In an attempt to keep AS2 file sizes manageable, can someone please tell me how 1 image (or object) can be made available across multiple slides? I know this can be achieved through master slides but surely there must be another way.
At the moment I am copying / pasting assets which will obviously blow out the overall file size.
I hope you are having luck resolving this issue. I understand file size can come into play for several reasons. Issues may arise with LMS limitations, project requirements, or sometimes even computer performance.
There are a few things you can consider to minimize file size. I ran a few tests specifically related to images, here are a couple things to keep in mind if you haven't already tried:
Storyline does a great job at compressing images when publishing. However, if you have access to an image editor like Photoshop, you can save the images down in dimensions and quality (within reason) prior to importing to Storyline. While testing this, it did reduce file size for me slightly.
As you mentioned, the use of Master Slides is a great way to duplicate content across slides. Interestingly enough, based on my small-scale test, it didn't seem to matter if my image was copied to each individual slide or placed once on a master slide. The published file size was the same. This may not be the case all the time.
It does appear that images placed on the slide timeline rather than set as a slide background image may yield better results when publishing. If you have any images set as slide backgrounds, it might be worth changing out a couple to see.
If it made sense and you had access to one, you could push some of the content to a web server. Then display it through Storyline as a Web Object or even create a link to the external content. This can reduce file size significantly. This of course is especially true when it comes to videos.
Finally, if reducing file size is a must, you could always consider breaking your single project up into two or more smaller projects (if its acceptable).
I am sure there are many other methods that can be used. Hopefully this gets some ideas going. I would be interested to know what you figure out!
Thanks for the quick and detailed reply. I have used other authoring tools in the past that provided logic that permitted for instance an image to be made available from slide 1 to slide 5 as opposed to copying the same image 5 times (Once for slide 1, a second time for slide 2, a third time for slide 3, a fourth time for slide 4 and fifth time for slide 5). My assumptions may be wrong with AS2 (or any other authoring tool) I would have thought that using this method will increase the overall file size by 5. Having a way to make the same image available 'from slide 1 to slide 5 effectively reduces the over file size by 4 fifth's (if this makes sense).
If that logic isn't available in AS2, I'll compress the images using external software but perhaps the logic may be worth considering for a future release.
I agree, that certainly makes sense as an efficiency feature.
I was just looking at this again, when I publish a file and open the story_content folder, storyline appears to only spit out one or two copies of each image. The main image which has a funky name, and a thumbnail. Even if i insert four or 5 instances of each image, it would appear to be utilizing the same instance each time.
I am using AS2 as well. Perhaps it does use the same image by default? The file size may beg to differ somewhat but check out one of your published folders and see what you think?
6 Replies
Hi Anthony,
I hope you are having luck resolving this issue. I understand file size can come into play for several reasons. Issues may arise with LMS limitations, project requirements, or sometimes even computer performance.
There are a few things you can consider to minimize file size. I ran a few tests specifically related to images, here are a couple things to keep in mind if you haven't already tried:
I am sure there are many other methods that can be used. Hopefully this gets some ideas going. I would be interested to know what you figure out!
Hi Adam,
Thanks for the quick and detailed reply. I have used other authoring tools in the past that provided logic that permitted for instance an image to be made available from slide 1 to slide 5 as opposed to copying the same image 5 times (Once for slide 1, a second time for slide 2, a third time for slide 3, a fourth time for slide 4 and fifth time for slide 5). My assumptions may be wrong with AS2 (or any other authoring tool) I would have thought that using this method will increase the overall file size by 5. Having a way to make the same image available 'from slide 1 to slide 5 effectively reduces the over file size by 4 fifth's (if this makes sense).
If that logic isn't available in AS2, I'll compress the images using external software but perhaps the logic may be worth considering for a future release.
Thanks again Adam.
Much appreciated.
Hi Anthony,
I agree, that certainly makes sense as an efficiency feature.
I was just looking at this again, when I publish a file and open the story_content folder, storyline appears to only spit out one or two copies of each image. The main image which has a funky name, and a thumbnail. Even if i insert four or 5 instances of each image, it would appear to be utilizing the same instance each time.
I am using AS2 as well. Perhaps it does use the same image by default? The file size may beg to differ somewhat but check out one of your published folders and see what you think?
Hi
Just to let you know I have a project that is 280,900mb. Once published this drops to 30mb.
A huge drop and may be of some comfort to you.
Hi again Adam,
Wow that's very smart. AS2 must use some kind of name referencing on images which is sensational. Thanks again for the reply back.
Hi Michelle.
That's a huge difference. Thanks for sharing and yes it does provide me with some relief.
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