Polltime for PowerPoint

It's always a challenge to keep the attention of an audience when you're presenting an online workshop or training class. One good way of keeping an audience engaged is to ask questions and take polls of the audience.

Polltime is an add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint that helps you quickly set up a poll or ask a comprehension question. All you need to do is add the Polltime add-in to your slide deck wherever you want to run a quick poll. Or maybe ask a succession of questions at the end to verify that the audience or students have grasped what you've been teaching them.

You can add the Polltime add-in to any slide. If you want to add an image or graphic, you can incorporate those elements as part of the slide itself.

You can find Polltime in the Microsoft Store, or try it now by clicking the button, which will open it in PowerPoint directly:

Try Polltime in PowerPoint now!

Once you have added the Polltime add-in to a slide, you can resize it. You can choose to fill the whole PowerPoint slide, or make it just big enough to show the poll or question, as part of an existing slide.

Now you can click on the Edit checkbox to put the poll into edit mode. This allows you to enter the question, and edit the possible answers. You can add more answer candidates, or delete the ones you don't require. In edit mode, make sure that the correct answers are checked. If there's only one correct answer, the poll will be presented using radio buttons. If there are two or more answers then a list of checkboxes will be shown.

By default it just shows the question. Optionally you can make a timer visible (click on the settings to see the options). If you do this, the timer will start whenever you click on the timer itself or interact with the poll. When the timer reaches zero, a sound will indicate whether the correct answer was selected, and the correct answer will be displayed.

You can optionally customize Polltime by adding your own foreground and background colours, changing the font size, or even choose a different font family. Clicking on the "sSettings" checkbox brings up these configuration settings.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I install Polltime?

A: Here are the simple steps you need to take:

1. Open your PowerPoint presentation
2. On the Home menu (or Install on older versions of PowerPoint) choose Add-ins.
3. Go to the option to search for Add-ins (More Add-ins -> Store).
4. Search for Polltime, and then click on "Add".
5. Accept the licence terms (if offered).
6. Polltime is added to the current slide.
7. Configure as needed.

Subsequently, you should see Polltime under My Add-ins, and you won't need to search for it in the store. Just click on Add-ins on the Home menu, and click on the Polltime icon.

Q: How do I add an add-in like Polltime to my presentation?

A: On up-to-date versions of PowerPoint, it's on the Home menu (ribbon) as the Add-ins button. On older versions, you need to go to the Insert menu and find the Add-ins button there.

Q: Does Polltime require a log-in or registration in order to work?

A: No, Polltime does not require you to log-in, provide credentials, register, or make payments.

Q: What authentication mechanisms does Polltime use?

A: Polltime does not require a user's identity or authenticate users. It runs entirely within the context of PowerPoint, and does not handle the user's identity.

Q: Does Polltime store user credentials or other user data?

A: No, we don't require you to provide a user identity or use your credentials. There is no log-in required to use the add-in, so there are no credentials to store. We don't collect or store any user data.

Q: Does Polltime have protection against threats such as XSS (Cross-site Scripting)?

A: We perform STRIDE threat modelling as part of our design process, and perform code reviews for common attack vectors including the OWASP Top Ten.

Q: Are there any known vulnerabilities or security incidents with Polltime?

A: No.

Q: Is Polltime compliant with industry-specific security standards such as ISO 27000, HIPAA, COBIT, etc.?

A: No, because it does not process any user data or identities.

Q: How frequently is Polltime updated to address bugs and security issues?

A: So far, this has not been necessary. The add-in has so far had a number of updates only to add additional functionality, or to comply with the latest security best-practices.

Q: Why does Polltime need to have permissions "read and make changes to your document" and "send data over the Internet"?

A: These are the minimum permissions for a functional add-in. It is making changes to your document in the sense that it is adding the timer to your slide deck. It is sending data over the Internet to load its code and other assets, as described above.

Q: Does Polltime "phone home" or transmit details of my presentation?

A: No. The add-in only uses our servers to load its assets (HTML, code, CSS, images, audio files, etc.). Like any web server, these requests are logged by IP address. It does not communicate back to our servers once loaded, and runs entirely within the Office add-in sandbox in PowerPoint.

Q: Does Polltime require an Internet connection to work?

A: Once Polltime is installed it will usually be cached by PowerPoint, and will continue to run without an Internet connection.

Q: Does Polltime work with the web versions of PowerPoint?

A: Yes, Polltime will work in the browser version of PowerPoint. You will need an up-to-date version of Microsoft Edge browser (Chromium-based).

Q: Does Polltime work in presenter mode?

A: Yes. But be aware that if you take focus away from the presentation, for example using another application, the clock (if used) will stop updating on the presentation. The timer will continue to run, so you just need to click back on the presentation (to give it focus) and the timer will start updating again, without losing track of time.

Q: Why do I have to get out of presentation mode to start the clock?

A: You can start and stop the timer from presenter mode, but you’ll have to move the mouse to the presentation screen, not the presenter screen.

Q: Can I add Polltime to multiple slides in the presentation?

A: Yes, you can add it to as many slides as you like. Each instance of Polltime will keep track of its settings and state.

Q: How do I stop Polltime making a sound when the timer reaches zero?

