PowerPoint 2013 Preview + Windows 8 + Storyline: Anyone tried it?

Aug 04, 2012

Has anyone tried Storyline with an install of Windows 8 Preview and the new Office or PowerPoint 2013 Preview?  I ask because I'm switching from PC to Mac, and will have to install Parallels 7 and then either Windows 7 or 8, plus a Windows version of PPT, to use Storyline on the Mac.  So I'm wondering if anyone is already having success using Windows 8 Preview and PPT 2013 with Storyline?  If not, I may have to buy Windows 7 and Office 2010, even though both are about to become legacy, as those are definitely Storyline supported.  Thanks in advance for any sharing any experience you may have had so far!

22 Replies
Steve Flowers

I'd echo what Phil said In fact, I'm running Windows XP on my MacBook Air to save space, since Storyline is among the few apps I run on the virtual machine. It runs great and takes less memory. I'm quite happy with Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro.

I've been looking at the previews of 2013. Looks to be a nice upgrade for UI and adds some workflow niceness. Have seen a few complaints that no slide features were added (no transitions, animations / animation features, or visual enhancements to slide elements).

Andrew Sellon

Hey, Gents!  Thanks so much for the speedy reply.  The "better safe than sorry" approach does seem wisest, I agree.  I'm on Vista now, and Office 2007, so even being on Windows 7 and Office 2010 for the purposes of Storyline will still likely be an improvement.  Phil, I have to agree that the little of W8 I've seen, I didn't care for at all, design-wise.  Sort of like ugly enforced socialization.    Steve, I did also look at their little preview movies of Office 2013 and have to say I do like the look of the UI there, ironically.  I like the cleaner/simpler visual design approach.  A pity if they haven't really enhanced PPT.  But again, now that I've made the decision to migrate to Mac, Storyline is the only app I will have to run on WIndows.  Grrrr.  And since Office Home & Student for Windows has gone down to $99 for a 3-user license on Amazon, I guess I'll be buying Windows 7 Home Premium and installing the 64 bit version within Parallels, and then the Office Home & Student and installing that 32-bit, as I think that's the version Storyline insists on having. 

By the way, thank you both again for the separate input on my new laptop decision.  I decided to go whole hog, and ordered the MBPro Retina, with 2.7 Ghz chip, 512 G SSD, and paid the extra $200 for the 16 Gig SDRAM just in case I end up starting to do more video, etc. (I work with photos a lot as it is. )  The $$$ involved is kind of shocking, but it just seems really well designed and built, period.  I plan to migrate everything else to the Mac side, including getting the Mac version of the Adobe eLearning Suite 6.  I've already written (as have many of us, I know) to encourage Articulate to create a native Mac version of Storyline.  But I do hope that at the very least, they will work out a way of getting it to work with Mac-produced PPT files, including the 2013 version when it becomes available.  Then it'd be worth buying the Office 2013 suite for Mac and retiring Office 2010.  I won't have the new Mac for another week or so, but am very much looking forward to it!   So thank you both again for the input and guidance.  

Phil Mayor

Hi Andrew

As far as I understand it Storyline will work with Mac produced ppts, but it needs windows ppt installed on the machine  to be able import a ppt file.

I have ppt on another machine that looks for some non existent plugins (so I get popup errors each time I load it.  If I inport a ppt file into storyline I get these same plugin errors but ppt never opens.

Andrew Sellon

Hi, Phil -- So I could generate a new PPT file in Mac, but would still need the Windows version of PPT for Storyline to import it successfully?  That would still mean buying two versions of MSOffice/PPT, if I understand you corrrectly.    In this other thread, one fellow says he had luck by saving the file down to an older version of PPT in Mac, and then Storyline accepted it.  Did you ever try that approach?  Just curious.  I would try it if I had a Mac to play with, but I don't yet, alas.

http://community.articulate.com/forums/p/12734/76017.aspx#76017

Since I have to install Windows 7 to make Storyline happy in the first place, I guess I'll have to buy the now-discounted Windows version of Office 2010.  And then whenever Articulate gets around to providing support for at least Mac-created PPT files, I could look into upgrading to Office 2013 for Mac sometime next year.  Not ideal, but that's probably the best approach given the way Articulate has chosen to play (or not play) the whole Mac issue.  I know in one of the Mac-related PPT threads, one of the Articulate reps said that they don't support Mac PPT import at this time, period.  (Not the same thing as "it won't work" but still....)

