I'm new to Storyline so may have missed something key.
I'm creating shapes in Illustrator, exporting them as WMF, then inserting them as a picture to Storyline. The results are rasterized. It's even worse with EMF.
Once imported, you can resize the shapes without diminishing their quality, and you can customize their fills, outlines, and effects using Storyline’s drawing tools.
We added support for this feature in Storyline 360 Build 3.27.18751.0, so be sure you're using the latest update!
Is direct import of SVG images possibly in the pipeline for future consideration? (Please, please, please with triple sugar and whipped cream on the top. :) ;) )
I ask because I have a complex process diagram done in Visio by a client for a course I'm currently working on--and so I did the SVG export from Visio and then did the PowerPoint import and then import into SL360 and the results were not what I expected. And not acceptable to the client.
Looked like the issue was PowerPoint's "translation" of some gradient fills in the SVG to flat, colored fills (as the SVG opens correctly in other graphics programs supporting SVG). I hoping you folks could do "better than what PowerPoint did" with direct SVG support. :)
We've shared the idea with our product team and continue to keep them updated on customer insights and needs. Nothing official on SVG support to share yet, but I promise once we know more we'll certainly let folks know!
Thanks, Ashley. I've also found that complex SVG graphics on PowerPoint slides do not get imported into SL360 as editable objects--they come in as a single PNG. I've reported on this in the beta forum.
Even a simple SVG image sometimes gets imported into SL360 "very strangely."
It'd be good if your documentation was updated to reflect these things. It can be read like anything imported comes in as editable shapes. That's simply not the case. Right now the feature is pretty bare bones and a roll of the dice.
Appreciate your insight; I know you've been working closely with Vanessa on this, too, so all your valuable feedback is making its way to the right team.
If we make any changes to this feature and its documentation, we'll share the news here!
This is a feature I would love as well. Articulate has been very slow to add new features to Storyline 360. For how expensive it is, the rate of improvement has not been good in my opinion. I have been using it since version 1 and before (presenter etc.) and I am not impressed with what they have offered in terms of upgrades, and new features over the last few years since release. If you look at the game development industry, there are more and more open-source software packages that push the larger companies to improve. Though I like the product and the community, I am afraid they are becoming more and more like Adobe with large fees and very little innovation year over year. My warning would be that all it takes is one good open-source package that competes with Articulate and there could be a mass exodus of developers. I apologize if this sounds negative but I am getting frustrated with the lack of improvement and new features given that I am a sole proprietor and pay for my own software.
I've been encountering similar issues. Now, it's causing corruption to the source file and, as a result, leading to an unrecoverable source file. The rasterized images begin with Storyline going unresponive, then escalate into a corrupted, unrecoverable file.
I've noticed that Storyline doesn't import WMF files anymore. When imported, as before, there now is a large box with no content visible. Fortunately, I haven't encountered the corruption yet. This is another disappointing example of the flimsy quality controls Articulate have in place 'implementing new features', by breaking existing methodologies.
Thanks for reaching out and sharing that you are running into a similar issue. What file type are you using when you run into this issue?
With your permission, I'd like you to share your project file with our support engineers to investigate what's happening. You can share it privately by uploading it here. It will be deleted when troubleshooting is complete.
Hi Diarmaid,
WMF is still a supported file type for adding pictures to your course. It sounds like you are consistently running into a problem with this format, so it'd be great if we could take a look.
With your permission, I'd like you to share your project file with our support engineers to investigate what's happening. You can share it privately by uploading it here. It will be deleted when troubleshooting is complete.
Hi Leslie. No problem. The attached file shows a logo consisting of a number of WMF files. This was copied over from an older existing file. The WMF shapes have been successfully inserted in the past.
However, when I inserted the shapes again, directly from the hard drive (local - as before) they import as invisible squares of nothing! :)
Hi Lauren. Thank you for taking a look at the file. I think I may have been a little unclear what the example supplied by me was illustrating.
The blobs that display are from an old module and show that it was indeed possible to import WMF files. One can clearly see them on screen and as WMF files within the timeline.
However, if I try to import new WMF files into my document (basically inserting the same WMF files as above) nothing appears on screen (see empty boundary box below) and the timeline shows a generic picture import - the file names do not import/insert.
You are indeed correct in that if I export the original WMF files out and reinsert they do appear, but this isn't practical as I need to insert new icons/WMF files.
Thanks for your assistance though. It is appreciated.
Thank you for providing more information! I can see how the workaround could become time consuming.
I want our Support Engineers to dig deeper into this file, so I've submitted a case on your behalf. (01973906) Please keep an eye out for an email from them.
We're having the same issue as described by Diarmaid. When we insert .wmf files, SL recognises that there's a picture there but nothing appears.
