Storyline Autosave feature - is there one???

Jun 25, 2012

I should have learned my lesson from all the problems I've had with Articulate Presenter but I thought with SL, this problem would go away. I was editing a screen recording (via the action fine tuning option) and SL froze on me. I gave it a few minutes (left, came back after 15 minutes), and it was still saving. So, I did the dreaded CTRL-ALT-DEL and did a force shutdown. Lo and behold, everything I've been doing the past 6 hours is gone..absolutely gone!

I am hoping and praying that SL has my temp files somewhere??? Please???? I'm desperate! Thanks in advance for any help/insight/advice this awesome community can share with me!

54 Replies
Eileen Mrowka

Thanks Gerry! Unfortunately, they're not there. I recorded two this morning and they're both gone. The latest screen recordings are from 6/23.

It's not so easy to re-record them because the files are no longer in the database I was accessing so I need the developer to put them back in and reset my account. Oh well...

I hope Articulate includes this feature because it seems so basic. Word, Powerpoint, Excel have it. It's a no-brainer, in my opinion.


Thanks for your help, Gerry!

Eileen Mrowka

I submitted the feature request. Hopefully, there are other folks that want the feature too. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

I should have learned my lesson from the many times I've lost files with Articulate Presenter (primarily PPT) freezing. In this case, i was (still am) under a very tight deadline and was in a groove, so to speak.

Back to the drawing board.

Gerry Wasiluk

Phil Mayor said:

There was a conversation that autosave is for lazy programmers and buggy software.  TBH I can see their point, I have however got into a paranoid habit of saving


When trying something new and complicated, I've gotten into the habit of creating a new version of a course and working with that one first. 

If I'm successful, it becomes the working version.  If not, I got back to the previous version.

Britta Gibbon

I second this request. I have been using rapid intake and it autosaves and I never lose work. This has happened to me twice in Storyline where it crashed I lost hours of work. I realize I should be saving on my own, but even windows has a recovery option or a temp file to recover work. That should exist here too. It's not laziness. It's called technology and it's been around for a while in many other products we use so it's completely fair to assume there were be a way to recover lost work in Storyline.

Vicki Mihalyov

Autosave may be for "lazy programmers or buggy software".  If that is the case then SL is buggy software!  I have finally resorted to setting a kitchen timer next to me on my desk to remind me to save by Text-Enhance"> every 15 minutes!  In the last 3 days SL has frozen and lost my work SIX TIMES!  Out of habit I always save every 30 minutes or so, but multiplied by 6 crashes, that means I lost 3 hours of productivity--and a bunch of momentum each time!

I am using the 30-day trial, and if this continues I doubt I will be making the purchase at the end of my 30 days!

If anybody cares, it seems to be only on one particular "story."  I used it great for 10 days, and now since starting this new story it has crashed 6 times in the last 4 days.

stanton mackellar

I should have known better, but I didn't save before leaving for the day. I think we are just used to autosave as a standard feature on virtually all modern-day software and this has left SL users with an inaccurate sense of protection. If I was to suggest an enhancement, perhaps autosave be seriously considered in a future release (if not a patch - because this is a surprising omission to an otherwise very comprehensive package) with configuration options such as a save prompt before previews, or autosave every xx minutes.

I like the dropbox idea; though, we are explicitly blocked from that in our corporation... are there similar options that I could try?

I'm not sure who referred to us as programmers, lazy or otherwise, but I am no programmer. I'm an educator with some technical aptitude, as I suspect many of not most SL users are. If I was a programmer you can call it laziness, but since I am not, I'd call it normal operating behaviour.

Bruce Graham

Sorry for your lost work Stanton, however, the best solution (at the moment...) is pressing CTRL-S every few minutes, also "normal operating behaviour" (suggested) for all software.

Autosave is really only for emergencies, but people have got very used to it being their default mode of working - which it should never be. Look at the default Autosave location for e.g. MS-Word. If it was the "standard" way to work it would put in into Documents, not the "Roaming" folder by default.

We are all responsible for our data - not our PCs or the application we're working in. People seem to have forgotten this.

Bruce

Stephen Cone

I would second Bruce's recommendation that the best solution is to save every few minutes. Yes it can be a pain when dealing with larger courses, but it usually does buy peace of mind.  When I'm feeling extremely paranoid, I typically save before leaving a slide, scene, etc., a habit I picked up using other development tools.  I believe the mantra is "Save and Save Often."

Having said that, I do believe that Articulate should offer better and more advanced saving features such as:

* the ability to automatically generate back-ups (a feature request I have already submitted)

* save and compress functionality

* autosave functionality for those *oops* occasions

This would provide greater flexibility to developers to save Storyline files in a way that best fits their development style.

Nancy Woinoski

Phil Mayor said:

There was a conversation that autosave is for lazy programmers and buggy software.  TBH I can see their point, I have however got into a paranoid habit of saving


I was against autosave (not for the reasons Phil has listed) but because while I am designing an interaction or whatever I don't want it to autosave just in case the logic is flawed. I also think autosave can slow down performance which is something we don't need with this software. I still like to control the save, but must admit I do save often. 

Joshua Caluza

I originally came to this thread as a very frustrated user who often loses several hours of work because of a program crash. After reading the topic, I do see logic behind the lack of auto-save, but I think it should definitely be added as an option. As the field of Storyline users grows, so will the needs of its consumers, and while many of the existing users may be used to the CTRL+S every couple minutes, beginners like myself are often casualties of an unexpected program crash. I've done a lot of trouble shooting with our IT team regarding the crashes including a replacement computer, but the crashes are intermittent and completely unpredictable. I actually even opened a ticket with Articulate regarding the crashes to cover my bases, but yet the frustration cycle continues.

I've already submitted a feature request for this (and others), but I just wanted to throw my opinion out in the crowd as another concerned user.

Zuri Walker

Bruce Graham said:

Sorry for your lost work Stanton, however, the best solution (at the moment...) is pressing CTRL-S every few minutes, also "normal operating behaviour" (suggested) for all software.

Autosave is really only for emergencies, but people have got very used to it being their default mode of working - which it should never be. Look at the default Autosave location for e.g. MS-Word. If it was the "standard" way to work it would put in into Documents, not the "Roaming" folder by default.

We are all responsible for our data - not our PCs or the application we're working in. People seem to have forgotten this.

Bruce

The problem that I have with no autosave option is that inevitable Storyline crashes on me almost daily!  While I think it's absolutely amazing software, I find the crash rate a bit high, and do get frustrated when work is lost because I haven't saved the latest build.  One reason for reduced "save frequency" is because as my courses get larger so does the amount of time it takes to complete a save. Is there a reason why it crashes so often, anyways?
Gerry Wasiluk

I've sort of reversed my position on this.  I'm now in favor of autosave as long as it is optional.

I do most of my work at home and have my own home server with all my Storyline work being autosynced to the server with every save.

However, we've had five separate power outages in our area this year, three of which caused me to lose work.  The worst was 20 minutes after the last save.  I suppose I could get power strips with battery backup but autosave could also help when I forget to manual save.  I get so "caught up" in my work sometime and forget to save sometimes.  Would prefer the software handle this for me.

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.