Time-Saving Tips for Formatting Tables in Rise 360
Do you love the table block in Rise 360 as much as I do? It’s a great way to organize content so it’s easy for learners to digest. And there are so many different ways to use it! Whether you want to display product specs, outline your weekly schedule, or compare and contrast concepts, tables are an excellent option. Depending on how you’re using tables, you might want to customize their look and feel by adding a background color to certain cells, for example, or by changing the font size. Luckily, personalizing table formatting is super quick and easy in Rise 360! Read on to find out how to efficiently format multiple cells at once. Formatting Multiple Cells If you want to change the way your cells look—say, change the background color from white to green or gray—there’s an easy way to apply that formatting to multiple cells at once. Simply click inside a cell, press and hold Shift, use the arrows on your keyboard to select the other cells you want to apply the formatting to, and select the format you want to apply in the toolbar. It’s super easy! Check out the GIF below to see how it works. Formatting Text Across Cells Once you’re happy with the formatting of the cells themselves, you might want to change the formatting of the text within those cells. For example, let’s say you want all your text to be a little smaller. No problem! There are a couple of different ways to quickly format your text across cells, depending on what you want to do. To apply the same text formatting to all the cells in your table, simply highlight the text in one cell, press and hold Control+A (or Command+A on a Mac), and select the format you want to apply in the toolbar. Take a look at the GIF below for a quick preview of how this works. If you want to reformat the text across some cells, but not all, highlight the text in one cell, press and hold Shift, and use the down arrow to select the cells with text you want to format. Every time you press on the down arrow, it’ll automatically select the entire text in the next cell. Once you’ve selected all the cells with text you want to format, choose the formatting options you want to apply in the toolbar. Get a clearer picture of how this works by checking out the GIF below. You can also select text that you want to format letter by letter. To do this, highlight the text in one cell, press and hold the Shift key, use the right arrow to select the cells with the text you want to format, and select the format you want to apply in the toolbar. See how this works in the GIF below. More Resources As you can see, formatting tables in Rise 360 is super fast and easy. To find out more about inserting table blocks into your Rise 360 courses, check out this helpful article. And if you’re looking for some creative ideas on how to use the table block in your next course, be sure to check out the following resources: Displaying Your Data with Rise 360 Tables Rise 360 Example Featuring Table Blocks If you’re dying to try out Rise 360 but don’t have Articulate 360, be sure to grab a free 30-day trial. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest e-learning inspiration and insights directly in your inbox. You can also find us on LinkedIn and X (Formerly Twitter).10 Most Popular Rise 360 Real-Content Templates of 2023
Developing high-quality, engaging content can be time-consuming. But don’t worry—with the real-content templates in Content Library 360, you can quickly deploy fully developed training full of prewritten content, instructional videos, and interactive exercises. Editing real-content template is easy too, making it a breeze to personalize your courses to fit your needs. From time management to mental health to effective meetings and more, here are the templates our customers found most valuable in 2023. 1. Time Management Essentials For the second year in a row, Time Management Essentials is the number one most popular real-content course. This crowd-pleasing course gives learners valuable tips for making the most of their time. 2. Developing a Growth Mindset Is your team feeling stuck? Want to help employees unlock their potential? Try sharing this course to help learners identify roadblocks and reignite growth. 3. Leading with Emotional Intelligence Explore empathy, social skills, and other essential soft skills for leadership in this course. 4. The Basics of Managing Stress Give your learners valuable information about the connection between the body and stress and actionable tips for how to manage it. 5. 5-Day Challenge to Improve Your Mental Health Challenge your learners to improve their mental health in just five days with interactive exercises, reflection questions, and more. 6. Workplace Communication Basics Help your team communicate more effectively with the verbal and written strategies in this course. 7. Resolving Conflict with Coworkers Conflict is inevitable, but it doesn’t have to slow your team down. Use this course to teach your team how to work through common issues. 8. Communication Fundamentals Help your team understand why communication matters and learn actionable tips and tricks to improve their skills. 9. A Guide to Effective Meetings Use this course to establish a culture of productive, energetic meetings within your team. 10. Soliciting and Responding to Customer Feedback Help your employees gather and respond expertly to customer feedback with this story-driven course. Wrap-Up Ready to try one of these real-content templates? Or curious to see what other templates are available? Log in to your Rise 360 dashboard, click +Create New, and click Course. This will open a dashboard where you can browse all templates currently available for subscribers. Have an idea for a real-content template? Let us know in the comments! Want to try one of these real-content templates, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial. And subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.7 Pro Tips for Working with Motion Path Animations in Storyline 360
