Forum Discussion
Importing Flow Diagrams into Storyline
Hello everyone:
How do you import flow diagrams from PPT to Storyline to keep the diagram boxes and components separate and not as a picture? Can you recommend an app to quickly create flow diagrams that imports into Storyline without changing into a picture/vector image? Please see attachment.
12 Replies
e they PPT shapes? They should import, it could be they are grouped
Thank you, Phil. The flow diagram does import as separate pictures when I ungroup it, but not as shapes. I would like to edit the text.
It also depends upon what kind of diagram you're using.
SmartArt diagrams are complicated. For example, if you copy one into Adobe Illustrator to edit the graphic elements you will see countless layers of grouped objects and clipped selections. SmartArt will just either paste into SL as a vector or import as a single image. If you ungroup the SmartArt before saving the PPT and then import it into SL, it will come in as a group of smaller images, but the blocks will still not be editable since they are images.
If you just draw a flow diagram out of shapes and text on a PPT slide, copying that (as a unit) and pasting it into SL will also result in a vector SVG. If you save the PPT slide with the diagram, you can import it into SL (File > Import). This will import the diagram into SL as a collection of shapes on your timeline, as you requested. Once imported, you could copy and paste the slide objects onto other slides or into another SL project as needed.
Thank you, Nathan. I would like these to import as shapes, not pictures so I can edit the text.
Import should work then. You will likely need to save any PPT diagram as a single slide and then import that single PPT slide into SL to get it to do what you want. Again, this is assuming you're not using SmartArt.
I think Nathan had some really good reasons why?
What was this created in? Is it an embedded vision or created natively in PPT, is it a smart object? You may need to ungroup further or it could be you are using shapes unsupported by Storyline. Can you share the slide?
This diagram was created in PPT, and I ungrouped it. It imported into Storyline as separate, small pictures. I can't share the proprietary file but thank you all for your help.
Phil has a good point. If you look at the attached files (PPT diagram and same diagram imported into SL project), some of the elements come in as shapes and some come in as images (emf format). To have the best chance of your diagram coming into SL as shapes, makes sure to use shapes shared between SL and PPT when making the diagram. PPT has a shape category labeled Flowchart. Don't use those. Stick with the Basic Shapes category, and make those work. You can see that many of the shapes have similarities between the categories, but the Flowchart shapes will not import into SL as native shapes, but as images.
In the attached PPT file, I converted some of the flowchart shapes to the equivalent basic shapes. Those are the ones that imported into the SL project as shapes. The remainder came in as emf images. You can change some others to see the effect.
Keep this in mind when creating your flowchart, and you'll have a better chance at a clean and editable import.
Are they shapes that are supported in storyline?
Thank you, the shapes may be flowchart diagram images created by the SMEs. I appreciate your help.
