How do I change the slide length in Storyline

Jun 01, 2012

Is there a way to change the slide length other than dragging the timeline? 

Thanks,

Walt

26 Replies
Eric Nalian

Hey Guys,

Here is another option:

  1. Add object to slide
  2. Right click on it in timeline
  3. Change the start time to the slide length that you want.

-Or-

  1. Add object to slide
  2. Right click on it in timeline
  3. Uncheck the 'Show until end of slide' box
  4. Change the object duration

Not as simple as just dragging the timeline, but it works

Walt Jones

Thanks, all (and hi Gerry), I mostly want to shorten the slides--on my last recording, some came in at over 100 seconds long (I don't know why--unless I was abducted by aliens for about a minute and a half), so it's kind of a hassle to drag the timeline.

For the course I'm working on, the slides advance automatically (regrettably).

Manuel Maldonado

Is there a way to turn off the timer for each layer.  

I created several button / triggers the user must click to read the content.  On the right side of the button is a character pointing to each button.  When I click on each button the automatically reverts to the base layer..     

Michele Patla

Hey all!  I am running into this problem too.  For some reason, when I am adding layers, it makes the layer 10 minutes long.  Dragging the timeline takes wayyyyy too long.  I tried the options below and the objects changed their time but the actual slide is still 10 minutes long.  Is there a way I can change the overall slide without dragging it?  Thank you!

 

Eric Nalian said:

Hey Guys,

Here is another option:

  1. Add object to slide
  2. Right click on it in timeline
  3. Change the start time to the slide length that you want.

-Or-

  1. Add object to slide
  2. Right click on it in timeline
  3. Uncheck the 'Show until end of slide' box
  4. Change the object duration

Not as simple as just dragging the timeline, but it works

Daniel O'Keefe

yes Chad, thanks. Unfortunately the arrow method does not work for me. Nothing happens. Also surprised not surprised that Articulate staff did not point out this arrow key solution in the first place.

Guess we'll have to wait for Articulate to keep counting on their users for solutions that work for everybody, instead of being explicit about whether or not there is an actual solution to Walt's (clearly) stated problem, and whether it is on the Articulate roadmap.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Daniel, 

There isn't a method to change the overall slide duration outside of dragging the timeline back to the left to shorten it (right to lengthen it) and I don't have any information to share about it's position on a feature roadmap. 

When you add media elements to the timeline, the length of your timeline is automatically increased to match that and even if you remove or modify that media element it won't impact the timeline. 

The solution shared is something that was found by another user here in the E-Learning Heroes community and our team does share it as solution, but some of the earlier discussion here focused on other elements of slide navigation and timing, so that may have gotten lost on our part. 

Daniel O'Keefe

Thanks Ashley,

It's great to now know for sure from an Articulate staff member that there is no solution to Walt's problem from 5 years ago. I love community-based solutions and communication, but even moreso, I love open communication from software providers, so I appreciate you explicitly saying that there is no solution. It saves me time searching for potential solutions, and now I can permanently build in "slide-length timeline drag" into my workflow estimates.

Paul Scarnegie

I'm often syncing a collection of slides to a rather lengthy audio timeline that can often run a couple minutes in duration. The slides themselves are added one at a time AFTER the audio track is added so that I can put them in sequentially where they are needed. Unfortunately every slide I add is automatically extended to the very end of the Storyline slide - which can be minutes longer than what is needed. I then have to manually uncheck "show until end" and then drag the endpoint waaaaaay over to the left to make a shorter graphic.

There is 1 *hack* that's been mentioned in various places - if while you're dragging the end handle you ALSO click the HOME key on your keyboard, you'll find yourself suddenly at the very beginning of your timeline still holding the end handle of your clip. That works great just as long as you "entire" presentation is able to be displayed on a single width monitor timeline. If your entire timeline can't be displayed at one time, and you try this little hack, you'll find your end handle is suddenly before your start handle. Dumb really.

I would have hoped by now that the developer would have created either a keyboard shortcut for this sort of thing or a preference setting, but unfortunately (at least in my opinion) UI/UX design just doesn't seem to be a priority. I would suggest either be an option for turning off the "show until end" coupled with a "default import length" setting, or a keyboard shortcut to scrub forward/backward one timeline width at a time which would allow the "home key" drag hack to work albeit a 'page' at a time.

Of course, I'm still trying to understand their insistence on a timeline that displays time as 200 seconds instead of 3 mins 20 seconds - like every other timeline displayed within a piece of production software ... but that's me. Displaying an imported video in mins/secs on a timeline that's just seconds is not only lazy, but confusing.

Katie Gibbs

I am having the opposite problem. Granted I am a newbie. But I don't want to slide to advance regardless of timeline unless the user clicks my custom Next button. I have the button on the slide, but if I stop in the middle of previewing my slide (like to talk to my DH about something I did on the slide), then as soon as it reaches the end of the timeline, it just advances on its own, even though I never clicked next. What am *I* doing wrong? It seems dumb to just randomly drag the timeline to be really long just so that the person who gets interrupted in the middle of using my module doesn't have it automatically advance. I am sure there is a simple fix; I can't find it. THanks.