Sync Animation Crashing PPT

Feb 24, 2011

Does anyone else have an issue with Sync Animation crashing their PPT and then receiving the warning that there is a problem with the articulate ribbon???

Perhaps I am making my computer work to hard. Do you have any suggestions to make this function work better or more seamlessly?

20 Replies
Zara Ogden

Justin Wilcox said:

You may want to give this a try and see if it helps:

http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/kb/?p=2425

Do you know if there's something you are doing that would allow you to duplicate the behavior?

justin it seems that when i go into Sync and am syncing then when finished and hit Save and Close it crashes.

Jeff ("JP") Redman

Sorry about that. I work at a university. I work in many, many subject areas that frequently use the same words to mean different things, so if I don't understand a word I just ask. Again... sorry.

I've had this exact problem a few times. Most times doing what the document Justin sent you to works perfectly. But about two months back my computer got so fouled up I had to reformat the HDD and reinstall everything to solve the problem. Well... actually, I was lucky because I had a spare HDD. I just pulled the old HDD, installed a new one, reinstalled all my software, then pulled data from the old HDD as if it were a backup drive. I have never been this lucky before.

Just a reminder... back up your entire computer OFTEN.

Scott Johnson

It happens regularly for us here, and can happen ANYWHERE along the Articulate ribbon. Here's how to deal with it.

Accept the suggestion to disable the ribbon.

Close Powerpoint.

Go into Task Manager and ensure AP6.exe is no longer running.

Restart Powerpoint,

Click on the Office button, and choose 'Powerpoint Options'.

Go to Add-Ins, and in the dropdown by Manage select Disabled Items and hit Go.

Click on the ribbon option and hit Enable.

Restart Powerpoint again.

Why it does it, nobody knows - our systems are up to date as per the link above. We just call it a 'Feature'

Kayla Burtch

This isn't a "proper" solution, but I find when this happens to me it is "choking" on a specific slide (although I don't know why) I ususally "solve" the problem by editing slides on at a time (in your case it is obviously one of the slides before slide 6...possibly...slide 6) until it crashes. Then I remake that slide by copy and pasting all of the stuff (which will also retain your animation) and reimporting the sound of that slide (if you haven't already "exported" your sound, this would be an EXCELLENT time to do so!).

It's lame that I have to do this, but I don't know a better fix, and never have the time or inclination to open a ticket with articulate support.

It's better than nothing when you just gotta get the job done.

Brian Batt

Nicole Blankenship said:

Hello, I am experiencing the same error when I hit Save and Close through Sync Animation. I did not start getting this error until after I tried syncing the animation on slide 6 or later. I have tried both solutions presented in this forum so far and neither have worked. Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Nicole


Hi Nicole & welcome to Heroes,

Can you please try the following to resolve the issue?

1.  Completely reinstall Flash by using the method below:

*******Please do the following in Internet Explorer. 

Uninstall your current version of the Flash Player. Follow the steps here: 

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_14157 

Download the latest version of Flash: 

http://www.adobe.com/go/getflash

2.  Install the K-Lite Codec Pack - Full Version:

K-Lite Codec Pack Full (when installing, accept all default installation options): 

http://www.free-codecs.com/K_Lite_Codec_Pack_download.htm 

3.  Restart your computer

After following the steps above, try to replicate the issue.  If you still have problems, try reinstalling the Articulate software from the Control Panel.

If you still have issues beyond that, please submit a support case to us by using the link below:

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

Nicole Blankenship

Hi Brian,

I completed Step 1 but Step 2 is not working. When I click on the link you provided it states that the page cannot be found. So I went to free-codecs.com and found the one you are referring to and tried to download. However, when I click on the download from there, it says page cannot be displayed. Any thoughts? Thanks for your help!

Nicole

Nicole Blankenship

Thanks for all of the help everyone. Unfortunately the fix did not work. I have opened a ticket for additional support. The good news is that after deleting and rebuilding multiple slides, multiple times, I was able to eventually sync all of the animation and move forward with my course. I am hoping to find a good solution going forward because I have just started a large scale project that will require very similar functionality as this course. Thanks again for the support!

Colin Rider

I also had this problem that following Sync of an animation, on "Save & Return", PowerPoint crashes and you get the disable ribbon offer.

I have read several fixes, usually including lots of repairs and re-installs.

I thin I may have found out why it is happening and therefore I think I have the solution. It has so far worked for me without the issue arising.

I think the issue which causes the crash is that having synced an animation, you then change the audio file and then re-try to sync with the new audio file. What you need to do is having changed the audio file for the particular slide, go into Sync Animations and immediately use the "Clear All" function to start from a clean sheet.

Colin Rider - UK

Brian Batt

Hi Colin,

The Sync Animations feature should not be crashing at all.  This likely has something to do with your audio codecs or a corrupt installation of the Flash Player.  Please try the following to resolve the issue:

First, install the following codec packs: 

K-Lite Codec Pack Full (accept all default installation options): 

http://www.free-codecs.com/K_Lite_Codec_Pack_download.htm

Media Player Codec Pack (deselect toolbar options during installation): 

http://www.download.com/Media-Player-Codec-Pack/3000-13632_4-10749065.html

Then, reinstall Flash Player by using the method below:

*******Please do the following in Internet Explorer. 

Uninstall your current version of the Flash Player. Follow the steps here: 

http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=tn_14157 

Download the latest version of Flash: 

http://www.adobe.com/go/getflash

After that, restart your computer.

If you continue to have problems, please submit a support case so that we can take a closer look into the issue:

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

Scott Johnson

We had so many issues with Sync Animations and Articulate dropping VOs, we found it easier to not use On Click animations at all. We have all the correct versions of Flash and codecs.

Try setting those On Click animations to After Previous, and listen to your audio clip in something like Audacity.  You can pause it, and drag the animation to start at exactly the right point in your timeline (within 0.1 of a second!)  If you make a mistake with your syncing, you don't need to start the process again.

It also means that if your presentation crashes and loses all the audio (regular occurrence!), you only need to re-import the audio and don't need to re-sync it.

I've got a more detailed instruction if you want it, just let me know.

Todd Dooley

This doesn't appear to be very timely, but I was experiencing this same issue today.

One additional tip is to make sure that you only have one PPT open at a time.  I typically have two PPT open as I'm doing my development.  I use one of them to create my graphics and other visuals.  As soon as I closed that other PPT, my issue resolved.

The multiple PPT also causes issues with templates and publishing.   I completely understand why.  Articulate isn't sure which PPT you're trying to publish, so you end up with a mish mosh of both when the publishing process completes.

Hope this helps others.

Dwayne Schamp

Here's my 2 copper's on Sync Animation:


Don't use it.

I'm not happy about saying it, but I have to.

In the past, I have lost more time and effort trying to figure out why it doesn't work than it working. I gave up on it a couple years ago and just started using the Animation pane that is built into PowerPoint. This allows me two major benefits:

1. More exacting control over when animations happen and how.

2. Easier updating of pages that contain multiple animations when things need to change.

I have run tutorial classes at several companies on advanced animation techniques within Powerpoint and Articulate, with great results.

The Synch Animation seems to be a bigger issue when working with more that 40 slides in a deck. Not sure what the issue is, but hopefully the upcoming update will fix this.Until then, I suggest animating like you would any other PowerPoint deck, and go with the animation pane.

Okay, that was more like a 1 paper Lincoln. If you have questions about this, don't hesitate to message me.

Have a super day!

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