Storyline Pro's and Con's

I see most of the cool features from storyline are going to be available in the new 2012 presenter. Likely without the cons I mentioned above. I am wondering what the incentive is to buy storyline? Especially because 2012 presenter will publish to mobile as well.

Couple of items from your list, Eric:

Checkboxes have built-in states. It's an object with default behaviors. Both checkboxes and radio buttons have built-in functions that should provide familiar / intuitive function you'd expect. You shouldn't have to create hotspots.

There is also a seek bar with play, pause and volume controls (volume is a separate player property). You need to turn this on in your player settings. You can also control whether or not it appears in your slide properties on a per-slide basis.

Agree on the video in the sidebar. I think this is where the distinction between Presenter and Storyline will stick. Different tools for different purposes. For synced presentations, I think Presenter will remain the better choice between the two tools. With Presenter 2012 coming later this year, lots to look forward to

Good feedback.  

Storyline and Presenter aren't the same app, and SL's not really intended to be the big brother to Presenter, so some of the features in Presenter aren't going to be the same. Looking over some of the cons, I think that you'll see that they are available in the product (seekbar, pause on video, checkmarks with rollovers). Part of it is just spending more time with the tool.

As far as the video, since Storyline's authoring process is different, there are many ways to approach the use of video. Here's a quick demo (nothing fancy). 

• I put the video on the slide, and then moved the menu up to the topbar. I also timed content on the slide to open layers (although not necessary).
• the other slides show different ways to control the video

http://articulate-community.s3.amazonaws.com/tom/video-demo/story.html

The key point is that the authoring process in Storyline is going to be a bit different than Presenter. So there will be pros/cons when comparing the tools to what you want to do. In your case and the way you want to use video, perhaps Studio is the better option.

The core difference between Studio'12 and Storyline is that Storyline is going to give you greater control and customization for production. You have a much more robust authoring environment. Studio is built around PowerPoint and offers more form-based authoring. This keeps it simple and fast but the form offers some constraints. You won't get the programming capabilities that you get in Storyline.

If you want to get in on the beta for Studio'12, send an email to beta@articulate.com and I'll add you to the list.

Hope that helps.

One other thing, if there are features you'd like to see in Storyline or the next Studio release, be sure to submit a feature request. We look at them all and take them seriously.

Hi Eric

Storyline is a new tool, not presenter.  Storyline is more a blank canvas tool than presenter ever will be.

You can do much more in Storyline than in presenter.

As Steve says you may want to revisit checkboxes, I think you are using them wrong.

Regarding protecting content unless you use the ipad app it situation is the same as presenter now.  The ipad app is very early days  I expect many upgrades and additional functions to be added.

Regarding producing apps, this is the wrong software, and the intention was never to produce an easy way to make ipad apps.

I think you make some valid points, a lot of us have used this for a long time and have been very critical at times.  It is unfair to compare to studio.  It was never intended to replace it

Phil

BTW I really like that demo you put together really nice.  the great thing about storyline is you can build stuff easily but when you need complex the logic is all there.  Storyline should grow with you.  I find myself using flash less and less

Does storyline allow voice over/narration?  I am trying to do some research and have not found information on its ability to record sound!  Thanks

Yes, you can record directly into Storyline using a microphone or webcam.

Thanks for your replys everyone. Yes, none of it was meant as criticism. It is the pros and cons of using storyline as I saw it.

I am happy to know there is a seek bar, and I am looking forward to adding a tigger directly to the checkbox.

However, no video in the sidebar is stumbling block for me. While I am aware storyline is not a replacement for presenter, it does feel like they are building on their presenter audience (and rightly so, they have done a good job with it). I think the vast majority of people have asked that we are able import presenter into storyline. They have done an amazing job. i however do find it frustrating that the video on the stage makes it in great, but the video in the side bar does not.

As I said, this for my clients will likely be one major reason not to buy storyline. (They cannot effectively import their presenter courses into storyline without an additional large amount of work). Therefore, they wont want to migrate to this software.

I will indeed sign up for a Beta. I am excited for the new presenter as well!

Pro: excellent easing on the animations

Question... in this thread everyone is referring to Prensenter '12... does this mean that the new Presenter has be slated to be released since 2012 and now it's called Presenter'13?  Does this imply there is not a true commitment to 2013??

Hey Ron -  Articulate is working on Articulate Studio 13 (which is Presenter) right now. I believe it is in  beta testing.

Eric: I think you'll find the more you use Storyline, the more it opens up your thinking as to what can be done. For instance, this interactive wine video  (There are two mistakes: one where I tear off foil, the other where I overpour at the end.)

Which brings me to the Storyline community. There's the tool, and there's the people behind the tool. The above video was really a team effort of community members, including Phil Mayor -- people who just wanted to help out and make it better.

For me, what I miss most from PPT are some of the subtle graphic design tweaks PPT offers (e.g., condensing text, fine control over line spacing, etc). But hey, you can always save text out of PPT and import into SL, or if there's an animation you really dig, you can export out of PPT as a movie and import into SL. I imagine the powers that be will get to this eventually.

Thanks for the post. Hope to see you around. --Daniel

Hi Eric,

The simplest thing what I like the most is a library of characters is at your disposal to arrange and deliver emotionally effective scenarios. There are 20 different question types including engaging drag and drop interactions. The courses can be published for HTML5, Flash, and Mobile Devices.These make even a novice to create his Storyline with a pro touch !

Going to try Articulate Storyline for the first time now. I have already delivered a herculean project in captivate. I have another one now , i am considering myself brave enough to give Articulate SL a try. Fingers crossed!