The UO Blackboard system requires that your browser be up to date and configured correctly. Use our browser-check page to check whether you have required plugins and features installed or enabled.

Install and remove add-on programs

Your browser uses various support programs and add-ons. We checked for the most important ones above. Here is some additional information about removing add-ons that aren't needed and installing those that are.

Removing plugins

A few plugins interfere with Blackboard. For example, you should not have "Browser Highlighter" installed. To remove it from Firefox:

1. Click the tools menu in your Firefox browser.
2. Select the Add-ons menu.
3. Click the Extensions tab in the Firefox window that pops up.
4. Click on the Browser Highlighter logo in the list of extensions.
5. Click the uninstall option.
6. Click Uninstall in the prompt.
7. Click the restart Firefox button at the top of the Extensions menu.

To remove it from Internet Explorer:

1. Click the start menu, then Control Panel.
2. Click Add/Remove programs.
3. Select the Browser Highlighter.
4. Click uninstall and follow prompts.

Installing required plugins

If you need to install any of the plugins identified in our browser check, you can download them FREE, directly from each software maker's website below. Please ensure that you have the CURRENT VERSION of each plugin below, or you may experience problems or create a security risk.

Link to download	Plugin
	Adobe Flash Player For your security, get the very latest Flash Player (currently 11.1); click "install now" or follow instructions on the download page.  After installing, go to (Mac) Apple menu > System Preferences > Flash Player > Advanced  (PC) Control Panel > Flash Player > Advanced Make sure "Check for updates automatically (recommended)"  is on. For more information on current versions visit the Adobe website.
	Adobe Reader PC: For your security, get the very latest Adobe Reader (currently 10.1); Adobe Acrobat is also ok. Mac: the built-in PDF viewing is adequate for most purposes, but you may need to install the PDF Browser Plugin.  On Firefox, install PDF Browser Plugin but also go to Tools > Add-ons and if you have Adobe Acrobat NPAPI plugin installed disable it.
	Apple QuickTime After clicking above, select the link to download the FREE player. We recommend QuickTime 7.6 or later for both Mac and PC.
	Sun Java PC only: choose "Free Download"; you will probably want "Java Runtime Environment" or "Java for Windows" version 6. Don't be seduced into installing the Yahoo Toolbar at the same time. Mac: Leopard (10.5) already includes Java 1.5, and Snow Leopard (10.6) includes the preferred Java 1.6.  Lion (10.7) users may need to install Java from the apple web site. For a more complete test of your browser's Java visit http://www.javatester.org/version.html
	Windows Media Player PC only: WMP is normally installed automatically as part of Windows Update. We recommend WMP 10 or WMP 11. Mac: we recommend installing Windows Media® Components for QuickTime from Flip4Mac rather than WMP 9.

Get programs for displaying Word and PowerPoint

Many courses post material in Microsoft Word format (files with names ending in ".doc" or ".docx") or as PowerPoint presentations (names ending in ".ppt" or ".pptx"). To view such files you need software able to display Word and PowerPoint.  Other courses require that you submit homework assignments as Word documents.

If you have Microsoft Office installed on your machine, then you should be able to view Word, PowerPoint, and Excel files stored in Blackboard. Depending on your browser configuration, such files will either be downloaded to your hard disk or displayed directly in the browser window. Most recent versions of Office are ok, including (for PCs) 2007 and 2010, and (for Macs) Office 2008 and 2011.

If you don't have MS Office, then you need some other program to view these files (WordPad, built in to Windows, isn't good enough). For users who don't have Microsoft Office, we recommend the free LibreOffice suite (downloadable). Many other possibilities also exist for both Mac and PC. For example, Mac users who own iWork (including Keynote) will typically find that it adequately handles most Office files.