The Logical Blog by IconLogic

Articulate Storyline 360: Rescue Corrupt Projects

When I teach my vILT Storyline 360 classes, I tell my students to avoid editing the project file over a network drive. Because Storyline projects are a package of assets, those assets can get lost when the project is opened and edited over a network. To avoid the possibility of a corrupt project, always edit the .story files locally (on your local drive) and back up the project files to a network drive. (Or use the backup feature available when you publish to Articulate Review 360.)

 

I frequently hear from Storyline developers who either didn't know about the network issue, forgot, or IT requires developers to work off the network. Sooner or later, this message will appear when attempting to open the corrupt project:

 

If you receive the message above, the file is likely corrupt, and there is little you can do to fix it. However, all is not lost. It is possible that an earlier version of your project is on your local drive. Here's how you can save the day.

 

1. Open your hard drive in Windows Explorer
2. Open Users > your user name
3. Select the View tab and, from the Show/hide group, enable Hidden Files
4. Open the AppData folder
5. Open the Roaming folder
6. Open the Articulate folder
7. Open the Storyline folder
8. Scan the contents of Storyline folder for a tmp file that starts with the name of the corrupt project.
9. Copy the newest version of the tmp file to your desktop
10. Change the file extension of the copy on your desktop from .tmp to .story.
11. Double-click the .story file to open it in Storyline.

Stay off that network, and all will be right with the world!

Adobe RoboHelp: Consistent Image Sizes

I recently had a student from one of my vILT RoboHelp classes ask how they could quickly control the size of multiple images for an entire project. Her supervisor wanted several images displayed at 50% of their original height and width.

This is a reasonably simple task via CSS.

To begin, open the assets folder and open your project CSS. In the example below, I opened the default css that comes with every new RoboHelp project.

Create a New Style.

In the Class area, type a name. In the example below, I've named my new style Images. Note that the same name will automatically be added to the Selector area.

Click the Done button.

With the new style open, open the Layout category. Because my student wanted the images 50% smaller than the original, I set the Height and Width to 50%.

Save the project.

Open a topic with an image or import an image into a topic.

At the far right of the RoboHelp window, click Styles.

Select the image in the topic and click your Images style from the list of styles.

Use the style on as many images throughout the project as appropriate.

To change the size of the images using the Images style, go back to the CSS file and edit the Images styles. After saving the CSS file, all images using the Images style will instantly update.

 

Adobe RoboHelp: Creating a TOC for Word and PDF Output

You can easily include a TOC for your RoboHelp online output by opening the default TOC and adding sections and pages as needed. The TOC works fine when you output Frameless or HTML5 content. However, if you output Word or PDF content, the default TOC will not work. What's the deal?

There are two types of TOC available in RoboHelp: Online and Book. The default TOC is an online TOC and only works with online output (Frameless, HTML5). If you want to output a Word doc or a PDF and include a TOC, you must create a Book TOC and add the TOC as "front matter."

Here's how to create a TOC for Word and/or PDF output and add the required front matter:

Select Table of Contents from the list of categories at the left of the Author tab.

Click the New Table of Contents icon.

In the New Table of Contents dialog box, select Book TOC and then click the Done button.

Add sections and pages to the TOC as you would normally do.

From the top of the new TOC, click the Insert Front Matter icon and choose TOC page.

Select the Output tab, select Output Presets, and then click the New Preset icon.

Choose Word from the Type drop-down menu, give the layout an appropriate name, and click the Done button.

With the Word preset open, specify an output path.

On the Contents tab, select your Book TOC from the Table of Contents drop-down menu.

Save the project and then output the Word content.

You will likely see two Word alerts. The first one allows Word to create the TOC from the RoboHelp project. Click Yes.

The second alert allows you to ensure the entire TOC is accurate. Select Update entire table and then click OK.

The TOC is added to the Word output.

Are you looking for RoboHelp training or mentoring? We've got you covered. 

Adobe Captivate: Slide Video vs. Video

When adding media blocks to an Adobe Captivate version 12.3 project, you have two options: Slide Video and Video. You can go with one or the other, but you cannot add both to a slide.

So when should you choose Slide Video vs Video?

Go with Slide Video if you only need one video on the slide. The video will play automatically for learners based on when you set it to appear on the Timeline.

Insert a Video if you need one to three videos on the slide. The videos will not play automatically when you go with the Video option. Learners must start the videos by clicking a play icon on the video's player.

Are you looking for Captivate training or mentoring? We've got you covered with live training, recorded training, and one-on-one mentoring.