and direct reports. As you start calling and IM-ing people with Lync, a cache is created to keep track of your communication patterns. Any contact who you have had a peer to peer conversation with more than 4 times will automatically be added to your Frequent Contacts group. The frequent contacts group will show up to 10 system suggested contacts.
In scenarios where you wish to add a contact to the Grequent contacts group because you want to track their availability but do not frequently IM or call this person at work (for example your spouse), Frequent contacts group lets you do this by either dragging and dropping the contact to the Frequent contacts group, or right clicking on the contact and selecting “Pin to Frequent Contacts”. Contacts that you have pinned will always appear before the system generated frequent contacts. The “pinned” vs. “unpinned” contacts are separated by a line. There is no limit to the number of contacts you can pin.

2. Rich presence
In addition to showing photos in the contact list, the contact list also surfaces rich presence data. The intent is to make it easy for you to glance for presence data from Lync. We know the importance of presence information when deciding to start a real-time communication session with someone. The presence bar is closely tied to the photo, and presence and capability strings are shown next to the contact display name. Also, in the second line of the contact entry, the contact’s status note or location information (if available) is shown. If the second line note or location is truncated, you’ll notice a carat at the end of the line; clicking on that button will expand the note.

3. Contact card
For those you who have been using Office 2010, you have probably seen the new contact card. Lync has the same contact card as Office 2010. The mini version of the contact card is opened whenever you hover over the photo or name, or single click on a contact. This mini version of the card can be expanded by clicking on the chevron on the bottom right corner. The contact card is the place to go to quickly look up contact details, and start a communication session (whether it’s IM, call or email).

4. Different ways to view your contacts
We understand that there are users who like to customize their contact list. They may wish to see more contacts, or organize their contacts based on availability vs groups. Lync provides different ways for you to customize your contact list to meet your working style and requirements.

All the options to control the display and layout of the contact list is located right below the search box. You’ll notice 3 labels: Groups, Status, Relationship. These are the 3 ways to organize your contact list.

Groups view is the conventional view that lets you view your contacts by Frequent contacts and other groups you’ve created. Status view groups your contacts based on their availability: Online, Away, Available and Unknown. Lastly the relationship view groups your contacts based on the system’s privacy groups: Friends and Family, Workgroup, Colleagues, External Contacts, Blocked Contacts. If you use the relationship view, keep in mind that each of these relationship groups have permissions assigned to them. For example, people in “Workgroup” can see all your contact information you have published except for home and other phone numbers. To find out the permissions associated with each relationships view, right click on a contact and select “Change Privacy Relationships”; there sub-menu has a detailed description of each relationship group.

To the right of these 3 view options, you’ll find the contact list display options menu. Here, you can turn off photos in the contacts, change the sort order of contact list, hide the Frequent contacts group, etc. I encourage you to play around with these options and find a contact list layout works best for you.

I hope you find this blog article helpful. Enjoy the contact list!

Thanks for reading,
Cindy

Published Friday, November 19, 2010 5:24 PM by octeam

Preparing your System for a Lync Web App Meeting

2010-11-12T19:49:00Z

So you received your first invite to attend a meeting hosted on Lync 2010 and you do not have Lync client installed on your machine? Not to worry, as Lync 2010 meetings support the Lync Web App browser client that allows you to attend meetings from any supported browser on Windows or Mac without installing a client.

To successfully attend this meeting and have an optimal experience, ensure the following on the system from which you plan to join the meeting using Lync Web App:

You need to be on a supported browser and platform combination
You need to have Microsoft Silverlight 4.0 (or later) installed
Disable pop-up blockers in your browser

Disabling pop-up blockers is not a mandatory requirement, if pop-ups are enabled, it ensures that your meeting window opens in a new browser window and resizes automatically to fit the meeting content.

To make it easier for you to check if your system meets all of the above, we’re created an online guide that checks your system and determines if you have all of the programs you’ll need for a successful Lync meeting. To run the meeting readiness check, open your online meeting invitation and click on the “First online meeting?” link at the end of the invitation as show below.

In the web page that opens up click on “meeting readiness” and complete all the steps that are requested till your see a message “Congratulations! You are ready to join meetings ...”

If you plan to share your desktop or application in the meeting, you need to ensure that additional components are installed. These options are available only to those who hold a Lync account and can sign in as authenticated users in Lync Web App on Windows. The simplest way to install the required plug-ins for sharing desktop or application is to actually attempt to join the meeting by clicking on the meeting link and attempt to share by clicking on “Program” within “Share”. At this point, you will be prompted to install or update the screen sharing plug-in if not installed already.

With a little bit of preparedness, you can easily join meetings from any supported browser or platform and enjoy a great meeting experience.

Dhanasekaran Raju
Program Manager
Published Friday, November 12, 2010 4:07 PM by octeam

Joining Meeting Audio From Lync Web App

2010-10-26T18:55:00Z

Microsoft Lync Web App can be used to join Lync meetings from a web browser on Windows and Mac operating systems. One of the first steps most users would perform after joining a meeting is to connect to meeting audio. Lync Web App supports users joining meeting audio via a PSTN phone, or via a previous version of Communicator like Communicator 2007 R2.

The following screenshots illustrate the steps a user joining a Lync meeting as Guest (unauthenticated) via the Lync Web App has to take to join the meeting audio.

On signing in as Guest, the user (Robert) is presented with a prompt to join the call from the Phone tab.

The Phone tab, in this meeting, presents Robert with two options to join the call – either by having the conference call him via the Call Me option or to dial in to the conference using the dial-in number and conference ID provided.

If Robert avails of the “Call Me” function, his entry is the roster is updated to reflect that he joined meeting audio (“In call” indication lights up) and he can see the call duration and have control over audio options like mute and hang up. The ability for Guest (anonymous) users to perform a dial-out (“Call Me”) is governed by a server policy and a call attempt via this option will fail if your admin has enforced this policy. The ability to perform a dial-out is also governed by the meeting organizer’s privileges – no participant (authenticated or Guest) can perform a dial-out if the meeting organizer is not enterprise voice enabled. In addition, if you have signed in as an authenticated user, you need to be enterprise voice enabled to be able to perform a dial-out.

When you exit the meeting by clicking on the exit meeting icon, your call will continue and you can end it from your phone.

