Forum Discussion

AnnieKim18's avatar
8 months ago

New in Storyline 360: Global Notes Formatting

If you’re like many course creators, you use slide notes in Storyline 360 to give learners access to your voiceover audio script. And because text is part of your overall course design, you want the design to be consistent and fit your organization’s brand guidelines. Well, you’re in luck! With the all-new global notes formatting feature, you can instantly apply the style of your choice to all the notes in your project.

Ready to use this time-saving feature? Simply select your formatted notes and click the Text Styles button. The button changes to a notebook and pencil icon to let you know you’re updating text styles for the slide notes. Choose the style you want to update with your formatting changes, then click Update style from selection on the sub-menu—as shown below.

The formatting you’ve chosen gets applied automatically to new and existing notes using this style. What a time-saver! And here‘s an accessibility boost—we set the default font size for slide notes in new projects to 12 pt to improve legibility.

Articulate 360 subscribers can access this feature right away. If you don't have Articulate 360, start a free 30-day trial. Want to learn more about global notes formatting, slide notes, and text styles in Storyline 360? Check out these resources:

  • Then this really isn't global notes formatting unless you want to just use the default text body style, which wouldn't really work for 90% of the courses. 

    • LaurenConnelly's avatar
      LaurenConnelly
      Staff

      The Normal Text style is what is the default for the Notes section. If you'd like to create a custom style, it would require more manual work, such as applying that style to each section of Slide Notes.

    • elizabeth's avatar
      elizabeth
      Partner

      Just to clarify, there are separate "normal styles" for on-slide text and notes text. The default text body still will be specific to notes, and can be globally applied. Both the Notes format and the default on-slide text are called Normal Text, but they are two separate applications. The icons are different and you'll only see the notes formatting if you're in the notes. 

      Notes:

      On-slide text: 

       

      • TreyMcNabb-f8db's avatar
        TreyMcNabb-f8db
        Community Member

        Thanks Elizabeth!

        Articulate - perhaps Elizabeth's comment should be added to the help file for for global notes. We also weren't aware that 'normal style' applied in different sections. We were trying to create  custom global style specifically called 'Notes', with the same result mentioned by others.

    • LisaFerns-cf6ee's avatar
      LisaFerns-cf6ee
      Community Member

      That is my same response.  This is not a global formatting change solution for all notes because it must still be done slide by slide. Am i correct?

  • I tried this with a custom style and I couldn't do it.  Is this only for the default style?  My notes are usually in a different format then my body (normal style) text.

    • LaurenConnelly's avatar
      LaurenConnelly
      Staff

      Hello Jerson! 

      If you'd like to designate a custom style for your slide notes that is different from the normal text style, then you'll just need to apply the style to the slide notes individually. 

      Here's a quick screen recording!

  • Love this feature, but when I have text in the Notes selected, the Text Styles is greyed out. Am I missing something?

    • JoseTansengco's avatar
      JoseTansengco
      Staff

      Hi Stephanie,

      Happy to help!

      I did a quick test on my end using a new project file and I can confirm that formatting for notes works in the latest version of Storyline 360. 

      Can I ask if you are on the latest version of Storyline 360? If you are, try repairing your Storyline 360 installation to see if this fixes the issue. If the issue persists, please open a case with our support team here so we can take a look at what's causing the issue. 

      • StephanieHol742's avatar
        StephanieHol742
        Community Member

        That was the problem! I should have checked that first. Thanks for your help!

        Stephanie Holm
        Training Specialist
        Ethics and Compliance

        P 615-344-3545

  • Hi, I'm trying to undo whatever this update did to my file. My publishing team is required to use Storyline 3 even though I use 360. Since this update, they are unable to open this file. The file does not have any notes in the notes panel. I tried following what I read in this article to reset the style, but the error message is still getting thrown. Could someone please explain it to me like I'm five?

  • I've been having issues with nearly all my Storyline files because of the Global Notes formatting. Some of my clients are required to use the Classic Player which is not compatible with Global Notes formatting. Some of my clients need to use Storyline 3, which is also not compatible with Global Notes formatting. That's fine. Most of my projects don't even use Notes, so I don't need nor want this feature. Can I turn it off? Can I go back in time and get rid of this update and stay in an earlier version of Storyline so I don't have to deal with this persistent problem?

    I've gone through the steps to reset the styles to their default formatting. It sometimes works and sometimes does not. I've sent files to Articulate to help problem solve at this point, and they've uploaded my file into a new file because they too couldn't reset the styles to their default formatting. I've tried uploading my files into new files after resetting the styles did not work, and this also does not work. Bugs or features, bugs or features.

    I do not want to problem solve every file. Can I turn off this setting?

  • This is not global Notes formatting, unless you just want to use the default fonts. You can't globally apply a custom text style, only the built in style.

    In addition, the Text Styles is problematic.....several times I have added a custom Text Style, then gone to another slide to apply it, and poof! It's gone. Has happened twice in 2 days.