New in Storyline 360: Text Autofit Enhancements

May 26, 2021

Mike Olivieri
By Mike Olivieri

We know how important it is for all learners to easily access and read the text in your courses, which is why we’re excited about the improvements we’ve made to the text-authoring experience in Storyline 360. With the text autofit improvements we’ve just released, you have new ways to manage text elements, more control over your text, and easier ways to make your text accessible. Here’s a quick summary of these improvements. 

Greater control over text

Three new text autofit options help you preserve your preferred font size and prevent text from automatically shrinking.  Now you can choose from “expand width,” “expand height,” and “fixed size” options. Read more about each of these autofit options and see the difference between the old and new approaches in this article.

More precision over the size of your text box 

Before, when you tried to resize a text box to your preferred size, it would automatically default to the height of the first line of text. With the new text autofit enhancements, you can now easily set the precise size of your text box regardless of the amount of text.

Having more precision also means you have a more accurate view of how your text will appear in the published output.

Faster workflow for a smoother experience

Now, with a single click, you can quickly toggle between different autofit options to accomplish more in less time.

Improved readability across browsers

Since accessible text is HTML text, it can display differently across browsers. With text autofit improvements, now you can easily adjust the text elements and remove scroll bars before learners see them.

We hope you’ll love the enhanced authoring speed and flexibility and greater control that comes with these new text autofit improvements. To learn even more, check out Storyline 360: Text Autofit Improvements and Accessible Text Features in Storyline 360.

73 Replies
Ren Gomez
almost 3 years ago05/28/21 at 4:01 pm (UTC)

Hi Lesley,

Thanks for connecting with our Support Team and working diligently with my teammate, Shiela, to get to the root of what you're experiencing.

It looks like we discovered a bug where:

In Update 52, imported text from PowerPoint generates scrollbars in Storyline 360 if the option to stop fitting text to this placeholder is selected in PPT.

I'm sorry if this is slowing you down! In the meantime, you can revert your version to Update 51 as a workaround. We'll reach out when we have any updates to share on a fix.

Scott Suter
almost 3 years ago06/02/21 at 9:22 pm (UTC)

Here's the other part of the problem...if you revert to previous version and you have done any substantial amount of work in 52, you won't be able to open it in 51. So you either print an outline by publishing to word and recreate it manually, or live with the bug in 52 until there's a fix. I'm living with the bug.

Scott Suter
almost 3 years ago06/03/21 at 12:24 pm (UTC)

After sleeping on the problem, both solutions I tried are not acceptable. If we are unable to open SL pre V52, in V52 that is a major error/bug. If I need to update content, it would mean hours of tedious labour to copy content; slide title, slide text or other content, notes, and text to speech. I guess SL Engineers better get busy.

Jeremy Dittmer
almost 3 years ago06/03/21 at 1:05 pm (UTC)

I agree that this is certainly a major bug.  I've just tried creating a new file in v3.52 & saving it without even adding any text fields!  And it won't open in an earlier version of SL360 giving the error message:

This project won't open because it uses features that aren't available in this version of Storyline. The features in use are:

Text Scrollbars

Install the latest Storyline update to open this project

There's absolutely nothing in the file at all apart from a single blank slide so this message is obvious nonsense.

Like many SL developers I frequently have to rollback SL versions or resort to using an older version of SL360 I keep installed on another PC for emergencies, in order to work around some of the worst bugs that now invariably appear with new updates, so I can see this latest issue becoming a major concern.

It is one thing for updated file formats not to be forwardly compatible between major releases but for this to happen between minor updates, and without any advance warning being given by Articulate that I have seen is wholly unacceptable. Note that no warning is given in either in the article above or when you click the 'Upgrade Project Text...' button in Format Shape | Text Box.  Even more irksomely, in the Storyline 360: Text Autofit Improvements article linked above there is actually a Compatibility section ... which makes no mention that they've broken it!

Surely it cannot be beyond the wit of the SL developers to support new features in the updated file-format without breaking it for all older versions?