The other option to join the call is by performing a dial-in to the conference and supplying your conference ID and passcode. Once you call the conference dial-in number (or a local number for the same that you can find from the “Find a local number” link), you will be guided by the voice prompts to enter your conference ID and other details to join the call. If you join the call by performing a dial-in, your name and telephone number will appear as two different entries in the roster and will have to be managed separately. If you exit the meeting by clicking on the exit icon, your call will continue and you can end it from your phone.

You might have a possible third option “Join using Communicator” as shown below if you are running Microsoft Office Communicator 2007 R2 and you are joined to the meeting with your corporate credentials. This option can be used to join meeting audio through your computer (or an audio device compatible with Communicator 2007 R2) while enjoying the new collaboration capabilities of Lync via Lync Web App.

In summary, once you join a Lync meeting via the Lync Web App, you can connect to meeting audio by performing a dial-in to the conference, by having the conference call you or by using Communicator 2007 R2. For more details, refer to Lync Web App online help.

Roshin Lal Ramesan
Program Manager
Published Tuesday, October 26, 2010 5:21 PM by octeam
Filed Under: Communicator Web Access

Introducing Microsoft Lync Web App

2010-10-19T19:01:00Z

With the release of Microsoft Lync 2010, we are introducing Lync Web App, a new Silverlight based web browser client that allows participants without Lync 2010 account or Lync 2010 client to participate in meetings using Windows or Mac operating system and present and view PowerPoint slides, share desktop/application (Windows platform only), poll the audience and collaborate on a whiteboard.

Lync Web App can be used by employees who have Lync 2010 account, but do not have a Lync 2010 client installed on their machines, like those working from home on a PC or a Mac. Lync Web App also enables external partners, such as salespeople, who are invited to Lync 2010 meetings but do not have Lync 2010 account to join meetings as guest.

The Lync Web App sign-in page below illustrates how Lync Web App can be used by guests who do not have a Lync 2010 account, as well as by users who have a Lync 2010 account, but do not have Lync 2010 client installed on their machine.

Lync Web App provides most of the Lync 2010 features in a meeting; including viewing and presenting PowerPoint slides, meeting wide IM, telephone based audio, file distribution and application and desktop sharing.

Check Supported platforms for Lync Web App to see if you or a colleague can use Lync Web App. In addition to being on a supported platform/browser combination, you will need the Microsoft Silverlight 4.0 (or later version) browser plug-in to join meetings using Lync Web App. You will be prompted to install the Microsoft Lync Web App Plug-in if you choose to share your application/desktop (Windows only).

Lync Web App cannot be used to schedule meetings or exchange instant messages with individual meeting attendees, but allows sharing group messages with all participants in a meeting.

Roshin Lal Ramesan
Program Manager
Published Tuesday, October 19, 2010 1:19 PM by octeam
Filed Under: Communicator Web Access

Microsoft Lync 2010 Accessibility

2010-10-06T19:19:00Z

Introduction

Accessibility was an important consideration we put our efforts into during Lync 2010 development. In addition to helping our customers with disabilities, these improvements also bring about broad usability enhancements in the product.
We have made improvements in almost all accessibility areas (keyboard navigation, high dpi, high contrast, shortcut keys, global hotkeys, focus indication etc.). Additionally, we have made sure the initial level of accessibility for all the new scenarios introduced in Lync 2010 are higher compared to past releases (collaboration features for e.g.)
With this blog we attempt to compile some of the accessibility improvements in Lync from previous versions in addition to few accessibility tips from previous versions that are not widely known. Please provide any feedback you may have on accessibility by leaving comments to the post.

Features

Screen reader support
We used JAWS screen reader for our testing purposes.

1. Incoming IM messages in Lync are read out by screen readers. This is an improvement from previous versions of Lync.

2. Like its predecessors incoming invite toast in Lync is read out by screen readers. Additionally, keyboard hotkey to accept the toast (Windows key+A) is also read out.

Figure 1: Toast Invite

3. All incoming instant messages, invitation toasts and notifications are accompanied by audio cues (consistent with previous versions)

4. Notifications are read out as soon as they appear. This is new to Lync 2010. Additionally, the shortcut key to accept or decline the notification is read out (Alt+C to accept and Alt+D to decline). The yellow bar below is a notification for example to accept/decline a sharing invite.

Figure 2: Sharing Notification

5. When you start sharing your screen or an application using Lync you will see a notification letting you know that your screen is being shared. If using screen reader, you will also hear the hotkey (Ctrl+Shift+Space) you can use to access the sharing toolbar on top. (Audio Sample)

Figure 3: Screen Sharing - notification and toolbar

High DPI
Lync supports normal (100%) dpi and high dpi (125%, 150%). If you prefer your screen to appear in a larger font, change your system dpi to a higher setting. Lync will honor those settings. Make sure that windows xp style dpi scaling is turned on.

Figure 4: Changing DPI

Figure 5: Lync main window in 125% dpi

High Contrast
Lync supports the windows high contrast themes. We currently do not support custom themes.

Figure 6: Changing to a windows high contrast theme

Figure 7: Lync main window in high contrast theme

Tips
1. Control whether Lync appears in the foreground or not when started

Figure 8: Lync options dialog

2. Use Windows key+Q hotkey to access the Lync main window anytime. I find this very useful, especially when working on a different application and I need to quickly search for somebody in my Lync buddy list. I use Win+Q followed by Ctrl+1.

3. If you use the file menu bar often you may want to set it to show always using the options button.
a. To do this for the main window, use the options menu button

Figure 9: Main window file menu bar

b. To accomplish the same for conversation window, use the 'More Options' button as shown below

Figure 10: Conversation window file menu bar

4. Use Alt key or F10 to access the menu bar. In the past F10 didn’t map to file menu bar, but now F10 is consistent with Word, Outlook and other apps.

5. To quickly access your voicemail navigate to the Phone Environment (Ctrl+4).

Figure 11: Phone environment in main window

6. To access your missed conversations, navigate to the conversation list tab (Ctrl+3). This enlists all your conversations - ongoing and past.

Figure 12: Conversations environment in main window

7. Right click on a contact in your buddy list to perform an operation such as call, IM, share desktop, add contact, send email etc.

