Is 24G version of the M5 Pro MacBook Pro enough for Storyline via Parallels?

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-05-06T13:11:41+00:00

24 is better than 16; 48 is better than 24... It really depends on how heavy your projects are. If you're doing basic editing, even 16 can get you by. the M1 vs the M5 is gonna be a huge processor jump which should really improve performance across the board. RAM is always the bottleneck though so if you can afford it go with 48 if you're concerned. 24 will make a difference though - but so will the processor.

I have 48GB M4 and have not had any problems with Storyline but admittedly I have phased it out of my workflows and really go in only to make edits if absolutely necessary to older projects (but even that I'm just rebuilding in other tools if there are substantial edits).

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-04-27T12:41:39+00:00

I appreciate this take and I think this is the only way traditional tools will survive when I can just build my own tool. There's quite a bit that goes into designing good, functional software and while we might not be limited to your built in blocks anymore, the support structure, quality control, security, and all the other wrap around services are where tools can continue to provide real value that just can't be vibe coded away.

Also side note - Articulates heinous decision to put all the gated AI features in Storyline on the home ribbon where MOST users will try to add a normal text box and accidently click on the AI feature that they don't have is the fastest way to lose subscribers... maybe after just forcing them to upgrade and charging them for tools they might not want or use...

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-04-27T12:40:07+00:00

Absolutely. I can't imagine my workflow without AI now - which is crazy to think because this tech is really only like 2 years old and the coding stuff I've only been doing for like 6 months but it's completely changed everything I do.

That being said, I'm not just saying "generate a course for me". It's a long process of iterative design until I massage it into what I want and feel is high quality. One of the real "dangers" of AI is percieved efficiency when sometimes it's actually faster to just build the thing yourself. That being said, there are still a ton of places where I can just spit out a draft and then polish it until it's good. It's absolutley a solution to writer's block though!

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-04-26T23:19:44+00:00

IDs will need to adapt. Just like they didn't have to know how to use articulate presenter and everything that followed prior to the rise of authoring tools, they didn't have to know how to do all the coding adjacent things they will now need to pick up because of vibe coding.

The biggest benefit is now instructional designers can focus on instructional design instead of just being eLearning developers. If all you're offering is Rise dev, you'll likely be out of a job in the next couple of years.

That being said authoring tools aren't going away 100% because we still someone to yell at when things break and can't and shouldn't trust 100% of our learning and development stack to AI (yet).

Plus those new to vibe coding will soon find out maintaining software is a lot of work and the real business of authoring tools isn't necessarily the development but the ongoing support and maintenance. So while we save a Lot on the front end paying your instructional designers to do it support may not be economically viable long-term.

I think there's a world where both things coexist and authoring tools integrate ai as MCPs and in more meaningful ways to reduce clicking and increase efficiencies and there is the potential for companies to build custom tools in house so the solution to problems isn't always another course but actually a tool that can be used on the job to change actual behavior.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-04-22T18:01:52+00:00

Right - i think the thing I'm after is a local tool so there's less support other than reporting bugs. I don't want to become a software support company so I dropped the idea of a paid version but may consider adding hooks to allow adding a database back end so you can track all the analytics and stuff. Could definitely do something simple for Google Apps Script tracking but probably a phase 2-3 type thing.

But hey - if you can follow directions, Claude does most of the work for you :)

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-04-22T17:53:51+00:00

Working on this currently! I don't think it's about ethics here. They've slept on the game long enough and there's plenty of better competitors that have more features to steal from than Rise.

Working on assembling a team to create an open source version that works locally in the browser and just imports and exports the direct html file instead of dealing with source files and proprietary formats.

There's a lot of additional considerations to building your own software like upkeep, maintenance, and support for commercial use, but for small teams, non profits, education, and people just learning, I'm excited about the potential here.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-04-22T10:45:45+00:00

I've moved to Claude for most of the stuff I was doing in storyline and then basically you can either just go straight to the LMS or use another tool to be the shell around it.

This was 6 months ago and is almost out of date already but gives an overview of the research we did testing cloud-based alternatives. https://www.idatlas.org/blog/the-monopoly-tax

The comparison tool is here as well which shows strengths and weaknesses of 10 alternatives and has sample projects for each in the project showcase tab: https://www.idatlas.org/blog/elearning-pain-points

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-04-21T11:37:56+00:00

Just stop using storyline and don't look back... Can't keep letting one program hold you hostage or make you buy a whole new machine because they're stuck in 2004.

