Forum Discussion
Storyline 360 - Animate In By Paragraph Missing Words and Lines
I'm encountering a super frustrating bug in Storyline 360.
Whenever I use the Animate In By Paragraph option, there is a chance that it will either;
- Completely skips lines in the paragraph,
- Completely skip an entire paragraph, or,
- Delay the paragraph from appearing, throwing off all timings for the rest of the slide.
I've found a "fix" where I just move the paragraph back and forth in the timeline, and it seems to fix it, but then it also appears that they just decide to break on their own. So I fix the issue, it previews correctly, I move on to other slides to fix the issue, and it just breaks again, but sometimes it doesn't break, but one that previously worked fine, now no longer works. Then, when I publish the module to Review 360 or to a SCORM, I find that they are broken again.
I've attached a video to further demonstrate the issue.
I've tried updating SL, rewriting the paragraphs, and even just starting again, but I have had this happen in 3 separate storyline files on multiple machines now.
Any assistance would be great, as this bug is making the review process of making modules extremely tedious and makes SL nearly unusable.
- Hi everyone!I'm happy to share that we just released Storyline 360 (Build 3.70.29211.0)! In this update, we've released the fix for the bug where text boxes that animate by paragraph might not load consistently.Now all you need to do is update Storyline 360 in your Articulate 360 desktop app! If you run into any issues, please reach out to us by submitting a support case!
Hello Thuc-Nhu Vu, and welcome to the E-Learning Heroes community!
I apologize for the issues you are experiencing. I see you worked on a case with our support engineer Dexter.
Here's an article on how to fix erratic behavior on your computer.
If that doesn't resolve your issue, you may need to remove the Articulate 360 files from your computer and install them again. If you need the steps again on how to do that, feel free to respond to the email you received from support.
Please let me know if you need additional assistance!
I have done the steps several times. I have also reverted back to the update where you said that you fixed the bug.
I believe the bug is in the animate by paragraphs where the program does not recognize the character spacing (space or a carriage return) that means paragraph versus blank line verses space. If I make it animate in as a whole object. There seems to be no problems. It just meant that I had to spend several hours remaking text boxes and redoing the animation and timing for each text box.
Thuc Vu
Hi Gary! I apologize for the issues you are experiencing.
Connecting with one of our Support Engineers by opening a case would be best so we can take a look at your project. We will delete the file from our servers when troubleshooting is complete.
Any updates related to this issue. We have struggled with the similar issue more than a year now.
Hello Kimmo,
I've reviewed Alistair's case, and it looks like one of the identified causes of the issue is certain fonts that were installed on their machine. If your course is using custom fonts, are you able to replicate the behavior if you switch your course's font to Arial or any of Storyline 360's built-in fonts?
If using Arial doesn't fix the issue, would you be willing to share a copy of your Storyline 360 project file with me so I can take a closer look at what's happening? You can upload it here, or in private through a support case for testing.
Joe Tansengco
Hello Kimmo,
I've reviewed Alistair's case, and it looks like one of the identified causes of the issue is certain fonts that were installed on their machine. If your course is using custom fonts, are you able to replicate the behavior if you switch your course's font to Arial or any of Storyline 360's built-in fonts?
If using Arial doesn't fix the issue, would you be willing to share a copy of your Storyline 360 project file with me so I can take a closer look at what's happening? You can upload it here, or in private through a support case for testing.
Just letting you know, I have experienced this issue on machines without any custom fonts installed, across multiple different projects, many of which do not share any fonts and some which use only system fonts.
I have an interesting aspect of this error in the 'animated by paragraph'. It depends on when and how you publish the function.
here is a screen capturing of a minimal example (3 text blocks with animated by paragraph)
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/d6c8b36a-23c1-465a-80c5-d92bb588a9ca/review
page 1:
-> block in the middle is the problem
-> error: line 4 delayed and line 5 missing complete4 passes at the recording
(1) start storyline file -> publish to web -> error -> close storyline
(2) start storyline file -> open slide view -> close slide view -> publish to web -> no error -> close storyline
(3) start storyline file -> mark the slide (not open it) -> publish to web -> no error -> close storyline
(4) start storyline file -> publish to web -> error -> close storylinepage 2:
-> only animation errors - no missing textthe cause of the error in my example is the use of user defined text styles
Jürgen
Hello Joe,
we have also tried using Arial and the issue is the same. Last thing we did was uninstalling and re-installing SL according to this instruction (https://articulate.com/support/article/Articulate-Storyline-360-How-to-Fix-Unexpected-or-Erratic-Behavior). But the problem still persist.
My colleague has already opened a support case around this issue (Case #03230580). But all the discussions I have red so far says that Articulate is not able to replicate the issue on yourside, but it is obvious that many of your clients are struggling with it. I hope that you at Articulate take this issue seriously, as it is not possible that in each case the problem is on client side.
Implementing separate boxes is really not a solution us and I don't need any workarounds. I just want to understand what causes this problem and how we can prevent it happening again.
Many thanks in advance!