8. If using a screen reader, turn on "Accessibility Description" field (most screen readers have this off by default) when using Lync 2010 for the first few times. This will make it easier to ramp up on the new UI features. Some of the buttons like the font picker and emoticon picker for example have detailed descriptions explaining their functionality which is not read out by many screen readers in their default mode.

9. If you are in an online meeting that you joined via Lync, use the meeting information dialog to access meeting join information like dial in number and passcode. I use it when switching audio from my desktop to phone

Figure 13: Meeting Information dialog

10. Schedule online meetings via outlook.

11. Or try adhoc meetings using Lync. These are fast and light-weight. Use Alt+M if menu bar is visible.

Figure 14: Ad-hoc Meeting launch

12. Use the contact card (Alt+Enter on a contact) to view contact details

Figure 15: Contact Details Card

Microsoft Lync 2010 Frequently Used Keyboard shortcuts

2010-09-24T19:29:00Z

Below are the shortcut keys that can be used irrespective of which window has focus.

Table 1: Global Hotkeys

Shortcut key	Description
Windows Key + Q	Brings Lync main window to foreground
Windows Key + A	Accept an incoming toast invitation
Windows Key + X	Declines toast invitation and change your status to ‘Do not disturb’
Windows Key + Esc	Decline toast invitation
Ctrl + Shift + Space	Sets focus on the application sharing toolbar
Ctrl + Alt + Space	Take back control when sharing your screen
Ctrl + Shift + S	Stop sharing your screen

Below are the shortcut keys that can be used on the main window when it is in foreground.

Table 2: Main Window Shortcuts

Shortcut key	Description
Ctrl + 1	Go to the contact list tab
Ctrl + 2	Go to the activity feeds tab
Ctrl + 3	Go to the conversation list tab
Ctrl + 4	Go to the phone tab
Alt + A	View all conversations when in conversation list tab
Alt + D	View missed conversations when in conversation list tab
Alt + C	View missed calls when in conversation list tab

Below are the shortcut keys that can be used on a conversation window when it is in foreground.

Table 3: Conversation Window Shortcuts

Shortcut key	Description
Ctrl + W	Show/Hide IM area
Ctrl + R	Show/Hide participant list
Ctrl + Shift + Y	Show/Hide left region when sharing stage is visible
Alt + I	Invite a contact to an existing conversation
Ctrl + F	Send a file
Alt + P	Open a file received
Alt + C, Alt + D	Accept or decline an invitation to share, audio or video modalities
Ctrl + Shift + Enter	Start or end phone call
Ctrl + Shift + H	Hold/Resume an ongoing audio conversation
Ctrl + M	Pause/Resume video (only if already in progress)
Alt + R	Rejoin audio in a conference
Escape	Exits fullscreen view if present. Else, will close the conversation window only if it has no audio, video or sharing.
Ctrl + Shift + <, Ctrl + Shift + >	Increase/Decrease selected text font size in IM input
Ctrl + ], Ctrl + [	Zoom in/Zoom out the text in IM input and history

Pooja Malpani, Software Design Engineer

Published Friday, September 24, 2010 1:38 PM by octeam
Filed Under: Accessibility

Setting up your Speed-Dial to quickly & automatically call into your meetings

2010-09-22T19:30:00Z

Ever been stuck in traffic in your car, late for a meeting you need to attend, and fumbling around trying to find the right numbers to dial to call in? Well, you don’t need a fancy new Win7 phone to be able to quickly join into your meetings hosted on Lync Server. You can do it on any phone that has basic speed-dial functionality – better yet, you’ll join the meeting in a way that people will see who you are in the roster (and without having to record your name!). In Lync Server 2010 we made sure that there’s a path through the dial-in conferencing system that’s static, meaning it’s always the same regardless of which conference and who’s in it, so that you can program your speed-dial to do this.

Here’s how!

Create a new speed-dial entry, and make the number like this:

18001231234,,,{confID+#},,,*,*,{yourExtensionOrFullPhoneNumber+#},,{yourPIN+#}

… where:

- 18001231234 is the Conferencing Attendant access number. Not sure what this is? On your computer, make a new online meeting, and look for the phone number it shows in the body of the invite

- {confID+#} is the conference ID of your meeting. Again, you can find this by making a new online meeting and looking in the body of the invite. Your conference ID doesn’t change – it stays the same (unless you deliberately change it on the dialin-conferencing webpage, which will invalidate your speed-dial!). If you want to join somebody else’s meeting using speed-dial, then put their conference ID in here instead. Important: make sure you use a ‘#’ to terminate any multi-digit input, like this conf ID.

- The first and second ‘*’s are instructing the system that you wish to manually authenticate yourself using a phone a PIN. Nothing to see here, move along…

- {yourExtensionOrFullPhoneNumber+#} – this can be either your extension, or your full phone number (starting with country code). If you’re not sure, try dialing up manually first and entering your phone number and PIN to see if it works. Again, make sure you end with ‘#’.

- {yourPIN+#} – this is your conferencing PIN, the same PIN you use on your deskphone (Lync Phone Edition) if you have one. If you’re not sure what your PIN is (or you never set one!), then make a new online meeting and click the “Forgot your dial-in PIN?” link in the body of the invite. You’ll find yourself on the dialin-conferencing webpage where you can change your PIN.

The commas are pauses – they’re necessary to give the system time to react to the input. If you can’t enter a comma on your phone itself, then if your phone syncs with your Outlook another way to do this is to create a contact for the speed-dial entry in Outlook (with commas) and then sync it to your phone. Different phones will make different-length pauses for a single comma, and in general you’ll have to play around with the number of commas to find what works for you. Here are some hints:

- If you’re calling an access number that’s geographically far away from you (ie. you live & work in Dallas but you call an access number in Boston), you’ll probably need more commas right after the access number (phone number)

- If you find that you’re ever being asked to record your name, then there’s a problem somewhere after the conference ID – try adding more commas.

Finally, if you’re joining your own meeting (one that you scheduled yourself), then there’s a shortcut that allows you to omit your extension or phone number – you can just use this instead:

18001231234,,,,{confID+#},,,*,,{yourPIN+#}

But of course, you should get a Win7 phone anyways.

That’s it!

Thanks,

Tim Carr

Product Manager

Published Wednesday, September 22, 2010 2:18 PM by octeam

Deploying Office Live Meeting or Communications Server to your organization? Don’t stop at the desktop, drive users to adopt!

