How to Integrate PowerPoint Presentations in Articulate Storyline

PowerPoint will always be essential within the E-learning development cycle. Using PowerPoint presentations in Storyline 360 enriches the existing content. It speeds up course development, especially if subject matter experts are drafting content in PowerPoint.

Articulate Storyline has a powerful feature to import PowerPoint slides into a Storyline file. Most PowerPoint features will work as expected in Storyline, but some have different behaviors, and some are not supported. In this blog, we will guide you to the features that work and those do not, including the detailed steps to import a PowerPoint presentation into a Storyline file.

Document Size

If the PowerPoint slide size is different from the Storyline slide size, you may need to adjust the size and placement of objects after importing. For the best results, it would be great if you can guide the SME/ the team to use the same size you are planning to use in Storyline. Also, you can always change the storyline size to match the PowerPoint size.

How to Edit the Slide Size

It is best to change your slide size before adding content to your course. Otherwise, you may need to resize or rearrange objects in your project to accommodate its new size.

1- Go to the Design tab on the ribbon and click Story Size.

2- When the Change Story Size window appears, choose an option from the Story Size selector.

• If you choose Custom, enter your preference, and note that the maximum allowed size is 2,047 x 2,047.
• Mark the Lock aspect ratio box if you want to maintain the current proportions.

3- If you want to decrease the slide size, choose one of these sizing options:

• Scale to Fit: This scales the existing slide content to fit proportionately within the new size. Objects that have locked aspect ratios will maintain their ratios. Objects that don’t have locked aspect ratios may change shape, depending on the slide size you choose.
• Crop: This crops your content to fit within the new size. If you choose this option, the NEXT button will become active. Click NEXT to define the cropped area for each slide in your project and drag the green box to indicate the portion of each slide you want to keep.

4- If you want to increase the slide size, choose one of these sizing options:

• Scale to Fit: This option scales the existing slides content to fit proportionately within the new size. Objects that have locked aspect ratios will maintain their ratios. Objects that don’t have locked aspect ratios may change shape, depending on the slide size you choose.
• Fill Background: This keeps the current slide background and applies it to the new size, but it does not resize your slide content. If you choose this option, use the corresponding Story Position drop-down to choose where existing content should appear on your slides.

5- Click OK to accept the new slide size.

Missing Fonts

Storyline does not accept embedded fonts. If a font in the PowerPoint presentation isn’t installed on your device, Storyline will substitute the missing font.

Animations

Storyline does not support all types of animation. Entrance and exit animations are supported and will be imported. However, some of these animations will be converted to Fade animations. Emphasis animations are not supported in Storyline and will not be imported.

SmartArt Graphics

SmartArt Graphics will be imported as images, and you will only be able to edit them as image. For these types of graphics, it is recommended to keep the PowerPoint to update the SmartArt and then export it as image to be imported in the Storyline.

Equations

Equations will be imported but it may cause some corruption. It is also recommended to export the equations as images and import them separately in Storyline.

Slide Numbers

Slide numbers will not be imported into Storyline.

Animated GIFs

Animated GIFs will be imported as static images. After importing your presentation into Storyline, replace the static images with the original animated GIFs.

Steps to Import PowerPoint Presentation

To import slides from PowerPoint into storyline, go to File > Import > PowerPoint

Or, go to the Home > New Slide > Import > PowerPoint

Or, go to the Slides > New Slide > PowerPoint

Then, browse to the PowerPoint file you want to import and click Open.

Note: If the PowerPoint file includes Articulate Presenter resources like audio or video make sure the “*.ppta” file is located in the same folder of the PowerPoint file. Otherwise, Storyline will only import the PowerPoint slides, not the corresponding presenter resources.

Storyline will display thumbnail images for all slides in the presentation. Select the slides you want to import.

Notes:

• All slides will be imported unless you choose something else. You can tell which slides are selected by their blue outline.

• To select or deselect a slide, just click it. The blue outline will either appear or disappear to indicate its status.
• You can also click Select Allor None in the upper right corner to quickly select or deselect all slides at once.
• Use the Insert into scene drop-down at the bottom of the window to choose where the PowerPoint slides should appear in your course. You can insert them into a new scene, which is the default option, or you can choose an existing scene. If you choose a new scene, use the Scene field to give it a name.

Then, click Import to complete the process. That’s all!

Conclusion

Importing PowerPoint slides into a Storyline file can save a lot of time and effort. It is recommended to spend some time editing and adjusting the PowerPoint presentation before the import. PowerPoint presentations can also be imported into the Articulate Rise, Adobe Captivate, Lectora and Camtasia.