A: In the settings, uncheck the "Play sound" checkbox (the default).

Q: I just see a message "We're really sorry, but this add-in will not run in your version of Microsoft Office". How do I get it working?

A: It may be that you are running an older version of PowerPoint, or you don't have the modern Edge browser engine available (WebView2 - Polltime requires this component). This can happen if you are using Office 2019 or earlier. If you have Office 2016 or Office 2019 Retail versions (i.e. not a volume licence), or you're using the Microsoft 365 subscription version of Office, you may well be able to get the Polltime to run by installing the latest version of the Microsoft Edge browser (i.e. the Chromium-based version). The full details of how to get Office with the WebView2 component are on the Microsoft website.

Q: Why doesn't my clicker work in presentation mode?

A: If you select the Polltime add-in in the slide, it will capture the cursor-right keyboard events (which is how most clickers work). This prevents it from advancing the slide. There are various ways around this, of which the easiest is to tap ESC on your keyboard once (don't press ESC a second time or you will exit presenter mode). This will move the focus away from the add-in and the clicker will start working again. To avoid problems if you start or stop the timer by clicking on the Start button on the presentation screen, right-click somewhere outside the add-in so that it is no longer selected, then left-click somewhere to dismiss the menu. This will also take focus away from the add-in. If you have a keyboard, the ESC key is an easier way.

Q: Does Polltime use TLS (Transport Layer Security)?

A: Yes, the connection to our servers (to download assets) uses HTTPS.

Q: Does Polltime use any third-party libraries?

A: The add-in uses the ReactJS framework. It also uses the Office.js libraries, as do all Microsoft Office web add-ins.

Q: Why has Polltime stopped working?

A: Occasionally there can be a problem with your PowerPoint installation. Usually this affects all web add-ins. If you can use another computer with PowerPoint installed, it's a good idea to try the add-in on that machine to verify that it is your installation of PowerPoint that's the problem. Another option is to use the web version of PowerPoint, which might be a short time work-around.

The first thing to try is re-starting PowerPoint or your computer. Closing PowerPoint is usually not sufficient, because a PowerPoint process may still be running. In that case you can try closing it using Task Manager, but it's usually easier just to re-start your computer.

If that fails to resolve the problem, and you are confident doing this, you can edit the registry using REGEDIT and delete the PowerPoint settings sections. This should force PowerPoint to re-configure itself, but editing the registry can be risky if you don't know exactly what you're doing. In this case it may be safer to do a full uninstall and then reinstall of the Office client application. Be sure to back up any important files before doing a reinstall.

Q: How can I manually sideload Polltime when using the Windows version of PowerPoint?

A: Sideloading means distributing the add-in using a locally hosted manifest file instead of using the Microsoft Store or an add-in catalogue, for testing purposes. Doing this requires quite a number of steps:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to https://www.flosim.com/polltime/manifest.xml.
2. Create an empty folder on your computer and call it something like "AddinCatalog".
3. Download the manifest file to the folder.
4. Right-click on the folder and choose Properties.
5. In the Properties dialog, choose the Sharing tab.
6. Click on the Share... button.
7. In the Network access dialog, add yourself and any other users that need access.
8. After adding users, click on the Share button.
9. In the confirmation dialog, note the network path for the share and click Done.
10. Open PowerPoint.
11. On the File tab, choose Options.
12. Choose Trust Center, and then click on the Trust Center Settings button.
13. Choose Trusted Add-in Catalogs in the left-hand navigation.
14. In the Catalog Url box, enter the network path you noted earlier.
15. Click on the Add catalog button.
16. Make sure that the Show in Menu checkbox for the catalogue is checked.
17. Click the OK button to close the dialog.
18. Close PowerPoint and then open it again (for changes to trusted catalogue to take effect).
19. Select the Home menu and then Add-ins.
20. Click on the More Add-ins button at the bottom of the dialog.
21. Choose the SHARED FOLDER tab in the dialog.
22. Click on the Polltime add-in.
23. The Polltime add-in should be loaded into your presentation.

Note that the trusted add-in catalogue folder you created can be used with other add-ins as well, but you will obviously need to ensure that the manifest file names are unique if you have more than one. For more detailed information about sideloading on Windows see the Microsoft documentation.

Q: How do I stop the alarm when the timer finishes?

A: Clicking on the Stop button will stop the alarm, as well as stopping the timer if it is running.

Q: How can I manually sideload Polltime when using the web version of PowerPoint?

A: Sideloading means distributing the add-in using a locally hosted manifest file instead of using the Microsoft Store or an add-in catalogue, for testing purposes. Doing this requires a number of steps:

1. Open a web browser and navigate to https://www.flosim.com/polltime/manifest.xml.
2. Download the manifest file to your computer.
3. Open the web version of PowerPoint.
4. Select the Home menu and then Add-ins.
5. Choose the MY ORGANIZATION or ADMIN MANAGED tab.
6. Click on Upload My Add-in at the top right of the dialog.
7. Click on Browse and navigate to the location of the manifest.xml file.
8. Click on Upload.
9. The Polltime add-in should be loaded into your presentation.

For more detailed information about sideloading with Office for the web, see the Microsoft documentation.

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