Crashing PowerPoint

Thank you Justin. My case number is: Case #00228964

Kelly,

I have had exactly the same problem. I tried everything that you listed above. I am working on my C drive, Microsoft 2010 - I am starting to think that it is probably a Microsoft issue because I also had a crash with a WORD document last night (first time). I look forward to hearing the fix once IT has looked at your case.

Hi Kirsten. I would submit a case as well since your issues, while have the symptoms, might have a different solution. You can submit a case here:

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/method.php

If you want to let me know your case number I'll be sure to direct it to the appropriate team.

Thanks Justin, I will also submit acase.

BTW: The Articulate Team is terrific-- I always benefit greatly from your helpful solutions!

For all interested and affected by the above noted crashing, I  have handled many cases with identical issues where nearly all of them were resolved by completely uninstalling Office and reinstalling. The error you are getting is a PowerPoint error, it just so happens Articulate Presenter is being used when this happens. The Articulate applications will log and throw their own errors and might state: AP6 has stopped responding or something similar.

There has been some more extreme instances where this issue was company wide, suggesting the image used to install/flash the operating system and other applications was missing a core component or the MS Office images was bad. Again, most all of these cases were resolved when new media or image for installing MS Office was used. Having an IT professional completely uninstall all traces of the Office applications prior to reinstalling is helpful.

Note: A full uninstall/reinstall is always preferred over a repair, as this has a higher success rate for fixing MS Office corruption.

Finally, when Microsoft warns there was an issue with the Articulate Presenter Ribbon, it does not actually know there is an issue, it simply knows PowerPoint didn't close gracefully while Articulate Presenter was being used; this is misleading but was incorporated by Microsoft to prevent users from getting stuck or never being able to open PowerPoint because of a damaged Add-in. Presenter will never lock you out of PowerPoint and it is always safe to select No to Disable the Articulate Presenter ribbon.

I hope this helps!

Thank you for the explanation- very helpful!  I followed Brian's suggestion and uninstalled MSoffice, Articulate and Adobe flash. think it might have worked! keeping my fingers crossed!

We may be close to a solution.

The complete uninstallation/installation of Office seems to be helping.  I was able to sync more than one slide but not the entire module.

I have an open case and my company's IT people on it.  Will let you all know if/what works.

Hey all... I worked with the support team at Articulate yesterday and they were able to fix my issue.  We ended up creating a new PPT presentation, then importing the slides from the "old" PPT presentation.  Saved it under a different name.  Then using the old PPT we exported the audio.  Reopened the new PPT and imported the audio. 

Then I went back to synching in the new module and did not once receive the error we've been talking about.  I spent the rest of this morning resynching and otherwise editing my training and have never once received the error again.  Apparently, it was the file that was somehow corrupt.  I did not have to unload/reload Microsoft Office.

Just letting you know and THANKS DAVID at ARTICULATE for the huge help! 

Resolution!

What we think worked:

1.  uninstall Articulate '09

2.  uninstall MS Office

3.  reboot

4.  install MS Office

5.  reboot and open each of the aps to make sure all post installation configuration completes

6.  install Articulate '09

Pre-existing and known-to-crash CBT files still crash.  Opening new files and importing/reusing the slides and audio DOES work.   I have been able to do this to a couple of files and synchronize multiple slides with no crashing.  This will save a lot of headaches when my gigantic translation project moves into high gear!  Thanks for everyone's input and support!

Thanks for posting your solution, Sandra!

The same solutions also worked for me! thanks!

Kelly- What ever happened with your case? Did the gurus figure out what was going on? I was reading the responses like a story and now, there's no ending. I had some frustrating problems a week or so ago and the folks at Articulate figured them out every time.

I hope your problem is fixed and that your hair has grown back from all the pulling. Mine never did, as you can see.

Hi Jon,

I did post what we did to resolve my issue about four messages above yours on this thread.  It was apparently a corrput PPT file, so we created a new one and imported the info and audio. I had to resynch, but it finally worked without havin't to recreate it from scratch.

So far, knock wood, nothing else like this has happened to me, although I do get a "crash" from Articulate about once a week and the request to disable the add-on, which I do not do.  Seems a tad glitchy but I'm okay as long as it doesn't crash over and over like it was doing previously.

And yes, my hair grew back.  *grin*

Good luck!

Kelly

Why is it that these issues are not getting resolved?  How big of a mystery can this be?  There seems to be a large number of people experiencing the same problems and the software is becoming unusable. 

What are we supposed to do about this, Articulate?

Actually, the fix that Sandra posted works great! Sometime I think your computer memory gets messed up and you just need to reload everything to get it back in order. Give it a shot and follow the instructions and you will be good to go. And if not, I know from experience that the gurus are always there to help!

Thanks, Regina, but I have tried all of that several times.  About 90% of the time that I record narration, synch animations, add annotations, etc, PowerPoint crashes.  I have submitted a support request and tried every article that Articulate sends me.  Nothing is working and it seems other people have thrown their hands up too with this software. 

