Inserted Flash Files, Do Not Play

Hi there Keith,

Are you working on your local hard drive? Also, you may want to make sure there are no spaces, underscores, etc. in the file names for the Flash files.

• 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.

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

Are you able to insert the Flash files into a new, blank presentation? Does the same thing happen with the Flash files?

Thanks!

Christine

I wrote about this in more detail here:

http://community.articulate.com/forums/p/25709/141238.aspx#141238

but as a first step, In Powerpoint, right-click on the SWF object and select "Properties"

Look at the "Movie" property. That's the path that Powerpoint is looking for to find your SWF.

If your updated SWF file is in a different location, Powerpoint will instead show a white box with a black "X" inside.

Good luck,

Paul

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the info!

Oddly enough, the "Movie Property" lists this location:

C:\Program Files\Articulate\presenter\blank.swf

Again, no changes were made to the course at all. I wonder if moving a file on the hard drive changes the movie property to the default "blank.swf"?

That's a new one on me, but I did a quick search and found this forum entry that also had "blank.swf" showing up as the "Movie" Property:

http://archives.articulate.com/forums/articulate-presenter/18797-flash-movies-disappear-presentations-save.html

Unfortunately, the last entry asks the user to create a problem ticket. Maybe someone at Articulate can track down what happened in that case.

Paul