New in Storyline 360: Improved Player Controls
Dec 15, 2020
It’s easier than ever to give your learners an intuitive navigation experience. In our latest Storyline 360 update, now the built-in player controls are more in line with the way users interact with other media players. The new player controls are not only more intuitive but they’re also more accessible, since the keyboard navigation now moves from left to right.
You’ll notice these player improvements in Storyline’s classic, modern, and mobile players.
Adjustable Player Settings
You’ll also notice that we’ve added a new settings control to the player so learners can customize their learning experience. Within the player, they can:
- change the zoom mode to enlarge/reduce the zoom level of the slide’s contents
- turn accessible text on/off
- enable/disable keyboard shortcuts
Accessible Player Controls
Learners can now use keyboard shortcuts to access player controls to mute/unmute, replay the slide, and more, as shown in the screenshot above.
Keep in mind, you’ll need to install the update to see these changes in your new projects or in projects you republish.
And if you use navigation slides in your courses, now is a good time to update the instructions or any screenshots to reflect these new changes.
Want to get a feel for the new experience? See it for yourself here.
And to keep tabs on Storyline 360 features in the works, bookmark our What’s New, What’s Next page.
52 Replies
Hello, it's a shame that we can't choose the position of the buttons on the play bar (CC, volume, Pplay pause, etc). I am in the process of producing a series of modules in which I have used screenshots to show learners how to navigate the resource. I will have to redo these animations.
I, too, wish there was a way to create a more custom player using the built in components. For example, I would love to be able to have the play, pause, and seekbar components available to place anywhere on the slide in a kind of Chromeless player scenario.
Exactly the issue I have. Possibility to position controls as needed would be great.
Hello there, All!
I appreciate you all taking the time to share your thoughts.
I've seen JavaScript solutions for this, but I'd love to document the need for the ability to customize the built-in player controls right in Storyline. Could you walk me through what scenario(s) you'd use this feature?
For now, we have these customizable options for both player styles:
I do appreciate the work that went into this, and I am excited by the new accessibility features. However, I am disappointed that there was no warning that the CC button was going to change positions. All of my eLearning projects start with a quick navigation (with audio) that shows and describes the Closed Captioning button as being on the bottom left. Now all of these projects need an update on the audio and visual before they can be published. One of my narrators is off until January, so this project cannot be completed until then.
I help manage hundreds of eLearning lessons at my workplace's LMS. Until this update, every single one of those eLearnings has been published with a different player layout. Each of these eLearnings begin with a navigation that explains exactly where to find the CC button, play/pause button, etc. This means that any time I have to update and republish any of these eLearnings, I will have to redo the audio and visual components of the navigation page as well.
For the Accessibility controls, should you be able to turn them on/off from the Player Properties as a way to set them as your desired default? When I turn on Zoom to Fit, click Ok and then return back to Player Properties, Zoom to Fit is turned off.
In a recent test on a module launched in Chrome, a user reported that the slide was being cut off on the right side. She was savvy enough to try the Cog control and she selected Zoom to fit, which fixed the cutting off issue. So I think it would be a good idea to make this configurable.
Hi Thomas,
There is a built-in player variable that can be set to automatically enable Zoom to fit.
1. Open the variables window.
2. Select Built-In variables.
3. Scroll down to Player.ZoomToFit.
4. Change the default value for your project to True, then click Ok to save.
That will turn on Zoom to fit for your project without your learners needing to hunt for it.
If that's not working properly for you, please let us know.
Hi, I have selected the seek bar feature in the player options (it is the new updated version) but when I preview or publish, the seek bar seems to push the next and last buttons of the player control, it just shows the play/pause, the seek bar, the replay, the volume, and the settings, can somebody please explain how to keep these in view? I attach a screenshot of the previewing slide. Thank you.
Who the genius who put the volume control to right hand side so the volume control pops up (hover) every time your move the mouse towards the previous and next buttons.
If there a way the put it back to the left let me now. otherwise fit it.
