Flash Player 10 & Presenter 5

[brianosmi]

Originally Posted by Don

I find the exit button works when I use Internet Explorer - but it does not work in Chrome or Firefox. If anyone knows if there are any settings in these browsers that would make the exit button work I would be most grateful.

Hey Don, check out this kb article on the subject: http://www.articulate.com/support/quizmaker09/kb/?p=109

Hope this helps!

[Spectre]

Originally Posted by billosborn

How will this effect courses published to Articulate Online? I have close to 20 courses posted there and really do not want to have to republish those as that will bring my work to a halt for a few days.

Articulate Online courses are impacted, but according to the FAQs, Articulate will--sometime this week--perform a batch update of all content on the AO servers. I haven't heard an ETA yet. If you can hold off for a few days, no action will be required on your part.

In my case, I couldn't wait, and re-published/uploaded courses that got a lot of action.

Phil

[mind_bender]

Hey there everyone,

I tested the updater on a couple of presentations and am getting a few javascript errors:

Error: SetBgColor is not defined
Source File: Bow Hunting
Line: 311

Error: WriteSwfObject is not defined
Source File: Bow Hunting
Line: 425

I have the latest versions of both Java and Flash. Am I doing something wrong in the updating?

[Daximus]

Any news on when the update will be ran on Articulate Online?? Would rather not have to re-upload all of our 37 presentations.

Thanks,

Dax

[gregpoulos]

For CD-ROM and other permanent media distributions, it seems to me that a standalone flash player that is bundled on the CD-ROM would mitigate a problem like this from ever happening.

For example, you bundle your Articulate presentation with a standalone Flash Player 9 which has been tested and which WORKS. Then, even if Flash Player 11, 12, 13, etc. breaks it, Flash Player 9 will always be used to play it from the CD-ROM since it's a self-contained, standalone version.

Is anyone aware of such a solution? Without one, we will always be at risk that new versions of the Flash player will break what once worked.

thank you,
Greg

[Judy Barrett]

I have about a hundred or more presentations in Presenter, Quizmaker, and Engage, and I ran the fix last night. I just downloaded Flash Player 10 a few minutes ago, and many of my presentations now will not open. Just the white double screen.

Some do open, but I don't know what the difference is. Some were definitely published with a later version of Articulate, Version 5, but some were originally done with Version 4 and have not been republished.

Would republishing all presentations with the newest version of Articulate (9?) solve this whole thing? But I can't afford the upgrade now, and I'm also worried about what happens when Flash Player 11 shows up.

Like others, I'm dead in the water financially if this can't be fixed and pronto.

Here is what I've just experienced, and I need help with this:

1) I downloaded Flash Player 10 using Internet Explorer 6 (not 7), and I'm using XP. Using IE6 to access my web site, as stated above, some of the presentations don't work.

2) I just used Firefox to access my program, and the presentations opened. Right clicking, I discovered that it's still showing Flash Player 9 (not the newest) in Firefox.

Can I advise my clients just to use Firefox and *not* download Flash Player 10 using that browser?

I would have thought that once Flash Player 10 was download to my computer, that's what would pick up regardless of which browser I'm using.

Your advice is eagerly awaited. I can just put a notice on my web site if using Firefox and Player 9 will work until you get this mess straightened out. But I need to know for sure.

Can people reliably use Flash Player 10 in Internet Explorer, and continue to use Flash Player 9 in Firefox, on the same computer?

Some clients have told me that they can just use Player 9 for my presentations, but that they have other programs that now require Flash Player 10, and they need to download it!


I love Articulate products, and I am withholding any negative judgment until we all know what the solution to this problem is. But I'm a small business, and I am worried!

[Judy Barrett]

Gabe, Justin, et al.

Are you sure that the problem is with Presenter 5 and Player 10?

I have just about 100 presentations on my site, and I just methodically went through all of them to see if they will open.

Among the first 50 (and the oldest), most will not open, BUT THEY WERE PUBLISHED WITH AN EARLIER VERSION -- VERSION 4 I'M PRETTY SURE.

In that group of 50, there are about six Presenter presentations that I have fairly recently republished, using Version 5. ALL OF THEM WILL OPEN WITH PLAYER 10.

The other 50 (later ones) were all published with Version 5, and they all open just fine.

There are four Presenter presentations that were created with Version 5, and they have an Engage presentation included. All of them, Presenter and Engage, open just fine in Player 10.

I have carefully checked to be sure that the ones that open are all opening with Player Version 10.

I accessed all the above with Internet Explorer 6, and I'm using XP with -- forgot what to call it, and "Six Pack 2" came to mind. That might just be the solution to all of this!

If access to my web site and my presentations would be of help in solving this problem, I'll be happy to do that. Just let me know.

Is there a way to tell what version of Presenter was used to create and publish each presentation? I know that most of my first presentations were not created with Presenter 5, but I think I've had Presenter going back to Version 2, 3, and then 4. Your records might help.

I hope this helps.

Judy

[Judy Barrett]

Another thought: I'm going to take one of those older presentations and republish, using my current version 5, and see if it will open in Flash Player 10, once published. I'll let you know.

Judy

[gabe]

Hi Everyone-

I know this issue is causing a lot of concern and raising a lot of questions, so I'm going to try to address the questions that have come up:

Are Presenter 4 courses impacted by the Flash 10 update and what can I do about it?
Yes, Presenter 4 courses are impacted by the update. The current Flash Updater we released will not work on Presenter 4 courses, but we are working on an updater for Presenter 4, which we hope to have available for download very soon.

How do I know if my courses are Presenter 4 or Presenter 5?
Look at the pre-loader when you launch the course. If you see text above the graphical loader ("Loading.. Initializing.. Playing"), you are likely using Presenter 4. The course in this blog entry features an AP4 course you can view. There is no text above the graphical loader in Presenter 5.

Have you contacted Adobe about this issue and what are they doing about it?
Yes, we have been in contact with Adobe about this, but, unfortunately, it's not likely they will release any update to address this issue, so you probably shouldn't expect that.

Why didn't we release the Flash 10 updater sooner?
Although we were aware of the issue in the beta, betas are subject to change and we didn't know what Adobe was going to do at release time. We didn't know the issue would still exist with the final release, but we were busy working on the updater anyway to have it ready when Flash 10 was released. We also needed to verify the updater against the final release of Flash Player 10.

Why didn't you give us details sooner?
Although we did post in these forums that we were aware of the issue during the Flash Player 10 beta, we could have given more details about what was happening sooner, and for that, we apologize.

Will this be a problem again in the future when Adobe releases Flash 11, 12, etc.?
No, this will no longer be an issue. The updater will ensure your content is future-proof. In fact, one of our developers is putting together some documentation to show you the code "under the hood" so that you (or your developers) can have a look and verify that the version check will work properly in the future.

What about secure FTP?
Our dev team is looking into making the updater compatible with secure FTP. I can't guarantee that it will work with SFTP, but we are researching it.

Does Presenter '09 have this issue, too?
No, presentations created with Presenter '09 work just fine with Flash Player 10.

[gabe]

Originally Posted by Judy Barrett

Can people reliably use Flash Player 10 in Internet Explorer, and continue to use Flash Player 9 in Firefox, on the same computer?

Hi Judy- Yes. Flash Player is installed separately for each browser.

Also, this issue is specifically related to Flash Player 10 and Presenter 4/Presenter 5. The browser you use is unrelated.