SMART Notebook 10.8

[Joanne Villis]

Notebook 10.8 is available for download. From my understanding, it was released in order to fix a few bugs associated with the dual touch SB800 series. Does anyone know if it has any benefits for SMART users of SB660 or older boards?

[Randy Tran]

The new SMART Product Drivers that come with Notebook 10.8 indeed fix a few issues with the dual touch boards, but as far as any new features or changes with the older SMART Boards, nothing has really changed as we haven't had too many (if not none) problems with the older models of SMART Boards.  (If it isn't broken, why fix it?)

 

#R

[Joanne Villis]

 

Hi Randy,

Thank you for that. We are getting 2 new SB800 series in a few weeks. I am very excited. One issue though (although minor) is the time required in order to wait for the board to orientate. Prior to 10.7 it was very quick, now after orientating the stadard 9 points it is slow to return to the Notebook document.

Also, there has been an increase in corrupt Notebook files. For example, we have Notebook files going back to 9.0 (approx 6/7 years ago) and then you try to open them now,  occasionally when you open them the file is corrupt and won't open. After sending the files to SMART technologies they can retrieve the images from the files only.

My advice is for teachers who have old documents to firstly create a copy and them open them and save them in the version that they are currently running in order to minimise files becoming corrupt. The other option is to open them on a PC with an older version of SMART Notebook which can be retrieved from archives. Is this correct or is there anything else they can do?

I appreciate your advice.

Jo

[Habib S]

Looks like you're on top of it Jo, that's exactly what we recommend our customers to do, especially for files created back in 9.0.

 

I also recommend to create a copy of any old file before opening it in the new versions of Notebook 10. Sometimes opening the file in the new version of Notebook could corrupt the file due to various reasons, hence it would be a good idea to have a backup which you might try opening using older versions of Notebook.

 

Hope this helps

[Joanne Villis]

Thanks. With the next version of Notebook maybe they could get the magic pen to work in dual page mode? It would also be great if they could somehow change the set up of 'My Content' so that it is compatible with school network systems. When teachers change classrooms to teach and log onto a PC, 'My Content' doesn't 'follow' (so to speak) users on the network. Therfore, teachers are required to export and import collection files on multiple computers. Just a thought, I don't know if it is possible.

[Randy Tran]

Ok, for most of those ideas, you can always send an email to our user experience teams at [e-mail].  

 

As for the 'My content', simply make sure that your 'My Content' folder has been configured to save on a networked location, like your home drive on the network.

Because the settings for the location of My content is saved in the Current user section of the registry, it will follow you around no matter what computer you move to as long as it exists within the same domain.  

 

That said, as long as your setup meets the above 2 conditions, you'll always have access to your "My content" - (the domain/your roaming profile) will carry the registry data that holds your "My content" location settings, and the location setting pointing to a network drive you have access to that the computer you are currently using can reach. 

 

You can check this by starting up Notebook in administrative mode.  Do this by clicking on start > run, and then type in "notebook /admin" (see image below).

 

 

 

Once Notebook Software is open in administrative mode, you'll have access to the content location options in the Gallery tab.  (see picture below)

 

Once you've accessed the Content Location option, you can then change the location of your "My content" folder.  Change this to a networked location that all computers on your network can reach.

 

Once you've set this up, you should be able to access your "My Content" folder regardless of what computer you are on, as long as you sign into your own profile at each computer.

 

Hope that helps.

 

#R

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Scott Waldow]

Over the summer we installed 10 new SB680s and with this I installed version 10.8 of the Notebook software.  Three of the teachers had issues with writing on the boards after the upgrade, they'd write a word on the board but it wouldn't show up until 4-5 seconds later.  I downgraded Notebook to version 10.7 and the writing works fine, the tech person from one of our other buildings is having the same problem with a couple boards and the downgrade resolved the issue also.  Has anyone experienced this or heard of this?  Thanks.

[Habib S]

When you upgrade to 10.8 you always have to go through and upgrade your firmware so that it's compatible with the latest software. Every software release usually has a new firmware associated with it.

 

Even if you just got your board, you have to understand that some of these have been sitting in the warehouse for sometime and usually don't have the most current firmware when they're shipped out.

 

To upgrade the firmware:

 

1. Make sure the board is connected through USB
2. Go to C:\Program Files\SMART Technologies\Education Software\
3. Run SMARTFirmwareUpdater.exe and follow the on-screen prompts
4. Upgrade the firmware to the newest one available
5. Try using Notebook

 

Hope this helps

 

HS

 

 

[Scott Waldow]

Thank you for your reply.  I forgot to mention that I've already tried that, sorry about that.

[Habib S]

Go into the SMART Control Panel and select SMART Hardware Settings. From the drop-down menu choose Hardware Info & Settings

 

What's the Firmware version that shows up?

[Scott Waldow]

The Firmware version is 5.3.0.0

[Habib S]

Thanks Scott. Since this is happening on several computers, we'll need to identify some sort of common denominator.

1. Is this lag happening only within Notebook or is it when you write on the ink layer too (i.e. desktop, Internet browser)?
2. If it's only in Notebook, is it on any Notebook file? New or Old? Blank or one with lots of contents in it?
3. If it's specific files, does it happen on all pages of that file or just select ones?

Let me know so I can look into this for you.

HS

 

[Scott Waldow]

Since I've downgraded the systems having the problem, I'm not able to replicate the issue at this time.  They were only writing in Notebook and the files didn't look like anything too complicated, they were mostly scanned in worksheets.  An ongoing issue we're having with one of them is that the orientation can be fine for days and then all of a sudden it's way off, not just a little bit but a good foot or so off.  She'll re-orient the board and it'll be fine for a few days and then do it again.