I am trying to edit my characters from the pre-loaded content slides and when I do it will load the character but with portions of its body chopped off. My DPI setting are at 100% and it is still having this issue. If I use the characters provided in the content slides there is not issue. Only when I try to change them.
Welcome to E-learning Heroes! Sorry to hear you’re experiencing this. I’d like to help investigate and ask a few questions:
Are you uploading files from a network or USB drive?
Do you feel comfortable sharing your file to see if I can replicate?
I see you mentioned you’ve set your DPI settings to 100%. Have you tried the steps in this article for a clean install? Sometimes, a simple repair of Storyline can do the trick. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
Were you able to check the DPI setting as Ren mentioned? We've heard a few examples of this recently, but haven't narrowed the cause further than the items mentioned above.
If you've tried that already and are still stuck you can reach out to our Support Team here!
While I don't have a solution to share from Alyssa or Allison's case at this time, we're happy to keep digging! To start us off: What DPI setting are you using? Here's how to check!
Let me know, and we'll explore our next steps from there!
Any updates on this? Any character I insert into any project has their arms cut off. It looks like the software is cutting off the outer ~20 pixels no matter the pose. Re-cropping the image to a wider width does not expose more of the character. This is happening on all DPI settings, all monitors, both modern and classic illustrated characters, and all projects both saved on a network and saved locally. Downloading a new character from 360 does not seem to help.
Having the same issue. When I go to insert any character it is cutting off the arms and hands if too wide. I checked my DPI setting and they look to be correct. I have attached two examples.
Hi everyone, I found a workaround - I unplugged my second monitor and worked directly from my laptop screen. Once I did that, the issue went away! I hope this workaround helps others running into this issue.
I have no idea why a second screen would cause an image cropping issue, but given how much trouble Storyline has with multiple monitors and window detection in general, it's likely a symptom of a much deeper issue in the software. Hopefully this helps your QA/engineering teams.
Thanks for chiming in to share the solution that worked for you, Amy.
I'm curious if your DPI settings were the same on both monitors or if there was a variance?
Hi Jeannine and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)
Thanks for letting us know that you're running into a similar issue as well and that you verified your DPI settings. Were you able to conduct the repair shared above?
I checked my DPI settings and they were set to 100% on all monitors. I also did a clean reinstall with the correct user permissions as noted in the repair article and that didn't work either. The only reason I found this solution is that Peek was giving me another monitor-related issue (I was trying to record the error for my support ticket), so I unplugged my monitors and the problems went away in both Peek and in Storyline.
I hope it's on your engineering roadmap to look into these monitor and screen-related issues in general - Storyline and Peek are both extremely finicky in this area with poor edge detection, window resizing, window placement and, apparently, character issues. Given how many types of errors I see daily in this area, I'd hope a general stability update is in the works!
UPDATE TO THE WORK-AROUND... I was working on two external screens with my laptop closed. That meant I was importing illustrated characters on either screen, not my laptop screen, with a high DPI - and the characters' sides were cut off).
For the work-around, I turned off one external screen altogether and re-started the computer. When I then opened Storyline on the laptop screen, the characters loaded correctly, both on my laptop and on the one external screen. I think doing it this way switched the external screen to the equivalent DPI of the laptop screen.
I hope this issue can be resolved so that a work-around isn't needed!
This was happening to me -- arms of cartoon characters cut off on import. I went to the Articulate tray, updated the program, closed it, reopened it and inserted a cartoon character. Problem was gone and arms were there.
Sorry that the above workaround wasn't a fix for your course! I'd like our Support Engineers to investigate from here. Would you mind sending over a screenshot of what you're seeing? You can upload it using this link.
I also had the same issue when working on a laptop and external monitor. Given how a lot of us are in a WFH situation and the prevalence of using laptops, this shouldn't be an issue at all when working with Storyline. Any update on a fix for the future?
I've set both the laptop DPI & the monitor's DPI to 100% (why can't we work with 150%?) and made sure to update my version of Storyline and restarted my laptop but the cut-off character still is there. I've also just worked on the laptop and that did not help either. Any solution here?
You took all the right steps — I'm sorry to hear that the cropped characters remain!
Since you have Articulate 360 Teams, our team can troubleshoot the characters in real-time. When you're ready to connect with us, click the link below and then Live chat support:
I wanted to pass along that I had also been hit with the "characters cut off" issue. It actually hit in the middle of a project. It is effecting newly inserted character, or already inserted characters having their pose change.
I tried adjusting the DPI, re-installing, even reverting to a previous install. Inserting a new character worked once, and then the next insertion (or change pose) would have the sides cut off. (Additionally the last letter of a text box was being cut off)
I had this issue before, and it turned out I had a pending update. Installing the update did the trick. This time how ever, I am up to date already! Bleah.