Animations can be a powerful way to explain a concept, tell a story, or make your content memorable. Storyline 360 has a variety of animation options—including entrance, exit, and motion paths. With motion path animations, you can control how your objects move and bring your ideas to life. Here are some time-saving tips to help propel you forward when working with motion path animations. 1. Rename Motion Paths When you add a motion path animation to an object in Storyline 360, a name is automatically assigned. If you plan on adding multiple motion paths, it’s a good idea to rename each one. This will make it easier to identify which motion path you’re working on when editing triggers. 2. Copy Animations If you plan on using the same motion path animation on several objects, save time by copying the animation from one object to another using the Animation Painter. By double-clicking the Animation Painter, you can apply the same animation to multiple objects one after the other without having to click the Animation Painter over and over again. To turn it off, click it one last time or press the ESC key on your keyboard. Did you know? When you copy and paste an object, any animations you’ve added to the object are also copied over. So if you’re using the same object multiple times, add any animations you want to include before you copy it to save time. 3. Sync Using Cue Points As you build content, you might change your mind about when you want your motion path animation to start. Syncing your motion path to a cue point gives you the flexibility to change the motion path timing without having to edit the trigger each time. All you have to do is drag the cue point along the timeline until the timing feels right, and the motion path will start at the new time. 4. Select the Object Path to Edit To edit a motion path, you can select the start or end point individually using your mouse and drag the point to the desired location. If you have multiple start or end points overlapping each other, you can easily select and edit them without having to hide objects from your timeline. Simply select the line of the object path you want to edit. It will turn bright blue while the other objects and their paths will fade. Then, move the start or end point as needed. Did you know? Another way to fine-tune a motion path is to select the start or end point of one or all of the objects and edit the X and Y coordinates. This is great for times when you need to be super-precise. 5. Change the Easing Option By default, Storyline 360 automatically assigns an ease-in and ease-out effect to your motion paths. This controls the acceleration and deceleration of an animation. If your animation needs to move at the same pace across the screen, then you’ll want to edit the easing direction to none. 6. Orient Shape to Path There might be times when you need to include an object that faces a certain direction as it follows a path—for example, a car making a right turn. By selecting Orient Shape to Path, the object will always face the direction it’s moving, even when it travels on a nonlinear path. 7. Use a Relative Start Point Perhaps you want to create an interaction where the object can move multiple times depending on the learner’s choice. For example, let’s say you created a racetrack and want the learner’s car to move forward whenever they answer a question correctly. Instead of duplicating the object and creating motion paths for each possible outcome, you can select Relative Start Point to move the object along the motion path starting from its current position. For more ideas on how to use this feature, check out this tutorial. Did you know? You can add more than one motion path to the same object and have each begin at the new location of the object based on previous movements. For more ideas on how to use this feature, check out this free Storyline 360 download by Samuel Apata. Motion path animations give you the flexibility to quickly create content that’ll move your learners. What tips do you have for working with motion paths? Share your ideas in the comments below. Want to try something you learned here, but don’t have Articulate 360? Start a free 30-day trial and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning.All About Lightboxes in Storyline 360