2010-09-14T20:10:00Z

Microsoft now offers a free instructor-led session entitled : ‘6 steps to a successful UC Rollout: Best Practices for readiness planning and driving adoption of UC Solutions’. This class is a great first stop for IT Pros and rollout teams implementing Unified Communications solutions within their organization. The session will offer recommendations to promote a successful UC launch and reinforce ongoing user adoption. Presented in a virtual classroom via Office Live Meeting, this interactive session introduces the Unified Communications Adoption Methodology using detailed examples and hands-on activities.

Topics discussed include:

· How to develop a successful Readiness Plan.

· Why pilot program prior to deployment is beneficial.

· How to establish meaningful success metrics.

· How to design effective training and awareness strategies

Click here to register: https://events.livemeeting.com/967/15171/reg.aspx?=pc7

We hope to see your Rollout Team at an upcoming session!

Angela Corman

Program Manager

Published Tuesday, September 14, 2010 1:21 PM by octeam

Application Sharing in Lync

2010-09-14T19:33:00Z

Office Communicator 2007 R2 had brought sharing monitors and desktop to their everyday phone calls and instant messages. With Microsoft Lync we are taking this one step further by enabling you to share applications as well. Read on to learn more about all that’s new in sharing with this release.

Fig 1: Share Menu in Conversation Window

Sharing exactly what you want
The entire list of programs running on your machine will be available to you for sharing. The list of known exceptions is posted here – and can be accessed from the following dialog as well. Each program will be represented by a live thumbnail [and when we say live, we do mean live – try making some changes in your program with this dialog] You can pick one or multiple applications to share.

Fig 2: Applications with live thumbnails

What do others see when I am sharing?
Sure I am sharing; but what exactly are others seeing? This is often the burning question that users have once they start sharing. In addition to yellow boundaries around the applications that you are sharing, we also enable you to preview what you are showing to others using the new Preview feature. You can click on preview to get to the preview.

Fig 3: When you start sharing you get a preview button

Fig 4: Preview on sharer’s end

Remote Control Workflows
The following workflows around control are supported; while the first two already existed in the previous release, the last one is an addition this release.

Sharer can grant control to a specific person.
Sharer can allow everyone in the conference (often used in small highly collaborative sessions)
Viewer can request control from sharer.

Once sharer has granted control, user cannot parallel process on another application – since there is only one mouse and keyboard that can be used.

Tip: The sharer can revoke control at any time by a keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt + Space

Toolbar
The application sharing toolbar primarily gives you the controls for granting control and for stopping sharing. The toolbar also notifies you about unread IMs, key warning messages and recording started – in case you are not actively looking at your conversation window. If you are sharing application(s), viewers will not be able to see this toolbar; however the viewers will see the bar if you are sharing the entire monitor or desktop.

Tip 1: You can unpin the toolbar to hide it from your own screen as well as the viewers. The pin is to the far right. You can also drag around this toolbar using the grippers on the far left.

Tip 2: You can press Ctrl + Alt + J to get the focus to the toolbar.

Fig 5: Your desktop after sharing starts

Sharing Recent Content
If you had just shared some content; and would like to share it again in the same meeting again, we make it easier for you to do so by going under the share menu for recent content by going to recent content under share menu or by going to content list from the stage.

Fig 6: Recently shared content

Viewers’ Experience

Fig 7: Viewer’s window

Tip - To enlarge the view you can simply hide the video and conversation window pane; by clicking on the arrow in the center of the window. You can also switch to the actual view instead of scale view. You can also go full screen with just the content! Like in the previous release, these can be accessed from the lower right corner of the stage

.
Performance Improvements
We have improved the latency of screen refresh by cutting the number of seconds to at least half as compared to W13; and manifold when compared with Live Meeting. We have tested over a wide range of scenarios. Microsoft itself is a huge geographically distributed company – where we work with different teams across USA, Europe and Asia all the time. The solution has been working well for us- saving Microsoft a lot of unnecessary travel; and helping real time collaboration! See the section below for recommended bandwidth.

Geek corner

Occlusion
Occlusion is when someone is sharing an application; but has another window sitting on top of it. We have built some smarts around this and the viewer’s experience will not be interrupted when the shared window is occluded. We do have some exceptions to this – when the window on top happens to be a high privileged application, the viewers will see a black window sitting on top of the shared application.
When sharer has granted control the occluding window shows up as a transparent overlay, so that the remote controller knows which areas the clicks will not go through.
Recording
We allow client side recording of application sharing both on the sharer side and on the viewer side! If you are watching a demo – and would like to replay it later, try our recording feature! You will see high fidelity sharing replay!

Stuti Jain
Program Manager

Published Tuesday, September 14, 2010 4:20 PM by octeam

Message Waiting Indication and Access to Unified Voicemail on Communicator Mobile (CoMo) for Nokia

2010-09-09T20:31:00Z

This blog will explain how the Message Waiting indicator (MWI) works and how end-user can access their enterprise voice mails from CoMo for Nokia and prerequisites for these features to work properly.

CoMo for Nokia client can receive notification of unread voice mail count or in other words offers MWI feature, the unread voice mail count is shown in the homescreen like shown in picture below:

On clicking on the homescreen it launches the conversation list window (shown in picture below) that will allow accessing the voice mail.

As you already know that the Unified Messaging (UM) component of Exchange 2007 is the designed to be the voice mail solution for Office Communications Server 2007 (OCS). The UM server role component must be deployed with Exchange 2007 to support this integration with OCS. What it means is that anyone can dial an OCS user and leave a voice mail which will then be delivered to that user's Outlook inbox, the integration of UM of Exchange 2007 will give enterprise users the added benefit of having e-mail, voice mail, and fax messages consolidated in their inbox. Moreover, certain voice mail features can now be accessed using Office Communicator (OC) clients. In an integrated environment when a call to a person is not answered (busy, ring no answer, or diverted to voice mail) it gets routed to the UM server. The front end server role of OCS (or the Director) is responsible for processing and routing the call to the UM server. For more detail information on UM you can refer to TechNet and to this blog.

