I, too, have encountered errors in the installation and performance of Adobe Presenter 7 with Powerpoint 2010, on Windows 7 and in Windows XP, service Pack 3, and who knows what other variants of the same issue.
I, too, have fixed the problem. But therein lies the problem. I am in a software support role at my educational institution, the University of St. Francis in Joliet, and my primary clientele are faculty. Adobe Presenter has been adopted widely by USF faculty to the point where they depend on it. I repeat: Our faculty depend on Adobe Presenter, and have been doing so for years. It's been reliable and highly useful in presenting content.
Until now.
I said the problem is in the fix. Here is what I mean by that: On a Windows XP, SP3 machine, which meets Adobe system requirements, we recently upgraded from Office 07 to Office 10, which includes Powerpoint 2010. Presenter crashed, of course. I then:
- Uninstalled Presenter 7 through Windows add-remove programs.
- I made sure we had the latest version of Flash installed. (and I continually update it through AIR).
- From our hosted Adobe Connect server, I downloaded and installed the Presenter 7 add-in.
- In Powerpoint, I went to Help > updates, and downloaded Presenter 7.01. I ran it, and had to quit Powerpoint to continue, then ran it successfully.
- In Powerpoint, I went to Help > updates, and downloaded Presenter 7.02. I ran it, and had to quit Powerpoint to continue, then ran it successfully.
- In Powerpoint, I went to Help > updates, and downloaded Presenter 7.05. I ran it, and had to quit Powerpoint to continue, then ran it successfully.
- In Powerpoint, I went to Help > updates, and downloaded Presenter 7.06. Guess what I did? You guessed right. I ran it, and had to quit Powerpoint to continue, then ran it successfully.
There is a secret missing step in all this. Each time I clicked Help, I had to open the Help application, then close it, then click Help again to get "updates" to appear.
That machine now runs Powerpoint with Presenter. Problem solved? Not.
Adobe used to understand this, and they now need to repair back to that old understanding. At the risk of being strident and emphatic, I will put this in bold and in caps: FACULTY CANNOT AND WILL NOT BE EXPECTED TO JUMP THROUGH THESE HOOPS TO GET A SOFTWARE TO WORK!
I now face the following prospect: Going to every faculty member's computer that has been upgraded to Powerpoint 2010 and going through these torturous steps. But, that's not all. Our university has a very strong and benchmark-setting online program. I may have to use Adobe Connect meetings to go to remote computers, take control of them, and go through the same procedures with faculty who reside abroad, all over the country. I am not unwilling to do this, but I do not expect 100% success either.
I now address Adobe directly. Adobe, listen. You've got a patch that's in private beta? Bulletproof it and roll it out with all deliberate speed. Immediately. Now. For education, this is a nightmare that will absolutely threaten what has been a workhorse solution for many educational needs.
Respectfully,
Glen Gummess
Instructional Designer and Adobe Connect administrator
University of St. Francis
Joliet, IL
