I just created a course in Storyline by importing my client's PowerPoint slides, and then editing the presentation as needed. Now that the course is finished, my client would like the updated slides in case she needs to modify them in the future. Is it possible to export a PowerPoint deck from a story file?
You need to explain to the client that we are not working in PowerPoint, (even though it may look similar). You took his/her files, and converted them into another product. There is no backward compatibility.
@Wendy points out re the SL source files, but of course she would need SL to edit them. It's a bit like someone giving me a pencil sketch, my illustrator painting it in oils with a few modifications, and then the client asking for the new painting back also in pencil, just in case :)
@Bruce - yes of course the client would need SL or someone with access to SL. That was my point about turning over the source files to the client to enable future edits as required.
I'm glad that Bruce and Wendy were able to assist you here - and as they mentioned there is no "export to Powerpoint" option. Once it's been edited in Storyline, anyone else will need Storyline to be able to continue editing it and making adjustments.
This is a definite negative...making the product far less usable. I'm sure it's a business decision to sell more subscriptions. Nevertheless, it is restrictive and impractical for the business environment most of us find ourselves in.
Thanks for reaching out here, and I know that it's something other users have shared in the form of a feature request as well. My main understanding of why this isn't an option is associated with the different features and interactivity between Storyline and Powerpoint - and how those elements would not translate to the latter. I can understand how having an option to just export the slide content though would be helpful - but it could get quickly tricky if say you had multiple elements appearing later in the timeline, or only when triggered, etc. as how would they all show up in the Powerpoint slide?
When we're teaching people without access to a computer or with low digital literacy, we will create printable handouts.
Without an ability to export to PowerPoint, we need to dual-maintain content.
To answer Bruce's query: I'd manage exporting layers by allowing us to choose whether layers should be exported as discrete slides or objects within a single slide. Some content wouldn't export well to PowerPoint but some would and it would be a time-saver in those instances. Some tidy-up would be inevitable but for me that's preferable to the current situation.
If this type of project is something you work on frequently (PowerPoint based), you might consider using a different program...one where the work is done within the PowerPoint program, then published as eLearning - either Articulate Presenter or iSpring are great for this. You can hand the modified presentation back to the client. The only issue will be that they can't use the program-specific interactive elements. But the rest of the presentation (the slides you enhance) will still be in PPT form, and can be handed back.
Thanks Chris and Dave for lending your perspectives...it's a good conversation to have and an especially valuable reminder to understand the needs of your client. In your case, Chris, I can completely understand your needs. Has publishing for Word ever been able to fill this role for you (creating a printable schema of your slide content)?
We're looking to trial S360 soon (mostly for Review) so will see if that meets that particular need. Otherwise I'll log a ticket with the dev team.
For the record:
Since we give each object in a Storyline file a unique ID, it would be good to be able to have an A4 view of each page with each object represented there too. We could choose to show or hide each element, so that some might uniquely appear on one format but not the other. Triggers would not need to exist on the printable version. Some things just don't convert to print, but due to a requirement to conform to WCAG 2.0 AAA we have to provide text alternatives to all video and interactive content anyhow, so a printable version of a Storyline file could lend itself to being an accessible PDF version too.
My influences:
As a web developer I'd create templates that used stylesheets to ensure content would print nicely as well as adapt to differing screen sizes. Using a CMS, content owners could update content and I could worry about how it was presented.
When I use Android Studio to create apps, I can define content elements (known as views) and then define which screen types they appear on. I then use the GUI to arrange the views on a phone screen and separately on a tablet screen.
Yes! Articulate Review has been invaluable to us already, both on the Support end and the Community end! Let us know how you fare with trying out Articulate 360.
And thanks again for your thoughts-- you've got a lot to manage, so you make a great use case for your ideas.
Articulate Review is an excellent tool for feedback, but not for content edits. I've inherited multiple text based courses. While we're looking at updating the course design, the content needs updating. The Word export only provides screen captures and notes in the Notes section. We need both on-screen text and Notes. The layout of the translation export can be confusing to the content editors and (as it should be) is text only. We are managing with what we have but something closer to a PPT export would be far more useful.
The reality is most business partners are comfortable editing in PPT. Providing them a PPT to edit all content insures they are able to get right to what matters most: Updating the Content.
I'm happy to share with the development team, but I'd say the big question is really...
Does the Articulate Storyline product road map include adding an export option to allow for the editing of both on screen and Notes section text?
Thanks for your thoughts here, too, Anna! I see how having the ability to let your stakeholders make some minor edits (without themselves investing in Storyline) could be valuable to you. The Storyline format includes so many possibilities in terms of interactivity and navigational branching — definitely a different animal than PowerPoint. It would be interesting to see how we could export to PowerPoint format, and then import the PowerPoint edits back into Storyline while preserving interactivity and other Storyline-specific features along the way!
