Audio Editor Problems

Oct 28, 2012

Please help as this is driving me made - almost to the point when I'm going to stop using Articulate!

I have a project created with audio. I enter the Audio Editor and move the position of an interaction/object, when I save/close the Audio Editor is freezes!

I have to force close the programme (Powerpoint) which closes leaving the Audio Editor windo open. When I force close that it says it is waiting for me to respond to a request and a winder appears confirming to save, I click to save and nothing!

This is just becoming unusable.

14 Replies
Christine Hendrickson

Hi Nick! Welcome to E-Learning Heroes!

I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing difficulty with the Audio Editor. I'm sure the crashing is frustrating, but we will do our best to resolve this issue for you.

First, does this happen with every presentation when you use Audio Editor, or just a specific presentation?

Please take a look at the information below, I believe it may help with this issue.

If PowerPoint crashes, closes unexpectedly, or locks up while you are attempting to record narrationsync animationsadd annotations, or use the Audio Editor, you may encounter an error message similar to the following:

"Microsoft Office PowerPoint has encountered a problem and needs to close."

Since Articulate Presenter was in use when PowerPoint crashed (or was forced to close), you will be asked if you want to disable the Articulate Presenter add-in the next time you open PowerPoint.  When this occurs, click No.

If PowerPoint continues to crash, you can correct the issue in the following manner:

PowerPoint crashes when working with a specific presentation

  • First, be sure that your presentation is located on your local hard drive (this is typically your C: drive).  Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior.
  • If you are already working on your local hard drive or if the affected presentation continues to crash after moving it to your local hard drive, it indicates that your presentation has become corrupt.  You may be able to recover a corrupt presentation using the methods described in the following article:
    Here’s how to fix a corrupt PowerPoint file

PowerPoint crashes when working with any presentation

  • First, be sure that your presentations are located on your local hard drive (this is typically your C: drive).  Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior.
  • If you have a Lenovo computer, you may be experiencing a known conflict between Corel WinDVD and PowerPoint, which can cause the preview and publish features in Articulate Presenter to fail (in addition to recording narration, importing audio, syncing animations, and adding annotations). Corel WinDVD comes pre-installed on Lenovo computers. You will need to uninstall this program to resolve the conflict it creates with PowerPoint.
  • Also, if you are using a non-English version of Windows, you may need to modify your regional and language settings as described in the following article:
    Animations, annotations, and the audio editor don’t work as expected in non-English Windows environment
  • If PowerPoint continues to crash, it indicates that there is an issue with your Microsoft Office installation.  You will need to uninstall and reinstall Microsoft Office and Articulate Presenter as described in the following article:
    Unexpected behavior in Articulate Studio ’09

If you've tried the steps above, but still experience a problem with the Audio Editor crashing, please let me know.

Thanks!

Christine

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Sara! Welcome to E-Learning Heroes!

Have you taken the steps I provided earlier in the post? If so, would you mind submitting a support case with us? You can submit a support case by using this link.

If you open a case, I'll keep an eye on it for a resolution. Once it's resolved, I'll share the solution for other members of the community, just in case they encounter the same problem.

Thanks!

Nick Garrod

Hi Sarah - don't hold your breath!

I never resolved my issue and now have a large presentation that I can't edit the audio in otherwise it will just crash. So many people are experiencing Articulate "issues". My thoughts are we are using old technology with new. I'm working in Powerpoint 2011 which has better basic functionality than Articulate which is three years old. The only benefit Articulate adds to basic powerpoint is the ability to add interactions and quizzes (and produce a SCORM file) - and then my biggest gripe, and it always has been, is the lack of seamless integration between what is powerpoint and what is articulate.

When is Articulate being updated? All the email publicity and "hints and tips" all now focusses on Storyline and there is never anything for Articulate.

Christine Hendrickson

@Nick - I never heard back from you on the issue you originally posted. I don't see a case open for it, either. If you're still experiencing problems with the presentation, allow us to assist you. I completely understand that it's frustrating to have unresolved issues, but we can't help you with a resolution if we don't know that the issue still exsists. Please submit a support case so our tech team can work with you to resolve the problem you're having with your presentation. You can submit a support case here.

@Sara - I see that you were able to open a case and that Vira is working with you to resolve the problem. I'll be following the case progress

Christine Hendrickson

Welcome to the community, Dave!

When you say "scrambled" do you mean that the display of the audio isn't showing up properly, or the entire window looks scrambled?

First, please make sure that your presentation and audio files are on your local hard drive:

  • Work on your local drive (your C: drive). Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, including file corruption, loss of audio, and other unexpected behavior. 
  • You should also make sure the directory path to your project files and your published output is less than 260 characters (for example C:\Articulate).
  • Avoid using special characters, accents or symbols in your file names (this includes spaces and underscores).

Additional information regarding "Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces" in Windows operating systems can be found in the following Microsoft article.

Do you have access to any other audio files? If you import a different audio file, does the same thing happen when viewing the file in the audio editor? 

Can you please try importing the audio file into a new, blank Presenter presentation? Does the same thing happen?

If you experience the same thing with both new audio and presentation files, it may be an issue with the installation or system settings. Please try following the troubleshooting steps in the articles here and here.

If the issue continues, can you share a screenshot or Screenr of what's happening? 

Thanks very much and welcome again, Dave!

Priya Iyer

Hi - I am having similar issues with Articulate audio editor and importing audio files.

I stated with importing files.....I could import audio files...however they won't play when previewed or published. I am using the Articulate tab to import the audio and tried using bot MP3's and WAV files.

Then I thought I could try editing them once imported...however whenever I click on Audio editor it gives me an error "Articualte Presenter has stopped working".

Also I tried importing audio into some of the engage interactions and they would play fine on previewing. Its very frustrating as to why the audio on the actual slides won't play.

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Priya

Joyce Hensen

I'm also having audio issues in Presenter 13.  I recorded my audio into a new presenter file and exported it as .wav files.  Then imported each into Presenter 13 for a course I'm updating., overwriting the files that were recorded in Presenter 09 previously.  When I synched the animation, and when I preview the slides, the sound is there and works fine.  However in the published version (both for web and LMS) some of the audio files don't play at all.  It seems random.  Initially slide 5 wouldn't play, but upon republishing, 5 plays, but 9 doesn't.  The audio editor shows the audio for all 43 slides (with the exception of the slide that holds an Engage interacion).  Can you help?

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