"Online presentations aren't supported"
Jan 23, 2020
By
Will Findlay
I like keeping all of my development files in my OneDrive Folder. However, Articulate Presenter won't allow this as shown by the error msg below. Has anyone found a workaround? Are there any plans to fix this situation? Technically it is saved to my local drive: (C:\Users\wfindlay\projects\....)
Keeping everything in OneDrive makes it much easier to ensure every device has the files I need as a developer.
24 Replies
Hello there, Will!
Even though there is a OneDrive folder on your local drive, it looks to be synching up to the OneDrive network. Disabling the syncing or saving the files to another folder on the C: drive should do the trick.
Also, we've had a few folks run into the same error in Presenter '13. This article outlines the steps to publish an online presentation with Presenter.
I hear your use case, though, and submitted a feature request on your behalf so that we can take it under consideration. If we make changes to this area in the future, we promise to let you know.
As always, thank you for your insightful contributions!
I am trying to develop a PPT as a storyboard before going into Articulate Storyline. Since my 360 Subscription also gives me access to Presenter/Characters, I'm trying to pull a few into the storyboard. However, I keep getting the message that "Online presentation aren't supported". I have saved the presentation to my C: drive on my desktop, and it still will not allow me to use Characters. What am I doing wrong?
Christopher, Is your desktop folder part of your synced OneDrive folder? If it is, that would be the cause.
If your desktop folder is in this folder, anything in it will be considered an "online file."
Yes, it is being synced with One-Drive, but it is a local (C:Drive) file.
I turned Sync off to see if the issue resolved itself. It did not.
Is there a folder that I should be using that will create a "local" file?
By default everything but my system files/directories is backed up into One-Drive.
Regards!
/c
Christopher Woods
Product Training Specialist, ECS Learning Team
Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions
Christopher.Woods@Arrow.com
Work - Mobile: 720.366.2587
Work - Desk: 303.824.6515
9151 E. Panorrama Circle
Centennial, CO 80112
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Reply to "Online presentations aren't supported"
Will Findlay replied:
Christopher, Is your desktop folder part of your synced OneDrive folder? If it is, that would be the cause.
1. Right click on the OneDrive icon in your Windows taskbar.
2. Click More...
3. Click Open your Onedrive Folder.
If your desktop folder is in this folder, anything in it will be considered an "online file."
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You said, "but it is a local (C:Drive) file." That is correct, but it is a local (C:Drive) file that is being synced with OneDrive. This is considered an "online file" by Articulate. It doesn't help that the error message is inaccurate when it says "Save a copy to your local drive to continue." What Articulate really means is, "Save a copy somewhere on your local drive not syncing with OneDrive to continue."
And this is the crux of the problem. You can't edit/modify PPTX files using Articulate if they are being backed up by OneDrive. This is very counterintuitive as most people naturally now want to back up everything, and OneDrive is the method of choice. It means having to store all of your Articulate presenter projects in a space on your Hard Drive that is vulnerable to being lost. (Or using another tool like SyncToy to make up for this).
What you are saying is exactly why I want Articulate to fix this. I would also argue that If the file AutoSave is turned off, there is no reason that Articulate should prevent you from using Presenter. But Articulate just ignores this setting. I can understand how things might get messed up if your file is syncing (autosaving), but I really think Articulate could make an exception if you turn off AutoSave.
Having said this (beware of rant), when was Presenter last updated anyway? Are there any resources dedicated to making updates to it now? I still use it frequently when I get a PowerPoint file with lots of animations I don't want to recreate by hand in Storyline. For presentations that don't have branching/high complexity it is still my tool of choice. But sometimes I wonder if that is a mistake because it seems like the orphaned older brother these days.
To better answer your question:
Is there a folder that I should be using that will create a "local" file?
Basically anywhere not being backed up by OneDrive. For example, you might have to go to your root C: drive and create a folder there if everything in your user profile is being backed up. C:\Projects for example.
