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JonPlacebo's avatar
JonPlacebo
Community Member
14 days ago

Font size in the "Notes" panel

Hi,

The font size of the text in the "Notes" panel seems to be changing when a Storyline presentation is published 

I'm currently publishing to Reach360.com.

All of the comments that follow relate to the text in the "Notes" panel i.e. I'm not having any problems with text on the slides themselves. 

For several years, I was using a 7-point font in the "Notes" panel and this looked fine when the Storyline presentation was published. Then about 6 months ago, for unknown reasons, the text in the Notes panel was very hard to see (after the presentation was published) i.e., the 7-point font look looked like 2 or 3-point font.  

I then laboriously changed the font size of text in the "Notes" section of 3,000+ slides to 12-point font and this looked fine when the presentation was published.

However, today the 12-point font looks more like 30-point font when viewing the Notes panel of the published version of the presentations.

As far as I'm aware, I haven't changed anything in Storyline or Reach360. 

I don't have the time or inclination to work through 3,000+ slides to reduce the font size - (so that it is a good font size to view when published) - particularly if further changes to the software negate the changes I have made.

Please advise me whether something is happening "behind the scenes" i.e., have any changes been made to Storyline or Reach360 that could explain what I'm experiencing.

Any help (or insight) would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Jon

 

 

 

  • Hi JonPlacebo I'm sorry but I can't answer the question regarding what is happening with your Notes, but I would recommend that next time you use notes and edit them, it is better to create a Notes style and apply to the text in Note. Therefore if you need to make any global updates in future (size, colour) you can edit the style and it will update all instances that use the style you have defined.

    Solution: I do have a quick and easy solution for you though. Using JavaScript you can dynamically add a style to the HTML document at runtime which will adjust the size of the font and override any styles currently applied.

    1. Open the SLIDE MASTER
    2. Add a new timeline starts JavaScript trigger and past in the following script:



      // Config
      const fontSize = "20px";
      const lineHeight = "25px";
      // Script
      const styleID = "custom-transcript-style";
      if(!document.getElementById(styleID))
      {
      	const style = document.createElement("style");
      	style.id = styleID;
      	style.innerHTML = `
      		#transcript-content p > span {
      			font-size:${fontSize} !important; 
      			line-height:${lineHeight} !important;
      		}
      	`;
      	document.head.appendChild(style);
      }

       

    3. Update the variable value for fontSize and lineHeight to your preference.

       
  • JonPlacebo's avatar
    JonPlacebo
    Community Member

    Hi Sam,

    Thanks for taking the time to provide the suggested solution above.

    I'm still hoping that someone can explain:

    • why (in the Notes panel) the font size appearing in Storyline is not the same as the font size in the published presentation; and

     

    • why there was no disparity between font sizes (i.e., Notes panel in Storyline vs. Notes panel in the published presentation) for a long time, followed by a disparity for several months, followed by a new disparity over the last 24 hours.

     

    It will take me many hours to manually change the font size i.e. I have a total of 5,000+ slides that are supported by notes. 

    Even if I adopt the solution you have kindly provided, I assume it will take a long time to add the Javascript, upload and test each presentation i.e., I have 100+ presentations, all with different slide masters.

    In the meantime, my learners are viewing giant text in the Notes panel. It's not a "good look" and the general perception is that the software is basic (i.e., people tend to focus on the "weakest link") and might start questioning the fee that's charged for viewing the presentations. 

    I'm hoping there's a quick fix - but appreciate your help.

    Kind regards,

    Jon

     

      

       

     

     

    • SamHill's avatar
      SamHill
      Super Hero

      Hi @ JonPlacebo are you able to provide an example Storyline file. Just a single slide demonstrating the issue will be suffice. I can take a look and if I can't find a solution it may be a bug that needs reporting to Articulate.

      I haven't seen any similar posts on the forums and they tend to appear quickly when there is something fundamentally wrong with the software or there has been a significant change.

      There is a method without using JavaScript, that would just involve editing the published HTML file and adding the styles directly into the page.

      Anyway, attach a file and I'll take a look. If you could also show a screen shot of the published content how you see it, we can the do a like for like comparison.

  • JonPlacebo's avatar
    JonPlacebo
    Community Member

    Hi Sam,

    Thanks for following up on this matter.

    I have attached 2 files i.e., 

    • the first file (pdf) provides a comparison of the font size in Storyline (before being published) and Reach 360 (after being published); and
    • the second file is the single slide in the Storyline file.

    I would appreciate any suggestions regarding what might be causing the text to be magnified.

    Thanks for your help.

    Jon

     

     

    • SamHill's avatar
      SamHill
      Super Hero

      Hi JonPlacebo I think we get different results. I tested locally and then via SCORM Cloud and the font size corresponded with the size defined in Storyline. For example, when viewing the published content at it's original size, the font size corresponded with that defined in Notes.

      The font size scales up as expected and proportionally with the content.

      It might be worth testing on a different computer to see if you get a different result. I'm on Win11/Chrome latest.

      I would also recommend moving to the Modern Storyline player as their have been significant accessibility enhancements that I don't think were carried through to older player.

      Good luck with trouble shooting.

  • JonPlacebo's avatar
    JonPlacebo
    Community Member

    Hi Sam,

    Thanks for your time and effort. 

    I have transitioned from PowerPoint to Studio to Storyline over the last decade or more and have also changed the dimensions of the player at least once.

    I also see that the default font-size in Notes was changed by Articulate (circa February 2024) to 12-point.

    I'm using Windows 11 and have tested in Chrome and Edge. My problems must be caused by an historical issue - resulting from the various transitions. 

    I will standardise the font in Notes in each presentation using the "Normal text" utility in Storyline.

    I prefer the way the "classic" player looks but might experiment with the "Modern" player. 

    I appreciate your endeavours to find a solution.

    All the best for the future.

    Thank you.

    Jon

    PS. I can spell [despite the spell check trying to force me to use US spelling]. 

     

       

     

    • SamHill's avatar
      SamHill
      Super Hero

      Hi JonPlacebo no problem at all.

      One final experiment you could try is to set-up a completely new Storyline file (do not copy from another project) with the correct dimensions, and then import the project slides into the new Storyline file. This technique was provided to me by Articulate for an unrelated issue, but I have used it for other unexplained issues with Storyline in the past (triggers not firing, broken project, unexpected blank slides). It seem to be effective at removing gremlins. This may be one of those instances.