After entering the room, a PDF file is displayed by default, which also contains some blank pages for use as a whiteboard. Presenters can replace the default slide with their own presentation.
Note: If you want to present a PowerPoint file with animation, audio or video, the PowerPoint window should be shared via screen sharing instead.
You can upload files up to 30 MB in size. Office documents are automatically converted to a PDF file1 after upload. Animations2, audio, hyperlinks and embedded content are removed in the process. Therefore, it is best to work directly with PDF documents. You will usually get better quality if you do the conversion yourself. When doing so, you should also use the Embed Fonts option for optimal display. It is recommended to test the presentation in a BBB room prior to the actual event.
1 For example, a PowerPoint document is first converted to a PDF in BigBlueButton by LibreOffice 7.0.4, which in turn is converted to an SVG for display in the browser.
2 Simply adding content to a PowerPoint slide can also be implemented via PDF file by distributing the intermediate views over several slides.
To upload a file, click the Actions button (plus icon at the bottom left) in the main area and select "Manage presentations".
This will take you to the file manager, where you will also see all the documents uploaded so far as a list with their names. By the "current" tag you recognize the presentation currently displayed in the room.
You can now drag and drop files onto the highlighted area below, or click on it to bring up your operating system's file selection dialog.
Afterwards, your selection appears in the list with a colored background, ready for upload. You can now still make settings using the icons on the right at the end of each listed document:
Then confirm the upload of new files using the button of the same name in the upper right corner.
Then you'll end up back in the conference room while the document is uploaded and converted in the background. You can track the progress via the notification that appears at the top right of the main area. When the process is complete, the presentation will be displayed in the room.
To switch between already uploaded presentations, click the Actions button and select the desired file in the upper area. The currently displayed presentation is represented there by an icon with a checkmark.
After the successful change you will receive a notification in the top right corner of the main area.
Alternatively, you can call up the presentation management as described above. There you select the desired file in the row with the desired file via the middle symbol with the circle. Then exit the view via the confirm button at the top right.
Presenters can navigate through the presentation slides and adjust their orientation. All users see the display (without controls) just as you do. Your cursor is displayed as a red dot like a laser pointer for everyone.
The presentation slide control panel is located under the presentation display and above your media control icons.
To navigate through your content, use the Slide Navigator (1). Use the navigation arrows to switch to the next (">") or previous ("<") slide. To quickly skip to a specific slide, select the slide number from the drop-down menu, which you can access using the downward pointing arrow.
You can Zoom In (+) or Out (-) of the slide (2). Click on the zoom level displayed between the two buttons to reset it to 100%. In addition, you can use Fit-to-Width (3), for example to make the text larger for a portrait document. You can then click and drag with the hand tool to move up/down the document.
All users can also individually activate the full screen mode (4) for the presentation.
Using the whiteboard functionality, you can add annotations or marks to the presentation in form of different shapes, text boxes and freehand drawings in different colors.