Skip to main content
TrustRadius
Articulate Storyline

Articulate Storyline

Overview

What is Articulate Storyline?

Articulate Storyline is a learning content creation platform. It provides prebuilt and customizable content, along with gamification capabilities. Articulate emphasizes user-friendliness, including mobile accessibility. It is offered on a perpetual license.

Read more
Recent Reviews

Intuitively Impressive

10 out of 10
January 03, 2024
Incentivized
Articulate Storyline is utilized to create operations skills and knowledge training as well as transform current in-person training into …
Continue reading

TrustRadius Insights

Intuitive User Interface: Many users have praised the intuitive user interface of Articulate Storyline, with several reviewers stating …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing

Storyline3

$1,398

On Premise

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://articulate.com/p/storyline…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Return to navigation

Product Demos

A Simple Animation Engine in Articulate Storyline 2

YouTube

Kineo Rapid Service for Articulate Storyline

YouTube

Add Custom Background Images to HTML Pages in Articulate Storyline

YouTube

New Elapsed Time Variables for Articulate Storyline 360

YouTube

Articulate Storyline 2 - Overview of new features!

YouTube

How to create animated buttons in @Articulate Storyline

YouTube
Return to navigation

Product Details

What is Articulate Storyline?


Articulate Storyline is software for creating interactive courses. It's designed to be simple enough for beginners, yet powerful enough for experts, enabling users to create virtually any imaginable interaction, in minutes. The vendor further provides that with their new perpetual version of Storyline, users can deliver mobile and accessible courses with enhanced interactivity, faster.

Articulate Storyline Features

  • Supported: Get started building courses right away, without any training. Storyline is so intuitive to use, even beginners ramp up quickly.
  • Supported: Create engaging interactivity, easily. If you can imagine an interaction, you can easily build it with Storyline. Let learners click, hover over, or drag any object to trigger any action. Build engaging interactions in minutes with buttons, sliders, markers, and hotspots. And create dynamic, personalized interactivity with intuitive variables—no programming required.
  • Supported: Build immersive, engaging learner experiences with video and simulations. Record screen activity, add screencasts from Articulate Replay, and import any type of video. To create software simulations simply record your screen once, then edit whenever and however you want.
  • Supported: Assess learners any way you want. Turn objects on your slide into a decision-making activity–or use 25 different question types to create quizzes quickly. You can test throughout your course to get a clear view of performance, and combine results from multiple quizzes for a final score.
  • Supported: Make it easy for every learner to access your content. Storyline supports right-to-left languages and double-byte character sets and includes Section 508 and WCAG support.
  • Supported: Reach learners on virtually any device with HTML5 and Flash publishing options (Storyline 2) and a fully responsive player (Storyline 360 only).
  • Supported: Publish for learning management systems with Tin Can API 1.0, SCORM, and AICC support.

Articulate Storyline Video

Articulate Storyline Competitors

Articulate Storyline Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationApple iOS, Android

Frequently Asked Questions

Articulate Storyline is a learning content creation platform. It provides prebuilt and customizable content, along with gamification capabilities. Articulate emphasizes user-friendliness, including mobile accessibility. It is offered on a perpetual license.

iSpring Learn, Adobe Captivate, and Lectora are common alternatives for Articulate Storyline.

Reviewers rate Implementation Rating highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of Articulate Storyline are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(251)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 38)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
January 03, 2024

Intuitively Impressive

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Articulate Storyline is utilized to create operations skills and knowledge training as well as transform current in-person training into online modules.

