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One productivity tool that I have used for years is Google Docs, which allows users to create spreadsheets, power point presentations,
documents, and other files in the cloud that can be manipulated in real time by any invited users. I find that this is an underutilized tool that has numerous applications to facilitate teams of persons working together using a single set of documents. We probably have not thought about incorporating such tools into our e-learning… but why not? Google has now added a new doc type that we in the e-learning field can leverage to use as a survey or data capture tool – Google simply calls it a “form”. Read more
One of the really nice features of Storyline is its support for layers. You might think of them as transparencies that can be overlaid on your base slide. On the transparencies you can place images, sound, and even logic (in the form of Triggers). Each layer has its own independent timeline.
Layers are primarily used to add interaction to your slides. When a button is clicked or the mouse hovers over an object in the base layer, it might trigger the display of a new overlying layer.
You have your published project, ready for mobile delivery, and you now want to know what all these output files do. What are their roles and what happens behind the scenes?
The first thing to note is that there’s no longer a player.html file for your projects. Instead, Storyline gives you three options for publishing for mobile delivery: Flash, HTML5, and the Articulate Mobile Player App. All three options are created at once and live in the same output folder, so there is no need to publish your project multiple times.
Storyline automatically decides which version to play in order for your user to view the project:
If the user has Flash, then Storyline will default to play Flash.
If the user does not have Flash, but does have HTML5, then Storyline will play HTML5..
If the user has neither Flash nor HTML5, the user will encounter an error.
Let’s dig deeper and explore what this actually means. In your output, you will see these essential files:
story.html – This file launches your project. It does all the work: it is the default player and identifies the user’s browser in order to determine which version of the project will play – the Flash version, the HTML5 version or, if you elected to include it, the Articulate Mobile Player App for iOS.
story_html5.html – The user will be directed to this file if the user does not have Flash, but does have a browser that supports HTML5. HTML5 is a backup option for devices that don’t use Flash.
story_unsupported.html – This file will launch if the user does not have a browser that supports HTML5, but has made it to the HTML5 version of the course – specifically, this file is geared for IE browsers below v9. This file provides an error message with a link to click on that then launches the user back to story.html (to successfully play the Flash version).
Three things to note about Articulate’s Mobile Player app:
iPad users should be encouraged to download Articulate’s free Mobile Player (from the App Store) because the app includes features such as a course library, a favorites tab, and the ability to view projects offline. (By switching to offline, the course assets are downloaded to the user’s iPad and access to the Internet is no longer required. The course becomes data for the Articulate Mobile Player.)
If the user downloads Articulate’s Mobile Player to their iPad, the project will play on the app instead of the iPad Safari browser.
Articulate’s Mobile Player cannot be used if the course requires LMS tracking.
Everywhere we look we are being encouraged to recycle. Wouldn’t it be cool if, as well as recycling your used physical materials, you could reuse your Articulate Storyline Screen Recordings? Well the good news is that you can!
One of the most powerful aspects of the Articulate Storyline screen recording workflow is that, with Storyline, all your screen recordings are stored so that you can re-use them.
Consider the following scenario; you start off creating a Video on a single slide project which you then send to be reviewed by your client or line manager. The feedback you receive is that whilst this is a great video demonstration, to be truly effective, the target learners would really need to be able to interact with the content. Can this project be converted into a step-by-step software simulation?
You have already recorded all the steps, so can you re-use your existing screen recording to create a software simulation? With Articulate Storyline, the answer is yes!
Click and hold down the Record button on the Home or Insert ribbon and Storyline will show you a list of all your existing recodings.
In the screen shot shown below, you can see a Storyline project where two recordings are currently being used, (denoted by the IN USE stamp), and another one that has yet to be used.
Now, using the Insert Slides dialog box, you would just choose the Step-by-step slides and select the View, Try or Test mode steps option you want to use to create this new project.
What…it’s that simple? Yes it is!
Importing Screen Recordings
If you are reading this and thinking OK, that is very cool, but what if I need to insert a screen recording from an existing project into a new one? Surely that isn’t feasible?
Well actually it is and here is how you would do that:
Open Articulate Storyline
Click on the Articulate Storyline icon in the top left hand corner of the application window
Choose Import > Storyline
Choose the Scene you wish to import
Click the Import button
In this instance Storyline would insert the Video on a single slide; however clicking on the Record Screen button shows the Screen Recording from the original project is also included…
..enabling you to easily create a new Step-by-step slides scene.
Unless you’ve lived in a cave for the past 15 years, you’ve probably encountered button states. They control how buttons in software applications, websites and even some e-learning courses respond when we interact with them. Without states, buttons just kind of sit there doing nothing leaving the poor users at a loss as to whether to click or not.
