102 Replies
Janet Blake

I am having a major issue here...I downloaded the free trial of Articulate 2 to try it out and ALL of my Articulate 1 project files were converted to Articulate 2 file format.  I am not interested in upgrading (I just wanted to try out the new features and report back to my manager), but ALL of my working files were converted to Articulate 2 file format and I cannot open them anymore in Articulate 1 to continue my work.  I had no idea going into this trial that all of my files would be irreversibly converted.  I am panicking here because I need to publish a project I am working on and I can't use the files anymore.  Please provide guidance on how I can correct this.  

Mike Enders

Hi Janet,

Your files likely arent converted.   

The only time that a SL1 file would get converted is if you open up the file with SL2 and consent to let SL2 convert it for you.  At this point, SL2 will create a backup file of your SL1 project as well as create and SL2 version.

You might be seeing that the file icons are showing up as SL2, and that when you double click an sl1 file in a folder, that it opens with SL2. This is normal behavior.

To open up an SL1 project, start Storyline 1 and then browse to your files to open.  

I hope this make sense....and apologize for the scare.

Mike

Darryl Benson

While I appreciate the update, I have to say that many of the "improvements" are honestly just bug fixes. Things that were downright broken on S1 shouldn't only be alleviated with a 700 dollar upgrade fee to S2.

I can't tell you how many times I've lost massive amounts of work due to S1 being completely unstable (no, it's not our PC. It's PLENTY powerful...). Why should S2 be the only one that saves my work before a crash? With S1, in the last couple of months, I've actually gotten in the habit of saving about every 5-10 minutes, just because I'm so paranoid now about the inevitable crashes. I've gotten so tired of re-doing my workflow, I have now slowed my production to a crawl as I sit and wait for S1 to save a project 80 times a day.

While some things like motion paths are something I agree should be behind a pay wall, you have other "features" such as non-compressed video and Android support that frankly S1 should get, regardless. Yay, we only have to pay 700 dollars to have you NOT compress an already pre-compressed MP4 file! That... makes no sense, what-so-ever.

Do you see where I'm going with this? I like the upgrade, and yes, it's more than fair of you to charge for upgrades... even 700 dollar upgrades. And we've had some fun with the new features you have no doubt worked very hard to achieve. But I honestly think you should GREATLY reconsider your previous response of "S1 will be supported, but no additions/features from S2 will go to S1" as you're basically stating that those who were confident in your initial product, will never get the fully functional (read: not fully featured) product it was advertised to be from the start.

And frankly, if that's your position, why should anyone invest in your multi-upgrade package? I've been in the software business long enough to know if that's how you treat your customers, there will ALWAYS be someone else who can make a better product or offer better service, for a few bucks cheaper.

Plus, it's better for you in the end. If you help those out who want to stick with S1 to at least give them something that completely works, they might upgrade later because of your quality customer service. At this point, I can understand why many users aren't willing to go past your initial version. Why bother if this is how you treat us?

John McNichol

With regards to listing auto recover as a selling point for S2: only those that have experienced the frustration of losing their work and then getting into a habit of saving it multiple times with S1 would actually appreciate this feature (bug fix). Wouldnt Joe Bloggs who never bought S1 just expect it because auto recover in other programs is so common? It begs the question who this "auto recover" selling point is aimed at exactly? Maybe it is aimed at S1 users to tempt us to upgrade, because out of the whole feature list it is obviously one of the biggest frustrations S1 users have had.

I never would have thought this about Articulate, their track record with the community is amazing. Trying to sell S2 by championing auto recover is a bad move, it is an obvious means to get us to upgrade. That may not have been Articulates intention, maybe the bug just couldnt be fixed in S1, but does that mean it is okay to turn that frustration into a means to make S2 sales and leaves us with literally no hope of a fix?

InnerAct Studio

Lars Andel said:

Are you kidding me with the Storyline 2!? There are so many features in Storyline 2 that should come as a free software update for Storyline 1.

  • Auto-recovery
  • Move objects anywhere on your slide
  • More animations, effects & transitions
  • Did I mention Auto-recovery for projects when storyline crashes?
  • Time-Line & animations triggers
  • A real text editor!
  • Auto-recovery
  • Navigation buttons after learner complete an activity
  • AUTO-RECOVERY! AUTO-RECOVERY! AUTO-RECOVERY

Come on articulate! This and probably a whole lot more from Storyline 2 should be included in a storyline 1 free software update.

