Forum Discussion
Storyline for Mac - ITS TIME
Hi Articulate!
While I appreciate the ability to download a Parallels system to run Storyline on my Mac, the Parallels system takes up ~180GB of space on my computer. Also Parallels costs $99.99/yr.
ITS TIME to create a Mac-native storyline app. Many designers and creatives use Mac for the enhanced UX for art creation, and I'm tired of moving files around constantly to make room for a program that essentially takes up ~180GB. So that's an extra $99.99/yr plus the need for external harddrives to run what should be a 1GB program with solely its own subscription costs.
Anyone else curious as to why Articulate hasn't made a Mac-friendly Storyline app yet? Would love to generate some discussion and get a fire lit under Articulate...Especially since iSpring, Elucidat, Captivate, and Camtasia are all Mac-friendly already...seems like Articulate might lose a good amount of customers if they dont get Mac friendly!
21 Replies
Fully agree. I am not willing to sacrifice the memory, let alone the money, to run Storyline on my mac. This is a handicap to my design department in some ways because it means we can't build storyline content at all, and are limited to working with just RISE 360 as the builder. Cross-platform flexibility is past due.
I am a Mac user and once my current gig is done and I return the Dell computer I was given, I will be back on my Mac at home and will likely need find alternatives to Storyline. Probably need return to Lectora as they have Mac supported versions. Sad Articulate will not create a mac version, of course it must be financial decision. If it would make money for Articulate I am sure they would invest in that OS. Storyline has been an intuitive and great product though, thanks for the last couple years.
I couldn't agree more. Many designers and studios don't have the budget to pay for Storyline and Parallels licences.
I think that Articulate would see a large increase is Storyline users if they created a Mac native version.
They way we use it in my company is that a designer builds a module in PowerPoint, XD, or Illustrator, with detailed specifications, then exports the design as PNGs which are used as templates to recreate everything in Storyline. It requires a lot of back and forth to get things correct and wastes a lot of time. It would be so much easier for designers to set up the template in Storyline.
I would love for Storyline to have a Mac version. It's your workflow that inspires me to write, however. Have you explored importing projects into Storyline directly from PowerPoint? A lot carries over directly. From Illustrator and PowerPoint, you can export emfs which can be ungrouped in Storyline to create freeforms that respond to the in-app design tools.
Adding to the noise - My company machine is Windows and I never gave a thought to the possibility of Storyline not being available on Mac until I tried to download it on my personal device tonight. I'm not paying for Parallels for one program, so I guess this project will have to wait until I have my company laptop back. Annoying.
Apple - It's part of why I don't buy your computers anymore! 🙃 [read: support Articulate when it makes a mac-native app]
I fully agree. It's time for Storyline to have a Mac version. Several years ago when Articulate would demo Storyline at conferences they would use a Mac running Parallels. I thought it was interesting that they would do that. I'm sure that has changed. I have been running Storyline on various Macs and it has always been buggy. The longer it runs on the machine the more buggy it gets. My current machine is a M1 Mac and Storyline is unusable right now. I have to use a loaner PC to get any Storyline work done since that is the only program that is not Mac native. I'm not sure why they won't do a Mac OS version but in this environment not having one will ultimately isolate part of your user base. Please just do it already!
Hi SamyStephenson and MichaelSinckler,
Thanks for adding your voices here! We hear how important a native Mac version of Storyline is for creative teams who build on macOS every day. I’ve shared your feedback with our product team so they can see how this impacts your workflow.
For now, the best way to use Storyline on a Mac is through Parallels or another Windows environment. If you run into performance issues, our support team can help review your setup and share optimization tips.
We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. It helps us shape what comes next for Storyline.
Hi,
It is definitely a shame not to have a Mac version of Storyline.
Since quite a while now I'm refusing to use softwares needing a Parallel-Desktop type of configuration, even though it turns out than those non Mac-compatible software runs better on a Mac through a Parallel-Desktop interface than on a proper windows computer... silly.
But then the transfer from the Parallel-Desktop environment to the regular Desktop still not always as fluid as it should be and very annoying to do.
Yes Articulate should think about a Mac compatible version of its Apps suite, you have done it with Peek, keep going further.
Cheers, Jerome
Here to agree!!! Come on Articulate!!!!
Agreed it's literally the only program I have to use Windows for. Everything else is native to my Mac. As a result, like others I need to run VM just to run this software. Crossover compatibility would help to some extent though I guess, but without trying it I wouldn't know if it was going to be better than a full VM.
I do seem to remember having this discussion with someone from Articulate a LONG time ago (10 years probably) while I was in a different role. They seemed to suggest that a MacOS version was something they were looking at but obviously not seriously because here we are.Completely agree. While Rise 360 is in the cloud and can be used regardless of OS the need for Articulates flagship product Storyline 360 needs to be developed to also run native on MAC OS. IT's TIME!
Hi VictorFuentes-b,
I appreciate you sharing your voice with us. We do not have any updates to share at this time. I have shared your insight with our product team. We'll be sure to share any updates in this thread so all are in the loop.
Yes. It is past time for sure. And the last time I tried it (2022) running Storyline 360 on Parallels still was very buggy. Has anyone tried it out more recently? And I mean for real substantial development of large lessons with custom coding and complex triggers, and maybe even video.
My company currently only supports running Articulate via Remote Desktop to a virtual Windows machine instance over our VPN. It works surprisingly well...when the VPN is working, but can lag and we have limited RAM and processing power.
I would buy my own copy of Parallels if I knew it actually worked reliably now.
If you have 32GB of RAM and can dedicate 16GB to Windows in Parallels, then it works fine (my desktop is an M4 Mac mini with 32GB of RAM). That being said, my M1 MacBook Air still has issues with Storyline crashing or running sluggishly slow.
