Frequently Asked Questions

The products of Sendsteps can be used worldwide via a phone number in the Netherlands or New Zealand. If you would like to have a number from your country please send in your request to mycountry@sendsteps.com.

Sendsteps has several products.
• Send2vote, a plug-in integrated in PowerPoint that allows you to include questions in your own presentation. Your audience can answer the questions by sending a text message on the spot.
• Send2stage, a plug-in integrated in PowerPoint with which you can ask your audience to send in their questions/comments. After screening you can let this appear on screen for answering.

Sendsteps wants to make it possible that everybody can give their own opinion.

This is the code you need to activate your session in order to be able to receive messages that will be send from the audience. You can get the activation code online via www.mysendsteps.com. Your country, Phone number, keyword, date and audience size is linked to the activation code. An activation code is valid for 1 day (24 hours, from 6 a.m. until 6 a.m.).

When using the activation code to start a session the phone number and keyword will automatically be added to your presentation. This to explain to your audience what they need to do. Here an example of the way it is shown:

“Start your message with vote <space> your answer send it to 2255
For example: Vote b”

Yes, you can download the product for free. It will automatically integrate into Microsoft PowerPoint.

Until now it is not possible to use the Sendsteps products in another program then PowerPoint on a Windows computer. It is not yet possible to use in the PowerPoint version of the Mac Book. We are working on allowing it to be used via Linux software, Powerpoint and Keynote on the Mac book.

Yes, it is possible to have assistants on your event. Sendsteps will help you out on the day of your event and will send an experienced Sendsteps specialist. In the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, New Zealand and Australia we can organize a specialist on short term. Other countries we need time to arrange. Please send in your request to myspecialist@sendsteps.com.

Yes this is the way it is done. The plug-in copies the layout of your masterslide when adding the slides to your presentation. A masterslide is the slide which you can make yourself in PowerPoint in order to have a uniform presentation format. It is also possible to change it into your format on every slide ofcourse.

In case you want to edit/make your masterslide in PowerPoint go to VIEW and select Masterslide. This is where you can edit the format of your presentation to your own wishes.

In order to receive the messages Sendsteps receives the mobile numbers of the participants. Mobile numbers for Send2vote and Send2stage will be deleted at the moment the messages are received. These numbers can never be displayed or handed over to the organization. Sendsteps respects the anonymity of the user. Sendsteps has fully secured servers in order to avoid misuse.

In order to receive the messages Sendsteps receives the mobile numbers of the participants. Mobile numbers for Send2vote and Send2stage will be deleted at the moment the messages are received. These numbers can never be displayed or handed over to the organization. Sendsteps respects the anonymity of the user. Sendsteps has fully secured servers in order to avoid misuse.

No, this can never happen. Every message that is send with these products is anonymous and stays anonymous.

The participants only be charged the normal cost of sending such messages via their own mobile phone. No extra cost will be charged when sending a message. The costs will always vary depending on the wireless carrier and the messaging packed the participant has. Costs normally vary between €0,00 - €0,20 per message. If you want to know exact costs, check with the mobile carriers.

Sendsteps doesn´t charge anything for a text message. Depending on the participants contract the individual wireless carriers may charge a text message. The costs will always vary depending on the wireless carrier and the messaging packed the participant has. Costs normally vary between €0,00 - €0,20 per message. If you want to know exact costs, check with the mobile carriers.

Everybody sending a message pays 1 text message from his/her messaging packed. You can choose to let your audience send a text to a shortcode (normally a 4 or 5 digit number) or a 10 digit number. The shortcode applies only when subscribed to a wireless carrier from the same country from which the shortcode is from. Sending a message to a shortcode instead of a 10 digit number can have extra costs per text message. This depends on the mobile carrier.

This is not possible. You can only send text messages to a shortcode (normally a 4 or 5 digit number) with a wireless carrier which is from the same country as the shortcode is from. The shortcode will not receive messages from phones which have a foreign wireless carrier. If you want to use the product(s) with a international audience you have you to use the international 10 digit number. This will be clear when making you activationcode.

Text messages send to a number of Sendsteps only take between 1 and 5 seconds to arrive on screen. The audience size doesn’t make any difference. Sendsteps has experience with very large groups already.

A shortcode is a special telephone number of 4 or 5 digits. It is a special number that is applied for text messaging.

A keyword is the word needed for the audience to start their message. This way Sendsteps knows where to send the message to. When you for instance reserved your session with the keyword ‘VOTE’ every message send to a Sendsteps number and started with the keyword vote will be passed on to your presentation. When reserving your activation code you can choose your own keyword with which you would like your audience to start their message.
Keep it short and try to find a word which can be expected to be in everybody’s dictionary. This speeds up the process.

When reserving your activation code you can choose your own keyword with which you would like your audience to start their message.
Keep it short and try to find a word which can be expected to be in everybody’s dictionary. This speeds up the process.

No, messages will be received either way. It is not case sensitive.

