Working with Templates
Templates are huge time savers. They generally have
a custom design with slide layouts and content placeholders. They may even
include media, animations, interactive objects, variables, and triggers. Just
add templates to your courses, then customize the content to fit your
situation. You'll have inviting scenarios and engaging interactions in mere
minutes!
Articulate Storyline has a library of ready-made
templates, but you can add more. Download free templates from the Articulate
community, collect them from other course developers, or create your own.
In this tutorial, we'll look at:
·
Using Templates to Create
Courses
·
Creating and Sharing Templates
·
Importing Templates
·
Renaming and Deleting Templates
Using Templates to Create Courses
You can add one or more templates to a course.
Here's how:
· Open the Insert Slides window using any of these methods:
·
Press Ctrl+M on your keyboard.
·
Go to the Home tab on the ribbon and click New Slide.
·
Go to the Insert tab on the ribbon and click New Slide.
· When the Insert Slides window appears, select the Templates tab on the left, then choose a
template from the drop-down at the top of the window.
· If the template has more than
one slide, Shift+click or Ctrl+click to
select the ones you want to add to your course.
Tip: You only need to select one slide to add the template to your project file. Thereafter, you can add more slides to your course from the same template using the Basic Layouts tab.
Tip: You only need to select one slide to add the template to your project file. Thereafter, you can add more slides to your course from the same template using the Basic Layouts tab.
· Use the Insert into scene drop-down at the bottom of the window
to choose where the new slides will appear in your course. Choose from the
following:
·
Current
scene: This adds the slides to the
current scene.
·
Same
as imported template:
This adds the slides to the same scenes that the template is using. If those
scenes don't already exist in your course, Storyline will create them for you.
·
New
scene: This adds the slides to a new
scene in your course. When you choose this option, an additional Scene field will appear, where you
can specify the name of the new scene.
· Click Import.
Creating and Sharing Templates
Adding your own templates to the Storyline library
couldn't be easier. Open the project you want to use as a template, then do the
following:
1.
Go to the File tab on the Storyline ribbon and
click Save
As.
2.
Browse to the location where
you want to save your template.
Tip: Storyline will save a copy in the location you specify and another copy in your "\Documents\My Articulate Projects\Storyline Templates" folder, which is where the Storyline library is kept.
Tip: Storyline will save a copy in the location you specify and another copy in your "\Documents\My Articulate Projects\Storyline Templates" folder, which is where the Storyline library is kept.
3.
Give your template a
recognizable File
name.
4.
Use the Save as type drop-down to choose Storyline Template (*.storytemplate).
5.
Click Save.
Now you can reuse your custom template in other
Storyline projects using the steps in the section above.
To share a custom template with other content
developers, just send them your *.storytemplate file. They can import it into
their Storyline libraries using the steps in the next section.
Importing Templates
Importing a new template into your Storyline library
is as easy as opening the *.storytemplate file you downloaded from the Articulate
community or received from another content developer.
· First, do either of the
following:
·
Double-click the
*.storytemplate file.
·
Launch Storyline, click Browse for more, then
browse to the *.storytemplate file.
· When you open a *.storytemplate
file, Storyline assumes you're ready to create a new course. The Insert Slides window will appear. If you just want
to add the template to your library, you can click Cancel and close Storyline at this
point. (The template will now appear in your library.) If you want to continue
building a new course from the template you've opened, Shift+click or Ctrl+click to select the slides you want to add
to your project, then continue to the next step.
· Use the Insert
into scene drop-down at the bottom of the window to choose
where the new slides will appear in your course. Choose from the following:
·
Current
scene: This adds the slides to a new
scene with a title that matches the name of the template.
·
Same
as imported template:
This adds the slides to the same scene(s) that the template is using.
·
New
scene: This adds the slides to a new
scene in your course. When you choose this option, an additional Scene field will appear, where you
can specify the name of the new scene.
· Click Import.
Storyline will create a new project from the slides
you selected, and a copy of the template will be added to your library for
future use.
Tip: The location of the Storyline library on your computer is
"\Documents\My Articulate Projects\Storyline Templates." Another way
to add a template to your library is to move the *.storytemplate file into this
folder.
Renaming and Deleting Templates
To keep your template library organized, you may
need to rename or even delete templates from time to time. Go to the
following directory on your computer:
%userprofile%\Documents\My Articulate
Projects\Storyline Templates
Then rename or delete the *.storytemplate files
found in the folder above.
ConversionConversion EmoticonEmoticon