Export to Powerpoint from Storyline

Nov 30, 2012

Hi guys,

I have a Storyline project that I would like to be able to edit in Powerpoint - is there a way that is possible?  I know going Powerpoint to Storyline is fine, but what about the other way?

I have tried copying and pasting slides, tried copying all elements on a slide and pasting... but no luck!

Really need help PLEASE!

168 Replies
Leslie Shapiro

I've been asked to turn my Storyline course back into a PowerPoint so that SMEs can use it for an in-person presentation. Just in case anyone else runs into this, I see two options:

1. As noted above - Export to Word as a storyboard, then cut and paste each screenshot and Notes narration to a PowerPoint slide. I recommend publishing with "large" screenshots if you do this. Obviously, the screenshots can't be edited (unless you want to Photoshop) - but new PowerPoint text boxes, etc. could be superimposed.

2. If the PowerPoint needs to be more exact, I toyed with - but did not try - a second idea.  Run the published Storyline course and capture it using Captivate. Now you'll have all of your Background.png files in Captivate, and you could go through a similar process of inserting them into PowerPoint with accompanying narration from your Notes sections. It would be a lot of extra work, though, and of course you'd still be limited as to what you could edit on those screenshots.

Leslie Shapiro

Mmmm, I sincerely disagree with that solution Bruce. If you've properly designed a self-paced elearning course, it is not appropriate for presenting in person. (The whole point of good design being that it is appropriate to the context and audience).  Interactivity and other things that should be in such a course can cause confusion at worst or fall flat at best in a classroom setting. Not to mention that asking a SME to "present well" because we aren't able to make it easier for them is not the best way to serve a client or client business line!

I still think that my solution of publishing a storyboard and pasting screenshots and narration back into a PowerPoint is the best we can do at this point in time. It's not really that time-consuming, either.

Bruce Graham

Leslie,

All I am trying to do is offer another solution.

Storyline is not PowerPoint - it's not meant to be. It's meant, (as I understand it...) to be the eLearning tool of choice for people to get away from the tool that is PowerPoint. The Studio '09 and Studio '13 tools are the ones to stick to if you want a "Powerpoint" presentation.

I do not know the details behind the Dev Team at Articulate, however, I would think providing a PowerPoint output would be completely counter-productive to this 2-pronged product attack.

Whilst I appreciate that it's not ideal, personally, I would not be averse to "presenting" any one of the 4000 (?) + online courses/modules etc. I have ever created as "online" in a classroom. I'm not saying just click and go, but let's pretend, for a minute, that all you/a trainer had available was a Storyline course, a classroom and a screen - could it be made to work with a bit of thought? Probably.

I'm not saying that your solution is wrong, poor, or ill-advised.

What I am saying is that I think there may be very good reasons why it is not built in, and that SME presentations could, with some thought, be done with what we already have. It just might need them to step outside of their existing PowerPoint-reliant comfort zone a little.

Respectfully.

Bruce

Geert De Rycke

Hi Leslie,

I have to agree with Bruce on this one.

Prior to SL most of us started developing our courses in PowerPoint, it was convenient, easy to use and cutting pasting slides was easy. Storyline is a new development platform  that offers  a full IDE (Integrated Development Environment). For our convenience it uses a PowerPoint-like interface. A lot of SL users would like to develop in Storyline, then copy their development back to PowerPoint because that is the environment they best known.

I can see two solutions, either cut the umbilical cord we have with PowerPoint and use Sl at it fullest. Or continue to use Articulate Studio (Engage, Presenter, Quizmaker) in conjunction with PowerPoint.

If one only uses SL to develop pure sequential courses, then what is the added value of SL.

The approach of publishing a storyboard and pasting screenshots into PowerPoint is like you invent colour television, then take pictures of what is shown on the screen, print it an stick them in a book…

In a lot of cases, the underlaying reason is that it is of course much easier to rip a PowerPoint presentation/course and pull slides out of their context...

Cheers

Geert

Roger Blanchard

Storyline is far better a platform for sure. But It would be nice if there was a way to export a PPT file because I work in a bilingual company and everything needs to be translated. Our translators do not have Storyline and when you start to design a more sophisticated non linier courses. it becomes a nightmare for our translators to fallow in the exported Word doc that I have to now send them...even with an attached web version of the course so they can see the context in which its created.

The only solution I can see right now would to be to get our translators a copy of storyline and train them which I cant see happening... there is just too many of them to be cost effective.

Timothy Smith

For my 2 cents I would just prefer that Articulate Storyline output functions properly from a local drive. Currently the .exe version either ignores the keyboard or performs random actions when a key is pressed. The html versions are very limited when launched from a Windows 7 environment locally - and not supported.

From my perspective Storyline has a significant disadvantge in support of online/offline presentation vs. Captivate. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Timothy,

I just sent you the instructions privately on how to share your file with me, so I'll look into your keyboard navigation.  It's also important to note that when requiring users to press a specific key or combination of keys in your Storyline content, be sure to thoroughly test your published output to ensure it works as you expect. Some keystrokes are common keyboard shortcuts in web browsers (F1, ALT+D, CTRL+T, etc) and may result in unexpected behavior.

The parent application—your web browser—will always receive the keystrokes. This behavior cannot be changed. If a conflict occurs, it's recommended that you adjust the design or requirements of your content to avoid the conflicting keystroke(s).

Ken Hirsohn

I just posted a feature request to support a simple export to Powerpoint.  The reality is that someone is going to come and say "I love your eLearning; give me your slides which I will use to train our top customer face-to-face."  I wouldn't need animations or anything advanced; just give me the slides.

Mary McGivern

OK, so this may be a different approach...

I am required to submit storyboards for every course I build. I do this first in PowerPoint. Once the storyboard is approved, I import into Storyline and proceed to add all the interactivity.

Now, if some asks for a PowerPoint of my E-learning, I give them my storyboard (or a doctored storyboard).

Sme Cannot review content

Hi! I've been asked to quality check a storyline module and the word document export has all the overlays combined into one slide which makes it unreadable and impossible to qa for content. Is there a setting in the export to word that would enable a breakout of the separate callouts individually? 

david mckisick

When I read through Bruce's comments the first time, I have to admit I was a bit confused as to the intent behind it. Looking through all the comments though, it seems to me that his point is valid from the perspective of a classroom trainer. Those of us who do have extensive classroom teaching experience would certainly agree that Power Point is something that should be avoided except as an aid to the points you make during instruction. For classroom instructors, Power Point is something that is not a primary tool, but really more of something we use every now and then when we need a better way to help our participants understand a complex concept that is difficult to just talk through. Converting a WBT course to Power Point is, from this perspective, counter-intuitive.

Now, not all WBT developers actually have classroom experience, and many may not have even written a course. Perhaps these days it may be that most WBT developers have not. In many training shops these days, a course developer will write the course, and then partner with a WBT developer to turn it into a WBT, who may be more talented with graphics and slide design, etc. From this perspective, I think the impulse to turn an SL course into a Power Point is understandable, and may be the only way they can translate the meaning of each slide into something that SMEs can take apart and make comments on, post development IF a storyboard was not used during the design phase.