Help with floating tools and Ink Aware

[Moe]

Still looking for any ideas about how to get the Notebook 10 floating tools to show up (Show Floating Tools option does not display them) on Mac OSX. Upon advice from you wonderful, helpful people, I have uninstalled and reinstalled just drivers, then full download, and I have also changed Mac Smart Preferences-- still nothing!

In addition, on a Windows computer, whenever annotating (either with pen tray pens or toolbar pens) Notebook automatically takes a screenshot-- rather than waiting to choose one of the options from the Aware Tools toolbar. On the Mac side, in the Ink Aware toolbar, I was able to uncheck "Automatically Save Notes," but can't find a similar option in Windows.

Both teachers are extremely frustrated and are almost at the point of not using the SmartBoard at all-- Yikes!

Any more help you could send our way would be great!

Thanks!

[Obe Hostetter]

MAC OSX ideas:
By the way, the Floating Tools will show but the tools won't work unless there is a SMART Board attached. You can load Floating Tools manually by going to Applications-SMART Board Drivers and click on Floating Tools or Smart Board tools. If that doesn' t work, I would try deleting everything that deals with SMART Board or smarttech and reinstalling. Here are some of the various places Smart has files.
1. Uninstall Notebook, uninstall SMART Board Drivers and SMART product update
2. Delete all com.smarttech preferences located under Macintosh HD-Library-preferences
3. Delete all com.smarttech preferences located under user?-Macintosh HD-Library-preferences
4. Delete all Smart apps unders Macintosh HD-library-receipts
5. Delete all Smart galleries under Macintosh HD-Library-Application Support
6. Delete all Smart galleries under user?-Library-Application Support
7. Restart the computer

[Moe]

Thank you-- will give another try. The issue isn't really with getting the floating tools to work, it was getting them to show up at all. They still won't show up anywhere (the menu does, but the toolbar does not, even when select "Show Tools," whether connected to board or not.

[Obe Hostetter]

Attached is a pdf on how to remove all remains of Smarttech Notebook software before installing or reinstalling Notebook 10.

[Michele Goshko]

Moe,
Was this issue resolved? We had the same problem back in August. The Mac OS X fix was not a reinstall, but a fresh download.

[Moe]

Thanks for checking-- no, the floating tools issue was not resolved for this particular computer-- I'm thinking it's a deeper issue and have given it to the tech department!

[liza steffen]

I have the same problem. I tried everything - nothing works. I called SmartBoard help desk. They said that they never heard of such a problem. Very very frustrating

If anybody resolved this problem please let me know

Thanks

Liza

[liza steffen]

OK. Problem solved. I called SmartBoard HelpDesk and finally we have the solution and I have my floating tools back. Donovan Thorkelson from SMART Technologies sent this message. It worked for me.

After conferring with some colleagues, I have a few things to try. You will need to have the plist editor installed on your machine to do number 2 of these suggestions.
1) Navigate to the following path: Users > User Name > library > app support > SMART Tech > SMART Board Drivers
Delete the ContextsTools.xml and FloatingToolsSmall.xml files
2) Ensure that your user account has read write permissions to the plist
Navigate to
Users > User Name > library > preferences > com.smarttech.registry.plist
Expand: Root > Software > SMART Technologies > Floating Tools
Ensure that the FloatingToolsVisible property is set to 1.
Restart your machine
3) Toggle on and off hide floating tools from the doc SMART Board Icon.

[Tyler]

I am also having floating tools issues with windows. I can see the handle but the toolbar will not appear. Does anyone have a suggestion for solving this problem?

[Obe Hostetter]

I would also post your question on the Smart Exchange at http://exchange.smarttech.com/forums/14.aspx

Another idea would be to load your floating tools manually.
1. Click on start-all programs-Smart Technologies-Notebook software-Welcome Center.
2. Click on the Tools tab
3. Click on Floating Tools. (Note: Floating tools will only work if a SMARTBoard is connected to the computer)

[Caryl Witt]

I also have a floating toolbar display issue as well. The floating toolbar appears on the Windows laptop screen, but it is not visible on the SmartBoard. How can this be resolved?

[Obe Hostetter]

One idea is to load up the orient screen (Hold down the two SMART Board pen tray buttons for 1 second and then release) and then hit the space bar on your laptop and orient.  See if the toolbar now shows.

Another easy fix would be to clone or mirror your displays so the same thing appears on the projector as on your laptop.  Many windows laptops allow this by holding down the Fn and F5 keys.  Another way is to right click on the desktop-properties/personalize and set the monitors to clone/mirror.