Font Change within a Text Entry Field

Jun 26, 2012

No matter what i do to the font and font size of the text within a text entry box, it always reverts back to the Articulate font, 12 point.

I've already noticed there are two ways to edit the font: You can click on the box and change the font, or you can edit the text and then change the font.

I've done both and every time it reverts back to Articulate 12pt.

Is this a bug?  What's the work around?  Highly annoying!

195 Replies
David Demyan

For the record, I have never been able to get the text entry font to stabilize as set it in any Storyline version. It is totally random. I will try the workarounds suggested, but I question why it should be so horribly difficult to just have text entry boxes retain their settings. The problem from a learning point of view is quite simple: the system being simulated looks and acts the way the programmers have set it up, but when I try to "simulate" it in Storyline, anything goes. Learners are very confused, especially when the text grows to elephantine proportions in weird fonts. The question inevitable arises, what was the instructional designer smoking when he put THIS together?

Rick Maranta

I have too being going mad with this and I have the latest version of Storyline 2. I am trying to create a dialogue response system so that I have text fields with variable placeholders and when the person selects a button they get a different response. First, I can't get the default text to show the correct font even though I have formatted it different ways and second, when the variable text changes, the font changes in the text box. 

Rick Maranta

That does not work in this case for some reason. Not only that, I have 4 text fields exactly the same and 2 of them show a different font, even though I duplicated them form the same field. Doubly mystifying. If you press B, you will see that the font changes larger. I am really puzzled how this can be such a long ongoing problem.

I have attached my source file, if anyone wants to take a crack at it. 

David Demyan

Wendy, that solution (locking it on the timeline) has never worked for me. I have tried everything to get some consistency in the formatting of text entry boxes and nothing works. It seems totally random and ignores all text box formatting settings. Word wrap does not work. Font size and selection does not lock in. Alignment, box size and position, and color settings seem to work reliably--all else is totally up for grabs. My latest production using these features looks like a designer's joke. I'm just grateful the client understands the fickleness of Storyline's text formatter. Believe me, I would avoid text entry interactions all together if they were not required for the learning objectives. It is the only feature in Storyline 1 and 2 that does not earn my 100% endorsement. I always point out this weakness when people ask about doing system simulations or demos using Storyline.

Wendy Farmer

Hi Richard

I've created a dummy file with two text entry fields - one using opens sans 12 and the other verdana 16.  Both are maintaining their font style when displayed as references.

I don't have Helvetica which is what you were using - perhaps one of these styles will work for you - sorry can't help any more.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Richard, 

Thanks for sharing your file here - I was able to see the Helvetica neue for the references of responseX, Y, A and B, and the "bunnytalk" was in Verdana and the font changing size, but based on the initial size of your text and the amount of space in the textboxes I think you're also likely running into the issue of the variable boxes and references are not dynamic, meaning the shape won't change size to accommodate more text but it will shrink the text to fit within the box you've set up. This is regardless of text box formatting settings you used such as "do not shrink to fit" as Storyline is aware that it's a variable reference and restricting the text to fit within the box you set up - so that this way if there is more text it won't overlap other slide elements. 

There are a few other font/text entry issues in this thread that have been reported to our QA team and since this thread has gotten a bit longer and muddied, I wanted to share again which elements/items those were:

  • An issue with the font within a text entry field from a screen recording changing randomly when clicking inside the entry field
  • An issue where the text entry font style will revert to the theme font when you've removed the standard "type Your Text Here" - workaround: don't remove the placeholder or adjust the font/size and lock the element on the timeline or select the box itself (not inside the box after remove the text) and make the adjustments to the box itself
  • An issue where the text entry font defaults to 12 pixels even if you change the font size when using using higher resolution on Slide size - workaround: Use default Story Size (760x540 for 4:3 aspect ratio or 720x405 for 16:9 aspect ratio) 

Once there is additional information to share on any of the above, we'll be certain to do so here. If you feel you've run into a new issue or one that I have mentioned above you're welcome to share here and I'd ask that you include as much information as possible about what has occurred and a sample .story file so that it doesn't get lost in the weeds of being the 'same issue' - or you're welcome to send along to our Support engineers here who can work with you one on one. Thanks again for your patience surrounding the above issues and continuing to work with us on figuring out solutions or other elements to report to our team. 

Dianne  Hope

I'm having similar issues to those mentioned here, unfortunately.  I have to say, I was excited to find this page after a Google search, but then when I saw the thread started 4 years ago, I thought this issue would no longer be around - but alas, it is.

I am creating a very, very simple demo and wanted to personalise the demo by using a text entry field for login.  My template is formatted with custom style fonts Nexa Light and Segoe UI Light.  I've formatted the text entry field following Wendy's post above.  

Bizarrely when I preview the demo, the font that appears when I type into the field seems to be Times New Roman!  Then, the font displayed is completely different - it could be the Articulate font, I don't know.  (BTW 0 Once I published the demo the Times New Roman issues isn't there.)

On the first slide after login, I added the variable reference to an existing text box, already formatted as I wanted it, and on the last slide, I created a completely new text box and added the variable reference to this text box.  You can see the difference in the font between the words "Congratulations" and the name typed at login.  

I've tried a number of formatting options, but nothing seems to fix this.  I don't want to change my font style and really wanted to use this text entry for login option in this demo.

Here's the link to the relevant slides in the published course:  http://bit.ly/1YVXV4E

I've also attached the Storyline source file, created using Articulate Storyline 2, which I freshly downloaded and installed just yesterday.

I'll also submit a query to the support engineers - I don't think this should be this difficult to achieve with software this awesome!  

Here's hoping someone can come up with a solution!

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi all,

We know this is a big pain point for customers and we have spent some time looking into this issue and a solution. The problem is that the formatting in the text boxes isn’t being retained when they no longer contain text, because Storyline isn’t saving the document state when there’s no text. This means there’s nothing to keep track of the different font settings when the box is empty. As we’ve looked at saving the document state when there is no text in order to keep track of these settings, we’ve had to take a look at all of the different places where you can have text, such as in text entry boxes, in normal text boxes, on shapes, in placeholders, in the notes panel, etc. Some of these areas need to act one way if they contain text, and act another way if they don’t have text. The effects of these changes are far reaching and involved. We want to make sure we don’t hold up getting out some other important fixes which were included in Update 8 of Storyline 2, while we continue to dig into this issue.

Thanks for your patience and feel free to let us know if you have any other questions. 

Bryan McD

This more than a pain point...our company is switching back to Captivate as
a result of this bug. It is impossible to do simulations that reflect any
accurate resemblance to a real-life process. It has been over 3 years since
this bug was first reported and I have watched as frustrated customers have
tried to resolve the problem on their own (a lot of wasted hours).
Tired of waiting, so good luck "digging" into the issue...we're moving on.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi all,

I wanted to provide an update here, as Storyline 2 Update 10 was just released, and included a number of fixes which you can see in the release notes available here. The items you all may be particularly interested in are the following:

Fixed issue where text would be improperly sized in text-entry fields,
Fixed issue where text would be improperly formatted in text-entry fields,
Fixed issue where text would change fonts in text-entry fields

You can download the latest update here, and after downloading and installing the latest update you’ll want to republish any existing content to ensure that the updates and fixes are applied.

Let us know if you have any questions, either here or by reaching out to our Support Engineers directly.

lawrence jacobson

Well done Storyline team. I look forward to installing and testing this update.

Kind regards,

Lawrence Jacobson
Head of E-learning

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