Next button will not revert to normal state

May 22, 2017

Rebekah Irion
By Rebekah Irion

So I've created a slide with two pictures, that, when individually clicked on, will lead to two additional slides with narration.  The goal is for the user to click one picture, go through two slides, and then return to main slide; click the second picture, go through two slides, then return to main slide.  The goal is to not allow the user to click "Next" until he / she has visited both paths.  As such, I disabled the "Next" button until both pictures' states were "visited", at which point it should return to "Normal".  Everything seems to be working correctly, except the next button never reverts to "Normal" even though both paths have been visited.  Any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong?  Oh, and I also changed the slide to revert to saved state instead of resetting.  Thanks!

11 Replies
Walt Hamilton
almost 7 years ago05/22/17 at 3:47 pm (UTC)

Rebekah,

Here's a link to a thread that may help you.

Although I'm just guessing, unless I can actually see your file, I suspect the problem is with using states, especially the "Visited" state. It works great for showing if layers on a slide have been visited, but when the user jumps to other slides, it tends to get lost. The author of this thread was trying to accomplish a different goal than you, but he had exactly the same problem with states that I think you are having. What solved it for him was using variables instead of states, and I'm guessing it will for you, too.

https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/state-trigger-is-inconsistent#reply-436041

 

Walt Hamilton
almost 7 years ago05/22/17 at 6:25 pm (UTC)

Think of variables this way: A computer can think of only one thing at a time, and then only if it can see it. A variable is a text (or number) message from another slide to tell this slide what happened over there. For example: "The user clicked on this button", or "the user finished the content on this slide." I'm attaching a sample project that does what you describe, with the exception of using a custom NEXT button.

 

Rebekah Irion
almost 7 years ago05/22/17 at 9:26 pm (UTC)

Hi Walt - thank you, very helpful.  Again, everything seems to be working except I cant get the Next button to appear! So here's what works - I've added variables to each slide to turn to "True" when the timeline ends -  they all work.  I've changed the state of the two pictures to "selected" when the timeline starts and the variables are true for the associated slides - seems to work; the only thing that doesn't seem to be working is when I try to change the state of Next button to "Normal" when the timeline starts and all variables are true (I even added a next button like you had).  Thoughts?

 

Walt Hamilton
almost 7 years ago05/22/17 at 9:56 pm (UTC)

People who have trouble with this usually have one of two conditions:

1. The trigger to turn NEXT to normal says "Change state of NEXT to Normal when states are".  If you are depending on your variables, this is not likely your problem, It should read "Change state of NEXT to Normal when timeline starts"

2. The trigger to change NEXT to hidden when timeline starts comes after the trigger to change it to Normal. Timeline starts, NEXT is changed to Normal, then to Hidden so fast you can't see it.  The trigger should read"Change state of NEXT to Hidden when timeline starts" and the second trigger should read "Change state of NEXT to Normal when timeline starts on condition Variable1 = True AND Variable2 = True"

Michael Shannon
almost 7 years ago05/23/17 at 7:30 pm (UTC)

Hey Rebekah. Sometimes seeing it is easier than explaining it. Here's a very simplified version of what you're trying to accomplish using buttons. The principle is the same. Two things to note:

  1. Make sure you're using a unique state for your image (I use Completed). Don't use the default Visited state. 
  2. Pay attention to the order of your triggers. Note the way the triggers are ordered on the menu page. Order is important because the triggers fire in the order they appear.
Sign In to Reply