Storyline 360: Choosing Player Features

Storyline 360 lets you choose which features and controls are included on your course player. You can add navigation buttons, a seekbar, a menu, and much more. To customize your player, go to the Home tab on the Storyline ribbon and click Player.

When the player properties appear, the Features button will already be selected on the ribbon. Just choose the options you want, as described below. When you make changes on the left side of the window, the preview area on the right will update to reflect your choices.

Why are the features grayed-out?

When the Menus & Controls option on the ribbon is turned off, most player features are automatically disabled and grayed-out. Only the course cover photo remains active when menus and controls are turned off.

Turning off all player features gives your course a chromeless look, meaning your course won’t have a player at all. Learn more.

To enable all features, switch the Menus & Controls option to On.

Jump to the following sections in this user guide to learn more about customizing your player features.

Choosing Player Tabs
Adding Custom Tabs
Editing Custom Tabs
Removing Player Tabs
Rearranging Player Tabs
Displaying Different Tabs for Different Slides
Turning Off the Sidebar
Choosing Features
Choosing Player Controls
Showing or Hiding Navigation Buttons
Turning Off All Player Features for a Chromeless Design
Saving Player Changes

Choosing Player Tabs

Use player tabs to display additional content in your course. Player tabs can be added to the sidebar or the topbar of your course player. Just mark the box for each tab you want to include.

Menu	Mark this box to add a menu or table of contents to your course. Learn how to customize the menu.
Glossary	Mark this box to add a glossary to your course player. Learn how to add terms and definitions to the glossary.
Notes	Mark this box to show your slide notes in the player. Learn how to add notes.
Resources	Mark this box to give learners supplemental resources. You can add file attachments, links to websites, or both. Learn how to add resources.

Adding Custom Tabs

In addition to the four built-in player tabs described above, you can also add your own player tabs. Custom tabs can display additional slide content or trigger actions (e.g., exit course).

Here's how to add a custom player tab:

Click the Add button (it looks like a blank piece of paper) below the list of player tabs.
When the trigger wizard appears, fill out the following fields:
- Name: Enter a name for the tab as you want it to appear in on your player.
- Alignment: If you’re using the classic player style, use this drop-down list to choose where to display the tab. Choose Topbar Left or Topbar Right.
  
  If you’re using the modern player style, you won’t see an alignment field. Topbar tabs always appear on the side of the player opposite the sidebar.
- Action: Use this drop-down list (and the contextual fields that follow) to define what should happen when learners click your custom tab.
  
  For example, if you want to display content in a lightbox, select Lightbox slide, then choose the slide you want to lightbox.
  
  To learn more about triggers, see this user guide.
When you're finished, click OK.

Editing Custom Tabs

To edit a custom player tab, just select it and click the Edit button (it looks like a pencil). When the trigger wizard appears, you can change the tab's name, location, and action. See above for details.

Built-in player tabs can't be edited, but you can change their names. See Customizing the Text Labels.

Removing Player Tabs

To turn off a player tab, simply uncheck its box.

To permanently delete a custom player tab, select it and click the Delete icon. (Built-in player tabs can't be deleted. They can only be hidden.)

Rearranging Player Tabs

You can position player tabs in the sidebar or on the topbar. And multiple tabs can be located in each area of the player. For example, you might add the menu and notes to the sidebar, while the glossary and resources are on the topbar.

To move a tab from one location to another, select the tab name, then use the Up and Down buttons to move it to a different location on the player.

The built-in player tabs can be added to the sidebar or topbar. Custom player tabs can only be added to the topbar.

The location of topbar tabs is different in the modern and classic players, as described in this table.

Modern Player

Classic Player

Topbar tabs are always on the side of the player opposite the sidebar. If your sidebar is on the left, your topbar tabs are on the right. And if your sidebar is on the right, your topbar tabs move to the left.

And on small screens where there isn’t enough room to display topbar tabs, they’ll collapse into a drop-down menu represented by three dots. Click the dots to see your topbar tabs.

You can have topbar tabs on both the right and left sides of the player.

On tablets and smartphones, topbar tabs automatically collapse into the responsive mobile player. Click the menu icon (☰) to see your topbar tabs.

Displaying Different Tabs for Different Slides

By default, player tabs display for all slides in your course, but you can hide built-in player tabs on a slide-by-slide basis. To learn how, see this user guide.

Turning Off the Sidebar

You can turn off the sidebar for your entire course or individual slides. You just need to disable the sidebar tabs. And if you're using the classic player style, you also need to turn off the logo. Here are the details.

Modern Player

Classic Player

To turn off the sidebar for an entire course, disable all sidebar tabs or move them to the topbar.

If your course has a logo, it won't show when all the sidebar tabs are disabled.

To turn off the sidebar for an entire course, disable all sidebar tabs or move them to the topbar, and also turn off the logo.

To turn off the sidebar for individual slides, enable the sidebar tabs that you want in the player properties, then disable the sidebar tabs in the slide properties for each slide where you want the sidebar to disappear.

If your course has a logo, it’ll disappear on slides where the sidebar is turned off.

If your course has a logo, it’ll still be visible when the sidebar tabs are disabled. If you want the sidebar to disappear completely, turn off the logo in the player properties.

Choosing Features

Below the player tabs, you can add a course title, logo, and cover photo. And you can choose where to display the sidebar.

