Shapes moving out of alignment in preview mode

Jan 02, 2014

I have shapes nicely aligned in the normal view (stacked rectangles to make a gauge) but when I preview it, they are all akilter.   This also happens to some other shapes I have stacked.  When it is previwed, the top shape is moved over somewhat, exposing what is below.  Any suggestions on preventing this?

126 Replies
Susan Menzies

Hi there I'm experiencing the same issue - It happens in Captivate as well. 

My way of resolving it is to spend time trying to guestimate position of the shape if aligned in the published item, then misaligning the shape in the editing area - very clunky but it works. 

I'm wondering when the problem is scheduled to be resolved with Articulate 360?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Susan,

Could we take a look at one of your files for testing? I checked in on Henrietta's case here (the last person to post) and it does appear that our team reported one element to our QA team in that with the HTML5 output, snapped dropped items on a drop target malfunction if answers are set to shuffle in a Freeform Drag and Drop. That sounds a bit different than your experience.

If you could share a copy of your .story file, and any screen recordings of the items moving out of place that would be helpful. You could take a Peek of the problem? You can include the "Share" link here in your reply! Also if you'd prefer to share this information privately feel free to upload to our Support Engineers here.

Wesley Adams

Not sure if this helps but I noticed that if you group 2+ items, the distance difference in x and y starts to slide away from the item's original position. The larger the distance the items are from the group's top left corner (or the origin I assume), the larger the offset is and visually becomes apparent. The interesting thing is the published build does NOT display these odd offsets at least in SL360. When upgrouped, all offset issues disappear in preview and in published.

But in "Andrea Opland" 's target.story in SL2 in this thread, the preview AND published build IS reflected with offset issues no matter what. Even when her shapes were ungrouped, these issues displayed in preview and in published. That's why I think her's is related to rotation/flipping issues and not necessarily to just grouping. 

There may be something going wrong in the parent to child transform calculations. Not sure as a lot of this is speculation.

My version in SL360 ver v3.17.16085.0

See my group offset test build attachment for example in SL360.

Leslie McKerchie

Hey Wesley,

It certainly is helpful :)

I appreciate you chiming back in with your thoughts and findings as well as an additional sample file. 

I still see the issues in both the file you mentioned and the file you shared, so I reported this to the team with both files as examples.

I've attached this thread as well so that we can track user impact as well as update you here when we can.

Thanks again :)

Leslie McKerchie

Hey Jon,

Thanks for reaching back out to help us out, but it looks like you may be replying via e-mail which does two things:

  1. Does not allow attachments to come through
  2. Attaches your signature

You can remove your signature if needed by clicking ‘Edit’ beneath your response. Here’s a quick Peek video if you need help.

When you edit your reply, feel free to attach anything right within the reply window directly in the forums.

Jon Schiedermayer

Thanks. It's happening on every project I have going right now. Here are some smaller files that show another example. It isn't a huge shift, but it's enough to make it look like I'm not placing shapes in the right place, which isn't true. It's degrading the professional quality of the work.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Content,

Thanks for sharing the images, although I'm not clear on the differences between them. How does it look while published? Are you able to share this one slide or a few samples with us? 

With your permission, I'd like to take a look at them to investigate what's happening. You can share it publicly here, or send it to me privately by uploading it here. 

I’ll delete it when I’m done troubleshooting. 

Content Development

Hey Ashley, sorry I didn't make it more clear.  Here's the one slide to look at.  Click on any of the markers on the screen to open the "scenario" with the white background box, which isn't aligned center anymore.  (I know the background image is terrible quality.  We're working on that :) )

Let me know if that still doesn't make sense.  I included the original file. 

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/b5455764-7534-4317-909b-190ca72be866/review 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi John,

From your image, it's difficult for me to tell if you're using a built-in table or something you created with shapes? I'd love your permission to take a look at the .story file to truly understand what you're seeing while previewing. It would help to also know what version/update of Storyline you're using.  You can check by going to the "Help" Tab -> "About Articulate Storyline".

You can share the file publicly here, or send it to our Support Team privately. We'll delete it when done troubleshooting. 

Natasha Sutevski

Hi, I've been having the same issue. I am working in version 3.28.18944.0 and save the project file locally and publish locally.

The issue has occurred with:

- imported pictures with other shapes stacked on top (as a group)

- icons stacked on shapes

- position of arrow shape in different states

The arrow issue I fix by editing the state again to place them in their correct positions (the position has shifted unpredictably twice). The arrow has two states, with the second state flipping the arrow to point in the opposite direction. When I am editing the states, I have both arrows aligned for a seamless flip; the x,y position for both are identical. Yet, when the state changes in preview mode and when published there still appears to be a small shift in position.

In terms of the stacked image/shapes I end up having to position it off kilter in edit mode (shown in attachment) to try have it align in preview mode and when published.

I have attached a screen shot in edit mode and preview mode. It's the grey circles behind the icon/oval shape that shifts.

n.b I did realise that the picture that I imported was from my onedrive folder. I saved a copy locally and replaced the images with the local file but still have the same issue.

Tracy LaChance

Chiming in that I have the same issue. Items are out of alignment in both preview and publish. (all local) It sounds like this is a common problem (going back quite a ways!) and given the recurrent nature, I don't think opening a service ticket is a good use of anyone's time. I've subscribed to this thread, so hopefully, if there are any new insights to this issue, it'll be posted here. 

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Tracy and Larry,

Thanks for letting us know that you've been affected by this issue as well.

This conversation is attached to the report, so you're in the right place to be notified of any additional information.

Just as a recap:

  1. The original issue reported here was corrected in Update 11.
  2. This thread became active again in Update 16 and a new report was filed.
  3. We have 3 files attached to the report, which is why we do ask for additional examples as it helps both identify and diagnose the issue as well as confirm a fix prior to release.
Larry Pickle

Hi Leslie,

Thank you for responding and explaining more about the situation. I am currently working on a software training course, which would be a great example to display the alignment issues. As I work through this course over the next few days, would it be helpful if I documented several of the alignment issues on different slides with screenshots of both views and send over the storyline slides? I'm happy to spend time doing that up front, hoping it will result in a huge time-savings in the future.