Presenter video not cropping as expected

Aug 15, 2023

Karen W
By Karen W

I've processed countless videos prior to this, but suddenly I'm having problems with cropping. (I must crop these videos as they were recorded with the person off-center and the edge of their background distractingly visible.)

My process: Insert videos into PPT via the Articulate tab and crop using the Video Editor's crop function. After adjusting the crop, it looks accurate on screen. I then proportionally downsize the video to fit in a specific area of the slide. All looks good until I preview the slide. In Preview, the video still fits into the area, but the crop I applied seems to be gone and the video looks "squashed". 

Is my process wrong? What's going on? 

4 Replies
Luciana Piazza
9 months ago08/16/23 at 1:13 pm (UTC)

Hi Karen, 

Thanks so much for reaching out! I'm sorry to hear you've run into this snag when cropping videos in Presenter 360. 

I appreciate you sharing your process in your post. Could you please share how you are currently cropping the video? If you want to maintain the original aspect ratio of your video, you'll want to use the corner sizing handles.

Also, be sure to check that the Lock aspect ratio and Relative to original picture size options are selected in the Format Video Tab. 

Here's a quick look:

Would it be possible to send along a screen recording of your cropping in action and the .story file? I'd love to take a closer look in order to assist you better. We can also take a look privately in a support case if you're more comfortable with that option!

Looking forward to hearing from you! ✨

Karen W
9 months ago08/16/23 at 3:54 pm (UTC)

This is Presenter, so there are no Video Editor controls other than the crop handles. 
I do use corner handles for proportionate scaling, however this video required trimming more off each side to create a square shape.
Attached is a screen shot (face hidden) to show that after setting the crop area, the result on slide basically looks the same as the original. In Preview, the video does not match the edited slide video. Rather the proportion seems to be closer to the Editor crop, but it still shows some of the area outside the crop. 

Jose Tansengco
9 months ago08/17/23 at 12:28 pm (UTC)

Hello Karen, 

Thanks for the additional information. I can confirm that I was able to observe the same behavior on my end as well. 

One workaround that you can do is to crop your video in Storyline 360 and export the video so you can then add it to your Presenter 360 project. 

You'll want to make sure that your Storyline 360 slide size is the same as your PowerPoint slide size when making changes to your video.

The cropping feature in Storyline 360 is able to correctly output a cropped video according to your specifications so the video should display properly when added to your presentation. 

Let me know if this works for you!

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