After reading Amy's experience (I basically have a 4 monitor set up, the laptop plus 3 different sized monitors hooked up to the docking station) I tried undocking my laptop and using storyline on the laptop's screen. POOF, issue went away!
As an experiment I hooked up my laptop back to the docking station, and left the laptop open. So long as storyline was on the laptop screen, the characters inserted/changed poses fine. When I slide the over to a different monitor, things got wonky (one of them even cut off the bottom half of the character, eek!)
It seems to me the resizing of the Storyline window is the key. It seems the character image is being resized properly, but the display area is not. I can fiddle with minimizing/maximizing the storyline program window to get the issue to appear/disappear also it seems.
Not sure what it is about the extra monitors (I notice Storyline spends a much longer time resizing to a different monitor than other programs) but thought this might help others/the Articulate Team.
I doubled checked before posting and yes, all monitors are set to 100%. They all use the same resolution (1920X1080 if it matters. One is set to portrait so its 1080 X 1920).
If it matters, the laptop is using the integrated Intel 540 graphics, and the others are using NVIDA Quadro M1000M. All are set to 60h 8-bit.
I actually ran in to this again this morning. I could change character pose and perspective, but when I changed the expression I lose the elbows/arms. I restarted the system and this time I could change expressions fine, but poses lost elbows/arms.
I restarted again (with the laptop closed, so no laptop monitor). Using windows setting to turn off all but two monitors (one portrait, one landscape) and the issue disappeared.
This is with Articulate up to date, and storyline up to date.
And the odd part to me is the randomness. While I can duplicate the issue, it is random in only effecting pose, or only effecting expression, or affecting all of them.
Thank you for the additional information, Joe. It sounds like you've done quite a bit of troubleshooting, so I've opened up a support case on your behalf so that you can work directly with one of our support engineers. You should be hearing from someone soon.
I have unplugged my external monitor, checked my DPI settings, restarted storyline after adjusting everything and I am still having the same issues as others listed above. Have there been any other solutions?
I appreciate you sharing the troubleshooting that you've done so far. I do not have any additional solutions to provide and would recommend working 1:1 with a support engineer here.
27 Replies
Hi Alyssa,
Welcome to E-learning Heroes! Sorry to hear you’re experiencing this. I’d like to help investigate and ask a few questions:
I see you mentioned you’ve set your DPI settings to 100%. Have you tried the steps in this article for a clean install? Sometimes, a simple repair of Storyline can do the trick. Give it a try and let me know how it goes!
I am having the same issue. Can you please update if this has been resolved or known solution?
Hi Allison,
Were you able to check the DPI setting as Ren mentioned? We've heard a few examples of this recently, but haven't narrowed the cause further than the items mentioned above.
If you've tried that already and are still stuck you can reach out to our Support Team here!
I'm having the same problem. Did this ever get fixed?
So sorry you're running into this, Velda!
While I don't have a solution to share from Alyssa or Allison's case at this time, we're happy to keep digging! To start us off: What DPI setting are you using? Here's how to check!
Let me know, and we'll explore our next steps from there!
Any updates on this? Any character I insert into any project has their arms cut off. It looks like the software is cutting off the outer ~20 pixels no matter the pose. Re-cropping the image to a wider width does not expose more of the character. This is happening on all DPI settings, all monitors, both modern and classic illustrated characters, and all projects both saved on a network and saved locally. Downloading a new character from 360 does not seem to help.
Update: I just uninstalled and reinstalled Storyline based on these instructions and it did not help. https://articulate.com/support/article/How-to-Repair-Articulate-Storyline-360
Having the same issue. When I go to insert any character it is cutting off the arms and hands if too wide. I checked my DPI setting and they look to be correct. I have attached two examples.
Hi everyone, I found a workaround - I unplugged my second monitor and worked directly from my laptop screen. Once I did that, the issue went away! I hope this workaround helps others running into this issue.
I have no idea why a second screen would cause an image cropping issue, but given how much trouble Storyline has with multiple monitors and window detection in general, it's likely a symptom of a much deeper issue in the software. Hopefully this helps your QA/engineering teams.
Thanks for chiming in to share the solution that worked for you, Amy.
I'm curious if your DPI settings were the same on both monitors or if there was a variance?
Hi Jeannine and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)
Thanks for letting us know that you're running into a similar issue as well and that you verified your DPI settings. Were you able to conduct the repair shared above?
Hi Leslie,
I checked my DPI settings and they were set to 100% on all monitors. I also did a clean reinstall with the correct user permissions as noted in the repair article and that didn't work either. The only reason I found this solution is that Peek was giving me another monitor-related issue (I was trying to record the error for my support ticket), so I unplugged my monitors and the problems went away in both Peek and in Storyline.
