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WebCT Vista has been retired as of June 30, 2008.LATTE is now Brandeis University's only online learning environment. |
Instructors often post lecture notes and course materials which are formatted as Microsoft's PowerPoint files. These have the file extension *.ppt at the end of the file name.
This page addresses several known issues which students encounter when downloading and printing PowerPoint files.
You need to have a program on your machine in order to open PowerPoint files. The Microsoft Office program is used to both read and create PowerPoint files. Many computers purchased will usually have a copy of Microsoft Office installed; you can also purchase a copy of Microsoft Office from your preferred software vendor.
You don't, however, need to own a copy of Microsoft Office if you only want to read the files. You could use one of the many public computers that have Microsoft Office installed. If you'd like to be able to access these files on your own computer, you can also download the free PowerPoint Viewer to open, read, and print these files:
Several recent Microsoft Office and Windows patches are needed in order to download files properly from the Web.
Students will first need to install Office Service Pack 1, then Service Pack 2.
Service Packs can be downloaded at:
http://officeupdate.microsoft.com
Then, check for Windows updates for critical patches:
http://windows.microsoft.com
Microsoft's explanation of the issue in Office 2002
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q314535&
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Security settings might also inadvertently be blocking you from downloading the PowerPoint files. To check your security settings in Internet Explorer, click on the "Tools" link, and select "Internet Options" from the drop-down menu. This should open a six-tabbed window.
Your security settings can be found in the Security Tab. Generally, while on WebCT, settings of "medium-low" are adequate. If you click on "Custom Level" you should be able to confirm that JavaScript is enabled, ActiveX controls and plug-ins are enabled, File downloads are enabled, Installation of Desktop Items are set as "Prompt", Java Applets are enabled, and "drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste files" is set as enabled.
While in this interface, please confirm in the "Privacy Tab" that you allow cookies with privacy policy. It would also be helpful to confirm in the "Advanced Tab" that both "Check for signatures on downloaded programs" and "Enable Third-Party Browser Extensions" (for PDF viewer) are checked in the checkbox.
Sometimes switching browsers from Internet Explorer 6.0 to Netscape Navigator 7.x has been known to resolve the issue.
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System preferences is where you can define which programs are used to open certain types of files. You can access your System Preferences by pressing the "Start" button, clicking on the "Control Panel", choosing "Folder Options", which will open the System Preferences interface in a new window. Inside the "File Types" tab, scroll down to PPT and confirm that it is set to open with the Microsoft PowerPoint application, that the "Quick View" box is not checked but the "Confirm open after download" box is checked.
Sometimes the security features that you install interfere with many online programs and applications. WebCT is one of these programs; we recommend that, while you are using WebCT, you set your virus protection program according to the WebCT browser configuration site: http://webct.com/tuneup
After setting up your system to be able to download PowerPoint files, you may want to print out handouts on a black and white printer (perhaps in one of the many public printing locations on campus). Many professors use background colors on their PowerPoint slides in order to make them more attractive, but these colors pose a challenge when trying to print out the slides. In order to be able to print these slides as a handout (say, with three slides a page in order to conserve ink and paper), please follow these steps:
If you are still having problems downloading or printing PowerPoint files, please contact:
WebCT Support Desk
latte@brandeis.edu
781-736-4739 (ext. 6-4739)
