Gates Shows Off Live Meeting 2005

Bill Gates joined several high-level Microsoft executives Tuesday to herald in the next generation of its Live Meeting software that allows companies to hold long distance meetings over the Internet. Most notable among the new features in Live Meeting 2005 is the capability to launch a meeting from within the Office Suite.

"Microsoft Office Live Meeting is an important example of how the Microsoft Office System is innovating and expanding -- further empowering information workers and making them more productive and effective," said Jeff Raikes, group vice president of Microsoft's Information Worker Group.

Live Meeting 2005 will give the user a choice of whether to use normal telephone conferencing, or utilize computer speakers. Also, presenters can mute and unmute, as well as disconnect participants in the conference.

The Document Viewer now supports viewing of just about any document format. Microsoft has additionally updated the PowerPoint Viewer to allow participants to see animations and transitions, as well as view slides in full-screen mode.

"Live Meeting 2005 is a key element of our integrated communications vision that helps people and organizations richly communicate and work together more effectively," Anoop Gupta, Microsoft corporate vice president for the Real-Time Collaboration Group said.

Live Meeting 2005 works with Microsoft's newly christened Office Communicator 2005 client, which integrates numerous communications tools into a single interface, as well as Live Communications Server.