Previous button

Jul 12, 2012

Good Afternoon,

This may be a silly question, but it seems as though when I publish at Storyline project the Previous button returns you to the last slide you viewed as opposed to the actual preceding slide. I’m pretty certain that my settings/triggers are correct. Is there any way I can fix this so that the Previous and Next buttons take you to the actual preceding and subsequent slides as listed in the menu?

Thank you in advance!

58 Replies
Sarah Dewar

I figured out that this was the only option as well. Boo.  It's entirely possible to build those buttons, but you have to constuct them on every slide - there is no way to create buttons that populate the entire course, is there? As well, the space in which the standard buttons reside is now just empty space - is there any way to modify the player to minimize that empty space if the standard next and previous buttons aren't being shown?

Why can you build different triggers for the NEXT button, though, and not the PREVIOUS button. Shouldn't be able to override the default action of both buttons?

Mike Bethany

Unfortunately it's still broken.

If you tell a slide to go to a specific previous slide then that sets the "previous" slide to the slide with the specific go to. 

Then when you "go to previous slide" it goes to the last slide you were on instead of the numerically previous slide.

Example:

http://centerforbusinessexcellence.net/blog/previous_bug/

Storyline file:

http://centerforbusinessexcellence.net/blog/previous_bug/previous_bug.zip

Alice Wong

Hi all,

I must be missing something.  I have a Storyline version that saids "Update 2: 1212.1412".  So, I am assuming that I should already have the update 1 discussed above.    But when I add a trigger for the Previous button to go to a specified slide, it still goes to the Previous slide visited.  May I know what I need to do to get the built in "Prev" button to go to the previous slide in the order of the tutorial? 

Thanks

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Alice,

While in Story View, select the slide you wish to modify. Then, add a trigger to that slide.

For the trigger use:

Jump to "Name of Slide/Scene"

    When the user clicks the previous button.

If this doesn't work, try to make sure that there aren't any conflicting triggers already placed on the slide for the previous button.

I'm attaching a very small, very quick example, so you can see how to accomplish this. 

If this doesn't work for you, are you able to post your project's .STORY file here, so I can take a look?

Alice Wong

Hi Christine,

What you suggested works!  Thanks for your help.  It will be really nice for the next update to provide user an option to choose what behaviour the Prev button should have.  That way, we don't have to add a customized trigger to every slide.  But it solves the problem for now.

Thanks

Alice

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Rachel,

It sounds like you've got the "Previous" button set up to go to the last viewed slide, but it's not working, correct? Have you rearranged any of the slides? 

Also, if you're in Story View, you should be able to see a blue "path" for which slides are connected. Does it look like they should be returning to the correct slides or scenes, or does look random?

Rachel Nickson

It all appears to be fine. The pathway makes sense in a logical progression through the course and I've not moved any slides.

I did import some from another Storyline file, but I've removed any other linking and set it to just be a basic forward and backwards.

Is my best bet to link a slide with a named slide for both previous and next?

Phil Mayor

the previous button without triggers will jump to the last slide viewed historically, this should jump back through scenes as well.

The main confusion (which is not your fault) is that the previous trigger is not exposed by default like the next slide trigger.  I expect there are many users who are adding in this trigger because they would expect to see it but cannot.

Mike Bethany

Rachel Nickson said:

Does it not need them to jump from scene to scene either?!


I've been complaining about this for ages: the way the "previous" link works is inconsistant with "next" links. They are not two sides of a coin, they're two totally different coins. This is a violation of every law of good design ever made by anyone ever.

As you would expect "Next" links look at the next object numerically, e.g. "next scene" will go from scene 1 to 2.

However "Previous" links look at the last object you were on. For example if you start on Scene 4 Slide 8 then go to Scene 3 Slide 2 when you use "Go to Previous slide" you won't go to Scene 3 Slide 1 as you would expect but you go to Scene 4 Slide 8. 

What's all this mean? You have to hard code previous links if you have anything other than a totally linear Storyline. Since you have to hard code everything you can't have a custom menu on a master slide.

To fix this they need to fix the "previous" to do as it is expected and they need to move the existing, and useful, "previous" behavior to a new trigger, "Jump to last visited ...."

Phil Mayor

However "Previous" links look at the last object you were on. For example if you start on Scene 4 Slide 8 then go to Scene 3 Slide 2 when you use "Go to Previous slide" you won't go to Scene 3 Slide 1 as you would expect but you go to Scene 4 Slide 8. 


I think most users would expect previous to go to the last slide they were on, very similar to a back button on a web browser.  

Rachel Nickson

Oh Mike, that's really kind of you! But I can't - its confidential stuff.

But here's the thing I suspect is causing the problem and I don't know how to describe it; basically the slide that is causing me problems (4.3) has an off-centre arrow!

Could that be it?! What would be making that problem? The rest of the arrows on the other slide line up in the middle when they are selected!

It might not be this....(it probably isn't!)

Steve Shoemaker

For what it's worth, as a user (student/learner) of a Storyline lesson, I expect a "Previous" button to return me to the last slide I viewed.  If I clicked on a "Previous" button and it took me anywhere other than the last page/slide I had viewed I would report a problem.  It's different for a "Next" button because I don't know what should come next.  Therefore it can be programmed to take me to any slide (branch based on my answer to a question, etc.) and I'll be none the wiser.  But I know what I saw previously and when I click on a "Previous" button I expect to go back there.  I have no idea, as a learner, what the previous slide is numerically.  I just know the last one I looked at.

Mike Bethany

Steve Shoemaker said:

For what it's worth, as a user (student/learner) of a Storyline lesson, I expect a "Previous" button to return me to the last slide I viewed.  If I clicked on a "Previous" button and it took me anywhere other than the last page/slide I had viewed I would report a problem.  It's different for a "Next" button because I don't know what should come next.  Therefore it can be programmed to take me to any slide (branch based on my answer to a question, etc.) and I'll be none the wiser.  But I know what I saw previously and when I click on a "Previous" button I expect to go back there.  I have no idea, as a learner, what the previous slide is numerically.  I just know the last one I looked at.


I agree Steve, the problem is the previous trigger is not consistant in how it works, that's a big no-no in good software design. 

If you remain in the same scene you'll go back numerically not to the literally previous one. However if you jump scenes then "previous" goes to the literal previous.

So sometimes it does go back numerically but sometimes it doesn't and you can't test for it. Bad design.

To see what I mean take a look at this Storyline:

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/33392673/BadDesign/story.html

You can go forward and it works fine, and if you stay in the S1 (don't go to S2 L1) then you're fine. But the second you jump that scene boundary all heck breaks loose. If you go to the end using next and then try to go back using previous you'll ping-pong between S1 L3 and S2 L1 because of the inconsistant design.

(Storyline is attached)