I'm not sure if this is possible, but our localization team is requesting a list of images/videos/audio files that are used within each storyline file. Is it possible to generate this list of assets so they know which assets need to be edited?
Unfortunately there isn't a way to export a list of all those assets - although I could see how it would be a good feature request!
In the meantime, you may want to provide them a copy of the course as a "publish to word" so that they could see the images and elements that may also need to be translated instead of just what is included in the translation document.
Fantastic suggestion. This would be really helpful.
There is a way to see the files used in a storyline file. You can use this method to extract media as well if you've misplaced something you used in a storyline output. This isn't supported so make sure you backup and copy your .story file before attempting.
Each .story file is a zip. Changing the extension to .zip will allow you to extract the contents of the file. Expanding a story / zip and exploring the media folder will reveal all of the media you've imported into the story file.
While you can't get the names of the files, you might be able to at least get a visual inventory of the media used within a story. If you're brave and careful, you could use this method to update media used more than once in the story (images and audio).
Steve, that's an interesting idea... I would totally be brave enough to edit images within that "zip" file and then swap the extension from .zip to .story if it would make it easier to localize any edits. I am having trouble unzipping the files though.... is this something storyline 2 can do? I only have the first version of ST.... When I unzip on windows I get this error (see attached image). When I do it on osx I get a cpgz file from the .zip file.
Please let me know your workflow for unzipping the file.
Strange. I saved my story file then renamed the extension on the Mac side. It unzipped quick and easy. Will give it another couple of tries to see if I can make it not work:)
Just tried again on mac and windows and everything unzips OK for me after changing the extension from .story to .zip. Wonder if something could be up with your version? Are you using Storyline 2?
Nope, I did see there's a ST update, however it says it's only adding iOS8 support. What version of osx are you on? What about windows? I'm on osx 10.9.4 and Win 7 enterprise.
Yosemite and Windows 8. Though I'm getting an error attempting to open files created in Storyline 1. I believe these can still be expanded using 7zip. The recent update was for Storyline 2.0. I took a screenie of both versions side-by-side.
I'll try 7zip on windows and see if I can get the files to unzip. Thanks for bringing this to my attention though. Once I figure the unzipping part it will help a lot!
7zip was able to unzip the files, however it is not nearly as elegant as what is in your original screen shot. That was taken with ST2 correct? This might be incentive for us to upgrade to ST2 if it'll help with our translation process.
Yeah. I seem to remember SL1 wasn't as nice a structure. The rearchitecture is the main reason SL2 isn't backwards compatible. The update is more than a cosmetic one:)
If I were not so lazy... I can see a way to use PHP or Perl to crawl the structure and match up image labels with the images in the library to produce a clean report. The GUID's are consistently linked. But I'm lazy (busy, but mostly lazy) :)
No worries, I think this alone is almost enough of a reason for my manager to update our license to version 2. It will make the translation process easier....
A little update on this topic as we were struggling through the same issue of needing file names.
One of my developers Brett over here just came up with a new method - we have a client trying to update their storyboard images for review, it was taking hours to scrub and guess what images were, where they were located, etc.
What Brett did was past each individual slide into a new storyline file - publish JUST that one slide, then grab all of the assets out of the mobile content folder in the published folder. You would have to export to HTML5/mobile for this folder to show up. So a little tedious getting set up but we're talking 20 minutes of work for an entire course vs our client getting four (out of 20) slides done in 4 hours.
Hi, Aaron -- Thanks for your reply! And as you mentioned use of JavaScript, I did want to note in case you were not aware, that is not something for which we'd be able to provide support, but there are lot of gurus here in the community who can usually help out if you have any questions! And please feel free to share any solutions you may discover, as I'm sure others would appreciate it!
This thread is a bit dated, but it looks like some good ideas were shared here. Exporting a list of course assets is not a current feature of the software, but it'd be great if you could share your idea and use-case with our team here so we can better understand.
I also wanted to share some information on how we manage feature requests.
And since you're using Articulate 360, you have access to the media library in Storyline 360. With it, you can easily export images, characters, audio clips, and videos:
20 Replies
Hi Aaron,
Unfortunately there isn't a way to export a list of all those assets - although I could see how it would be a good feature request!
In the meantime, you may want to provide them a copy of the course as a "publish to word" so that they could see the images and elements that may also need to be translated instead of just what is included in the translation document.