Instead of giving us what is deserved in Storyline 1 aim for something bigger with storyline 2 instead. The future is not to be able to move around widgets on the desktop, the future is not to be able to re-adjust text and line spacing or even being able to move objects. Aim bigger and higher!

Agree completely. My jaw dropped when I saw the price for this 'upgrade.' Most of these features should have been in the original product, especially the text editing and animations- I mean, this is decades-old PowerPoint technology. $700 in addition to the $1400 base price? Smh Articulate, smh.

Rick Nusz

Geert De Rycke said:

Great (new/enhanced) features !

Interface is a bummer, throws us back to windows 3.11 for workgroups...


I like the fact that I can move the panels around. That really helps, but I would prefer to be able to change it back to the original skin. Is the current skin what is known as 'flat design'?

I'm sure I'll get used to it but it does seem to fall flat for me.

Otherwise, I'm liking it so far!

Misha Milshtein

A lot of valuable comments here, mostly talking about the features and the sticker shock.

But what do you guys think of the performance? Not of the features as they are listed and explained, but of the output?

After 2 years of working with SL1  we found many ways of pushing the technology, coming up with a lot of different ways to present engaging and interactive content, despite of all the limitations.  And the biggest complaint (or concern, if you will) that we had was not that we did not have enough features, but that the html5 output for iPad was buggy. As a result, we had to invent workaround techniques to make sure the output works equally well on ipad comparing to desktop.

Now, SL2 officially supports Android. This is a great news, and this alone may justify the price of the upgrade. But how well, how reliable is it really?  What about iPad? Did it get more stable and reliable than SL1?

Finally, have you encounter the situations where something that was created and worked in SL1 does not work after SL2 republish?

Please share your experience, or please point me to a different conversation if there is one where my questions may already have been answered.

Thank you

Keith Mudd

Sigh, I felt like a kid on Christmas when I saw the release of Storyline 2 and then I realized there was no present under the tree for me. Was I the only one that kept asking for built-in closed-captioning tools? When I go look in the TechSmith store window and have always longed for my beloved Storyline to be able to do something Camtasia's had for years*, I just feel so disappointed...

*Add Captions by Synchronizing Text and Audio

You can paste a prepared script into the text box and synchronize the captioning with the audio playback. Using a prepared script allows you to save the text for future use and to check for spelling and grammatical errors. (And with a dedicated button available in the playbar to boot!)

Maybe two years and another $700 will do the trick. As much as Articulate makes my life easier with fun, intuitive controls for content creation, my work is painstakingly doubled when I have to go back through and by-hand create mulitiple layers and triggers throughout the timeline for every single slide.

Steve Flowers

Hey Keith -

I share your longing for an easier captioning tool or at least some way to import caption files srt / webvtt. Camtasia has about perfected this, in my opinion, for the desktop workflow. Masterful. If I could import those to Storyline and display in a caption widget I'd call that a good next step.

I wouldn't count Storyline 2 out yet. The first few point releases of SL1 contained some really nice features like the translation export / import.

In the mean time, the new cuepoint triggers might help with captioning. Create a template slide with cuepoints every 4 seconds (what Camtasia does) and add a trigger to each one that modifies a variable. Something like "captions". Now you have a templated file ready to change your captions in SL. 

I use a variable to fill a shape %captions% on my master slide that I control in a layer. This way I can open and close the caption at will without having a thousand objects on the slide.

Next... I'd actually use Camtasia to generate a caption file and export that so I could easily copy and paste 4 second text segments to the right triggers. They display in order. 

Painful? A little. But less painful than it could be Crossing my fingers for some slick captioning options in a future point release.

Sam Lincoln

I was caught out by the unexpected arrival of SL2; I had completely missed teasers/notifications (am I alone?).

Whilst Articulate must make money and be rewarded for its work to make improvements which are clearly more than bug fixes, I too am slightly disheartened by the price because I had no time to prepare for it.

My wife says 'No' and my childish tantrums of frustration are not going down at all well! Rather than opt for a subscription method or imposing a deadline to end the discount period any chance of offering cash strapped owners of an earlier version a payment by installment option? In other words, soften the blow and make it easier to buy your stuff.

At the moment the generosity of your product sales is not matching the generosity of your community support team and you are potentially losing sales.

Thea Leonard

Forgive me if I've missed it, but I'm not finding any information on how long Articulate will continue to support SL1?  I'm disappointed I missed any announcements about the launch of SL2.  Had I known about it sooner, I might've been able to prepare a convincing argument for my employer and have it worked into our 2015 budget.  Unfortunately, now it's too late and the best I can hope for is 2016.    

