Need Help - Can't see pics, or hear narration in published output

Jan 03, 2014

Hello all,

Last night while working on a project on Storyline I got a message that Storyline has stopped working and the application will be shut down.  Thankfully I had just saved my project so I didn't think too much of it.  This morning when I opened the file, it is acting very strange.  Elements such as characters, pictures, music, narration and other navigational items that I have placed in the course and clearly appear in the slides are not there when I publish the course.  Has this happened to anyone before?  Any solutions?

6 Replies
Daniel Brigham

Hi, Noureen:

If this were happening to me, I'd suspect that file is somehow corrupt. I'd open up a fresh SL file and import the "old" slides into it. Then I would publish the file and then test it in the environment in which it is going to be launched from (website, LMS, etc.)

So often our individual computers restrict things from playing as they should. Let us know how it goes. --Daniel

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Noureen,

As Daniel mentioned it could be that the file became corrupted, and the import sometimes fixes it, but not always. You'll want to make sure that you followed these steps to import it instead of just copying/pasting the slides into a new file. To prevent file corruption and other odd behavior you'll want to follow these guidelines: 

  • Work on your local drive (your C: drive).Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, includingfile corruption, loss of audio, and other unexpected behavior. 
  • You should also make sure the directory pathto your project files and your published output is less than 260 characters(for example C:\Articulate).
  • Avoid using special characters, accents orsymbols in your file names.
  • Set your DPI to 96

If you're able to see all the items in the .story file, but not when publishing I'd also check that you're viewing the published content within the intended environment. 

Noureen Shaikh

Thank you Ashley.  I did import it the way you have suggested rather than copying/pasting but alas...no luck there.  I was working off the C: drive and have no funky extensions or long names.  Not sure about the DPI.  I'll keep these guidelines in mind to avoid any similar issue in the future.  Thanks again.

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