Storyline Feature Wishlist
Today we received an email hinting at big things coming from Articulate, Storyline’s parent company. The email suggested that what’s coming will simplify every aspect of elearning course development. I’m hoping that that if what’s coming down the pipe is Storyline 3, here is my wishlist of features I hope they will have added to the program.
1. Better trigger editing.
Currently the trigger editing panel only allows you to reorder, copy or delete one trigger at a time. I’m hoping the new Storyline will allow us to select multiple triggers to be edited this way. Also, when you view a trigger in the panel some variables can be edited from a drop down menu when you click on it, instead of having to double click on the trigger to open the editing window. However, this usually doesn’t apply to things such as the object that is linked to the trigger, or timeline controls such as cue points which are the things I generally need to edit the most.
2. More quiz functions.
More than once we’ve had to code complicated workarounds for drag and drop activities in which there were multiple correct answers for a drag item. Also, it would be nice if there was an automatic, centered numbering function for multiple choice answers, and currently there is no way to make a second column of answers if they won’t all fit in one. Finally, there should be a way to edit the sizing of the objects in any of the matching quizzes. Let’s hope the new program will allow for these functions along with any new quizzing features it may boast!
3. Renumbering scenes.
I’m slightly OCD, and it’s important to me that scenes are numbered in the correct order that they appear for my own clarification. Hopefully there can now be a simpler way to reorder scenes than deleting and pasting them back into the storyline.
4. Editing layering on multiple objects.
It’s strange that you can drag the position of multiple selected objects backward and forward in the timeline, but not up and down in the layer order unless you use the ‘bring forward’ and ‘send backward’ buttons.
5. More animations.
Powerpoint has emphasis effects. Why doesn’t Storyline have these?
6. More preview options. It would be really useful to allow javascript coding to work in the preview, the way Captivate and Lectora does. Also, there is no way to preview a block of slides, or preview a course starting from a specific slide.
7. Built-in function for closed captions.
Easily the most tedious part of programming, there should be a way to import a script that would automatically generate closed captions. Accessibility is becoming more and more important for elearning, it should be part of the program.
If there’s something you wish Storyline could do that I haven’t covered, let us know in the comments! Or contact us about helping you write a workaround for something you want your elearning to do!
