Like Storyline, when editing a video with Encoder, you will only be able to trim, crop, adjust brightness and contrast, add a logo or watermark, and change the quality settings. You could export the screen recording as an MP4, edit it with a third-party tool, and then reinsert it as a video, if you think that would work for your needs.
When I can't just re-record a screen I am working around this by copying the video and inserting it into the slide twice and then editing the first one to end just short of the part I want cut out and the second to start after I want it to start again. It works seemlessly when lined up correctly on the timeline.
Obviously it isn't the best way to go around it and could potentially make for a very large file size. Actually out of curiousity does anyone know if the trimmed out parts of a video are actually cut out of the SCORM file? I am wondering if doing this will actually make much of a difference to the SCORM file size.
Hey, James--I actually just did this in a course. I chopped up a single video on a slide into 7 pieces and did the same thing--made 6 copies of the the original inserted video and then played with the start and end times.
When I looked at the published output, I saw saw 7 separate video files matching how I chopped things up. There were not seven copies of the large file.
Excellent Gerry, that is the response I was hoping for.
Well done to the person in he Video Encoder development team who came up with the idea of making the trim function not really trim the video so you can go back and change your mind about the extends of the trim without having to re-import the original video but still keeps the file size down when we publish it by trimming off the extra bits then.
I am having difficulty with Storyline when I go to rename the different videos in the timeline so I know which is which and get the order correct. I can type whatever name I want and it just changes it to 'Screen cast'. Everything else renames fine and even though videos import as screencast 1, 2, etc, when you rename them, they become 'screencast' with no number so it's even more confusing.
I get the same thing. I'd call that a potential bug. Have you reported it to Articulate?
There is one way to workaround to this in the interim. Your call if it is an acceptable workaround or too much of a kludge. (I'd still report the bug.)
1. Make your screencast.
2. Remove the video from the slide. Storyline still saves it internally in the project for reuse unless you delete it.
3. Go to the Insert ribbon and click "Record Screen" and then click on the image of the screencast that you made.
4. On the "Insert Slides" pop-up window that comes up, right-click on the image of your screencast and then select "Export movie."
5. Export the movie to your local PC. It defaults to be named "Movie.MP4." Rename if needed. Note: You can only save out as a MP4.
6. In the "Insert Slides" pop-up window, then click "Cancel."
7. Then, from the Insert tab, click Video > Video from File... and insert the video that you exported out in Step 5.
8. Since this video was inserted, you can rename it on the timeline to what you want.
Imported videos can be renamed as is just fine. Even ones you copy and trim many times on a slide.
I had some trouble trimming inserted video, as in video encoder wouldn't let me, so I just assumed you could only edit video recorded by StoryLine. That problem occured with flash video not MP4 so maybe the difference is in the format. in fact from memory the video encoder option was greyed out in the menu, but I am glad to hear it will work with MP4.
Thanks for the work around Gerry, I may use it when I have a particularly large number of videos but otherwise it seems a tad time consuming. I will report the bug however.
The video that I was editing into seven pieces was a WMV video. Again, it worked great splicing it up in Storyline. The only thing lacking, either in the program or my knowledge, was the ability to move forward or backward a frame at a time. That would have been helpful.
Just curious--what format was the Flash video--a SWF or FLV or MP4?
Gerry it was a SWF file type. I was actually converting video/screen shots taken using Adobe Captivate and placing them into Storyline as I updated some old courses. They inserted fine and played fairly well (I don't know if you have ever used Captivate but when you play the timeline the video leaves lines where the mouse has travelled but is crisp when you publish it - When put into Storyline it keeps the lines even when published).
I agree with you about the frame rate issue - when you click on the timeline and press play it is almost like it tries to snap to the last text entry/mouse movement and doesn't actually play from where you clicked. I think the furtherest out it has put me is only about 5 seconds but it is annoying particularly when you are trying to edit a video.