Andrew Sellon

And here's a related question:  I'm looking for a good portable hard drive to do regular backups at home (in addition to making cloud backups).   Phil, Steve, and anyone else using WIndows virtually on a Mac--how do you handle your backups from the two worlds?  Are you reformatting the portable drive with exFAT?   Are you still able to leverage any auto-backup software that came with the portable drive?  I'd love to sort out the most convenient way to back up files from both Mac and Windows "sides" of my new laptop.  Thanks!  (All this, for the sake of Storyline...!)

Andrew Sellon

LOL!  Clever, Steve.    I use Dropbox for working files, too--but I have probably 150-200+ gigs of photographs and music, and need to back those up somewhere, too.  That would get pretty expensive on Dropbox's annual rates.  I've been using Carbonite for my cloud storage, but now they've told me that I'll have to buy a second subscription to back up both my Mac and the virtual Windows drive on it, because their software can't handle both formats.  I suppose I could keep using Carbonite for the Windows side, and store any new Mac-side files I create on iCloud.  But being old-fashioned, I think I still want some kind of spare copy of all those photos onsite as well.  I see some good reviews for a product called ClickFree that promises automatic wireless backup from both Mac and PC, but I also see a bunch of reviews from people saying the drives stop working, so, not sure of the best solutions yet....

Phil Mayor

I can never see a way to keep my photo's on the icloud they always drop off every 90 days.

Dropbox also has a beta that gives you more space the more photo's you upload https://www.dropbox.com/help/287/en, also have you looked at the time capsule, this will work with time machine on the Mac

Steve, how does Storyline run on the Air?  I am looking at getting the air as a smaller portable machine when I need to travel, on longer journeys I will take the MBP but the air is nice and portable when I have to carry it all day

Andrew Sellon

Good to know about iCloud; haven't used it yet for anything myself since my laptop is still a pc at this point.  But MacBook arrives next week!

Dropbox's Camera Upload is only free up to 3GB, same as for data files.  And their storage rates for 500 gig/year are prohibitive, unfortunately.  I've seen articles saying that both Windows and Mac can read an external drive formatted to exFAT, so will look into that further.

I agree having an Air for running around to meetings would be awesome!  Are we allowed to have Storyline on more than one laptop?

Steve Flowers

It runs OK on the air, though it seems a bit slower than my MB Pro (naturally). Only 4GB of memory and I haven't played around with allocation. You can run two installations, assuming that you're the only one using it:)

I signed up for the Dropbox $99 / year 50gb deal. They recently doubled this to 100gb. Pretty good deal, I think:)

FAT drives will work on both. When you plug it in, you'll get a cue to choose which machine you want to connect it to. The file structures and files are interchangeable. 

Andrew Sellon

Pretty "nifty," indeed!  But since the funding campaign has ended, we'll have to wait until it's officially released to the public.  And of course, it'd be great if the market also offers Micro SD cards with 500Gig or more! 

FYI--Today at Costco I bought a Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 2TB portable backup drive, as it claimed all over the packaging that it plays nicely with both Windows and Mac.  It was only when I got it home and opened the bubble packaging that I found a single subscript line saying "If you want to use this drive with a Mac, please visit ...." and gave a Seagate support URL.  On that page, they tell you how to install the NTFS driver included on the drive so that your Mac can read and write to the drive.  Then they go on to point out that once you install that driver, however, you can't use the automated backup software (Mimeo) that comes with the drive, or Apple's Time Machine software.  Sigh.  It's going back tomorrow.  I mean, I could do manual backups, of course, but I'm still hoping there's a more automated solution.  I'm going to hope my hard drive holds out until the Mac arrives next week, and then I'll deal with figuring out what's the best storage option for a Mac with a virtual Windows drive on it.....

Zoran Jancic

Sean Marx said:

Hi

I have tried running storyline on a Windows 8 machine and it freezes on me continuously. Articulate ran fine, but not having any joy with Storyline


Same here. I have Windows 8 64bit. It starts but freezes continuously. Tried different compatibility modes but with no luck. Have anyone tried to run this on Hyper-V Windows XP/Vista/7 virtual machine?

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