Storyline for high-dpi monitors on Windows 8.1

Hi Juliet, 

I'm not sure if you saw my answer on the page earlier, but Articulate 360 was released with better support for high resolution monitors and displays and it is something that our team had determined was not a fix that they could port back to Storyline 2 based on the large amount of time and risk involved with changing the way the user interface is designed and set to work. 

If anything changes in terms of the ability to fix it within Storyline 2, we'll be certain to keep forum discussions such as this one updated.

"Better support" or is this issue completely resolved in Articulate 360?

Either way, I am fairly certain that I don't want to pay for the solution to a problem that your organization caused. It does not seem right that the subscription service that costs us more on an ongoing basis is the only option for your customers. As an organization it is best to sell solutions to existing problems that your customers have, not ones that you create for your customers. Why do we have to pay for and learn a new platform?

Best,

Ted

Hi Ted, 

First off I wanted to let you know that responding via email includes your signature here, so you may want to edit the post if you're not wanting that to be public. 

As for the change in support within Articulate 360, it's been tested and reviewed by staff and our beta testers prior to release and continued feedback from customers who are in the trial and ultimately purchased Articulate 360 to confirm that the display issues were no longer impacting them. I'd invite you to take a look yourself through a trial (Storyline 360 can be installed side by side with Storyline 2, and any files you update will also create a back up copy since Storyline 360 isn't backwards compatible). 

As far as upgrading and learning a new product, Storyline 360 has a lot of the same things you're used to in terms of overall UI and functionality with a lot of new features for triggers, interactive elements like dials, HTML5 only publishing, a responsive player, etc. so I suspect the learning curve wouldn't be drastic. If you'd like to discuss pricing and upgrade options with our Success team they'll be happy to assist you here. 

I'd consider moving to 360 except any client on 2 wont be able to open the files I create, so any work I did I wouldnt be able to provide the story files to clients who are still on 2. As I'm in the middle of a fairly lengthy contract with a client who is using 2, it's just not an option to move to 360 :(

(please correct me if I'm wrong, I'd love to be wrong on this!)

Thanks Ashley.

It is nice to have a confirmation that the resolution issue is resolved in the new 360.

Not having backward compatibility is a big deal because we update many of our very large courses on a regular basis.

Would an upgrade require us to completely redo our courses that currently exist?

Would the formatting of old courses be all messed up if we were to open old courses in the new 360?

(I read your helpful link above, but I was wondering what other impacts there may be.)

Ted - apologies, I shouldnt post before 7am and coffee (it's very early here). My understanding is that files created in 360 cant be opened in 2, but that files created in 2 can be opened and edited in 360. Ive edited my post for clarity's sake

Oh, OK. That makes sense. LOL. I completely misunderstood that. Thanks!

It would help if I didnt misuse terminology, mea culpa! 

Hi Katrina,

First thanks for coming back to update and clarify - as Storyline 360 can open files from Storyline 2 and 1, but the backwards compatibility refers to how you cannot create a course in Storyline 360 and open within Storyline 2, similar to how you can't create in Storyline 2 and open in Storyline 1. 

Ted,

To answer your question about formatting, all the items you previously added to your course should appear within your Storyline 360 course as well and then you'll be able to add new features that are specific to Storyline 360 to the course. 

So, bottom line - if you do the trial of Storyline 360 - just remember that the changes you make in that copy can't be used in your Storyline 2 copy, but we will make a back up copy of your Storyline 2 file so that you can continue to use that one to make edits in Storyline 2 or if you choose to not purchase Articulate 360. 

Hi Ashley,

Yeah, I was having a bit of a derp moment, I was referring to the inability to open 360 in 2, and have updated my original comment to minimise possible confusion. 

No worries - thanks for the update Katrina! 

Yes, I have been trialing 360 at work currently rather than my laptop at the present time. Unfortunately, my workplace may not be able to switch to Storyline 360 for some time so I also need to use SL2 version on my laptop presently until they can. I am interested to understand why it is so difficult as Microsoft, Adobe and all other programs I use had no issue accommodating this high res screen issue.. 

My other concern with trialing 360 is that I need to be signed in to use it.  This is a massive issue as we need to be able to use the product in a disconnected mode also. Adobe Creative Cloud software for example still allows software download to machine so it can be used offline and logging in monthly to keep subscription active. Has this been considered? I was offline for four days due to no internet service which would mean no development if I am not able to log in to 360, making the product non-viable. As such, I have to remain with SL2 so that I can still open my current work.