Title	Mark this box if you want the course title to appear in the top left corner of your player. If you’d prefer not to display a title, uncheck this box. The title defaults to the name of your project file, but you can change it. Just edit the text in the corresponding field. (Changing the title won’t change the name of your project file; it'll only change the title that displays in your published course.) The maximum length for a project title is 80 characters.
Sidebar	A sidebar will appear in your published course if you include any player tabs in the sidebar or add a logo. If you don’t want a sidebar in your player, turn off all sidebar tabs and the logo. By default, the sidebar appears on the left side of your player, but you can move it to the right side of your player. Choose a location from the Sidebar drop-down. If you’re using the modern player style, you can collapse the sidebar by default, allowing learners to expand it when they need it. Mark the Sidebar starts collapsed box. (This option isn’t available for the classic player style.)
Logo	To add a logo to the top of the sidebar, mark the Logo box, then use the Click to add a logo link to browse for an image. You can also add alt text to your logo in the modern player so it's accessible to screen readers and other assistive technologies. If the visibility box is checked but there isn’t any alt text, screen readers will read the file name of the logo. If you’d prefer to hide the logo from screen readers altogether, uncheck the visibility box. For the modern player, the maximum height of the logo is 170 pixels. The width varies since the sidebar changes size to fit the learner's browser. Storyline will scale your image to fit the available space. (When you use the modern player, your logo won’t display on smartphones. Nor will the logo show when you disable all the sidebar tabs.) For the classic player, the maximum width of the logo is 200 pixels, and the maximum height is 220 pixels. If your image is bigger than these dimensions, Storyline will scale it to fit. (When you use the classic player, your logo won’t display on tablets and smartphones.)
Cover Photo	Sometimes it’s helpful to add an image to your course start page—for example, when learners use mobile devices or the first slide has media. You can add a course cover photo in the modern player. Mark the Cover Photo box, then click the + Photo link to browse for an image. Choose the first slide, a media library asset, a Content Library 360 photo, or an image from your computer. Want to see how the image looks? Click the file name link to refresh the preview area on the right. If you prefer the image to fill the player frame, mark the Fill player frame box.

Choosing Player Controls

In the Controls area of the player properties window, mark the boxes for the controls you'd like to add to your player.

Volume	This displays a volume controller in the lower left corner of your player when learners view your course on desktop computers. The volume controller won't display on tablets and smartphones since they have their own volume buttons.
Search	This adds a search field to the bottom of the Menu tab. Learners can use it to search for text in your course. Since the search field is part of the Menu tab, it'll only appear in your published course if you've enabled the Menu tab.
Captions	This enables the closed captioning button at the bottom of the player. When the closed captioning button is enabled, it'll display when there are captions available on the current slide or layer. If no captions are available, the button will disappear. This is a visual indicator for learners so they know which slides have captions and which don't. When the closed captioning button is visible, meaning there are captions available on the current slide or layer, learners only need to click it to turn the captions on or off.
Seekbar	This adds an interactive seekbar to the bottom of your player. It's a good visual indicator of each slide's timeline. Use the corresponding radio button to choose how the seekbar behaves: Allow user to drag seekbar: This lets learners drag the seekbar to review content they've already seen or skip ahead. Seekbar is read-only: This locks the seekbar so learners can't rewind or skip ahead. Allow drag after completion: This locks the seekbar the first time learners view a slide. After that, they can drag the seekbar back and forth. We call this the conditional seekbar. Learn more. Pro Tip: By default, the seekbar is enabled or disabled for the entire course, but you can show or hide it on a slide-by-slide basis if you prefer.
Play/Pause	This option is only available for the modern player style. It adds a play/pause button to the bottom of your player. The classic player style also has a play/pause button, but it’s combined with the seekbar as a single unit. When you enable the seekbar (above), the play/pause button is also enabled. When you disable the seekbar, the play/pause button is also disabled.
Playback speed	Let learners explore content at their own pace by choosing a course playback speed that's comfortable for them—between 0.25x and 2x. The course playback speed control is exclusive to the modern player style in Storyline 360.
Accessibility controls	Empower learners to personalize their learning experience according to their needs and preferences. When you enable the accessibility settings menu, a gear icon appears on the player, allowing learners to change the zoom mode, turn accessible text on or off, toggle keyboard shortcuts, and turn background audio on or off. The accessibility controls are enabled by default for new projects. They're disabled by default for existing projects and saved custom players. Learn more about these adjustable accessibility settings.
Full-screen	Add a player toggle to let learners view courses in full-screen mode. Full-screen toggle is currently exclusive to the modern player in Storyline 360. You can open, edit, and publish project files that use this feature in Storyline 3 and earlier versions of Storyline 360. In Storyline 3, the player returns to the classic style without a full-screen button; the modern player won't have a full-screen button in earlier versions of Storyline 360.

Showing or Hiding Navigation Buttons

Navigation buttons are automatically added to all slides. By default, content slides have previous and next buttons, and question slides have submit buttons.

However, you can show or hide navigation buttons on a slide-by-slide basis. See this user guide for details.

Turning Off All Player Features for a Chromeless Design

You can turn off all player features for a chromeless look. See this user guide for instructions.

Saving Player Changes

When you click OK to close the Player Properties window, Storyline saves your player customizations in your project file.

If you'd like to use the same customizations in other projects, click Current Player on the ribbon and choose Save. If prompted, enter a name for your custom player and click OK.

To learn more about the Current Player options, see this user guide.

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