Whether you’ve designed a website or simply done your fair share of web surfing, you’ve probably run across lightboxes. They’re often used to display content (particularly images or video on photography websites) while dimming out the web page background. The lightbox feature in Storyline 360 works similarly. Triggering content to be displayed in a lightbox allows the slide of your choice to appear in a pop-up window over the current slide, which is dimmed. Here’s an example: Click here to explore the interactive version and here to download the template. A lightbox allows you to show learners additional content without navigating away from the current slide, which could cause them to lose their spot in the course. This can be especially helpful for stuff like bibliographical references or links to external resources. It’s also great for navigation instructions, a table of contents, or any other supporting assets that need to be available throughout the course. Let’s walk through how to add lightboxes to your Storyline 360 course so your learners can start reaping the benefits of this powerful feature. How Do Lightboxes Work in Storyline 360? In Storyline 360, you can trigger any slide (or series of consecutive slides) to open in a lightbox. The size, placement, and appearance of the lightbox is prebuilt for you, to make it super simple. This includes a red X button that closes the lightbox window automatically when learners click. These features make it quick and easy for you to create a consistent user experience. However, the trade-off is that you can’t customize these lightbox settings. If you’re looking for more control over the size, placement, or appearance of your lightbox content, you can always create your own pseudo lightbox effect using slide layers. To read more about how to do this as well as the pros and cons of this approach, check out this forum discussion: Lightbox Change Size? Pro Tip: When designing content for use in a lightbox, keep scale in mind. The scale of objects on your content screens (e.g., text, buttons, images) will be about 75% of the original slide size. Triggering the Lightbox Once you’ve created content slides for your lightbox, what’s next? To get your content into a lightbox, you’ll need to add a trigger. You’ll find the Lightbox Slide option under the action menu in the Trigger Wizard. Once you’ve selected Lightbox Slide, you’ll need to tell Storyline 360 which slide(s) to open. From the Slide drop-down menu, select the slide you want to appear inside your lightbox. If you’d like a series of slides to be lightboxed (e.g., for a media gallery), you’ll find it’s easier to place those slides into their own scene. That way you can simply select the first slide in that scene from the Slide drop-down and check the Navigation Controls box to allow learners to move forward and backward within that scene of lightboxed slides. You can also use your own navigation buttons, but your learners may find the size of Storyline’s default navigation controls a little easier to see and use. Pro Tip: To keep learners from getting confused, be sure to remove any custom on-slide Forward/Backward navigation buttons or arrows from your lightboxed slides if you’ll be using the default player navigation controls. Once you’ve selected the slides you want to appear in the lightbox, it’s time to tell Storyline 360 when to trigger this effect. From the When drop-down menu, simply select the option that fits your needs. For example, when the user clicks. Next, select the associated object. For example, in the screenshot below, the action to open the lightbox should happen on Slide 1.3 when the user clicks on the Previous button. If you’re using the built-in navigation buttons in Storyline 360, you can also trigger the lightbox to open when the user clicks on buttons built into the player, like Next, Previous, or Submit. Lightboxes can also be triggered to open from a slide or slide layer. Finally, you need to decide whether there are any specific conditions or criteria for launching the lightbox. For instance, what if you only want the learner to be able to access the lightbox after they’ve clicked on all the buttons on a slide, like in the example below: You can specify any conditions to be met by adding conditions to the trigger in the Trigger Wizard, as shown above. For more details on trigger conditions, check out this tutorial: Adding Conditions. Adding a Lightbox to the Course Player It’s one thing to make a lightbox available on a single slide, but what if you want lightboxed content to be accessible throughout your course? No problem! Storyline also gives you the ability to add a lightbox to the course player as an additional tab. Here’s how. From the player properties, select the Features tab. Under the Player Tabs section, click Add New (the blank paper icon): In the Trigger Wizard panel, enter a name for your new tab in the name field—for example, “Contact” for a slide with contact information. This name is what learners will see in the player, so be sure to choose something that makes it obvious what kind of information learners will find there. In the action field of the Trigger Wizard panel, select the lightbox trigger and then choose the content slide(s) you’d like to open up. Just like adding a lightbox to a slide, you can specify conditions for triggering this lightbox effect from the course player. When you’ve finished entering the information for your new tab, click OK. In the adjacent Storyline player preview, you should see your newly added tab. To make sure that your lightbox is functioning properly, simply preview your project and click the newly added tab on the course player. Resources Hopefully this comprehensive look at lightboxes has given you some new ideas for using them in your courses. For even more lightbox design inspiration, check out these helpful resources: How Are You Using Lightbox Slides in E-Learning? 