Articulate Storyline

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.

Articulate Storyline does a great job of providing interactive learning experiences.

The program is fairly easy to learn and utilize for ISD professionals and those with Adobe Captivate experience.

The interactive learning modules are responsive and flexible in design for different platforms.

Like other e-learning tools, Articulate can lack some development tools for fine-tuning an e-learning module. One wishes there was a back-end feature for hand coding design elements.

For some, the program may lack help or supportive features for training developers.

Not all browsers may work with modules developed in Articulate. This is also an issue with other e-learning tools.

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.

The fact that Storyline works on pretty much any device is great.

It is user-friendly, which is very important when it is being used by people from a wide range of tech-savvy (or non-savvy) backgrounds.

It just looks good! The way you are guided through the creation of your e-learning content helps make your content look really great.

I don't think there is anything we noticed in our time using it that we didn't like. It was very fun and easy to use.

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.

Being able to simulate our business systems makes the learning experience that much more effective.

Mobile friendly production lets lawyers learn on the go.

Versatile course creation tools means that you can have a polished and professional course up in literally minutes.

Some minor resolution issues with screen recording don't detract from an overall positive experience.

Interactive job aids. It goes far beyond the traditional "click-next-to-continue" e-learning style.

Scenarios. Articulate Storyline is the best at organizing and branching slides.

Traditional e-learning.

While AS is very user-friendly, with that comes a loss of control in being able to script things in a customized way.

Raises the level of engagement

Simple implementation process

Works will with an LMS

I would like to see more "free templates" that offer more plug and play like Articulate 360

Articulate Storyline is especially adept at providing interactive training modules with the ability to add in various learning paths with animations and button selection. When done correctly it can be highly engaging for the user.

It is very easy to add voice over, screen shot, and screen capture video to your modules with the recording software built right into the program. This instantly eliminated our need for external software to fill these roles and was a huge time saver.

As we use multiple methods for module delivery, Articulate's publishing options are first rate. You can burn to a CD, publish as a SCORM package for a LMS, publish to a website, or even as a Word doc if you need to pass around just the content for review. This versatility serves all our needs.

One very time consuming process in creating a slide is synching up animation with a voice recording. I find I spend a lot of time dragging markers, sorting through layers, and having to constantly fine tune each second of the slide. The tools are fine, and I am not sure how this could be made faster, but a more efficient way of doing this task would be a big time saver.

In the adult training world it is important that end products look professional and are able to reflect the style of the business using them. Although Articulate Storyline offers many options in its characters, animations, etc., it can sometimes be a challenge to avoid a juvenile feel to the training. Sometimes those characters are downright comical, and frustrating to work with when you're trying to provide a polished technical training module.

When I first approach a new training project it can be overwhelming thinking about how each slide should look and function, how I want the material to flow, and how the user will transition from one topic to the next. I would love to see a brainstorming/ slide layout/ or rudimentary storyboard function. Maybe something which could be published and shared with team members for everyone to provide feedback and ideas on before development begins on the actual module slides.

SL provides a very robust and versatile tool, with a very short learning curve to learn how to use it.

Articulate provides excellent community and technical support. You can expect a personal response and action from their team.

Articulate manages the updates and 'fixes' in a responsible way - not bombarding their users with endless updates and fixes.

It would be very helpful to have a media library, to re-use an images in multiple locations without having to insert a duplicate image on different slides/scenes.

The ability for global changes to text/font would be helpful

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.

Support - The Articulate staff is extremely responsive and helpful. The E-Learning Heroes Community is, IMO, the absolute best user driven support community in the e-learning space.

Scalable functionality - You can use SL to quickly convert powerpoint files to interactive e-learning programs, or you can create complex learning experiences with SL's variables and javascript features.

User Friendliness - The menu bars and overall UX design mirrors Microsoft Office, so it's relatively easy to operate.

