Here are a few tips & troubleshooting issues to look out for:
What Add-in are you using?
Troubleshooting questions:
Click on the questions below to reveal the answers.
After you have added the Vevox Office 365 Add-in to your presentation, the Vevox icon (with the words ‘Insert polls’ below it) should be visible in your PowerPoint ribbon under the HOME tab – at the very right hand side.
Sometimes if you have a couple of Add-ins active in PowerPoint and depending on your screen size, you might not see it. The PowerPoint designer pane also tends to open automatically in the task pane, hiding the Vevox Add-in.
DO: Close the other Add-ins with the close [X] button to see the Vevox Add-in or click on the small Vevox icon on the side or the Vevox tab (for Mac users). Alternatively, go to the Home tab in your PowerPoint ribbon, and click on the Vevox icon again. It will open the Vevox Add-in in your task pane.
The mouse curosr appearing as a blue loading wheel (appearing on windows machines) is normal behaviour that affects Office 365 add-ins in the windows environment. It is nothing to be concerend about and is a result of how Office 365 add-ins work on a windows based computer.
DO: Ignore it and continue working on your presentation.
Simply use our joining instructions. It will appear as the very top option in your Vevox task pane.
DO: Go to the task pane to the joining instructions and press the ‘Add’ button. The joining instructions are very simple as it needs to work on many different designer templates. It can easily be customized and resized by yourself or by choosing a designer template suggestion from PowerPoint. (These templates typically appear in the task pane once you have added the joining instruction.)
DO: If you have pressed the ‘Add’ button for the joining instructions in the task pane, Vevox will add the slide to the end of your presentation (as with all other polls added). Move the joining instruction slide to the top of your presentation. Then students and participants will know how to join your presentation from the start.
You have not yet set up any polls in your Vevox dashboard. And will therefore not see any polls in your task pane.
DO: Click on the ‘Go to dashboard’ in the task pane. It will take you directly into your session in the dashboard and add your polls. Or select another session that do have polls in it.
You must start your session before you can add or present any polls.
DO: Go to your Vevox dashboard and press the black ‘Start Session’ banner at the top of your dashboard.
DO: If for any reason you find the taskpane has become unresponsive you can press on the Vevox button on the ribbon again to reload it
As soon as you add a poll to your presentation, the question and result slide pair goes to the end of your presentation.
DO: Go to the last slides of your presentation. Move both slides to the relevant slide order of your presentation. Make sure not to split them with other slides in between. If you have added new polls to your Vevox dashboard, the task pane with the Vevox Add-in will automatically update to show your newly added/ edited polls. From here you can add them to your presentation.
No, as soon as you enter slide show mode, it will disappear – and your voting results will appear on that slide.
The speed of the opening of the poll from ‘Question slide’ to ‘Poll Open’ – where participants and students can vote, depends on the internet connection and the number of polls in your presentation.
DO: Be patient after you have moved into slide show mode and advanced to your first slide with a poll on (the question slide). The poll will open automatically – it will change from saying ‘Question slide’ to ‘Poll Open’ in top right corner. When you want to close the poll, press the Enter, spacebar, or right arrow to advance to the results slide. (Sometimes, it also takes a split second to move from calculating results to showing results once you have closed the poll.)
Check the following in your presentation:
- Check that your Vevox Add-in is open in the task pane next to your slide window. If the task pane is closed before going into slide show mode, all slides will appear as standard ‘inactive’ slides and polls will not open.
DO: Exit slide show mode – go to the Home tab in the PowerPoint ribbon. Click on the Vevox Add-in on the right side of the ribbon. Now enter your login details and connect to your session. Go back to slide show mode, and if you are on a slide with a poll, it will open automatically.
- You have pressed the Enter button too quickly. Once you have moved from a standard slide to a polling slide, you only need to press the Enter button once. After that, the polls will open automatically.
DO: Go out of slide show mode, select the same question slide again in your edit mode and go back into slide show mode. It will re-open the poll automatically. Or you can clear the poll result in the Vevox task pane before going into slide show mode again.
- Your question & result slide pair is not in consecutive order in your presentation.
DO: Go out of slide show mode into edit mode. Move the result slide right after the question slide. Then, select the question slide, go back into slide show mode and the poll will open automatically.
- You are using a mouse click wheel to advance your slides in slide show mode.
DO: use your keyboard – the Enter button, spacebar, or right arrow to advance to the next slide. Mouse click wheels don’t work.
- You only see a question slide in your presentation. You might have accidentally deleted the result slide for that specific poll. Always ensure you have a question slide and result slide pair in your presentation.
DO: Go out of slide show mode into edit mode. First, delete the Question slide in your presentation. Then, re-add the poll from the task pane on the right hand side. Your presentation will now have a question and result slide pair again. Go back into slide show mode and present as usual.
- You only see a result slide in your presentation. You might have pressed the ‘Enter’ button too quickly and so skipped the question slide.
DO: Go out of slide show mode. Select the question slide and go back into slide show mode again.
- Some polls are opening in slide show mode, and others are not.
