Forum Discussion
Blurry images in Storyline 360 November 2021
Here's a link to a similar thread from 3 years ago. During the discussion, it was suggested by Articulate that the issues stemmed from us users not adhering to 'best practice', which is, quite frankly, bizarre.
I mean, 2 years AFTER the initial posting, Articulate jump in with the amazing announcement: "Fixed: Arrows and dashed lines were blurry when previewed or published."
Let that sink in.
We, the users of Storyline, have been creating workarounds and hacks to get something as simple as an arrow or dashed line to view pin-sharp, and kind of forced it into our workflow. Unless the client didn't mind (or notice) the blurriness.
It took untold years and innumerable complaints to get something as simple as non-blurry arrows to be presented to us like it was some kind of damned achievement level unlocked.
This is all really basic stuff. I mean, REALLY REALLY basic stuff - MS Painter level stuff. How can you trumpet 360 panoramic interactivity when one cannot make a simple mask within Storyline?
Why herald a 'feature', such as Importing SVGs as an image file, when its functionality is different to any other image instance, with regards Points 6 and 7 mentioned by Matt above?
After importing even a simple, single colour icon, one cannot alter the transparency of the SVG, to use, as, say, a watermark, in a course. It's nonsense. One cannot even use the old PNG trick of importing the icon as a white line SVG and select Format > Recolour.
The previously trumpeted 'feature' of being able to Import SVGs From Powerpoint, which allowed SO MUCH AWESOME flexibility, despite being a technical process, was actually a much better solution than what is now offered, and even that methodology has now been broken. Instead of importing as shapes, the SVG is now an awkward uneditable, un-tweakable, fully-opaque image.
The ability to do basic stuff WITHIN a software programme is kind of the point of most software programmes I use. Not many ask the user to use another, possibly more highly specialised third-party product to do basic stuff like creating bespoke shapes (c'mon, why can't we combine, break apart, tweak any shape combo within Storyline itself?), Masks (seriously, it's almost 2022 now!), import and/or store bespoke gradients, the ability to specify corner roundness/bezel values of ANY corner, (and not have to rely on flipping, inverting and rotating a shape to get the desired result thereby rendering all the internal geometry of the shape out of whack)...
There are so many basic features being asked for, including getting features that are actually in Storyline to work (Hello Format Picture > Picture > Blend > Mode... I mean, seriously WT-ACTUAL-F is it there for? It does not work, never has and shows such sloppy attention to detail, UX and interface design, and what Articulate really think of its user base).
Launching SVG Direct Import as a major achievement and to have the reality of it be so utterly disappointing and fundamentally broken clearly illustrates that Articulate is simply relying on loyalty (and fear of the unknown) to maintain revenues without addressing some nearly decade-old issues that are so blatantly, inanely, absurdly rudimentary to functionality is beyond depressing. It's despairing. It shows such a lack of vision, such a lack of understanding of who uses this software and what it is there for, and such a lack of respect to these same users who for years have been pleading to "get things fixed first, new features later".
Also, anytime something new is announced, something old gets broken, such as the annoying glitch whereby if one clicks on VIEW > SLIDE MASTER and then VIEW > FEEDBACK MASTER the screen jumps to the SLIDE VIEW.
Sloppy.
- MarkKirby-c9f943 years agoCommunity Member
Another blistering post. Thanks for sharing Diarmaid. I still think we are futilely keeping our frustration confined to this fuzzy forum, and we need a User Action Group. Have you (or anyone) ever tried discussing problems on LinkedIn?