Moving from Articulate Studio '13 to 360

Aug 07, 2017

Hello, all

Getting ready to move from Articulate Studio '13 (primarily Presenter '13 is our main product of use) to 360.

How about all of the presenters, player templates, etc that I have ammassed over the years?  Will those all upgrade/convert?

I notice when I created a backup/package zip file of one of my presentations, and opened it in 360, it upgraded the presentation and the players/presenters that were in the presentation pulled through.  

Just looking for some time saving tips.

Thank you!

Rob Catron

31 Replies
Alyssa Gomez

Hi Rob, happy to hear you're checking out Studio 360! 

All of your Studio '13 files should upgrade seamlessly to Studio 360. And don't worry--backup copies of your original project files will automatically be made in case you need to go back later.

See these articles for additional details:

Rob Catron

 OK, understood that. That wasn't my exact question though.  I wasn't talking about the project files themselves, but the actual files that are in the appdata a folder, again  - the  player,  presentors,  colors etc. 

 Also, I think we just discovered a nasty bug in the html5 player at least:

 If a user is watching a presentation in one tab and switches to another tab, if the presentation tab slode ends before they switch back from the other tab, the  presentation slide basically starts over again with no audio.   The user thinks this is a glitch and most the time  just hits the refresh button on the browser 

Rob Catron

Ugh, and another nasty glitch (which I thought we were passed since the inception of Presenter '13).

I didn't catch this for a while because I always watch my presentations on mobile in Landscape mode.  AT least in the HTML5 player (which I think is all that runs on mobile) - even with the seekbar set to "Read only" - if the device is in portrait mode (where the menu and seekbar are at the bottom of the screen) - the user can simply skip the seekbar ahead to skip all content on each slide.  In landscape mode (where the progress circle surrounds the pause button) they cannot do that, but for certain, in Portrait mode they scan skip ahead).

For now, I have disabled the seekbar all together in my restricted presentations.

Please advise

Alyssa Gomez

Hi Rob,

The upgrade process will create a backup of the PPT and PPTA file. Can you share a screenshot of the appdata folder you're referring to? 

Thanks for letting us know about the bugs you found. We are seeing those too, specifically...

  • In HTML5, the slide timeline incorrectly goes out of sync with slide audio when a user opens another browser tab. The audio continues to play, but the timeline pauses until the user goes back to the presentation tab. 
  • The seekbar is draggable in the responsive player on mobile devices even if you set it to "read-only" in the Player Properties.
I'll tag this thread to be updated as soon as we get more information on either one of these issues. Thanks again for letting us know you ran into them, and I'm sorry if it has caused you headaches!
Rob Catron

I have not actually installed 360 on my main machine that I have my Studio '13 on as I wasn't sure of how the update procedure would go.  If, when I install 360 on it, it will actually upgrade the Studio '13 install and automatically have all of my presenters and players we are good, otherwise it's a bit of work.

I am trying to explain...so let's say after I install 360 on my machine.  If I go to create a NEW presentation (NOT just upgrading an existing Studio '13 presentation) - when I go to slide properties, ALL of my presenters are there as, when I go to players, all of my Player templates are there (without having to re-create all of them).

The latter two bugs are critical.  I am pretty certain that if we look in old, old posts, we went through the same thing with the HTML5 player on Presenter '13 as well.  It just looks like that would have been caught.

Thank you!

Rob Catron

Thank you.  Do you know if there are any other bugs that allow users under certain conditions, to be able to skip ahead (like the seek bar in mobile not being read only)?  The reason I ask is that we have had some sneaks (on different OS/Browser combos) be able to skip ahead, and we are scratching our heads here....

 

Alyssa Gomez

Hi Rob,

We've also found that the read-only seekbar can be skipped if the user hits the tab key to move the focus on to the seekbar, then uses the right-arrow key to advance the seekbar. Here's a Peek at what I mean. Perhaps those learners figured out how to use the tab key to skip ahead?

This is another bug our team is looking into, and I will tag this thread to be updated when we have new information on a fix. 

Rob Catron

So my web programmer was able to, on the fly do some JavaScript code that disables the tab and right and right arrow key outside of the Presenter presentation, which is getting us by, but the issue of the slide resetting when the tab is not open (i.e. people multitasking) is the larger headache now.

Any ETA on all of these issues being resolved?

Rob Catron

There is another player issue (on Chrome in Windows 10):

When I disabled the seekbar in player properties (to prevent the mobile user from sliding the seekbar in mobile portrait mode to advance quickly), even though the Play/Pause button is left enabled, it disappears completely from the HTML5 non-mobile player (only leaving the volume slider visible).  Specifically Chrome in Windows 10

 

Alyssa Gomez

Thanks, Rob. Regarding the last bug you mentioned, we're seeing that as well, specifically in HTML5. The Flash output is working correctly. 

Although I don't have an ETA on a fix for these bugs at this point, rest assured we're working through them and we'll notify you as soon as there's an update. When you report a bug, here’s how we tackle it.

