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Jeffrey Steinke, Author at Less Meeting - Page 2 of 11

Less Meeting Update #1 – Undo, New Linking Options & More Shortcuts

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We’re excited as this week we’ve pushed out another huge Less Meeting update.There’s a lot of great new features so we’re spreading our updates out over a few posts so that you don’t miss anything. Check out the details below and stay tuned to future updates coming this week…

1. Undo Accidental Note Deletions

Ever delete a meeting note in Less Meeting on accident?!? Mis-clicks like these are frustrating so we’ve added a new undo option.Simply type “Ctrl+Z” (or “Cmd+Z” for Mac users) and your most recent deleted note will be re-added. This also includes any sub-notes that were deleted!

 

2. Linking & Unlinking Meetings

Recurring meetings are incredibly popular in Less Meeting. By sharing related information – action items, parking lots, etc – across related meeting topics, it makes it much easier to avoid “groundhog day meeting syndrome” (having the same discussion week after week!).We’ve recently added two new features to make recurring meetings even better:

    1. Linking Recurring Meetings – Now you can link any meeting to any other meeting, giving you a central place to manage all your info on a particular project or topic.

 

  • Unlinking Meetings – Accidentally link the wrong meetings? Use this option to correct your mistake.

 

3. More Meeting Note Shortcuts

We’ve added another great shortcut to make meeting minutes even easier.

While your focus is inside the note box, press Up/Down and Left/Right to move the note box to a different section in your notes. Click here for a recap of our other note taking shortcuts.

4. New Feature Request Forum

Wonder where we get all our ideas for new features to add?

These ideas come from users like you. All of the above features, including a number of others, were suggested on our new feature request forum.

Visit the Less Meeting forum now to add your ideas!


New to Less Meeting?Click here to learn how Less Meeting helps you reinvent the way you plan, run and follow up on your meetings.

New Mobile Release: Introducing Audio Recording & More!

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iPad/iPhone Audio Recording

We’d heard your requests wanting audio recording for the Less Meeting app. And so a few weeks back we asked you why you record audio in your meetings?

As we’ve been working we learned of a few similar themes:

  • You’re already recording your meetings using other apps with Less Meeting at the same time – wouldn’t it be nice if you could do everything inside one app?
  • While you don’t need it for every meeting,  Often times you’ll record an entire meeting, usually an important one you’ll need documented audio for
  • When taking notes, we all tend to miss something here and there and would like to go back later to re-listen to specific parts of a meeting

And with that we’re excited to announce that we’ve added audio recording to the Less Meeting App.

Record Meeting Audio with One Tap!!

Audio recording is incredibly simple. From any meeting you’ll see a new “Record Audio” option.

Just a single tap and you’re instantly recording. Feel free to start & stop recording anytime you like and Less Meeting will seamlessly merge each clip from the same meeting together.

Activate from the left menu of the iPad app
On the iPhone, access recordings from the Timer tab

Want recording automatically on for every meeting? You can set this too, from the Settings tab.

Audio Playback Syncs With Your Notes

When you’re ready to playback your audio you’ll notice any notes you took during the meeting are intelligently synced with the audio.

Use the audio slider to fast forward through the meeting and watch the corresponding notes get highlighted as you listen.

Or, tap a note and listen as the audio automatically jumps to the time of the meeting that the note was taken.

Click here to get more info about audio recording.

Mobile International Date/Time Support

Another long requested feature is supporting dates and times across languages and we’re excited to add this to the mobile app.

This is set from your iOS Settings menu (iOS Settings > International > Region Format) meaning it updates automatically, not change needed on your part.

No more confusion around whether your meeting on 02/03/2013 is scheduled for February 3rd or March 2nd.

Improved Calendar Sync Logging

Last, we’re always trying to improve the calendar sync process. It’s a continual challenge to stay up with constant Google Calendar updates so we’ve enhanced the logging around any calendar sync changes.

What’s this mean to you?

If you’re still seeing some discrepancies on how your meeting syncs to Less Meeting from your calendar, reach out to us so we can re-analyze what’s going on with the improved logging.


Don’t have the Less Meeting iPad or iPhone apps yet? They’re free and no account is needed, so why wait?

Download the free mobile apps to improve the meeting culture at your next meeting.

Why do you record audio in your meetings?

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Lately one of our more frequent feature requests is for audio recording, especially in our iPad and iPhone apps. Seems like a natural extension to Less Meeting, right?

And if you look through the app store there are tons of audio recording mobile apps, some even a bit pricey. So there appears to be a market for them.

As we think through it more carefully though we’re not sure – what is the real benefit that you think you’ll have with the ability to record the audio of your meetings in Less Meeting?

…To let you focus on the discussion and write up the notes after the meeting?
Sounds great on the surface, but I question how often those notes ever get written. I’d bet there are a ton of audio files out there ready to get transcribed but never get checked off that to-do list.

…To share the audio with someone who missed the meeting?
Again this sounds great, but does it actually happen? And does the person receiving the audio clip ever listen to it, or does that email sit in the inbox unread forever?

…To have on record, for CYA or KX purposes?
Seems valid, but is this really a high priority use case? I suppose it could be in some regulatory circumstances.

…To send off to a transcription service that writes up your minutes for you?
Perhaps, but you don’t want 40 pages of notes if they transcribe word-for-word. Local Atlanta startup TranscriptsHQ has a promising option though, with the ability to give you fully edited notes, cutting out all the fluff and trimming down to the meat of the meeting notes.

