Storyline 360 - Export for Translation - Missing information when Importing back into Storyline 360

Jan 19, 2017

Good day all,

I'm having issues w/ the translation feature in Storyline 360. I've never had this problem prior to 360, but when I export the module text and have it translated - everything works fine up to this point. I don't touch the codes on the left and they remain the same. When I import the translation, I have random empty fields in the module. If I run the same import again, some of those empty fields will now contain data, but other random fields are now empty.

Has anyone else had this issue or know how to fix it?

Thanks!

35 Replies
Alyssa Gomez

Hi John,

Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I haven't heard of an issue like this in the forums - can you confirm that the Storyline file and the translation document are both stored on your local hard drive and that you used this method to import the file?  If so, would you mind sharing both files with our support engineers here for further testing? And please let me know your case number so I can follow along and share updates in this thread. 

Dominik Ginthier

Hi John,

I am currently experiencing exactly the same behavior when importing translations. I tried it with multiple projects. Unfortunately it is always the same. It looks like random text boxes are empty. With Storyline 2 this was never a problem. 

Every time I import the translation different text boxes are empty. See screenshots below as an example.

English:

Spanish:

As you can see the boxes are empty.

Best,
Dominik 

Alyssa Gomez

Hey Dominik,

Thanks for sharing your experience here and including the screenshots of what you're seeing on your end. I don't see a case opened under John's name yet, but this is something I'd definitely want to share with the Support Engineers, especially seeing as it doesn't seem to be isolated to just one user. Would you mind sharing your file and translation document with us for further testing? You can submit it through this form, and then someone from the team will work with you one on one to determine what's causing this issue. 

Also, please share your case number with me so I can follow along and post updates to this thread for folks who may encounter this in the future. 

John Denner

Thank you for your replies,

@Alyssa : Case number - 00994061 
I can confirm that both files are local and that I followed the outlined procedures to perform the translation. It has always worked before (in Storyline2) and it seems to be working fairly well w/ 360, just w/ a small amount of missing text fields. I had initially thought that it was changing the text format to a different color so that it just couldn't be seen, but upon further investigation I noticed that the text fields are in-fact empty.

@Dominick : This seems to be the exact same issue that I am experiencing. 

Randall Stieghorst

We have this as a common issue as well.  We've been working on a single course into 20 languages, and for almost every language there are unique text boxes that are left blank after the import. So far, there have been maybe 1 or 2 that imported seamlessly.  For others, if it imports poorly, I just try again...and eventually it imports 99% correctly.  Cyrillic languages have been the most problematic so far, in terms of the % of empty text boxes the import creates.

Cheers,

Randall

Dominik Ginthier

Hi Randall,

it is really strange. I went now through all the troubleshooting steps the Articulate Support provided me with, but unfortunately it did not solve the issue. 

It is the same for me. Cyrillic languages and also the Asian ones are causing the most problems. European languages are working best. Sometimes even without any problems. I have not found a pattern so far. 

It seems that this issue is related with my computer. My colleague does not have the problem, although all PC's should have the same setup. Next step for me would go to IT and ask for a new PC. Also the Support was not able to reproduce the issue.

I hope this helps a little bit.

Best,
Dominik 

Alyssa Gomez

Hi there Randall,

I took a peek into Dominik and John's cases, and our team was not able to reproduce the behavior they are seeing. If you haven't already, I'd recommend following these steps to fix unexpected or erratic behavior in Storyline 360. Beyond that, our Support Engineers will likely want to review your Articulate 360 logs to troubleshoot further. You can reach out to them directly here if you would like, and someone from the team will be in touch with you shortly.

Dominik Ginthier

Hi everyone,

I would like to give a short update. 

I am still experiencing the issue, although I went through all the troubleshooting steps. Our IT reinstalled Storyline 360, all files have been deleted. Since today my colleague is also experiencing the same problems.  Random textboxes are not imported. Additionally I was also able to reproduce it on my private computer. Initially I thought it would just be related to my work computer, but it is not. 

@Randall and John: Have you found a solution?

It is quite annoying, because the translation implementation process time has nearly doubled. I have to double check everything. 

On the other side, Storyline 2 is working fine and without any problems.

What else can I do? I asked our IT, but since Articulate is not a standard software in our company, so they are not providing any support.

Thank you.

Best wishes,

Dominik

Alyssa Gomez

Hey Dominik!

So sorry you're still seeing this issue - I know how frustrating that is. I see that Wilbert wasn't able to replicate the issue, and he sent you steps to remove all Articulate 360 registry keys from your computer. Did you have a chance to try those steps? Please feel free to let Wilbert know if there's anything else you'd like help with. 

