Use Peek to create interactive simulation

Mar 16, 2022

Unless I'm missing something, it seems that Articulate still isn't fully supporting or enabling Mac users to create interactive simulations using Peek. Why is that or am I wrong? My company only allows Mac users to switch to a PC instance via CloudPC, which displays everything in a terribly pixelated environment, rather than the picture-perfect retina display of my work Macbook; in other words, creating a screen recording using Storyline's "Record Screen" function results in a low-quality file. If Peek is available to those of us on Macs, shouldn't it be fully functional?

4 Replies
Lauren Connelly

Hello Rose!

I'm happy to clarify! Peek wasn't built for interactive simulations but instead designed as a quick screen recording tool that quickly uploads to Review 360 when finished recording.

It sounds like you're noticing quality issues with the Record Screen feature in Storyline. Here is an article that covers best practices for using the screen recording tool in Storyline 360, Follow These 5 Steps to Record Your Screen in Storyline 360

Please let me know if those tips are helpful for you!

Rose Medlock

Hi Lauren, thanks for responding. The heart of the issue I continue to have with Storyline is based on the fact that Articulate doesn't fully enable Mac users.

I'm familiar with the Record Screen feature; its settings options and the directions you linked to don't solve the problem that Mac users face in recording our screens when forced to do so in a PC environment, which often presents displays as low quality. A lesser though still irritating additional problem with needing to use a PC parallel means that of course I would be recording a different UI than the one I actually need for the customers I build content for. 

Peek isn't entirely useful if its sole purpose was to allow for quick screen recordings, which I can produce using Mac's native Screenshot app. Peek should be a Mac replacement for Record Screen.

Can a request for improvements to Peek be recorded? And will Articulate ever release a Mac app that doesn't require Parallels, Bootcamp, CloudPC, etc.?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Rose,

Thanks for sharing those additional insights. If you're having trouble with the quality of your screen recording, our Support Team is happy to take a look and offer advice. Often it's a minor tweak or change that can help things look clear and sharp, even within a virtual PC environment.

We're currently focused on continuing to add features to Storyline 360 and Rise 360, the latter of which does allow for native Mac authoring within your browser. We'll let folks know if we plan any new Mac-based desktop apps but it's not currently on the horizon for this year. 

Rose Medlock

I'll definitely contact the Support folks in hopes that they can help; I appreciate the suggestion, Ashley. I also very much look forward to improvements to Storyline. As for Rise 360: It's not particularly useful in our case for a few reasons, but it's possible that may change depending on how it evolves.