For CoMo for Nokia user to get this feature followings components are also required apart from the UM server role component deployment that we already mentioned

Voice mail configuration. CoMo for Nokia user account must be configured with an Exchange mailbox, and it must be enabled for Enterprise Voice to have this feature.
Client Access Server (CAS) of Exchange 2007--The Autodiscover Service. This is the middle-tier server that hosts the client protocols, such as Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3), Internet Message Access Protocol 4 (IMAP4), Secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS), Outlook Anywhere, Availability service, and Autodiscover service. The CAS role accepts connections to your Exchange 2007 server from a variety of different clients, including mobile devices. The CAS also hosts Web services. The Autodiscover service is a new Web service that is included in Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. The Autodiscover service provides client application configuration information, including external and internal URLs, for Web services, such as Availability and Unified Messaging, that are included in Exchange Web Services (EWS). For more information you can refer to TechNet.
Communicator Web Access (CWA) server-legacyImpersonationPolicy parameter. For this feature to work, you need to change the legacyImpersonationPolicy parameter value to False (the default is True) on the Communicator Web Access server. To perform this change, use the procedure identified in TechNet.

Now let us see step by step on how CoMo for Nokia client on the Internet can use the Autodiscover service to retrieve the service binding to the Exchange Web Services endpoint to get the count of unread voice mail:

As shown in the diagram, MCX server is an Exchange Web Services client in this case impersonates as the CoMo for Nokia logged in user to authenticate with Active Directory (AD) so that it can query the AD for Autodiscover service connection point (SCP) object that were created during CAS role installation
The SCP object contains the ServiceBindingInformation attribute that has the Client Access server/Autodiscover service URL in the form of https://CAS01/autodiscover/autodiscover.xml, where CAS01 is the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the CAS
After the client obtains and enumerates the instances of the Autodiscover service, it connects to the first CAS in the enumerated list
CAS returns back the profile information in the form of XML data that is needed to connect to the user's mailbox
Using EWS push method the EWS callback hosted within MCX server receives all notifications subscription for ModifiedEvent on the Voice Mail search folder that is identified as DistinguishedFolderIdNameType.voicemail in exchange, for more information on EWS push notification you can refer to MSDN article
When there is a new voice mail, new unread email in Voice Mail search folder get created which triggers ModifiedEvent
EWS callback receives a notification for a Subscription Id from the CAS , from which unread items in the Voice Mail search folder can be extracted
Then the Session Id corresponding to the Subscription Id look up happens using the Subscription map stored in Web Service
Comparison of stored unread voice mail number for the session with received voice mail number happens, in case of any difference CoMo for Nokia client is notified using existing event notification infrastructure between MCX and CoMo for Nokia client

To access the voicemail user must configure the Voicemail Number field in the ‘General’ tab of ‘Settings’ page or prompted to enter, user must enter your unified messaging access phone number (this is enterprise given PSTN number to access enterprise UM voice mail) in settings. The application uses this number to call your voice mail, this call is a cellular call not OCS Enterprise call as enterprise voice calling is not supported by CoMo for Nokia client. Also cannot control incoming voice calls and choose to redirect them to Unified Enterprise Voice Mail because CoMo for Nokia client does not support OCS Enterprise voice calling feature.

If the Voicemail Number field in the Setting page is not configured user will be prompted for the unified messaging access phone number as shown in below picture, which gets saved as part of CoMo for Nokia user settings.

Please share your comment below.

Sukuman Rayan

Program Manager, UC
Published Thursday, September 09, 2010 12:16 PM by octeam

Lobby functionality and Live Meeting capabilities in Communicator “14”

2010-09-03T16:44:00Z

With the release of Communicator “14”, you no longer have to have a separate client to create and run meetings that include presenting PowerPoint slides, polling the audience and collaborate on a whiteboard. The coming posts will tell you more about desktop/application sharing and PowerPoint presentations. Here is a sneak peek at the UI!

Meeting Lobby

This release introduces a Meeting Lobby for all your meetings. As you could see in the previous post you can control who gets directly into the meeting by selecting different access settings when you schedule the meeting. Let’s say you selected “People I invite from my company”:

The day of the meeting one of the invited people, Vishal, forwards the invite to his college, Clark, who is an expert on picnic baskets. Clark was not directly invited by you, so he will be waiting in the lobby when he joins the meeting. In the previous version, Clark would have received a message that he could not join the meeting. By adding the meeting lobby concept we are simplifying the process of getting the right people into the meeting in a timely manner, pre-invited or not.

You can clearly see the lobby notification and admit Clark into the meeting.

If you are running the meeting from your phone instead of OC, you will hear a voice prompt when someone enters the lobby. By pressing *8, you can change the access settings and open the door for anyone in the lobby.

Published Friday, September 03, 2010 8:53 PM by octeam

Communicator “14” Online Meetings

2010-08-30T19:05:00Z

Running late to a meeting? Need to attend an important meeting when working from home? Joining a meeting while travelling? Need collaboration and coordination across distributed teams?

Welcome to Online Meetings – the next generation web conferencing from Microsoft! Online meetings enable remote participants to join a meeting from anywhere using a computer or a phone. It provides audio/video capabilities with a rich set of collaboration tools for a content rich and efficient meeting experience.

For those familiar with Live Meetings, Communicator “14” adds data collaboration capabilities to Communicator conferences. So now a single unified client provides all you need to conduct efficient and content rich online meetings.

In this blog we will cover setting up (scheduling) online meetings, various online meeting options and basic online meeting join.

Setting up an online meeting

Setting up online meetings requires Outlook and the new Communicator “14”.

Scheduling Online Meeting takes a single click. Go to Outlook and either select Online Meeting in the New Items menu or click the New Online Meeting button from the Calendar. You can also turn an existing Outlook appointment/meeting into an online meeting.

From New Items:

From Calendar:

Add online meeting to an existing Outlook meeting:

Online meetings have a simple join link and phone dial-in information.

Online meeting invitation

Default Meeting Options

By default, all your online meetings use the same dial-in formation. Everyone from your company can join the meeting directly and start collaborating right away. You can easily change these defaults by customizing your meeting options.

Customizing Online Meeting Options

Click on the Meeting Options button in the ribbon of the meeting invitation. (Note that this button is only available for meetings that you organize.)

This opens up the Online Meeting Options dialog showing the default meeting options.

