Internet Explorer 11, missing text

Dec 19, 2013

One of my users in another state is having an unusual issue.  He completed two modules of the six in a Storyline course several weeks ago.  Last week, his PC was replaced, apparently including a bright shiny new Internet Explorer 11.0.2.  Big problem - going back into the LMS, he can open the third module, and sees the pictures, but gets no text.  I had him log out and try again, restart and try again, with no change.  He did all this on Monday, was out on Tuesday, and tried it all again from scratch on Wednesday. 

The font we used is Calibri, which is a pretty standard MS font, available everywhere.  But when we publish a module, it's supposed to include all the used fonts, so I'm thinking that really shouldn't be it.

Is there any known conflict between IE11 and Storyline when it comes to text?

Nobody else at his site is having this issue.  None of our other users (several hundred nationwide) have reported this issue.  My coworker installed IE 11 here, restarted the course, and is not having the issue. 

Any ideas? 

19 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Kathi,

Since it's just this one user, I'd also have them check out all the other viewing requirements here.

I looked for other threads that were specific to IE11, and since it's fairly new there wasn't much to go on. I did find one, where someone suggested checking the ActiveX controls - but that user was receiving a popup or script error. Any idea if this user receives an error message of any kind? Is it just the one module that is causing the issue? If so, I'd also look into any differences between how you published this module and the others that the user is able to see. Lastly, you could also check to see if the user is able to view the course if posted outside the LMS - you could use a site such as SCORM Cloud or Tempshare to send the user another version to try. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Ralph,

Using the information in that forum thread are you able to successfully access your content in IE11? If not, we may need to take a look at your .story file and how it's set up and where you're hosting your content. You'll also want to confirm that you're using the Flash output vs. the HTML5 as IE11 is not supported for HTML5 per the system requirements here. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi James -

It's a great point, and I like to use a site such as HTML5test.com to compare and see how different browsers behave with HTML5 output. I also know that a number of users have shared that thoroughly testing HTML5 content in other browser to see which features work and which don't is a way to ensure that you're able to utilize the browser of your choice and still have things work normally. With that being said, if you run into something that doesn't work in a non supported browser (with Flash or HTML5) then it won't be something that we can assist with, but happily defer to the community for their expertise. 

Todd Haynes

My company (Fortune 100) uses IE11 as the required browser. Now with Flash being officially on the kill list by Adobe, Microsoft, etc. there is limited time to find a solution. I'm guessing IE is the standard for most large companies. So, next year when Flash is no longer supported by Adobe and Microsoft, what will we do when HTML5 doesn't work in IE? I'm experiencing the fonts not displaying correctly the 2nd + time a course is launched in IE. The 1st time the HTML5 renders the font correctly. Is this an IE issue or Storyline issue? I don't know, but our 35,000 employees aren't too happy about it :(

As a web designer, I spend a lot of time making sure my code works in all major browsers. I'm not so ready to let Articulate off the hook here. I KNOW HTML5 can work in IE. It's a matter of spending time to code workarounds. It's not even elegant sometimes - but it's necessary. At least the fonts should render correctly.   

Alyssa Gomez

Hi there Todd, and thanks for joining the conversation. 

Sorry you're seeing some trouble with font rendering. What version of Storyline did you use to build the content? Both Storyline 3 and Storyline 360 support HTML5 in Internet Explorer 11, so I wouldn't expect any problems there. 

It's also worth mentioning that Internet Explorer 11 isn't a great browser for HTML5 content in general. Try opening this HTML5 Test Site in various browsers to compare how it performs in different environments. 

If you're still seeing an issue with font rendering and you'd like me to take a look, send a copy of your file (or just one troublesome slide) my way. You can attach it within a new thread comment, or send it privately here. 

Wesley Adams

Interesting. Looks like our font Garage Gothic (bold and regular) does not rendering in IE 11 as well. This is under the HTML5 publish. See our text example in this Review 360 link in Chrome Version 73.0.3683.103 (Official Build) (64-bit) VS. IE 11.706.17134.0:

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/ef64a4c8-19af-4691-8f0c-3bd4e03770ab/review

Is it that the IE 11 browser does not support certain fonts or that it does not support non-web safe fonts? And if this is the later, what would be the fix for users who are required to use HTML5 with IE 11 due to the Flash security issue/retired-support change coming?

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Wesley,

A quick search reveals that the font you are using is an Adobe font and we do have an open issue where we are investigating some user specific issues.

With your permission, I'd like you to share your project file with our support engineers to investigate what's happening. You can share it privately by uploading it here. It will be deleted when troubleshooting is complete.

Wesley Adams

Sure! I've sent it over. However, the font we have is not through Adobe TypeKit/Fonts as we have the original .OTF files. We do use Adobe TypeKit sometimes but in this case, we did not need to have Adobe Fonts for this course. I've noted this in the case report 01765734.

We noticed that if you do NOT have Adobe Creative Cloud opened and a SL project needs fonts from the Adobe Fonts, your SL project may say you are missing these fonts. When you open Adobe Creative Cloud app, the fonts are synced with your computer through your subscription and usually should fix any missing fonts from Adobe Fonts. Not sure if this helps or not but wanted to point it out.

Wesley Adams

Cool so far, converting the 2 fonts I had that were .OTF to .TTF fonts using https://onlinefontconverter.com/ seems to fix the font disappearing issue in IE 11. Be sure to uninstall your previous OTF fonts before installing the new TTF fonts. 

Waiting to confirm with Cleo that they got it working too. Otherwise I'd mark this as resolved. Thanks team! 

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