Three Great Uses for the Zoom Region Tool in Storyline

With all the jazzy design tools in Articulate Storyline, it’s easy to overlook the humble and unassuming Zoom Region feature. Quietly, it awaits notice in the slide area of the insert tab. This wonderful tool, so capable of bringing drama to your course, never begs for your attention. But today, I want to give it a long overdue turn in the spotlight.

What is the Zoom Region tool?

The Zoom Region tool does exactly what the name says: it zooms into a region of the slide. It’s a great way to draw your learners’ attention to a particular part of the screen or a certain item in a software simulation. You can even use it to give a tour of the screen. Here are some tips to get you started with the Zoom Region feature

How to Add a Zoom Region in Articulate Storyline

Inserting a zoom region is really easy. You simply click the Insert tab, select the Zoom Region tool, and then use the pull handles to alter your zoom region size on the screen. The smaller you make the region, the more zoom effect you’ll produce. To modify the speed of the zoom, right click on the zoom region area on your slide and select Zoom Transition Speed.

How to Create a Screen Tour in Articulate Storyline

You can also use the Zoom Region tool to create a cinema-style screen tour of on-screen images or elements. Moving between zoom regions creates a panning effect—like you’d see on a movie screen—and gives a sense of motion as you explore. To set it up, simply follow these steps:

1. Add a zoom region to the screen and place it over the area you’d like to zoom in on.

2. Add a second zoom region to the screen over the next area you’d like to visit—and so on for as many zoom regions as you’d like to feature.

Bonus tip: If you leave a gap between the zoom regions on the timeline, the screen will zoom back out. However, if you nudge the second zoom region up against the first, it will flow directly to the next zoom region.

Use Zoom Region to Create a Special Effect

A zoom region gives your project a cool special-effects touch. For example, in his Articulate Storyline Guru contest submission, Superhero Phil Mayor uses the Zoom Region tool to focus in on the iPad and the iPhone when the user clicks them.  It’s a really great effect that draws focus to that particular area of the desktop.

Use Zoom Region to Add Polish to a Conversation

Similar to the first example where we toured the screen, you can use the Zoom Region tool to pan back and forth between characters engaged in a conversation. It’s a great way to introduce a little movement and give your presentation a bit more polish.

In this screencast, I’ll show you how to create the effects that I discussed above:

For more on the Zoom Region tool, watch this getting started tutorial. In the meantime, if you have some great ideas for using the Zoom Region tool, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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