Articulate Storyline

One of the very best “features” of Storyline is the Articulate Community and the fact that Articulate listens! I feel that the company really stands behind its product. Not only do they want their users to be able to make the most of the software, but you get the feeling that they’re supporting us to be the best we can be through what we design.

The community offers so many valuable resources: Helpful community managers who always try to answer questions quickly and clearly. A way to network with other users, share insights and creative ideas, or just show off our work. Weekly challenges to keep us engaged and thinking. A whole library of downloadable content.

I couldn’t ask for a better community or product support! Tom Kulhman and David Anderson are phenomenal – they are experts in the field of eLearning and course design and are always eager to share their knowledge, ideas, and tips/tricks. I have learned so much from their blogs alone, and was fortunate enough to attend an in-person workshop hosted by the both of them a couple of years ago. I feel like I never stop learning, growing, and getting better because Articulate supports me. I’m not just a nameless software user – I’m a community member and they care about my success and my opinion.

Storyline scores a 10 out of 10 for ease of use. Its ribbon navigation and layout feel familiar and are easy to navigate. I love the ability to move different windows/sections of the software – it allows me to configure a personalized layout that enhances my productivity.

Everything is relatively easy to find – I rarely have to hunt for a feature, and if I do Articulate provides helpful tutorials for everything. So it’s never hard to make the software perform the way I want it to. The tutorials themselves are a wonderful resource – I like that they include a video demonstration AND a text version of each tutorial.

I love that Storyline comes with some pre-built slide layouts and interactions. Even a beginner can engage learners in their courses – Articulate has done the work for them! The software grows with the user – you can make your courses as simple or complex as you desire. Though the software is easy to use, Articulate has included some powerful tools (like variables) which allow us to create games, interactive content, whatever we can imagine. The sky is the limit – buttons, hotspots, markers – whatever interaction I can imagine, I can create! So don’t worry about outgrowing the software – there’s very little you can’t do.

Course creation is simple and for the most part straight forward. First-time users can get started with very little training or experience, and the software is pretty easy to figure out. It’s the most user-friendly eLearning development software on the market, with a very low learning curve!

You can easily import PPT files or other Articulate projects, so upgrading from an earlier Articulate software is a breeze. We’ve had no problem converting any of our older Studio projects into Storyline projects. Template creation works the same as PPT, so it’s familiar and easy. Reusable content is a huge time-saver, and Storyline makes it very easy to create and reuse content. See a template or interaction in the community that you’d like to use in your current course? Importing them is simple and fast.

Sometimes an "advanced" feature is a bit buried, and not completely intuitive to find. I usually don't have trouble finding it once I google or search the community, but it would be nice to have a couple of heavily used features easier to access. Like course duration - it's a little hard to find how to view Storyline's estimated duration and that's something we use for each course.

I'd love to have a few features that we had in Studio, like the ability to loop background music throughout the course.

We have a standard for our slide note text, and it's hard to apply the formatting because the formatting paintbrush does not work on slide note text. Having to manually change the formatting for each slide is a bit tedious.

Rapid prototyping because you can show your e-learning blueprint very quickly.

Animations when you don't have any programming skills.

Interactivity is as easy as selecting a few options and you can deliver stunning and engaging training.

Great community.

I think that no SAAS option is a big downfall for large teams.

No OSX version.

No other localization (Polish language).

Creation of Flexible Situations: Articulate Storyline allows you to store unique bits of information in variables, which offers huge flexibility in the creation of interactions. When other platforms try to do this, things break or take all day. Storyline makes interactions with content the default, rather than the exception to the norm.

Dockable Panels: Articulate Storyline allows you to undock certain parts of its interface so that you can use multiple screens to find a nice layout for improved workflow. We love this feature because Storyline doesn't assume it knows how you like to work.

Publishing Options: Articulate publishing is frightently easy, and I have yet to have any issues with publishing to any SCORM or AICC format. There is no worry about multiple SCO's, or any of that. Storyline makes it easy to publish your course to a variety of different platforms.

I'd like to see a more centralized storage solution for states and layers-- logic that can be ready by all states in certain situations. Right now, all of this information is held on the slide level.

The timeline can be a bit finicky at times, although this seems to be improved with each update.

