Letters replaced with symbols in Storyline 360 courses
May 29, 2019
By
Steve Jones
Hi - a client is reporting that their users can't read the text on a course as the letters are replaced with symbols (see font screenshots).
The client's policy is to use IE 11. The font download setting for individuals and group policy seems correct. Courses behave normally in Chrome, but as IE 11 is the corporate default browser, learners would need special instructions to use Chrome.
Courses are published with the HTML5 with Flash backup setting.
Courses are accessed on the client's LMS via a dispatch file to a 3rd party host. (see LMS settings screenshots)
I am not able to replicate the issue on any browser.
Any idea on what causes this and how to fix?
Thanks, Steve.
6 Replies
We had this problem when we upgraded to Storyline 360 from Storyline 2. We were using Gotham Font, and applying the Bold feature to the normal Gotham.
If we used Gotham Bold it was fine, but Gotham did not. We have switched fonts since we started using 360.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for reaching out and sharing what those users are experiencing. It is difficult to track down when you cannot replicate it yourself.
Here is our reference documentation when users are seeing the incorrect font in the HTML5 output.
It sounds like there may be a server to check in the mix as well.
What font are you experiencing the issue with?
With your permission, I'd like to take a look at your project file to investigate what's happening. You can share it publicly here, or send it to me privately by uploading it here. I'll delete it when I'm done troubleshooting.
Hi Leslie - thanks for the reply.
I sent the article you linked to our client and they say they have the settings correct. I'll ask the vendor that's hosting the files to look into the MIME type.
The font used is Calibri. I don't think the font is being changed, the characters are being replaced. See good vs bad screenshot attached.
I'll upload a project file, but I think they're having this issue with all of our Articulate content.
Thanks, Steve.
It looks like the ligatures are being replaced, as noted in other threads about IE and fonts. Can you ask the client if they are running IE in compatibility mode, to emulate an earlier version of IE? This could be hidden in a group policy somewhere, or maybe the LMS has such a setting for serving up the course.
Hi Michael, thanks for the reply. Use has IE11 font download set to Enable. I don't know about group policies. Do you see anything in the LMS settings screenshots that might cause this?
I don't see anything offhand.
Your fonts are rendering, so I think they are downloading, but the ligature characters are not rendering, and from what I've read older versions of IE did not support ligatures, so that's what made me think compatibility view could be the culprit as it makes IE11 emulate older versions of IE.
I think this came up in the "missing t and f" thread, where some corps had compatibility view enabled for some sites. You might not necessarily see the site listed in IE though in a corp setting. Normally it is under the Tools menu.
I think their admins would have to check their group policy settings to see if the LMS site has been added to this list. Just another possibility. Read about it here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/internet-explorer/ie11-deploy-guide/group-policy-compatability-with-ie11
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