3 Subtle Ways to Integrate Navigation Instructions Storyline Template: Lightbox Tabs Storyline Template: Integrated Navigation Instructions What creative uses have you discovered for lightboxes? Leave your ideas in the comments below or share them with the E-Learning Heroes community. Want to try lightboxes out for yourself, but don’t have Storyline 360? Start a free 30-day trial of Articulate 360, and come back to E-Learning Heroes regularly for more helpful advice on everything related to e-learning. If you have any questions, please share them in the comments.Audio Recording Script in Word
Working with voice talent? If so, you may find that sending along a storyboard document as a recording script is a nice little timesaver. However, in my experience,thatapproachdoesn't always scale well for morecomplex, branched projectsbecause things get tricky when it comes timeto matchup audio clips to individual feedback layers in Storyline. That's where this audio script format comes in handy. It's a Word doc with a simple 3 column table format. The first columnis aspace to record a reference number that coincides with thestoryboard and/or .story file. The second column is forcapturing the script that needs recording. And the third column is a space for calling out any pronunciation pointers to the voice talent and/or notes for yourself or adeveloper. While a little time-consuming to set-up, using this format is agreat way to easeSME approval of a script before it's recorded—and it saves you development timeonce you get that audio back from the voice talent since every clip is clearly mapped to its place in your course. Enjoy!Expand Your Possibilities With These New Articulate 360 Features
Articulate 360 is constantly evolving to better meet your needs. Our latest collection of features is full of exciting new ways for you to design, develop, and share your e-learning courses. From new resources to enhance the learning experiences you build, expanded options for distributing courses, and one of our most requested enhancements to Storyline 360, there’s so much that can make your work easier and more effective! Check out this video for some of the highlights. And keep reading to dig in to the details. Create exciting and engaging e-learning 64-bit Storyline If you create large, media-rich courses, you’ll experience a noticeably speedier authoring experience with this release. The new 64-bit Storyline 360 takes full advantage of the power of modern computers, giving you increased stability and faster performance—even with your most complex projects. Learn more about this highly requested feature here: Storyline 360: 64-bit App. Improved Text-to-Speech Voice Quality The more natural text-to-speech voices sound, the less likely they are to distract from your course content. That’s why we’ve upgraded many of the voices included in Storyline 360 using new neural voice technology. They sound better than ever, and they’re still incredibly easy to use! Check out this link for the current list of neural voices in Storyline 360. Background Audio Triggers Building on the Storyline 360 background audio feature from earlier this year, this update gives you even more options for controlling the experience. With it, you can use triggers to play, pause, or stop the playlist on each slide. So you and your learners have more ways to customize course audio. Find out more here. Trans-inclusivity Microlearning Need to get much-needed training out fast, but don’t have the time research, write, and build it yourself? Our library of Rise 360 real content templates has you covered! Our latest addition—4 Ways To Build a Trans-inclusive Workplace—helps define key terms and gives learners concrete steps they can take to make their organization more inclusive. We’ve taken care of the hard work of researching and building the experience. You can either launch it to your learners exactly as written or tweak it to fit your company’s needs. It’s your call! New Illustrated Characters Finding just the right character can help your courses connect with learners and make scenarios ring true. That’s why we’re excited to add three new illustrated characters wearing casual outfits to Content Library 360: Shanae, Wren, and Don. Template Accessibility Updates We’re always looking for ways to make it easier to build accessible e-learning—and this latest update is a real timesaver! We’ve reworked many of our Storyline 360 and Rise 360 templates so they’re even more accessible right out of the box. The former now has updates to the focus order and video controls. And the most popular templates for the latter feature the removal of italicized content, as well as broader improvements to their content and design. With the templates taking on more work for you, it’s faster than ever to create courses that all learners can access. Collaborate with team members and stakeholders Share Link Permissions Want more control over who can and can’t see an item in Review 360? You’ll love this new feature. With it, you’ll be able to make a Review 360 item invitation-only—so it’s only visible to