We are in the process of switching from Articulate 09 suite to Articulate Storyline. We use Articulate Online to publish our content. I've been working on customizing the player to look somewhat similar to our custom player from Articulate 09, but I can't find one feature. The elapsed & total presentation time used to be an option under Player Controls, but I can't find it anywhere in Storyline. I find it hard to believe that this functionality would be removed, so it must just be that I'm looking in the wrong place. Can anyone tell me where to find it? Or, do I need to download a special player template? I just don't know where to look.
I don't think it is an option in Storyline. I think this is because of the nature of making modules more interactive. Since you don't know how long it will take to complete an activity, you can't project the time. The other reason I think this is not readily available, is because of how the layers work in Storyline. You can have a slide with a duration of one minute, but that slide may have multiple layers with independent timelines, that may or may not run at the same time as the base slide is running. This too would make it very difficult to determine how long a module will take to complete.
All that being said, you can look in the meta.xml file after you publish the course to get the duration of the module. See Below:
This is helpful, but I am not sure how it is calculated. I think it is the total duration of the base slides durations. But I am not sure. I hope that helps.
Ah, that makes sense. I'm currently working on a self-running demo (step-by-step screen capture with some narration), and it doesn't really contain any interactivity, other than the ability to jump around using the navigation bar. I guess I could always just time it and add the total length to the title in the Player, as well as the length of each scene to the scene titles in the Menu.
You can find a duration within Storyline, although it's an estimate based on what you've included and the timeline of each slide, and therefore won't be displayed anywhere. You'll find it within the publish window -> options next to the title:
In Articulate Studio - Presenter there was an option to remove the elapsed and total time from the player if it was not showing the accurate time because of inserting a video into a slide or whatever other reasons, I see that Storyline allows you to add a custom duration when publishing, but will not let you show that anywhere for the learner while they are progressing through the course. I searched and searched for this option since it was part of Studio and I just recently switched from Studio to Storyline I assumed it would be an option to show that. It would be great to be able to display to learners how far they are in the course overall whether that would be next to the title on the player (like in Studio - Presenter) or with the seek bar at the bottom of the player (which only shows the timeline for each slide), or some other way.
Is there a way to have that seek bar show the progress for the entire course even if it didn't show in elapsed and total minutes/seconds? Ideally it would be great if then you could mouse over and see the elapsed and total time in minutes/seconds, but even just to have the visual display or some other way to show the progress in the course besides the menu would be great... SO, are there any creative solutions out there? If what is being asked is not exactly possible, if there are any creative ideas, or a way to do this some other way - please share!
I understand how it would be difficult for some courses to have the elapsed and total time be accurate, however the counter would need to stop when the timeline would stop, any time the user would spend after that would not be included in the total time. Developers could build in extra time in their timeline for interactions and then estimate them for the person that would take longer.
Is there a way to program the time for the entire course into the seek bar? I see some very complex players built so that is why I am asking pretty much the same question, but with other possible solutions out of my experience level at this time... OR could a visual of a seek bar be added to each slide all "programmed" together to show this? I am curious if it is possible... and I have no idea how to do that complex of work yet.
I think it would be great if the functionality that Articulate Studio has for elapsed and total time could be added into Storyline... then anyone who did not have a course that it worked with could just indicate not to use that option (like what you do in Studio if you don't want that option you remove it from your player or if you want it you add it back) can that request be passed on to developers of Articulate Storyline somehow?
Hopefully someone with more of an IT background can help me with my other work-around questions/ideas for this topic. I have a training officer that I work with who really wants to show the elapsed and total time and/or have the seek bar show the progress in the course instead of the progress in that slide.
6 Replies
I don't think it is an option in Storyline. I think this is because of the nature of making modules more interactive. Since you don't know how long it will take to complete an activity, you can't project the time. The other reason I think this is not readily available, is because of how the layers work in Storyline. You can have a slide with a duration of one minute, but that slide may have multiple layers with independent timelines, that may or may not run at the same time as the base slide is running. This too would make it very difficult to determine how long a module will take to complete.
All that being said, you can look in the meta.xml file after you publish the course to get the duration of the module. See Below:
Blake
Ah, that makes sense. I'm currently working on a self-running demo (step-by-step screen capture with some narration), and it doesn't really contain any interactivity, other than the ability to jump around using the navigation bar. I guess I could always just time it and add the total length to the title in the Player, as well as the length of each scene to the scene titles in the Menu.
Thanks for your tip, and response!
Hi Marcy,
You can find a duration within Storyline, although it's an estimate based on what you've included and the timeline of each slide, and therefore won't be displayed anywhere. You'll find it within the publish window -> options next to the title:
In Articulate Studio - Presenter there was an option to remove the elapsed and total time from the player if it was not showing the accurate time because of inserting a video into a slide or whatever other reasons, I see that Storyline allows you to add a custom duration when publishing, but will not let you show that anywhere for the learner while they are progressing through the course. I searched and searched for this option since it was part of Studio and I just recently switched from Studio to Storyline I assumed it would be an option to show that. It would be great to be able to display to learners how far they are in the course overall whether that would be next to the title on the player (like in Studio - Presenter) or with the seek bar at the bottom of the player (which only shows the timeline for each slide), or some other way.
Is there a way to have that seek bar show the progress for the entire course even if it didn't show in elapsed and total minutes/seconds? Ideally it would be great if then you could mouse over and see the elapsed and total time in minutes/seconds, but even just to have the visual display or some other way to show the progress in the course besides the menu would be great... SO, are there any creative solutions out there? If what is being asked is not exactly possible, if there are any creative ideas, or a way to do this some other way - please share!
I understand how it would be difficult for some courses to have the elapsed and total time be accurate, however the counter would need to stop when the timeline would stop, any time the user would spend after that would not be included in the total time. Developers could build in extra time in their timeline for interactions and then estimate them for the person that would take longer.
Is there a way to program the time for the entire course into the seek bar? I see some very complex players built so that is why I am asking pretty much the same question, but with other possible solutions out of my experience level at this time... OR could a visual of a seek bar be added to each slide all "programmed" together to show this? I am curious if it is possible... and I have no idea how to do that complex of work yet.
I think it would be great if the functionality that Articulate Studio has for elapsed and total time could be added into Storyline... then anyone who did not have a course that it worked with could just indicate not to use that option (like what you do in Studio if you don't want that option you remove it from your player or if you want it you add it back) can that request be passed on to developers of Articulate Storyline somehow?
Hopefully someone with more of an IT background can help me with my other work-around questions/ideas for this topic. I have a training officer that I work with who really wants to show the elapsed and total time and/or have the seek bar show the progress in the course instead of the progress in that slide.
Thanks for your time,
Patti Young
Hi Patti!
First, let me share that you are welcome to share your thoughts and feature request ideas with our product development team here at any time.
There are some ideas here about obtaining estimated duration that may be helpful if you'd just like to notify users at the beginning of the course.
There is a great forum thread here as well about custom progress bars if that may help.
Otherwise, hopefully someone in the community will be able to chime in and assist.
Thanks, I will check out the resources you provided.
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