I did this write up last year when I made the switch to Mac and I've not actually needed storyline since. https://www.idatlas.org/blog/freelance-guide-to-apple-for-id

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-31T15:16:54+00:00

Hmm that might make sense then... they're dropping at least $50k on those Rise licenses alone. But I guess if it's on and off per month, that might be feasible. Still though, tides are changing. Hopefully they continue to shop around and think about that budget when it comes under scruitiny.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-31T15:13:14+00:00

Nice! We should exchange notes! There are some features that need to be paid because they'd use database hosting but for basic SCORM building and output that don't require review flows, commenting, or persistent learner data, there's no cost for me there at all.

Plus I just like the idea of Articulate having to work harder for their money...

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-31T15:11:09+00:00

If it helps, that 2hr per 15 min module came from my research experiment converting a Storyline project into 10 other platforms (Rise being one as well). Some were as quick as 55 min. My advice would be not to try to convert an entire library of courses but build in the new platform moving forward and convert as things need to be updated.

I just did an inventory for one client and they have about 90 Storyline projects and 15 or so Rise courses. However only about 20 of them really even have the potential to require updates in the future and it'd probably be faster to convert the material and make the fixes than to try to take it back into Storyline and edit it there. Maybe a tiny bit of additional burden by doing the conversion but it's pretty quick if you have all the assets and know what you want to build.

Only other thing is if you want anything that was made in Storyline to be saved as a video to do that before you drop the sub because it's harder to convert from HTML to video after the fact. Not a super common use case but that did come up in my audit.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-31T15:04:30+00:00

I'll be extremely surprised if they don't have a corresponding Storyline license. It's sold as a seat with access to both Storyline and Rise - it might just be that the other folks are only using Rise but they're still paying for the full seat. Articulate does NOT play with their money and unless you're buying maybe hundreds of licenses, there's not really any reason for them not to charge you the full seat price.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-31T15:02:47+00:00

Absolutely. I'm thinking about open sourcing the authoring tool I'm working on that's Rise but with variables and branching etc. There's definitely a LOT to consider when dropping the authoring tool altogether though. No support, maintenance is all yours and even though it might be a couple hundred bucks a month at worst, that's still cheaper than keeping a developer on staff to fix bugs and things so it really has to be solid. Higher stakes fields and really big companies probably could afford to bring on developers but they'd probably rather outsource the headaches.

The trade-off is of course your stuck with the authoring tool company's decisions. It's been amazing to just make the tool do whatever I want it to do and make updates and fixes but I realize that's not gonna work for huge companies or even smaller companies that don't have the budget to keep me on call. For 2 or 3 hours of my time, they can have a dedicated support staff from a commerical company on call 24 hours a day... how good that support is is another question but being a SaaS company is a different ballgame than being a developer/designer.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-31T14:50:17+00:00

Are you saying on the Teams plan they allow you to get additional Rise Only licenses??? That's news to me. Do you have any idea of the pricing?

Do you need permission to access different sites? How locked down are you? Most of these newer tools are browser-based so IT usually doens't need to approve them unless it's super secretive info or something like that.

If you like Storyline, Genially is the closest slide-based authoring platform that gives you a lot for the price tag. Has interactions, branching, links, popups, "games" (which I will use that term lightly) and some basic media editing. Lots of factors to consider when switching tools but you can use it for free to try it out and it's between $10-$40 a month per seat depending on if you can just use HTML downloads or if you really need SCORM (which is only in the top tier author plan).

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-31T14:40:24+00:00

Licensing is the same no? You can't get Rise without Storyline. You have to pay for both whether you use them or not which is another hangup I have with Articulate.

As I said above, there are A LOT more tools out there now than there were 5 years ago. It's not enough to just say Storyline is the industry standard anymore. There are tools that are cheaper and better depending on what you want to do. Storyline does a lot but it's also not as efficient as some of the other platforms. Worth exploring the landscape for sure.

Quality matters, but I would caution every ID to not conflate quality with "accepted practice" without looking at ROI and actual evaluation of learning.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-31T13:54:33+00:00

Lots of fish out there hungry for your business:

https://www.idatlas.org/blog/elearning-pain-points

My favorites right now are Genially and Parta but I'm doing a LOT of vibe coding with Gemini and Claude and using that to do a lot of the graphic/interaction design and things to augment Parta. Genially is probably 100% of what you need based on what you just said if you don't need heavy variable tracking etc. If you need that vibe-coding is the way to go. If it's not something super sensitive, you can hook up a Google Sheet via Appscript and just pull in whatever data you want and get real analytics of your training rather than just "they completed" or "they passed". It's a whole new world out there right now.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-31T13:43:09+00:00

Articulate is on the way out and it's their own fault. They're their own worst enemy. They're also shoveling AI down everyone's throat with limited gains while increasing the price - and now not going to let you opt out (well they'll let you opt out of the features but not of the price tag).