Many of the modules created are transferred from older Captivate modules to the Articulate Storyline format. The organization has a benefited by a more intuitive software used to create modules in the LMS which reduces time spent on creating online training.
  • Intuitive interface
  • Triggers are easy to create and understand
  • The output files are quick an easy
  • The Review 360 module is a great way of getting input on created modules
  • The inclusion of audio files is cumbersome
  • The inclusion of videos is cumbersom.
  • The look and feel has limited options.
The Articulate Storyline is best suited for highly interactive online modules. The more interactivity and branching needed, the better this program will suit the needs.
For a micro learning scenario on a single path, such as an interactive job aid, Rise would be a better-suited software.
Jamie Drahos | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Articulate Storyline is primarily being used by our Training and Education department as part of the Articulate 360 subscription. We also have various users that have only licensed Storyline for minimal eLearning creation. Storyline is one of our pillars for online training development. We have approximately 350 courses that have been developed in Storyline over the years. It allows us to create in-depth and interactive training for our global workforce.
  • Compatibility with learning management systems. Storyline has remained up-to-date on SCORM standards and now xAPI development. We have had minimal issues with courses working within our LMS.
  • Mobile compatibility. This is one area that Storyline has really upped their game as of late. Their modern course player is a very nice experience on mobile.
  • The breadth of tools in a familiar package. When you open Storyline it looks very much like Microsoft Office, which is familiar to many enterprise users. However, once you dig in, you find that it has a wide range of tools to develop eLearning.
  • I would like to see a better set of video editing tools built into Storyline. The program offers basic editing for a video recorded using the screen recording function or added from an external file, but it could be better.
  • I would like to see faster save times. I have a very robust workstation that I use to edit 4k video, however, saving a large Storyline project seems to take a very long time. I would like to see this improved so it doesn't slow down my workflow.
  • An easier way to work with variables. Variables in Storyline can be a very powerful tool. However, the program does not give you a straight-forward way of learning how to use them or walking you through the process. This could be improved to help users go even further with their eLearning development.
Although there are competing products in the market, in my honest opinion, I believe Storyline is the gold standard when it comes to eLearning design and development. It is a necessary tool for any organization that is designing their own courses for online consumption.
Matthew Gardner | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We originally were recommended Articulate 360 specifically to use their Rise cloud-based platform. But as our team and product offerings grow, as well as the scope of training we must provide, Storyline has turned into a key piece of what we use to produce our training. Our Customer Experience team uses it to create detailed, narrated, click-by-click walkthroughs for our customers to use in onboarding. We either host the courses ourselves or allow customers to load the SCORM files into their own LMS.
  • Click-by-click
  • Narration
  • User Interface
  • Exports
  • Edits
  • Collaboration
  • Review
  • Content creation in-app
  • Web-based
Storyline is like Rise on steroids. I would always recommend to start with Rise and then once you hit a limit to what it can do compared to what you want to build, I'd then check our storyline. I find they work great together to build amazing learning experiences. Because of how hard it is to edit courses and content I would say not to use it for click-by-click walkthroughs and training until your product is fairly finalized as it can be tedious to make changes.
Daniel Terán | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Articulate is a transversal software in our organization since we use it to design courses of our own catalog, but also to design courses for our fully customized clients.