Hi Aaron,
Fantastic suggestion. This would be really helpful.
There is a way to see the files used in a storyline file. You can use this method to extract media as well if you've misplaced something you used in a storyline output. This isn't supported so make sure you backup and copy your .story file before attempting.
Each .story file is a zip. Changing the extension to .zip will allow you to extract the contents of the file. Expanding a story / zip and exploring the media folder will reveal all of the media you've imported into the story file.
While you can't get the names of the files, you might be able to at least get a visual inventory of the media used within a story. If you're brave and careful, you could use this method to update media used more than once in the story (images and audio).
Thanks for the responses!
Steve, that's an interesting idea... I would totally be brave enough to edit images within that "zip" file and then swap the extension from .zip to .story if it would make it easier to localize any edits. I am having trouble unzipping the files though.... is this something storyline 2 can do? I only have the first version of ST.... When I unzip on windows I get this error (see attached image). When I do it on osx I get a cpgz file from the .zip file.
Please let me know your workflow for unzipping the file.
Thanks,
Strange. I saved my story file then renamed the extension on the Mac side. It unzipped quick and easy. Will give it another couple of tries to see if I can make it not work:)
Just tried again on mac and windows and everything unzips OK for me after changing the extension from .story to .zip. Wonder if something could be up with your version? Are you using Storyline 2?
Nope, I did see there's a ST update, however it says it's only adding iOS8 support. What version of osx are you on? What about windows? I'm on osx 10.9.4 and Win 7 enterprise.
Yosemite and Windows 8. Though I'm getting an error attempting to open files created in Storyline 1. I believe these can still be expanded using 7zip. The recent update was for Storyline 2.0. I took a screenie of both versions side-by-side.
I'll try 7zip on windows and see if I can get the files to unzip. Thanks for bringing this to my attention though. Once I figure the unzipping part it will help a lot!
7zip was able to unzip the files, however it is not nearly as elegant as what is in your original screen shot. That was taken with ST2 correct? This might be incentive for us to upgrade to ST2 if it'll help with our translation process.
Yeah. I seem to remember SL1 wasn't as nice a structure. The rearchitecture is the main reason SL2 isn't backwards compatible. The update is more than a cosmetic one:)
If I were not so lazy... I can see a way to use PHP or Perl to crawl the structure and match up image labels with the images in the library to produce a clean report. The GUID's are consistently linked. But I'm lazy (busy, but mostly lazy) :)
No worries, I think this alone is almost enough of a reason for my manager to update our license to version 2. It will make the translation process easier....
Thanks again for bringing this to my attention!
A little update on this topic as we were struggling through the same issue of needing file names.
One of my developers Brett over here just came up with a new method - we have a client trying to update their storyboard images for review, it was taking hours to scrub and guess what images were, where they were located, etc.
What Brett did was past each individual slide into a new storyline file - publish JUST that one slide, then grab all of the assets out of the mobile content folder in the published folder. You would have to export to HTML5/mobile for this folder to show up. So a little tedious getting set up but we're talking 20 minutes of work for an entire course vs our client getting four (out of 20) slides done in 4 hours.
Good luck!!
Many thanks for sharing an update on what worked for you, Eric! Hopefully it will be able to assist others in the future, as well. :)
I like this idea, also sparked my curiosity of using all html5 published files and being able to add in my own html/ javascript to the code.
Hi, Aaron -- Thanks for your reply! And as you mentioned use of JavaScript, I did want to note in case you were not aware, that is not something for which we'd be able to provide support, but there are lot of gurus here in the community who can usually help out if you have any questions! And please feel free to share any solutions you may discover, as I'm sure others would appreciate it!
Hi Ashley,
Has this been resolved? Is there now a way to export a list of assets or view them?
Many thanks,
Renee
Hi Renee,
This thread is a bit dated, but it looks like some good ideas were shared here. Exporting a list of course assets is not a current feature of the software, but it'd be great if you could share your idea and use-case with our team here so we can better understand.
I also wanted to share some information on how we manage feature requests.
Is this still not an option?
Hi Ali,
Thanks for reaching out. I'm happy to help!
Are you looking to export assets from a project? Here are several ideas to unlock this:
And since you're using Articulate 360, you have access to the media library in Storyline 360. With it, you can easily export images, characters, audio clips, and videos:
Let me know if you're looking for something different! Happy to chat further.
This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.