Enabling Screen Sharing for Online Meetings

When you click on the "Screen Sharing" icon while in an online meeting, you may be asked to allow the sharing of your screen. When asked, it's important that you DO allow screen sharing. If you don't, even if it's a mistake, you aren't asked again and will have to make some changes, either in the browser itself or at the system level (for Mac users). To avoid this hassle, it's always a good idea to allow screen sharing when asked. 

Enabling Screen Sharing on Mac (for Chrome, etc.)

The Mac OS always seems to have its peccadilloes because Apple takes the privacy of its users very seriously. As such, changing settings to allow certain things requires a few more steps that it does on Windows. Enabling screen sharing, if you've disallowed it in the first place, is one such thing. To allow third-party browsers such as Chrome, Edge and Firefox (but NOT Safari -- it has its own settings) to screen share, do the following:

1. Open your System Preferences by clicking on the Apple icon and selecting it from the dropdown list.
2. Click on the Security & Privacy icon
3. From here, click the Privacy tab
4. Under the heading "Allow the apps below to record the contents of your screen, even while use other apps." you should see a list of browsers such as Chrome, Edge, etc. Click on the browsers you want to use when sharing your screen. (Note: you may have to click the lock icon in the lower, left corner of the window to make changes.)
5. When prompted, click Quit Now. (You need to quit and restart the browser(s) in order for changes to take effect.)
6. You can now re-open your browser navigate to your Online Meeting. Sharing your screen will now be enabled.

Allow Screen Sharing in Safari

Just as with the Mac OS, Safari has its own way of handling screen sharing. So, if you've opted to NOT share your screen in Safari, here's what you need to do:

1. First, make sure your SmarterMail site is secured with an SSL certificate. This isn't so much a Safari thing as it is a best practice for any website, and any mail server URL in particular.
2. Next, navigate to your webmail URL. 
3. From the browser menu options, click on Safari then select Settings for This Site from the dropdown. Here, you'll see various permissions given for the site you're visiting. 
4.  Make sure you Ask or Allow everything for your SmarterMail URL. (Or, tweak the settings to at least allow Screen Sharing.)
5. Refresh the webmail URL and you should be good to go.

Windows Browsers

Windows browsers act a little differently than Mac browsers. The most noticeable difference is that you don't have to tweak any system settings on Windows like you do on Mac. If you've disabled screen sharing, or the use of your camera and/or microphone, it's simply a matter of clicking on the lock icon next to your SmarterMail URL (for Edge and Chrome) and then selecting Site Settings from the dropdown. This acts the same as the "Settings for this Website" in Safari: you can modify any existing permissions granted on a per-site basis.