To change meeting options, check “Customize access and presenters for this meeting”. (Note that customizing access and presenters will change the meeting link and conference ID to use a new value than the default value)

The main settings which could be customized are:

Access:

You can control who gets directly into the meeting and who needs to wait in a “lobby” until a presenter admits them. You can also turn off “lobby” for phone users by selecting “People dialing in by phone bypass the lobby”.

Presenters:

Presenters can present content, use collaboration tools and control the online meeting. Presenter privileges include ability to mute/unmute others, turn on/off announcements, promote a participant to presenter, manage the “lobby” and control access to the meeting.

Choose specific presenters using the Manage presenters link.

Local phone numbers:

You can select the location from where most people will join so that the meeting invitation shows local dial-in numbers. (Note that you can always find the full list of local dial-in numbers with the Find a local number link in the meeting invite.)

Entry/Exit announcements:

The participant entry/exit announcements can be turned on/off. These announcements call out the name of participants joining/leaving the meeting.

(Note that changing the announcements value will change the meeting link and conference ID to use a new value than the default values)

Invitation language:

When online meeting invitation language is non-English (for example when Outlook is non-English or Communicator is non-English), meeting options provide a way to convert the invitation language to English.

Remember your preferences:

To apply your settings to all future online meetings, simply check the “Remember settings” box.

Joining Online Meetings

Join from outlook reminder

The simplest way to join an online meeting is to click the “Join Online” button from the Outlook 2010 meeting reminder.

Here is a preview of Join experience on Communicator “14”:

Other ways to join the online meeting are:

Click the join link in the meeting invitation
Click the Join Online Meeting button in meeting invitation ribbon
Dial into the conference from any phone
Copy and paste the join link URL into a web browser
Click join from a UC phone

Stay tuned for upcoming blog entries exploring cool new features in Communicator 14!

We are listening so please provide us your valuable feedback.

Happy Online Meetings!

Vishal Singh

Program Manager, OCDG
Published Monday, August 30, 2010 3:55 PM by octeam

Introduction to Communicator “14”

2010-08-23T19:16:00Z

With the announcement of Communicator “14” at TechEd in June, we can finally share with you all the great work we’ve been doing over the past two years! This release is shaping up to be the best release for Office Communicator yet. With a complete overhaul of the main user experience, the addition of personal pictures, an enhanced phone experience and completely new collaboration tools, it is now easier to communicate, share, and collaborate with the people you need. The development team is excited to show you what we’ve been working on, so we are planning a series of blog articles over the next few months describing all the new features for Communicator “14”. Stay tuned for weekly updates on the new features directly from the engineers that built them!

Published Monday, August 23, 2010 4:21 PM by octeam

What is the “Server URL” field in Communicator Mobile (CoMo) for Nokia?

2010-08-05T18:21:00Z

After installing the CoMo for Nokia client, the first thing you need to do to successfully sign-in is to get the configuration settings fields correct in the settings dialog. We've received a number of questions on what value should be used for the “Server URL” configuration field. Many people do not know what to enter for this field or make the mistake of using the FQDN (fully qualified domain name) or IP address of Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2 (OCS) Access Edge Server. For example, https://sipalt.access.contoso.com:443 where 443 is the port used for remote user access.

Before we hand you the answer, let us briefly walk you through the topology that will be used for the CoMo for Nokia client to connect to the OCS environment. CoMo for Nokia is not a direct Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) endpoint like other supported OCS end points such as Microsoft Office Communicator, Microsoft Office Communicator Phone Edition and Microsoft Office Communicator for Windows Mobile. CoMo for Nokia uses the Communicator Web Access (CWA) server component which plays the role of Mobile Communicator Express (MCX) to connect the CoMo for Nokia client to the OCS environment and acts as a gateway to the various OCS functions.

The CWA/MCX gateway between CoMo for Nokia translates HTTP requests to OCS actions (and vice-versa) and also has an implementation for mobile optimization. So in order for the CoMo for Nokia unified communications client to have access to your OCS enterprise deployment, CWA is a pre-requisite. For more information on planning for Communicator Mobile access refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd425354(office.13).aspx

By now you must have figured out the answer but let me go ahead and spell it out, so for the “Server URL” configuration field in CoMo for Nokia client user should fill the OCS’s CWA server URL address, for example https://cwa.contoso.com, this is provided by your enterprise system administrator. This server URL address is same as the one that you might use in web browser to access the OCS presence, IM, and conferencing features of OCS from web browser without installing a client or connecting through a VPN.

This article is applicable for the Communicator Mobile for Java and Communicator Mobile for Nokia 1.0 unified messaging client product of Office Communications Server 2007 R2.

Do you have a comment to share or question? Send e-mail to sukumart@microsoft.com or leave a comment below.

Published Thursday, August 05, 2010 12:59 PM by octeam

Device Highlight: Polycom® CX300

2010-03-03T20:28:00Z

While most of the time we focus on Office Communicator from a Software perspective, it’s easy to forget that really good phone experiences come from pairing Office Communicator with great devices!

For this post we’re going to take a look at a device that the Office Communicator team worked hard on to get just right, the Polycom CX300.

This device is my preferred device at work, as it has some really great acoustics from both the headset and the speakerphone. It provides me with that much needed hardware interaction that I’ve grown up with that I just can’t seem to get with a headset.

While I use this device day to day, I’m finding some neat tips & tricks that I wanted to share with you. For those of you who have this devices already, these tips will improve your experience. For those of you who don’t, these tips will provide an overview of the great user experience.

Quick Calling

This device behaves just like a regular phone, so pick up the handset and dial a number. It just works!
Also if you wish to verify your number before placing your call, just dial the phone number you want to call, review it in the display, and pick up the handset (or press the speaker button). Your call will start.

Interaction with Office Communicator

As this device was designed to work with Office Communicator, it has some really nice features to keep you connected. The first and most prominent of which is the big presence light on the front of the device. This light is your presence so you can at a glance know what your presence is.

Even further as this device is your primary device for Office Communicator, when you click the toast on your desktop the call is picked up on the speaker phone of the device. You could pick-up the handset to answer the call if you wanted too as well.

Voicemail

One thing that I find really convenient about this device is the interaction with voicemail. The device has a voicemail indicator right on the 1 key that lights up when you have voicemail:

Then when you want to call your voicemail you can just press and hold the 1 key to call!