Hi Holly,
We had other reports of this with an older beta version of Storyline. Can you check for updates and see whether the buttons are still missing?
If they are missing, can you share the project with us? That would help us track down the issue. You can attach it to the Report a bug form, or post it as an attachment here.
Thanks,
--Mark
Hi,
Thanks but the problem is solved, the particular scene had not had the
next and previous buttons selected inthe menu settings, a very helpful
member of the articulate support team solved it, all sorted now!
Holly
Holly Mapletoft
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Hi Holly,
I'm glad that Chester was able to help you. I appreciate you sharing an update with the community.
It looks like your email signature came through when you replied via email. You can remove that if needed by clicking ‘Edit’ beneath your response. Here’s a quick Peek video if you need help.
Is there a way to put a fine line "frame" using the modern player? I use the light player with no side menu (menus at the top right of the window), but then the content looks "lost". I manually draw a rectangle around each page, but it would be nice to have a frame option in the modern player.
Any easy way to achieve this?
Certainly an easier way to do that than manually for each page would be to put your rectangle in the slide master, then it will apply to each slide that uses that master...
I've done that, but for some reason there seems to be a problem with it aligning properly to the pages. I don't know why, but some pages the frame moves to the side and you only see three sides.
Has anyone ever had the issue where if you restrict the seekbar in your Storyline project, it can still be dragged when previewing and viewing the project on mobile? This is so frustrating! Perhaps I'll bring this issue up in a new thread, but can anybody take a look at the attached video to see what I would like to fix?
I'm sorry, but it looks like you would have to download my video on to your computer if you want to watch it. If I do bring this issue up in a new thread, then I'll need to pare down the length of the video as well. I hope anybody can help me fix this problem
Hi Victoria,
We'll look into this. As a workaround, try increasing the width of the outline to 2 pixels. That seemed to maintain the border on all four sides in my test slides.
Hi Daniel,
I've created a bug report for the issue you described. Unfortunately I don't have a workaround to offer other than to remove the seekbar from any slides that you don't want to permit scrubbing when the learner views on a phone.
If you want to try that, you can set whether the seekbar is displayed by changing the setting in slide properties.
Thank you, Mark!
Thanks Mark. That kind of works, but if the frame shifts, now you have 1 pixel on one side and 2 pixels on the other sides, so is still a bit wonky.
I must have missed it. Is there a way to disable the keyboard shortcuts from my end? Or at least some of them? I cannot have the replay slide option on one of my slides - the slide they submit to get credit for completion. Previous experience has shown that if that slide can be replayed, a bunch of different students will jump on after one student finishes, replay that slide and submit the slide in their name thereby escaping the need to complete the module themselves. :)
The keyboard shortcuts also do not work correctly on my computer - they bring up GeForce Experience instead which is also something I would not want students to do.
Thank you.
Hi Robin,
Are you able to share with us your course (or part of it) so we can see how you have the answer submission set up? Changing the setting in Slide Properties for revisiting a slide might prevent learners from replaying it, but without seeing the slide, it's difficult to say. Feel free to send it to us as an attachment to a bug report, if you're able to share it.
I was able to repro the shortcut key conflict you described. Although GeForce Experience specifies the combo as
alt+z, when I usectrl+alt+zit also opens the overlay. For now the only suggestion I have is to change the shortcut in GeForce Experience to use a different combo. I triedctrl+alt+zwith a number of other applications and that combo opens GeForce Experience with all of them.Thanks, Mark. It is a web link to a google form and testing the ctrl alt r now with the setting to resume saved state did not renew the web site so it looks like I am ok there.
However, this brings up another point. if I allow students to return to the form slide after visiting another one - it does refresh that page no matter what the setting. I simply work around by having this be the last slide and not allowing them to move forward or backward from it. My long time desire - to allow them to return to any part of the module after completion to replay etc without allowing them to revisit this slide. Is this possible? Any ideas?
Thanks again.
Robin