…To go back to a certain unclear meeting note, or a certain time in the meeting you missed?
Ok I think we’re starting to get somewhere here. Which means marrying the notes and the audio is pretty important.

Which leads to the simple question – why do you want to record the audio in your meetings? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Announcing Reminders Integration for iPad/iPhone

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We’ve got a short & sweet mobile app update – announcing action item integration with your iPad/iPhone Reminders app!

Setting up Sync with your Reminders App

How does the sync work between your Less Meeting app and your iPad or iPhone?

Simple, just turn it on from the “Settings” tab of the Less Meeting app.

Make sure to allow Less Meeting to access your Reminders app. If you accidentally tapped “Don’t Allow” you can fix that by going to Settings > Privacy > Reminders and flipping Less Meeting to “On”.

Now, all your open to-dos from Less Meeting will automatically sync to the Reminders app, including their due date and details.

You can edit and complete your tasks from either the Reminders app or Less Meeting, and the updates will automatically sync to each other.

Bonus Tip: If you’ve setup your Reminders app with iCloud, your action items will also sync to your computer.

We’ve knocked out a number of other bug fixes, pesky app crashes and performance improvements in this release, so make sure to update your app today.

PS – Reminders sync only works for iOS 6 users. We’d love to support iOS 5 integration but unfortunately that’s out of our control.


Don’t have the Less Meeting iPad or iPhone apps yet? They’re free and no account is needed, so why wait? Download the free apps to start running productive meetings today.

An important note about the latest Less Meeting mobile app update

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That didn’t work out as planned…

We were all ready to tell you about our latest Less Meeting mobile app update (v1.2.2). We have fixes in place for a number of key bugs, as well as integration with the Apple iOS Reminders app. Cool stuff, right?
Well, in the process we unfortunately had a critical issue arise preventing the app from working on any non-retina device. This affects users on:
  • iPad 1 and 2,
  • iPhone 3 and earlier,
  • and the new iPad Minis.

If you have a non-retina devices, do not update to the latest mobile version (v1.2.2). This is 100%  our fault – and for that we’re both sorry and a bit embarrassed.

Getting the fix out

After discovering the non-retina device issue, we quickly turned around a fix last week and resubmitted the new app update (v1.2.3) to Apple for review, including requesting an expedited review to get the fix out ASAP.
In the process Apple found that our app is not in compliance with their App Store Review Guidelines. In particular, they referred to the process of having users enter their email to use the app (note that this has never changed from the original app store release). As Less Meeting users, you’ll recognize the importance of why the app captures your email: assigning action items, syncing with your iPad/iPhone calendar, and tracking attendees.
We’ve made our case to Apple about both why the app needs your email, as well as why we need to get this fix out, but ultimately these are Apple’s decisions to make.

What this means to you

Until Apple approves our compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines, we unfortunately have no other way to get the fix to non-retina users. Nor can we roll back to the previous, working version. The best workaround is to avoid upgrading and use a retina-enabled device when possible (iPad 3+, and iPhone 4+). We don’t have an ETA, but as soon as we do we’ll of course let you know.
Thanks again for your patience and continued support of Less Meeting. If you have any other questions or concerns you can always reach us directly via our support site.
 Sincerely,
– The Less Meeting Team

New iPad/iPhone Release: Edit/Delete Meetings, Custom Minutes, Help & More

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Happy New Year part II!Last week we announced an updated Outlook plugin and this week we’ve got more new stuff on the way for you.

This time around it’s v2 of our iPad & iPhone apps!

After our initial app release at the end of last year we got some fantastic feedback. Long time Less Meeting users pointed us toward some of their favorite web features that we’d left out, and first time Less Meeting-ers gave some great new insight and perspective.

Editing and Deleting Huddles and Meetings

Easily the #1 request was the ability to edit Huddle times & subjects. In a close 2nd were requests to delete old huddles you don’t want anymore. Even though you could do this from the web, we missed a key feature by not including this in the mobile apps.

To edit or delete your meeting, tap the Calendar Entry icon from the meeting and then tap Edit from the popup.

Brand Your Meeting Minute Emails

Love having your notes get sent out right after the meeting, but want more control over the meeting minutes email? New email template options now let you pick:

    • Who gets the email

 

  • Which meeting notes are included

 

 

  • The branding of the email (e.g. pick your own colors & logos)

 

You’ll see these options next time you tap Send Minutes from your iPad or iPhone.

Note: You’ll need a web account to take advantage of meeting minute email branding.

Instant Help at Your Fingertips

To help you get the most out of the mobile apps we added some common FAQs and an overview of favorite features right into the app.

Access the help menu from the Settings tab or the help icon on your meeting page.

Update iOS 6 Permissions to Fix Crashing

Unfortunately some users experienced occasional crashing when trying to sync their calendars or contacts. If you’ve seen crashes during these activities download the latest version of the app.

And of course we’ve added some smaller tweaks, improvements, and bug fixes that you’ll notice as well. We’ve improved the device calendar sync, added an in-meeting view of related action items to the iPhone (was already on the iPad), improved performance, and more…


Don’t have the Less Meeting iPad or iPhone apps yet? They’re free and no account is needed, so why not? Download the app to start running productive meetings today.