Randall Stieghorst

We still have the issue randomly, after re-installing it.  Sometimes it's 10 text boxes that are emtpy...sometimes it's 1...sometimes it's none.  Even if I import the same file 3 times, it's almost never the same text boxes that are missing each time.  As I go through each scene/slide to QA the text wrap and such, I see that a textbox on the timeline says, "text box" instead of containing foreign language text, so I cut and paste from my the translated export.  Ukrainian, for some reason had more text that didn't import correctly than the Japanese. (I thought it was perhaps problem with the character set or font or something).

So bottom line, it still happens...but I just try to work around it as best I can by keeping the translated import/export file open on my other monitor!

Cheers,

Randall

Mark Shepherd

Hi Dominik:

I am also watching the translation component for Storyline very closely as my organization keeps Articulate 360 on its radar, and I wasn't too surprised to learn of these issues, as Storyline 2 does, on occasion sometimes miss the kinds of elements you see in the Quiz during the Import Translation (from document) process.

It's haphazard, frankly.  Sometimes Storyline will literally translate the names of Quiz Score variables, sometimes it doesn't. 

It would be nice if there was a Storyline Setting or Preference (right now there isn't) that helped to control whether or not these components were switched when translating via the document.

Lacking a path/logic for this element appears to be confusing Storyline's Find/Replace engine Articulate is likely employing for this Import process, so I am hoping the Dev Teams work on this detail and tighten it up with some extensive trialing and testing before Storyline 3 is released.

Sincerely,

-Mark

 

Dominik Ginthier

Hi All,

I found a solution that seems to work for me. I tested it with 16 languages and so far I have a 100% success rate. 

The translation import seems to work when I am working completely offline (no internet connection at all). I am not sure why the internet has a negative effect, but it is working. As soon as I go online again, I have missing text boxes. Quite weird to be honest.

@Alyssa Is it possible to check it with your development team? Maybe there are some correlations.

Thanks.

Best
Dominik

Alyssa Gomez

Hey Dominik,

Thanks so much for sharing your workaround with us. It sounds like you tested it extensively, and I'm glad to hear you had a 100% success rate. This issue is a tricky one, since we haven't been able to reproduce what you (and the others in this thread) are seeing. I shared your findings with the team, and we are wondering if the common thread could be a corporate network (and associated policies/restrictions), and not so much an Internet connection.  Does your machine reach out to your corporate network when you go online? Can you reproduce the problem on a computer not connected to the corporate network?

Randall Stieghorst

It will be interesting to find out. The reality of today's work world is that we are on networks -- and it would be exceedingly challenging to have to "completely disconnect" in order to work on Storyline files.  My working folders are local and not on a network drive (but they are on D:, not C:).  Those working folders are also Dropbox folders. For me, the problem is sporadic.  If I import 5 different times, I get 5 different results. A colleague has her working folders on the hard drive, not connected to any folders that Dropbox syncs, and she has the same issues -- 5 imports, 5 different results.

Cheers,

Randall

 

Mark Shepherd

Hi Alyssa:

Echoing some of Dominik's previous comments in this thread, another thing I've noticed recently with the Quiz Results Slide is that text boxes containing the Results Scores (notably, the ScorePercent and PassPercent variable items) are extremely resistant to CSS style application, if not actual font-face and size changes.

For example, if I try to make these elements a non-standard font-size, say, 15 or 17 point, they often stay at 18 or 20, artificially, regardless of what I do with the size of the text box containing these items

I often need to go down as low as 14 point to see a point-size reduction for these items, which, frankly, for me is too small.

In the interim, I have settled on 16 points as a reasonable standard workaround, but it would be nice to have the option to change this content to whatever size I wish. 

This text size-value seems to be artificially larger when viewed in Preview Mode. 

Don't know if my situation is an isolated case, but perhaps there is something internal affecting this quirk in SL2 from a dev standpoint?

Thanks again for your help regarding these items.

Sincerely,

-Mark

Alyssa Gomez

Hey, James! Thanks for adding your experience to the conversation--I know that must be pretty frustrating to have to redo those fonts that are not importing correctly. I have heard a report of font changes when importing a translated Word document, so we'd love to take a look at your .story file and the translated Word document and determine what happens on our end. That will help us narrow down why this is happening.

You can share your file with the team using this form, and they'll be in touch with you shortly!

Randall Stieghorst

We will soon be doing another round of 5 languages of a course we have had this happen for previously.  I will keep it in mind as we do it, and try and capture the examples with screen caps (and can also upload the translated exports and original storyline files).  As a reminder, we got different results with each import -- so the question appears to be some dynamic aspect of the import...almost a random factor. 

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