Struggling to display text box in middle of an MP4 video

May 12, 2023

FYI, this is also in relation to my recent question about trying to trim out a few seconds in the middle of a video. Now I'm trying instead to display a text box with some explanatory information for a few seconds in the middle of the video.

I'm attaching a one-slide file that has the problem content from 1:16 to 1:24. I want the text box to only display during those few seconds. However, it never displays in preview or playback, unless I set it to "Show always".

4 Replies
Brian Balk

Please say more about "it worked fine for me." I want users to have the video controls. Are you saying that in the first file I shared, you saw the text box appear in the designated time frame along with having controls to start and stop the video wherever you wish?

The reason I ask is that, when I test it on my own, I have to do as you suggest and set the video controls in that slide to "show none". Then the text box appears at the designated start time - although it also persists to the end of the slide and doesn't end after 1:24 as set in the timeline! Also, I find the StoryLine player control at the bottom to be useless. I have to click on the video image in the slide, and then I can only play it from the beginning or pause it and restart from the paused location. I cannot select what part of the video to play or replay. I don't like that either!

I'm attaching another copy of the file, this time with the settings and shortcomings I just described. If you're willing to look again, I'd appreciate your feedback!

Brian Balk

By the way, I tried editing the original MP4 video in Replay and found that it worked well to add the desired text in the desired timeline using the "lower third" option. (Although then the text is not adjacent to the video content where I wanted it to appear.) However, I really want to figure out this problem for displaying text boxes or other visual content over a video, as it's likely to be very useful for other projects.

Eric Santos

Hi Brian,

I see that Ron has got you covered here, but I'm happy to chime in!

I ran some tests with the latest Storyline project file you shared, and the textbox did not persist but disappeared at the designated time. Regarding clicking the video to start, it is because the video is set to play when clicked.

You can use the seekbar to choose where to play or replay the video, then click the Play button. I prepared a Peek 360 recording for you to illustrate these.

Let me know if you have questions!