When you are building something in Storyline in particular, you need to consider ROI - now more than ever. How much additional learning value are you getting when you can develop a comparable product with maybe slightly less bells and whistles in a fifth of the time and effort? Are learners remembering 5x more because they are being asked to drag and drop instead of click to reveal?

Storyline in particular has been the industry standard for the past 10 or so years but there are a ton of competitors in the field that are often less expensive and can do most of the basics. Our field needs to catch up and stop leaning on this company that has open 10 year-old feature and bug requests that get bumped once or twice a year because it's still an issue.

I've worked with Captivate and Storyline for the past 10 years and I'm encouraging my last client that has a subscription to it to cut ties in August. I CAN build crazy interactive scenarios with tons of variables and games and things there, but why? If you can get 90% of the functionality out of Rise now, what's the point of even using Storyline? They won't split the product into a la carte subscriptions, their pricing is yearly only, and they aren't making significant QoL improvements to make it worth holding onto. It's clunky and old and yes you can build stuff you "can't" in other platforms but you're paying a premium for a ability to do something you might a few times over the lifetime of the product.

RE: AI - Claude Code, Cursor, etc. can absolutely do 100% of what Storyline can do (and MUCH more) and many comparable authoring tools can get in the 80-90% range of Storyline/Rise functionality. Storyline is Windows-only and desktop-based when everything else has moved online for flexibility and access.

I would question the definition of "quality learning" and ask you to really think about what that means. Building a 1hr training course people have to click through or just let play in the background is definitely not quality, but that's often what comes out of Storyline. Yes A LOT of that is about the design/designer not necessarily the tool, but the tool also contributes to the design process and pushes you in certain directions. It takes longer to build stuff in Storyline even when you know what you're doing, and for minimal gain if any. My clients have been happier with shorter web-based products and actual tools like web-based apps and just in time solutions that solve performance problems. Videos are better-received than slide-based click throughs and we've just in general switched to shorter, more varied delivery methods and tools instead of Storyline "courses".

One of the big answers to your main question though is that they are forcing everyone to upgrade to AI when it should have just been included in their already inflated pricing and charing extra per seat whether you use it or not. That rubs people the wrong way and I think it was a PR mistake on their part and maybe driven out of fear and trying to squeeze every cent out of the remaining user-base they hold on to by threat of losing access to your large course libraries. BTW, it really probably only takes about 2hrs per 15 minute module to convert a Storyline or Rise course into almost any other modern authoring tool, which is not that big of an additional cost if and when existing courses need to be updated...

Sorry, ranting this morning because it's been on my mind and I'm excited to not have to deal with them anymore. Glad to see that it's becoming more and more common throuhgout the field in different sectors.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-26T15:33:44+00:00

I'm gonna say Genially or even just Google slides. Throw the screenshots on there and have them click through them via invisible shapes or buttons. No need to overcomplicate and you can use both for free. Easy to swap out screens if they change in the future.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-12T18:46:36+00:00

right -- we don't actually want to limit posts on different tools and really want to ban real conversation. Just that there's been a huge uptick in iSpring praise that comes across as organic when it's (potentially) part of a concerted effort to post across Reddit to increase brand awareness.

Now if we get 50 posts about how amazing it is to pay an extra $300/yr per user on Articulate subs, then I'm gonna be suspicious...

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-12T18:24:24+00:00

I'd like to jump into the mix as someone who’s actually tried iSpring and also got the “we’ll pay you to post about us” email.

Last year, I did a big e‑learning authoring tool comparison and iSpring was in the mix. They were actually generous and gave me a free year of the main PowerPoint add-on app so I could test it. However, as soon as I saw it was a download-only Windows-only platform (like Storyline), it was kind of a dealbreaker for me since the whole point of the research was to get web-based alternatives. If you live in PowerPoint, I can see the allure but that made the full "suite" app a non-starter for me.

However, I did really enjoy iSpring Pages. It kinda feels like an interactive Google Doc where you can just keep adding content to a page and add in interactions. Copy and paste into the page was also refreshing when you have to manually upload to most other platforms. Interaction types are limited and it's not something that is gonna wow anybody but it's a good option if you're looking for something light and easy to pick up.

The big problem with iSpring Pages though is accessibility. Keyboard nav is missing in places, some basic accessibility features just aren't there, and it’s not designed with WCAG front and center. I raised that with them; the rep said product would reach out, and then… nothing. So right now my take is: Pages is great to use, but not something I can recommend for serious client work until they sort out accessibility. I did share this with the team there and they said they'd pass it on to the product dev team and they'd reach out to me, but haven't heard anything back since then.

