What are some best practices when importing PowerPoint to Storyline 2, regarding preserving font sizes? Is it better to adjust the slide size in PowerPoint to suit the Storyline default? Or is it better to adjust the story size in Storyline?
I've tried adjusting the story size in Storyline to accomodate the larger size of PowerPoint; the font sizes are preserved this way, but I don't like how large the player was as a result of that. Are there player adjustments that can be made (aside from setting the player to automatically adjust to the size of the browser)?
Thanks for the tips and the articles. My question actually relates more to preserving font sizes when importing. Storyline automatically shrinks the font to fit the slide size; however, for our project we are required to use a specific font size no matter what. I'm wondering if there's a way to prevent it from doing that without resizing the story size because increasing the story size gives us a player that is much too large.
If the story sizes don't match and the .story file is a smaller story size than the original Powerpoint slide size, when importing elements it will scale the elements to fit proportionately within the new size. Objects that have locked aspect ratios will maintain their ratios. Objects that don't have locked aspect ratios may change shape, depending on the story size you choose.
So I'd look at producing the powerpoints with a different slide size, increasing the story size, or using the format painter after importing to quickly adjust the font size on each slide.
For anyone interested. I also have been struggling with this font size isn't being imported correctly issues and I believe after much searching and little tidbits I have solved the riddle. It all comes down to Pixels, Inches and DPI Storyline shows its "Story Size" in pixels, so in my case using the 4:3 aspect ratio it is set to 720 X 520. Powerpoint on the otherhand, shows its slide size in inches. Again, using the 4:3 aspect ratio mine was set to 10 X 7.5. At first, I was like ok, that's fine. I used photoshop to put in 720px by 540px and changed it to inches and it came up with 10in by 7.5in. Perfect... but it STILL isn't importing my fonts correctly. Then I found some information about DPI. By default, most Window's systems DPI is set to 96 (if your's isn't no problem this article explains how to fix that). So, why is this important? Well, in the case of storyline, it doesn't matter, pixels and pixels no matter what DPI you are using. However, Powerpoint is the one causing the issue. When I used photoshop to calculate pixels to inches, I calculated that based on a 72 DPI (standardly used for web development). By bumping the DPI up to 96 and doing the conversion again you actually get 7.5 x 5.625 inches. Using this number, I changed the size of my power point slides to match and low and behold all my text shrinks down to the size that I was seeing it import in as in Storyline! Knowing this after you have spent all the time setting up everything perfect in powerpoint still sucks! This is a *In the Future* type revelation. But it means that in the future, as long as you set up both Storyline and Powerpoint correctly, your content should import into storyline pretty perfectly.
The Bottom Line 4:3 Aspect ratio (System operating on 96 DPI)
Storyline Story Size = 720 x 540 pixes Powerpoint Slide Size = 7.5 x 5.625 inches
16:9 Aspect ratio (System operating on 96 DPI)
Storyline Story Size = 720 x 405 pixes Powerpoint Slide Size = 7.5 x 4.219 inches
Thanks so much for popping in here and over here to share that detailed tip, Emily! It looks like you went through a lot of troubleshooting here and I'm sure this will come in handy for many community members 😄
Is it possible to email you the file so that it isn't visible to the entire community? Is there an email address I could send it to so you could view it directly?
11 Replies
Hi Ashley,
You'll want to ensure you're following the steps here to import into Powerpoint and you may also want to review the information here about setting the story size and how different sized slides importing in will behave.
Also, here is information about the player elements and how they'll impact the overall size.
Hi Ashley,
Thanks for the tips and the articles. My question actually relates more to preserving font sizes when importing. Storyline automatically shrinks the font to fit the slide size; however, for our project we are required to use a specific font size no matter what. I'm wondering if there's a way to prevent it from doing that without resizing the story size because increasing the story size gives us a player that is much too large.
Hi Ashley,
If the story sizes don't match and the .story file is a smaller story size than the original Powerpoint slide size, when importing elements it will scale the elements to fit proportionately within the new size. Objects that have locked aspect ratios will maintain their ratios. Objects that don't have locked aspect ratios may change shape, depending on the story size you choose.
So I'd look at producing the powerpoints with a different slide size, increasing the story size, or using the format painter after importing to quickly adjust the font size on each slide.
For anyone interested. I also have been struggling with this font size isn't being imported correctly issues and I believe after much searching and little tidbits I have solved the riddle.
It all comes down to Pixels, Inches and DPI
Storyline shows its "Story Size" in pixels, so in my case using the 4:3 aspect ratio it is set to 720 X 520.
Powerpoint on the otherhand, shows its slide size in inches. Again, using the 4:3 aspect ratio mine was set to 10 X 7.5.
At first, I was like ok, that's fine. I used photoshop to put in 720px by 540px and changed it to inches and it came up with 10in by 7.5in. Perfect... but it STILL isn't importing my fonts correctly.
Then I found some information about DPI. By default, most Window's systems DPI is set to 96 (if your's isn't no problem this article explains how to fix that).
So, why is this important? Well, in the case of storyline, it doesn't matter, pixels and pixels no matter what DPI you are using. However, Powerpoint is the one causing the issue. When I used photoshop to calculate pixels to inches, I calculated that based on a 72 DPI (standardly used for web development). By bumping the DPI up to 96 and doing the conversion again you actually get 7.5 x 5.625 inches.
Using this number, I changed the size of my power point slides to match and low and behold all my text shrinks down to the size that I was seeing it import in as in Storyline! Knowing this after you have spent all the time setting up everything perfect in powerpoint still sucks! This is a *In the Future* type revelation. But it means that in the future, as long as you set up both Storyline and Powerpoint correctly, your content should import into storyline pretty perfectly.
The Bottom Line
4:3 Aspect ratio (System operating on 96 DPI)
Storyline Story Size = 720 x 540 pixes
Powerpoint Slide Size = 7.5 x 5.625 inches
16:9 Aspect ratio (System operating on 96 DPI)
Storyline Story Size = 720 x 405 pixes
Powerpoint Slide Size = 7.5 x 4.219 inches
Thanks for that thorough explanation, Emily! That will be really helpful for folks who come across this thread in the future. ☺️
Thanks so much for popping in here and over here to share that detailed tip, Emily! It looks like you went through a lot of troubleshooting here and I'm sure this will come in handy for many community members 😄
Thanks Emily! This was really helpful ;) ;)
Thanks for all these details Emily, but I followed your steps and am still having my font size shrunk significantly.
Hello Andrea and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)
I'm not sure if Emily is still subscribed here as here post was quite a while ago, but I'd be happy to help you out.
Would you be able to share the .ppt file that you're having difficulty importing so that we can take a look?
Hi Leslie,
Is it possible to email you the file so that it isn't visible to the entire community? Is there an email address I could send it to so you could view it directly?
Sure, Andrea! You can share the file with our team privately by clicking this link.
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