DO: Go out of slide show mode. Go into the Vevox task pane, and clear ALL results. Then log out of your session (use the hamburger button and select 'Log out'). Reconnect to your session again and now go back into slide show mode. Start presenting from the beginning.
You are not currently connected to your session. You must first log in and connect to a session for the polls to work. If you do not connect to a session and continue with your presentation, all slides will appear as standard PowerPoint slides, and none of the polling will work.
DO: Fill in your login details and select the relevant session you want to connect to.
Your default setting for the Vevox Office 365 Add-in is to show the results on poll closure (in other words, when you press Enter/spacebar/right arrow). This setting applies to all polling types, including word cloud and text questions.
There is a setting for dynamic updates/ real-time results – to show results as they come in, but it might sway your students’ & participants’ choices. Once this setting has changed (in the dashboard under the Settings section and then choosing the features tab), all the polls will close according to your setting. We advise users not to use the dynamic setting for the Office 365 Add-in.
Your voting results will always appear in the result slide inside your PowerPoint presentation. You can share it with anyone. They do not need to have the Add-in installed to see the results. Or you will also see the results in the Vevox dashboard. Vevox will create a duplicate question slide with results for each poll asked and answered in PowerPoint. You can download the result images and the result report in Excel.
If you have added images to your question title in your Vevox dashboard, they will not appear in your presentation or on participant apps. Even in slide show mode. Only ‘ Pin on image’ polling type questions will show an image. When you insert the Pin on image poll, it will also add the image to the question slide as well as the result slide. Once you enter slide show mode, it will show the image on the participant app and in the PowerPoint presentation.
DO: If your presentation must contain an image (s), you can add it manually. We suggest adding it to a separate standard slide. You can add it to a polling slide (question slide or result slide), but it will likely overlap the question or the results.
Read this article on how to add images and resize them.
Office 365 Add-in does not currently support this polling type. However, it will be added in due time.
All numeric polls with a number range from 1-100 will work in PowerPoint. However, if your numeric range is above 100, the voting results graph becomes too crowded.
DO: Ensure your numeric poll has a choice option between 1 and 100. You can still allocate a correct answer or margin of error to your poll.
Only the first 16 responses will appear in your presentation on the result slide when using a text poll due to space constraints. The remaining responses will still be in the results of the dashboard.
DO: Look at the session data results in the dashboard for the complete list.
The word cloud appearing in the PowerPoint presentation will use the pre-setup colors of the master slide. The word cloud on the participant app will use the default theme colors set up in your Vevox dashboard. (This is changed in the Vevox dashboard under Settings > Theme > Theme & customization). The size of the words on both the presentation slide and the participant app will always directly correlate to the frequency of the words used.
Yes, it can. It has fewer display options than using Present View to present the poll.
DO: if you want a detailed result split breakdown of an XY plot, instead use Present View to ask this poll.
Yes, you can.
DO: ensure that your latex notation is set up in the Vevox dashboard before adding it to your presentation (as with all other polls), and do not make changes in PowerPoint directly. Note that the Latex notation poll might display in odd sizes due to the nature of the Latex code. If there is latex notation used in the question title, it will also appear bigger than the standard PowerPoint text title. We suggest you test this poll and answer before your presentation.
It might be that you changed your presentation theme layout after you added your Vevox polls. Or your default text and shape boxes are too large or too small.
DO:
- Before adding your polls to your presentation, ensure that you have chosen the relevant design theme. Vevox will adjust to the ‘Title & content’ slide set up of the master slide. If you have selected a designer theme after you have added your polls instead, delete all the polls and then add them from the task pane again. This will ensure that they follow the sizes of the master slide setup.
- Go to your text box/ shape box in edit mode in PowerPoint. Right click on it. Resize it, and then select to override the default size.
If you have set up the correct answer for Multichoice, Text, Numeric, and Pin on image polls, the correct answer will automatically appear on the results slide in slide show mode. A correction mark will indicate this.
The word cloud & rating polls do not have correct answer options.
For a poll to work in PowerPoint, you need a question and result slide pair for each poll. The result slide must follow the question slide immediately.
DO: Delete the remaining slide in the presentation and re-add the poll from the task pane. (Remember, the poll will now appear at the end of your presentation. Move both the question and result slide to the chosen order in your presentation.
DO: To be on the safe side, delete all your polling slides from your presentation and re-add them in the correct order to ensure they are all there and that the question and result slide pairs are always in the right order.
Yes, of course you can! Make all changes to your polls, whether to the question title or voting choices – all in the Vevox dashboard and never to PowerPoint directly.
DO: First, delete the polling slides (question and result slide pair) in your PowerPoint. Then go to your Vevox dashboard. Make the necessary changes to your question. Go back to your PowerPoint presentation. The Vevox task pane will now show the updated/amended question. Add it again to your presentation. (It will appear at the end of your presentation). Move it in the correct slide order – always keeping the polling pair slides together and next to each other.
Yes, you can.
DO: Go back to the dashboard & add the polls. Then go back to your presentation, open the Vevox Add-in in the task pane, and select the newly added polls. Press the ‘Add’ button to create a slide pair (question and result slide) per poll. Remember they will now appear at the end of your PowerPoint presentation. Move them to the correct slide order.
