Importing PowerPoint to Storyline - Font size an location changes

Jul 03, 2018

I'm new to Storyline 360. When I imported a PowerPoint deck into Storyline, a lot of font size and location changed. Is there a way to import PowerPoint without changes to the font size and locations?

27 Replies
Nicole Legault

Sorry for the frustration, Gary! 

Importing PowerPoint content into Storyline isn't an exact one-to-one conversion. As a result, text may look a bit different.

Sometimes this happens when the PowerPoint slide size doesn't match the Storyline slide size, Storyline will scale the slide items to fit into the new slide size. For the best results, change your slide size in Storyline to match your PowerPoint slide size before importing. Click here for details.

Additionally, here's a link to additional info that may be useful for you:

Storyline 360: Tips for Importing Microsoft PowerPoint and Articulate Presenter Content 

Hope this helps you out!

Gary Martin

Thank you, Nicole. Now I know to confirm that my 2013 PowerPoint slide size by choosing the 'Design' tab, clicking the 'Slide Size' on the right, and selecting 'Widescreen (16:9).' Then when I open Storyline 360, before I import the PowerPoint deck, I should choose the 'Design' tab, click the 'Story Size' button on the left, and choose the 16:9 from the dropdown list.

After doing this, the import worked well. However, some of the font sizes didn't import properly; the font size is larger than the font size in the PowerPoint deck. How do I correct this as part of the import?

Katie Riggio

Hi, Gary. Really sorry you've come across an issue with the font size after the import–I'd be happy to help you out!

To start, can I confirm if you're working locally (typically your C: drive)? Working on a network drive or an external (USB) drive is known to cause wonky behavior–like incorrect formatting.

Can you also share the PowerPoint file with me, so I can take a closer look? Need to share it privately? No sweat, here's where. ☺️

Katie Riggio

Thank you, Gary!

Ah, I'm still unable to recreate the font size issue on those slides. Have no fear, though! I've enlisted the help of our Support Engineers–someone from the team will be in touch shortly with some next steps to try, and I'll be sure to also keep this discussion updated; I'm itching to know what's causing this!

Gary Martin

RE: Case #01447516: Katie and Eloisa, I attached screen captures of slides 6-9 from my PowerPoint deck. Please compare these captures from the Peek you sent me. There are substantial differences between these screen captures and the PPTX that you have.

Gary Martin

Eloisa, I followed your instructions and used Peek to record a screencast of how I imported a PowerPoint deck (4 slides) into Storyline. Even though I recorded my voice and comments, the audio is corrupted. But you can clearly follow my steps in the process.

Let me know when you have a diagnosis for my import issue.

Alison Coops

I'm just going to chime in here that my on-screen slides sizes have been coming in small.  16:9 ratio on both powerpoint and story file. For example, much of my ppt on-slide text is Gill Sans MT 18 pt but arrives in Storyline as 9.5. Possibly related, copying graphics from a master slide to a layout it arrives way too big (and often off the slide). I don't know if it's related, but I just tried to create a matching drop down question and the left and right side items overlap in the middle instead if wrapping to a second line. I created it as a matching drag and drop and it looks fine, but isn't 508 compliant.  I'm using Storyline 3.

Pamela Mallin

I'm trying to find the latest post on this, but most of my graphics come in distorted when the PPT file in imported into Storyline. Great tips on size of slide followed, etc. Text boxes appear with lines around them, which are not in the ppt slide. ?Picture icons come in as solid boxes, and not capability to remove or edit them. So frustrating! Any update on an easy why to fix these issues, there are issues on every slide! 

Lauren Connelly

Hello Pamela!

We are happy to solve this with you! I understand that you're importing the PowerPoint into Storyline. Are you using Storyline 360? Also, are you using the latest version of Storyline 360? We are currently on Storyline 360 (Build 3.61.27106.0).

It would be helpful if we could test your file on our end to get a better understanding of the problem. Can you upload the PowerPoint to us privately in a support case? We'll begin working as soon as we receive it.

Jose Tansengco

Hi Pamela, 

Each of the issues that were raised here were resolved differently, so there isn't one solution that we can recommend which would apply to everyone. With that being said, would you be willing to upload a copy of your project file here or in private by opening a support case so we can test the behavior you're experiencing? We'll delete your file afterwards. 

Joshua Daby

Hello, I too have had this issue many times. I have made certain my slide size in Articulate Storyline 360 is 16:9 before importing a slide deck from ppt that is already 16:9 but when it comes over font sizes and graphics are considerably smaller.  I realize Articulate and Microsoft are 2 different platforms and may not "play in the sandbox together" well....but its frustrating when my client sends me a ppt deck and I basically have to recreate it in Articulate Storyline 360. Any help would be appreciated.