I really appreciate you sharing all of your findings and for helping us improve our product. Thanks for being a part of this community!

Alyssa Gomez

Hi Rob, I wanted to circle back to one of your original questions:

"How about all of the presenters, player templates, etc that I have ammassed over the years?  Will those all upgrade/convert?

I notice when I created a backup/package zip file of one of my presentations, and opened it in 360, it upgraded the presentation and the players/presenters that were in the presentation pulled through."

I told you I wanted to look into this more to be sure I'm giving you a complete and accurate answer, and now I've got it! 

We do pull Presenters/Playlists from the same location, so those are available immediately after you upgrade to Presenter 360. For Player Templates, you'll want to open the project that has the Player you want. Then, go to Player > Current Player > Save As.  That will make the Player available for new Presenter 360 projects.  

I hope that's helpful!

Rob Catron

Thank you for the update!

Now, do you have any updates on the HTML5 player issues mentioned throughout this thread (not able to restrict Seekbar on mobile portrait player, right arrow key isn't restricted in HTML5 mobile player, player tab losing priority and getting stuck in a loop on a slide when the user switches tabs on HTML5 player, etc)?

The hacks that we have had to institute to get things working are giving us headaches with our constituency right now (disabling the seekbar, which also disables play/pause, etc)

Thank you again

Rob Catron

Looking for an update on the above-listed bugs as we are pretty much using Articulate Presenter 360 in it's partially broken state with the HTML Player issues that it exhibits.

We have a very large project that has to go up within the next month or so, I will not be using 360 for it in its current state (even though I purchased the upgrade).  I will have to publish the new project in Studio '13 unless these player bugs get addressed.

It appears there was an update on 9/5 which I haven't installed yet, but it refers to Flash-based restriction issues that were fixed, not HTML5

https://articulate.com/support/article/Articulate-Studio-360-Version-History

Thank you

Rob Catron

Thank you.  Hopefully, they fixed the HTML5 player issues with restricted presentations, and please, don't forget the big issue where when tab switching, the courses lose their priority and lose their way (and the slide is repeated again with no sound).  

As a reminder, our pressing issues are:

  • We are not able to restrict Seekbar on the mobile player in portrait mode.  Our temporary fix for this is that we have disabled the seek bar altogeher, which, unfortunately, in the HTML5 player (for normal browsers) makes the play/pause button disappear.  
  • The right arrow key is not restricted in HTML5 mobile player (our hack is that our web programmer has implemented JavaScript coding with disables the right arrow key and tab key in the browser)
  • The Presenter Player's tab loses priority when user switches tabs on HTML5 player (not sure about flash).  Once the user returns to the presentation's tab, the current slide loops with no sound playing, which causes them to think the presentation is hung up, which in turn causes them, in desperation to refresh the browser, try to go back and forward, etc).  This issue is amplified by the user not being able to see the seekbar because of the hacks we have had to do above. 

Thank you

Alyssa Gomez

Hi again Rob, and thanks for your patience. I have confirmed that the 3 issues you listed above were not fixed in the most recent update of Presenter 360 (Build 8.8.13184.0), but rest assured they are still a very high priority for us. I appreciate you for checking in and sticking with us on this, and I'll let you know as soon as I get more information. 

Rob Catron

Another Month has past, so *BUMP* on the HTML5 Player issues being resolved.

I have been looking at the release notes and a few HTML5 fixes were instituted.  Can you confirm that any of the following were addressed:

  • We are not able to restrict Seekbar on the mobile player in portrait mode. Our temporary fix for this is that we have disabled the seek bar altogeher, which, unfortunately, in the HTML5 player (for normal browsers) makes the play/pause button disappear.
  • The right arrow key is not restricted in HTML5 mobile player (our hack is that our web programmer has implemented JavaScript coding with disables the right arrow key and tab key in the browser)
  • The Presenter Player's tab loses priority when user switches tabs on HTML5 player (not sure about flash). Once the user returns to the presentation's tab, the current slide loops with no sound playing, which causes them to think the presentation is hung up, which in turn causes them, in desperation to refresh the browser, try to go back and forward, etc). This issue is amplified by the user not being able to see the seekbar because of the hacks we have had to do above.
Rob Catron

Is the "great news" announcement fix for audio syncing issues with switching tabs the same as my known issue (bullet # 3) above:

https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-presenter/seekbar-stops-progressing-when-i-switch-to-another-tab-in-articulate-360-studio-html5

I had reverted back to Studio '13 for my latest rounds of online learning courses due to that issue, and have noticed that the same thing is now happening in Presenter 13 as well.

Thank you

Rob Catron

Ok, so I think I am going to be very happy.  I just republished one of my presentations after updating to the latest 360 release.

It appears that the HTML5 player issues are fixed now (including the tab switching/sync issue, the seekbar in portrait mobile player not being restricted, and the keyboard not being restricted)

Still playing around, but I think we may be good

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