Can a slide's timeline be shortened easily after video editing?

Nov 12, 2018

I have several videos imported into Storyline 3, and I have edited sections out of them. Some sections are no longer than a minute, and other sections are upwards of a half hour.

My problem is that Storyline will import the whole video, and make the timeline on the slide as long as the whole video. Which means I may be facing videos that in edited form might be like 4 minutes, but I have a residual timeline on the slide that might be 6500 frames.

So my question is: is there a way to easily shorten the frames on a timeline of an imported video, without resorting to dragging the end point back to the new end point?

A second question might be, what is the relationship between an imported video, the edited portion, and the frames on the timeline where it sits? Does it follow that the zero point of the edit automatically goes to the first frame of the timeline after editing?

My other option is to edit the videos themselves outside of Storyline 3, then import them. Might be my best option.

3 Replies
Crystal Horn

Hey Mark.  I agree that if you have access to a video editing tool, it is probably easier to get the video into the format you need first, and then insert it into Storyline for use with your e-learning.  But what do you do if you've already inserted and edited?  Let me give you a hand!

When you edit or remove a video that has significantly lengthened your timeline, there's a quicker way to get your slide timeline under control.  Click and hold the end of the timeline, press your left arrow key, and then start dragging your timeline to the left.  You should see it snap back to the endpoint of the latest-appearing object on the slide.

The timeline will always adjust to accommodate objects' durations when they're inserted, but it won't shorten once you've edited objects.  Tip:  you may find that your objects default to "Show until end" of the timeline when you right click on them in the timeline.  Uncheck this option to better manipulate object duration.

Finally, I wasn't clear on your last question:  

Does it follow that the zero point of the edit automatically goes to the first frame of the timeline after editing? 

Are you asking if a video file will always start at 0 seconds on the timeline, even after editing? If so, and you haven't moved the file further down the timeline, then yes, it will remain at the 0 second mark.

Let me know if I can help further!

Lauren Connelly

Hi all!

I am jumping into this discussion to share that we just released Storyline 360 (Build 3.63.27628.0) which includes changes to the timeline.

New: Create slides faster with time-saving upgrades to the timeline. Multi-select objects and move them all at once. Choose where pasted objects appear in the stacking order or even paste them into an existing group. Align objects to the playhead or vice versa. And when the timeline is too long, you can instantly reset it to five seconds or shorten it to the object with the longest duration.

Now all you need to do is update Storyline 360 in your Articulate 360 desktop app!

If you have additional questions, don't hesitate to reach out in this discussion or in a support case.