Storyline 360 - PowerPoint import not working

Update part 1 of 2:

This is the reply from the support engineer:

Thanks for your reply and for sending your sample presentation.

I tried importing the file that you sent, and I experienced the same error message. It looks like the presentation contains corrupted information.

To troubleshoot the problem, I tried to recreate them by using the Reuse Slides feature of PowerPoint to create a fresh copy of it, and I was able to import them to Storyline successfully. I did this 5 slides at a time to make sure I can pinpoint what's causing the problem. I encountered the problem around slides 17-18.

To fix the problem, try to use the Reuse Slides feature of PowerPoint to create a fresh file before importing them to Storyline. You may import them to Storyline 5 slides at a time. Should you encounter the error on certain slides, please try to recreate them in PowerPoint before importing them to Storyline or just create them in Storyline. Here are the steps in using Reuse Slides in PowerPoint:

1) Create a new PowerPoint presentation.
2) Go to the Home tab on the PowerPoint ribbon, click the drop-down arrow beside New Slide, and choose Reuse Slides.
3) In the Reuse Slides panel, click the Browse button and choose Browse File.
4) Browse to your original PowerPoint file and click Open.
5) Mark the box to Keep/Use source formatting.
6) Select Insert Slide on the slides that you want to include
7) Save the new presentation and import them to Storyline

You can download my test files here:

Let me know if you need anything else!

Chester Arvin Morales
Customer Support Engineer
Articulate Support - https://articulate.com/support/

Update part 2 of 2:

Good morning Mr. Morales,

Thank you for your reply and help on this problem.

A coworker and I have spent several hours trying the suggestions you've sent. Unfortunately, we cannot get consistent satisfactory results. Using the rebuilding in PPT option, we are able to get 1-4 slides to import and that's all. Also, the problem we are having is not with just this one file that I sent to you. We have multiple .pptx files composed of hundreds of slides. We can't get any of those to import. In the past, before the latest updates to Storyline, we had problems importing PPT files and discovered the problem to be an issue with the custom colors we used. After we changed those colors to "standard" colors from the PPT color pallet, then the slides would import. However, that is not working now. These slides still will not import into Storyline even when we build them from scratch on the same PC we use for building directly in Storyline.

Usually, all of our .pptx files are originally created using Office for Mac (always updated to latest versions). We then save them to Dropbox and later download them onto a PC and reopen them into PPT on the PC using Office 365 (always updated to the latest versions). We then import the files into Storyline. We did have issues, as I mentioned earlier, but once we changed the colors to standard colors then the files would import with no problem. We have successfully created several dozen .story files in the past using this method. However, that is no longer working. In our effort to troubleshoot, my coworker has tried different versions of PPT on a PC but we still get the same error message I sent to you in the screenshot, "Exception During Import...". I have also uninstalled and reinstalled Storyline but that did not help, either. We have done this on a few different computers and the problem is the same.

At this point I am left to believe that it is an issue with Storyline following the latest update because that is when this problem began. I hope this information can be helpful to search for a solution to this problem. I know other folks are experiencing the same issue because I see their threads on the support forum.

Best regards,

Hi Mitch,

Thanks for opening a case. I see you're continuing to troubleshoot your files with my teammate, Chester, and you've shared some logs with him to review.

I encourage you to keep at it with him in the case to get to the root of the issue!

I'm also having the same problem. I received the memory error that David received and I tried all of the suggestions from the instructions at https://articulate.com/support/article/Articulate-Storyline-360-Failed-to-Import-PowerPoint-Presentation

Nothing has fixed the problem. Could it possibly have something to do with the firewall?

Hi Michelle,

I appreciate you walking us through your experience. I'm sorry you're facing this!

We want to understand the cause of the memory error better, where our team can try to import the file and pull a few system logs. Please let us know if you can connect with our Support Engineers:

• Connect with Our Team

Hi

I have been having this issue and noticed that after Storyline reads the PPT file, on the slide selection screen that PowerPoint was open in the system tray and was displaying the 'Theres not enough memory or system resources to start PowerPoint' error message.

Clicking OK to this message closed PowerPoint.

After PowerPoint closed I am them able to click Import and import the slides into Storyline withiut any issues.

Thanks

Gordon

Thanks Gordon. I did try that and unfortunately it did not work for me. I guess I'll keep trying other possibilities...

Hi Katie - I was able to reach out to Articulate support team. There doesn't appear to be an easy solution.

Hello Michelle,

Thank you for your update! I see you and your team are deep in troubleshooting with Ji to get to the bottom of this error.

We appreciate you working closely with us, and you're in great hands!

I'm having the same issue- turned to support and it is not fixed. You can see that lately this is a problems of many. Please fine a valid solution. It is impossible to work this way....