Ghost borders / bounding boxes
Jan 17, 2023
Another year, another problem. After the Christmas break decided to upgrade to Windows 11 and the latest version of Storyline (I know, I'm crazy, right???) just to start the year with a fresh system and clean install (I know, I'm crazy, right???).
Anyhoo... first project I am working on and I discover this... I dunno, what even is this?
Lining items up to a guide has been ropey at best, and for me, relies on establishing a grid system of 10 pixels and working off that.
But this... obnoxious monstrosity... now suddenly appears around my selected item and creates a new, unwanted, bounding box that has absolutely NO purpose, as far as I can tell. What is the point of it? What does it do? How does this help? What even is it?
Genuinely, explain it to me like I'm 5 years old.
7 Replies
Hello Diarmaid! Sorry to hear you are having issues after updating Storyline.
I tried to reproduce the problem on my end, however I did not notice any irregular boxes around the text. Perhaps this could be an issue with that one particular file.
Just some clarifying questions:
If you would like to upload your project file we'd be happy to look into this further for you. We always delete it once we finish troubleshooting.
Thank you for reaching out!
Hmmm... that is disappointing. No, the issue doesn't seem to appear when I create a new project.
The file was created by a third party, I believe, and was handed to me by the client to tidy up. I have already installed, rebooted, and reinstalled a completely fresh copy of Storyline on my Windows 10 and 11 environments but the issue persists.
Here's what it looks like, with Grid & Guides OFF, and I select an edge of the shape in order to move it...
You can see the shape is indicated by the blue points, and the new, unwanted, boundary box is approximately 10 pixels beyond the shape.
Here is a similar attempt, with Grid & Guides ON, but just showing how the extra boundary area is defined by the transparent white shape, but the actual shape is defined by the perimeter highlighted by the 'smart' guides.
I know smart guides help, but this is exactly the issue. There is now an extra cognitive requirement to discern whether the shape is aligned correctly or are the smart guides active.
It's genuinely frustrating.
I have uploaded the project file and hopefully, your boffins can help out.
Hi Diarmaid,
Thanks for the additional detail! I understand how frustrating this can be. I see you've connected with my teammate, Jan, in a support case, so we'll continue the conversation there.
I would like to clarify to the tech, Jan, that it appears when the item is dragged (or about to be dragged) to a new position. The extra padding doesn't appear simply by clicking on the shape. One needs to try and move the shape, and THEN the box appears.
I can see from the video they posted that they simply click on the box and nothing appears.
Screen Recording 1/19/2023 at 8:26:28 PM | Review 360 (articulate.com)
Hi Diarmaid,
Thanks for the update! I see that Jan suggested closing the format window and seeing if the issue will still happen. If the problem persists, he recommends running the cleanup script along with reinstalling the Articulate 360 desktop app and Storyline.
I hope these steps will help resolve the issue on your end. Please keep us posted!
Thanks, Eric. I had already run the cleanup script, overhauled and refreshed my windows environment, and performed a clean install of Storyline. But no joy, hence this thread.
It turns out the issue was corrupted placeholder items on the Master Slide. Text boxes created within the slide were fine. No fix other than delete the box and create a new one.