The great flexibility of the storyline allows us to create courses for computers but also for mobile phones, all from the same complete suite.
  • Storyline allows working with layers for the creation of interactive scenarios.
  • Storyline allows you to control the user's progress, to configure it freely and directionally, we can also program advances by accumulating points.
  • An opportunity for improvement is that the software allows creating responsive courses in offline mode to be able to design them at all times.
  • You could include an editor or character creator within the same storyline.
The best scenario to use Articulare is when we need to create a fully customized training course or proposal, within it we can program gamification elements, points and performance levels.
Within the software you can add Javascript code to execute complementary functions, you can also use the variables to energize the scenes.
Relton McBurrows | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Articulate Storyline is being used as a course authoring tool in creating our online learning throughout the hospital. It is primarily being used by our department in creating professional development, orientation training, and compliance training. We also use it to create embedded quizzes and exams for testing new staff and nurses.
  • Articulate is very intuitive to use. If you know PowerPoint, you can get a good start with Storyline.
  • Storyline allows for an editable import of PowerPoint slides. Most of our content starts as PowerPoint files.
  • Articulate is full of features to create interactive lessons
  • When creating quizzes and forms within Storyline, it would be helpful to be able to embed multiple data entry modes (i.e. radio buttons & pull-down).
  • Storyline also lacks the ability to apply an audio track across multiple slides.
  • Storyline's narration interface is cumbersome. It lacks the ability to record voiceovers while in the slide, allowing users to track with animations.
Articulate Storyline is extremely well suited for the novice to intermediate course developer. Built on a PowerPoint structure and interface, the workflow is very easy to learn. It is also well-suited to environments like ours where the majority of subject matter experts are producing their content first in PowerPoint. The content import features are unmatched by close competitors.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Storyline is used across our entire organization to create training for both internal employees and our corporate partners. We create sales and technical training for a variety of roles. It addresses the problem of having a global workforce that needs consistency in training delivery. We can release a training module for the entire company to support initiatives.
  • WYSIWYG editing (What you see is what you get). It's very helpful to be able to immediately see how actions and scripts affect each piece of the puzzle.
  • The flexibility of exams/quizzes is extremely beneficial. From the different question types available to the ability to randomize answers.
  • The integration of multimedia is super user-friendly—video (hyperlink or direct upload), audio, narration, etc.
  • The opportunities to utilize the motion of objects is extremely limited.
  • I don't like that you can't preview the full workings of the slide if it contains a video upload.
  • The menu visual options are fine, but not super intuitive. I'd like to have more control here.
I'm not sure it's scenario-specific. I think it's great for trainings, certification exams, video-based modules, etc. There isn't a scenario where I think it couldn't be used. It's more about creating the content based on the way that it will be used. I haven't come across a situation where it wasn't suited.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Storyline was purchased primarily for us to build our eLearning onboarding and compliance programs. We previously flew people all over the world and were able to drastically cut travel costs by implementing eLearning options.
  • Easy to pick up if you know PowerPoint
  • You can easily transform PPT docs into interactive eLearning files
  • Great online support forums
  • It’s hard to create eLearning where you can go backward through the course if you miss something.
  • Nowadays we are seeing more video eLearning. Storyline is a little outdated
  • Lack of on the job training tools
Storyline is great for compliance training. It’s also great for any soft skill training where content doesn’t change. If you are training your systems it’s not a great tool. It takes too long to edit and reshare. Rise is more suited to that.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use Articulate Storyline to create internal training for the entire company. It is easy to use my business objectives to create storyboards to turn into a great automated experience including embedded knowledge checks.
  • Ease of use
  • Ease of editing
  • Ease of converting to usable files for uploading
  • Difficult to copy and paste while keeping integrity of templates
  • Difficult to have multiple programs running at the same time. Storyline freezes up if more than a few programs are running concurrently.
It’s great when your learning team is one person. It’s more difficult to collaborate when designing with a team.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Articulate Storyline as the authoring tool for our eLearning content that is then uploaded to our LMS. This allows us to create and provide content specific to our products for our internal and external customers and is used across our entire organization. It facilitates the easy creation of our own content for our own products and we have also used it for our internal compliance courses.
  • Articulate Storyline allows users to hit the ground running in a fairly short time. It was easy to learn the basics quickly in order to begin creating our courses right away.
  • If a user knows PowerPoint, then they know much about Storyline. I was not a PowerPoint user before but now have a much greater understanding of that product, too.
  • Storyline provides regular, excellent training webinars that are some of the best I have ever attended. And, as a bonus, you often get source files from those sessions.
  • Because we are a software company creating how-to eLearning for our own products, we use a lot of screen recordings. It seems that many (maybe most) users of Articulate do not do this type of content creation. We have run into a few issues with screen recordings.
  • Because of the type of application that this is, there are regular updates. And, with updates, things sometimes get broken. We have had a few issues along these lines but, for the most part, they have not been things that were difficult to work around.
  • They have focused much of their development on their Rise application. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for us (screen recordings again), so that hasn't helped us. I do wish they would place more focus on Storyline. But, I do understand their logic.
Again, our screen recordings and the nature of what we do have posed some challenges for us. But, I feel that Articulate is still new and they do appear to be working on "fleshing out" all of their products. We particularly like their Review feature (which comes with the 360/online subscription) as it allows us to follow our own internal review process without having to first upload a file to our LMS. This makes that review run more smoothly for us.

