Using Storyline 2 screen recording tool to create software tutorial for software running within Linux virtual machine

Hey there Sabine,

Great question! If you use the screen recording tool available right within Storyline 2 itself, you can insert the same screencast into your course multiple times. Once you've recorded the software simulation, you can insert it as a video on a single slide to show learners how to perform a process, then you can insert it again as Try Mode step-by-step slides to give them an opportunity to practice. Take a peek at this tutorial for how to accomplish this. 

The same can be done using Storyline 360, it's basically the same process as Storyline 2 but I'll include the Storyline 360 specific tutorial for you here as well for reference.

Hope that helps clarify, please let me know if you have further questions! :) 

Hi Ali,

Thank you for your reply. Everything works just as described in the tutorial if I create a screen recording of a Windows based software. However, if I follow exactly the same steps when recording the software running in the virtual machine, it's different. The video on a single slide option seems still fine but View Mode, Try Mode and Test Mode don't work. 

To make sure that it's not me doing something wrong, I made a screen recording of creating an email in Outlook (Windows based software) and then chose 'View mode steps'. Everything was fine. The recording was split into several slides and captions were added automatically. 

Then I followed exactly the same steps only this time recording the Linux based software that is running within a virtual machine on my Windows PC. This time, when I chose 'View mode steps' I ended up with only one slide and no captions. Also, it's no longer a video. It turned into a screenshot with a bit of mouse movement. Test mode creates the same screenshot plus a results slide.

The only option that works properly when recording the Linux based software is 'Video on a single slide'. I don't understand why it can create a screen recording of the software running on Linux but then can't split it up to create View, Try or Test mode.

For now I am working with screen shots plus hot spots to create something similar but it's hugely time consuming. I try to attach a Storyline file showing what's happening. Maybe this helps?

Thanks again for your help.

Sabine

Hey Sabine,

Thanks for the additional details and for including your project file here. I can definitely understand the frustration with using that workaround, as I'm sure it's much more tedious and time consuming. I'm sorry you're having to go through that!

I do see what you're describing when trying to insert that recording as View Mode Steps so I went ahead and submitted a case for you with our Support Engineers. They'll be able to work with you one-on-one to investigate this issue further. Your case number is 01015179 and they'll be reaching out to you shortly. I'll be keeping an eye on it, as well, and will relay any relevant info back in the thread here for anyone else who may be following along. 

Hey Sabine! Just wanted to pop in with a quick update from your case with Eloisa for anyone who may find it helpful. It appears this is expected behavior in a remote environment, so I've learned something new today too- thank you! From her response to you:

When remoting into another machine to view an application then recording the screen, the expected behavior is to produce a video only as interactive elements would be controlled from the remote machine. These interactive elements cannot be captured from a remote connection. 

Since it's not possible to have the application locally, you may try screen shots of the application, then add captions, animations on the slide to simulate a tutorial.

It sounds like you were on the right track with your solution of using screenshots, great idea! Let us know if you have any further questions regarding this, and good luck with the rest of your project :)

Thank you, Ali!

Sabine

Hello,

This is a followup to the original person's question.  I have Storyline 360 installed and am encountering the same situation.  I'm trying to do a "try mode" recording of a virtual machine.  It only saves the first screen in the final video, even though you can see, while recording, that 5 total minutes have been recorded.  Is there a fix to this issue yet?

Thank you.

Hi there, Tim.  When only one slide is created after doing a screen recording, it's a sign that Storyline and the program you're recording are using different permissions levels.  Have a look at this article (it also applies to Storyline 360) for a possible fix.

If that's not quite right, please let me know!

I am still having the same issues.  When recording the virtual machine through VMware Workstation, Storyline only saves the first 4 seconds of a 5 minute interactive recording. The permissions are admin on both sides. Unfortunately, this is the primary reason our company would like to purchase Storyline licenses, but it looks like Storyline will not record a virtual machine.  If we can solve this puzzle, we're ready to buy in bulk!  :)

Thank you.

Hi Tim,

Are you accessing another users' machine virtually or trying to record something in your own virtual machine?

I operate in a Windows 10 VMWare environment (as I'm a native Mac user) and I screen record often in Storyline. Could you let me know if you're able to record anything else in your VM and it's failing solely on this additional application? For example, can you record navigating around the ELH site? 

Hi Ashley! 

I am also having the same issue that Tim is having. I am on a Windows 10 laptop attempting to screen record a software simulation in a Windows 10 VM. environment The VM is hosted on my local machine, so I'm not running it from an external drive.  I am able to  capture a video on a single slide but not step by step. I am not able to capture the step-by-step in any application or any task on my VM. 

