Action Fine Tuning resizing slide content

It sounds like the Action Fine Tuning (AFT) step is changing the captured slide’s scaling rather than just applying the intended edits. The fact that adjacent slides remain at the correct size and the issue appears after previewing makes this seem more like a rendering or scaling bug than an issue with the original capture.

I’d try duplicating the affected slide and testing AFT on the copy first. If the same 25% reduction happens, it would be useful to report it with the project file and exact SL versions, since reproducing it across both the current and previous versions could help isolate the cause.

Hopefully there’s a workaround or fix soon, as having to recreate the capture just to restore its original size would be frustrating.

Here is how recording works in Storyline. Storyline is DPI-unaware so it does not know how big your real desktop is. It uses a visualized desktop size instead (1536×864 pixels). 

Storyline's screen recorder doesn't account for your specific Windows display scaling. When your display is set to 125%, Windows sends the recorder a "virtual" 1536×864 pixel desktop instead of your real 1920×1080 one. So the recording was captured at that smaller size from the very start, before you used AFT.

Action Fine Tuning isn't actually causing this. AFT only trims which frames of the recording play, but it doesn't resize anything. What it does do thought is it causes Storyline to re-draw that slide from the original recording so that's why you see the real captured size appear in the frame. Slides you haven't touched still show the older, stretched version of the recording, which is why they look fine by comparison. So AFT isn't breaking the slide, it's just showing what was already there.

That also explains why you can't resize it back. Since it is redrawing from the recording each time the slide doesn't have a picture you can stretch.

Try this first

Before you redo anything take a look at what resolution the capture is actually stored at.

Make a copy of your .story file and rename the copy to .zip, (mycourse.story becomes mycourse.zip) then open it as a zip file. Look in the /story/media folder and check the pixel dimensions of the screen capture images.

- If they're sized at 1536 × 864, the smaller size is baked into the recording itself and re-recording is the only real fix.

- If they're sized at 1920 × 1080, the full-resolution capture is still there and this is a display problem rather than a capture problem and the course should be fine after you publish it.

If it needs to be fixed then the fix, unfortunately, is to re-record:

1. Settings > System > Display > Scale, set it to 100%
2. Restart Storyline (it checks this at startup)
3. Start a new project and confirm it comes up as 1920×1080
4. Re-record the simulation

I know that's probably not what you wanted to hear. But changing the project size won't help because those pixels were never captured in the recording in the first place, so scaling the project up will just blow up a smaller image and your screen text will get blurry.

It sounds like the Action Fine Tuning (AFT) preview is changing the scaling of the captured screen rather than just applying the intended adjustments. The fact that adjacent slides remain unaffected and that the issue persists across two versions makes it seem more like an AFT-specific behavior than a general slide-sizing problem.

As a workaround, I’d try duplicating the affected slide before applying AFT and checking whether the issue still occurs on the duplicate. It may also be worth testing with a simple capture to see if a particular object or interaction is triggering the resizing. Hopefully someone from the SL team can confirm whether this is a known issue.

Do you have a 125% scaling factor in your Windows settings? Settings > System > Display

The Slide Size of your project is 1536 x 864, which is 16:9 aspect ratio. But that size is curiously about 25% smaller than standard 1080p 16:9 of 1920x1080.

The only way I was able to replicate your issue was by changing the project from 1920 x 1080 to 1536 x 864 and unchecking the box that says "Scale existing content to fit". Action Fine Tuning did not result in my test scene doing what you're describing.

Curious to see what the resolution to your issue is!

Sorry I couldn't help more.

- Frankie