They do have their try and test modes which make excellent use of our video screen recordings, allowing us to both demonstrate a scenario and allow the learner to try it. And, of course, there are assessments, which are not difficult to create using Storyling.
Rebecca McKenna | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My learning platform team uses Storyline to edit and publish eCourse modules that are created for us by external vendors. Our HR department also uses it to create training modules for internal employees.
  • It is a versatile tool that can create a wide variety of eLearning experiences.
  • It interfaces well with SCORM Cloud, which is what we use for dispatching eCourses to clients.
  • It is fairly inexpensive for a single user license.
  • The way it handles variables is confusing and not intuitive. This could be streamlined.
  • Attaching documents to an eCourse resources section presents problems when the documents are not located on the computer that is publishing the course.
  • Sometimes the courses do not work in Safari.
Storyline is useful for creating fairly complex eCourse modules with branching decision paths. If you are only looking to create very simple eCourses, its functionality might be overwhelming and unnecessary. It is helpful to have Storyline in a company's arsenal because it is widely used by eCourse vendors, so when an eCourse is delivered and requires edits (copy editing, etc.), then the content manager or LMS manager should definitely have access to this tool.
Kristin Broadhead | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
For most of my instructional design needs, I use Storyline and the Articulate 360 suite. For our Training and Development team, Storyline is used as a rapid development tool to create online learning courses and training videos to be hosted on our LMS. It allows for quick turnaround time and is an easy design platform.
  • I appreciate the screen record has the option to auto-populate the text for events on the screen.
  • You don't have to be a graphic designer to understand how to use the software.
  • Publishing options are great! You can export to Word and even MP4!
  • I wish there was more of a library for people cut outs.
  • The publishing time seems to take significantly longer than other software I've used.
  • The file seems to get corrupted when saved on the cloud. I suggest saving local and backing up to the cloud.
Storyline allows you to create different branches of your course, which is really great when designing an onboarding course. It allows the associate to choose their position, which then directs them into the onboarding best suited for their job. Prior to the newer versions, it was less appropriate to use if you needed a video, but the enhancements now allow this - so it is great!
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
My department under HR exclusively uses Articulate 360 to create web-based training courses. The courses that we create pertain to all different subjects including professional development, product knowledge, showroom, residential/commercial trade, facilities supply, operations, sales, systems, etc. All employees across the organization have access to these training courses.

Use of Articulate Storyline addresses the problems we often face with the expense of sending trainers to conduct a training class in person. Using web-based content is efficient in saving time and money so that the knowledge applied can be more hands-on and convenient.
  • Articulate Storyline is a timeline based editing software that allows all imported graphics, audio, video, and text to be seen simultaneously and adjusted on the timeline by overlapping (send to front, send to back).
  • Articulate Storyline has a customizable player that allows you to coordinate color schemes, organize resources, display of buttons/tabs, include notes or captions, audio controls, and sizing options for the browser window.
  • The Articulate community provides you with pre-made templates for slides and quizzes that you can import directly into your course through the application window. They also provide characters that range from realistic to illustrated and can be instantly imported directly from the application.
  • Articulate Storyline doesn't always allow the copying/customizing of every pre-built interaction (i.e. quizzes) and can be difficult to use at times.
  • Working on slide layers has limitations with what can be done using triggers and states outside of the base slide.
  • The modern player style does not allow for publishing with Flash and can cause a weird font issue if only using HTML. The modern player looks so much nicer than the classic, but only allows for HTML publishing.
I have to create customized courses from scratch frequently. When it comes to creating important Legal/Compliance training, I know that I can restrict certain navigation of slides and customize the way the training must be viewed with Storyline. There are so many ways to ensure that the course content is received in the correct format, along with the ability to track the completion of courses based on passing a quiz or viewing all slides in the course.
Chris Bloom | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Storyline for internal training courses, both soft skill and product training. It addresses all kinds of topics, from compliance to promotions to product walkthroughs and best practices. Our team uses it for the employees, and another training team uses it for New Hire programs. We haven't used it for any external audiences at this time.
  • Intuitive. It works similar to PowerPoint in terms of slides and structure. Adding assets and narration is fairly straightforward.
  • They have a good stock library. Also, you can add different characters in a variety of poses for added effect.
  • Lots of flexibility in navigation and buttons. Variables and basic scripting makes it easy to customize.
  • Animations are lacking. Limited to real basic types of movement and animations, which can look dated and not as profressional.
  • Lacks a time feature (how much time is used, how much time is left). I know that can't always be accurate due to interactive navigation, but the option to put one in would be nice.
  • Customization of the player is limited.
It's great for creating some basic eLearning tools. The video capability is so-so, though. You can create things rapidly, which is nice. And it does have some power and flexibility. It's good especially for courses where you need to break it out in sections. Quizzing is nice because you can separate it throughout the course, and then it can be tallied together. I'm not as big a fan of external audiences, since those are more video-focused and it doesn't have as many editing capabilities as I'd like.
Gregory Morrison | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
In my organization, I am the sole instructional designer for a workforce of 10K+ employees. I use Storyline2 and 360 to create engaging pieces of content from training, to interactive employee handbooks, to mandatory compliance assessments and reviews.

