One of the most common questions asked during our hands-on Storyline 360 training is “How do I create a template?” After all, who doesn’t want to save time and look good doing it? Templates allow you to do both! Whether you’re working independently and creating all of the e-Learning content for your organization, or are part of a team of developers, templates are key to quick and professional development.
So, let’s unlock Articulate 360 development and answer this “as heard in training” question: How do I create a template for Storyline 360?
How To Start
Begin by creating a Storyline 360 project that incorporates the design elements you want to use for all of your courses. Take your time here (to save time later). This is the file you’ll reuse over and over again for potentially all of your e-Learning needs!
At Yukon Learning, we love to use Slide Masters to create several slide layouts. This provides consistency in design throughout your course and saves you from having to start each slide from scratch.
Select View | Slide Master to access the Master slides.
While here, you can set colors and fonts to incorporate your company brand into the design.
- Select Colors | Create New Theme Colors to customize the color palette that will be available in the Format tab.
- Select Fonts | Create New Theme Fonts to add or set the Title and Body fonts of the project.
Tip: Use Grids and Guides to align objects on your Master Slides.
Ideally, for all projects, you will create a few standard slide layouts. These layouts can include placeholders for text or images and should provide sufficient empty space to allow for content to display. A standard template will often include layouts for the following types of slides:
- Title Slide
- Menu Slide
- Objectives
- Section Header/Divider
- Content Slides (a few different options)
- Interactive Slides (a variety)
- Knowledge Check/Quiz Slides
- Results Slide
- Conclusion
Tip: Too many design elements on a Master layout may limit what you can do on each slide while developing.
How to Utilize Content Library 360
At the end of the day, if you don’t have the time to design custom layouts, or are simply seeking inspiration, check out Articulate’s pre-built templates within Content Library 360! Just open the Slides tab in Storyline 360 and navigate to Content Library.
Perhaps one of the best facets of Content Library 360 is how well this stunning selection of layouts adapts to you! These layouts will fit whichever Slide Size you’ve chosen (Wow, right?!) and will adapt to any color and font themes you select. (Does it get better than that?)
How To Share
So, you’ve created a custom template and it’s ready to be put to use toward your consistently branded e-Learning…how do you share these designs with your teammates so that they can utilize these designs as well? Well, you have a few options!
- We create jillions of templates for our custom e-Learning development projects at Yukon Learning. When sharing templates with one another and with our clients, the method we prefer is via the entire .story file. Create your perfect “cookie cutter” template as a .story file and simply save a new version (File | Save As) for each course you need to create. There’s no limit to the copies (and thus, customizations) you can make from this file! And you can send your .story file to anyone else, ready for them to rename and use.
- While saving, you might choose to set the file extension (in the file type drop-down list) to .storytemplate, to always have access to those particular layouts via the Slides ribbon | My Templates. (.storytemplate files are stored locally on your device in the Documents | My Articulate Projects | Storyline Templates folder and can be deleted from there.)
- If you have an Articulate 360 Teams account, you can also upload your project to Team Slides to share with others on your Team! Via the Slides tab, open the Team Slides drop-down and choose whether to share the whole project or a particular scene or slide, and everyone on your Articulate 360 Team will instantly have access from their own Storyline 360 design stage!
Tip: The first method of sharing the entire .story file will carry over all assets, including any choices you’ve made for the outer Player frame, which we find great for consistency! The second two options allow you to insert slide layouts without affecting the Player frame you’re currently working with. You can also learn more about sharing Player frames here.
We hope this helps you save time, cultivate consistency, and develop incredible Storyline 360 e-Learning from your own custom templates. Questions? More ideas? Drop a comment below!
If you enjoyed this blog, be sure to visit our related posts:
- How Can I Determine What Slides Use Which Slide Master?
- Can I Create Templates in Rise 360?
- How Do I Align e-Learning Content?
- Does Yukon Develop e-Learning?
Happy templating!
~Tara
Leave a Reply