Troubleshooting

The following sections describe how to troubleshoot the most common issues encountered in SMART Notebook. If your problem is not listed, or none of the solutions help resolve the issue you are experiencing, check out the following resource:

Knowledge base

The knowledge base contains articles to help with advanced troubleshooting. Search your issue to see if any of the published resources offer a solution to your issue.

Tip 

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Issue

Solutions

Videos or animated objects won’t play in your SMART Notebook lesson because Adobe Flash Player won’t load.

Video: Convert Flash content in SMART Notebook

What’s happening

Adobe is discontinuing Flash Player and will remove all support for it in 2020. HTML5 is replacing Adobe Flash Player as the preferred online platform for multimedia content, so everyone who creates online content, including SMART Technologies, is switching to HTML5 for creating and playing multimedia files, such as videos and animations.

What SMART is doing

To promote the use of files that will work once Adobe Flash Player is discontinued, we removed support for the player in SMART Notebook 17. See a list of the Adobe Flash Player objects that SMART Notebook software no longer supports.

We’ve already replaced the most popular Adobe Flash Player activities in the SMART Notebook Gallery with HTML5 activities. See a list of the Adobe Flash Player activities that SMART Notebook software converts.

What you can do

To prepare for Adobe Flash Player’s discontinuation, delete unsupported, Flash based objects and activities from your SMART Notebook lessons and create new ones using the tools available in SMART Notebook 17. Download a guide at smarttech.com/flashupdate.

You can create fun and engaging activities with the activity wizard . Learn more about what SMART’s activities offers and how to use activities.

If you really need to play a Flash based file from an old lesson, you can attempt to open it in an Adobe Flash enabled web browser.

IssueSolutions
When you change the pen’s settings, such as color or line thickness, they don’t save.

In SMART Notebook, if you want to change the default pen and ink settings, you must save the changes using the Save Tool Properties button located in the Properties tab. See To change pen tool defaults for SMART Notebook.

For SMART Board 6000 or 7000 series interactive displays, when pens are returned to the tray on the display, the properties of the pens (color, thickness, etc.) are reset to their original settings so that they match the physical pens’ color. To change these original settings, use the SMART Settings dialog box. See To change pen defaults for all applications (Windows).

Note 

This will change SMART Ink’s default settings, which means that the new settings you choose will appear when you use the pen to write in any program, including SMART Notebook on the display.

Issue

Solutions

You have a network connection issue.

  • Several components of SMART Notebook software (activation, maestro, lab, response 2) require an active Internet connection and access to URLs that may be blocked by a network firewall or other filters. See Device and Network Requirements for a list of URLs that must be whitelisted.

Issue

Solutions

On Windows computers, SMART Notebook software doesn’t recognize handwriting in your language.

You want your handwriting to appear more smooth and natural in SMART Notebook software.

You’re having trouble writing smoothly in SMART Notebook software on the Windows 7 operating system.

When you write with a pen, SMART Notebook software on the Windows 7 operating system interprets your action as a mouse click.

Issue

Solutions

Your file contains large pictures and runs slowly when you open it in SMART Notebook software.

You receive a file or feature-specific error.

  • Restart the computer and attempt to view the SMART Notebook file again.

  • Try to create a new file with the problematic content (for example, add a new instance of a photo that may not have appeared) to determine if the issue is widespread.

  • Try a different user account or a different computer and access the SMART Notebook file to see if the issue is specific to the file or the user account.

The SMART Notebook file is corrupt and can’t be opened with SMART Notebook software.

  • If you are unable to open a file with SMART Notebook software, further information is available at this support page.

Issue

Solutions

The multitouch gestures aren’t working in SMART Notebook software.

  • Ensure that your interactive product supports multitouch gestures and that multitouch gestures are enabled.

Issue

Solutions

You have received an installation error.

Troubleshooting procedures for installation errors vary according to operating system, the specific error message, and the environment and specifications of the computer. Here are some general tips and tricks you can try if you run into an error message during installation. See this KB article for additional information.

  • Windows:

    1. Run Windows updates and apply any updates.

    2. Restart the computer.

    3. Run Scan to repair any problematic system files. See this support document for more information.

    4. Run the installation again.

  • Mac computers:

    1. Run macOS or OS X updates and apply any updates.

    2. Restart the computer.

    3. Repair disk permissions (if applicable). See this Apple support site document for more information.

    4. Run the installation again.

Issue

Solutions

You create a SMART Notebook lesson at home, but quizzes or questions are missing when you or a colleague present it from a different computer.

If you’re using a computer other than the one on which you created the lesson, you can open your lesson, but you must sign in to your SMART Notebook account before you can access all the features for activities and assessments.

