2 Tips for Using Content Library 360 That’ll Save You Oodles of Time

I feel a bit like a broken record, but I can honestly say that Articulate 360 is jam-packed with timesaving tools for streamlining your workflow. And one of my personal favorite tools is Content Library 360.

In case you’re not in the know, Content Library 360 is an ever-growing library of course assets. These assets include:

• slide templates for Storyline 360 and Studio 360 courses with flexible layouts and interactions that are prebuilt with all the object states and triggers in place;
• over 100,000 photographic and illustrated character combinations with different poses and expressions—many in industry-specific garb like scrubs, lab coats, or hard hats;
• access to a library of millions of stock photos, videos, and vector graphics—all royalty-free assets available to you right from within Storyline 360, Rise 360, and Studio 360.

Beyond the creative possibilities and sheer convenience of Content Library 360, I can’t stress enough what a huge timesaver it is to have professional-looking prebuilt slide templates right at your fingertips—especially when those last-minute change requests hit your inbox.

Those urgent requests to shoehorn new content into my courses used to send me into panic mode. I’d either scramble to adapt an interaction from another project or try to create an interaction from scratch. And when you’re in a rush, it’s really easy to overlook things like pixel-perfect alignment or missing triggers, resulting in more hassles. 

But now, with Content Library, I can quickly browse for and insert an interactive slide template that fits the bill, and then easily customize the appearance, add my content, and go. It’s a game-changer!

Here are step-by-step instructions (with video!) to show you just how easy it is to customize the Content Library 360 slide template for your projects.

Step 1: Browse & Insert a Slide Template

Don’t let last-minute changes derail your productivity. Save yourself hours of searching and design work by browsing for a Content Library interaction to customize on the fly.

Here’s how it works:

1. Click on the slide that will come before your soon-to-be-inserted slide.
2. Select the Slides menu and click on the Content Library 360 option to open up the template browser.
3. Speed up your search for the perfect template by using the filters on the left. In my case, I wanted an interaction, so I used the interaction filter. You can also filter by color theme, either light or dark.
4. Click to select the slide you need and then hit the Insert Slide button. Boom! Your new slide is inserted into your project.
   
   Pro Tip: You can select and insert multiple slide templates from the Content Library browser just by holding down the Shift key while you click on the slides.

Here’s a quick (silent) video I made to show you these steps in action.

Step 2: Add Content & Customize

If the idea of customizing the look and feel of a template seems a little intimidating, don’t sweat it. It’s actually a whole lot easier than you think.

Here’s how I tackled it …

1. First, I selected and then deleted the slide elements I wouldn’t need. Since I wasn’t creating a timeline interaction but rather a sleek click-and-reveal interaction, I took out the “date” boxes and the divider lines.
2. Then I started swapping out images. I already had the ones I wanted to use saved in a folder on my desktop, so all it took was a quick right-click on each placeholder image to browse to the location of each new image.
3. Next, I added my text. Because Content Library slides are professionally designed with all elements of the layout clearly named and easy to identify on the timeline in Storyline 360, all I did was click to select the textboxes I wanted to change and start typing.
   
   Bonus: If you’re new to e-learning, Content Library 360 slides use placeholder text that gives you pointers on how to get the most out of each layout so you can design more effective e-learning.
4. With your newly inserted slide selected, navigate to the Design menu. Then, click on any of the prebuilt color themes or create a color theme that matches your project. I had one already designed for my project, so I just clicked to apply it to my slide.
   
   Never used design themes before or not sure how they work? Here’s an article about what they are and how to use them.
5. A few more clicks to fine-tune the look, applying my lighter text color to the layer text, etc., and then … voila!

Here’s another short and silent video to walk you through these steps.

How cool is that? Adapting Content Library 360 templates instead of creating something from scratch makes a whole lot of sense when you’re a busy e-learning developer—especially when you’re a one-person training department. And if you'd like some more tips and timesavers on this topic, check out 3 Timesaving Tips for Customizing Content Library 360 Templates.

There are so many more creative uses for Content Library 360 assets. Will you share your favorites with us? Leave your Content Library tips, tricks, and creative ideas in a comment below.

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