Tidebreak’s products enhance collaboration, giving you a set of advanced tools that help you get the most out of working together.

Using Tidebreak’s software, you can:

• Work together on a public computer

  Your computer is your personal space — don’t show it to the entire room. Tidebreak’s software makes a public computer the common workspace for the group, functioning like an extended desktop to each laptop. Everyone can be working on this “public desktop” at the same time, which means that no one person is stuck doing all the work.

• Share content with a simple drag & drop

  Instead of dictating URLs across the table, just drag and drop them. Send documents, folders and URLs directly from one computer to another in just seconds.

• Show your screen interactively

  Sometimes you need to show your desktop, such as when you want to show others an application that is only installed on your computer. Tidebreak lets you show your screen and selectively allow someone to “drive” it temporarily. Instantly. And there’s no need to plug in drop cables.

• Access the real-time session archive

  Tidebreak’s products automatically collect information about files, folders, websites and typed comments your group shares. In some cases, it can also capture a record of what you’ve written on a physical whiteboard.

Explore the Possibilities

Download the Tidebreak client software directly from the TeamSpot or ClassSpot public computer by pointing your browser at the computer’s URL. Install the Tidebreak client software, then connect to the public computer to access these features.

• Slide your cursor onto the Public screen

  In Tidebreak-enabled environments, you can work together on the “Public” computer (the big screen) where everyone can see what is happening. To control the Public computer, simply move your cursor up to the top of your laptop screen, and then keep going. The cursor will “jump” up to the public computer, as if it’s an extension of your desktop. Now you’re controlling it from your laptop, without having to share a keyboard or plug in any cables. Want to get back to your laptop? Just move the mouse off the bottom of the Public screen. If there is more than one Public computer, you can move between them by sliding the cursor off the left or right edge of the screens.

• Discover a faster way to share content with others

  Simply drag a file icon or a web address to the TeamSpot or ClassSpot Participants list and drop it on one of the participants. Send an item to everyone simultaneously by dropping it on “All Participants.”

• Copy and paste text between computers

  When you “cut” or “copy” text from your computer, Tidebreak’s TeamSpot software stores the text in a shared group clipboard. Anyone connected to the TeamSpot can then immediately paste a copy of that text on another computer. You can also slide your cursor to a Public screen and paste the text yourself. (This feature is not available in ClassSpot for security reasons.)

• Access shared content from the real-time session archive

  Avoid dictating URLs to each other or copying them down to reference later. Any time you send URLs or files to someone in your session, a record is saved in the session archive. You can view the archive at any time during the session to revisit links or files that were shared earlier. You can also send a file directly to the archive, where other group members can easily download it. And you can take it with you after the meeting; just click “Save Archive” to download a copy of the session archive to your laptop.

• Place a comment in the archive

  Insert a brief text note to the archive that can be a reference to other content or simple action items. Add a discussion comment, record a question, or mark a point in the session for future reference.

• Interactively share your computer’s desktop

  Show your computer desktop on another screen to make it temporarily “public” when you are running unique content that can’t be shared in one of the primary interaction modes. Simply choose a target computer and select the “Show” (view only) or “Share” (interactive) mode. The Show mode allows you to wirelessly display your desktop on a Public screen while others watch passively. The Share mode lets you show your desktop on a Public screen and allow others to work on it interactively.

Do Your Best Collaborative Work

Working collaboratively doesn’t have to be painful. Tidebreak’s software provides new ways to work that eliminate familiar problems that appear when groups try to work together. See how it fixes these common complaints:

• “I end up doing all the work.”

  Eliminate “slacking.” Everyone contributes directly on the shared public computer. In fact, every person can have their individualized cursor on the public computer at the same time so they can jump in to take control as soon as they are ready to share an idea or contribute somehow. Instead of shouting out instructions to someone else to modify a document, you can simply move your cursor onto the public computer and make the changes yourself.

• “I don’t get anything out of working in a group.”

  Collaboration is all about sharing ideas and working together to create acceptable solutions. Using Tidebreak’s software, each person can contribute to the group’s understanding and thus promote shared solutions that everyone can accept and support.

• “Team projects take a lot more time.”

  Divide and conquer your project tasks. Tidebreak’s software helps you build content and share information without slowing you down. No need to wait while one person types something up; use your own laptop to work ahead on some aspect of the project. When you’re ready to share it with the group, you can send the file to the public screen, or copy text from your laptop and paste it into the team’s document on the public screen.

• “It’s so hard to resolve issues by email.”

  Spend 5 minutes talking together to wrestle with ideas instead of sending a series of 44 emails. Discuss issues and make decisions as you go so that everyone stays aligned. Since the work happens on the big public screen, everyone can see exactly what has been done and offer opinions about changing the content.

• “I didn’t get the final draft until too late.”

  Don’t leave anyone out. Make it easy to engage the entire team every step of the way so that the final result reflects everyone’s ideas instead of just the last person to edit the documents.