"Some controls on the presentation cannot be activated.......

Apr 11, 2011

I am getting this error when I open my project "Some controls on the presentation cannot be activated. They may not be registered on this computer." I have searched all over the web and the only post I could find pertaining to Articulate Presenter is here http://www.articulate.com/forums/articulate-presenter/2305-ppt-error-message.html but I am running Windows 7, PowerPoint 2010, and have only the most current flash player form Adobe installed on my PC. Can anyone assist with this one?

94 Replies
Brian Batt

Hi June,

It sounds like the Flash Player isn't properly installed on your machine.  To correct the issue, please see the following method:

In Windows Vista or Windows 7, please do the following: 

1) Quit the application or installer you are using. 

2) In Windows, click the Start button. 

3) Click All Programs. 

4) Click Accessories. 

5) Right click on the Command Prompt icon and select ‘Run as administrator.’ 

In the command prompt type the following: 

CD C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash 

6) Next type: 

regsvr32.exe Flash.ocx 

The above command should be applied to any OCX files located in the noted directory. 

C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash\ 

For example: 

Flash9c.ocx 

Flash9b.ocx 

Flash9.ocx 

7) You should receive a message saying "DllRegisterServer in Flash.ocx succeeded. 

8) Click OK. 

9) Exit the Command Prompt. 

10) Restart the application or installer and try to duplicate your issue. 

June Dunlap

Well I no longer get the previous message. I am now getting the following messages. And the project is stripped of all audio, and all notes where the original scripts were kept. I was fully prepared for having to reinsert all FLVs, Quizmaker and Engage files, but losing all the audio and the notes is too much. I know I still have the original project but if I copy and paste the content back in, will it replicate the same problem over and over? I have rebuilt the project several times in the past two weeks.

Justin Wilcox

Hi June,

So for the audio, you should open your old presentation and export the audio:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=929

Then you can import the audio:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=1435

For the notes, you should be able to copy and paste them from one presentation to another.

If you want to send us the original files to look at:

Please create an Articulate Presenter package, then upload the zip file to our server. You can review how to do this here:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/?p=457

Upload the resulting zip file from your computer to our server using this upload form:

http://upload.articulate.com/

Simply explain what happened and maybe Vira can find an easier solution for you.

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Paul! It is a bit dated.

I popped in to look at the support ticket June referenced above and found the following to assist with her initial report:

This is a PowerPoint error message that can relate to compatibility – for instance, the project was originally created in lower versions of PowerPoint and was opened on a higher version of PowerPoint. Here is a related Microsoft KB article.

Please try to do the following and see if gets rid of the error: 

1. Open a blank presentation in PowerPoint 2010. 
2. Save the presentation. 
3. Click the Home tab. 
4. Click the drop-down arrow beside New Slide and select Reuse Slides. 
5. Click the Browse button and select Browse File. 
6. Locate your original PowerPoint file and click the Open button. 
7. At the bottom of the Reuse Slides panel, select the Keep source formatting check box. 
8. Right click the first slide in the Reuse Slides panel and select Insert All Slides. 
9. Save the presentation again then test the project. 

Note: Resources, such as quizzes, interactions, audio and FLV videos that you inserted via Articulate Presenter into the original presentation will need to be inserted again into the new presentation. 

You may need to export the narration from your original presentation.

Then import it into the new presentation.

David Zapata

Hi Paul, I am having the same problem with presentations that have video slides. If I delete the videos the presentation can be saved and published. Just for testing I uninstalled Flash Player (had the latest version) and installed an older version from 3 months ago and then I could create and save a PPT with video. Sadly, I kept receiving the controls error with PPTs already created. Did you managed to solve your problem? I am using Win7 and Office 2013/64. I created a case #00650094.

Best regards, David

Deb Munitz

I think that I might have fixed my problem at least. I found none of the above helpful in my case. Updating the flash .ocx file didn't help and I wasted time reinstalling flash, getting the latest Studio 13 updates, and checking for viruses and disk drive issues. There was a Microsoft article that talked about problems opening up newer files on older versions of Powerpoint that mentioned problems with multiple slide masters and i went into my pptx files I had problems with and found multiple slide masters. I deleted the one I didn't want. Then I reset all the slides to use the remaining slide master and my problems went away. So I would suggest that people running into this problem at least check out that they are using the slide master that they intend to use and that all slides are reset to point to the current slide master. So far so good.

Linda Sampson

I just started getting this error message today as well, on a file that has been working fine even as recent as yesterday.  All of a sudden the mp4 that I had imported onto a slide is causing an error.  I went through all of the error messages, saved the file with "repaired" as part of the filename.  When I open I still get the error but can work with the file.  I've gone through reusing slides, re-producing the video in Camtasia, everything I can think of and nothing seems to get rid of the message when opening.

Deborah Munitz

Also a problem that started yesterday. (See Paul posting above. We work together.) Turns out that solution fixed on problem but a different issue was caused by the preexisting videos in the course. We removed the videos and the error went away. We have yet to reinsert the videos. Linda's update seems similar to ours. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Linda,

Did you follow the steps that Leslie included above about the error message for compatibility? It sounds like you're having a bit of a different message but that is a good place to start in terms of reusing slides that were previously working. Also here are directions on how to fix a corrupt Powerpoint file which may assist in this set up as well. 

Linda Sampson

I really don’t think the PPT file is corrupt, however. I’ve attempted to open 3 files that contain videos and get the same error on all of them. I don’t get this message on files that don’t have videos. I’m also working with our tech support to re-install flash player because after installing v16, Articulate gives an error that it needs v10 for IE. I’m going to have them re-install v19 that I had previously. It seems everything has blown up today.

Linda Sampson

Deborah, yes, when I delete the videos my file(s) are fine.  I don't see the link you're referencing about security issues.  I'm leaning toward putting my videos in a media tour interaction if our tech support people can't figure it out.  The only problem doing that is you lose a lot screen space putting them in interactions.

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