Hungry for nerdy options from SmartBuilder
Jun 12, 2013
Hi,
I recently made the switch from SmartBuilder to Storyline. Why? Storyline makes eLearning look cooler, it's faster (no web based lag), it's more intuitive, it has better video handling, it's cheaper and I like the Characters.
There are definately a few drawbacks, though. Storyline is much buggier, and more restricted in interactivity.
SmartBuilder is kind of a nerdy tool. It takes a long time to master. But with time, and a bit of a programmer's mindset, you can achieve amazing things. As a nerd (not a programmer), I do miss many of its features. To name a few:
advanced variable editing
- append text to variables (and append on new line)
- convert text to number and vice versa
- replace text inside a variable
- round or floor number variables
advanced triggers/responses/conditions
- trigger a response on multiple, grouped conditions (with working and/or operators)
- conditions such as 'if variable starts with' and 'if variable contains'
- set multiple triggers to the same response, saving massive amounts of time programming triggers.
advanced LMS and server communication
- overwrite/send custom SCORM data
So I wonder ... is anyone else holding their breath, waiting for these features to become available in Storyline?
Also, if any staff are reading this, are these sorts of things the way Storyline is headed in the future? Or do you consider these niche features? Or do you think these things would make the program seem too complicated?
I'm happy to hear anyones thoughts on this.
Ayoub
4 Replies
I'm guessing that storyline will stick with what it does best (interactions that are middle of the road in terms of sophistication) and smartbuilder will do what it does best (sophisticated interactions that can contain powerful logic like you pointed out.)
I would suggest that, if you can, don't abandon one or the other but use them both for their strengths. That's what I'm doing.
Hi, Ayoub
I don't know if you're new here (post-count is often not any indication). If so, welcome! There are lots of very smart and talented people here.
You wrote:
>>
>> ...is anyone else holding their breath, waiting for these features to become available in Storyline?
>> Also, if any staff are reading this, are these sorts of things the way Storyline is headed in the future?
>>
If you are new here, don't expect any kind of response from Articulate staff on Dev Timelines other than "Subscribe to the Word of Mouth Blog for updates and announcements". *Sigh* I don't know why, but that's the way it has been. I'd love to see this policy change so we know what's in the pipeline and don't need to just cross our fingers that some key feature people key asking about is going to be added some time soon.
/rant.
@Dan... good points.
Thanks for your insight, guys.
I'm beginning to see that for my purposes, there isn't a single Mother of All Authoring Tools available.
Although I don't understand why Atriculate or any other developer wouldn't aspire to produce just that.
Same reason why we may aspire to design the Mother of All Elearnings but so far there isn't one elearning and the rest of us can just go home.
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