Forum Discussion
New in Storyline 360: Course Cover Photos
Who doesn’t love making a good first impression? And when it comes to learning, setting a tone that grabs your learners’ attention right from the start is crucial. After all, you want learners feeling inspired, curious, and eager to dig into your course. That’s why we’re super excited to share the new course cover photo feature in Storyline 360.
If your course’s first slide includes media or if your learners are viewing it on a mobile device, this new feature lets you add an eye-catching image to the start page. That way learners will see your beautiful cover photo before they launch the course—whether it's as a published Storyline file or a project being shared in a Rise 360 course using the Storyline Block.
Here’s how it works: In the player properties window, check the Cover Photo box and click the + Photo link to browse for an image.
You have four different options to choose from.
- First slide: Choose this option if the first screen in your course is static and works well as an introduction.
- Media library: Select this option if you want to use an image that’s already in your course.
- Content Library 360: If you want to use a brand-new photo or illustration, browse the huge library of images included with your Articulate 360 subscription.
- Image from file: If you’ve created a custom image, just upload the file from your computer.
Once you’ve chosen the perfect course cover photo, just click the image file link to refresh the preview screen. This GIF shows how that works.
And that’s it! When learners launch the course, they’ll see the new image you selected. We hope you’ll love adding your own eye-catching course cover photos in Storyline 360.
Want to know what other new Storyline 360 features have launched lately? Check out our What’s New page. And if you want to try out this feature for yourself but don’t have Articulate 360, start a free 60-day trial.
Thank you very much for that course :D
Hello Saeyoung Chang-Gagnon,
Thanks for reaching out!
Try setting the size of your cover photo to match the slide size of your Storyline 360 project file to see if this helps.
Let me know if this works for you!
Hi Peter,
Thanks for reaching out!
I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing this issue. I looked into Nina's support case, and found this possible workaround:
- Enable the autoplay of the block, by adding a blank static slide before the existing one. The course should no longer display a black border, but it auto-plays the block as soon as it is shown on the course. If the first slide of the project has animation(s) or media, it will not auto-play and will instead display the cover photo with a play button. If you don't mind the auto-playing of the block, that could be a workaround.
If you're able to share your file with us, I'd be happy to investigate further! You can upload it here or privately in a support case. We'll delete it from our systems once troubleshooting is complete.
- UPDATE! I got it to work.. I reread your suggestion and it worked! I had a secret animation in the background and that's why it wasn't working.. but it works now and everything is great and beautiful!
I tried this but it didn't work... :(
Hello LiG Playmakers Designer!
Glad to hear that this suggestion my colleague Kelly shared was helpful for you.
If you have any other questions or discoveries, feel free to share them in the E-Learning Heroes Community!
Have a great start to your week and happy developing! ✨
For some reason this isn't working for me. I have followed all the steps necessary and have saved and published but when I put it into the course - the cover image isn't appearing. I went into Storyline and went back into the Player editor and the image is uploaded but not appearing as the cover, even when I click on it and follow the instructions. Not really sure where to go from here - this should be a quick and simple thing that does not involve heavy lifted work arounds.
Hi Kristin,
Welcome to E-Learning Heroes! I understand that you are having an issue seeing your cover image after adding it to the player. I’m happy to work with you to figure out why this is happening! I have a follow-up question regarding your course so I can understand what you are experiencing a little better.
- Is there a media file on the first slide that requires the learner to click before the course starts? If there isn't, the cover image will only appear if your course has a media file on that first slide.
I hope this clarifies things, and I look forward to your response.
This was sent to the wrong person
Hi Russ,
You may have received an email notification on John's reply above since you posted to this thread and have been automatically subscribed to the email notifications related to this post. My apologies for this.
My colleague Leslie posted a helpful Peek recording on removing the subscription to individual posts and removing the auto-subscribe feature for posts you participated in. Here's the Peek:
Let me know if you have questions!
What types of files are supported here? I have downloaded the same image as both a png and jpeg, but I am getting this pop-up.
*Ignore the file name ☺️
can you import the images into a normal slide?
Hi Jamila,
Thanks for reaching out! I understand you are getting an error message when trying to add a .png or .jpg as a cover photo. After doing some testing on my end, I wasn't able to reproduce the same behavior. I'd love to know more about your setup so we can figure this out together.
- Which version of Storyline are you using? If you aren't using the most current version (Build 3.78.30747.0), try updating the software. This can sometimes fix unexpected behavior.
- Is this happening with more than one file or is this the only one?
- Are you working from a shared drive? If so, I recommend saving your files on your local drive before creating, editing, and publishing them. This will help minimize any unexpected behavior.
- Would you be willing to share your files (image and/or story file) here or with our support engineers privately in a support case so we can troubleshoot the issue?
I look forward to your response!
