Frequently Asked Questions

Currently, the file size limit per upload in Brainshark is 500 megabytes (MB). Files larger than the limit will not be uploaded. If your Powerpoint presentation is larger than 500 MB, you should break it down into smaller presentations and merge them together when they are all in Brainshark. If you have a video that is larger, you may want to consider streaming that video from your server and adding the video as a URL slide rather than uploading the video as a file.

There are many different ways you can add audio to your Brainshark presentation:

• Record via telephone
• Record via microphone
• Upload .mp3 audio files to presentation slides
• Embed audio into PowerPoint slides
• Create computer generated audio from your script
• Invite a Guest Speaker to record
• Add background audio or music

Not sure which method is right for you? View our Adding and Managing Audio tutorial for an overview.

Videos can be incorporated as a part of your Brainshark presentation. Videos uploaded to Brainshark via the Things you can do menu > Upload  Video, or the Add  Slide > Add Video Slide feature, play in the slide area as a part of your
presentation as shown below.

Our Video Best Practices document provides the Best Practices and process steps for adding a video slide to your presentation.

For an overview and recommendations for using video in your presentation, view our Using Video in Brainshark tutorial.

There are 2 ways to set or adjust animation timings in Brainshark: While recording narrative audio and after recording narrative audio. Our Animations Best Practices document provides the process steps to get it done.

For an overview of how to add and modify animation timings in PowerPoint and Brainshark., view our Animations in Brainshark tutorial.

If you notice that animation timings you set in PowerPoint are not displaying correctly after uploading to Brainshark, it is likely that you need to set or adjust your on-click animation timings in Brainshark or your timed animations in PowerPoint.

Our Animations Best Practices document will guide you through timing animations and best practices for using animations with Brainshark, provide basic instruction on  adding  animations in PowerPoint, answer some frequently asked questions about animations, and provide a list of supported and unsupported animations and features.

If you cannot hear the audio or see only a blue or gray screen, please review the following before contacting Brainshark Technical Support:

If you cannot hear the presentation:

First, check in the "Contents" area to the left of the slide in the presentation to see if there is a number displayed to the right of the slide title. This number is the length of the audio on the slide. If there is no number, or :10, there may be no audio on that slide. If there is a number displayed and you cannot hear audio on that slide, please try the following:

1. Check that your computer has speakers that are properly installed and have power
2. Be sure the volume is turned up on your computer and the speakers
3. Be sure the volume is not muted on your computer, speakers, headphones or in the Brainshark player (The mute icon is to the right of the seek bar)
4. Try accessing another web site that has video clips with sound to see if you can hear those clips.
5. Click on the following link to see if the presentation will play:
   
   http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/vu?pi=zH2zTg1X5z2efuz0
   
   If it does, then try to play the original presentation with which you were having trouble.

If you still do not hear the audio, please contact us for further assistance.

If you are getting a blue (or gray) screen and the presentation does not start:

If you are trying to view a presentation and only see a blue or gray screen, please allow 3 minutes for loading to see if you have a slow connection. If there is no change and you do not see the preloader page, you may have a configuration issue that is preventing the presentation from loading properly. The blue or gray screen indicates that some of the scripts required for viewing are not able to be downloaded. Firewalls or pop-up blockers (personal or corporate) sometimes block viewer scripts as part of their network security. Click on the following link to see if the presentation will play:

http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/vu?pi=zH2zTg1X5z2efuz0

If it does, then try to play the original presentation with which you were having trouble.

If you are using a browser that has an integrated pop-up blocker, you should follow the instructions provided when prompted to access the pop-blocker settings screen.

If you continue to have trouble, other software that might also prevent you from running scripts (or running them locally) are Banner Ad blocking or pop-up blocker software. For example, the Google and Yahoo toolbars have a pop-up blocker component included with the download. If you have any of these installed on your computer, please turn them off, or configure them to allow our site, restart your browser, and try viewing the presentation again.

Finally, if you still have trouble, please go to our System Check page. Make sure that all System Check categories receive green check marks and that the Flash Test plays an audio clip (if not, please update your Flash Player and try viewing the presentation again).

If you continue to experience difficulty or cannot determine the cause of the viewing issues, please complete the Feedback section of the System Check page and send us the results and we will contact you as quickly as possible.

You are able to repurpose much of the content created in Brainshark, depending on which Brainshark Product you are working with. You should always keep a copy of your most current Powerpoint Presentation that has been uploaded to Brainshark.

If you are using the free version of myBrainshark or myBrainshark Pro, you can download any audio that you have recorded from Edit > Manage Slides and then upload it into your new presentation. If you have animation timings on any of the slides, copy and paste them into the animation timing fields of your new presentation.

With myBrainshark Pro Trainer, you can clone, copy and merge entire presentations or parts of presentations. You can apply these changes to audio as well as slides.

In the Enterprise versions of Brainshark, you can clone, copy and merge presentations and audio, as well as replace any slides that have changed.Our Merge Content document has the process steps to merge content for myBrainshark Pro Trainer and Brainshark Enterprise editions.

Brainshark presents existing content and cannot be used to edit or create new content. Any content that needs to be added or modified will need to be executed externally (for instance, in PowerPoint) and then uploaded to add to or replace existing content. In the Things You Can Do menu, select Replace PowerPoint Slides to replace existing content with updated content (and maintain any audio recordings).

Our Adding and Managing Slides and Attachments document provides the process steps for adding and replacing slides in Brainshark.

Brainshark supports most PowerPoint animations. Our Animations Best Practices document will guide you through timing animations and best practices for using animations with Brainshark, provide basic instruction on  adding  animations in PowerPoint, answer some frequently asked questions about animations, and provide a list of supported and unsupported animations and features.

Yes, you can using our Batch Upload Utility. Before you proceed, contact us to make certain your Brainshark site is configured for use of the Batch Upload Utility. To use the Batch Upload Utility to create new or edit existing user profiles on your Brainshark site, follow these instructions:

1. Download the Batch Upload Utility
2. Extract the contents of the zip file into a directory on your computer
3. Read our Guide to Preparing a Batch User Upload document
4. Configure the upload utility according to the instructions
5. Enter your user data into the Batch User Upload Spreadsheet
6. With the utility and the CSV file in the same directory, run the utility per the instructions in the document
7. When the upload job has finished, you will receive an email detailing the results. The job could finish in less than 1 hour or several hours later depending on time of day and the total number of user profiles uploaded.

Note: the Batch Upload Utility can be used to upload user data only, not group data. If group data needs to be uploaded or if you need assistance, contact us.