150 Replies
S T

"What can we do to make Articulate listen to us? If anyone has suggestions, I'm listening!"

Switch to another product? I did a quick search of top authoring tools, it's shocking how far down the rankings Articulate has fallen in many of these lists.

As someone said before, 'Sorry for my sharp tone'. But this really feels disrespectful to your customers to have basic features, requested for years, completely ignored.

Jonny Kowal

Hi, new to articulate. Yep, surprised that after so many years (going by this thread) that there is still no way to make an image a link. For example redirecting to a survey site I want learners to be access. I have a nice image illustrating a redirect to a survey but no way to make it a link. I do not want to use a text link at all.

Can I ask why this hasn't been created yet? With so many people asking for it and all.

Thanks

Jonny Kowal

We again have had requests to have images as links from stakeholders involved in another elearning project we're building. Can I please get an update on this functionality. As creating text links is already a feature, why can't this simply be done for images? It's a standard function with almost every other authoring software I've ever used. Please can you push this to the top of the list. Out of all the other forums I've read, this one seems to be going on without any changes taking place. Building a storyline block just doesn't cut it. Slow, clunky, buggy. Please and I hope thank you very soon!!

Boyd Bastian

Like many others I got here through a google search for this functionality and, like everyone else I'm disappointed to see that, after 3 years, nothing has been done to address it. 

Sadly, there are probably 10 or so other threads just like this that I've happened upon that go the same way:

-customer requests feature

-canned PR response from Articulate

-more customers request feature

-canned PR response from Articulate

-customers check back

-canned PR response from Articulate

-customers continue to ask for it

-Articulate rep finally admits that they aren't even considering adding the feature

And we all get to walk away thinking of band aid approaches, alternative ways to deliver content, and left feeling dissatisfied with the product that has so much potential...

A request like this could be allowed by simply letting us put in some coding that would be displayed.

Julia Mays

Four....years....three years of being strung along only to be told it's not coming.  I am in awe at the lack of meaningful responsiveness from the development team.  While I value tremendously the creativity and imagination of this community of designers, it seems like half the posts are about designing work arounds for basic features this software should have out of the box. 

Years ago, a "helpful" suggestion from Staff was usually a work around for a young and promising product, with confidence that the product was evolving and these issues would be addressed.  Now, a "helpful" suggestion from Staff means "wait four or five years and we might get around to looking at it a bit before telling you it's 'not on our roadmap.'"  Basically, if it doesn't already exist, good luck asking.  But meanwhile, look at how accessible we are!  Confidence in "adding it to our feature request list" is shot.  Just say no.

I am also breathless with dismay that, years into this thread discussion/request, a member of Staff came to the group to ask why we might need/want clickable image links in Rise...and expected the customer to take time out busy schedules to provide specific examples.  This is such a basic, obvious feature...I can't tell if they were stalling for more time or if the developers truly don't understand the business their customers are in.

This week, our team formally opened discussions about sunsetting Articulate as our primary design suite and demoting it to a basic solution for occasional use, rather than a creative one for innovative learning.

Four years....

Jonny Kowal

Hi Julia,

That's precisely what we were doing. Our roadmap was to invest in many new licenses but now we've decided to keep to one and invest elsewhere. Shame as this really has potential if the basic functions had been comprehensively designed out. There are at least a dozen missing unfortunately, including image links. What about knowledge checks that allow users to generate guesses without being told they're wrong or right after and just use as a discovery based primer for the feedback content that follows.. We feel basic pedagogical approaches are not being acknowledged by this authoring platform.

The hard pill to swallow is that this really could be great, but just isn't adapting to multiple customer needs simultaneously - and we're talking about the basic stuff here. 

S T
Julia Mays

...

I am also breathless with dismay that, years into this thread discussion/request, a member of Staff came to the group to ask why we might need/want clickable image links in Rise...and expected the customer to take time out busy schedules to provide specific examples.  This is such a basic, obvious feature...I can't tell if they were stalling for more time or if the developers truly don't understand the business their customers are in.

This week, our team formally opened discussions about sunsetting Articulate as our primary design suite and demoting it to a basic solution for occasional use, rather than a creative one for innovative learning.