I hope it's on your engineering roadmap to look into these monitor and screen-related issues in general - Storyline and Peek are both extremely finicky in this area with poor edge detection, window resizing, window placement and, apparently, character issues. Given how many types of errors I see daily in this area, I'd hope a general stability update is in the works!
UPDATE TO THE WORK-AROUND...
I was working on two external screens with my laptop closed. That meant I was importing illustrated characters on either screen, not my laptop screen, with a high DPI - and the characters' sides were cut off).
For the work-around, I turned off one external screen altogether and re-started the computer. When I then opened Storyline on the laptop screen, the characters loaded correctly, both on my laptop and on the one external screen. I think doing it this way switched the external screen to the equivalent DPI of the laptop screen.
I hope this issue can be resolved so that a work-around isn't needed!
This was happening to me -- arms of cartoon characters cut off on import. I went to the Articulate tray, updated the program, closed it, reopened it and inserted a cartoon character. Problem was gone and arms were there.
The response Jim provided solved this issue for me. Thanks
I'm having this same issues. None of the provided solutions have worked for me.
Hi Donielle!
Sorry that the above workaround wasn't a fix for your course! I'd like our Support Engineers to investigate from here. Would you mind sending over a screenshot of what you're seeing? You can upload it using this link.
Thank you. I submitted a case.
Thanks, Donielle. I can see that Renato is already working with you directly :)
I also had the same issue when working on a laptop and external monitor. Given how a lot of us are in a WFH situation and the prevalence of using laptops, this shouldn't be an issue at all when working with Storyline. Any update on a fix for the future?
I've set both the laptop DPI & the monitor's DPI to 100% (why can't we work with 150%?) and made sure to update my version of Storyline and restarted my laptop but the cut-off character still is there. I've also just worked on the laptop and that did not help either. Any solution here?
Hi there, Bjorn.
You took all the right steps — I'm sorry to hear that the cropped characters remain!
Since you have Articulate 360 Teams, our team can troubleshoot the characters in real-time. When you're ready to connect with us, click the link below and then Live chat support:
Greetings!
I wanted to pass along that I had also been hit with the "characters cut off" issue. It actually hit in the middle of a project. It is effecting newly inserted character, or already inserted characters having their pose change.
I tried adjusting the DPI, re-installing, even reverting to a previous install. Inserting a new character worked once, and then the next insertion (or change pose) would have the sides cut off. (Additionally the last letter of a text box was being cut off)
I had this issue before, and it turned out I had a pending update. Installing the update did the trick. This time how ever, I am up to date already! Bleah.
After reading Amy's experience (I basically have a 4 monitor set up, the laptop plus 3 different sized monitors hooked up to the docking station) I tried undocking my laptop and using storyline on the laptop's screen. POOF, issue went away!
As an experiment I hooked up my laptop back to the docking station, and left the laptop open. So long as storyline was on the laptop screen, the characters inserted/changed poses fine. When I slide the over to a different monitor, things got wonky (one of them even cut off the bottom half of the character, eek!)
It seems to me the resizing of the Storyline window is the key. It seems the character image is being resized properly, but the display area is not. I can fiddle with minimizing/maximizing the storyline program window to get the issue to appear/disappear also it seems.
Not sure what it is about the extra monitors (I notice Storyline spends a much longer time resizing to a different monitor than other programs) but thought this might help others/the Articulate Team.
Hello Joe and welcome to E-Learning Heroes. 😊
Thank you for reaching out and sharing your investigation and findings. It is appreciated.
I'm curious if your monitors are set to the same DPI, do you see the issue?
Howdy there Leslie!
I doubled checked before posting and yes, all monitors are set to 100%. They all use the same resolution (1920X1080 if it matters. One is set to portrait so its 1080 X 1920).
If it matters, the laptop is using the integrated Intel 540 graphics, and the others are using NVIDA Quadro M1000M. All are set to 60h 8-bit.
I actually ran in to this again this morning. I could change character pose and perspective, but when I changed the expression I lose the elbows/arms. I restarted the system and this time I could change expressions fine, but poses lost elbows/arms.
I restarted again (with the laptop closed, so no laptop monitor). Using windows setting to turn off all but two monitors (one portrait, one landscape) and the issue disappeared.
This is with Articulate up to date, and storyline up to date.
And the odd part to me is the randomness. While I can duplicate the issue, it is random in only effecting pose, or only effecting expression, or affecting all of them.
Thank you for the additional information, Joe. It sounds like you've done quite a bit of troubleshooting, so I've opened up a support case on your behalf so that you can work directly with one of our support engineers. You should be hearing from someone soon.
I have unplugged my external monitor, checked my DPI settings, restarted storyline after adjusting everything and I am still having the same issues as others listed above. Have there been any other solutions?
Hi Sarah,
I appreciate you sharing the troubleshooting that you've done so far. I do not have any additional solutions to provide and would recommend working 1:1 with a support engineer here.