Troubleshooting
The resolutions to common issues can be found below.
You would like to turn off the Macro and ActiveX warnings in Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010.
Nothing happens when you try to launch a presentation from the menu when running Windows 7.
Interactive slides stop working after copying into a new PowerPoint 2007 or 2010 presentation.
On attempting to open a Boardworks product you receive a message saying there was an unrecoverable error and that library MSVCR80.dll (or similar) could not be found.
This is caused when an incompatible version of Boardworks software is installed on a system that has a Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 family product already installed. Please contact Boardworks and enquire about compatible versions for your product.
You get the error “Some controls on this presentation can’t be activated. They might not be registered on this computer” when opening a Boardworks PowerPoint presentation, and none of the interactive activities work.
If this error is occurring on just one presentation, then it is likely that the file has been saved with a version of Flash Player that is higher than the version installed on your computer. Try installing the latest version of Flash Player from http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/. If this does not work then the file may be corrupt and will need replacing with the original from the disc.
If this error is occurring for all Boardworks presentations that are opened on a computer, the cause is usually either that Adobe Flash Player has not been installed, or the installation of Flash Player has not completed properly or has become corrupt.
First, ensure that Adobe Flash Player version 10 or later is installed on each machine that will run Boardworks software. An installer is provided on the product disc. Alternatively, the latest version can be downloaded form the Adobe website: http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/ .
If you are still seeing the error even with a correct version of Flash Player installed, this is usually caused by the Flash Player installer not correctly registering the Flash activeX control file properly. To manually register the Flash file you must be logged in as a user with administrator privileges. Navigate to C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash and look for a FlashXX.ocx file (the XX denotes a number and letter combination e.g. 10b) (note for 64-bit Windows users: the Flash ocx file will be located in the C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash folder). Note the name of this file (if there are multiple .ocx files then note the one with the highest number-letter combination). Now open a command prompt by opening the Start menu, clicking Run and typing ‘cmd’ in to the box, then press OK (note for Vista and Windows 7 users: if you cannot see the run button in the Start menu just type ‘cmd’ into the search box at the bottom, then right click on the cmd icon and choose ‘Run as administrator’). You must then navigate to the same folder as above by typing ‘cd C:\Windows\system32\Macromed\Flash’ (or 'cd C:\Windows\sysWOW64\Macromed\Flash' on 64-bit systems. Now to register the Flash file type ‘regsvr32 FlashXX.ocx’ where FlashXX.ocx is the file noted previously. You should see a message stating “DllRegisterServer in FlashXX.ocx succeeded”, press OK to close and then exit the command prompt window.
You should now be able to view the interactive activities.
(Note: occasionally you may see a similar error message when clicking on interactive activities in certain slides. This can usually be resolved by installing all the latest updates for your version of Microsoft Office.)
You would like to turn off the Macro and ActiveX warnings in Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010.
Office 2007 and 2010 can be configured to always enable Macros and ActiveX controls. To do so, open Office and click the Office button in the top left corner, then click PowerPoint Options (in Office 2010, go to File and then Options). Go to Trust Center in the left hand menu and click Trust Center Settings. To stop the warnings, check the boxes for 'Enable all macros' in the Macro Settings menu and 'Enable all controls without restrictions and without prompting' in ActiveX Settings. PowerPoint needs to be restarted for the settings to take effect.
(Note: Changing these settings will result in a lowered security level on your system, so please consult with your IT department first).
Alternatively you can add the location of the files to the Trusted Locations list. This can be found in the left hand menu of the Trust Center. Click the Add Location button to add a folder to the trusted locations. If you would like to add the entire Boardworks installation directory, then add the folder C:\Program files\Boardworks and make sure to check the box labelled ‘Subfolders of this location are also trusted’.
Nothing happens when you try and launch a presentation from the menu, or you get a message saying that you do not have a program installed that can open ppt files, even though you have PowerPoint installed.
This can occur when there is a problem with the installation of MS Office where the program does not correctly associate itself with .ppt files. Doing a repair install of Office should fix the issue.
When clicking on certain interactive slides on a Boardworks presentation you may get the message “Can’t exit design mode because control ‘ShockwaveFlash1’ cannot be created.”
This issue can usually be resolved by installing all the available updates for your version of Microsoft Office. If this does not solve the problem however, a fix can be implemented on a file by file basis as follows. Open an affected .ppt file and go to Tools, then Macro, and click on Visual Basic Editor (Office 2000, XP & 2003) or navigate to an interactive slide in editing view, right click on the animation and select View Code (Office 2007 and 2010). The Visual Basic editor will open. Click the Save button in the toolbar and close the Visual Basic editor. Now click Save in the PowerPoint toolbar and close the presentation.
Nothing happens when you try to launch a presentation from the menu when running Windows 7.
This is caused by an incompatibility issue with some older versions of Boardworks software when installed on Windows 7. Please contact Boardworks by emailing customer.services@boardworks.co.uk or call us on 0845 0 300 400 to enquire about compatible versions for your product.
Interactive slides stop working after copying into a new PowerPoint 2007 or 2010 presentation.
The new Office Open XML file formats introduced with Microsoft Office 2007 (for PowerPoint these are .pptx and .pptm) do not support embedded Flash objects. For the Boardworks embedded Flash activities to work, the presentation must be saved in the 'PowerPoint 97-2003 Presentation' (.ppt) format. This can be selected from the Save As menu.