Action Fine Tuning Is Repositioning Background Image

Thanks for the detailed write-up, Pete! This is not something I've seen before, so I'm glad you brought it up. I'm going to try and recreate this in a new Storyline 2 file. In the meantime, can you tell me...

• Are you on the latest version of Storyline 2 (Update 12)?
• Are you working from your local hard drive? 
• Have you seen this happen in any other file, or just this file in particular?

Hi Alyssa

1. Sadly I’m working on v11.1609.3020. I’m in a government environment and it’s near impossible to get updates installed.
2. Yes, always on a local drive.
3. Never noticed it before, but haven’t done much with Action Fine Tuning in the past.

I think that it only happens on TRY slides, and even then not on every one I’ve attempted to adjust – but it's consistent: the slides that break always break. I don’t believe that it happens on VIEW versions of the same recordings.

Something that I’ve noticed that may give the back-room techies a clue is that going back in to Action Fine Tuning and using the ‘Reset Original Timing’ feature doesn’t fix/undo the problem: the slide will still be vertically centred. Only using the generic Undo will restore the slide properly – assuming I notice the problem early enough.

It seems, too, that even if I do an Action Fine Tuning on a slide before I import it in to my larger project (i.e. I adjust it in my 'smaller' project) that it comes in vertically centred into my larger project and I can't do anything about it. 

Note that my screen recordings were originally done into a project 1055 x 710 and then that was resized to 888 x 666. These are imported into my 888 x 666 working project. Even if I start a brand new project at 888 x 666 I see the same behaviour with the imported 888 x 666 slides (so seems like it's nothing to do with my working project as such).

PeteB

I just had a similar experience. I am working in Storyline 360 and I have resized screen recordings in try mode so that they don't fill the entire screen. After adjusting action fine tuning (exact same as Pete: to remove pesky tool tip) the background now fills the entire screen. So sad! I will try manipulating my original screen capture, which I have saved as a separate file, before resizing and see if that works.

Thanks, Pete. I've been trying to recreate the problem in a new Storyline 2 file, but I haven't had any luck yet. I'd like our Support Engineers to weigh in, so I'm going to connect you with the team. I'll open a case on your behalf and include everything you've share with me so far. 

Hi Amie, thanks for chiming in! I haven't seen this happen in Storyline 360, so I'm glad you reached out. I'd like to get a few more details from you:

• Are you on the latest update of Storyline 360? To check, click the Help tab, then click About Storyline. You should see 3.9.13488.0 in the bottom-right corner. 
• Does this seem to happen in any Storyline 360 file?
• Can you record a Peek screen recording of the problem and share it with us here? 

Hi Alyssa, so... a number of things! First and foremost, I think, is the fact that I was working remotely when this occurred. Theoretically I wouldn't expect this to be a factor, however I was having significant issues with staying connected to my company's network. This was possibly the result of a Windows credentials issue, which has since been resolved. Due to the network connection problems it is possible that I did NOT at the time have the latest update, because when I plugged in at work the next morning I immediately received a 360 update notification. So NOW I'm on the current version! The other thing I discovered yesterday upon arrival at the office is that my last updated file, which had corrections to the resizing/repositioning issue, had become corrupted! :(  So not only did I lose some of the work I had done remotely, but I cannot now access the file in which this occurred!

While I suspect credentials and network issues to be at the root of my recent problems, I am actively taking steps to avoid recreating the action fine tuning/repositioning issue. This includes:

• Saving as a separate file the original screen capture (unsized/unpositioned)
• Making action fine tuning adjustments to the above file (and saving THAT as a separate file)
• Saving yet another file with adjusted action AND resized/positioned screen capture

What I have yet to test is whether or not it makes a difference to copy/paste slides from bullet number three above to another storyline file that serves as the base template, or to use bullet number three as the base template and copy slides from other files into that. Whew!

I'd like to stay looped in on any further developments around this issue, so thanks for reaching out! I will definitely report any further instances of this occurring, hopefully with more info to  recreate the issue.  Thanks!

Thanks for that context, Amie, and I'm sorry the file became corrupted! I know that's really frustrating, and I've got some tips here to help you prevent that from happening again in the future. 

Most importantly, you'll want to always work on your Storyline projects from your local drive. Working on a network drive can cause erratic behavior due to latency, and your files might become corrupted. You can always save a backup version of the file on the network, but be sure the working version is on your local drive.

Hopefully the screen recording problem doesn't happen again, but if it does, try and capture it with Peek and send me the recording. I'll be here when you're ready! ☺️

For anyone who's following this thread or has stumbled across it hoping for an answer, here it is...

After a bit of back and forth with Articulate support, it seems that at this time there's nothing that you can do about it. The official line is that 'We don't recommend adjusting the Story size after already inserting contents to the slides.'

Articulate support were, as always, very supportive and helpful and were able to replicate what I've described but, at the end of the day, that's just what Storyline does.

I indicated that I consider it to be a bug: the tool shouldn't arbitrarily shift objects/backgrounds around after they've been imported (especially subtly and silently making them hard to spot). I can only imagine that behind the scenes the Action Fine Tuning bits of code are doing something slightly differently to other bits of the authoring environment causing this vertically centred vs Top centred behaviour. And that smells like a bug to me!

So, unless something happens in the future, that's where the issue stands. I guess this means that in this particular situation you can either:

• Learn to live with spurious tool tips and the like in your Try Me recordings, or
• Make your recordings at the same size as the project they're going in to (if it's feasible), or
• Find a product that does Try Me recordings more in line with your work flow/desired outcomes.