Blog Post
JudyNollet
Super Hero
Henry: This sort of Glossary slide could be accessed in a few ways.
- Yes, it could be made available in a lightbox, which could be opened by a button on a slide or via a player-level tab. (That's my preferred method for a custom Glossary slide.)
- A button could also jump directly to the Glossary slide, without lightboxing it. However, with that method, it'd be best to delete the NEXT button from the Glossary slide. After all, visiting the glossary interrupts the normal path of the course, so what should be "next" would be different based on where the user was when they accessed the glossary.
BTW, I sometimes use a similar Glossary, i.e., with different letters on different layers. Here are a few things to consider:
- In such a custom glossary, you have to ensure the items are in alphabetical order. The program doesn't sort them automatically (as the built-in glossary does).
- I think it's best to keep all 26 letter buttons. However, I suggest disabling buttons for which there are no terms. Be sure the disabled state looks different than the normal one. That will prevent users from wasting time by clicking letters for which there are no terms.
- When many terms begin with the same letter, you could put the terms in a scrolling panel, so they all still fit on one layer.
- If you put the terms in a table, you can set it up with banded rows.
- If a course will be translated, a custom glossary creates a lot of extra work. Terms would likely need to be moved to different layers after translation. And if the course will be translated into a language that doesn't use our alphabet (e.g., Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Arabic), then the ABC buttons aren't useful at all.
- Yes, it could be made available in a lightbox, which could be opened by a button on a slide or via a player-level tab. (That's my preferred method for a custom Glossary slide.)
- A button could also jump directly to the Glossary slide, without lightboxing it. However, with that method, it'd be best to delete the NEXT button from the Glossary slide. After all, visiting the glossary interrupts the normal path of the course, so what should be "next" would be different based on where the user was when they accessed the glossary.
BTW, I sometimes use a similar Glossary, i.e., with different letters on different layers. Here are a few things to consider:
- In such a custom glossary, you have to ensure the items are in alphabetical order. The program doesn't sort them automatically (as the built-in glossary does).
- I think it's best to keep all 26 letter buttons. However, I suggest disabling buttons for which there are no terms. Be sure the disabled state looks different than the normal one. That will prevent users from wasting time by clicking letters for which there are no terms.
- When many terms begin with the same letter, you could put the terms in a scrolling panel, so they all still fit on one layer.
- If you put the terms in a table, you can set it up with banded rows.
- If a course will be translated, a custom glossary creates a lot of extra work. Terms would likely need to be moved to different layers after translation. And if the course will be translated into a language that doesn't use our alphabet (e.g., Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Russian, Arabic), then the ABC buttons aren't useful at all.
TrinaRimmer
5 years agoFormer Staff
Thanks for chiming in to assist Henry, Judy. I appreciate the helping hand!