These programs allow me to convert boring PDFs, videos, and multiple choice quizzes into genuine learning experiences, which help with overall effectiveness and retention. Plus, since we have the luxury of gamifying our content, our employees don't view training as a punitive activity anymore.
  • One of Storyline's greatest attributes is its versatility. Although you can use the basic templates, more advanced users will savor the ability to bring their ideas to life using the blank canvas to transform their ideas into powerful pieces of training.
  • I really like the ability to create branching scenarios, which turn a linear story into a multifaceted experience.
  • Storyline also works seamlessly when adding custom interaction and various media types, from audio, to video, to web objects. The combination of these elements helps designers appeal to audiences of varying learning styles.
  • I've always wished that storyline allowed a designer to organize triggers in collapsible folders. Anyone who has used 10 or more triggers all on varying objects throughout the slide knows how difficult it can be to find what you're looking for. Cleaning this area up would do wonders.
  • It would also be helpful if you could delete the result slide variable if you indeed delete the result slide itself. Currently, if you are experimenting with four different result slides and decide to only use one, the variables (points and percent) stay in the project and can never be removed. This can be confusing later on.
  • This really isn't a major problem, but more of a suggestions, but it would be cool if you could manipulate the size and shape of a marker. So if I wanted a large marker or even a rectangular one that looked like a button but had the characteristics of a marker, that would be pretty cool.
With Storyline, your only limitation is your imagination. This program is so powerful, and with new additions like Articulate Review, there is nothing else like it on the market. I would advise new users to take their time to understand the various features and navigation so that you know exactly where to go and for what, but after that, the limit to the software will only be capped by your ability or inability to think.
Dorothy Mocalis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The training development team uses Articulate Storyline to create compliance and process training. It was easy for the staff to learn and get used to for those who have never used it before. We have created templates to keep our trainings looking the same and we love the tool.
  • Storyline is great for customizing your training activities. If you can think of an activity, you will be able to create it in Storyline. It is like a blank canvas, great for creative people.
  • Storyline is very forgiving. If you have an issue or something isn't working the way you want it, there are more than one ways to do something. I love finding Storyline loopholes for my colleagues to ease the stress off of their shoulders.
  • It is easy to turn boring PowerPoints into an interactive work of art. You just have to think about the story you want to tell and what the learner should be able to do by the time they finish the training.
  • It would be nice to enter PDF type documents. There are ways to display documents, but you have to know the work-arounds to make it look good.
  • Storyline should be able to edit images better. For example, if I want to use an image that doesn't have a transparent background, I need to open Adobe Photoshop to delete the background. PowerPoint 13' has this functionality.
I was the initial employee to propose the purchase of Articulate Storyline. Storyline is great for getting out information fast to a large audience. It works nicely with any LMS I have ever used.
Destery Hildenbrand | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
As an organization we are moving to Articulate 360 as our full eLearning development suite. We have used Articulate Storyline as our rapid prototyping instructional design tool in the past but with the additional options now being offered with the 360 suite we are moving towards using it exclusively for our eLearning development needs. Full course development, short bite-sized learning nuggets, and for just in time job-aid development, and now responsive design and real time review of projects are tools we will be working with to better serve our customers.
