Insert a scene, rename screen cap video, Story view horizontal?
Jul 13, 2012
Three questions, none of which I could find an answer to after a search:
1. Is it possible to insert a new scene between two others, or are they always added to the last one? I understand that I can 'move' any scene to the front by making it the starting scene, but if i have to add a new scene, say, between scenes 2 and 3 (out of 8), then when I add a new scene, it becomes scene 9. But I want it to go after scene 2.
I also realize I can go into the Player > Menu area and manually move scene 9 to be the new scene 3, but that introduces a whole other set of problems (like now the numbering doesn't match between what's published and what my actual scene numbers are).
2. After doing a screen recording and inserting it/saving it, is there a way to go back and rename it within the project? The default name is "Desktop" and then the date....so if you forget to rename it (which happens a lot), you end up with several recordings all similarly named and it gets very confusing. I don't see a way to rename them, though.
3. Is there some way to change the default settings of fonts styles, sizes, color, text box colors, etc. of the tips that are created when you insert a demo as View or Try mode? In a case of one course, we will have probably 50-60 slides created (probably more) with the tips that are created, and it'd be quite the headache to have to manually go through to change the default blue text box color and font style to fit the rest of the course. Is there and easier way?
Thanks in advance!
13 Replies
Hi Chris,
Have you seen this tutorial. Jeanette put together a nice Screenr video at the top as well. This should help you with part one of your question.
http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/using-story-view.aspx
For number 2, there doesn't appear to be a way to rename screen recordings within Storyline. I've tried it directly from the slide and in the timeline. Both times it didn't take. This would be a good thing to do a feature request on though.
I did however find a workaround. It's not perfect and requires some extra steps but it works. I did a Screenr of it to show you.
As for the third one. Have you looked at what slide masters are? What about themes?
I did a Screenr video as well showing how to change the color when you hover over a button or Question answer.
Hope all of this helps you,
Adrian
Thanks, Adrian. While that first video is helpful in some ways, it did not address my first question of how to insert a new scene *between* 2 other existing ones and keep the scene numbering the same as it ends up in the final course.
As for question #2, that also does not help, unfortunately (exporting a video) because it cannot be re-imported as Test, Try, or Demo mode--only reinserted as a video, which isn't what I was hoping for. Although you've said you've attempted to rename it, so I will indeed submit that as a feature request.
For question #3, again, I don't think your explanation is what I'm looking for. I'm referring to recording a screencast, and then inserting the content into a scene as a Demo, Try, or Test mode, where it adds "help tips" to the screen using default settings. I'll see if a slide master would change that, but I don't think that's a standard type of slide that can be templated, is it?
Hi Chris,
It doesn't appear that you can insert a scene in between another, hence why I posted that link to what Jeanette put together. I had hoped that it would provide some insight into trying to do the same thing with slides within the scenes, which you can move between scenes and insert in between other slides.
I'll keep looking. I played with it myself and couldn't get a scene to insert in between existing scenes. Perhaps someone else who sees this will have a different answer than the ones I found.
I have attempted to rename the screen recordings and as my video shows, they just revert back to their existing names. Submitting a feature request to be able to edit the names of screen recordings appears necessary.
As for number 3, here is an ongoing thread on doing just that. Gerry had a suggestion that might work, if your screen recording isn't as difficult as Jeff's.
http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/15392.aspx
I'll keep an eye out for any new info for all three.
Sorry that I wasn't more help,
Adrian
Thanks, Adrian. I am aware of moving the content around within a scene, but if you have 8 scenes and need to add another one, it's a lot of headache moving everything around if that new scene has to go earlier in the course.
Our screencasts can get pretty detailed...we can end up with 15-25 slides per screencast, and perhaps 6-8 of these in a course (do the math on how many slides that is!) - which is a lot to have to go through to change colors and fonts of the pop-up text that occurs each slide. I'll poke around into the slide master thing - thanks for the suggestion!
Hi Chris,
I have similar problem for inserting an new scenes. So, What I did is duplicate the existing scene, then remove all the slides within the scene, then you have new scene in between.
For example if you want to insert scene 7, between 6 and 8. Duplicate scene 8, then make one of them become scene 7 by deleting all the slides inside.
I hope this will help.
Regards,
yulstar
That's a bit of work, but I suppose it would work as an intermediate fix. I guess the other way would be to start a new project by inserting a lot of extra scenes, leaving some gaps in between to add content later, if need be.
Still seems like an easier fix would be for Storyline to allow a new scene to be inserted in between exiting ones.
Chris:
I have experienced these same 3 issues and, like you, have not found a satisfactory solution. Only begin able to insert a scene at the end is difficult, particularly after a review that calls for changes in the order.
Regarding the captions for a Try It demo, I tried creating a default shape first, which did not work. The master slides are not linked to the Try It Hint, Incorrect and Correct states. Finally, I just created a new Incorrect caption and button and went through the entire 60 slide Try It, deleting the default button and "Incorrect" statements and pasting the re-formatted one. Every caption had to have the font size and style updated by hand. There is still more work to do. It is very inefficient.
I doubt I would use Storyline again for a project like this.
Captivate has a much easier interface for setting global attributes for captions and other system-generated prompts.
Hi Chris,
I was having the same issue as your #1 with wanting to have a new scene be somewhere other than at the end of the existing scenes. Here's the workaround I found:
1. Right click on the scene you want to move
2. Choose Cut
3. Click on the scene that should precede the scene you're moving
4. Right click and choose Paste
The scene you cut will paste in right after whichever scene you have selected when you Paste back in your cut scene. The scenes were then numbered in sequence and showed up that way in my Player as well.
Hope this helps!
Ann
Thanks, Ann. I will try that out next time I run into the issue!
Ann Foley, you're a genius! So simple! Thank you, thank you!
Excellent tip- just what I needed! Thank you Ann.
:( I tried following you Ann but when I pasted, it pasted it out to the right of the Story View instead of where I thought it would naturally "fit in". Essentially is accomplished what I needed though (the scene order when publishing it was out of wack). Am wondering if I clicked on the wrong "thing". Should I have been clicking on the entire screen box outline or the image of what was in the scene (in my example I had an image of a video I'd recorded). Hope this makes sense.
Hi Christina,
Sadly I don't get to use Articulate much anymore in my job (I miss it!) so
it's been a while but I think you have to click on the whole screen box,
not within it. If memory serves me, what you ended up with is like a
branch off of one slide so maybe you can even right-click on the one you
move and change its type? Sorry - not 100% sure since it's been so long
since I've been in the app and I'm not on the PC that has it installed.
If you get stuck, let me know and I'll check it out. Would be fun to have
an excuse to dabble in Articulate...
- Ann
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