Storyline Preview overriding my text formatting

Mar 10, 2016

Hiya, 

I have set the line spacing to exactly 18pt with 9pt spacing after each paragraph and this looks fine on my working page, however when I got to preview the slide it is bunching up the text so that it has basically no line spacing and looks terrible! I have experimented and discovered that it is only on the text boxes that contain a reference to a text variable. Any ideas how I can solve this issue?!

I have attached a screen shot of the bunched up preview! 

Thanks, 

Jasmyn 

8 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Jasmyn,

You may find that text changes size when it includes a variable reference, depending on the length of the variable's current value. This is by design to ensure that the text is always visible to learners, no matter how lengthy it is.

For example, let's say you're using a variable to display text, then you update the variable with new text at a specific point on the timeline or during an interaction. Depending on the length of the text, it may shrink to fit within its container.

To avoid shrinking variable text, make the text box big enough to accommodate the longest variable value. 

Jasmyn Feakes

Hi Ashley, 

Thanks for your reply! I'm sorry I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean!?

The variable I am making reference to is a text variable so that users may enter their name at the beginning of the course and then their name will appear on certain slides later on within the course! 

I tried what you said and made the text box bigger, however this did not work :/

Thanks, 

Jasmyn 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Jasmyn

Phil is correct, the other text will change based on the variable values and adjust the formatting to fit the entire contents and therefore may not match what you set up. 

You may also find that fonts applied to variable references in your published Articulate Storyline 2 output aren't the fonts you expected.

Fonts can't be embedded in published output for variable text. As a result, default system fonts will be substituted for variable text. Default system fonts may be different for each computer, tablet, or smartphone where your content is viewed. 

Kate Pinto

I am experiencing the same problem, using the fonts in AS2. The text box is big enough to accommodate long names, but it's putting the name on one line, moving the comma to it's own line, then the rest of the text below that. I have tried to create a separate text box for just the name variable and it is still doing it.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Kate,

Does it kick the comma to the next line regardless  of how long the name text is? Like if you were typing just Kate instead? 

Variable references and the textboxes won't update the overall space of the box so it'll wrap it as you've seen - and you could look at creating a larger box to accommodate the largest possible text. 

Kate Pinto

Ashley,

Thanks for getting back to me so promptly. Yes, it was doing that. But I think I figured it out! The text entry field on the first slide was formatted to wrap text. So if the user pressed enter after typing their name, it was carrying the name + enter to the other slides where Name was referenced.

First I created adjusting variable triggers as a set of workarounds, but then realized that if I unselected "wrap text" it would probably work, and voila!

Thank you! That should probably be a note on the tutorial for creating those text entry/name variable fields. Took me a LOT of reading various discussions to figure that out.

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