So now we are replacing the wmf images for emf images,... but we're having the same issue as Ed, who created this thread. The images look awful. We're going through the images (again) and blowing them up in size, it's the only way it's working.
I updated the software today, just to be sure we had everything working correctly. Do you have any news on what could be causing this and how to solve this instead of having to rescale every image or without having to import the images to ppt and then copy them to SL?
I just wanted to jump into this discussion to share that we just released Storyline 360 (Build 3.57.26407.0) today, which includes the option to import scalable vector graphics (SVGs) to Storyline 360 so images stay sharp when learners zoom in and out.
Thank you to everyone who continued sharing how important this feature was in Storyline 360. Now all you need to do is update Storyline 360 in your Articulate 360 desktop app!
If you run into any issues, don't hesitate to reach out in this discussion or in a support case.
I inherited a project with a slide that contained EMF images. After publishing the project in 360 review, an extra slide was added after the slide that contained the EMF, furthermore the extra slide didn’t appear in Story View. After hours of troubleshooting, I converted the EMF images to png and republished the project and magically the extra slide disappeared.
Thanks for sharing this with the community, Edward! I'm sorry you spent so much time on this. If you run into anything moving forward, we're just a click away and happy to help!
Storyline 360 does now accept imported SVGs; but most of the formatting tools available for images or EMFs are not available for the SVGs. So barely implemented at all. Now, there are a LOT of SVG export options in Illustrator, so perhaps there is a way to get more compatible SVGs. Since PPT can import SVGs and then they become usable when the PPT is imported into Storyline, can anyone figure out what the difference is between a SVG exported out of illustrator and an SVG in a PPT slide?
Unfortunately it seems that the old Import SVG from PowerPoint doesn’t work as it did anymore. It just imports the solid SVG, uneditable. Even that as a fallback method isn’t available now which is a shame because nothing made me happier than importing sags into storyline that could then be edited as shapes. Nothing.
Even if Articulate could “break” the PowerPoint import option to what it was would be good.
48 Replies
Hi there Ray!
Scalable vector graphics (SVGs) on PowerPoint slides become native shapes when you import the slides into Storyline 360.
Once imported, you can resize the shapes without diminishing their quality, and you can customize their fills, outlines, and effects using Storyline’s drawing tools.
We added support for this feature in Storyline 360 Build 3.27.18751.0, so be sure you're using the latest update!
Hi, Alyssa!
Is direct import of SVG images possibly in the pipeline for future consideration? (Please, please, please with triple sugar and whipped cream on the top. :) ;) )
I ask because I have a complex process diagram done in Visio by a client for a course I'm currently working on--and so I did the SVG export from Visio and then did the PowerPoint import and then import into SL360 and the results were not what I expected. And not acceptable to the client.
Looked like the issue was PowerPoint's "translation" of some gradient fills in the SVG to flat, colored fills (as the SVG opens correctly in other graphics programs supporting SVG). I hoping you folks could do "better than what PowerPoint did" with direct SVG support. :)
Thanks!
Hi Gerry,
We've shared the idea with our product team and continue to keep them updated on customer insights and needs. Nothing official on SVG support to share yet, but I promise once we know more we'll certainly let folks know!
Thanks, Ashley. I've also found that complex SVG graphics on PowerPoint slides do not get imported into SL360 as editable objects--they come in as a single PNG. I've reported on this in the beta forum.
Even a simple SVG image sometimes gets imported into SL360 "very strangely."
It'd be good if your documentation was updated to reflect these things. It can be read like anything imported comes in as editable shapes. That's simply not the case. Right now the feature is pretty bare bones and a roll of the dice.
Hello, Gerry!
Appreciate your insight; I know you've been working closely with Vanessa on this, too, so all your valuable feedback is making its way to the right team.
If we make any changes to this feature and its documentation, we'll share the news here!
Thanks, Katie! :)
Yup, Vanessa is just a fantastic resource. Good folks here. :)
This is a feature I would love as well. Articulate has been very slow to add new features to Storyline 360. For how expensive it is, the rate of improvement has not been good in my opinion. I have been using it since version 1 and before (presenter etc.) and I am not impressed with what they have offered in terms of upgrades, and new features over the last few years since release. If you look at the game development industry, there are more and more open-source software packages that push the larger companies to improve. Though I like the product and the community, I am afraid they are becoming more and more like Adobe with large fees and very little innovation year over year. My warning would be that all it takes is one good open-source package that competes with Articulate and there could be a mass exodus of developers. I apologize if this sounds negative but I am getting frustrated with the lack of improvement and new features given that I am a sole proprietor and pay for my own software.
I've been encountering similar issues. Now, it's causing corruption to the source file and, as a result, leading to an unrecoverable source file. The rasterized images begin with Storyline going unresponive, then escalate into a corrupted, unrecoverable file.
