Simulating a course in Storyline?
Aug 14, 2013
Hey there:
Can anyone provide any best practices on how to simulate a published course in Storyline? That is, is there a way to bring in animations and view it in a "slideshow" mode without recording audio and syncing the product together?
When my company does a slide-walk through with a client (for courses published in Articulate Studio), we generally run it in PowerPoint slideshow, clicking to bring in the animations as we read the script from the Notes field for each slide. When we get to quizzes and interactions, we simply pull them up in Preview mode so the client can see them. This allows us to simulate what the final course will look like with the published audio without actually having to record the narration. As I'm sure you know, clients often change the script during these walkthroughs, so it's much easier to change the script before you've recorded the final audio.
I've asked Articulate about this and they don't have a solution. There's no way to "click" to bring in animations in Storyline as there is a typical PowerPoint slideshow.
Thanks for your help!
2 Replies
It may be a bit cumbersome, but you can add triggers that would accomplish this which you could remove later. I think the easiest way would be to create a new layer that is configured to pause the base layer, and then have hidden objects (shapes residing off to the side of the viewable content) that are triggered to show that new layer on the objects timeline start. So if you wanted to pause the content at 3 different spots, you would have 3 different shapes set to start at 3 specific times in your base layer timeline. You could then set a trigger within the new layer to hide that new layer which would resume the base layer content. This could be a keyboard button like the spacebar or a mouse click set on a transparent shape that takes up the full screen.
I've attached an example that has only a base layer. Things get a little trickier when you start working with additional layers, but it is still possible. I'm just not sure if it worth the effort. (I accidently left my second slide in the attached sample. I decided it was too much effort to accomplish the same thing with additional layers.)
I appreciate the feedback, Josh, but I have to admit that this seems somewhat cumbersome and even confusing. I am starting to think that the only option is to record narration (a dirty, unedited version of it) and sync the animations to that for the slide walkthrough. I really can't think of another method.
Does anyone else have a relatively easy suggestion? It's greatly appreciated.
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