Powerpoint Import not working

Feb 11, 2013

I keep getting this error

"Object reference not set to an instance of an object" when I try to import my powerpoint. I have Windows 7 on my computer. This is also in the free trial on Storyline.

10 Replies
Christine Hendrickson

Welcome to E-Learning Heroes, Ashley!

First, can you confirm the Storyline course files and the PowerPoint files are local? If you work with files from any external sources, you may run into some problems.

1.  Work on your local drive (your C: drive). Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, including file corruption, loss of audio, and other unexpected behavior. 

2. You should also make sure the directory path to your project files and your published output is less than 260 characters (for example C:\Articulate).

3.  Avoid using special characters, accents or symbols in your file names.

Additional information regarding "Naming Files, Paths, and Namespaces" in Windows operating systems can be found in the following Microsoft article.

If you still see this error, can you tell me if you're inserting this into a new course, or an existing course? if you haven't already, please try creating a new Storyline project and try importing the PowerPoint content into Storyline.

If the error still occurs, would you mind sharing the PowerPoint file with us? You'll be able to attach the file on the second page of this form.

Thanks!

Christine Hendrickson

Thanks for getting back to me Patryce,

Are you able to import any PowerPoint files, or is it just a specific file that isn't working? If it's a singe file that's not wanting to cooperate, can you tell me what type of content is in the file? 

Can you share the entire error message as well? I've seen a couple different versions of this, if I can see the details it may help us resolve this.

Thanks!

Christine Hendrickson

Good morning Patryce. I hope you had a good weekend!

Thank you very much for the information. Can you confirm that you have Update 2 installed, please? To find this information, click on "Help" then "About Articulate Storyline". If you're not using version 2, please download Update 2 here

If that doesn't resolve the issue, please try to set your Story size to the default 720 by 540 setting and please let me know if this resolves the issue.

You might also be encountering an issue with an unsupported Windows DPI setting. Storyline will function as expected when Windows is set to 96 DPI (dots per inch). Storyline doesn't currently support 120 DPI. If your system is set to 120 DPI, you may experience erratic behavior, such as:

* Elements of the application are misplaced or distorted.
* Objects are misplaced or distorted when previewed or published.
* Zoomed images don't work as expected.
* Font sizes are incorrect after using the translation features.

Here's how you can switch to 96 DPI.

If all of the suggestions above still do not resolve the issue, please follow the troubleshooting steps outlined in this article

Hopefully those steps will fix this issue for you. If not, please go ahead a submit a support case with our technical department. You may also want to share a link to this thread, so our tech team can see what steps you've already taken to troubleshoot the error. Also, please share the case number with me. You're welcome to do so in this thread, or you can send it to me in a private message.

Thanks!

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.