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Alternatives to Smart Notebook software

SimonL

By SimonL
in Educational Software

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SimonL

SimonL

Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

We provide support to a UK primary school.

 

The school has a mixture of interactive boards, Smart and Benq.

 

For a long time (years) they have been using the Smart Notebook software on a free, unlicenced basis.

 

Recently the software on several of the staff PCs appears to have updated to the current V19 version. As a result, those PCs that are connected to a Benq board are now displaying a Smart watermark that interferes with the displayed images.

 

We have been in contact with a Smart reseller, but the costs of licencing the software are too high for the school and not affordable. Similarly, there is no way that the school can afford to replace the Smart boards).

 

I have two questions :-

 

1) Is it possible to download an earlier version of the Smart software and circumvent this problem ? (The Smart web site appears to only have downloads available for V18 and V19).

 

2) Alternatively, is there a free / open source alternative to the Smart software ?

 

 

Thanks in advance for any assistance offered.

sted

sted

Posted
Posted
the problem you are going to have replacing smart notebook is file compatibility and it has a huge library of clipart. much as i would love to kick snb into touch i think the staff would revolt lol
BenQ_Royce

BenQ_Royce

Posted
Posted

for the OP

 

did you know each of your BenQ boards come with a lifetime licence of Oktopus software? which will also open your existing notebook files.

 

we can also offer onsite training for both hardware & software

 

if this is new news for you, PM me and i'll get the post sales team to contact you.

 

/Royce

  • 2 weeks later...
SimonL

SimonL

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Hi,

 

Thanks for the input. I have now tried both Prowise Presenter and Openboard at the school, but neither found favour ! Presenter did open Smart files, but unfortunately didn't convert them terribly well.

 

Does anyone have a link to a download of an earlier version of Smart ?

 

Thanks

Simon

EssentialRug

EssentialRug

Posted
Posted (edited)

ClassFlow is fantastic and free. Can link to your O365 or Google account, and all presentations stored in the cloud for easy access:

ClassFlow

 

You can also upload .SMART files and convert them to into ClassFlow files. This is a bit hit and miss when it comes to formatting but it's generally fine. There is also a marketplace of user made resources on there which you can use.

Edited by EssentialRug
SimonL

SimonL

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks.

 

Are you using Smart boards, or an alternative manufacturer ?

 

We have a mixture and those teachers that use the Benq boards can't seem to get rid of the watermark, those with a Smart board seem OK.

SimonL

SimonL

Posted
  • Author
Posted
You can download and use smart 19 for free, which is what we have done here. It is a 45 day trial and then reverts to a basic free version which is absolutely fine for us.

After the 45 days the teacher just has to sign in with their work email address.

Early days of this for us but its looking good so far!

 

https://www.smarttech.com/products/education-software/smart-learning-suite/download#trial

 

Thanks.

 

Are you using Smart boards, or an alternative manufacturer ?

 

We have a mixture and those teachers that use the Benq boards can't seem to get rid of the watermark, those with a Smart board seem OK.

  • 3 months later...
NotSoFast

NotSoFast

Posted
Posted
You can download and use smart 19 for free, which is what we have done here. It is a 45 day trial and then reverts to a basic free version which is absolutely fine for us.

After the 45 days the teacher just has to sign in with their work email address.

Early days of this for us but its looking good so far!

 

https://www.smarttech.com/products/education-software/smart-learning-suite/download#trial

 

Don't you still get the massive watermark even if you sign in? (Unless you buy a new licence for v19). We have v11 with our current boards.

  • 10 months later...
  • 10 months later...
GavinSmith

GavinSmith

Posted
Posted

I'm sorry I don't know what you mean by a premature end of a file. I haven't taken down any of the changes I made, it should still be at https://github.com/GavinSmith0123/OpenBoard/tree/smart-import and https://github.com/GavinSmith0123/OpenBoard/tree/smart-import-build

The builds should still be up as far as I know.

 

I have not done any work on this for nearly a year. Unfortunately, there was not much response from the OpenBoard maintainers to my changes. I opened GitHub issues but they went nowhere. I expect it required more changes to the code base than they had time to consider, and I didn't push the issue in terms of keeping my changes applicable to their current code base and trying to simplify and explain the changes. (which would have been fairly extensive over several source code files). There was not much dialogue with the maintainers as to what they thought about it. OpenBoard development appears to take place in private, without any public mailing lists. I lost interest at some point - producing Windows builds was an especially painful process for me due to slow C++ compilation on Windows among other things. Compiling under GNU/Linux was much easier but I personally wanted to use the software on Windows.

BenQ_Chris

BenQ_Chris

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

 

Not directly linked, however here at BenQ we have recently released the first version of EZWrite 6 for PC. It is free and although in its infancy, it does feature a 300% scalable canvas & will open .iwb & .notebook files. You may find some of the assets don't transfer over, however you may find this useful. You can download and register for the free license here - https://www.benq.com/en-ap/business/ifp/ezwrite-6.html (localised landing page due shortly, but this will work). It is new software and is being developed for all the time. Any questions let me know.

  • Thanks 1
thimon

thimon

Posted
Posted
Hi Chris. That looks really good! However the page you linked says free trial, I’m assuming from that wording you will have to purchase it at some point?
thimon

thimon

Posted
Posted
No it is free free, I've already complained about the wording. It isn't a trial.

 

Amazing. Thank you for sharing. Will test it out tomorrow!

EssentialRug

EssentialRug

Posted
Posted (edited)
Hi all,

 

Not directly linked, however here at BenQ we have recently released the first version of EZWrite 6 for PC. It is free and although in its infancy, it does feature a 300% scalable canvas & will open .iwb & .notebook files. You may find some of the assets don't transfer over, however you may find this useful. You can download and register for the free license here - https://www.benq.com/en-ap/business/ifp/ezwrite-6.html (localised landing page due shortly, but this will work). It is new software and is being developed for all the time. Any questions let me know.

 

Do you know if there is an MSI file available for the software? If not, is there a switch available to input the license code if deploying through Intune?

 

Thanks!

Edited by EssentialRug
BenQ_Chris

BenQ_Chris

Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

There is an MSI in the works, but currently it is per email address. I can provide a "demo" version that needs no license but this version won't get updates. It could then be swapped when the MSI is released. If that's of interest, drop me your email address and I'll send it over.

  • Thanks 1

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