8 Replies
Hi James,
Like Storyline, when editing a video with Encoder, you will only be able to trim, crop, adjust brightness and contrast, add a logo or watermark, and change the quality settings. You could export the screen recording as an MP4, edit it with a third-party tool, and then reinsert it as a video, if you think that would work for your needs.
Hi Peter,
I figured that would be the case.
When I can't just re-record a screen I am working around this by copying the video and inserting it into the slide twice and then editing the first one to end just short of the part I want cut out and the second to start after I want it to start again. It works seemlessly when lined up correctly on the timeline.
Obviously it isn't the best way to go around it and could potentially make for a very large file size. Actually out of curiousity does anyone know if the trimmed out parts of a video are actually cut out of the SCORM file? I am wondering if doing this will actually make much of a difference to the SCORM file size.
Hey, James--I actually just did this in a course. I chopped up a single video on a slide into 7 pieces and did the same thing--made 6 copies of the the original inserted video and then played with the start and end times.
When I looked at the published output, I saw saw 7 separate video files matching how I chopped things up. There were not seven copies of the large file.
Way to go Articulate!
Excellent Gerry, that is the response I was hoping for.
Well done to the person in he Video Encoder development team who came up with the idea of making the trim function not really trim the video so you can go back and change your mind about the extends of the trim without having to re-import the original video but still keeps the file size down when we publish it by trimming off the extra bits then.
I am having difficulty with Storyline when I go to rename the different videos in the timeline so I know which is which and get the order correct. I can type whatever name I want and it just changes it to 'Screen cast'. Everything else renames fine and even though videos import as screencast 1, 2, etc, when you rename them, they become 'screencast' with no number so it's even more confusing.
Is this just me?
Hey, James.
I get the same thing. I'd call that a potential bug. Have you reported it to Articulate?
There is one way to workaround to this in the interim. Your call if it is an acceptable workaround or too much of a kludge. (I'd still report the bug.)
1. Make your screencast.
2. Remove the video from the slide. Storyline still saves it internally in the project for reuse unless you delete it.
3. Go to the Insert ribbon and click "Record Screen" and then click on the image of the screencast that you made.
4. On the "Insert Slides" pop-up window that comes up, right-click on the image of your screencast and then select "Export movie."
5. Export the movie to your local PC. It defaults to be named "Movie.MP4." Rename if needed. Note: You can only save out as a MP4.
6. In the "Insert Slides" pop-up window, then click "Cancel."
7. Then, from the Insert tab, click Video > Video from File... and insert the video that you exported out in Step 5.
8. Since this video was inserted, you can rename it on the timeline to what you want.
Imported videos can be renamed as is just fine. Even ones you copy and trim many times on a slide.
I had some trouble trimming inserted video, as in video encoder wouldn't let me, so I just assumed you could only edit video recorded by StoryLine. That problem occured with flash video not MP4 so maybe the difference is in the format. in fact from memory the video encoder option was greyed out in the menu, but I am glad to hear it will work with MP4.
Thanks for the work around Gerry, I may use it when I have a particularly large number of videos but otherwise it seems a tad time consuming. I will report the bug however.
The video that I was editing into seven pieces was a WMV video. Again, it worked great splicing it up in Storyline. The only thing lacking, either in the program or my knowledge, was the ability to move forward or backward a frame at a time. That would have been helpful.
Just curious--what format was the Flash video--a SWF or FLV or MP4?
Gerry it was a SWF file type. I was actually converting video/screen shots taken using Adobe Captivate and placing them into Storyline as I updated some old courses. They inserted fine and played fairly well (I don't know if you have ever used Captivate but when you play the timeline the video leaves lines where the mouse has travelled but is crisp when you publish it - When put into Storyline it keeps the lines even when published).
I agree with you about the frame rate issue - when you click on the timeline and press play it is almost like it tries to snap to the last text entry/mouse movement and doesn't actually play from where you clicked. I think the furtherest out it has put me is only about 5 seconds but it is annoying particularly when you are trying to edit a video.
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