  • The best part of all of these tools is that they stay true to what I loved about Storyline and that's a low learning curve to get started. Anyone can sit down and with a little trial and error start using these tools right away.
  • Articulate 360 offers an all in one suite of programs and services that meet all of your elearning development needs. From rapid prototype creation with the Preso App to the content library with ready to use templates and characters for scenario creation the 360 suite provides the tools you need to develop quality elearning for your clients and customers.
  • As a suite you can now receive updates to the software and features as they are made without buying a new version. One price for each licence gives you access to all of the 360 programs and services.
  • Responsive authoring tools are available on your machine and in the cloud with Storyline and Rise. You can effectively tailor your training to fit any device or screen with ease. Rise ios a cloud based development tool that allows for ease of use and creation.
  • eLearning Heroes has been the gold standard for community outreach and support for a software. This community is populated with all users and skill levels to provide ideas and support. Now included in 360 Articulate offers Live. Live webinars by the Articulate gurus themselves offing ideas and instruction on how to use 360 better.
  • Pricing is more straight forward but I would have liked to see a monthly alternative similar to Adobe. The one size fits all may be too much for everyone. An a la carte option again similar to Adobe (Photoshop and Lightroom for a price) might be helpful in this case as well. (Storyline and Content Library for a price).
Articulate 360 really excels as an all in one elearning suite. Everything you need to be successful in developing eLearning from a technology standpoint is here and ready to go. It's ne responsive development tools and cloud options allow for development for any device or screen and any computer with an internet connection gives you access to their cloud development software. From prototype, design, review, and release 360 offers tools to support all steps. This suite offers tools for just about every scenario sans direct web design. You will also need additional image and video editing tools. Articulate offers limited options in those regards.
Richard Watson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I've been using Articulate Storyline as the primary element on nearly all of the projects I work on. Its flexibility to customize interactions allows me to use it in designing/delivering soft skills training as well as healthcare and technical-related projects. Although I use other tools, having a single tool that can deliver at so many levels helps increase my proficiency with the tool which reduces the overall time to design and deliver quality products.
  • If you can dream it, you can most likely create it in this product. It is very flexible and intuitive.
  • By using triggers, variables, and states, you have the ability to harness design capabilities that would otherwise require a high level of programming expertise.
  • Integrating audio, video and animations into a module/course is very simple.
  • Its interface is very easy to use and understand.
  • I think they are working hard on this area but there is still some room for improvement in the HTML 5 to ensure it works consistently across multiple browser platforms and mobile devices.
  • Provide more options for the look/feel of the player. Include a built-in option for a "transparent player" instead of having to go in and change the transparency settings to achieve a transparent player effect.
  • The ability to edit graphics (since it is integrated with PowerPoint) from within Storyline itself would be a nice addition.
  • A more robust audio editing tool which allows you to edit (cut/paste, fade in/fade out audio, etc.) in a more intuitive way.
Customizing interactions is one of its strongest points. Again, if you can dream up the interaction, there is probably a way to use triggers, variables, conditions and states to achieve it. Although the initial learning curve is a little steep, if you put in the time, you can really get the power out of the tool to accomplish some really great things! Their community is a great place to shorten the learning curve quickly.
August 31, 2016