Also, to be fair, Articulate continues to make maintenance updates/bug fixes to Presenter. But the last major feature released for Presenter (that I count) was the addition of the Content Library in April 2019. That is definitely a significant one, but compared to Storyline it's been quite a while. I just wish it had things like "export to MP4" and the Modern Player as well as the ability to work with files in OneDrive desktop folders.
Thank you. I can make that work.
Regards!
/c
Christopher Woods
Product Training Specialist, ECS Learning Team
Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions
Christopher.Woods@Arrow.com
Work - Mobile: 720.366.2587
Work - Desk: 303.824.6515
9151 E. Panorrama Circle
Centennial, CO 80112
[cid:image001.jpg@01D64551.20E144F0]
Like all others here, I back up my work constantly to OneDrive - that's fairly common and considering I work on courses that contain significant amount of work - it's important that I back up the files.
According to this MS article, even though files are stored online/ on One drive, when we double click and open them, they become locally available i.e. they are downloaded to the local machine and are not on OneDrive anymore (not online files by definition).
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/what-do-the-onedrive-icons-mean-11143026-8000-44f8-aaa9-67c985aa49b3#:~:text=OneDrive%20icon%20with%20sync%20pending,seen%20online%20in%20OneDrive.com
Despite the above, and after saving a copy of the presentation on my "Local" drive in c:\documents', and pausing OneDrive syncing - still seeing the 'Online presentations aren't supported error'.
Since support for presentations stored on OneDrive doesn't seem to be coming any time soon, can you suggest a way to work around this problem?
I just got a new laptop and had this same issue (Articulate updates wouldn't even install on my old one anymore). This worked for me:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/files-save-to-onedrive-by-default-in-windows-10-33da0077-770c-4bda-b61e-8c8e8ca70ac7
I followed these instructions to turn off automatic OneDrive backup. Then I opened my ppt presentation, saved it as a new file in the Documents folder, and was able to use the Articulate features in my ppt.
+1 from me for a pledge to Articulate to address this please. Backup of projects/files by hand is not an overly safe way of handling important work (and very 20th century... ;-) )
Angela, thanks for the tip, will look into this.
Why can't they just fix this issue. Many business use a back up and some of us cannot turn off the Sync issue rendering this product useless. I agree so very frustrating.
Hi Katie,
how about that feature request regarding the online-folder problem?
I also would find it very helpful to not have to save my projects on al local drive...
Thanks so much in advance
Cheers Christian
We still support creating, editing, and publishing projects on your local drive to avoid unexpected behavior. We don't have plans to change this approach, but if our team decides to reroute, we'll make sure to update this discussion!
Just saw this error while working with a colleague. She was indeed saving to her local drive. I had her exit Presenter, pause syncing to OneDrive, then re-open her file - issue resolved. So our work-around is to disable sync to OneDrive while working in Presenter. Works like a charm.
May work like a charm for some, but for us that cannot disable syncing due to network policies.
Hello, I am getting the same error message listed above about online presentations not supported. I had worked on this PPT yesterday and had no issues saving it to my OneDrive, but I'm getting this error message now. Any insight as to why it would work one day and not the next?
Hello Jaclyn!
It's challenging to determine what would've caused the error message today. If you pause syncing for OneDrive and save locally, does the error message still appear?
Saving in OneDrive is saving locally.
Apparently not...
Hi Will Findlay
Did you get solution to your problem from Articulate. Its my first day on this software and I also came across the same problem mentioned by you. Its giving me a message, "Online Presentations are not supported. Save a copy to your local drive to continue".
Thank you for your attention.
I am very new to Articulate and it's products, but will soon be using it heavily for my new job. Considering that OneDrive is so ubiquitous with Microsoft products such as PowerPoint and now also so integrated into Window File Explorer, it's unconceivable how you are supposed to use products efficiently and without extreme aggravation that do not support files that are saved locally but synced with OneDrive or vice versa, however you want to look at it.
I am having the same problem with not being able to insert a character due to One Drive syncing by my company. Not only am I not able to add a character, when I attempt to do so (even after pausing syncing) Presenter locks and I can only close it through Task Manager.
Please help us to use the product without unnecessary frustration.
Thanks!
You can simply pause the OneDrive syncing and it works.