Articulate Storyline

Integration of video & audio very easy.

Editing tools are easy to use.

Multiple uses (i.e. not only eLearning).

The animations could be more robust.

The ability to animate the characters would be a huge PLUS!

Interactivity

HTML5

SCORM

Be able to record screen grabs at different size than project.

Better iPad functionality/support

Easy to use but very powerful tool.

Great module for creating an application courses.

Allows you to create good value learning content, even when you don't have money or a lot of time.

Sometimes can crash.

You can't change speed of the videos.

When trimming videos at their end, changing the frames is extremely slow.

Storyline 2 easily creates screen recordings from within the program. And then you can choose how you want learners to interact with the screen recordings: view them as a video, click through it like a simulation with feedback, or test them if they know where to correctly click.

Storyline 2 allows adding voiceover with multiple audio tracks allowed. Again all from straight within the program. And then align text or other objects to appear anywhere along the voiceover.

Timelines - easily animate in and out objects on the timeline, or pause the timeline while the learner answers a question or does some other form of interaction

It would be good if Storyline 2 had access to some of the 'hidden' variables like Lectora does. Easily pulling the learners name into the course would be useful.

Storyline offers very intuitive working [experience] with the application. If the user has some skills in Microsoft PowerPoint it will be easy to learn to work with the graphics tools.

It is useful to have the ability to create simple courses in a short time or create quite sophisticated courses. You can create short narrative courses or you can create courses with variables, if-loops and multiple triggers.

Fast support by Articulate Community. If you have a problem you can get help from the Articulate community where users all over the world help each other.

The screenrecording function does not offer many functions, at least if you compare it with products in the same business range.

The color layout scheme is not very intuitive

There are no specific responsive design functionalities. You can only scale the final files to fullscreen.

It's easy to use

There is a big community to help you and give you examples

It has a nice interface

You can use your own templates again

An option to make e-learning for mobile and desktop in one project

Ease of use. Even if you have had no experience with an e-learning system before, everything with Articulate is very user friendly.

Customizing the end user experience. You have the ability to control the end screen that the user sees. I like this because not every presentation requires a table of contents, menu, play back bar, sound bar, etc. All of these things are removable allowing for the end user to focus on the training instead of the extra noise on the page.

Quiz creation. This is an important feature for me to use in making sure the content is understood. Articulate offers an array of question templates that makes it easy to just drop in my content instead of starting from scratch every time.

Interactivity. While I do love Articulate Studio's interactive elements, I feel this could be improved going forward. Currently you are almost limited to the transitions and animations provided with PowerPoint, any additional interactivity can be added but is a process to add animation on top of animation to achieve the desired effect.

Articulate Storyline is very easy to use.

Articulate Storyline can be used to develop complex content thanks to triggers, variables, javascript, etc. We can develop simple content like big and complex content.

Make custom default player that works with Flash AND HTML5

Better htlm5 output

Storyline makes it easy to publish content for our LMS. The files created are easily used across varying platforms.

HTML5 publishing still needs some work.

Great interactivity

Easy to use

Great support

Friendly community

Advanced scripting does not work on all devices

Ribbon interface can be counter-intuitive

Somewhat expensive (not relative to other programs, but in actual terms)

Articulate allows users that have a basic knowledge of PowerPoint to create some professional content with minimal training.

The support network is outstanding

The extra's available like Articulate re-play make video work easier.

There are a few areas where the software is moving more toward capabilities in Microsoft programs, such as graphic editing, but they are not totally there yet.

Instructional designers tend to like Articulate Storyline more than other authoring tools for its easy-to-use interface (based on PowerPoint) and flexibility.

The tool allows users to manage international projects (localization) and to publish e-learning modules on various supports. Of course, the development process must be adapted to all these devices.

Articulate's strong community is also a significant asset: when we face a problem, we can ask the community for solutions. Articulate's support is also quite efficient.

Articulate allows its users to ask for the development of new features in the "feature request" section, yet there is no guarantee that suggestions will be taken into account.

When using custom navigation instead of the built-in player, some features of Articulate Storyline might not work properly (eg. delay interactions in drag and drops). Of course, these are known issues so we don't waste time looking for solutions, we just adapt to these little imperfections!

The menus have slightly changed from Storyline 1 to Storyline 2, yet all new features from PowerPoint do not exist yet in the Storyline 2.5 update (pathfinder options for shapes).

Ease of use. Anybody can pick up this software and build a CBT with ease. You do not necessarily need an Instructional Design degree to be proficient with Storyline.

Triggers, States, Variables, and more...... You can develop rich and engaging courses fairly simple with the use of triggers, states, and variables. All of the "coding" is done in the background by Articulate; you just have to tell it what to do and when. It's a very intuitive software.

E-Learning Heroes. This is an Articulate community where you can go to get help, or to check out the latest free downloads. If you're stuck on a project in Storyline, for example, you can post a question to E-Learning Heroes. Not only will other community members respond, but you'll also receive help from the Articulate staff. I look at E-Learning Heroes everyday even though I may not be stuck on a project. It's nice to just go out there and see what problems others are having, or to see what creative CBTs others have developed.

YouTube Channel. Articulate has their own YouTube channel with numerous videos. This is a great resource to use regardless if you are a beginner or expert Articulate user.

I'd like to see more options for font style. There's a lot missing when you compare to the font style features for Word or PowerPoint. But, this is not a deal breaker.