I've noticed that Storyline doesn't import WMF files anymore. When imported, as before, there now is a large box with no content visible. Fortunately, I haven't encountered the corruption yet. This is another disappointing example of the flimsy quality controls Articulate have in place 'implementing new features', by breaking existing methodologies.
Hi Dan,
Thanks for reaching out and sharing that you are running into a similar issue. What file type are you using when you run into this issue?
With your permission, I'd like you to share your project file with our support engineers to investigate what's happening. You can share it privately by uploading it here. It will be deleted when troubleshooting is complete.
Hi Diarmaid,
WMF is still a supported file type for adding pictures to your course. It sounds like you are consistently running into a problem with this format, so it'd be great if we could take a look.
With your permission, I'd like you to share your project file with our support engineers to investigate what's happening. You can share it privately by uploading it here. It will be deleted when troubleshooting is complete.
Hi Leslie. No problem. The attached file shows a logo consisting of a number of WMF files. This was copied over from an older existing file. The WMF shapes have been successfully inserted in the past.
However, when I inserted the shapes again, directly from the hard drive (local - as before) they import as invisible squares of nothing! :)
Hello Diarmaid!
Thanks for attaching your file!
I opened everything in Storyline 360 - looked perfect! Then I reattached the .wmf image files, and everything looked perfect too.
Lastly, I created a new file and imported the .wmf files - everything loaded!
Have you tried importing all the .wmf images to a new project?
Hi Lauren. Thank you for taking a look at the file. I think I may have been a little unclear what the example supplied by me was illustrating.
The blobs that display are from an old module and show that it was indeed possible to import WMF files. One can clearly see them on screen and as WMF files within the timeline.
However, if I try to import new WMF files into my document (basically inserting the same WMF files as above) nothing appears on screen (see empty boundary box below) and the timeline shows a generic picture import - the file names do not import/insert.
You are indeed correct in that if I export the original WMF files out and reinsert they do appear, but this isn't practical as I need to insert new icons/WMF files.
Thanks for your assistance though. It is appreciated.
Hi Diarmaid!
Thank you for providing more information! I can see how the workaround could become time consuming.
I want our Support Engineers to dig deeper into this file, so I've submitted a case on your behalf. (01973906) Please keep an eye out for an email from them.
The SVG methodology mentioned above (SVG into Powerpoint, then Powerpoint import into Storyline) is working for me now. It's clunky but does the job.
Maybe it is time to fully embrace SVG and let go of the (sporadically working) WMF support? :)
Hello everyone.
We're having the same issue as described by Diarmaid. When we insert .wmf files, SL recognises that there's a picture there but nothing appears.
So now we are replacing the wmf images for emf images,... but we're having the same issue as Ed, who created this thread. The images look awful. We're going through the images (again) and blowing them up in size, it's the only way it's working.
I updated the software today, just to be sure we had everything working correctly.
Do you have any news on what could be causing this and how to solve this instead of having to rescale every image or without having to import the images to ppt and then copy them to SL?
Thank you in advance.
I just wanted to jump into this discussion to share that we just released Storyline 360 (Build 3.57.26407.0) today, which includes the option to import scalable vector graphics (SVGs) to Storyline 360 so images stay sharp when learners zoom in and out.
Thank you to everyone who continued sharing how important this feature was in Storyline 360. Now all you need to do is update Storyline 360 in your Articulate 360 desktop app!
If you run into any issues, don't hesitate to reach out in this discussion or in a support case.
Well. That is good news. Cannot wait to try this out.
Wow! That's fantastic. Thank you!
I inherited a project with a slide that contained EMF images. After publishing the project in 360 review, an extra slide was added after the slide that contained the EMF, furthermore the extra slide didn’t appear in Story View. After hours of troubleshooting, I converted the EMF images to png and republished the project and magically the extra slide disappeared.
Thanks for sharing this with the community, Edward! I'm sorry you spent so much time on this. If you run into anything moving forward, we're just a click away and happy to help!
P.S. welcome to E-Learning Heroes 😊
Storyline 360 does now accept imported SVGs; but most of the formatting tools available for images or EMFs are not available for the SVGs. So barely implemented at all.
Now, there are a LOT of SVG export options in Illustrator, so perhaps there is a way to get more compatible SVGs.
Since PPT can import SVGs and then they become usable when the PPT is imported into Storyline, can anyone figure out what the difference is between a SVG exported out of illustrator and an SVG in a PPT slide?
Unfortunately it seems that the old Import SVG from PowerPoint doesn’t work as it did anymore. It just imports the solid SVG, uneditable. Even that as a fallback method isn’t available now which is a shame because nothing made me happier than importing sags into storyline that could then be edited as shapes. Nothing.
Even if Articulate could “break” the PowerPoint import option to what it was would be good.