I want to know if there is a specific diagnosis to this issue and what Articulate describes as the exact steps to prevent crashes.  So far, I've seen no definitive answer. 

I spent a morning a few weeks ago trying to use the "slide properties" function to change the titles of the slides. Every time I'd get about half the slides completed, everyting would stop working. PPT would freeze up and crash. I finally uninstalled and reinstalled both Articulate and Offcie 2010, using the steps that I'd found in an earlier post. The steps involved downloading and then running post.bat and pre.bat files. I don't have the instructions at hand but I'm sure Brian or one of the gurus has it. I wasted part of a day fooling around with it but after both programs were reinstalled, it worked fine.

This freezing of PPT does happen more often than I'd like and it never happens when I'm working only in PPT and not using an Articulate function, so it's got to be the two together that are causing the problem. It would be nice if the two programs could play nice together and not drive us crazy from time to time.

And, while we're fixing things, I still lose my cursor about half the time when I try to narrate or synchronize animations. It just slides beneath the articulate window that opens to allow recording or animation sync. That's another time-waster, trying to guess where the cursor is to close the window and then re-opening the function again and again until the cursor finally stays on top of the window.

Hi B,

I can't seem to find any case history associated with your user name and email, but have you had a chance to follow the troubleshooting steps in this article? Also, there is a known conflict with a certain program found on Dell and Lenovo computers, if you have that installed by any chance. We certainly want to help you get the issues you're experiencing resolved, so please feel free to contact our support team anytime of day so we can help. Thanks!

This is posted here to since I'm working on the same issue on two different forum pages: 

http://community.articulate.com/forums/p/6030/79470.aspx#79470

Hello Peter, 

Thanks for your reply.  I have submitted a support case: Case #00279120.  (I have a couple of different email addresses.  The one I communicated with Articulate is different than the one I'm logged in here as.)  I am arranging a call with your Senior Customer Support Engineer.  

System: 

Computer: Apple MacBook Pro.  Operating system: Windows 7 in order to run Articulate.  Software: Office 2007.

Problem:  Created a template for several 15-minute courses I'm building.  First course created, no problems whatsoever.  

Copied first course to create a second one.  Slowly started experiencing crashes with PowerPoint when clicking "Save and Close" after using any of the following: Recording Narration, Synch Animation, and Add Annotations.  

I created a separate third course (just using my template/not copying files) since I thought the problem I experienced may have occurred because I copied the first file for the second.  

Again, the third course started off functioning properly and then slowly PPT began crashing more and more.  Sometimes, I could record narration for one slide and "Save and Close" and it would work.  If I ever tried more than one slide at a time (or if I messed up on the narration and had to record again on the same slide) PowerPoint would crash.  Now, I cannot record narration on any slides or any courses without PPT crashing 9 out of 10 times.

Attempted Solutions:

I have tried all of these several times from the following articles:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=2828

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=3731

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=2514

The recommended solutions included Uninstalling and Reinstalling (even the "complete" versions that cleared the registry of all records).  I have also tried removing extra add-ins--I had none.  I have changed file names, started new files, etc.  None of the attempted solutions have worked.  

I did email one other person who seemed to be having the same issues.  He said he upgraded PowerPoint from 2007 to 2010, and now his system is running fine.  Perusing other forums, it seems that other people have had some success in solving these identical issues and others have found no resolution.  I'm obviously in the latter category.  What I do know is that the issues are not unique to me.  

There must be a specific cause and specific solution for this issue, but so far I don't have either.  I'll update after my call with your Senior Engineer in hopes of helping others.   

It appears some users in this forum thread are all experiencing a similar issue, however,  this does not necessarily mean the issue issue is the same. We ask that anyone experiencing an issue, please submit a case. 

The instructions below can help visually determine if there's any corruption associated with your PowerPoint file. As you might know, Articulate Presenter relies on PowerPoint to be in working order (reinstall if not) and that the PowerPoint data file is free of data corruption (rebuild if not).

Check your PowerPoint file for corruption:

================================

1. Create a new blank presentation (*** do not use a pre-built or custom PowerPoint template ***)

2. Delete the first slide of the new presentation (no slides).

3. Save the empty PowerPoint file to your Desktop.

4. From the Home Tab, select New Slide dropdown>>Reuse slides... (This will open the Reuse Slides Panel).

5.  Select the Browse button >> Browse file... from the Reuse Slides Panel and locate a file you suspect might be corrupt

6. When the slides load in the Reuse Slides Panel, make sure Keep source formatting is unchecked (see image below).

Note: By unchecking "Keep source formatting", this will just insert the slide content and ignore any theme or templates used in the file. 

7. Right-click the first slide and select Insert all slides.

8. From the View Tab, select the Slide Master. Only the default theme or the theme associated with the empty project should be listed (see example screen shot below). If you see any of your theme elements, this would indicate your PowerPoint file is corrupt and the Reuse slides method for rebuilding the file was unsuccessful. In these situations, it's sometimes necessary to rebuilt the PowerPoint file from scratch and without importing anything from the corrupt file.

I hope this helps!