Switching from Storyline 3 to Storyline 360? Here’s What’s in Store

If you’re making the switch from Storyline 3 to Storyline 360, you’re probably equal parts excited and anxious. I totally get it! Change can be scary, even if it’s GOOD change. It’s hard to know what to expect. 

The great news is that when you crack open Storyline 360, you’ll notice it looks almost exactly like Storyline 3. At first glance, the two are pretty interchangeable—aside from the color of the interface—so you’ll feel right at home. Of course, once you dig a little deeper you’ll start to see some differences. And these differences are what make Storyline 360 so much more powerful. Let’s take a look at a few of the big ones so you know what’s in store.

Access Millions of Graphic Assets From the Insert Tab

When you open the insert tab you’ll see options for adding characters, photos, illustrations, icons, and videos from Content Library 360.

And while you already had access to some characters before, if you click on the Characters button you’ll find that you now have access to many more!

Use the Media Library To Manage All Your Assets

In the view tab you’ll notice another great new feature: the media library!

If you’re struggling to find a good way to manage your course assets, you are going to love this feature. The media library lets you view, edit, and replace all the assets in your project in one window—without ever leaving Storyline 360. Not only is it a one-stop shop for all your assets, there are tons of great time-saving features built in. 

To learn more about the media library, check out this article: 5 Reasons You’re Going To Love the New Media Library Feature in Storyline 360.

Create More Immersive Interactions With 360° Images

Another thing you’ll notice in Storyline 360 is that you can insert 360° images to create a more immersive learning experience.

You can also add interactive elements—like markers and hotspots—to these images and even embed supporting multimedia. Using 360° images is fantastic if you’re creating a course that requires the learner to interact with their environment or if you’re creating a guided tour of a location. To learn more and see some examples, check out the links below.

• 7 Immersive Learning Experiences That Use 360° Images
• 7 Tips for Creating Immersive Learning Experiences With Interactive 360° Images
• 42 Interactive 360° Image Examples in E-Learning

Build Interactions Faster With the Updated Trigger Panel & Multi-Action Conditional Triggers

While triggers are something you’re likely used to from Storyline 3, the trigger panel in Storyline 360 kicks things up a notch. Triggers in Storyline 360 are faster and easier to create and edit. You can copy and paste multiple triggers at once, temporarily disable them, or expand and collapse them. Also, triggers are now color-coded so you can quickly identify them. 

And that’s not all! The all-new multi-action conditional triggers, which give you the ability to define two actions for a single trigger, are another huge time-saver. That’s because now you can create a locked tabs interaction like this one with just one trigger instead of two—speeding up your workflow significantly.

 

To learn more about these enhancements, check out the resources below: 

• 10 Reasons Why It’s Easy To Create Interactions With Storyline 360 
• Storyline 360: Trigger Panel Color-Coding Cheat Sheet
• Storyline 360: Conditional Trigger Enhancements

Speed Up Your Workflow With Professionally Designed Templates

In the slides tab of Storyline 360, you now have access to gorgeous, professionally designed, fully customizable templates in addition to the standard slide layouts you had in Storyline 3! And many of these templates include prebuilt interactions, so all you have to do is pop in your content and they’re ready to go.

With thousands of Content Library 360 templates at your fingertips, you can create stunning courses in minutes—without paying a graphic designer.

Learn more about our templates here: Storyline 360: Using Content Library 360 Templates.

Collaborate With Team Members Using Team Slides

If you’re an Articulate 360 Teams subscriber, make sure you check out Team Slides, located in the slides tab. Here you can save time and share slide templates you’ve created with your team, or use ones others have saved in your library. Team Slides are great if your company has a standard format for specific slides across all e-learning courses—for example, objectives or navigation slides. 

To learn more about Team Slides, head over to this article: Storyline 360: Using Team Slides for Collaboration.

Give Your Course an Updated Feel With the Modern Player 

When you open the player settings, you’ll notice the player looks a little different than the one you’re used to seeing in Storyline 3. That’s because in Storyline 360 you have access to the Modern Player. Not only is this player responsive and accessible for all learners, it makes it easier than ever to customize the look and feel to fit your brand guidelines.

Want to learn more about how this new player differs from the one you’re used to? Check out this article: Storyline 360: Choosing a Player Style (Modern or Classic).

Easily Gather Feedback by Publishing To Review 360 

When you click on Publish you’ll notice some new options. The first one is publish to Review 360.

What’s Review 360, you ask? Great question! It’s a web-based project review app that works seamlessly with Storyline 360 to publish and share courses. That way you can get courses into the hands of stakeholders faster and easily gather feedback. 

Because it’s fully web-based, your reviewers and stakeholders don’t need to download an app—or even create an account—to use it. You simply share the link with them and they can view and add comments to your course. All they need to do is open the Comments bar and type their feedback. It’s super easy to use and makes the whole course review process go much more smoothly.

To learn more about Review 360, check out this article: 3 Ways Review 360 Is a Big Gift for Course Developers.

Create a Course Teaser in Seconds by Publishing To Video

Another new publishing option you’ll notice in Storyline 360 is Video.

This option comes in handyif you’re creating a teaser video for your course that you want to post on, say, YouTube. Or, maybe you need to create a GIF for a different project. If so, you can use Storyline 360 to build the GIF, publish to video, and then convert and embed it wherever you want.

Want to find out more about how this works? Check out this article: New in Storyline 360: Publish To Video.

Wrap-Up 

Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list of all the features you’ll find in Storyline 360 that you didn’t have in Storyline 3, just the big ones that are likely to stand out as you make the switch. For a side-by-side feature comparison, check out this handy list.

Hopefully this article has you feeling excited and ready to jump into creating courses in Storyline 360. But if you’d like a bit more information before you get started, we’ve got you covered! Just check out the links below: 

• How To Find and Create 360° Images for Your Storyline 360 Project
• Make Your Storyline 360 Courses More Accessible With These New Features
• 3 Ways the Latest Review 360 Updates Make Managing Content Even Easier
• 3 Features That Make Storyline 360 Quick and Easy To Learn
• Set Yourself up for Success With These 5 Storyline 360 Project Time-Savers

Want to try out these new features, but don’t have Storyline 360? Start a free 30-day trial of Articulate 360, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.