Storyline 360 View Mode Demos

Mar 25, 2019

I recently created a course that largely consists of demonstrations with audio. I started by recording each demonstration and inserting it as view mode step-by-step slides.

 

I then added a frame to slides where an audio explanation was needed. This worked reasonably well but I do have a few issues.

  1. I would like the seekbar to show the progress for the entire demonstration but using View Mode steps means the seekbar resets for each slide and only shows the progress for that slide rather than the entire demo.
  2. The option to insert the video on a single slide solves the seekbar issue but I then lose the highlight box and red circle associated with each click action.
  3. Editing the video is also pretty clunky. There is no easy way to cut out sections of the video where mistakes and/or delays occurred during the original recording process.
  4. Adding frames with audio is also a fairly tedious process.
    If the sound associated with mouse clicks is not wanted, there is no designed means to remove it. There is a work around of finding the .mp3 file in the published output and deleting it but this is not ideal.

The solution I came up with is:

  1. Record the demonstration using Storyline 360.
  2. On the Design tab, set the Story Size so that it matches the window size used for the step 1 recording. This results in the video published in step 5 being the same size as the original demonstration recording.
  3. Insert the video into its own scene as View Mode step-by-step slides.
  4. Adjust highlight boxes and text captions as needed. I only include highlight boxes in my demonstration videos.
  5. Publish the scene as a video. The video will include the highlight boxes, red circle for mouse action, and mouse click audio.
  6. Open the video using my preferred editor.
  7. Delete the audio track from the published video.
  8. Delete any video frames that are not needed.
  9. Record required audio explanations using my preferred utility and add it where it is needed.
  10. Save the updated video.
  11. Insert the updated video into a Storyline 360 slide.

The result is that all of my requirements are satisfied.

  • Audio explanations are where they required
  • Highlight boxes and red circles are present for mouse actions
  • The seekbar reflects the overall progress through the demonstration

It would be great if I could accomplish all of this using only Storyline 360. At the present time though, I don't believe that is possible.

5 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi David,

It sounds like you've got a good process for your needs, but I think you could tighten up a couple of steps by removing things like step #6 and 7. The action fine-tuning of the screen recording would allow you to edit out parts of the frame that you didn't need, and the video options allow you to silence all audio. 

Also, I noticed that you're newly on a trial of Articulate 360, so I wanted to share a few other resources that may help:

Those links are great to bookmark as well, as I refer to the user guides and tutorials daily and we're always posting new 360 Training webinars and schedules. 

Hope that helps! 

David Shook

Hi Ashley,

Thanks for the suggestions. I have used the action fine-tuning but with it, I have to open that window for each step-by-step slide that contains content that requires adjustment. By publishing the step-by-steps as one video, I can then do all of my fine-tuning in the primary window of my video editor (step 8 above). That seems more efficient to me at this point. Perhaps if I took more time to gain expertise using the Storyline 360 action fine-tuning, I would use this option instead. Regarding the audio, I believe I will have the same issue with it since I am initially adding the video as step-by-step slides which if I understand this correctly means I would have to open up each the video for each slide to decrease the audio volume. If I wait until I edit the Storyline 360 published video in my video editing tool (step 7 above) I can remove the audio portion with a single step.

It could be I am trying to accomplish something that Storyline 360 wasn't originally designed to do which may be part of my problem. But I really like having the automatic highlight boxes and red circle for the mouse action so I have to start with the Storyline 360 video recording function and work forwards from it. If I used my video editor for the initial video recording, it would simplify some things but I would then lose the highlight boxes and red circle for mouse actions.

My original post was not intended as a complaint but was more submitted to provide ideas for others that need to accomplish something similar to my desired objective.

Thanks again,

Dave

p.s. I am currently in the job search mode and using the trial to increase my knowledge of Articulate products but once the trial is complete, I likely will go quiet since I am not sure I can justify the cost of the Articulate license on my own dime. In the meantime, I hope to take full advantage of the trial!

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