Using audio with markers in Storyline 2

Dec 04, 2014

Tim Slade
By Tim Slade

Hey Gang,

I was teaching a Storyline 2 class today and demonstrating how to insert audio into a marker. We noticed that the audio does not play as expected when you go to preview the slide and click on the marker. I even tried publishing the course to see if it would play that way, and still no luck. What's interesting, is the you can click on the icon's format tab, click on the audio drop-down and preview the audio that is suppose to be there. It's just not playing when you preview the actual slide.

I also duplicated the process in Storyline 1 and had no issues--the audio played just fine. 

Is this a current bug? Attached is the Storyline 2 file where I am experiencing this. All of my Storyline 2 students had the same issue, so I don't think it's just me.

THANKS!

Tim

52 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 9 years ago12/12/14 at 2:11 pm (UTC)

Thanks Javier - we've reported this to our QA team and I don't have any updates to share at this point, but as you have found some users are able to get around the issue using Storyline 2 Update 1, but there is a new issue with Flash Player 16 if it's running in Windows so if you have Flash player 16 installed you'll need to use Update 3 of Storyline. 

Kyle Main
over 9 years ago12/19/14 at 9:06 pm (UTC)

So there was a major bug with SL2 that I'm experiencing and I have Flash Player 16, and now there is a new release of SL2 as update 3 - Did they fix the audio not working with Markers issue?

I have 18 courses, that have been a year of work, and all courses have final feedback changes from the client.  I've been making changes to this course, and find out that the nav page that was finalized this summer is now broken and that means the whole  HUGE curriculum is broken with all 18 courses not being able to finalize, all need republished and when I try any of them, they all break the nav page that has audio on the marker with text.

Where is the Quality Control Team?  If it works in Version 1, bring that part of the code back to the software and tweak to work with Version 3 update.

Please Hurry Articulate!!!!

One of my clients is a top Fortune 100 client and I've won the bid and pushed to use Storyline, I really don't want to have to go to Lectora 12 to be "safe" - Hurry Please, the press would be bad if Articulate was the reason a Fortune 100 companies Public Training courses were to not go out on a release Date.

- Why did I have to find this out the Hard way?  I really am upset this was not emailed to everyone who paid big money for the Storyline software!!!! - And if true, ensure teams are working on this, instead of us finding the issue, and around the country people are loosing their minds like me trying to see if we each broke the course on our own, instead of a now known bug.  If I missed an Email then Sorry, Please email everyone for good faith ASAP if not!  Warn on Social Networks, you could save the people using your product from loosing clients or embarrassment.

 

Kyle

 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
over 9 years ago12/23/14 at 3:19 pm (UTC)

Hi Kyle,

In regards to the Flash player 16 issue and Update 3, that was something that our team worked very quickly to fix as when the Flash player update was automatically installed through a Windows update - it didn't allow you to open any Articulate products. That was the only fix included in the Update 3. There wasn't an email about the update 3, but you can enable the "check for updates at start up" and as long as you're connected to the Internet you'll be alerted of the update.

They're still looking into the issue with the marker audio, as mentioned above and when we have an additional update to share we'll post it here. 

Jennifer Ritter
over 9 years ago01/14/15 at 3:08 pm (UTC)

I have found a work around for this problem that allows you to play the audio and still have the usual text effects. You need access to the audio file. 

1) Create a marker as usual, or select an existing marker. There is no need to add any audio to it at all.

2) Create a new layer and put the desired audio on it by going to "Insert" in the top ribbon > open the "Audio" drop down > select "Audio from File..."

3) Browse to the desired audio file and select "Open"

4) Use the layer settings (the little cog wheel that appears to the right of the layer's name in the "Slide Layers" area at the lower right of the screen) to open the Slide Layer Properties window.

5) What settings you select here will depend on how you want the audio to behave. Three good ones to note are:

  • Setting the "When revisiting:" setting to "Reset to initial state" will allow the user to click the marker to play the audio as many times as they'd like (assuming the audio layer closes when the audio finishes. See the next bullet).
  • Checking "Hide slide layer when timeline finishes" will automatically close the layer when the audio is done playing (as long as you have the layer's timeline set to match the duration of the audio).
  • "Hide other slide layers" might be useful if you want to have multiple markers with audio on the same screen. This will prevent the various audio files from playing at the same time.

Select "OK" when you're done making changes.

6) Return to the base layer. Select the marker. Add a trigger to it that shows the audio layer when the user clicks.

The marker should work as desired, both audio and text.

Lee Walters
9 years ago03/03/15 at 5:47 am (UTC)

Hi team

This is a huge issue for us.  We have two major issues:

1.  SL1 files not working if we upgrade the file to SL2.

2.  SL2 new markers are mutually exclusive with Text & Audio (eg you can't have both). Also there is no way to play Audio ON HOVER

Please let this be a priority to get fixed, as all our learning uses Markers.

Therese

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
9 years ago03/03/15 at 2:42 pm (UTC)

Hi Therese, 

In regards to the upgraded files, is it just the markers that are not working or are there additional issues you're running into? If there are additional issues, we'll want to take a look at one of the .story files in SL1 and see how it updates in SL2. 

This issue is also currently documented here and our team shared that it'll be  fixed in a forthcoming software update for Articulate Storyline. In the meantime, use either of these options to make the audio play:

  • Check the Audio Only option for the marker.
  • Add a trigger to play the audio when the marker is clicked.
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
9 years ago03/04/15 at 2:33 pm (UTC)

Hi Therese, 

No need for any files as our team has been able to replicate this on upgraded files and new SL2 files that have audio included. You can see a few other workarounds in this thread as well. 

I also wanted to let you know that replying via email includes your signature here in the post so you're welcome to visit the thread and remove that information if you wish. 

Lee Walters
9 years ago04/01/15 at 12:38 am (UTC)

Hello Articulate guys,

This issue is a major deal breaker for us.  We have hundreds of hours in SL1 with the Marker working "Show ALL on hover".  ALL means audio and text.  Why can you not program it to "show all"???.  I am not going to re-do all the items again as in the workaround.  Why have we upgraded to Storyline 2 which is a lesser product than Storyline1 ???

Regards,

Therese.

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