How to publish in MP4 format?

Dec 06, 2012

I need to publish my project in MP4 format.   Is that supported?   Please explain how to do it.   If it's not supported, when will it be supported?    What do you suggest I do until then?

Thanks,

Paula

75 Replies
Paula Swanson

Michael,

I'm using StoryLine to create interactive demos and it could potentially be the standard that our entire marketing group uses moving forward.    Give are demos are used by over ten thousand direct sales & partners in the field, it would be incredible exposure for StoryLine.   We cannot afford to use multiple tools to create multi-media demos of our software products.    We need to create click through demos run on a laptop, click through demos that run on an iPad and MP4 videos we can upload to YouTube as well as our own .com site.     I just learned Captivate has updated their offer to include iPad capabilities, so from our perspective Captivate can do it all, interactive click through demos for the laptop, iPad and MP4 videos.   This is causing us to re-think our plans to standardize on StoryLine.    Feedback?

Paula

Graham North

Hi

Click through demos and YouTube video are two totally different formats as you know.  With Storyline you can create both from one recorded session. With Captivate you may need to record the session twice as a session recorded for interactive demonstration cannot be easily converted to a video (something Storyline is very handy for).

As for the MP4 output although it's not liusted as an option if you look trough your Storyline published content you will be able to find an MP4 formatted version of the video captured and inserted in to your slides. Just make sure you have the HTML5 options selected.

I used one recorded session as the basis of a demostration to my collegues to show and test the three output options for screen recording with Storyline. Previously I have used Captivate for screen recording and have accidentally misconfigured the recording session which has meant rerecording the session with the correct settings, there is no way of changing display mode after the recording has begun.

Paula Swanson

Graham,

I've been doign both for years with Captivate and I never have to record any demo twice to create a click through demo for the laptop and an MP4 video for YouTube.    All my marketing peers and technical experts use it as well.   We are trying to drive standardization across hundreds of users within our company which will get exposure to thousands of sales & partners.     What had been missing from Captivate and why  I'm looking at StoryLine to begin with is the capability to create click through demos on the iPad.    Now is seems StoryLine is behind the curve with no MP4 capability and Captivate has added iPad support for click through demos.

Paula

Gabe Anderson

Hi Paula-

If your goal is to create click-through demos on the iPad via Storyline, I'm confused as to why you wouldn't just choose the option to include support for the Articulate Mobile Player in your published output. That's our custom iPad app that's going to give your iPad users the best mobile experience possible. With it, you don't need to create an MP4 (which isn't going to be interactive anyway, no matter what software you use to create it).

Have you tried that? Here's a tutorial:

Publishing a Project for iPad or HTML5

Gabe Anderson

Hi Paula-

I was addressing this part of your last post:

Paula Swanson said:

What had been missing from Captivate and why  I'm looking at StoryLine to begin with is the capability to create click through demos on the iPad.    Now is seems StoryLine is behind the curve with no MP4 capability and Captivate has added iPad support for click through demos.


Storyline will meet your needs.

1. Click-through demos on a laptop: Yes, just publish for Web, Articulate Online, or LMS to create Flash-based output.

2. Click-through demos on an iPad: Yes, just include support for the Articulate Mobile Player, as I noted above.

3. MP4 videos on YouTube: Do you want an MP4 only of your software simulation (click-through demo), or of your entire course? If you want an MP4 of only the simulation, that's easy. After you record your simulation via Storyline, you can simply export it to MP4, as described in this tutorial

Paula Swanson

Gabe,

Thank you, that did indeed work!!!   I could export an MP4 video of my screen capture.    The only problem is that the voiceover I created for each slide is not included.   I need it to play like a movie with my voiceover for posting to YouTube and other public sites.    If there a way to do this?    If yes, it would be fantastic.    Let me know please.

Thanks,

Paula

Paula Swanson

Gabe,

I captured the screen recording using Storyline and added voiceover within Storyline via "Add Sound".    The audio is there, I've played it, however, when I export the MP4 file as instructed by the training links you provided, there's still no audio in the MP4.    Any idea why this is not working or what I"m doing wrong?

Thanks,

Paula

Gabe Anderson

Paula, Steve is correct that to do this in one pass, you'd need to record the audio along with your screencast. If you want to record the audio separately, then you're back to Steve's earlier suggestion about creating a screencast of your published output after you're satisfied with it - then exporting the MP4 via the Record Screen window. 

rick t

I've downloaded a trial and will be presenting to the tech writing community in a few weeks (two to three dozen peers). I'm doing a pilot with some videos I need to prepare for our upcoming version. I typically use Captivate for these videos. With the base being prepared in PowerPoint, being able to import and edit directly in Storyline is huge.

With that, I have to say its not very convenient not being able to produce directly to MP4. We have a video streaming server where that's the only format I'm allowed to use. I produce two to three dozen short screencasts per version. So to have to go and "record the screen" for each of them isn't very convenient.

Additionally, when publishing, I don't see any controls. So once I choose to view the published video I don't have time to resize my window for proper recording. Or am I missing something? Is there some way to add basic controls (start, stop, pause).

Pharah Jean-Philippe

To piggy-back off of what Paula is requesting. I am looking to publish my entire story as an MP4 for a WebEx demonstration of how the e-content will work. I have no screencast or videos that I can export separately; only the ppt coupled with audio. I tried to share the .html and .swf files in WebEx, but neither worked which leaves me to the arduous task of finding out how to convert/export/publish my .story file to an MP4.

Please help.

Thank you.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Pharah,

Since Storyline includes a lot of interactive elements when you publish it will create a series of files, and to properly play the content all the files would be needed, hence the need to upload to a web server or LMS, or publish to CD where all the files could be housed. If you'd like a single MP4 format, you'll need to refer to Gabe and Steve's earlier suggestions on recording the course with a second instance of Storyline or you could also use Replay, which is free with a Storyline license. 

gary vey

I also have the same issue: We are (were?) longtime Captivate users. We create screen demos of software apps for a customer. The spoken sound is recorded seperately in a studio and added later to the slides. The whole thing is the edited, synchronized and then published. The customer demands the following formats:

1. Standalone EXE file to be distributed to sales people. They play these from their laptop when visiting a customer.

2. HTML / Flash which is linked from a page on their website.

3. A Video of the final edited version with the spoken soundtrack. This is posted on YouTube.

I've been experimenting with a test version of storyline. Although I'm quite impressed, I am rather disappointed that there is no simple way to exoprt a video of the complete finished demo including all edits and sounds, etc.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Gary, 

We don't have an option to publish exclusively to one video file, but you can do what some other users have done which would be to use a second instant of Storyline to record the final published output - and then export that screen recording to an MP4 or use a tool such as Replay to record the published output as that publishes to MP4. 

Barry Krusch

Adding the ability to export as mp4 was a no-brainer for the people at Adobe, and it ought to be a no-brainer for the people at Articulate as well. This allows you to leverage all of that work you have done developing the product, and then extends the functionality of the product into a whole new world, the people that want to do "show me" and explainer videos, and don't want to do interactive content. This will allow the program to compete with products such as Videoscribe and Camtasia far more effectively, bringing the product into a whole new category. It's hard to imagine it is going to cost much to do this, so why not quit wasting time and just do it already?

 

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