Blackboard recommends these plug-ins and readers for your computer. Click the link to visit the site and download the plug-in or software.

Some may ask you to register, but you can usually opt out of receiving email and notification from the company.

Apple QuickTime for Windows or Mac lets you play audio and video files on your computer.  QuickTime is included in the Mac operating system.

Adobe Shockwave and Flash are cross-platform, browser-based applications that display documents and video.

The Java plugin let you read equations created with Blackboard's default equation editor. 

Apple computers have Java for Mac built in through OS X 10.6.  The Mac Software Update checks and updates as necessary.

For Mac OS X 10.7, click to download the Java Runtime Environment.

Windows computers display a notification that an update is available when Java is installed.

OpenOffice is free, Open-Source, multi-platform software with word processing (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress), graphics (Draw), and database (Base) applications. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

It will open and save as MS Office files.

NeoOffice is a free Mac OS X office suite with word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, graphics, and database programs based on the OpenOffice Suite.

It will open and save as MS Office files.

File Format Conversion

Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Windows
With this tool, Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, and Office 2003 users can open and edit files created in Microsoft Office 2007/2008.

Microsoft Office Open XML Format Converter for Mac
With this tool, Mac users running Microsoft Office 2004 and Office v.X can open and edit Microsoft Office 2007/2008 files.

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