Error: "Some controls on this presentation cannot be activated"

Question

Hello,
A friend has sent me a Powerpoint presentation with an embedded Crystal Xcelsius ActiveX control.
On one of my PCs this displays perfectly, and I was on the point of buying the product when fortunately I got feedback from a number of other colleagues.  Out of the six people I sent the presentation to, only one person could play it.  All of the others experiences this error when opening the presentations:
"Some controls on this presentation cannot be activated"
I searched the forums and came across this rather brief description:
http://technicalsupport.businessobjects.com/KanisaSupportSite/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=4360796&sliceId=&dialogID=12028678&stateId=1%200%2012034044
As recommended, I installed Flash Player 9 on one of the affected PCs, but it did not cure the problem.
On request, my colleague sent me versions of the presentation in Acrobat and Word and both of these files play on all the PCs.  So for some reason it's only Powerpoint that won't work.
I'm very impressed with the power and beauty of Xcelsius, but it seems pointless to use something that can't be viewed by most of the people I'd want to see it.
Is there a better description of this problem?  For example:
- How do I uninstall Flash Player 9?
- Where do I find Flash Player 8 (couldn't find it on the Adobe site)
- How do I "uninstall ActiveX"??
- If the Flash version is the problem, why does it work fine for Acrobat and Word?  Surely this is a Powerpoint issue?
- If this is such a big problem, why is it not possible to select a target verson of Flash within Xcelsius (I've seen this feature in other Flash converters, such as Camtasia).
Details:
PCs are all Windows XP SP2
Powerpoint 2003 and 2007, and various combinations seem to share the problem
Flash Player 9

Answer 1

This is a Flash security issue and compatibility issue. If the dashboard is created and exported from a machine running Flash 9, then anyone who wants to view the dashboard will need to also have Flash 9. One solution would be to make sure everyone you may send it to has downloaded the latest version of Flash. The other would be to downgrade the Flash version on your machine to an older version. Crystal Xcelsius 4.5 requires at least Flash 7. Instructions for uninstalling your current Flash version and installing an older version can be found on Adobe's website. http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/
Another cause of the error, could be the end viewer's security settings. Flash 7 and later versions have a security setting that require a cross-domain policy file.  See the above website for more info.
Also anyone installing Flash must be sure that the Active X control is downloaded from an Internet Explorer web browser.