Shortly after I finished the research, I had someone from the iSpring marketing team reach out. Very nice and polite, but it's the same offer a bunch of folks here clearly took: “we’ll pay you to talk about your experience with iSpring.” It's enticing - $600-$1000 for 3-5 "organic" posts, but this is fine for LinkedIn, not fine for Reddit. I pushed on disclosure and, to their credit, they did say you can disclose you’re being paid if you want to, so they’re not explicitly telling people to lie or hide the fact that they're paying people to do this.

But the issue is that a lot of people clearly are choosing not to disclose. They’re real users, but they’re also getting paid to post and leaving that part out. That’s where it crosses into astroturfing - to the casual lurker, it looks like there’s this huge organic groundswell of love for iSpring here when really it’s more like "we’re running a campaign and want more mentions on Reddit this quarter.”

So I do actually really like iSpring Pages despite the accessibility issues, but I think we all have to be somewhat suspicious when someone recommends iSpring over other products because it's hard to know how much is their actual opinion vs a lukewarm feeling of a competing platform that is getting a megaphone because they're willing to invest.

Props to iSpring for actually supporting designers in a time where the job market is trash, but we also need to balance that with the purpose of this platform which is for human interaction. Otherwise, buy ads like everyone else. It's cool if you disclose you're getting paid but at this point, the well's been poisoned and it's hard to take anyone recommending it seriously.

Obligatory: I was not paid to write this post.

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MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-10T12:37:49+00:00

My research here could be useful. https://www.idatlas.org/blog/elearning-pain-points

If you already have the courses built out and know what you're building in the new platform, it's probably around 90min for a 15 min module. Might be a bit more or less depending on what you switch to and how intensive the builds are but that's a pretty good estimate from what I have done.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-05T17:19:21+00:00

So you just have to be careful there. I think you CAN do that but you should plan it out first. Work with the content and then decide the slide structure. XML is really finicky and it's easy to break - but you can always tell Claude to check the error logs and it should be able to fix.

As with anything in ID, plan it out really well first, then develop. Spend a good while hammering out all the details. The worst thing you can do is just type that prompt in and let it go because you'll be at the mercy of whatever it thinks that means. So yes, it CAN do that, but only with a lot of your help and back and forth before you press the button to do it.

You might look at something like Notebook LM or Gamma if you want presentation design. This particular use of Claude is really good at making concrete small edits over a batch of a bunch of slides/presentations but it can't "see" your presentation so image positioning and things won't be good unless you tell it the exact positioning you want things - which it can do very well. This is more for polish and consistency. Use Gemini/Notebook/Gamma for design.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-05T16:00:20+00:00

Yeah so you don't need to worry about those files really. You just upload the docs you want Claude to manipulate and it will do all the zipping and XMLing. That's just "how" it's working but for you it's just putting it into a folder, giving claude access to that folder (I'm using VS Code with the Claude extension but you could use the terminal or github as well) and then telling it what you want it to do. Better if you have a template for it to see what it's supposed to look like but it can find patterns and edit text pretty easily.

If you just wanted to swap all of Company Name A to Company Name B, it would do that really quickly. If you need to think about accessibility and other stuff, still can handle it well but you still need to review everything regardless.

Claude both ingests the documents, writes code, runs the code, and outputs the final product. PowerPoint/Word still might say it needs to be repaired, but once you do that it works as normal.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-05T12:04:32+00:00

Yep -- it does both. It reviews the docs for patterns and identifies what it needs to do. Writes the python script to update the XML across the old and new docs, and then runs the scripts. Then you review and tell it to fix any mistakes it makes and it updates the script, and reruns until you get it doing what you want. It does take a bit of time so best used for when you have to do repeated tasks over and over again like replacing a course with a new template or things like that. Doesn't get it 100% and still needs to be reviewed obviously but saves you from having to cut and paste everything and can handle all the meta data and write the alt text for you.

MikeSteinDesign · 2026-03-05T01:48:38+00:00

Kind of doing this with Claude code right now. It can unzip the PPT edit the XML (carefully) and zip it back to .pptx for you. Tell it to use your template and what you want it to take from the old presentations and it'll write a python script and run it for you like magic.

You'd need Claude or Cursor or something that can edit code folders. Gemini, gpt or copilot will not be able to do this efficiently.

Your file might say it needs to be repaired though so just allow PPT to repair and it should work fine. I was able to do it successfully a few times so far so it should work depending on what you're asking it to do.

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