Four years....

It was always pretty shocking/insulting when the staff asks US why we need a certain feature. Are they not an eLearning company??? I believe this is just a stalling tactic. Shady how silent the staff have been on this thread considering the demand for this BASIC 'feature'.

I asked this 9 MONTHS ago, crickets.
"What is the rational for ignoring this basic 'feature' request?"

I am already getting a new laptop soon with Adobe products on it. I plan to do the same thing, MAYBE use Articulate here and there, but not as the primary authoring tool.
Then again I don't think a subscription expense for this out-of-date product (Articulate) is worth it, will probably just dump Articulate company-wide.

Jonny Kowal
  • Image links
  • More manipulation with thumbnail positioning
  • Grid/column layout options e.g. videos side by side
  • Improved scenario-based learning functions
  • The ability to embed video into flipcards
  • The ability to hide pages from the menu bar
  • Button positioning and styling (within Interactive function)
  • Social polls
  • The ability to use image backgrounds in any text type
  • More style sheet freedom

The list goes on...

S T

my comments appear to have been reported? greyed out my reply. Shady I tell ya.
---

Julia Mays

...

I am also breathless with dismay that, years into this thread discussion/request, a member of Staff came to the group to ask why we might need/want clickable image links in Rise...and expected the customer to take time out busy schedules to provide specific examples.  This is such a basic, obvious feature...I can't tell if they were stalling for more time or if the developers truly don't understand the business their customers are in.

This week, our team formally opened discussions about sunsetting Articulate as our primary design suite and demoting it to a basic solution for occasional use, rather than a creative one for innovative learning.

Four years....

It was always pretty shocking/insulting when the staff asks US why we need a certain feature. Are they not an eLearning company??? I believe this is just a stalling tactic. Shady how silent the staff have been on this thread considering the demand for this BASIC 'feature'.

I asked this 9 MONTHS ago, crickets.
"What is the rational for ignoring this basic 'feature' request?"

I am already getting a new laptop soon with Adobe products on it. I plan to do the same thing, MAYBE use Articulate here and there, but not as the primary authoring tool.
Then again I don't think a subscription expense for this out-of-date product (Articulate) is worth it, will probably just dump Articulate company-wide.

Rory Sacks

You're in luck. Over the years I have been keeping a running list:

  • 7taps
  • Capitvate
  • Elucidat
  • EvolveLearning
  • Genially
  • Gomo
  • Knowbly
  • Rise
  • Uptale

As an edit and note: I am heavily looking at Genially and looking to move my team more towards cloud-based development platforms (for obvious reasons). I looked at Gomo and was very impressed. If you use Docebo as an LMS, I believe Elucidat has a direct LTI with them so there is easy sync and launch of content. We are trying to move away from the Storyline/Captivate model, look and feel. The development timeline for those products is WAY too long.

Julia Mays

Hi Jonny,

I completely agree.  The list is long, and some of it is just plain silly.  Being able to add a thumbnail over a Rise video.  Being able to adjust the compression amount on imported videos.  Basic Knowledge Check controls that allow us to match the response options to the nature of what we're trying to teach.  Let's not even get started on the request for the Morph transition....

In the end, it comes down to time.  If I'm spending more time compensating for Articulate's shortcomings than I am designing product, I'm losing productivity.  I spent over an hour yesterday compensating for blurry videos imported from crystal clear original files.  Pulling individual, renamed videos out of the Storyline output file, matching them to the original video file, renaming that original file to the new rename, and then overwriting the video inside the Storyline output file...just to undo the consequences of video compression that I can't control.

A few weeks ago, I had to pull twelve individual videos into Vyond, drop a screenshot still pic in as a single first frame of the video, re-render that video and then replace the original video in Rise...all to get a thumbnail shot...a feature that already exists in Storyline.  

Storyline blocks are not the blanket answer to missing basic features, either.  They can be cumbersome, don't always quite play nicely with the LMS, and again...I'm wrangling two software packages to produce one result when I shouldn't be. 

I just can't swallow the "not on our roadmap" response anymore.