Storyline 3: Adjusting Video Properties

Storyline 3 lets you adjust these properties for an embedded video:

How loud it is in relation to your overall course
Where it gets displayed and when it plays
Whether it has its own player controls
Whether it's compressed
What its alt text and closed captions are
How it's arranged with other objects on the slide and what size it is

To access video properties, click once on the video you want to edit, then go to the Options tab on the ribbon.

Working with Video Options

Preview	Click this button to play the selected video. It'll play on the slide stage. Click the button again to stop it.
Video Volume	This changes the relative volume of your video. (This option isn't available for website videos.) Low: Lowers the volume to 50% of the original. Medium: Sets the volume at 100%, meaning there is no change to the original volume. This is the default option. High: Raises the volume to 150% of the original. Mute: Silences the video.
Edit Video	Click this button to edit the video. When the built-in video editor opens, you can trim and crop to show only the portions you want; adjust the volume, brightness, and contrast to improve quality; and add a logo or watermark for branding. To learn more about using the video editor, see this user guide. This option isn't available for website videos.
Show Video	This determines whether the video displays in the slide or in a new browser window.
Play Video	When do you want the video to start playing? Choose one of these options. (This property will be grayed out if you display the video in a new browser window—see above.) Automatically: The video will start playing as soon as the slide's timeline reaches the start of the video object. For more information on working with the timeline, see this user guide. When clicked: Select this option if you don't want the video to start playing until learners click it. From trigger: Select this option to start playing the video when a specific event has occurred, such as clicking a button. To learn more about triggers, see this user guide. This option doesn't apply to website videos. Generally, learners need to click web videos to play them. Some browsers still allow web videos to autoplay (if the autoplay feature is enabled in your embed code), but the trend is for browsers to prevent media from autoplaying.
Show Video Controls	Choose Below video from the drop-down to add a separate playbar to the video, so learners can play, pause, rewind, and fast forward it. Choose None if you'd prefer to omit the separate playbar for the video. This option isn't available for website videos.
Compression	Choose Automatic from the drop-down to have Storyline compress your video files when you publish. Choose None if you'd prefer not to compress your video files. Video quality will be higher, but it also results in larger files. This feature is only available for MP4 videos created with baseline, main, or high profiles. All other video files will be compressed when published.
Captions	If the selected video has closed captions, the caption file name will display in this section. If not, it'll display "None." Use the three corresponding icons to add, remove, and export captions. See this user guide to learn more about closed captioning in Storyline 3.
Arrange	Arrange the video with other slide objects using the Bring Forward, Send Backward, and Align drop-down.
Size	Size the video on the slide using the Height and Width fields. Enter values in pixels. The aspect ratio of your video will be maintained—when you change one value, the other value will automatically change for you.

Additional Right-Click Options for Working with Videos

You can access several more video options by simply right-clicking a video placeholder.

Preview	Select this option to play the video. It'll play on the slide stage. Click anywhere outside the video to stop it.
Set Poster Frame	Use this option to assign a placeholder image to your video. When prompted, browse to the image you want to use. This is especially useful if you've configured your video to play only when learners click it. The poster frame will be visible to learners until they click it to play the video. If you change your mind and want to remove the poster frame, right-click the video again, and select Remove Poster Frame.
Edit Video	Use this option to edit your video in the built-in video editor. This option isn't available for website videos.
Change Video	Use this option to swap out the original video with a different one without losing your video properties.
Change Embed Code	This option only pertains to website videos. Select this option to modify the embed code.
Group	Use this option to group a video with other objects on the slide. This is useful if you want to rotate a video. Although videos can't be rotated by themselves, they can be rotated when they're grouped with another object.
Bring to Front Send to Back	Use these options to arrange your video with other objects on the slide.
Rename	This lets you change the default name (Video 1, Video 2, etc.) assigned to videos in Storyline. Another way to rename videos and other objects is to use the timeline.
Size and Position	This is another way to specify an exact size and position for your video. To learn more about the Size and Position window, see this user guide.
Accessibility	This opens the Size and Position window directly to the Accessibility tab where you can add alt text and closed captions.