9 learnings on how to publish a scorm file with good quality video

Hi there,

As a newbie to Storyline / video I struggled a bit as I was trying to publish my first video (or SCORM). Thought to share my 9 learnings on how to publish with good quality video. Perhaps it helps someone else. Very likely there are better ways to get there then the 9 steps I describe. Feel free to improve this text below!

1. First off, garbage in is garbage out so test if the video you are importing into Storyline has the quality / resolution you want it to have.

Then, my learnings within a Storyline project:

1. Before importing any content into a new project, first set your dimensions in the tab Design > Story Size
2. When you set the dimensions, know that they apply to every scene and slide in the project.
3. Do not set your dimensions to the size of the slides you are importing, because it is more important your video import matches the dimensions.
   • Reason: Though it takes some work, slides can be adjusted once imported. Video quality cannot be undone. Alternatively, update slides to the dimension set in your Storyline project before importing them into the project. This will avoid things shifting on the slide after importing into your Storyline Project
   • Check the dimensions of the video you are about to import by finding the file on your computer, right click it and go to Properties > Details. Use the dimensions found here as the dimensions for your entire Storyline project.
4. When recording your screen, Storyline’s recording tool is not automatically set to the dimensions you specified in your project, so before pressing ‘Record’ or the red button, adjust the dimension of the recording tool to the dimensions of your Storyline project. 
5. When you record your screen and the dimensions force you to record your entire screen, that's okay because you can adjust it afterwards in Storyline’s video editing tool without losing video quality.
6. Do not record voice + screen using Storyline as you cannot edit it. You can only trim. Instead, record video + voice in Replay and import it to Storyline after you finished editing it in Replay.
   • Storyline can be used for editing when only recording voice.
7. Before publishing the project, make sure your Player properties are set to your liking: 
   • To get there: HOME > Publish > Player
   • I choose the following controls, but experiment for yourself: Volume, captions, Seekbar, Play/Pause, Accessibility controls.
8. Lastly, I am yet to successfully publish a project as a video, but realized publishing this specific training as a LMS > SCORM 1.2 file was better for my project:
   • SCORM files are used when you want the student to interact with the training (take a quiz, go to next slide, etc.)
   • Video is used when no interaction is required besides play, pause, and stop.