This is reminiscent of a similarly vexing issue with Text Styles that can break file compatibility between minor versions seemingly randomly i.e. a SL document apparently being tagged as using Text Styles, even though none have been consciously used.  This then prevents it being opened in an older SL360 installation.

Scott Suter
almost 3 years ago06/03/21 at 1:40 pm (UTC)

Thank you, regarding:

Leslie McKerchie replied:

Hello Scott, Maureen, Jon Ellis, and Jeremy,

I appreciate you reaching out and sharing what you are experiencing as well
as the troubleshooting.

I've opened up support cases for each of you so that you can work directly
with a support engineer and we can take a look at your files.

Kindest Regards,

Scott Suter

ssuter@rogers.com

Cell 647) 980 0233

Scott Suter
almost 3 years ago06/03/21 at 9:22 pm (UTC)

Hi Leslie, thanks so much for reaching out and engaging us. The team from tech support has been in touch with me, as well. Here's a temporary fix that worked for me, but is quite tedious and time consuming. It also clarifies the sequence of events and problems I experienced. I'm concerned with what Jeremy's reporting. Here's my events and the fix:

After the V52 update in Storyline 360, I imported PowerPoint for a new project. I noticed the scroll bars ("elevator bars") appearing so I searched for answers, finding this E-Learning Heroes thread.

I reverted to V51 as recommended by Ren, but subsequently could not open what I created in V52. So, I reloaded the update. I pondered the problem, sleeping on it.

I manually copied my created content into a Word document, deleted the V52 presentation, then reverted back to V51. I have since recreated what I had done in V52, using a new PPT slide import in V51, and manually copying content from Word to SL, then manually manipulating it into a presentable format. That worked for me.

Jeremy Dittmer
almost 3 years ago06/04/21 at 7:56 am (UTC)

A Storyline source file only appears to be tagged as using Text Scrollbars (thus breaking compatibility) if it is either created in v3.52 as a new file or the file is 'upgraded' using the new button in Format Shape | Text Box. 

So I'd suggest a viable workaround for now for anyone concerned with retaining compatibility would be to create a basic blank file using v3.51 or earlier, save it and then use a copy of that file as the basis for new projects.  I've tried importing a PPT into such a file using v3.52 - the new auto-fit buttons do not appear and once saved the file still opens in earlier SL versions.

In practice I almost never begin a new project from scratch anyway and prefer to clone older projects as a starting point to avoid having to spend hours recreating complex functionality, so hopefully this issue, though annoying, will not actually impact my work too much.

Dan Gladstone
almost 3 years ago06/10/21 at 5:50 pm (UTC)

A few questions regarding this:

1. How do I access these features when I insert a Textbox? I don't see them. I must be missing them?

2. I want to customize a Text box to resemble an Email window. What would be the best way? I attempted to import a message window from Mail and also build one out with other Text boxes. I wonder if there is an Icon or object I can use? Please advise.

3. My interaction involves the learner writing an email. I'm concerned they will run out of room or the submit button interferes with their text. How can I prevent these issues from happening?

Thanks!

Lauren Connelly
almost 3 years ago06/11/21 at 3:43 pm (UTC)

Hi Dan!

I'm happy to help you access the text auto-fit features in Storyline 360. Like the gif shared in the original post, you can also right-click on the text box and choose Format Shape. Then, select Text Box, and you can choose the auto-fit settings.

Here's a look at these steps:

We have so many creative people who can surely offer more advice on designing an interaction that looks like an email. I'll hand it over to our Instructional Designers to share techniques!

Becca Levan
almost 3 years ago06/11/21 at 6:35 pm (UTC)

Hey there Dan!

Actually, that's a great question! What worked for me in Google Chrome was to right-click on Lauren's gif, then click Open Image in a New Tab. Here's a Peek recording!

If you don't see that option, you could also choose Copy Image Link or Copy Image Address and paste in a new tab.

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