Print Documents from a Customer's Computer

When controlling a customer's application or desktop during a support session, you can:

  • Open a document that resides on the customer's computer.

  • Print to your local computer's default printer at your location.

1

On the remote computer, open the document to print.

2

Open the print options to display the list of printers and specify your printing options.

3

Print the document.

Control Your View of a Customer's Desktop or Application

When viewing or controlling a customer's desktop or application, you can specify the following options. These options determine how a shared application or desktop appears on your screen:

  • Display the shared desktop or application in a full-screen view or a standard window. A full-screen view of a shared application or desktop fits your entire screen and does not include a title bar or scroll bars.

  • Scale, or resize, a shared desktop, or application to fit the full-screen view or standard window in which it appears.

    Your site administrator sets the default view for your user account.

    A customer can also specify these options when viewing or controlling your desktop or application.

1

Do either of the following:

  • On the icon tray, or in the multisession window, select Session.

  • In the title bar of the sharing window, select Sharing.

2

On the menu that appears, select View, then select an option for viewing the shared desktop or application.

3

If you're using the screen sampling option for displaying shared desktops and applications, you can also specify the number of colors with which to view the shared desktop or application.

For more information Specify the Color Mode for a Shared Desktop or Application.

Specify the Color Mode for a Shared Desktop or Application

When viewing or controlling a customer's desktop or application, you can choose one of the following color modes:

  • 256 colors: Specifies that a shared desktop or application appears in 256 colors in the viewer on your screen. This option requires less bandwidth for sharing desktops or applications than does the High color option, but provides lower imaging quality. Thus, this option is useful if a customer is using a dial-up connection to attend a support session.

  • High color (16 bit): Specifies that a shared desktop or application appears in 16-bit color in the viewer on your screen. This option requires more bandwidth than the 256 color option, but provides better imaging quality.

    Your site administrator sets the default color mode for your user account.

    A customer can also specify a color mode when viewing or controlling your desktop or application.

1

Do either of the following:

  • On the icon tray, or in the multisession window, select Session.

  • In the title bar of the sharing window, select Sharing.

2

On the menu that appears, select Color Mode, then choose a color option.

Tips for Sharing Desktops or Applications

The following are tips that can help you to share software more effectively during a support session:

  • To improve the performance of desktop and application sharing, instruct the customer to close all applications that you do not need to view or control. Closing these applications conserves processor usage and memory on the customer's computer. This helps ensure that the customer's client software can send images quickly during a session. Also, to ensure that a maximum amount of bandwidth is available for sharing, ask the customer to close any applications that use bandwidth. This includes instant messaging or chat programs, and programs that receive streaming audio or video from the web.

  • If, during application sharing, you see a crosshatched pattern on your screen, the customer is covering a shared application with another window on their computer's desktop. Instruct the customer to move or close the other window.

  • You can improve performance of desktop or application sharing by reducing the number of colors in which the shared software appears.

    For more information see, Specify the Color Mode for a Shared Desktop or Application.

  • We recommend that both you and the customer use a dedicated, high-speed Internet connection when sharing an application or desktop. If you or a customer is using a dial-up Internet connection, you may notice a delay in viewing or interacting with a shared application. In this case, you can adjust the quality of the display to improve performance.

Annotate a Shared Desktop or Application

When you share your desktop or application, or view or control a customer's desktop or application, you can use annotation tools to draw and illustrate information on the shared screen.

All support session participants can view annotations as they are made.

If you want to annotate your desktop or application, and the customer is currently controlling it remotely, first regain control of the application or desktop. Otherwise, you can't open the Annotation panel.

To return to using or remotely controlling a shared desktop or application, first stop annotation mode.

1

On the icon tray that appears during desktop or application sharing, select Annotation.

If the Annotation button does not appear on the icon tray, select Session > Annotation Panel.

Annotation mode starts, and your mouse pointer becomes a highlighter tool with which you can begin making annotations.

Your customer can also begin annotating.

2

(Optional) On the Annotation panel, select another tool to make annotations noting the following:

  • To clear all annotations, select the downward-pointing arrow to the right of the Eraser button > Clear All Annotations.

  • To clear specific annotations, select Eraser then select the annotation that you want to clear.

  • To turn off the Eraser tool, select Eraser.

  • To take a screen capture of your desktop, select Screen Capture on the Annotation panel and enter the information for saving your file.

3

To stop annotation mode, right-click the panel's title bar and select Close Panel.