  • Select Account from the SMART Notebook menu to sign in and access the missing content.

Issue

Solutions

When you create a .notebook file on one computer and then open it on another computer, the objects in the file appear differently.

  • There are several possible causes. The following are the most common:

    • You used a font that’s installed on one computer but not on the other.

    • The two computers have different operating systems.

    • The two computers have different versions of SMART Notebook software.

You want to move, resize or otherwise change an object, but when you do so, you also move, resize or otherwise change other objects.

  • The objects are grouped. Any changes you make to one object affect the other objects.

  • Select the objects, and then select Format > Group > Ungroup to ungroup them. You can then move, resize or otherwise change the individual objects.

  • For more information, see Positioning objects.

You want to move, resize or otherwise change an object but can’t. A lock icon appears instead of a menu arrow when you select the object.

  • The object is locked, which prevents you from making changes to it. To unlock the object, select it, press its lock icon, and then select Unlock.

One object on a page covers another:

You want to change this so that the second object covers the first:

  • As you create objects, newer objects cover older objects automatically if the objects are in the same position on the page.

  • You can change the order of objects. For more information, see Rearranging stacked objects.

When you fill an object with a picture that is larger than the object, the picture is cut off:

Conversely, when you fill an object with a picture that is smaller than the object, the picture is tiled:

  • When filling an object with a picture, select Scale image to fit to resize the picture to fit the object:

  • For more information, see Cropping images.

Issue

Solutions

You want to obtain a SMART Notebook product key.

  • The product key is recorded through the SMART software portal. The SMART software portal sign in information and product key are given to the contacts provided when SMART Notebook software was purchased. Contact your technical administrator to obtain your SMART Notebook product key.

  • If you are the technical administrator, you should have received an email with your sign in credentials. Sign in to the SMART software portal to view all SMART software product keys available to your organization.

You want to stop relying on a product key and instead be able to sign in to your SMART account to use SMART Notebook 18 on any computer where it is installed.

Note 

You must be using SMART Notebook 17 or later (18 recommended).

You need to renew your SMART Learning Suite subscription.

  • Contact your SMART authorized reseller to renew your SMART Learning Suite subscription.

You want to determine the version of SMART Notebook software to which your subscription entitles you.

  • Generally, you’re entitled to download and install any version of SMART Notebook software that is released during your active subscription period.

You want to know how SMART Learning Suite software will behave if your subscription expires.

  • When your SMART Learning Suite subscription expires, you can continue to use SMART Notebook software in limited mode. In this mode several premium features will be read only.

  • Visit the SMART Learning Suite subscription features page for a specific list.

Issue

Solutions

When using SMART Notebook software on an interactive product, you or your students can’t reach the toolbar.

  • Tap Move toolbar to top/bottom of window to move the toolbar from the top of the window to the bottom.

    Tip 

    If you have a height-adjustable wall mount, you can also adjust the height of the interactive whiteboard or display so that students can reach it.

Toolbar buttons described in this documentation don’t appear on the toolbar.

  • If a down arrow appears on the right side of the toolbar, press it to display additional toolbar buttons.

  • If the desired button you’re looking for doesn’t appear when you click the down arrow, you or another user might have removed the button (see Customizing the toolbar).

  • Don’t span more than a few buttons across rows to prevent the toolbar from being wider than the SMART Notebook software window.

You want to change the defaults on the SMART Notebook toolbar, like pen thickness or default text font.

There isn’t enough room on your interactive product to display the contents of a page.

  • Tap View Screens, and then select Full Screen to display the page in Full Screen mode.

  • Select the Auto-hide check box to hide the tabs when not in use.

The Page Sorter, Gallery, Attachments, Properties and other tabs disappear whenever you press outside of the tabs.

  • Tap one of the tab’s icons to display it, and then clear the Auto-hide check box.

Two users are creating or manipulating objects in SMART Notebook software on a SMART Board 800 series interactive whiteboard. One user is using his or her finger. The other user is using a pen from the pen tray.

When the user using the pen presses a button in the toolbar, the selected tool or option changes for the user using his or her finger instead.

  • The user using the pen must press buttons in the toolbar with the pen, not with a finger.

Issue

Solutions

You need to contact SMART reseller/support for further assistance.

  1. Gather screen shots, videos, sample files and steps required to reproduce the issue.

  2. Determine the scope of the issue. Are only certain user profiles affected? How many computers are affected? How widespread is the issue?

  3. Gather SMART Notebook and system logs.

    • Windows: Open SMART Notebook software and select Help > Generate Diagnostic Data.

    • macOS: Open SMART Notebook software and select Notebook > Generate Diagnostic Data.

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