When you visit the 'Events' section or an 'internal' PowerPoint presentation page with the Microsoft Internet Explorer you will see most likely the following message:
This warning notifies you that 'ActiveX controls have been deactivated. If you click on the text 'Click here for options' you can
'Allow Blocked Content' or get more information at 'What's the risk?'.
When choosing the second option a small window pops up giving you a detailed background overview. Titled 'What is active content and why does Internet Explorer restrict it?' Microsoft states: "Active content is interactive or animated content used on websites. It includes ActiveX controls and web browser add-ons, which are small programs that are used extensively on the Internet. Active content can make web browsing more enjoyable by providing toolbars, stock tickers, video, animated content, and more."
Why then restricting it? Microsoft points to the fact that sometimes these programs can be used for identity theft or other harmful procedures.Obviously our site was not created for this purpose. Interesting enough you will not see a similar warning or notice any restrictions when visiting the site with another browser (like mozilla's Firefox).
Nevertheless Microsoft's drastic precautions have a serious background. We can guarantee that our site will not harm any computer. But there is at least the theoretical possibility that someone else will produce an identical copy of it and redirect traffic which was supposed to go to the original site. If done properly you wouldn't see a difference. These pages, once 'opened' for active content, could then indeed be used to do some nasty things.
As unlikely as this situation is - we are not (yet) such a popular site and there are plenty of more 'lucrative' alternatives available - the concerned Explorer user should not activate sites with embedded 'dynamic content'.
On the 'Event' page you can find a nice 'interactive' gallery but the larger picturers are also available by clicking on the thumbnails.
We created a system which allows you to access PowerPoint presentations in a convenient way. You reach it by clicking on one of the small icons or text links in the lower section of the 'Presentations & Links' page. This 'internal' PowerPoint viewer will not work correctly with blocked 'active content'.
But there are two alternatives: If available you can download the original PowerPoint presentation or click on the link 'Open file in external window'. The second option will open another browser window with a simple version of the iSpring PowerPoint player.
Why all this hazzle - can't it be enough just to provide the original Powerpoint file for downloading?
As you will notice this option is available (for example on the right side of this page) as long as we got the author's permission or the material was legally available elsewhere (assuming that this included the permission to share the material).
But original PowerPoint files have some significant disadvantages: We build the PowerPoint section not only to reflect past Women-in-Medicine events but to encourage authors of relevant and interesting presentations to place their material on our site in the future.
This will happen more likely if the presentation can not only be accessed fast and easily but is also protected.
The best solution is to convert PowerPoint into the Internet-friendly Flash format. There are several software packages available to do the job - but only one company offers a basic version free of charge: iSpring. The result is a Flash file which is significantly smaller than the original PowerPoint document. It has almost the same graphics quality, can be viewed full-screen and is protected (no extraction or altering of content is possible).
Important for all Apple iphone or iPad users: Thanks to the ongoing 'war' between Apple and Adobe, mobile Apple web platforms (iPhone, iPad) do NOT support Flash. We can discuss all day long if Adobe's Flash really is not secure and HTML 5 the better alternative ... right now the PowerPoint presentations embedded in this website are in Flash format - therefore ... there's a white screen for our Apple users where the presentation should be, sorry!
The iSpring player is a very user-friendly way to visualize PowerPoint/Flash presentations. Here is how to use it:
Active X - Information pop-up 'What is active content and why does
Internet Explorer restrict it?'
Security Warning pop-up with the option to 'Allow Blocked Content'
The 'internal' PowerPoint iSpring solution will not run properly with 'active content' being blocked.
Follow these links to download the original PowerPoint .ppt-files.
MS Explorer Users: You might run into the same 'Active Content' problem again - if so use the option 'Open file in external window' at 'PowerPoint Selection' on the Presentation & Links page.
October 2011 Symposium
October 2010 Symposium
October 2009 Symposium:
No original files authorized
September 2008 Workshop
Older WIM presentations
Additional presentations
The presentation 'Nanotechnology in Medicine' is not available for download.
Page updated: 10/18/11
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