Bruce Graham

Helena Smith said:

I am new to Storyline so I do not know what a patch is?  However, I have Storyline 1 and will work with it until I am able to get Storyline 2. 

A patch is typically a "spot release", (so 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 etc.) that fixes a set of problems, rather than a version, (v1.x, v2.x) that typically mends issues, and also brings in many new tools, workflows, outputs and so on.
Helena Smith

Bruce Graham said:

Helena Smith said:

I am new to Storyline so I do not know what a patch is?  However, I have Storyline 1 and will work with it until I am able to get Storyline 2. 


A patch is typically a "spot release", (so 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 etc.) that fixes a set of problems, rather than a version, (v1.x, v2.x) that typically mends issues, and also brings in many new tools, workflows, outputs and so on.


Thanks Bruce that makes more sense.  Now I see why some people feel that a patch should have been created to address issues such as the issues with some of the auto-saving features?  

Keith Mudd

Steve Flowers said:

Hey Keith -

 I wouldn't count Storyline 2 out yet. The first few point releases of SL1 contained some really nice features like the translation export / import.

In the mean time, the new cuepoint triggers might help with captioning. Create a template slide with cuepoints every 4 seconds (what Camtasia does) and add a trigger to each one that modifies a variable. Something like "captions". Now you have a templated file ready to change your captions in SL.


I use a variable to fill a shape %captions% on my master slide that I control in a layer. This way I can open and close the caption at will without having a thousand objects on the slide.


Next... I'd actually use Camtasia to generate a caption file and export that so I could easily copy and paste 4 second text segments to the right triggers. They display in order. 


Painful? A little. But less painful than it could be... Crossing my fingers for some slick captioning options in a future point release.


Steve - Yep, going to still hope for some of those slick captioning options in a future release. I've used your method of captioning from way back when you first posted about it and it's worked really well for most clients. But, I have an increasing number of them that want the "slightly transparent caption box that sits on top of the video/graphics". So, instead of being able to keep the %captions% shape on the master slide (which sits under all other layers), I have to manually paste that shape onto the timeline of every slide. So, in cases like that - it would be sooooo nice to have captioning tools!

Good tip about using the new cuepoint triggers to help on the timeline to create a template. I'll definitely have to do that. And if I can get my hands on a copy of Camtasia (which btw, only costs $299 for a full version, albiet it's practically "one-trick-pony software") - I'd like to try using that to generate the caption file to copy from. Thanks for all the creative ideas and for possibly helping push for some of those upcoming captioning tools!

Helena Smith

Pink Lady said:

I too am a bit disappointed and agree with everyone that this should have been an update.  If it needs to be a new version, then the upgrade price needs to be much lower, and the price to upgrade should stay that price permanently, not only for a limited time.  Some folks just purchased Storyline 1, or just started learning it really well through purchases or text books or classes, and shouldn't have to cough up more money for things that are simply bug fixes.  I also wouldn't be able to get a purchase order approved and processed in the "window of opportunity" to upgrade by September 30th!  13 days!  Really?  I would like to reserve the option to upgrade when I am ready and when my company has the budget to do so.  This is a sad day for the Articulate Community.


I am in a similar situation.  Therefore, I will continue to use 1 until further notice. 

Nancy Woinoski

Helena Smith said:

Pink Lady said:

I too am a bit disappointed and agree with everyone that this should have been an update.  If it needs to be a new version, then the upgrade price needs to be much lower, and the price to upgrade should stay that price permanently, not only for a limited time.  Some folks just purchased Storyline 1, or just started learning it really well through purchases or text books or classes, and shouldn't have to cough up more money for things that are simply bug fixes.  I also wouldn't be able to get a purchase order approved and processed in the "window of opportunity" to upgrade by September 30th!  13 days!  Really?  I would like to reserve the option to upgrade when I am ready and when my company has the budget to do so.  This is a sad day for the Articulate Community.


I am in a similar situation.  Therefore, I will continue to use 1 until further notice. 


The 13 days is just a marketing gimmick. I think someone from Articulate already said the upgrade price would be extended beyond the 30th.

Tony Hoang

While I do appreciate that SL2 incorporated some of the feature requests users had, I wish that they would have had some more transparency within their upgrading timelines. I would have really appreciated it if maybe you sent out a notice to only current users about an approximate timeline for future releases. I'll echo what some others have already mentioned, that some of these new features seem really more like bug fixes.

I'm in a situation where we redesign entire 13 week university courses. Some of these features would have saved tonnes of time and headaches that were requested from day 1.

But alas, that's how she goes.

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