I would like to see more graphics functionality similar to powerpoint within Storyline. Some examples are - Merging shapes, removing backgrounds from images, and blurring images. If some of these basic things were added, I would be able to do almost all my graphics work within the tool itself.

The feedback masters of Storyline 2 are inconsistent in applying the master formatting to layers. Button states are not accurately applied, which means going in to each slide and layer to make individual changes. This can make the QA process quite cumbersome.

Fullscreen functionality for videos through a button or some other means would be a great value add as well.

Storyline could be even better and improve user-workflow if there were more options to set defaults for the program. Examples including setting a default Story size (program defaults to 4:3, but all my projects are 16:9, so I have to change that every time I start a new project), and setting the default font and paragraph formatting.

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.

It's easy to create interactive quizzes in Articulate Storyline 2.

The Storyline interface is easy to use. The defaults are usually spot on or close to what I would select as part of an e-Learning project.

The best part about using Storyline is the support community, "E-Learning Heroes" which is maintained by Articulate. Questions are quickly answered and some awesome content is available for free download.

It would be great if it was possible to create consistent background music in Storyline.

It’s easy to use

It’s fast to produce and develop eLearning.

The supports from the community are excellent.

The down side of it is poor animation possibilities.

Articulate's community is just a click and email away...support when you need it. The amount of free templates, storyboards, ideas, and graphics is absolutely amazing. We all share information, issues, and resolutions together, making for a true "community" of e-Learning professionals.

Articulate's Storyline tool enables you to import a PowerPoint and add engagement through built-in interactions, or you can start from scratch and build the same look and feel.

Easy enough for beginners, robust enough for programmers.

This is harder to define because Articulate is amazing at taking feedback and requests from its community and adding it to the roadmap for the product. We are awed by the sheer number of enhancements provided in their updates to the product.

Simple user interface.

Triggers (actions) are much easier to create than in Captivate.

The characters, particularly the additional bundles, offer a diverse range of photo characters that are great for a global company like ours. You can enhance the images by creating your own characters (they must be ready to scale, though) or purchase third-party characters from companies such as eLearning Brothers.

The support on the Community site is far superior to anything that Adobe has/will offer in the future...the amount of tutorials, examples and freebies is staggering.

More animation/movement options should be found in later releases of version 2 (let's not see another full release for a while).

There are some funky type issues with Storyline 2 - awaiting some bug fixes. Type, when paired with some animations, can be unruly and misbehave.

It would be great to have access to more characters (the cost is high for this software and there is no "cloud" version to save on upgrades) included.

Version 2 release seemed more like a patch than a full upgrade. Hopefully, the R&D costs will be recovered with this version so that Storyline 3 really has some new stuff that adds to the already organic interface.

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).

Automatic scaling of HTML5 content

Easy to share content with SMEs

Integrated large and growing content library

Resource intensive

Video authoring capabilities could be enhanced

It is very easy to learn and use, you can start creating great projects from day 1.

It allows me to give computer based training that is very technical to staff who have limited computer skills.

It is customizable to every situation I need and can be made to look and feel different from project to project if you desire.

The timeline function and ability to reorder objects can be a little difficult to navigate.

The files it creates are large and saving can be time consuming, a save as you work function would be helpful.

I have had some issues with HTML5 working correctly.

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.

It's easy for a new user to learn.

It provides a lot of versatility, leaving room for seemingly unlimited creativity.

Articulate provides great user support.

Slides in story view need to be able to be rearranged by clicking and dragging on them.

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.

Ease of SCORM publishing

Fantastic user based community that is well maintained by the staff, who are always on hand to offer advice or solutions

Scalability and expandability to build eLearning exactly how you want it

Need to be able to add your own character packs

Articulate Storyline allows you to easily integrate interactivity into your program

Articulate Storyline allows you to create a professional and effective eLearning product

Articulate Storyline has grown a strong community of users who are always available for input and sharing

Articulate is easy to learn and the more features you use, the more enhanced your learning experience can be

I would like Articulate to provide some stock graphics that are specifically designed for this use