Collaborating on Collage
One of the most unique and useful tools that collage offers is the
chance to collaborate with other users on the same pictures or
data sets simultaneously. You will want to make sure that the other
person you wish to share a collage session with has
installed the correct collage.
A collaborative session is started by one person clicking on the
main dialogue
window menubar option Collaborate/Begin Session.
This causes a dialog box to pop open allowing the user to
type in a server DTM port. A DTM port is of the format:
The Server port number is some number between 2048 and 65535. Pick some
random number and type it in so long as it is between 2k and 64k.
The host part is not necessary when the port is on the local
machine. This will always be the case when starting the server.
So type something like 4567 in as your server
port. This will bring up another window
declaring the connection made.
People may join the collaborative session just started by selecting
Collaborate/Join Session
on their collage main window.
They will need to fill in the box that says
Host name of collage server: and the box that says Server port number. Remember to have them put in the same number chosen to begin the
session. These must be the same as the entries in the Begin Session
box. For that reason, you must be able to communicate with others in the
session and share the port number selected,
as well as the host name of server.
Once the connection is established, the main dialogue window will show
you who is participating in the session.
Also in the main dialogue window, you may open any file. To make the
file appear for the other participants, you should choose the Publish
option that will appear in the window under the File button.
Also, you may create your own
Whiteboard, where you can make figures
or write text. Once you have made some sort of mark on the whiteboard, it
becomes shared with the other viewers. The title at the top of the window
declares it to be a Public Whiteboard, which means that anything one
person does to it, everyone experiences. For example, if you had written
something in there, and then someone else chose to use the Clear
Whiteboard option under the Edit button, then everything that
you had to say would be erased. Of course, you could complain using the
Chat Box, and in that way what you had to say would be heard.
The Chat Box
is also a quite valuable commodity. This is available
under the Tools button in the main dialogue window. Again, once
one person actually enters something in the window, everyone else involved
in the session will have a Chat Box window open with the
entered comment preceded by the person's identification.
Next: Sample Collaborating Session on Collage
Previous: Starting Collage
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