Rejecting a Call

Everyone gets those calls that you just can’t answer right now, whether you’re in a meeting or trying to concentrate on finishing up a last minute presentation. When you need to reject a call fast, just hit the backspace key.

Multiple Calls

You’re on a call with someone and someone else calls you. What do you do? You can accept the call from your desktop by clicking on the “toast”, or just press the Hold key on the device to switch to the new call! This button will put your current call on hold, and automatically accept the incoming call for you.

Advanced Device Settings

One of the features that not many people know about is that the device has settings that you can modify. Although most people will never have to change a setting, you may want to configure your own personal preferences.

To get to the settings, unplug your device from your desktop and plug it back in again. When the device lights up, press the 5 key to enter the settings. From there follow the onscreen directions.

Settings you can change:

Rate at which volume is increased or decreased using the volume buttons on the device
Whether you wish to remember the previous volume level of your last call, or to reset to the default volume level.
Size of the text on the display

Jason Tuck
Program Manager, OCDG

Alex Darrow
User Experience Designer, OCDG

Published Wednesday, March 03, 2010 3:20 PM by octeam

High Quality Communications

2010-02-24T19:04:00Z

In October 1872 in Baltimore Maryland, the architect of Montreal’s Windsor Station and his wife Josephine gave birth to their only daughter, Emily. She was educated at the finest schools and raised in privilege. Years later, in 1922, she published her book, “Etiquette”. Soon after, the phrase, “according to Emily Post” became the final word on social conduct.

The introduction to this seminal work on manners in society begins with Richard Duffy discussing the history of the word “Etiquette” - its origin in the commonplace familiar warning—"Keep off the grass." It happened in the reign of Louis XIV, when the gardens of Versailles were being laid out, that the master gardener, an old Scotsman, was sorely tried because his newly seeded lawns were being continually trampled upon. To keep trespassers off, he put up warning signs or tickets—etiquettes—on which was indicated the path along which to pass. But the courtiers paid no attention to these directions and so the determined Scot complained to the King in such convincing manner that His Majesty issued an edict commanding everyone at Court to "keep within the etiquettes."

As we enter this second decade of this new millennial, the technological support for our ability to communicate is unprecedented in human history. As these advances continue, what IS digital equivalent of a “Keep Off the Grass” sign? Is it HTTP_403? Here’s a demo to help you judge. Our digital security is better than that of Louis XIV - and it’s much easier to be anonymous today – but the problem persists. There are basic human mores and values that we aspire to – and communication is the primary vehicle through which society advances – but we might feel like we’re unprepared for the pace and the scope of change as technology improves Whether these are ‘etiquettes’ placed in the grass – or if they are server log files, social norms, training classes, 403 messages, or discussions in our courts of law – we want, as a society - to put up guardrails to help us self-monitor our own behavior and communicate to others our views of the behaviors we expect and those we value. As society progresses with the assistance of digital communications technology, people are re-visiting these laws, mores, and values. As examples - Do I really want to be on a web chat with my boss at 7AM when I haven’t done my hair or makeup? Should I fire off a quick reprimand to 100 people when it’s late and I’m tired? Will it hurt my career if I dial in to a weekly meeting instead of being there in person? If it’s convenient for me to send an IM, should I be offended if I don’t get an immediate reply? These are real social issues exposed by advances in our technology – and are impacted by the quality of our tools.

In chapter XXVII of her book, Emily Post describes the importance of the quality of the communication:

The letter you write, whether you realize it or not, is always a mirror which reflects your appearance, taste and character.

With all this in mind, we wanted to introduce some of our challenges we have in the Office Communicator Test Team. As Communicator continues to expand in popularity, people’s reliance on our software to deliver their message grows. The quality of our software plays an important role in the ability of people to deliver (and receive) a high quality message.

WikiHow defines communication as “the process of transferring signals/messages between a sender and a receiver through various methods (written words, nonverbal cues, spoken words). It is also the mechanism we use to establish and modify relationships.”

As technologies converge in the unified communications space, people can easily flow between voice, video, and text communications. The authenticity and integrity of the message – and the success rate of its delivery – is based on the ability of the software tools to connect sender and receiver.

Our team focuses on the quality of the experience – whether that’s voice, the delivery of the IM, or the ability to join a conference. Communication is important. From infancy, we literally cried to get help, and that kick-started our learning of the power of effective communication. As a society, we are moving into a new era -- the digital augmentation of our ability to communicate as humans. We don’t have to grunt to our fellow cave dweller – we don’t have to send smoke signals to connect with our neighboring clan – we have a new reality – think Steve Austin, the Bionic man – (note: check out the new Fast Company article on bionics) and with these powerful new communication tools and capabilities, we are greater, stronger, faster – but as a provider, we think that it’s important for these tools are transparent and “just work” to enable sender and receiver to focus on the message.

The game of Chinese Whispers, or Telephone/Stille Post/Whisper-Down-the-Lane, teaches us about the danger of low quality communications. Real time communication across the globe is the reality now, and while we are excited about the potential impact to society, we recognize our role in ensuring the integrity and quality of the experience. We also have to consider things like security, privacy, and the power of the medium. How can we build our tools to offer safeguards to the sender to self-monitor and self-assess as the size of their audience increases? We are exploring alternative techniques and focusing on building trust in our organization in hopes that it teaches us how to build trustworthy products that support trustworthy communications.

Often, the sender has the biggest influence on – and goals for – the quality of the message – and can we help them help themselves. How can we learn defect prevention techniques from things like the Outlook Forgotten Attachment Detector?

Philip B. Corbett posts a regular blog on the New York Times site called “After Deadlines” that it calls “a weekly newsroom critique of grammar, usage and style in The Times”

With that in mind, our goal in this blog communication is to learn from you about the areas where we can focus our quality improvement efforts to make your experience with Office Communicator the best it can be. We feel privileged to have an opportunity to influence the future of digital communication, and would enjoy working with you to improve our quality and your experience with our product.

We’d love to hear your views and get your guidance on areas where we can focus and improve.

Thank you for reading!