Feel a little frustrated as I have loved this product and been using it daily since 2007. I have no issue with cloud based products but they have to work in a disconnected mode as well and presently 360 doesn't seem to. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Hi Juliet,

When Storyline 2 was initially designed our team made choices about how the UI looked and behaved and with that didn't allow for it to scale differently based on the screen resolution being used. This worked well when Storyline 2 first came out and over the years since it's release (Fall of 2014) the ability and resolution of monitors has only become better and a higher resolution, starting to paint a clearer picture of how this UI wasn't behaving as other programs on those high resolution monitors. The team looked at changing the entire UI within Storyline 2 to accommodate this (as they had determined a way to solve it within Storyline 360) and it was ultimately determined to be too much of a risk that could have a series of other negative consequences. 

Storyline 360 (and Studio, Replay) can be used offline, Articulate 360 Desktop app will check for a connection consistently, but can use the apps offline up to 99 days at a time (or 30 days for free trials). If you're offline longer than 99 consecutive days, the apps will stop working. To re-enable them, you'll need to connect to the internet long enough to sign into Articulate 360, which resets the 99-day offline clock. 

The web based tools such as Rise, Content Library, Articulate Live, etc. will need an active internet connection to utilize them. 

Hope that helps clarify and please feel free to let me know if you have any other questions!

So did anyone find a workaround with NO major side effects?

Also, Articulate Staff, would be nice if someone updated this article to include Windows 10. It's used by 500 million people, you know. https://articulate.com/support/article/articulate-storyline-dpi-support

Hey Drago - Windows 10 instructions are included with our newer products, including Storyline 2. The article you shared above was for Storyline 1. You can check that out here.

My bad then.

I was hoping that with the acquisition of a Surface Book 2 I would be able to work on my SL2 projects on the go.  Sadly I find that this is not the case.  As discussed here, SL2 does not have native support for scaling that is now part of (seemingly) every major software product previously released or being released.  I read all of the discussion threads I could find in the weeks leading up to my receiving my new SB2.  I have to say that none of the "workarounds" posted have proven satisfactory.  I am just flummoxed that Articulate has known of this limitation in SL2, and have resolved that it is too expensive to provide a fix.  I find this lack of support frustrating.   I understand you had a new product to roll out, but to basically tell your user base that you just need to move to SL360 and all will be well is just not acceptable.  Clearly, I am more than a tad frustrated, and I do understand the reality of business decisions, but to me you have missed the mark this time.  Guess I will return this SB2 and replace my MBPro...

Eric, did you try the workaround posted by ss kks on page 5?

Thanks for asking Dragos, I did not try the workaround posted by SS KKS.  I just purchased the Surface Book and did not want to tie it in knots to just use SL2.  

So I used the workaround posted here by SS KKS.  While SL2 does open in a significantly more usable state when I opened my current project everything was a wreck.  I had missing portions of text fields and graphics.  If I started a project on the Surface Book with this workaround in place, it seemed to work normally.  Needless to say, this just will not work.  Thanks for the suggestion, though.  

Hi Eric,

I know that not working at the recommended DPI solution is known to cause odd and erratic behavior in Storyline 2. Our team did change this behavior in Storyline 360 (and it'll be in Storyline 3 when it's released later this year) so that the user interface won't appear as small on those high resolution devices. 

Thanks, Ashley, I know several Articulate users, myself included are quite vocal about this issue, and I appreciate your patience in dealing with us.  I am getting ready to try a 30-day eval of SL360 for the team I am on to see if it would be practical to move this direction instead of purchasing perpetual versions as they are made available.  I will be trying my eval on the Surface Book first to make sure it works as you advertise.  

Definitely give it a test and let us know how things go on your end. If it works well and you want to upgrade to Articulate 360 our Success team can talk you through that.  Keep in mind as you test out your files that anything opened in Storyline 360 wont' be backwards compatible. 

Also, what you'll see in Storyline 360 today with that high resolution monitor support, is also what you'll see in Storyline 3 (the next perpetual version) when that launches sometime later this year. 

My characters in Storyline 2 are still being displayed severed at the head eventhough I followed the instructions on how to change the settings.  I need a fix for this!

Thanks!