Go with the best!

Nick Elkins | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use it in the learning and performance team to create experiences that help build better performers across the organization.
  • Animations are smooth, easy.
  • Quizzing is easy and fast.
  • User interface is the best in class for e-learning development tools.
  • Support and community are second-to-none.
  • Wouldn't mind seeing additional audio and video editing tools within the software.
I haven't found anything yet that I can't use Storyline for...and I've been using it since the day it came out.
Louisa Fricker | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use Articulate Storyline to deliver learning material for flipped classrooms in a post secondary institution. The purpose is to deliver content in an interactive and engaging way online, then bring students into the classroom for group work and hands on activities. This reduces the amount of classroom time needed, and makes that classroom time more productive.
  • Storyline is incredibly flexible. It incorporates a wide range of media formats (images, videos, etc), if you want to add a quiz you have a wide range of question formats (drag and drop, text, etc), and the Triggers and States features let you customize what happens based on the user's actions. You can basically build a choose-your-own-adventure activity.
  • The basics of Storyline are easy to learn. When you open Storyline for the first time, you can immediately start building simple activities with minimal training. That said, you'll want to refer to the online video tutorials to learn the advanced features.
  • Once you've created an activity, you can publish it in multiple formats, including web format, mobile, SCORM, and Word. I usually publish an activity to both web format and Word (which I then convert to PDF). The Word/PDF version serves as a transcript of the interactive version for people with auditory disabilities.
  • Learning the more advanced features of Storyline does take some time. When I was learning Storyline, I was able to set aside about 45 minutes at the beginning of each day to watch 1 or 2 tutorial videos and then practice what I had just learned. I got up to speed very quickly this way! And once you have some advanced skills with Storyline, that's where the fun really begins!
  • Some of the output options aren't ideal. For example, you can publish an activity to a DVD, but the output is an exe file, which some computers won't run. Also the Word doc output is fairly terrible looking. (Although, if you have a little skill with Word styles, you can easily fit it up.)
Do you want to create an interactive learning activity? Are you prepared to rework your content into a format that allows users to take the reins and decide how they want to move through the content (rather than you giving them the content in a linear fashion)? Do you have time to invest in learning how to use the advanced features of this software? If yes, then I would highly recommend Storyline.
Meg Bertapelle | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Storyline in the Clinical & Product Education Department, and I believe our HR training group is also using it. We are now able to develop more complex e-learning projects within our fixed timelines because Storyline makes it easy to do. Instead of deciphering coded IDs and actions, just read the trigger in plain English, love it.
  • Building complex interactions, allowing learners to practice new skills or application of new information, is easy and straightforward.
  • Creating branching and scenario-based e-learning is also easy and straightforward - I can see the branching overview easily and have the opportunity to use layers within a slide to manage detailed feedback.
  • If you want to get even more complex, as long as you plan sufficiently and/or have some coding help, Storyline can support a lot of additional functionality.
  • There's no text-to-speech engine, so we are using a very odd combination of software & strange workflow to sort that out.
  • There's no way to publish as a movie/video file, so some projects we're still completing in Captivate.
  • Also we've found that recording audio directly into Storyline limits your options - if you later export that audio, you will get one long file, of the original recording, without any of the edits made within the software.
Consider an audio editing software, and potentially a text-to-speech engine, separately. If your plan is to provide movie/video output, this is not the right choice. Plan ahead and test any advanced interactions are possible with the HTML5 publish before doing the full development - some things work really well on a desktop with Flash, and don't work well via mobile/HTML5.
June Ganes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
About four years ago at the suggestion of one of our learning facilitators we purchased Captivate, due to the difficulty in learning this software it was not used efficiently. After researching other software I discovered Articulate. We began by purchasing Studio and used it for about a year until Storyline was introduced. This was the smoothest transition ever, it's so easy to use and if there is ever an issue you have the E-Learning Community and E-Learning Blogs. Since our purchase we have consolidated a large amount of training into eLearning courses saving money and time employees have used traveling to classes (we have branches all over Atlanta). Now we are getting into mobile courses so we have the option of training on the go. We could not be more excited on the direction we are going thanks to Articulate!
  • Ease of use.
  • The features of Storyline such as triggers, variables, and buttons without having to know flash or HTML.
  • Works great with our LMS.
  • The ease of importing video and editing all in one location.
  • Ability to add music that would run the entire course instead of per slide.
  • When copying and pasting, the bullets do not carry over the same font color.
  • More characters would be nice.
We have not found any instances or scenarios in which Storyline has not been adaptable for our use. Key questions to consider would be what are you wanting to do with the software and how to you want to provide it to your audience ex: LMS, Intranet, classroom, etc.
October 07, 2015

