Forum Discussion
Zoom regions placed at 0:00 of the timeline don't trigger
In previous versions of Storyline it was possible to place a zoom region at the beginning of the slide timeline so that a slide could begin "closeup" on an initial focal point and then be zoomed out to reveal the larger picture.
In 360 however, it seems that when a zoom region is placed at the start of a slide timeline it doesn't trigger. Only when the zoom region's timeline ends does Storyline very quickly zoom in just so that it can zoom out immediately again.
I can "work around" this by placing the zoom region at 0:00:10 of the time line and having the image I want to zoom in on follow it, but this looks quite awkward in comparison to how smoothly I was able to get this effect working in Storyline 2.
As an aside, when I set the zoom region property to "instantaneous" it doesn't seem to trigger at all, regardless of where it is on the timeline.
Has anyone else encountered and/or resolved this?
I am having this same issue. I was wondering the cause of this, so thanks for posting the reason why to decrease my troubleshooting time. This is a frustrating and inconvenient issue that Articulate needs to solve.
Hi there, Greg and Dana. We discovered this issue as well, and have it documented for our team. I'm going to add this discussion to that documentation to keep you updated.
It looks like this dysfunction is happening in the HTML5 output (which will include previewing your project). Can you publish for Flash or Flash/HTML5 fallback and see if it works in the Flash output? We have that listed as a workaround for now.
I'm sorry for the trouble!
I'm having the same problem, and I rely on this capability a great deal, since my projects often involve navigation demos and simulations for people who will access the e-learnings from small laptop screens.
I tried Crystal's idea of publishing to Flash/HTML5 fallback. It failed to work in the post-publishing View Project mode, but I tried uploading it to my website on the desperate hope that it might still work that way (yes, I really need this function). It didn't work, In addition, this time, when I tried previewing some of the slides, I found the timing of the motion recordings was wrong, with the post mouse-click recording showing up before the mouse. I didn't see this happen before the most recent update, and don't know if it is related to the zoom problem.
In any case, please make corrections to enable multi-slide zooming a priority on your workaround list.
Sorry you're running into this problem as well, Carla! I'm curious, did you test the output on your website in a Flash-enabled browser? You can verify that you're actually viewing the Flash output if your see story_flash.html at the end of the URL.
Would you mind if I had a look at your file? I'd like to test the zoom function in Flash, as well as the timing issue you mentioned. Thanks!
Hi Alyssa,
Thanks for your information. I found the zoom function actually worked as it should when I followed your advice and used a link ending with the story_flash.html selection for executing the file. While this is okay as a (very) temporary workaround, it is still extremely time-consuming as a way to test an e-learning: I have to publish, then ftp it to my website, test it and, if I find anything wrong, delete it from my website, correct it, republish and re-ftp it, and delete the old version from my website. Each of these steps takes time. I can't preview a scene to check how things are working, and even if I publish the whole course (which may have many scenes) I can't use the View Project option after publishing.
In addition, as I mentioned earlier, not only is the zoom a problem in previewing, but the timing of when the recorded segments play is also incorrect. For example, if I have some audio introduction, then zoom in and show the mouseclick and subsequent screen change of the recorded segment, I sometimes see the screen change while the audio is introducing what will be seen, then the zoom happens and the mouseclick follows. It may all work fine once its published, but that also means more time is required to make sure everything's working as planned. This is not what I'd call Rapid E-Learning. This is a time-wasting pain.Once again, I hope your company recognizes this "little glitch" as something serious, with a serious impact customers like me who are always being asked to do things faster.
Hi Alyssa,
The zoom feature issues happen in Storyline Preview mode, so it is not the output settings. It also happens in all of my courses. I think it's just a software glitch.
Thanks!
I hear you, Cara. I know this is causing a lot of headache for you, and our team is on it. We've prioritized this bug, and I promise to keep you posted on when the fix is released. Stay tuned!
Thanks. I appreciate your response and the prioritization and look forward to a resolution!
I am also encountering this issue and it is causing all sorts of heartaches in my development. Creating software simulations is quite difficult on Storyline 360 as there is no ability to implement zooms across multiple slides or to have instantaneous zoom at the beginning of a timeline. The text input features are lacking and I have ran into issues with right-clicks when publishing on the LMS. The inability to play audio across scenes rather than just individual slides is also a major negative in my opinion. All in all, for software simulation type courses, I have found Storyline 360 severely lacking in comparison to other available software.
Despite the great support community here and the numerous suggested workarounds by other members, there doesn't appear to be much happening internally in terms of actually improving the product. Many of the features/bugs that I describe above have been around for years and there seems to be little impetus to actually add/fix them any time soon. I have used Storyline for several years for other courses at other companies but unfortunately, I will have to consider cancelling my subscription this year because the majority of my development will now involve software simulations and I am becoming increasingly frustrated at Storyline's limitations in this regard.
Hey there, Derek. I can really understand your frustration, and I thank you for taking the time to tell us about how bugs have impacted your work.
The zoom region not initiating at the timeline was identified as a high-priority issue, and we expect to see a fix for this bug released by the end of next week. Thanks for hanging in there.
Let me know a little more about your right-click issues with LMS hosted courses - I’m happy to bring that to our team’s attention.
We’re approaching our one year anniversary for Articulate 360, and we’ve made great strides. Storyline 360 alone has received 9 major updates and several patches to quickly address issues getting in the way of your experience as a user, as well as a continuous flow of new features. I’m inspired and continue to advocate for your needs!
Let us know about what other issues you run into, and we’ll put our heads together to get you working at full speed.
Hi Crystal,
That would be great if that fix is ready soon. I have already built a considerable part of my course on the basis that this functionality would work as expected and will be in major trouble if it doesn't. In fact, the course won't be usable without it.
I tried your workaround but the zoom/timeline functionality on published courses doesn't display correctly on the LMS. I am assuming that it might work with Flash enabled in the browser but this is not something that I can ask everyone at the company to do as there are related security/IT issues that make such a request impractical.
In relation to the right-click issue, I opened a ticket and managed to find a workaround by using a trigger that I created, rather than the hotspot that is automatically generated by Storyline when you record the screen. Luckily, we don't use right-click functionality in most of our software products so this is more of an inconvenience that a showstopper.
The zoom functionality not working properly is a showstopper for me though, as it is vital to the usability of the course itself. Hopefully, this issue is sorted before my deadline passes because it will be difficult for me to justify continuing to use Storyline if it isn't fit for our purposes.
Crystal,
I too, am waiting to release courses due to the zooming issue. I'm really hoping the update will be out soon and that it will fix the issue.
Hi Derek and Dana,
Thank you for your patience, I know this is causing you a lot of headaches and trouble, but we'll let you know as soon as we can once that update is released.
For the additional issue you submitted Derek, it looks like the right click trigger failed in your Moodle LMS, but worked in Review? If so, I'd also suggest testing it in SCORM Cloud to see if that behaves any differently than Moodle. If it works there, it sounds like an issue to also raise with Moodle.
