How to Clean Up Hidden Objects, Duplicate Images, and Oversized Media in Storyline and Rise

Overview

This category covers leftovers from the authoring process that don't break a course outright but quietly bloat it or clutter the timeline: objects left hidden or collapsed to zero size instead of deleted, the same or a near-identical image pasted onto more than one slide, and media files large enough to slow down loading. None of these are instructional-design judgment calls, they're housekeeping.

Step-by-step instructions

1. 1

   Open the Timeline panel on each slide and check for objects with the "hidden" (closed eye) icon still enabled, or objects that were accidentally resized to zero. If the object isn't used by a trigger or layer state, delete it rather than leaving it hidden.

2. 2

   Search your image library for the same or a visually near-identical image inserted on multiple slides. If it's a one-off illustration or screenshot rather than a recurring template asset (logo, background, nav icon), consider whether it was pasted by mistake or whether the two slides should be merged.

3. 3

   Check the file size of every image, GIF, video, and audio file. Roughly 3 MB for a still image or GIF, and 15 MB for video or audio, is a reasonable ceiling, most e-learning media doesn't need source-quality resolution or bitrate.

4. 4

   Re-check any object flagged as hidden against the Triggers and States panels before deleting it, a hidden object that's still referenced by a trigger is intentional, not a leftover.

Screenshots

Tips

• Do a cleanup pass right before publishing, not during active development, it's easier to tell what's genuinely unused once the course structure has stopped changing.
• Re-compressing an image or GIF with a tool like TinyPNG or Squoosh, or a video with HandBrake, is usually enough to bring a file under the size guideline without a visible quality loss.
• A duplicate-image flag on a logo or background that appears on nearly every slide is expected and not a defect, it only matters when the same image shows up on a small, unexpected subset of slides.

Common mistakes

• Hiding an object to "get it out of the way" during editing and forgetting to delete it before publishing.
• Duplicating a slide to reuse its layout, then forgetting to replace the image that came along with it.
• Uploading a photo, screenshot, or screen recording straight from a phone or capture tool without compressing it first, resulting in a multi-megabyte file for what should be a small asset.