Any way to speedup the initial preloading of assets?

Hi all,

For quite some time now I've been looking for ways to decrease the time it takes to load a course;

I rather have users see something right from the start and wait on preloading later on in the course, than users waiting right after opening the course while staring at an empty screen (as if something isn't working)

Using the information from Articulate Support (see image above) - I was hoping to stop, or at least speedup, the initial loading time by creating 3 dummy-slides; each redirecting to the next slide when the timeline starts. This way I the first slide that has any "real" content is slide number four, therefor outside the initial preloading scope....I reckoned.

Unfortunately, this trick didn't speedup anything....

Does anyone have some tips, tricks or ideas about how to speedup the initial loading process? 

Thanks in advance,


8 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger

Hi Rutwin,

I don't know of any way to force Storyline to load faster, or to stop the preload of items. If you have a lot of images that you reuse, you may want to look at placing them on the slide master (I've also heard that copying/pasting on to new slides instead of reinserting them works the same) as that will help decrease the overall size of the project and loading time for those elements. 

Rutwin Geuverink

Thanks Phil and Ashley for your ideas!

@Ashley - Could you please explain why copy/pasting content vs reinserting them, helps to reduce size and loading times?

@Phil, I've looked into this great widget before, it caches the content if allowed by the browser. I was more looking for a "trick" to delay the preload until after the first slide appeared.

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Rutwin,

I'm sure Ashley will provide some additional information when she returns from the holidays, if I happen to miss something :)

Copying and pasting content can cause some issues, especially if you're copying from an external or third-party program. For example, copying and pasting text from one program to another.. and another.. and another, then finally into Storyline, can cause some issues with text appearing appropriately. I think it's an issue with carrying over content from the clipboard. It's not original content, even more so with images. 

It's better to keep an original, inserted instance of the image in your project, so that when you have need for it you can copy and paste it on slides. This is helpful when you use a specific image multiple times in one project, or when you don't want to go through the inserting process. Inserting on a master, as Ashley mentioned, can be very helpful when you want this image across multiple slides.

The master option will use that instance of the image and this will cut down a bit on size of the project. This is especially helpful if you have a huge project and that image shows up on many, many slides. 

Always interested in hearing about some suggestions for this as well. If you come across any additional information, please share!

Thanks and happy holidays! :)

Paul Zamora

Enhanced Elearning has a preloader widget that costs $100.  I have used it with great success. However, their site as of late is pretty unresponsive.  I can sometimes get the initial home page but others will not load. Not sure if it's my system or theirs. However, you might check them out.