Plugin renders in preview but shortcode shows when published

Question

I was attempting to add this Flash Count Down plugin.

The shortcode works fine in preview:

But when published the shortcode is rendered as text:

Is there a general solution to this problem or do I have to get someone from the publisher to answer this question?

They have apparently abandoned supporting these as their link is a 404: http://premiumcoding.com/premiumcode-forum/wordpress-plugins-group1/wordpress-plugins-support-forum2/

Here is the template index file:

<?php
/*
Template Name: Index Page
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?>

<div id="content" class="content content-group content-index">
    <div class="pad">
        <div class="post-group">
            <?php get_template_part('loop','index'); ?>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

<?php get_sidebar(); ?>

<?php get_footer(); ?>

Here's the main index file:

<?php
/**
 * Front to the WordPress application. This file doesn't do anything, but loads
 * wp-blog-header.php which does and tells WordPress to load the theme.
 *
 * @package WordPress
 */

/**
 * Tells WordPress to load the WordPress theme and output it.
 *
 * @var bool
 */
define('WP_USE_THEMES', true);

/** Loads the WordPress Environment and Template */
require('./wp-blog-header.php');
?>

loop.php:

<?php while (have_posts()) : ?>
    <?php the_post(); ?>
    <div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>" <?php post_class('append-clear'); ?>>
        <div class="title">
            <h1><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title_attribute(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1>
        </div>

            <?php 




            // padd_theme_share_button(); ?>
            <?php //the_excerpt();?>


    </div>
<?php endwhile; ?>

Answer 1

find the function that generates the output, or the output itself if it's hardcoded in your page and add this function to it:

<?php echo do_shortcode( $content ) ?>

if your content is generated through the_post(), it'll be:

<?php echo do_shortcode( the_post() ) ?>

or the_excerpt:

<?php echo do_shortcode( the_excerpt() ) ?>