SL2 Slides Go White and Fill with a Big Red X

Sep 26, 2014

I'm using the 30-day trial of Storyline 2 to edit a project (from my local hard drive) which was started in Storyline 1 in a Windows 7 environment. After editing for awhile my slide suddenly goes white and is replaced with a big red X. I've closed and restarted SL2, made duplicates of the slide and the file - no go. I've created a new project and imported the old file - no go. I can see slides but as soon as I try to edit I get the big red X - please help.    

60 Replies
Tiffany Motton

Hi all 

Running into the same issue. 

I'm translating a EN to NL module and due to the amount of text boxes, shapes and basically NL being a much longer language in characters, I'm copying the text to OneNote, translating myself and then copying back. 

I've done about 7 scenes by now without every running into this infamous "Red X of Death". However, I'm currently doing a slide that has 4 layers, where I've recreated a book with some text on it. Everytime I click on one of these text boxes to copy in the translated text, it turns white with a red cross. It is an ordinary MS font, and I'm not copying from tables but from MS OneNote. 

I've done the basic troubleshooting: 

  • Closing & reopening Storyline, restarting the pc
  • Copying the file to my desktop and reloading
  • Creating a new project and importing the slides
  • I've now tried to recreate the layer and that was going well but then AGAIN! 

I'm running Storyline 2, I do believe it's with all the latest updates though not 100% sure. 

Is doing the repair for SL my only other option? 

thanks in advance!

T H

3 further years later I had this Red Cross of Death too today. And I have nothing to deal with fonts, item lists oder table of Office-software.

It just appeared after having imported slides from another SL3-file.

So, Christines approach worked for me as well (can´t barely believe it). Thanks for this creative idea.

Cristina G. de la Rosa
Tricia Ransom

Hi Keith,

I have this issue too and have done extensive testing.

I crash whenever I attempt to edit a numbered list that is Open Sourced font.

Crash only happens with the following conditions:

  • Non-Microsoft Office installed fonts   AND
  • Numbered lists (bulleted lists are fine) AND
  • Editing numbered lists AND
  • List item being edited is non-Microsoft Office installed font (list item in other fonts are fine) AND
  • Cursor is at the end of the list item line AND
  • Either on a Slide text box OR in Notes pane

Interesting thing to note: I can edit a numbered list w/out issue using True-Type font OCR A Extended. OCR A Standard (open-sourced font) causes the crash. Same happens with Cooper Black (TT) vs Cooper Black Std (O).

In Notes pane, Brush Script MT (TT) is fine, but Brush Script Std (O) causes the crash.

On slide, Brush Script MT (TT) and Brush Script Std (O)are fine

Here is the link to my post about this issue: http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/57211.aspx

Hi there, 

It's 2022 and still having the same issue.

I'm quoting Tricia's testing because, before I knew her results, I came to the same conclusion with my own tests....and after all these years, still happening the same issue