the specific reviewers you’ve chosen. Distribute courses to all your learners Custom Certificates From branding your course completion certificates to including important accreditation requirements on them, this feature is here to help. With our simple certificate editor, you can include company information like logos and learner performance details like course duration, quiz scores, and more. Plus, you can save time by creating a library of certificate templates to use in any course in Reach 360. SSO for Learners Make taking training in Reach 360 even simpler with Single Sign-On (SSO). Since this method allows people to securely access multiple applications with just one set of log-in credentials, your learners don’t have to remember yet another password to check out all the training you share with them in Reach 360. Learn more about how to use this feature to manage groups and users here. Microsoft Teams Integration - COMING SOON Weave training into the flow of work with this upcoming Reach 360 integration. With it, learners can get due date and enrollment notifications and also see previews of training right in Microsoft Teams. And by including that information in a tool they already use for work all the time, you’ll make it easier for them to stay on top of training deadlines and explore what courses you’re offering. Reporter Role Want to streamline reporting for different groups in Reach 360? Try assigning users to the new reporting role. With this feature, you can grant someone access to the analytics from just one or more specific groups, so they don’t have to wade through the training data for all your learners to get access to the targeted information they’re looking for. Wrap-Up If you want to get your hands on everything these new features have to offer, you’ll be glad to know most of them are available right now! Just log in to your account, make sure you’re running the latest version of Storyline 360, and you’ll be all set. And keep an eye out for the features labeled “coming soon”; they’ll be available to you in no time at all. But not to worry if you don’t currently have an Articulate 360 subscription. Just start a 30-day free trial to try out all these helpful features and more. And you can also subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice sent directly to your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.Get Two Free, Updated Courses to Help Your Organization Celebrate Pride Month
Did you know that workplaces that cultivate LGBTQ+ inclusivity have happier employees, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity? Or that LGBTQ+-friendly employers boast higher employee retention rates and even earn more revenue? As a learning and development professional, you can boost your organization’s LGBTQ+ inclusion efforts by providing substantial, engaging learning opportunities for Pride Month. If that sounds like a lot of research and course development time you don’t have right now, relax. We’ve updated Articulate’s professionally designed and researched Pride courses for 2023, and they’re ready for you to use right now, free of charge. Articulate 360 subscribers and trialers can even customize the content. Keep reading to learn more about the courses and find out how to make them your own. What Courses Are Available? “Power and Pride: The Origins of Pride Month.” Learners can discover how the events at the Stonewall Inn in June 1969 catalyzed change and accelerated a movement for LGBTQ+ rights that has spread worldwide. The course also introduces learners to key individuals, organizations, and moments in the ongoing struggle—emphasizing that activism, celebration, and equal rights remain central to Pride more than 50 years later. “Beyond Pride: Year-Round Action.” Learning about and taking action to support equality doesn’t stop when June ends. This course offers practical, actionable steps for both organizations and individuals to uplift the LGBTQ+ community every day. What’s New? For 2023, we updated Power and Pride’s decade-by-decade timeline to reflect some of the latest developments in LGBTQ+ rights, including the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act. We also added new, deeper context around pivotal events and figures of past decades. Fresh resources around language are also available in the updated course. In the 2023 updates for Beyond Pride, you’ll find the latest available facts and figures around LGBTQ+ representation in the workplace. And new links out to practical resources such as a gender-neutral bathroom sign can help learners take action to support inclusivity no matter where they are. Wrap-Up Pride Month is the perfect time to share learning opportunities that demonstrate your organization’s commitment to the LGBTQ+ community. And since these beautifully illustrated original courses are ready to go, why not share them with your learners? As we mentioned above, you can either use them as is or—if you’re an Articulate 360 subscriber or trialer—you can easily adapt them to fit your needs. Simply navigate to your Rise 360 dashboard, click Create New, choose Course, select Diversity and Inclusion, and choose the course you want from the list. Want to customize these but don’t have a subscription yet? Start a free 30-day trial. And if you need other ready-to-go courses for your diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, there are plenty of other options to choose from, including: Black History Month Diversity Basics: Foundations Diversity Basics: Taking Action Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging Once again, these are all available directly in Rise 360. Simply follow the instructions above to view and use them. And remember to subscribe to our newsletter to stay up-to-date on the latest real course templates, product updates, e-learning examples, and expert advice directly in your inbox. If you have questions, please share them in the comments.Using Design Themes to Build Course Starter Templates in E-Learning #450
