Share Your Screen in a Video Session

Chrome allows you to share the contents of your screen via: 

• your entire screen
• an application window
  • With Spaces on a Mac, you can see only application windows within the same space. If an expected app is missing, move the window to the same desktop space your browser is in.
• a specific Chrome tab

Click the desired item to share, and a preview displays in the pop-up. If the shared item is as expected, click Share. 

When an active share is in progress, the screen share icon is initially highlighted with a black and green ring. When you click onto anything else, the highlight changes to only a green ring.

Alerts are displayed based on the screen share option selected:

• sharing your entire screen: the message "SITE is sharing your screen" appears over the icons in the lower-middle of the page. 

• sharing a window: the message "SITE is sharing a window." appears over the icons in the lower-middle of the page. 

• sharing a specific tab: the tab has a blue rectangle, indicating active sharing, and in the upper-left corner of the page, a message says "Sharing this tab to SITE"

At any time, click the share icon to stop sharing, or if the screen share message is displayed (as in the examples above), click the blue button Stop sharing to stop. 

In Firefox, a prompt appears to "Allow SITE to see your screen?"

The Window or screen dropdown menu has the following sharing options:

• another application 
  • With Spaces on a Mac, you can see only application windows within the same space. If an expected app is missing, move the window to the same desktop space your browser is in.
• a specific Firefox tab 
• your entire screen

Click the desired item to share, and a preview will appear below. If the preview is as expected, then click Allow.

When an active share is in progress, the screen share icon is initially highlighted with a black and green ring. When you click onto anything else, the highlight changes to only a green ring.

Alerts are displayed based on the screen share option selected: 

• sharing another application: the upper-middle of the page displays a message stating "You are sharing another application window.".

• sharing entire screen: the upper-middle of the page displays a message stating "You are sharing your entire screen."

• sharing the browser: the upper-middle of the page displays a message stating "You are sharing Firefox."

At any time, click the share icon to stop sharing, or if the screen share message is displayed (as in the examples above), click the blue button Stop sharing to stop. 

Safari users can only share the full screen and can't select individual apps/browser windows. A popup appears to "Allow 'SITE' to observe your screen?" To share your screen, click Allow. 

This prompt will appear each time you click share, even if you stop sharing and start sharing again in the same session. 

If the prompt doesn't appear, check Safari Preferences > Websites to ensure Handshake is set to Ask.

When there is an active share, the computer icon is highlighted with a green circle. 

The address bar also displays two red rectangles overlapping, indicating an active share. If you have multiple tabs open, this same icon is displayed on your video session tab in grey.

At any time, click the share icon to stop sharing, or you can click the red rectangles in the address bar to Pause instead. 

Edge allows you to share the contents of your screen via: 

• your entire screen
• an application window
  • With Spaces on a Mac, you can see only application windows within the same space. If an expected app is missing, move the window to the same desktop space your browser is in.
• a specific Edge tab 

Click the desired item to share, and a preview displays in the popup. If the shared item is as expected, click Share.

When an active share is in progress, the screen share icon is highlighted initially with a black and green ring. When you click onto anything else, the icon is highlighted with only a green ring.

Alerts are displayed based on the chosen share option: 

• sharing a window: the message "SITE is sharing a window" appears over the icons in the lower-middle of the page. 

• sharing entire screen: the message "SITE is sharing your screen." appears over the icons in the lower-middle of the page. 

• sharing a specific tab: the tab has a coloured rectangle indicating active sharing, and in the upper-left corner of the page, a message says "Sharing this tab to SITE" 

At any time, click the share icon to stop sharing, or if the screen share message is displayed (as in the examples below), click the blue button Stop sharing to stop. 

There isn't a Handshake supported way to play a pre-recorded video during a session. However, you can share your screen during the session and play a video via a tab, window, or another application.

If you share a video in this manner, the audio will play from your computer's selected speaker and feed into your selected microphone. So, ensure that there are no headphones connected and your microphone volume is high. 

We'd recommend testing this setup with a colleague ahead of time to confirm functionality. Check out Handshake Video Test.

As a host, you can leverage Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint to add real-time closed captions.

Attendees also have the option to enable closed captions with Google Chrome.

Tip: if your attendees are curious about accessibility features, they can refer to Attending via Video on Handshake.

The following caption options are available: 

1. Google Slides 
2. Microsoft PowerPoint 

Once you've enabled closed captions using Google Slides or PowerPoint, select the screen or tab with your Google Slides or PowerPoint presentation and your attendees will then be able to view the presentation with closed captions.