Ross Smith

Director of Test, Office Communicator and Design Group
Published Wednesday, February 24, 2010 5:24 PM by octeam

Free Instructor Led Training - Office Live Meeting

2010-02-02T19:16:00Z

In addition to training on Office Communicator, Microsoft also offers free instructor-led sessions on Office Live Meeting. Visit a class and explore key Live Meeting usage scenarios through live demonstrations and hands-on activities. Classes are held in a virtual classroom and allow hands-on experience to build knowledge, skills, and confidence to use Office Live Meeting more effectively. Students are able to ask questions of the instructor in these highly interactive trainings. On demand courses are also available.

Courses include:

Introducing Office Live Meeting: This course introduces the features and functionality available within Live Meeting through live demonstrations and hands-on activities.

Office Live Meeting Quick Start: A first step for all Office Live Meeting users, this 30-minute introduction covers the fundamentals of scheduling and presenting.

Come learn more about how you can get more out of your Live Meeting experience! Visit for a complete course catalog: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/livemeeting/HA102429721033.aspx

Angela Corman

Program Manager, UC Online Adoption Services

New Instructor-Led Training: Introduction to Office Communicator

2010-01-03T19:17:00Z

Microsoft now offers a free instructor-led session that introduces key Office Communicator usage scenarios through live demonstrations and hands-on activities.

This live course is held in a virtual classroom via Office Live Meeting. It will allow you hands-on experience to build knowledge, skills, and confidence to use Office Communicator more effectively.

In this high-level overview, we will explore the following features:

Instant Messaging: Need a fast answer to a question? Use Office Communicator to easily find a contact and start an Instant Messaging (IM) conversation.
Presence: Use presence status to determine if and when a contact is available for an IM conversation or audio call. Set your own presence status to indicate how and when contacts can reach you.
Contact Management: Build your Communicator contact list for the way you work. You can add distribution groups or organize contacts into your own custom groups.
Audio and Video: Make or receive audio calls using your computer. If you have a webcam, you can add real-time video to your conversation.
Desktop Sharing: Share your desktop during an instant messaging session to collaborate or edit documents with a single colleague or an entire team.
Office Application Integration: View a contact’s presence status and start communicating from within your Office applications, including Microsoft Office Outlook and SharePoint.
Add a Live Meeting: Use the Meet Now option to quickly start a new conference and invite people who are either inside or outside of your organization.
Communicator Web Access: Stay connected with Communicator while at home or traveling – all you need is an Internet connection.

Click here to register: https://events.livemeeting.com/967/15027/reg.aspx?pc=04

We hope to see you at an upcoming session!

Published Friday, January 22, 2010 5:17 PM by octeam

Using Consultative Transfer

2009-10-21T19:21:00Z

One of the little known features of Office Communicator is the ability to make consultative transfers. Very often we’ve been asked to include this feature, however it’s already included!

As background, a consultative transfer is a common scenario where before transferring a call to someone you want to contact the person you’re transferring to first to ensure they are able to take the call. Let’s walk through this scenario to show how this is accomplished using Office Communicator.

Marc Boyer, a client of mine, has called me and is inquiring about the project we are working on.

As I don’t have the experience in this specific project, I start a new phone call with Steve Chang from the Contact List, the project manager for this specific project. When I start the new call to Steve, Marc’s call is automatically put on hold.

Steve has indicated that he is free to take the call, so I return to Marc’s conversation window and click on the Transfer Button. The transfer menu automatically includes people I’m currently talking to, so I’m able to select Steve Chang from here.

While the call is transferred I can see the status from both Marc’s and Steve’s conversation window. After the transfer has completed both windows are closed :)

The beautiful part about Office Communicator is that you are not just limited to consulting using a phone call. Next time you want to consult someone before transferring, try using an IM.

As you can see from this simple scenario, the ability to consult with someone before sending a phone call to them can be quite useful in ensuring that the person is available, and has the background required to help the caller.

- Jason Tuck
Program Manager
Published Wednesday, October 21, 2009 5:00 AM by octeam

Cool Tip of the Day 61: Receive Phone Calls

2009-08-17T19:37:00Z

With Microsoft® Office Communicator 2007 R2, do the following to receive phone calls:

Answer a phone call

In the phone call invitation alert, click the left pane. The alert appears in the bottom right of your computer screen.

Redirect a call

Click the Redirect button, and then select an option from the menu. If you choose to redirect a call to an instant message, a call rejection message is sent to the caller and the Conversation window opens so that you can send the caller an instant message.

Do you have a tip or a trick to share? Send e-mail to trainuc@microsoft.com or leave a comment below.

Neeti Gupta
Product Manager, UC Technical Audience Marketing

Published Monday, August 17, 2009 8:51 AM by octeam

Communicator Mobile Just Got Better

2009-08-03T19:39:00Z

Following the release of Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 in January, the Communicator team continued to work on additional features and improved upon some of the existing ones. Everything is now in an update that's ready to use.

One of our goals with this update was to make it easier to join conferences while on the go. Instead of using conference dial-ins and entry codes, you can now join conferences with the single click of a button. This capability is available for all meetings scheduled using the new UC Conferencing capability in Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2. As you can see in the screenshot below, the process is quick and simple. When you open a UC conference invitation in Outlook Mobile, you will see a “Join Conference” option. Clicking on this option will automatically connect conference participants to the call as authenticated users.

Still subject to roaming charges? We have added an option to help you avoid them. When you are outside of your provider’s network, Communicator will not log in to a roaming network. As soon as you are back in your provider’s network, Communicator will log in automatically for you. All you have to do is select the option and Communicator will take care of the rest.

We’ve also done some work to get Communicator Mobile ready for the Windows Mobile 6.5 release this fall. A new plug-in will integrate nicely with the Home screen. In addition to looking good, it will show your presence status and the number of ongoing conversations.

Another benefit of Windows Mobile 6.5 is that it gives you the capability to make a call via work (the ability to place outbound calls using your work identity) directly from your phone dialer. With this enhancement users can dial extension numbers to call their colleagues.

The team also improved the overall experience of making calls via work. In the previous release, you made your call via work and then answered the incoming call to complete the connection. Now Communicator Mobile completes the connection for you by automatically accepting the incoming call.

How to get it

The Office Communicator Mobile 2007 R2 update is accessible via your mobile phone at www.GetCoMo.com or on the Microsoft Download Web site.

Marc Boyer
Published Monday, August 03, 2009 9:00 AM by octeam