Using Design Themes in E-Learning#450: Challenge | Recap Learning new features requires time and effort, even in familiar apps like PowerPoint or Storyline 360. This holds true for new users as well as seasoned e-learning pros. Now, I totally get it. If you're out there grinding as a course designer, you're always racing against the clock. Finish one course, jump to the next - it's a never-ending cycle. This type of crunch can push beginners to sidestep foundational techniques, opting for just getting things done. For the more experienced users, they've developed a set of skills and routines that work for them. There's an aspect of familiarity and comfort. They know their way around the apps so well that stepping out to explore new workflows feels tedious or unnecessary. And if there's one area that new and experienced users frequently avoid, it's design themes. What are Design Themes? Storylines like PowerPoint uses design themes to manage your course's text styles,theme colors,theme fonts,slide masters, andfeedback masters. These features aren't the flashy ones making waves in marketing ads or headlining e-learning conferences. But trust me, once you get the hang of using elements like slide masters and theme fonts, you'll hit a new level of efficiency and customization. And working smartly and efficiently is what this week's challenge is all about. 🏆 Challenge of the Week This week, your challenge is to show how design themes can be used in e-learning. NOTE: This is more of a technical than a visual design challenge. I’m less concerned about your visual makeover than seeing how you leverage design theme elements to create an efficient and editable template. You can create your theme colors, fonts, and slide placeholders from scratch or modify an existing slide or template. The goal of this challenge is to show how design themes can be used to ensure consistent designs that are quickly and efficiently updated. How do I show design themes? That's a great question. Since everything is below the slide, it can be challenging to appreciate how the design themes work. Here are a few ideas for sharing examples to help others appreciate how your design theme elements were used: Share your source files. Create a before and after demo. This can be simple, like using two slides to show the default and custom theme. Include screenshots of your theme colors, theme fonts, and layouts. Create a screencast and walk through the changes you applied. Create a simple course starter template to show how your design themes carry across multiple slide types. 🧰 Resources Storyline 360: Using Design Themes Storyline 360: Using Custom Templates Storyline 360: Using Slide Masters E-Learning Challenges: Course Starters Challenges ✨ Share Your E-Learning Work Comments: Use the comments section below to link your published example and blog post. Forums: Start a new thread and share a link to your published example. Personal blog: If you have a blog, please consider writing about your challenges. We'll link to your posts so your great work gets even more exposure. Social media: If you share your demos on Twitter or LinkedIn, try using #ELHChallenge so your tweeps can follow your e-learning coolness. 🙌 Last Week’s Challenge: Before you customize what's under the hood of your e-learning slides, have a peek at how designers add emphasis animations to give life to the objects on top of the slide: Emphasis Animation ExamplesRECAP#449:Challenge|Recap 👋 New to the E-Learning Challenges? The weekly e-learning challenges are ongoing opportunities to learn, share, and build your e-learning portfolios. You can jump into any or all of the previous challenges anytime you want. I’ll update the recap posts to include your demos. Learn more about the challenges in this Q&A post and why and how to participate in this helpful article. 📅 Next Week’s Challenge Challenge #451(02.23): Self-promotion week! Share your e-learning portfolio to highlight your e-learning work. You can build a portfolio in Rise 360 or Storyline 360 or use your own website to showcase your work. Challenge #452 (03.01): Using AI in e-learning. I last hosted a similar challenge nine months ago, but things are evolving quickly in this area. 🚨 Contact Information Just a quick heads up – if you want your blog, website, or LinkedIn included in our recap posts, could you do me a favor and add or update those links onto your ELH profile sometime this week? I found some broken links last week when I pulled the recap together. You spend a lot of time building creative examples, and your work deserves all the attention it can get. If you make changes, please let me know in the comments below. Thanks!
