Storyline 360 has arrived.

Storyline Training expert Veronica B has tested the new software. She’s pushed its limits, both as a development pro and with Articulate’s beta-test team. Now, she gives us the skinny on the new features set to spin Storyline 360.

What’s new? Plenty.

Is it worth your while? Most likely. It depends a bit on what you want and what you need.

Here’s the Top 12 new features we’ve been using in Storyline 360. Take advantage of her insider knowledge. Make up your own mind.

Top 12 New Storyline 360 Features

1. Responsive player
2. Output can be HTML5, flash, or a combo
3. Object intersections events
4. Dials
5. New characters
6. Orient shape to motion path
7. New mobile device display options
8. Name motion paths
9. Publish single scene/slide
10. Slide properties more detailed
11. Preview different device displays
12. Square buttons

Want more details?

For more details about the Storyline 360 features on Veronica B’s list, give our other articles a look.

If you’re keen on the new player, previews, slide properties and mobile display options, read Veronica B’s bit on the new Responsiveness features.

Interested in motion paths and the new object events? Veronica B’s covers them all in Storyline 360’s New animation features.

I’ve written up my take on 360’s dials, square buttons and new characters? It’s an aptly entitled piece: New dials, buttons and characters.

For more on new output options, responsive player and publishing options, check out Veronica B’s New publishing features article.

Who will use it?

Storyline 360 has won us over. The handful of new features are capped by the vast improvements to player responsiveness.

Development professionals will adopt 360 in quick time. Corporate L&D teams and part-timers may take longer to evaluate the cost-benefit of upgrading. The new subscription model is sure to tempt.

For professional development, Storyline Training is ready to go with 360. Its new features will be optional inclusions in all Storyline Training courses. Storyline 2 is expected to be the mainstay of corporate teams for the time being, so Storyline Training continues to offer its top-shelf 2 training also.

Storyline Developer is one professional outfit making the switch to Storyline 360. Its new development work will be done on 360—with ongoing support for legacy products to accommodate client needs.

David is a doctor of comms, a creative director at Storyline Developer and a brand and business developer at Copy Transmission. He’s got L&D for miles. He’s got brand and tech for days. Yet, he does it all with concision.

For Storyline Training at your organisation, get in touch. Our experts have training solutions for both Storyline 2 and Storyline 360. Our tips and tricks engage everyone, from novices through to know-it-alls.

Storyline 360 is here. It just got easier to make e-learning that’s responsive and mobile-friendly.

One of the best things about Storyline 360’s is that its responsiveness doesn’t impact on your content creation.

Develop good content. Publish professionally. Apply the right settings. Then, let your e-learners enjoy the flexibility. This doesn’t require much more from developers. Articulate have done the hard work, so users get it easy.

Of course, the software is still brand new. Lucky for you, Storyline test pilot Veronica B is here to explain her 4 favourite new aspects of Storyline 360’s responsiveness.

1. Slide properties are more detailed

Developers have been able to turn the Prev and Next buttons on or off in the Player since Storyline 2. Storyline 360 takes this a step further. Now, you can also tick on or off Swipe gestures to move forward and back.

In cases where you’re using custom buttons for navigation, swiping forward and back can still be enabled simply by ticking a box. Yep, swipe can work even if the default player’s Prev and Next buttons are disabled.

Verdict

Swipe gestures are warmly welcomed. More detailed slide properties means  you can have your custom navigation cake and swipe it too. Did I mention learners can now also pinch zoom on their touchscreens?

2. Preview different device displays

Preview mode now includes the capability to see how your course would look on a Desktop computer, on a Tablet or on a Phone. For mobile devices, you can also preview how it will look in both landscape and portrait orientations.

Verdict

Who wants to publish and upload to a server every time you want to know how something will look on an iPad? Not me.

3. New mobile device display options

In the menu for previewing different device displays (pictured above), you’ll notice there’s a gears icon at the end. Clicking that open the following dialogue box: responsive playback options.

