Timeline Preview non responsive

I am struggling with this in particular. I have tried the suggestion above, removing Storyline 2, running the cleaner with elevated privileges, and reinstalled Storyline 2. Didn't help. It adds a lot of wasted time to the project work :(

Open a ticket?

Hi Soren!

It looks like you have opened a support ticket with our team (00453451) and you should be hearing from someone soon.

I did. QA has acknowledged and reproduced the issue. No ETA on fix. I hope its on top of the stack for next update, as it is starting to be a bit of a time killer when doing Very Long Slides with orchestration of animations and layers.

Thanks for the update Soren! Your case is marked for follow up when response comes from the QA Team :)

Thanks a lot

OMG!  I'm having the exact same issue.  I can't preview the audio on the timeline (especially if the audio is on a layer).  No Bueno!@$%

Hi Kevin,

If the audio is on the layer, you'd need to be viewing the layer using whichever trigger you set up - and so the timeline preview is only for the elements on that slide's base layer. You can look at previewing individual slides as detailed here. 

I didn't mean to say the "Preview Slide" option. The audio on the timeline
itself isn't playing which would allow me to create cue points.
Specifically, the audio on the layer isn't functioning.

Hi Kevin, 

Thanks for clarifying and sorry for any confusion. Are you able to share a copy of the .story file here so that we could see why your base layer audio isn't playing? 

i guess this issue still hasn't been resolved? 

I cannot align my objects in a sub layer to sync with my audio which is also on that layer because hitting play doesn't do anything. :(

no bueno.

Hi Calvin,

This thread is a couple months older, and since Kevin didn't share his .story file here with us I think we'd want to take a look at your file if you're able to share in regards to the audio you've added to the timeline and how you've also included objects on the layer as well.

Can you also confirm that you're working on local project files as described here? Also are you seeing this behavior when previewing the entire slide/course or just using the timeline preview element? 

Sorry I wasn't able to check this. I attached an SL2 .story file with 2 slides. Check the sublayer on both slides to see if you can play the timeline. One works and the other one doesn't. 

Hi Calvin, 

Thanks for sharing the file here. I wanted to confirm as the slide properties for your layer on the second slide are different. It's set to hide the base layer elements but I also don't see any base layer audio elements (the waveform is missing). If you've hidden the base layer elements you won't be able to use the play button on the layer to preview the audio, this is something that we've reported to our QA team for additional review - so I can include this thread in the report filed with them. But changing that layer property allowed me to preview the layer audio  on slide 2. 

hi ashley,

oh i see. i guess i have to build around that then. thanks! 

this wasn't an issue in SL1 though so it should be fixed in SL2. 

We'll keep you posted if there are any updates from our QA team. 

I am not able to use the play button on the playbar on the timeline at all. It won't play. I even tried the file Calvin said was working above and it won't play his slide either. Have we found an answer to this yet. Problem is simple- playbar won't work on timeline.

Works randomly. Now it is working for me... Any help as to why it works sometimes but not other would be appreciated.

Hi Patrick! Since this is something that our QA Team is looking into and we know there is a known issue with this functionality, I'm not sure that I would be able to explain why it may/may not work.

I don't see any recent updates on this thread.  I was having the preview not playing issue, then updated Flash to the latest version.  It fixed that issue.  I am still having the issue with the individual slide timeline playbar not playing across the timeline.  It does not matter if there is audio or not, I click play (or hit the spacebar) the icon changes from play > to pause " but after about 30 seconds of thinking, it never plays and reverts back to the play icon.

Hi Justin!

I do not have an update to provide on this issue. It is still in the hands of our QA Team.

Hi Ashley,

I know this is quite an old thread but I've just installed Storyline 2 trial version and I'm getting a bit frustrated with the preview capabilities and in particular, identifying the precise location on the timeline to place cue points. I have layers that I'm trying to display with triggers at certain cue points on the timeline. Trouble is there seems to be no way to place them accurately (i.e. by identifying the exact timing of the required cue point). The layers are not displayed in the timeline preview and the full (published) preview does not have a timeline to refer to. So, it's all trial an error, which as someone else has pointed out, is very time consuming.

Is this just the way it works or am I missing a configuration option somewhere? Is there something that allows me to view layers on the timeline preview, along with the base layer elements; or is there a way to enable a timeline on the published preview display?

Thanks

Hi James,

Correct  the layer elements won't be played as a part of the timeline preview. Are you unable to play the initial base layer timeline to determine when and where you'd like the cue point to be located and then include that timing within the trigger? There are some tips here in terms of ways in which to add cue points and then you could use the cue point timing as a part of the show layer trigger. 

There isn't a way to see the layers as a part of the timeline preview, you'd have to preview the entire slide as a whole. There isn't a timeline element to be added to the slide for preview or publish - but you could include the seekbar to get a general sense of how long the slide is and include it based on that. 

Thanks Ashley

What you've described is what I've done (i.e. play the base layer on the timeline preview and add the cue point for the layer triggers where I think they should go, then use the cue point in the layer trigger timing).

Somehow I'm not finding it intuitive because when I preview the trigger points for the layers they are not where I thought they would be or where I want them. I think it might have something to do with the 'laggy' performance of the timeline preview, which someone mentioned earlier in this thread. There's a good 10 second pause when I hit the play button before it starts playing the slide.

Another thing I'm not keen on is the fact that wherever you put the play-head it still shows all visible tracks on the timeline and not just the ones that are active at that point. I'm finding that confusing - I know you advised earlier that you can toggle the hide/show button but once again it's slightly annoying and not intuitive.

There's lots of things about Storyline 2 that I do like but the timeline isn't one of them :(

Hi James,

Thanks for updating the explanation - and I could see how with a lot of triggers or items on your timeline it could become cumbersome. The playhead location and what it shows is definitely something that we've shared with our team in the from of a new feature request, but you're also welcome to share your thoughts here too.