Yes, you can.
DO: In the task pane, hover over the type of poll icon – it will open up a ‘select all box ‘at the top of the task pane for easy selection. Select all or the individual polls you want to add to your presentation. Then press ‘Add’. It will add all the selected polls in the same order as your dashboard.
Yes, you can clear a specific poll result (to re-run the poll), or you can clear all the result answers in your presentation.
DO: If you want to re-run a poll as you have closed the poll too quickly to gather any results, or you want to give participants more time to vote, you can clear the results of that specific poll. First, go out of slide show mode, go to the Vevox Add-in in the task pane, select ‘Clear results’ at the bottom, and then choose to clear the current slide. Then, enter slide mode again and start presenting.
If you want to re-run your whole presentation or start from scratch, select to clear all results on slides in the task pane. Go back to the beginning of your presentation and go into slide show mode to run your presentation.
If you are halfway asking a poll and the poll is still in the ‘Poll Open’ state, and then escape slide show mode, a message will appear saying, “Poll running, click to stop it”.
DO: Enter slide show mode again. The poll will re-open (deleting previously collected answers for that specific poll), and participants must re-enter their responses.
No, with this Office 365 Add-in, you do not have an option to hide any results.
When you want to use the Vevox PowerPoint Add-in make sure you remember the following:
1. The PowerPoint Add-in only runs on Windows. It does not work in the web based/online version of powerpoint and is not available for Mac users. Mac users would use the Present View option instead.
2. When using the PowerPoint Add-in you will be required to do some steps in the Vevox dashboard as well as some in PowerPoint itself.
3. When using the PowerPoint Add-in for Vevox one can unfortunately not use the pre-set-up questions from the Vevox questions library for importing. If for instance, you have created a meeting session card with questions in the dashboard, the questions will not appear in PowerPoint when you open the meeting card in PowerPoint. Your presentation will show a blank slide. The right way will be,
- Create a meeting session in the Vevox dashboard with the meeting name and settings – but do not add any polling questions yet.
- Then open Powerpoint. Follow these instructions if you have not yet installed the PowerPoint Add-in to your PowerPoint Ribbon.
- Logging in to the PowerPoint Add-in. Depending on how you set up your Vevox account determines the method you use to log in to PowerPoint. (You might need to use the authentication code to login).
- You will be asked to select the relevant meeting session. Choose the meeting card that is blank so you can set up all your question from within PowerPoint.
4. Remember to have at least one meeting session set up in your Vevox dashboard before you start using the PowerPoint Add-in.
5. Add the instruction slide to your presentation to ensure participation. And add the joining instructions to all your slides so participants can join your meeting session at any time.
6. You can customize your PowerPoint presentation through either:
- Display options – making changes to individual slides as you work on them.
- Preferences – this will result in default setting for all new slides.
- You can also use the PowerPoint Design tab to use pre-set up color combinations or backgrounds.
- If you want to use your master template and use complementing colors watch this video.
7. Make time to rehearse and to test your presentation. This will ensure smooth polling.
8. Remember to clear all your results before you start the actual polling presentation.
9. Use the F5 key on your keyboard as a short cut to enter slideshow mode.
10. If you are running your Vevox polls from the Vevox Dashboard (and not inside PowerPoint itself), you can seamlessly jump between PowerPoint & the Dashboard with this trick.
11. If you have set up a countdown timer, it will only appear within the PowerPoint presentation on the big screen or computer screen. No indication of the timer will appear on the devices of the participants.
12. When you are making use of Analysis slides, the analysis slides will not display the results to participant devices. The results will only be displayed within the PowerPoint presentation.
13. When you have finished your presentation remember to save it as you would normally do. You can share this presentation results with everyone, even if they don’t have the PowerPoint Add-in. (Remember for the polls that you have programmed in PowerPoint, and their results will also show up in the dashboard after they have been asked and voted on. It will also create result images in the dashboard that can be used for report feedback).
14. You can also get a full excel report, result images and word cloud report from the ‘Data’ menu in the dashboard.
15. If your polling results or word cloud results do not display back on your PowerPoint slides after you have closed the polling, double-check that you have the latest Vevox PowerPoint Add in (under the Vevox tab, click 'Help' then check for updates) or check the design set up of your slides.
16. When using a word cloud poll, the voting results showing on the PowerPoint slide, can look slightly different to the word cloud results that are displayed on the participant devices. (As a mobile device has a much smaller screen, the word arrangements might look differently.) Also, the word cloud results in the PowerPoint deck would use the colors of the PowerPoint settings whereas the word cloud displayed on participant devices will use the theme settings in the dashboard.
17. If you have been running your Vevox session in Present view, but would like to report back on your Vevox results in PowerPoint, copy and paste your poll or quiz results from the data report into a new PowerPoint slide. (There is no special export functionality from Present view to PowerPoint). You can also create result images for word cloud questions or all your other polls, and then paste these images into your PowerPoint slides one by one.