Our roadmap evolves with the impact that issues and proposed features have on our customers at large, and we always take into consideration what you already CAN do with our products. We work closely with our product development team on these issues, but we don't always nail down certainties if/when a feature will be added.
If you make a feature request, it’s the best way to let our product development team know about your needs; that way our customers can continue to drive the direction of our products!
I tried using the translation tool (in Storyline 2) for text-only content edits. it exports all content into a table in a Word document and lets people see the 'before' and 'after'. Effectively I'm translating from 'now' to 'then' rather than between languages.
I've found that it fails for very large files or if the reviewer deletes rows. For simple packages however it does serve its purpose quite well.
Another good workaround Chris - and you'll want to remind your reviewers not to delete rows, as all those must remain intact to connect to the original Storyline slides and text placeholders. I'd have them look instead at using a formatting such as a strikethrough on the Word document. Formatting should be imported into Storyline as well so then it would be easy for you to see the text that needed to be removed as a whole.
The reason I have need of this functionality is a little different. My company holds many licenses for Studio/Presenter 13. I did a trial of 360 to try it out. Right now my org is not ready to move to 360 so I have a course/test I made using Storyline 360 that will be useless once my trial runs out because I don't seem to be able to export it into a format that my colleagues can open. If I could export back to PPT (even if it is a stripped down version of the slide) someone could pull it back into Presenter and edit it but it appears I'll have to start from scratch with it in the older version.
Thanks Maureen for clarifying your needs. Storyline isn't backwards compatible (i.e. Storyline 3 projects can't be opened in Storyline 2, Storyline 2 projects can't be opened in Storyline 1) so that's caused some additional headaches for you it seems as you also can't use content created in Articulate 360 in Studio '13.
You can publish that course while you're still on the trial, so at the least you won't lose what you created - and once you're ready to move to Articulate 360 or Storyline 3 that file would work there.
Totally agree.... all the programs have to option to export to... how is the out come, it would depend of how much interactivity u have but the option should exist..
19 Replies
Hi Jennifer
my understanding is no...
You have imported her slides in but then edited them with SL making them part of the SL source files.
Wouldn't you be giving her the source SL files when the project is finished?
You need to explain to the client that we are not working in PowerPoint, (even though it may look similar). You took his/her files, and converted them into another product. There is no backward compatibility.
@Wendy points out re the SL source files, but of course she would need SL to edit them. It's a bit like someone giving me a pencil sketch, my illustrator painting it in oils with a few modifications, and then the client asking for the new painting back also in pencil, just in case :)
@Bruce - yes of course the client would need SL or someone with access to SL. That was my point about turning over the source files to the client to enable future edits as required.
Hi Jennifer,
I'm glad that Bruce and Wendy were able to assist you here - and as they mentioned there is no "export to Powerpoint" option. Once it's been edited in Storyline, anyone else will need Storyline to be able to continue editing it and making adjustments.
This is a definite negative...making the product far less usable. I'm sure it's a business decision to sell more subscriptions. Nevertheless, it is restrictive and impractical for the business environment most of us find ourselves in.
Hi Margaret,
Thanks for reaching out here, and I know that it's something other users have shared in the form of a feature request as well. My main understanding of why this isn't an option is associated with the different features and interactivity between Storyline and Powerpoint - and how those elements would not translate to the latter. I can understand how having an option to just export the slide content though would be helpful - but it could get quickly tricky if say you had multiple elements appearing later in the timeline, or only when triggered, etc. as how would they all show up in the Powerpoint slide?
How would layered "slides" be converted into PowerPoint?
I think the main "...restrictive and impractical" part is that businesses are wedded mentally to PowerPoint.
When we're teaching people without access to a computer or with low digital literacy, we will create printable handouts.
Without an ability to export to PowerPoint, we need to dual-maintain content.
To answer Bruce's query: I'd manage exporting layers by allowing us to choose whether layers should be exported as discrete slides or objects within a single slide. Some content wouldn't export well to PowerPoint but some would and it would be a time-saver in those instances. Some tidy-up would be inevitable but for me that's preferable to the current situation.
Hi Jennifer
If this type of project is something you work on frequently (PowerPoint based), you might consider using a different program...one where the work is done within the PowerPoint program, then published as eLearning - either Articulate Presenter or iSpring are great for this. You can hand the modified presentation back to the client. The only issue will be that they can't use the program-specific interactive elements. But the rest of the presentation (the slides you enhance) will still be in PPT form, and can be handed back.