Thankfully, my company is able to host virtual machines that I can access on our company VPN via RDP and that has proved to be my work around. Not everyone has that capability and it is far more convenient to utilize my local VM. I'm using Hyper-V Manager. 

I am hopeful that there is a resolution to this. I played with the permissions to no avail. I have tried multiple VMs as well. A single video on one slide is great, but as soon as I try to break it out step by step it no longer functions. 

I am trying to record a virtual machine using VMware's Workstation Pro.  Storyline is on my local machine setup as an admin, and the VMware software is running as admin as well.  When I try to record myself using the  VM, it only captures 4 seconds of the inital page.  I can record everything else on my computer, inside and outside of apps, but cannot record any type of Storyline demo inside of this VMware tool.  Thoughts?

I have reinstalled VMware Workstation 14 Pro, there was an update to Storyline 360 as well, and set both Storyline and VMware to run in Admin mode only.  It works!  I am able to record both video-only and try simulations.  Thank you!

Thanks, Tim for that update! I'm glad installing that update and ensuring they were both set to run as admin worked for you.

I know Brooke still ran into issues too - so I'm going to reach out to a few colleagues who may have similar VM set ups. I run my VMWare on a Mac, so all my Storyline screen recording is done from inside the VM already. 

Hello,

I am experiencing the same issue as the folks in this thread. It appears that some have been able to resolve the issue, but I have not even using the staff suggestion of the compatibility settings of both programs.

I have been using Storyline 2 to record in a virtual environment using VMware Player version 7. Recently I upgraded to version 15 and am just not able to have the recording displayed as a single click on each slide. 

If anyone has any advice on how to fix this, that would be great and much appreciated!

Hi there, Faez.  Let me get a little clarification to see if I can help!  It sounds like you're inserting your screen recording as step-by-step slides.  When you say it isn't displaying a "single click on each slide," is it including more than one "step" or action on a single slide?

Also, are you recording a desktop application or a web application?  If it's web, what browser are you using?

We'll see if we can find out what's happening!

Hi Crystal,

Thanks for responding! I’ll clarify the issue to give you a better idea.

After recording, I choose the option to produce it a step by step format with one action/click on each slide. What ends up happening is that the entire recording is put on one slide, but only the first action/click is shown.

I use VMware player and the recording is of a desktop application and mostly now, a web-based application. I use Chrome in the VM to launch our company produced SaaS application.

The recording area is the full screen that is occupied by the player (in full screen mode). This has worked without issue when using version 7 of the VMware player, but after upgrading to version 15, the recording doesn’t work as before.

Hope this provides some clarity.

Thanks again for looking into it!

Best,
Faez

Hi Faez,

Can you try recording in Internet Explorer? Google Chrome communicates very little information to the Windows Accessibility API, which is how Storyline knows what to include in screen recordings. In addition to missing caption details, Google Chrome can also omit some steps from screen recordings altogether.

Let us know how that works! 

Hi Ashley,

Thanks for the suggestion. It doesn’t work unfortunately, because any clicks on the VM desktop is not captured either, so a change in browser results in the same issue.

My colleague shared a ticket with me that she sent in January where Articulate Support said that, “If you are recording the screen over a virtual machine, it will only produce a video and not a step by step slides as you will control the interactive elements remotely. The interactive elements cannot be captured from a remote connection. It will only capture everything if the software and the application/window that will be recorded is on the same location.”

I think there may not be a resolution to this issue. I’ll trial Storyline 3 to see if it works with our updated VM player.

Thanks again for your help, much appreciated.

Best,
Faez

Hi Faez,

Are you trying to capture from a different computer entirely or just within the VM on your computer where you're running Storyline? Storyline won't be able to capture the mouse interactions through a WebEx or similar screen sharing, so you'd want to conduct the recordings with Storyline installed on the actual computer where you'll be navigation through your application.

Hope that helps clarify! 

Hi Ashley,

It's a VM within my computer. I did mean to provide an update yesterday, but wasn't able to. I tried the suggestion from earlier in the thread to check the compatibility settings for both the VM Player and Articulate. It said that if both are unchecked then leave it as is, which was the case for me. I tried again and this time I checked the box to run it as an administrator. After this, I was able to record the actions and clicks in the VM and able to publish one action per slide.

It's a weird fix given that most companies don't give admin privileges to employees' machines, bu fortunately it worked out in my case.

This should be something to keep in mind for future versions to make them more readily able to record on VMs.

Thanks for following up and for your assistance.

Ah, the privileges were the culprit! Glad you were able to check that and share an update here.