I'd like to be able to actually print out the Story View in Storyline. It would be a great feature to add because you can use that as your storyboard to provide to SME's and other project sponsors. Someone recommended taking a screenshot, but that's impossible to do if you're working on a big project.

There might be a way to do this, but I haven't figured it out yet or found an answer to it. Sometimes I create multiple buttons in Storyline and then later on realize that I need to change the features of the different states. It would be nice if I could do this for multiple buttons at once. But, when I try to do this, the states button is grayed out. Instead, I have to do it one by one. Normally, I would create a button first, setup the states and so forth, and then copy/paste so I don't have to worry about this. But, sometimes I get far into a project before I realize that this needs to be done.

The use of the timeline and triggers within Storyline help to create, well time and interactive courses.

Being able to use and program variables within the course allows you to keep track of what your learners are doing, as well as recall information or create branching scenarios.

The Community.... The community behind Articulate is priceless! Want to do something and don't know how to do it? You can find various posts to assist you or even ask it as a question in the community to get an answer. Not to mention the support that Articulate itself provides is amazing.

More preloaded design features would make it a little easier for rapid development.

Although Storyline 2 has more (and better) audio features, it would be nice to have a place to edit the audio within your course. (By edit I mean to do more advanced functions, they do provide basic audio editing functionality.

Ease-of-use: Since it models the layout of PowerPoint, the learning curve is shorter for Storyline than that of another product that will remain nameless.

Community: This is a major selling feature to me. The Articulate community is not only extremely talented, the members are always willing to lend a helping hand to beginners or even those of us that are just stuck.

Creating software simulations is one of the areas that could be improved.

Articulate Storyline 2 is as interactive as you need it to be for your learners.

Being able to devise eLearning that tests understanding in a more refreshing way, other than a standard quiz, is welcomed by our learners.

The support network available for Articulate is amazing. There is so much support out there nothing is impossible.

Variety is a big thing with Storyline 2. No module looks the same, unless you want it to.

Layers and triggers can be a bit tricky to get your head round at first but with practice you soon get the hang of it. As stated, it does take time and you may not get it right at first. It's a matter of trial and error.

Figuring out how the eLearning modules produced on Storyline interact with the LMS can prove challenging from a a reporting perspective. Ensuring the right settings are in place is important but you need to know the right settings to start with.

Overcoming software issues where learners have older software or have popup blockers enabled. This has proved problematic with users who are not confident with technology.

Very easy to use.

You can create almost any interaction.

Strong community developers with a large free material that helps to create elearning in on time.

There is not the richest selection of figures in the default Articulate.

It is perfect for creating interactive quizzes. There are lots of options such as multiple choice and hot spots. I personally find the drag and drop quizzes particularly fun for learners.

It's great for creating vibrant and engaging courses. It's a very open platform meaning you can create exactly the type of course you want.

It's great for reporting. Our courses are uploaded to our LMS and we are able to gather detailed feedback and anaslysis from Storyline 2

It would be great if the quizzes had more options for scoring by answer rather than by question. This would give more options for quizzes.

Multiple drag and drop options on a quiz.

More animations and transitions would be great

Ability to create custom interactions using freeform so it works with the elearning and is as relevant to real life as possible

Ability to use variables and triggers to create some amazing effects, including reflections that can be used later, or information showing dependent on previous actions

It can be used by beginners but as they learn, they can then begin to use more and more advanced features

It allows me to do complex things without involving a separate developer

I found that in New Zealand's poor internet situation, the completion can be unreliable unless extra triggers are added into the success and failure layers or the exit button (then it works perfectly)

It's a shame there aren't easier ways to grab the variable data into an external source, or enter data from external sources into Storyline

It doesn't work overly well on smartphones but they are working on a mobile responsive player for later this year

Easy for novices - powerful for experts.

Publishes for a variety of outputs - flash, tablets.

When developing complex interactions, there is no way to hand code, making it time consuming to create loop - type conditional statements.

Easy to use interface

Rapid development features

Excellent community for support and sharing

Monthly payment options

More frequently updates

Robust Tools that provide a great way to publish your course.

Robust Support from the Articulate Community.

I wish they would support older versions of the tool.

Articulate's user interface is very similar to Microsoft Office PowerPoint, so it is very easy to learn and get started. Most of our users needed a limited hours of training before utilizing.

Articulate's published products display great professional quality that will make your efforts look wonderful.

Articulate allows for quick and easy development as well as advanced and complicated development of training.

I wish Articulate came with a packaged review software that could be utilized to send a draft to your client to preview and provide comments and feedback on each page.

Articulate has already started doing this, but it would be great if they could provide more packaged animations and transitions.

Easy to use interface.

Import/export text, which is great for translations!

Provides an easy way to create states, which if you've come from a background using Dreamweaver or something similiar, is easy to use!

Not a fault on Articulate but eLearning as a whole needs to be more mobile friendly.

Intuitive interface - its interface is not unlike programs people use on a daily basis, making it easy to pick up.

Easy to pick up, potential for mastery - just because it is easy to pick up and learn the basics, doesn't mean that you can't do amazing things with it as you get more practice.

Amazing community - Articulate has a fantastic community and forum with real people constantly at the ready to help.

Availability for Mac users - I believe this is something they're actively working on, but right now, Articulate is only for Windows.

More xAPI features - right now, it is limited in its ability for xAPI unless you do custom coding.