This extra little perk lets you set whether e-learners on mobile devices will be able to play your course in both landscape and portrait or restrict it to one or the other. You can even choose different settings for Tablets and Phones.

Users who try to view in a disallowed mobile orientation get the following advice:

Verdict

The ability to enforce a landscape or portrait orientation is good. The fact that you can do it with one click is awesome.

4. Responsive Player

Storyline 360’s new player is fully responsive. It’s true, I’ve tested it.

I’m not talking about the Articulate Mobile Player app for mobile devices. This is the functional framework that contains all browser-based Storyline courses. I’m talking about how users access basic navigation, tabs and stuff like volume controls.

Storyline 360 promises that you need only publish your course to a single file. Publish once and the player will adapt to look and work perfectly across all devices. From high-powered desktop computers through to 5-inch smart phones, all are well served.

With minimal need for developer tweaking, each e-learner gets an experience that’s customised for their hardware.

For touchscreens, common gestures work effortlessly, right out of the box. Standards like swipe and pinch zoom are automatically in effect.

Verdict

Laypeople often underestimate its importance and complexity of responsiveness. A genuinely responsive player will be welcomed by all Storyline developers.

So far, Storyline 360’s responsive player stands up to our tests. It looks like the real thing.

That’s Veronica B’s Top 4 Storyline 360 responsiveness features

Storyline 360 delivers on its much anticipated promise of a responsive player. There’s also broad flexibility for publishing projects that suit your needs.

Do you like the new publishing features? Let us know in the comments below!

For Storyline Training at your organisation, get in touch. Our experts have training solutions for both Storyline 2 and Storyline 360. Our tips and tricks engage everyone, from novices through to know-it-alls.

Veronica B has ID’d her favourite new Storyline 360 animation features.

With Storyline 2, basic animations became a reality for rapidly developed e-learning. Motion paths were immediately useful, but there was room for improvement. Storyline 360 delivers on that potential.

What’s new? There’s three immediately noticeable improvements. Two of them relate to motion paths. The other one is actually four: four new object events.

For more details, read on. Storyline developer veteran Veronica B explains how these new features make animations and interactivity both better and easier.

1. Orient Shape to Motion Path

This is a real step-up for easy animation in Articulate software. The ability to set the orientation of a shape as constantly relative to its motion path makes so much sense. Having used it in projects a few times already, it’s hard to believe this wasn’t requested by more people.

How to use it

Find Orient shape to path in the Path Options drop-down menu. One click and it’s done.

Verdict

The ability to orient shape to path adds an extra dimension to Storyline 360’s animation potential. It’s so well integrated, it requires almost no additional effort from developers. Easy as it is, it will genuinely result in better looking e-learning. A—mazing!

2. Name Motion Paths

I’ve long advocated the methodical labelling of all project assets. That’s because it ensure quick identification and easy manipulation. Until now, motion paths have been one item to which we couldn’t give a name. Storyline 360 rectifies that situation.

How to use it

Name your motion paths as you create them in the Animation ribbon. Look right under Duration.

Verdict

Our OCD team reckon the ability to name paths lets them sleep easier at night.

 3. New Object Events

Four extra Object Events are set to make animations and interactivity both better and easier:

• When object intersects
• When intersection ends
• When object enters slide
• When object leaves slide.

Simple as they seem, these four object events multiply possibilities. Storyline 360 animation promises to be neater and more versatile.

We used to hack animation with off-screen objects triggering on-screen objects. Never again.

These new features provide better control of on-screen movements. This could reduce time spent (wasted) manually syncing objects on the timeline.

How to use it

The new object event options are available via the Trigger Wizard. Once it’s open, look in the drop-down menu for Object settings. They’re right there in the Object Events group.

Verdict

Excellent news for interactive animation. I know I’m not alone in being super keen to put these into practice. Ideas for better e-learning games are already forming.

