FAQs About Screen Sharing

These FAQs will try to answer some of your questions about screen sharing in web conferences. If you have a question that hasn’t been answered below, please feel free to get in touch.

Question: What is screen sharing?
Answer: Screen sharing is the ability to transmit your desktop screen to one or more computers via the Internet. It is a common feature in web conferencing software as it allows presenters to share content such as PowerPoint presentations or even video directly from their screens without the need for the participants to download the content themselves. This also means that all meeting attendees are seeing the same presentation at the same time, so there is no need to keep verifying which slide everyone is on, or waiting for people to catch up.

Question: Can anyone benefit from screen sharing?
Answer: While screen sharing is certainly useful, not everyone can benefit from it. The reason is that screen sharing is very bandwidth-hungry, so those on slower Internet connections will not be able to broadcast their screens, or view other people’s screens properly. With high-speed Internet becoming increasingly available, more and more people will be able to enjoy screen sharing in their web conferences.

Question: What type of content can be used when screen sharing?
Answer: You can share anything that is open on your screen in your computer. However, depending on the software you are using for screen sharing, you might want to avoid fast-changing screens such as video, for example. This happens because some online meeting tools cannot properly handle multimedia materials that require heavy bandwidth, making the images arrive grainy or with a delay to the meeting participants.

Question: What  do I need to consider when I am sharing my screen during a web meeting?
Answer: There are a few screen sharing do's and don'ts you need to consider. The first thing you need to think about are the kinds of applications that you have open on your computer when sharing your screen. For example, you could have been working on an employee review in Word prior to the meeting you presented. This is obviously information that you would keep private, so it’s best closing the document before the meeting starts. But it’s not only open documents you need to consider. You should also close e-mail programs such as Outlook, as you could receive incoming e-mail notifications during your web conference, which could be seen by all meeting participants if you are sharing your screen.

Question: If I need to type my password to log into a service while sharing my screen, will my password be visible?
Answer: No, your participants will see exactly what you see on your screen. That is, if your password is not visible to you when you type it (because it has been replaced with asterisks or dots), then your password will be protected. Another option is for you to log into any website you will be demonstrating before the meeting - this is also a great time saving strategy.