Just to let you know Joe, I have tried using Arial and it doesn't fix the issue. I do not need to review the project again.
The issue is still in effect so I've just trained myself to use separate text boxes when I need to animate in paragraphs.
I've seen this issue too and while it isn't ideal to have to do so, removing the 'animated by paragraph' instruction and reapplying it seems to clear the bug for me.
HI, you mean that removing the "animated by paragraph" from the menu and reapplying it do the thing? If so, this is one more workaround, which does not exactly solve the core problem. Thanks anyway!
That's what I meant yes.
I agree, it's a workaround, but sometimes these workarounds are life savers when we're working to a deadline.
That's good to know. Easiest workaround I've found is to open up the dropdown of the text in the timeline, and move each paragraph's timeline object back and forward. This seems to force Articulate to re-render the text animation.
It's extremely frustrating and time consuming to do this every time I publish a course, especially if its to SCORM and I have to watch the entire module to make sure the text hasn't messed up.
It's been happening for the better part of a year now, and it's costing me A LOT of time to fix each time.I agree that workarounds are great in a pinch! This workaround doesn't always work for me in the last project. I haven't tried it with a different project.
We are still experiencing this with the latest SL360 update. Our workaround was to select all text, change font (we went from Open Sans to something custom [72]), then change font again back to original (Open Sans). That was it. Did that to all of our slides and republished. They were working as expected afterward.
I've removed all the custom text styles from a project, and only had modified built-in text styles, but the issue is still occurring. It's now being joined by some titles being published using the wrong font as well.
I can also confirm that the following work arounds do not work for me:- Removing user defined text styles
- Adjusting the timing on the animation
- Moving the entire text block in the timeline back and forth.
- Saving, closing, and reopening the project.
So far, the ONLY fix that I have seen work is moving each paragraph's timeline timings back and forth, which is a HUGELY time consuming process.
Furthermore, my team and I are losing HOURS of project time publishing and watching modules, which is fine when they're on Review, but when we've published to a SCORM that has a disabled seekbar and menu, it can take HOURS depending on the length of the module, and if we find ONE text animation glitch towards the end of the review, we have to start the entire process all over again.
Articulate, you really need to get this sorted QUICKLY. We are spending thousands (and even more now the prices have increased) for a software suite that has halved our efficiency to the point where we are considering other module authoring tools to replace Articulate.
This is exactly as my thoughts! No single solution, but anything you do for the text box might or might not solve the problem temporary. Testing after any change and phase is just too time consuming and this issue is really making us work difficult. In projects where there is only one language version, we could even think putting each text on its own box, but this does not work when you working with close to twenty language versions.
I have almost give up the hope for getting this fixed by the service provider!
I recently had to make a 90 minute module with both standard and accessible versions, and this bug made the review process nearly impossible. I'm currently trying to publish a simple linear course, and the bug is just appearing left, right, and centre.
The worst part is when I'm publishing to SCORM and lock the seekbar, I have to watch the entire module and just hope that it doesn't happen. And if it does, I have to re-publish it and watch the ENTIRE module again just to see if its fixed, or if any other text bugs have appeared. And I've not found a way to unlock the seekbar from read only when it's already been published to SCORM so that I can quickly review it.
I don't really want to have to watch the same module over and over again when I know that it has been reviewed and I simply just need to publish it.
It's been over a year and not a single worthwhile peep from Articulate has been offered. Articulate, please stop adding new features, and actually iron out all the issues with the features that already exist. The more you add, the harder it will be to fix. My company is actively looking for another software to use for e-Learning authoring, because this bug has been present for over a year and nothing has been done to fix it. I'm losing hours upon hours of time and money on each project all because of a glitch in the software that I have no control over.
Storyline 360 is completely unusable at this point.
it would probably be a great simplification for you if the test via Review 360 would already show the problems.
Take a training where SCORM showed problems and export the (original unfixed) version of the training to Review 360.
publish with this particular flow:
- Close storyline completely
- then open the storyline project
- immediately publish to Review 360 (no other click before publish)If also now the error occurs on Review 360 then it is the same error behavior as mine, if not it is another problem.
Jürgen
Jürgen Schoenemeyer
it would probably be a great simplification for you if the test via Review 360 would already show the problems.
Take a training where SCORM showed problems and export the (original unfixed) version of the training to Review 360.
publish with this particular flow:
- Close storyline completely
- then open the storyline project
- immediately publish to Review 360 (no other click before publish)If also now the error occurs on Review 360 then it is the same error behavior as mine, if not it is another problem.
Jürgen
Hi Jurgen,
The problems do appear in Review 360, however, if you make any adjustment to the content (including saving and reopening the project), it re-initialises the text renderer and the issue re-occurs. It's never the same line of text or the same slide.
Even if I completely close Storyline, reopen the project, and immediately publish it to Review 360, the glitch can (and most likely will) still reappear randomly throughout the project.
Hi Alistair,
I can see that you are already working with my colleague Matthew on this issue. Your case is in good hands, and I've also shared your additional thoughts on the matter in the case that you opened. We'll continue troubleshooting your issue there!
