I am an unhappy Articulate user looking for advice.

Dec 26, 2011

 Articulate keeps crashing on me when trying to synch audio with powerpoint animations - 5 different slide decks now ranging from 10 to 80 slides each.

It does not matter the # of slides, or # of animations - the preso crashes. Articulate support did some troubleshooting on a preso of mine and said I had duplicate object names and once he corrected that everything worked fine. I performed the same corrections and the preso still crashed and crashed and crashed.

I had Articulate examine my PC configuration. Everything was fine. I even bought a copy of Articulate for my home pc thinking it was my work pc. I created all new master slides and recreated the animations from scratch on my home pc. Crashed in the same manner.

Articulate keeps sending me links to its knowledge base for troubleshooting help. I'm tired of having to troubleshoot this product by myself considering I bought the premium support.

I have used a product like Articulate years ago - called PointeCast - and it rarely crashed. I'm close to asking for my money back and begin looking for a new tool. I missed several customer deadlines because of these issues.

Julie

9 Replies
Phil Mayor

Julie sorry to hear about this, I have used Studio everyday for the last 3 years.  Al;though I wouldnt call it the mosts stable product   I have used(I experience a crash every few of days, easily fixed by a restart sometimes doesnt even need that), you obviously have something seriously wrong with your installation.  I would consider reinstalling everything, including windows.  

Tom Kuhlmann

I sent you a private message to get more details on what's going on.  There are a number of variables that can contribute to the software shutting down.  I had a weird issue with my PC caused by an audio program that was installed with the audio drivers.  

We're committed to helping you get this resolved and it you paid for the premium support, I want to make sure you're getting it.

Gabe Anderson

Hi Julie- 

Very sorry to hear about the ongoing trouble with our software. I took a look in our records and see that our support team has been helping you in Case #00246947. I've added an internal note and escalated that case to our Tier 3 (senior) support team, so that we can help you get to the bottom of this issue. It does sound frustrating. We'll do what we can to help you figure this out.

Todd McQuage

Julie, you’re in good hands with the support they have.  I’m rooting for you … and I’m not affiliated with Articulate—I am a paying customer like you.   They’ve always gone the distance when I needed help.  Hang in there, your golden lab is smiling in your profile picture, so you can’t possibly stay unhappy with a smile like that.

Russell Still

Hi, Julie. I know how frustrating it can be when a piece of software doesn't work exactly as you expect. I've been using AP heavily for, heck, close to five years I think. It's a sophisticated program and just like most complex applications, it's generally very stable, but does have its little problem areas. Now over the years, I've learned what they are and I just develop around them. I know that takes time but once you get to that level of familiarity you'll likely use it problem free from then on.

In earlier versions, AP's built-in audio editing software had more problems than I cared to fumble through. So, I started recording my audio using a separate editor, one file per slide. Then I just imported them in and tweaked the PowerPoint animation timings until they fit (use the AP "Slide Preview" function). I got pretty good with that and continue doing it to this day. It's an option that you may want to consider. You'll probably get better quality audio doing this, too.

I've investigated a lot of similar products and suites and for this type of thing, AP is the best. It will be worth it to you if you can hang in there.

julie mathews

thanks for sharing your experience.  Actually I do record in a separate program now, saving the files out as .wav    Started doing that in other programs i.e. Captivate and found it easier to manage.

You all have been very encouraging.  I hope Articulate can figure out what's going on - have a webex meeting next week with one of their support folks.

Just so you know, I'm not a novice with these tools - have been developing web-based learning for nearly 10 years using a variety of tools.  I've never had an application misbehave this badly, even MS Office 

thanks again

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