Zoom regions are only available on the base layer of a slide, and must be ended prior to the slide's conclusion or learners are stuck with a zoomed view for the rest of the course.

Articulate's Storyline allows for fast conversion of a PowerPoint training file into an interactive eLearning course.

The products enable fast integration of audio and video into eLearning lessons which in-turn improve the variety in eLearning courses.

Storyline allows for the most easy to use eLearning authoring tools when creating courses from original design concepts

Articulate could include responsive design capabilities into their products so that a single eLearning course or video product can work across all computing platforms.

Replay could use some improvement to keep up and perhaps surpass competitor products like Camtasia with the capability to edit video and audio while adding graphics.

It would be nice to include an integrated image capture/editing function into Storyline, which would make easier to integrate graphics into courses.

Right now Storyline does not allow for exporting of images. It would be useful to do so sometimes.

I love that it is easy to use. I was able to start using it the day I got it. The interface is familiar. If you can use office products you'll be able to use this.

Articulate support is awesome. Not just support from the company, which by the way is always timely in my experience and I don't have the platinum plan, but from the community also.

The Software is easy to use but powerful. You can include just about anything you want in your learning. I think my favorite aspect is being able to set up triggers for actions, based on clicks, hovers, timeline placement of objects, variables, and so much more. This lets me make learning that my learners can truly engage with.

The software is still fairly new, only a few years old. I think it still has room to grow and get better. Initially the software was buggy. Over time It has gotten better and continues to get better all the time.

I wish there were still more things that were customizable. I'd like to be able to control more of the "canned" interface without purchasing the developer kit or building external modules flash integrations.

I'd like to continue to see more options for animation and movement of objects on the screen. Articulate added more with it's Storyline 2 release, but it is still not to the point I'd like to see it.

Pretty quick learning curve. Can be up and running with eLearning creation within a matter of hours after install.

Loads of included effects, transitions and other bells and whistles to enhance the learner's experience.

Contains audio and video editing ability, therefore limiting how many other programs you need to own or open while creating.

Loads of resources online to give you inspiration!

I'd like to have them add a snap-to grid feature for specific items (such as for lining up the titles) providing for a seamless flow when they are fading in and out. You can manually line them up, but sometimes it takes a while.

It can be a blank canvas where your creativity may be the only thing holding you back.

The ability to use variables, triggers and layers adds a powerful dimension to what can be produced.

As an elearning tool, it has probably the best text handling capabilities of anything on the market including sophisticated use of OpenType features.

I would really like to see some sort of table building function. Currently, nothing is supported here.

While text handling is much better than the competition, I wish that is had proper tab support and paragraph styles that could be implemented across a project.

It could really use some sort of certificate of completion mechanism where students could print out completion certificates at the end of a course.

Storyline is user friendly. It enables you to quickly and easily create beautiful and functional content.

Storyline has no limits outside of your imagination.

Storyline is an inexpensive and cost-effective way to create dynamic training.

Storyline is an accessible tool that does not require special skills or knowledge to use.

I wish it were easier to automatically customize quizzes.

Easy-to-use and learn quickly. For any learning designer who has used PowerPoint, Articulate Storyline will be a breeze to learn. You can very quickly learn how to create a simple e-learning interaction that will run in and be tracked by an LMS, and as you become proficient, you can take it to the next level of complexity and sophistication.

User community that is second to none. I have never been a part of such an active user community. The support and generosity with knowledge is incredible. Any help a newbie might need is just a forum post away, the e-learning heroes always provide help!

Customer service and support. Articulate pride themselves in putting customer service and support at the forefront. Whenever I have had to contact support, the response has been not only super prompt, but also comprehensive.

Extending the software. You can build great e-learning interactions very quickly, but if you want to take a few steps further, Storyline lets you add Javascript to produce some really unique interactivity.

States, layers and variables. Using a combination of states, variables and layers allows a developer to build almost anything, like games, branched learning and more.

Articulate are working hard to improve their HTML5 compatibility. While it is possible to publish for HTML5 and view content on non-Flash devices, not all features work perfectly in HTML5. I see this as Articulate's current big challenge, and I have no doubt they will rise to it.

Added functionality to the Articulate Mobile Player (AMP). The player is great, but if you want assessment to be tracked by your LMS, you have to publish to Tin Can as the AMP does not currently support SCORM.