That’s Veronica B’s favourite new Storyline 360 animation features. Do you agree?

Have you found even better new Storyline 360 animation features? Let us know with a comment, below.

For Storyline Training at your organisation, get in touch. Our experts have training solutions for both Storyline 2 and Storyline 360. Our tips and tricks engage everyone, from novices through to know-it-alls.

When you publish an e-learning project, you want it to be absolutely fit for purpose. Access to options for publishing, deploying and viewing your content is vital. Storyline 360 delivers a host of new publishing features that make it easier to get exactly what you want.

As part of the beta-test team, Veronica B had the opportunity to check out Storyline 360 before it even launched. Here, she shares her 3 favourite new publishing features. She reckons they’ll be making developers lives easier in a flash. See what you think.

1. Output can be HTML5, Flash, or a combo

Storyline 2 published course files that deployed to Flash by default and also to HTML5 if that option was ticked. At first it seemed like a neat solution, but pockets of discontent soon emerged.

Many professionals have been vocal in their call for HTML5-only output. On the flip-side, some folks exclusively need a Flash version due to infrastructure constraints. Storyline 360 has the solution for both camps, and more.

Storyline 360 lets you select from four settings in the Publish Formats options dialogue. Take your pick from:

• HTML5 only
• HTML5/Flash
• Flash/HTML5—the reverse of the previous option: Flash if available and HTML5 when Flash is not
• Flash only

Where both versions are bundled together, the one listed first will play unless it’s not supported by the user’s browser. If it’s not supported, the other version will play instead.

Verdict

A snappy and simple solution. Everyone’s happy.

2. Publish single scene/slide

Sometimes you need to test a single slide or scene in your project. Often, the Preview function does the job fine. Sometimes, however, you need to make sure everything works in a live environment. For this, you need to publish it and load it to the web or your LMS.

Storyline 360 introduces new Publish options. No longer do you have to publish your entire project to test a single scene. Now, you can choose to publish just a single scene or even a single slide.

Verdict

The ability to publish small samples will make things faster and easier. It will be most appreciated when preparing excerpts for testing and previews for stakeholders.

3. Responsive Player

Storyline 360’s best new feature is definitely its fully responsive player.

We’re not talking about the Articulate Mobile Player app for mobile devices. We are talking about the functional framework that contains all browser-based Storyline courses. It’s how users access basic navigation, tabs and things like volume controls. It’s important.

With Storyline 360, Articulate promises that you need only publish your course to a single file and the player will adapt to look and work perfectly across all devices. From high-powered desktop computers through to 5-inch smart phones, all are well-served.

With minimal need for developer tweaking, each e-learner gets an experience that’s customised for their hardware.

For touchscreens, common gestures work effortlessly, right out of the box. Standards like swipe and pinch zoom are automatically in effect.

How to use it

The new player is supported by a range of settings and properties that give developers control without becoming onerous.

We’ve already started writing-up a more detailed article on Storyline 360’s player responsiveness. There are a few new options and settings that will refine development processes and—when used well—enhance user experiences, so it deserves a closer look.

Verdict

Responsiveness can be hard. Laypeople often underestimate its importance and complexity. The Articulate team have worked hard to make it easy for designers and developers.

A fully responsive player is a godsend to Storyline developers everywhere. If, that is, it works as promised.

The good news: Storyline 360’s responsive player has stood up to all our early testing. So far, it looks like a real solution to a big problem.

Video Recap

A birdie told me you like videos, so I’ve also made a quick explainer to guide you through a few of the new features.

That’s Veronica B’s run-down on Storyline 360’s new publishing features

Storyline 360 delivers on its much anticipated promise of a responsive player. There’s also broad flexibility for publishing projects that suit your needs.

Do you like the new publishing features? Let us know in the comments below!

For Storyline Training at your organisation, get in touch. Our experts have training solutions for both Storyline 2 and Storyline 360. Our tips and tricks engage everyone, from novices through to know-it-alls.