Best practices for attaching PDFs

Dec 19, 2023

Mandy Lasky
By Mandy Lasky

Hi there! Looking for a little insight to best practices for attaching PDFs within an ID team.

We occasionally add a hyperlink to a slide that opens up a PDF (or we might place a PDF in the Resources tab). We need to be able to open each other's Storyline files and republish to Review/export a new SCORM file, while not breaking any links.

Where is the best place to store these PDF files? We want to be sure these files are available to all IDs on our team, but it seems like linking to a networked folder (Sharepoint) that all team members all have access to isn't the most reliable method. 

We're working toward adding these files to our AWS, but aren't there yet. In the meantime, we're hoping for insight into best practices that would allow us to export the file correctly, no matter who is exporting the course or who originally designed it.

Thank you!

2 Replies
Judy Nollet
4 months ago12/19/23 at 8:00 pm (UTC)

When you attach a PDF or other file, it gets saved as part of the project. Thus, if you transfer the .story file to someone else, they could publish it, and the attachment would be there. 

This also means that if you update the original file, the attachment in the .story file doesn't get updated. Instead, you have to replace it with the updated version. Thus, in addition to having a good version-control process for the .story file, you need a good version-control process for attachments.

More re: best practices: Storyline files should only be opened from your hard drive. If multiple people will be working on the same file, you need to have a good process in place for backing up the .story file, as well as the other source files needed for the project. For example, be sure to back up any special images or illustrations, videos, and the editable source files for any attachments. I also recommend backing up audio transcripts and/or other script materials. 

FYI: Articulate recently added a feature that saves a copy of the .story file when you publish to Review 360. Here's more info about that:

More FYI: Here's the User Guide info about attachments:

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