I Choose Storyline 2

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is used by one department to create modules for the entire organization including associates in over 600 stores. The bulk of the modules are used to distribute product knowledge and enhance selling skills. Additional modules address the use of our various business software programs. We also use it to create informational modules that address issues specific to franchise and retail organizations.
  • Storyline is versatile. You can create a quick module when starting out with Storyline. Then as you increase your skill level, it grows with you.
  • Storyline handles variables and conditional statements very well. Being able to build logic into my courses has become standard for me now.
  • The prebuilt options like buttons, hotspots, zooms, and states makes me look like a whiz. So easy to use.
  • It would be nice to have the ability to change a quiz question to a different type. For example, change a quiz question from True/False to Multiple Choice without retyping the whole question.
  • Would be nice if they added advanced video editing features so that it could be done right from within the program.
  • Would be nice if they added a remove background from an image feature similar to what PowerPoint has. Would make it quicker than taking the image out to another editing program.
If you are planning to create a significant number of modules, choose Storyline. If you anticipate using logic to create more advanced features in your modules, choose Storyline. If you plan to rarely use an authoring tool, you may want to stick with something simpler. Will you use it enough to make the investment in money and time worthwhile?
October 06, 2015

Love Storyline!

Montse Anderson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

I use Articulate Storyline every day to create courses for my clients. I appreciate the bright interface and the many tools available to help me with creating interactive and engaging courses. In particular, trigger options. Triggers allow me to design and create interactions that are just not possible in other popular elearning programs. I enjoy creating custom drag and drop activities outside of the freeform and default quiz options. The change state triggers make this easy and fun. Another great feature I love using are sliders. Sliders are incredibly versatile. They can be used to show before and after changes, data processes, interactive timelines, step by step progressions and so much more. The good news about sliders is one can add multiple “steps” not just two steps.

In a nutshell, engaging elearning is not only possible with Storyline but easy too. Storyline helps course designers to push the limits of what’s possible with course design. It helps designers bust out of the tell me-tell me and bullet trap into creating innovative elearning. Working in Storyline is a real joy and it’s fun. I love discovering ways of developing really cool elearning courses! I can’t say that about other applications.

  • Language translations options
  • Trigger and variable options
  • Dockable panels
  • Graphics editing
  • Applying state changes to multiple objects at once
  • There are instances in which I need to replace several of the same images on a slide at once. For example, a marker to show a location. If I right-click on an image, I have the option to "change image or picture." It would be great if I could select all those images at once and change them as opposed to replacing each one individually. I can't do that now.
If another elearning designer/developer asks me what application I recommend for creating courses, I would recommend Articulate Storyline every time. I have no reason to recommend another program. I've worked in other programs and I really love working in Storyline.
September 30, 2015

Why I like Storyline 2

Teg Griffiths | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Articulate Storyline 2 is used by the training and development team. It is a flexible tool that helps develop not only technical training but also soft skills. It is important that we develop proficiency with a single tool as opposed to trying different tools for different scenarios.
  • When recording technical training I love the ability to edit individual slides to show what you want.
  • The ability to develop in layers provides great flexibility as to the amount of options that you can provide on a single slide.
  • Triggers and variables allow you to control the user experience and display content/navigate based on the users responses. Leading to much richer solutions.
  • Editing a movie can be a little labor intensive and slow at times especially when there are a lot of slides to edit
The only issue I have currently is that it does not have an adaptable option. If this is important to you then you should not use it.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
In a multi-state healthcare organization, eLearning is essential for training and compliance needs. Frequent updates to the electronic health records software demand quick turnaround of technical information and interactive practice; medical standards and guidelines must be communicated to clinical professionals in accessible and engaging ways; HIPAA and OSHA regulations require annual review. Staff can complete these requirements as their busy schedules allow.
  • Articulate Storyline allows video screen capture! This is essential when providing training modules about updated Electronic Health Records software.
  • Articulate Storyline allows non-programmers (like me) to use elegant tools for complex design elements; variables and states allow branching logic and easy design of custom interactions.
  • Although the link to product and community help is excellent, in my ideal world, context-sensitive help would be accessible within the program.
  • Graphical editing (as recommended by Articulate experts within PowerPoint) would be nice within Storyline itself.
  • Tiny picky thing - In Story View, I would like to be able to reorder and renumber scenes.
  • Some content imported from Articulate Presenter - interactions and quizzes need significant design tweaking.
Since the Articulate products are all I've used, the only questions I would ask would be to differentiate between choosing Presenter and Storyline. If the user is comfortable with learning new tools, Storyline is the best choice in my opinion. However, if their primary training mode has been in using PowerPoint, the Presenter would be an ideal transition to eLearning instructional design.
Return to navigation