The release of Storyline 2 saw added animation capability and motion paths which was just great; if one was to be greedy, this is an area that can always be added to so developers can have more options and get really creative!

I needed something with more horses under the hood and Storyline certainly turbo-charged my eLearning capabilities and gave me flexible tools that meant I could produce great interactive content (that also works on touch devices) with ease.

Great set of tools made even better in Storyline 2 with some great additions to the selection of creative tools, Storyline is a must have for any eLearning pro or even an amateur as Articulate are incredibly supportive and helpful every step of the way!

Some of the creative tools were quite limiting but these have recently been addressed and made even better in Storyline 2 with some great additions to the selection of creative tools

Very intuitive interface; you'll get started in a flash

Simple yet powerful; Articulate Storyline is the first tool that I feel grows with my experience. Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned professional Storyline fits like a glove

Create anything you can imagine! From basic informational e-learning to software simulations and learning games. If your mind can conceive it, your hands can create it

Tap into the fast Articulate Community to learn how the software works, download amazing free templates, practice your skills with the weekly elearning challenges and connect to 1000's of amazing peers.

Articulate could do a better job at sharing their plans for the future: a roadmap would be really nice

It would be great if I could do more advanced video editing and audio editing in Storyline. The current options are quite basic and as an experienced developer I would really love to have more options to edit and clean up audio and video that I record in Storyline.

HTML5 is still wonky but that's just how HTML5 is as it is still in development.

Allows courseware creator to manage the flow of the participant by using variables.

Embedded and online media

Customizable size of stage.

No help utility. They provide a crowd-sourced forum where you can post questions. I'm probably old-school, but "post and pray" is inherently unsatisfactory. In fairness they do have employees who monitor the forums and usually you get an answer back quickly. But you have to be very, very careful about how you frame the question, and include all the things you've tried because they tend to reply with obvious, and typically useless answers.

Ability to set active buttons and keyboard shortcuts on master pages so you can put them and take them out once, instead of having to put them on every page.

Customer support - the Articulate community is beyond compare and I am always able to quickly solve any problems I might have. Check out community.articulate.com to see all the resources, forums, and samples that are available to both users and non-users of their products.

Easily and quickly creating interactive eLearning - no matter the type of module you need, SL can help you quickly produce technical training, soft skills, software simulations, games... anything really.

User friendly - Articulate is easy to learn, especially if you use PowerPoint on a regular basis. You don't need to know any coding or advanced skills. The community also has lots of tutorial and screen casts available to help you learn for free.

My weaknesses get really nitpicky. There are some features that I wish functioned differently but there isn't really anything that I haven't found a good work around for.

Articulate uses templates to create interactions.

Articulate leverages common expertise by plugging into PowerPoint.

Articulate has an amazing user community that makes support a strength and a key consideration when purchasing.

Some Articulate interactions have a limited palette of colours. If you want to customize to a corporate colour wheel, you may be out of luck

The default font is Articulate's own, which is not an industry standard.

Streamlines design to develop without the need of additional software

Flexibility and customization of courseware

Ease of use for both novice and advanced users

Incredible community and customer support

Release of SDK as standard

Greater customization of standard player functionality

Extremely versatile and powerful

Smallest learning curve with the lowest amount of bugs/errors with the software.

Excellent Customer Service

Invaluable user/staff community that promotes the sharing of knowledge and helping others to be successful with the software.

Only issue I have with the software is that I didn't hear about it sooner in my career.

Easy to use

Create interactivity without programming knowledge

Community support

Improved HMTL5 support

Improved 508 compliance support

E-Learning Authoring - I've used many different authoring tools, and Articulate Storyline is HANDS DOWN my favourite because of it's easy-to-use interface and built-in features and functionality

Providing support - Articulate has one of the most active communities I have ever been a part of, and between the community users and the sheer volume of tutorials the Articulate Team have developed, they are a one-stop-shop for questions and answers.

Allowing for customization - You can customize almost anything within Articulate Storyline, including the player and its attributes. This makes it incredibly easy to create custom looking courses for each and every client.

Cross-product integration - Articulate's cross-product integration abilities allow you to easily import content from Articulate Studio, leveraging the full suite of Articulate products.

Price - this is really the only area wherein I see some folks balking; however, once you start developing courses for clients, it very quickly pays for itself.