Custom item not recognizing ml. variables

I am having a strange problem with the custom item.

I tried to use the slider scale downloaded from the forum and it worked fine on my office computer (Medialab 2006.2.40). The html file used some variable references such as <ml.bgcolor>, <ml.font>, and etc.

However, when I put the same questionnaire on the 16 lab computers (Medialab 2006.1.39), some of the variable references stopped working. These computers have the same version of Medialab as the one on my computer but the settings might differ. I could not think of a reason that makes the same questionnaire not working.

The symptom is that:

1. The global variables such as <ml.bgcolor>, <ml.font>, <ml.fontsize>, <ml.color>, etc. are not working. The temporary html returned these placeholders instead the data they reference.

2. The input variables such as <ml.wording> and <ml.varname> are only working without the "<>". In another word, the Medialab only recognize the ml.wording part and left the "<>" untouched in the temporary html file. Thus, no data got saved because the html tries to return a variable with the name of <ml.varname> instead of ml.varname. e.g., the variable in the data should be evaluation1, the Medialab tried to write <evaluation1> instead.

3. The text labels for the scales are not working at all neither, e.g., <ml.text1>, <ml.text2>, <ml.text3>.

Would you help me to solve this issue?

Thanks a lot!