Yes, activating the questions you made in advanced will work on every computer. The computer you want to activate the questions on does need the plug-in. If it doesn’t have the plug-in you can download it very quickly and for free on www.sendsteps.com.

Your results are being displayed in a bar chart which is generated automatically at the moment you added your question to your presentation.

Voting machines are devices which you need to rent/buy in order to let your audience vote on the questions. Sendsteps replaces these voting machine with the mobile phone. Nowadays everybody has a mobile phone at hand and this is today’s communication tool. The ease comes from never having empty batteries, not needing assistance, no logistics required, no deposits. Just using the modern way of communicating which also reflects on your presentation in a positive way which is our experience.

You can login with your activationcode on www.sendsteps.com. This can be done after the presentation. It shows all the questions you asked and it shows all responses in percentages and amounts.

Yes, when you login on www.sendsteps.com you can upload the numbers from excel to the activation code you made for your session. When uploading the numbers voting will only be possible with the numbers you selected.

Yes, you can activate old presentations with old questions as many times as you like. When activating your presentation to start voting you will be asked if you want to delete old votes which are still in the graphs from the time before. Another possibility is to delete the votes manually by clicking on the button ‘Delete Results’.

You open your presentation in which you want to add questions. You click on the slide before the to be inserted question. Now click on ‘Add question’ in the Send2vote plug-in and a screen appears. In this screen you can enter your question. Then click on ‘OK’. Automatically a questionslide and resultslide will be added to your presentation in the same layout as your masterslide.

No, it is not possible to use Send2vote if you don’t have internet access. You need to have access at the moment you are running your presentation. If internet access disappears during your presentation you will be warned and the explanation in the footers then show that no internet connection exists and questions can not be sent in. As soon as internet connection returns voting can be done again.

If you added the questions to your presentation, you have connected to internet and started your session you automatically arrive at the question slides. The audience sees the explanation and at the same time the lines will automatically be opened by the plug-in. Participant’s votes will come in and will be included to the accompanying resultslide. At the moment you arrive on the resultslide the plug-in will activate the votes and include them in the bar chart. The audience will see the built up of the bar chart building up to the end result. Voting is only possible with internet access during every question.

Normally it takes around 1 minute per question for any size of audience to answer. Sendsteps always advices to explain in the meantime a story around the question, this to cover the time your audience needs to send in their vote. Do not ask your audience continuously whether they are already voting. This makes them feel rushed which does not help the process.

This is a possibility. When you click on ‘Add question’ in the Send2vote plug-in you can see an ‘Option’ button. You can see the different possibilities which you can give the particular vote. Do you want it in percentages or amounts, do you want people to vote multiple times on this question or only once and do you want also want to let your audience vote on the resultslide (this way you can see votes being added to the bar chart).

Yes, when you click on ‘Add question’ in the Send2vote plug-in you can see an ‘Option’ button. You can see the different possibilities which you can give the particular vote. Do you want it in percentages or amounts, do you want people to vote multiple times on this question or only once and do you want also want to let your audience vote on the resultslide (this way you can see votes being added to the bar chart).

At the moment you press on ‘Start free session’ or ‘Start credit session’ and you enter your activation code the footers in the questionslide/resultslide will change automatically into an explanation for your audience. In the explanation it says to which number they need to send their message and with which (key)word they need to start their message.

Results will only be added to your presentation when you start the slideshow. At the moment you arrive on a questionslide the lines will automatically be opened by the plug-in. Votes will come in and will be added to the accompanied resultslide. If you for instance have another question after the first question and you arrive on this questionslide lines will be closed for the first question and opened for the next question. The lines open and close when switching slides.

Yes, this is possible. You can do what ever you like to do in your presentation. At the moment you are on a questionslide the lines will automatically open and when you leave the questionslide the lines will close again. You can switch to and from the questionslide as many times as you like.

You can add up to a maximum of 10 answers per question.

At the moment you add a question to your presentation and you start a free session or a credit session the footer on the questionslide(s) changes to a clear explanation. With a free session the keyword (the word with which you need to start your message) is given and you can choose your own keyword with a credit session. Your audience sends in a message starting with the keyword, for instance ‘VOTE’ followed by their answer ‘A’. Sendsteps receives a message ‘Vote a’ and sends it through to the presentation which is active at that moment with this keyword. You can reserve your own keyword for one day.

Yes, your audience can choose itself if they want to text a message or if they want to answer it online. The website on which they can vote is shown in explanation in the footers. If your audience has a smart phone or laptop they can visit this page. The question which is displayed during the presentation will also be displayed on this particular page. Mostly people have an unlimited data account this means voting online doesn’t cost them anything.

Yes, when everybody voted and you finished your presentation you can save your presentation, just like you always do. When opening this presentation it will include the graphs filled with the votes. These graphs can be shown online, on the intranet, attached to a mail or in any another way be used. You can also log in on the www.mysendsteps.com with your log in name or your activation code. You can then see the results in percentages and amounts in a graph.