Forum Discussion
Text autofit improvements not compatible with latest Storyline 3
I have done so much research and exploring and STILL sit with the issue where a Storyline 360 file is not compatible with the latest version of Storyline 3 due to "Text autofit improvements". Is there ANY workaround to this that anyone has had success with?
I have tried the latest versions of both 360 and 3 and have also tried the Design > Fonts > unticked 'Display accessible type by default'. I can't find the text box with the issue and Storyline does not indicate where it is either. I have removed over 80% of slides and have only 4 slides left to see if it works, but I still don't have success.
Overall, coming from a graphic design background, I find the UX of Storyline quite primitive and frustrating (excluding the bombing out when trying to save a file and losing everything but that's a different story). Overall not a good experience with this software unfortunately with so many bugs and impractical user experiences.
The solution to this article Text Autofit Improvements: Turn Off? - Articulate Storyline Discussions - E-Learning Heroes unfortunately does not work either.
Does this mean that my colleague has to redo all the courses in Storyline 3? Surely this should not be the case?
It's my understanding that 360 projects default to having the autofit option off. But when it's enabled, storyline prompts to save a backup copy as it's a global change. I believe that even if you had a blank project and deleted all the slides it's still something that is enabled for that file. I think the autofit is a good feature and has its place, but isn't backwards compatible - it seems. Sorry you're having trouble. If you are in a mixed dev environment, here is a list of other difference that could crop up for you. https://articulate.com/360/storyline#compare
All that being said. I just tried something that worked for me to restore a file to a stage before updating the autofit. This is a very hacky approach and you absolutely MUST MUST MUST do this on a backup of your file.
I took my 360 storyline file with autofit enabled.
- I duplicated the file.
- If windows doesn't show your file extensions then enable them under the folder view options so you can see the ".story" extension.
- Rename the duplicate file by removing ".story" and adding ".zip"
- Unzip the folder
- You'll see a number of folders. We are going to change 3 files in here. Use notepad, not MS Word.
- Edit theme.xml in the \story\theme folder. Change "true" to "false" where is says "usenewautofitdefaults"
- Edit the featureManifest.xml file in the docProps folder. Remove the portion that starts with "<TextScrolling2" and ends with the next "/>"
- Edit the story.xml file in the story folder. Near the top change two things: change "true" to "false" next to both "usenewautofitdefaults" and "autfitupgraded".
- Select all the folders that (not the parent folder) of what you had unzipped and rezip it all.
- Rename the zip file to remove the ".zip" portion and add ".story"
When I did this and opened the story file in 360 the option for autofit had been restored to its previous state. I was unable to test the output file in storyline 3.
I've attached below the storyline 360 file that I had upgraded to autofit then manually downgraded using the above. Feel free to test opening it in storyline 3 to save you the time if the above steps won't end up working.
Please Please, for all that is holy, do this on a backup of your project. Somewhere out there an articulate dev is shaking their head at me for this craziness.
OMG it works!!
Awesome, I'm glad it worked for you.
I have encountered an issue when importing a PPT file. Am I right in thinking that PowerPoint now also has the text autofit?
Having started a new project by importing a PPT file into it and, having done loads of work on it, I can no longer open the file as it tells me that it has text autofit. The file has been nowhere near 360!
I have raised a ticket with support, but thought I'd come on here to warn others to save hours of lost work.
