Staff and students have reported problems accessing links to Microsoft Office documents in Blackboard Learn, following the move to the Blackboard Learn SaaS environment. Users are seeing 404 errors, similar to that shown below:
Either a HTTP 404 error appears, or the Word online application opens but displays the message “Sorry, there was a problem and we can’t open this document. If this happens again, try opening the Document in Microsoft Word.”
The latest version of Edge (also known as Chromium Edge) offers the ability to open Office files in browser, but when this option is enabled, Office documents opened from Blackboard Learn SaaS cause the errors mentioned above.
Users can view the Office documents by right clicking on the file name and selecting Save Link As... from the drop-down menu. This will allow users to save the file to their computer, where it can be opened with Microsoft Office.
Using an alternative browser, such as Google Chrome, or Firefox will also resolve this issue.
If you are comfortable making changes to your browser settings, the Open Office files in-browser option can be disabled.
To do this: