Smart Notebook 10

[contink]

Originally Posted by SimpleSi

you'd think after 5 previous muck ups they'd learn - but no

Good heavens man... After 5 times of not learning what makes you think they'd start now.

I'm still waiting to see if the Smarttech rep is ever going to return to post, much less actually read the feedback. Let's be honest Smarttech won't bother reading, taking notes, going away, rewriting the product and actually learning from our experience and feedback...

[Otter]

Originally Posted by contink

Good heavens man... After 5 times of not learning what makes you think they'd start now.

I'm still waiting to see if the Smarttech rep is ever going to return to post, much less actually read the feedback. Let's be honest Smarttech won't bother reading, taking notes, going away, rewriting the product and actually learning from our experience and feedback...

Yes they do, in fact I *ahem* hear EduGeek has some fans from SMART that come around almost daily, whether logged in or not and take note of what you say. ;-) (And also find fixes for their Vista/mac/Linux issues ) When they do come around, they do it unofficially and quietly to muck about, reading stories about cab, innits, etc.

Here's the "what's new" file. Most of these kinds of things are put in the KB for your reference.
http://www2.smarttech.com/kbdoc/118455
Some more reading may help here
SMART - SMART Notebook software,version 10 (Windows)

Hope it helps,

Otter

[contink]

Originally Posted by Otter

Yes they do, in fact I *ahem* hear EduGeek has some fans from SMART that come around almost daily, whether logged in or not and take note of what you say. ;-) (And also find fixes for their Vista/mac/Linux issues ) When they do come around, they do it unofficially and quietly to muck about, reading stories about cab, innits, etc.

Here's the "what's new" file. Most of these kinds of things are put in the KB for your reference.
http://www2.smarttech.com/kbdoc/118455
Some more reading may help here
SMART - SMART Notebook software,version 10 (Windows)

LOL... Colour me a nice liddle shade of pink right now then...

In fairness could these "fans" please take it as read that things could be a mite easier when it comes to administration installs... and I wish we'd known about these extra nuggets too..

Thanks for sharing

[eean]

I emailed them a fairly obscure feature request - being able to use the pen over a flash file - they replied with a fairly useless "that feature it not available" (I know, that's why I'm requesting it!!) but, to be fair, in the next release it was included.
My email probably had nothing to do with it; but a very small and trampled part of me (the part that silently cries at the end of sad films) believes that it might have!

[eean]

Originally Posted by contink

So, I have no serial number and can't access it. Getting a teacher to find a smartboard much less a serial number is going to be interesting.

Well... what ever you do don't just find out the format of a smart board serial number and make up your own. You shouldn't, therefore, enter : SB580-15xxxx (where xxxx isn't a random 4 digit number). A working example wouldn't be: SB580-151111.

Don't do it.

Just don't.

[john]

ooh eean you naughti boi hehe

[contink]

Originally Posted by Otter

Here's the "what's new" file. Most of these kinds of things are put in the KB for your reference.
http://www2.smarttech.com/kbdoc/118455
Some more reading may help here
SMART - SMART Notebook software,version 10 (Windows)

Having found the time to visit those links and grab the administration version of the software for version 10 I no longer feel embarrassed.

Smart Install Manager: Looks like it could be very useful... Any documentation on how it should be used, what you should actually do with it, whether you should be using it to pick your nose? Erm.. no, nada, not a thing.

Now I'm not stupid (no, really! ) and I can guess that I'm supposed to go get the full version of everything and then use this install manager to customise it, but nothing actually tells me I should, where I should put stuff, if that even matters, etc... You also have to remember that preceding versions of admin install software actually provided you with the driver and software so if you're going to change things that much you have to DOCUMENT IT!

Even the "help" menu on the install manager itself only has an "About" link which is great for knowing what version I have but documentation? Nope, not a thing.

Anyone starting to detect a theme here? Hmm... ?

*wanders off muttering*

[eean]

Am I being thick? How the hell do you download the Gallery - I know there's no bulk download at the moment, but I can't even work out how to do it inside the program.

[SimpleSi]

Am I being thick?

No - every release seems to have been created by a new team of programmers without any "grown-ups" around to stop them making fundamental documentation(lack thereof) errors

How the hell do you download the Gallery - I know there's no bulk download at the moment, but I can't even work out how to do it inside the program.

its still available via the old 9.5/9.7 links. (not tried installing it myself -I'm just assuming it will work

However, if you click on the icon on the far right next to the search bar in gallery you can check for updates online.

I don't know which method will be simpler/quicker in practice.

regards

Simon

PS I've just noticed the desktop icon has changed again - so we can start to expect calls from teachers saying their SMART notebook has disappeared !

[eean]

No, I think I am being thick actually. Yes - there's no download but I couldn't even get the gallery to install. The reason is, however, because I'd installed it using their custom instillation wizard and, in doing so, I'd disabled downloads - which is why it didn't offer me that option during setup and why 'Check for upgrades' is disabled within the program. I uninstalled it and reinstalled without the transform file and it downloaded it for me - They've stuck it in c:\documents and settings\all users\ - so I'm going to make an MSI and put it somewhere sensible.

Their admin tool is quite handy but the registration part doesn't work. You can, just register it once then export the following key from the registry:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SMART Technologies\License Information

I'll then reimport it into the mst or something. Will post some instructions when I've figured it out.

[SimpleSi]

No, I think I am being thick actually

No -your really not

An inability to guess what a program is supposed to do without any documentation is not a sign of thickness on your part.

And by trying to glean it, you just encourage them to carry on in the same manner.

Please just raise a support issue and then they'll maybe publish some information for everyone to use

regards

Simon

[contink]

I'll be honest I find it more than interesting that nobody from Smart Tech has since posted after the initial "hey it's here" and that hinted at post from a "silent" Smart Tech member.

I think I stand by my earlier comments... The software team need a thorough kick in the pants.

[eean]

Anyone actually tried this yet? Made a mst using their install manager - it doesn't bloody activate the product!
Done this twice on 2 machines.
Support request duely logged!

[Andie]

Don't know whether this has been announced elsewhere, but I've just found a link on the SMART tech homepage to a Notebook Viewer, which supposedly allows you to view Notebook files on computers that don't have the full Notebook software installed. Am just off to download it and see if it will install and work. Will post results (and link if it's any good!).

[TechMonkey]

Originally Posted by Andie

Don't know whether this has been announced elsewhere, but I've just found a link on the SMART tech homepage to a Notebook Viewer, which supposedly allows you to view Notebook files on computers that don't have the full Notebook software installed. Am just off to download it and see if it will install and work. Will post results (and link if it's any good!).

Yep tired it out but somethings don't work. If I remember rightly Flash elements don't and videos (which of course are flash elements when imported). If it is an updated viewer this could have changed but otherwise it just seems to support the very basic notebook features.