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Mac users may try to view a PDF file in blackboard, but get a “missing plug-in” message instead. There’s a fix: install the PDF Browser Plugin. See our FAQ for details.

If you post PDF files to your blackboard site using the “File” item type, read on for a must-do fix.

Students: if you try to view a PDF file and instead get a “Missing Plug-in” message, tell your professor he or she needs to fix the item.

File items in a content area display as a page icon and the name of the file as a hyperlink. If you use such File items, please go to the content area where they appear, and for each one use its contextual menu to edit it. Make sure that you set “Open in New Window: Yes” (default is “no”).

This change is important because recent versions of both Safari and Firefox for the Mac are unable to display PDF files when set to display in a subframe within the browser window.

The problem does not affect blackboard items where the PDF file appears as an ordinary attachment.

For more info see http://library.uoregon.edu/scis/blackboard/faq/instructors/i69.html Instructors can also contact CMET Consulting for assistance.

We have upgraded our recommendations for browsers to use with blackboard at UO.

Operating system	Recommended Browser	Notes
Windows 7	Firefox 3.6 Firefox 5 or later IE 9 (conditionally)	Upgrade IE 7 or 8.  IE 9 has problems opening Office documents
Windows: XP (SP 3) Vista (SP 2)	Firefox 3.6 Firefox 5 or later	Avoid Internet Explorer
MacOS 10.5, 10.6	Safari 5 Firefox 3.6 or later FF 5 (conditionally)	Upgrade Safari 4 and Firefox 2 – 3.5 Tiger with Firefox 3.5 mostly works Firefox 5 and Safari 5.1 have problems displaying PDF files
MacOS 10.7	Firefox 3.6 or later (conditionally)	Lion not yet tested; expect problems
Linux	Firefox 3.6 or later (conditionally)	Linux not supported but mostly works

Chrome appears to work reasonably well on both Mac and PC, but is not yet fully tested. No browsers currently work adequately on iPad or iPhone.

If you ADD a new course, wait a half day. Blackboard updates its course registration information from Duckweb twice a day, so it may take a half day or more before your coursesite appears.

Of course, as usual, not all UO courses use blackboard, so if you don’t see a course you know you are registered for in blackboard’s “My Courses” it might simply be because the professor has not made the site available to students.

Reminder: login to blackboard using your DuckID and password. That’s NOT your studentID number. See Help Logging In for more info.

Still seeing last term’s courses in blackboard? Students are often surprised at the beginning of the term to see lots of old courses. We regularly leave courses from a previous term available for the first week of new term to give you time to check your grades etc.

Courses for the new term are only visible in blackboard when the instructor makes the site available. If you don’t see a course that you’re registered for on blackboard, it’s probably only because the professor hasn’t flipped the switch yet.

Faculty members: we keep material from old courses on line for a bit over 3 years, giving you an easy way to reuse content. If the list in My Courses becomes unmanageable, you can hide old courses from yourself by clicking the “gear” icon at the top of the My Courses tab.

Need blackboard help? The first place to turn is our online help file, which you can get to by clicking the life-ring icon on the login page or the “Help” icon at the very top of any blackboard page. You’ll find video tutorials, links to other help files, locations for face to face assistance on campus, the blackboard trouble ticket email address, and more.

One unfortunate side affect of the recent update is a bug when announcement emails are sent out. In the current version when an announcement email is sent out there are multiple copies of the link to modify the notifications settings. This has been reported to Blackboard and we are waiting to hear when they can fix this problem.

Many problems in Blackboard when using Firefox can be solved by clearing your browser cache. To do this go to “Tools”->”Clear Recent History…”, then make sure “Cache” is the only box checked. Set “Time range to clear:” to “Everything” and then click on “Clear Now”.

To clear your cache every time you exit your browser click on “Tools”->”Options…” if you are using Windows or “Firefox”->”Preferences…” if you are using a Mac. Then click on the “Privacy” tab and make sure that “Clear history when Firefox closes” is checked and then click on the “Settings…” button. In the next screen make sure that “Cache” is checked and click on “OK”. Your browser cache will now be cleared every time you exit Firefox.