Thanks Chris and Dave for lending your perspectives...it's a good conversation to have and an especially valuable reminder to understand the needs of your client. In your case, Chris, I can completely understand your needs. Has publishing for Word ever been able to fill this role for you (creating a printable schema of your slide content)?
If you haven't already, please feel free to share your ideas with our development team. Thanks for taking the time to tell us about it!
We're looking to trial S360 soon (mostly for Review) so will see if that meets that particular need. Otherwise I'll log a ticket with the dev team.
For the record:
Since we give each object in a Storyline file a unique ID, it would be good to be able to have an A4 view of each page with each object represented there too. We could choose to show or hide each element, so that some might uniquely appear on one format but not the other. Triggers would not need to exist on the printable version.
Some things just don't convert to print, but due to a requirement to conform to WCAG 2.0 AAA we have to provide text alternatives to all video and interactive content anyhow, so a printable version of a Storyline file could lend itself to being an accessible PDF version too.
My influences:
As a web developer I'd create templates that used stylesheets to ensure content would print nicely as well as adapt to differing screen sizes. Using a CMS, content owners could update content and I could worry about how it was presented.
When I use Android Studio to create apps, I can define content elements (known as views) and then define which screen types they appear on. I then use the GUI to arrange the views on a phone screen and separately on a tablet screen.
Yes! Articulate Review has been invaluable to us already, both on the Support end and the Community end! Let us know how you fare with trying out Articulate 360.
And thanks again for your thoughts-- you've got a lot to manage, so you make a great use case for your ideas.
Hi Crystal,
Articulate Review is an excellent tool for feedback, but not for content edits. I've inherited multiple text based courses. While we're looking at updating the course design, the content needs updating. The Word export only provides screen captures and notes in the Notes section. We need both on-screen text and Notes. The layout of the translation export can be confusing to the content editors and (as it should be) is text only. We are managing with what we have but something closer to a PPT export would be far more useful.
The reality is most business partners are comfortable editing in PPT. Providing them a PPT to edit all content insures they are able to get right to what matters most: Updating the Content.
I'm happy to share with the development team, but I'd say the big question is really...
Does the Articulate Storyline product road map include adding an export option to allow for the editing of both on screen and Notes section text?
Thanks for your thoughts here, too, Anna! I see how having the ability to let your stakeholders make some minor edits (without themselves investing in Storyline) could be valuable to you. The Storyline format includes so many possibilities in terms of interactivity and navigational branching — definitely a different animal than PowerPoint. It would be interesting to see how we could export to PowerPoint format, and then import the PowerPoint edits back into Storyline while preserving interactivity and other Storyline-specific features along the way!
Our roadmap evolves with the impact that issues and proposed features have on our customers at large, and we always take into consideration what you already CAN do with our products. We work closely with our product development team on these issues, but we don't always nail down certainties if/when a feature will be added.
If you make a feature request, it’s the best way to let our product development team know about your needs; that way our customers can continue to drive the direction of our products!
Hi Anna,
I tried using the translation tool (in Storyline 2) for text-only content edits. it exports all content into a table in a Word document and lets people see the 'before' and 'after'. Effectively I'm translating from 'now' to 'then' rather than between languages.
I've found that it fails for very large files or if the reviewer deletes rows. For simple packages however it does serve its purpose quite well.
Another good workaround Chris - and you'll want to remind your reviewers not to delete rows, as all those must remain intact to connect to the original Storyline slides and text placeholders. I'd have them look instead at using a formatting such as a strikethrough on the Word document. Formatting should be imported into Storyline as well so then it would be easy for you to see the text that needed to be removed as a whole.
The reason I have need of this functionality is a little different. My company holds many licenses for Studio/Presenter 13. I did a trial of 360 to try it out. Right now my org is not ready to move to 360 so I have a course/test I made using Storyline 360 that will be useless once my trial runs out because I don't seem to be able to export it into a format that my colleagues can open. If I could export back to PPT (even if it is a stripped down version of the slide) someone could pull it back into Presenter and edit it but it appears I'll have to start from scratch with it in the older version.
Thanks Maureen for clarifying your needs. Storyline isn't backwards compatible (i.e. Storyline 3 projects can't be opened in Storyline 2, Storyline 2 projects can't be opened in Storyline 1) so that's caused some additional headaches for you it seems as you also can't use content created in Articulate 360 in Studio '13.
You can publish that course while you're still on the trial, so at the least you won't lose what you created - and once you're ready to move to Articulate 360 or Storyline 3 that file would work there.
Totally agree.... all the programs have to option to export to... how is the out come, it would depend of how much interactivity u have but the option should exist..