Work Together, Apart!

Before you can work together online, you've got to build a virtual conference room where everyone can be together online. Your tools? Software programs that let you swap messages, trade sketches, edit live documents together, talk, even see one another. Each of the packages below creates a different venue for an online meeting.

Team Need: Edit documents and spreadsheets in real time.

Power Tool: Microsoft NetMeeting 2.0 (free)

There's no such a thing as a free lunch, but you can avoid picking up the tab for the next business meeting by downloading NetMeeting from Microsoft's Web site.

To get started, register your Net address on a NetMeeting server. When it's time to hook up for a tete-a-tete, you and your meeting partner go online and log onto the server. From there, use the chat utility to send rapid-fire messages. There's also a telephony function that enables you to talk with each other (you supply the microphone and speakers for the PC). The sound quality may vary, depending on your Internet connection and the amount of traffic on the Net, but with text chat and an accompanying electronic whiteboard, you'll have more than enough tools to get all of your points across.

NetMeeting's best feature is its cooperative editing functions. It lets you share standard Windows applications such as Excel and Word, so you can edit and exchange files with others -- even if they don't have Excel or Word installed on their computers. Application sharing makes putting updated numbers on a spreadsheet a one-step process. To prevent online anarchy, you can keep others from making changes on a project proposal. Or you can let them edit the document at will. Those working with customers who are on various platforms will be stumped, though: NetMeeting is for Windows 95 and Windows NT users only. Nevertheless, its full-range of functions, including a videoconferencing feature, make it a good place to start experimenting with application sharing.

Coordinates: Microsoft, http://www.microsoft.com

Team Need: Work together across platforms.

Power Tool: Netscape Conference ($59 in stores; free from Internet service providers)

Sometimes it's best to simplify. Conference, part of Netscape's Communicator package, is easy to set up and easy to use.

To get connected, enter the other person's email address and set the software's text-chat feature so it opens automatically when your work partner calls. The chatting feature is pretty much hassle-free. If your partner misses the meeting, use Conference's Internet phone feature to email a voice message.

Trading on its Web prowess, Conference has a nifty feature for serious cybercruisers. Suppose you want to take a customer to several competitors' Web sites to assess their online presence. With Conference, you can take control of the customer's browser and conduct a tour through cyberspace.

A couple of shortcomings, however, limit Conference's utility. While you can cut and paste documents onto a digital whiteboard, you can't share applications. Conference is also limited to two users in its current version. On the upside, it reaches across a full range of platforms: Macintosh, Windows, and Unix. This makes Conference an obvious choice for people who work with others using different file formats.

Coordinates: Netscape Communications, http://www.netscape.com

Team Need: Work together on a digital whiteboard and discuss the results through your computer.

Power Tool: VocalTec's Internet Conference Professional 2.1 ($150)

VocalTec's Internet Conference Professional (IC Pro) is the Power Tool of choice for people who work on visually oriented projects, such as reviewing the blueprint of a new toy being manufactured overseas. The Internet phone let's you place an international call, discuss last-minute design changes, and rough them out on the software's whiteboard. (Memo to your company controller: computer-to-computer Internet phone calls eliminate long-distance charges.)

Conference Professional offers the clearest Internet phone service of any I've tested -- about the same as a conference speakerphone. It also accommodates more than two callers at once, so you can get everyone's feedback in real time instead of laboring through an email poll. There is, of course, a catch: a caller must connect to one of several IC Pro servers, create a private "conference room," and then invite others who've already been apprised of the conference room's name. It sounds complicated, but the whole process is pretty painless.