Storyline for high-dpi monitors on Windows 8.1

Jan 12, 2014

I have one of those laptops with very high resolution displays.  On windows 8.1, we typically want the elements to scale up to 125% or 150% to use the new scaling features of Windows 8.1 properly, otherwise at 1080P resolution you get very very small buttons and fonts all over the operating system.

I understand that Storyline requires 96DPI to be set (100%) which is a system wide change requiring everything else on my desktop to be small just to use Storyline.  I've tried setting the "compatibilty mode" or "ignore high dPI" settings but storyline just seems to ignore that.

Has anyone at articulate looked into a possible workaround to windows 8.1 on retina displays?  With more and more monitors being extremely dense in pixels, I can't fathom changing my entire desktop resolution each and every time i need to use Storyline as all other OS windows become very tiny.

174 Replies
Jane Hall

I'm experiencing similar problem. I set my screen to 96DPI, but it still lops the heads off or distorts characters and text boxes. I've been fighting with this for a week and I have to publish today. The only work around that seems to work for me is to replace the illustrated character with a jpeg of the that character. I'm running Windows 8.1 and am fearful of going to 10. No telling what new problems I'll face. If anybody has a better solution, I'd love to hear it.

Brad Spicer

I feel your pain.  I have 20/20 vision and my best solution was to buy cheater glasses at 1.5 magnification and keep my screen resolution at a modern setting.  Im running Win10.  I don't think updating your OS will matter either way,

I wish I was joking and I really wish Articulate would fix this screen resolution issue.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Jane,

Fixing the DPI setting should adjust the characters and their display of looking decapitated. Did you try reinserting them into your Storyline file after adjusting that or perhaps in a new file as well? 

I know the DPI issue and high resolution monitors is something we've shared with our QA team, and as they continue to look into new solutions the current workaround shared is to adjust the overall monitor display to display less than 2,000 pixels in width. 

John Borgen

What finally did it for me: taking my display down to 1920x1080 and then
taking down the "Change the size of all items" setting" to the smallest
available.

It's really important to remember to restart your PC after you make these
changes. If you don't, it may not look right, in fact, it can look even
worse.

I can read and work with Storyline effectively. The screen's a bit blurry,
because we've "dummed-down" the display so much. Frankly, I prefer Mac's
anyway, so I just stay on the MacBook and RDP to the windows machine when I
have to work with Storyline. Oddly enough, the display looks great when
going from a Mac via RDP to the Windows machine. Not a solution, just an
interesting side note.

Christien Lee

In addition to the frustration of not being able to use Storyline effectively, it's aggravating that it seems the issue is not being taken seriously by the good people at Articulate. (Note that I'm not saying the issue is not being taken seriously: I suspect that actually it is being taken seriously, but the corporate response thus far gives the appearance that it isn't.)

I'm not trying to criticize Ashley (who is always patient, polite, and helpful), but we're repeatedly told that the team knows about the issue, but no fix is forthcoming, and we're repeatedly offered workarounds, but, frankly, they're clunky and either don't really work or lead to other problems.

I would like to see the following:

1. A clear statement that this issue is a priority.

2. A specific timeline for when the issue will be fixed.

3. If the issue won't be fixed for a while, an explanation as to why.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi everyone,

Thanks for your patience and for continuing to share your experiences using Storyline on a high resolution display.

As a few of the staff here have mentioned previously, it’s something that we’ve continued to discuss with our Quality Assurance team. I wanted to offer a bit more insight into what’s happening and what our team is working on.

When Storyline was initially developed, we wanted to create a product powerful enough to enable rich new kinds of e-learning courses to be created. We realized early on that to create the user experience we wanted – from rendering the stage itself to our various panels and dialogs – much of the user interface code would have to be custom written to look and function in a specific way.

The landscape has changed considerably Since Storyline 2 was released in 2014. Microsoft started supporting scaling for high resolution displays in Windows 8.1, and increasing numbers of high definition laptops and external monitors are now available.

Our team is currently evaluating a number of different approaches that would allow Storyline 2 to scale gracefully on high resolution displays. Because of the amount of custom user interface and rendering code within Storyline, supporting these new devices is not as simple as flicking a switch. The changes required would be broad and impact all the elements of Storyline’s interface, so we feel it’s important to take a considered approach and make sure our proposed solution doesn’t introduce any unintended breakdowns. Although I don’t have a specific timeline today, I will share further information here once we’re further down the road.

In the meantime, please keep the feedback coming. You are the ones we’re working so hard for. The staff who monitor the forums are here to advocate for your needs, so rest assured that our product managers and quality assurance team are aware of this issue and are working to address the concerns you’ve raised.

Brad Spicer

Ashley

i realize you are the messenger here and my frustration is with Articulate and not you personally.   

Windows 8.1 was released in October 2013, almost a full year before Stoyline 2.   

It appears Stoyline is on a two year development cycle and Articulate is not willing to devote resources to fix this issue.  So around September Articulate will sell us an upgrade rather than providing an update to an issue that existed before the release of Storyline 2.  

Software updates are not as easy as flipping a switch.  They require a commitment to the customer. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Brad,

I certainly don't take it personally - but thanks for saying so. It is always helpful. As far as the update or upgrade - we don't share release dates or our product road map for new things, but as I mentioned above the team is evaluating options in Storyline 2, so that would be the current version/set up available. We'll keep you posted on what we're able to determine there and feel free to let us know if you have any other questions. 

Nic Fargo

Angela,

Yes, I saw your post from three days ago and deleted my reply. Just really frustrating for us as we had just gotten this product and we're having students build e-learning modules with it. The professor in charge decided to get SurfaceBook Pro's to check out to the students, and then we find out Storyline 2 looks terrible on it...after spending $6k on licenses. Just really difficult to explain to our users that a piece of software that is this expensive is not compatible with new technology...

Nic

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Nic,

I certainly understand the frustration - and no need to delete the post in the future. Often the responses are not seen if it was on the page before your reply or especially if you're just viewing in your email (which as an FYI responding via email includes your signature here - it looks like yours doesn't include any sensitive information, but you're welcome to edit if need be). 

Since you've responded in the thread, you'll now be subscribed so you'll receive any updates via email. 

John Borgen

I feel you Nic. We bought this product at work. 10 licenses (that's easy math). The work-a-round's are doable though...and the existing feature set is powerful, making the pain more bearable. The argument is valid though, it's been two solid years, HD monitors didn't take over the world in a single night. But I understand the undertaking that Articulate is going to have to embark up on to rectify the situation. It's not going to be easy and a thoughtful approach, is appreciated. In fact, Ashley, if you need any alpha or beta testers, let me know.

Hang in there Nic, I think we'll get through this. It's going to be confusing for your end users for a while but if you set up the PC to dumb-down the resolution it really is a passable work-a-round. No, you shouldn't have to...but Camtsia's about your only other option...and it doesn't even come close. (IMHO)

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