Monday, March 05, 2007

Security Settings and Opening PowerPoint or Other Files

Sometimes when students indicate they cannot see a PowerPoint presentation (meaning they click the links in your course and the presentation doesn’t open) it may be due to the security settings in their browser. When using Internet Explorer, the user may get a notice from IE that a download has been prevented because of potential risks. The cue is a yellow strip with warning text that appears at the top of the browser window. If this occurs the user can click the yellow strip and choose the option to proceed with the download. At times this action will kick the user out of the course but when they log back in they’ll be able to open the presentation. If the student holds the Ctrl key (Windows users) while clicking the link to the presentation, it should open without the yellow warning strip. Holding the Ctrl key while clicking a link is a way of telling the browser “I’m aware of the risks associated with this type of action but want to open this file anyway”.

Thanks to Davy Jones for the tip.

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