Conversion problems with files from SL2 to SL360

Sep 27, 2017

Hi All,

 

Since 2 days I have a license for Articulate 360. I have opened and published  couple of (very large and very complex) modules, which were created in Articulate Storyline 2, to Storyline 360. I have changed nothing to the files. However, the test results are worrying. I get a lot of unexpected results, like:

  • Text boxes which have changed size and therefore position, making the text unreadable (now white on white);
  • A sort of 'text shadow'  in text in certain boxes, which is not there in the Preview but only in the browser (see the screenshot);
  • Fuzzy, unsharp font.

But also unexpected results in (different) browsers, which cannot be found in the .story file itself. Like:

  • Wipe animations not appearing in Chrome (they are there in IE);
  • A lag/shock in showing of certain layers.

 

This is a big issue for us. On one hand, to identify all issues which came up after the conversion to 360; on the other hand to find solutions. But not all things can be fixed in the .story file, such as those browser issues.

Are these problems known? Right now I am very disappointed with the software, which gave me at least 5 days of extra work just by converting existing modules to the new version, and I see little benefit of the new version.

 

 

12 Replies
Wendy Farmer

Hi Kim

we've converted a lot of SL2 files to SL360 and for the most part all is ok.  The few things we've found are on layers - with changing font size and font type, and overall a few triggers become unassigned. However we've not experienced SL crashing.

Considering that SL2 was based on Flash and SL360 completely rebuilt as HTML5 I'd expect not everything would upgrade and there would be some tidying up to do.  Even when we upgraded from SL1 to SL2 I found the same issues mainly around layers.

Are you working from your local drive? You could try a repair of SL360 or this article discusses erratic behaviour.

Alternatively once you've upgraded the SL2 file to SL360 try creating a new project file and import the slides in to see if that helps.

Rory Lavender

When upgrading SL2 files to SL360, we've experienced some of the same things, i.e. text entry boxes now have scrolling arrows, which we need to fix manually. Plus on text entry interactions, the number of attempts still shows two as we designated, but the students are only given 1 attempt. If I increase the tries to 3, the students get 2 tries as needed. For hotspot interactions, the 2 attempts still work. Does this ring any bells for anyone? I've not been able to find anything in other discussions. Thanks.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Rory,

The scroll bar appearing is something our team has seen from a few other customers, but it's not something we've been able to replicate in a new file or to import an existing file into a new file. Have you already tried importing yourself? I'd love to include a copy of your file in the report that our team is investigating with. Can you upload to me using the Add Attachment button? 

That'll also let me check the text entry attempts, as that's not something I've seen or experienced yet. Taking a look at your file will help in our investigations. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Thanks, Rory for sharing both of those. 

I saw what you described where the HTML5 output of your Storyline 2 course doesn't validate the text entries correctly, and how the upgraded version is tracking attempts wrong and adds that scrollbar. The scrollbar is a bug that our team is looking into, so I'll keep you posted on that here. 

For the HTML5 evaluating a text entry incorrectly in SL2, I couldn't replicate that in a new file where I recorded a text entry interaction and removed the submit button. It evaluated it incorrectly if I didn't enter the text as written. Could you tell me any more about how you created the screen recording or the text entry? 

The same was also true for the number of attempts when upgrading that new file to Storyline 360, so it would be great to know more about how your course was designed, created, and upgraded to continue testing. 

Rory Lavender

Ashley, attached please find the answer (hopefully) to your first question - how we create the screen recording/text entries in SL2, for which we include HTML5 when publishing. I think I confused the issue by outlining SL2 issues and SL2 > SL360 issues because I was hoping SL360 would solve my SL2 issues. So, the attached SL2 document simply outlines how we create our text interactions and what what happens when Flash is allowed or not. Perhaps these are already known issues, but this is what lead me to upgrading SL2 files to SL360. Now, I am going to experiment with text entries in SL360, both as upgrades/import/copies from SL2 or newly-created SL360 files to see if that is causing issues.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Rory,

Thanks for those additional details. I don't see anything out of the ordinary in your setup or design that could cause these to not work in the HTML5 output in Chrome ver. 69. I wonder if you could also try a new .story file, record a few things with typing and publish that version (upload to Tempshare for quick, easy testing) and let me know how that one behaves. It could be something within this files or how your courses are being published. 

The behavior of the text entry isn't an issue I've seen, so it may take a bit more to get to the bottom of it. Did you also check what update of Storyline 2 you're using? Update 13 is the latest build of Storyline 2.

Upgrading to SL360 would be an excellent solution to account for folks who can no longer view Flash. Storyline 360 has the option to publish for HTML5 only, and view that output in a broader set of browsers. 

Let me know what else you see when upgrading your files, and we can take a look at those issues too! As a general reminder, make sure you're following these best practices for working with project files too. 

Rory Lavender

Thanks Ashley. I can confirm that we are using SL2/Update 13 and follow the best practices. At this point, we need to just determine best practices for our existing files in SL2 - how to best upgrade them to SL360, without too many issues. And for new development, use SL360 as new files, not upgraded from SL2 - this seems to minimize the issues we are seeing. Thanks for confirming that you see nothing out of the ordinary to cause issues - so now I will focus on what is and find solutions. 

Rory Lavender

I wanted to follow-up on this thread to say what is working for me with regards to upgrading files from SL2 to SL360. As mentioned before, if I simply upgrade the files, there are issues. I am finding better results with importing the SL2 slides into a SL360 story. Text input fields are processed correctly with regards to number of tries, etc. In addition, the scroll bar does not appear in the text entry fields. Also, once the SL360 files are published and uploaded to our LMS, using the HTML5 option, these lessons work across all browsers as expected.

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