Launch animation with click box

May 12, 2011

Crisa McCarty
By Crisa McCarty

I'd like the user to click one of two specific areas on the screen to launch the next animation. I'd use Triggers or Action buttons in PowerPoint. But in Articulate, Action buttons are greyed out and Triggers are not tolerated. Although the animation is set "on click" and the Articulate slide is set to advance by user, the animation just runs without user interaction.

Specifically:

Fraud can be hard or soft. The user needs to be able to discriminate between the two. So, an example slides in. User clicks hard or soft. The description aligns itself with the appropriate descriptive word. Everyone learns.

10 Replies
Crisa McCarty
almost 13 years ago05/13/11 at 9:59 am (UTC)

Yes, thank you, but that's not really what I have in mind. I want the user to sort the items. So if the user clicks "hard", the animation runs which puts it next to the word hard. Conversely, if they click "soft" the word would still move to hard. Captivate offers me click boxes. Are you telling me that in Articulate they could actually click anywhere and wind up seeing the text move up? Isn't that fibbing to the user?

Kayla Burtch
almost 13 years ago05/13/11 at 11:32 am (UTC)

Hi Fred,

This is completely possible in Articulate. You would need to make three slides.

Lets call them 1, 2, and 3. By hiding slides 2 and 3 in the "slide properties" to the user it will look like one slide. Duplicate the slide 2 times. (So there are 3 in total)

On slide one there are no animations, just create two hyperlinks. One over "hard" one over "soft". The "hard" is hyperlinked to slide 2, and the "soft" is hyperlinked to slide 3.

On slide 2 create the animation you wanted to happen when people clicked "hard" (Set to "start after previous")

On slide 3 create the animation you wanted to happen when people clicked "soft" (Set to "start after previous")

Steve Andrews
almost 13 years ago06/16/11 at 2:30 am (UTC)

Hi folks. I am also trying to build a project with animations triggered by click boxes / hotspots. The method described here definitely works and is one I've used in the past.

The problem I have with this method is that you have to duplicate slides. This is a real issue during live projects because if any changes need to me made they have to be made across numerous slides making it unworkable.

I'm trying to find an alternate method that doesn't involve the duplication of slide. I'll post on here if I find one!

Jeanette Brooks
almost 13 years ago06/16/11 at 3:46 am (UTC)

Hi Steven! Depending on your slide design, it's likely that can alleviate the issue of labor-intensive updates by using slide masters for all of the persistent elements that appear on the duplicates. So, rather than have multiple slides which all contain many of the same elements, you just have a slide master layout that you apply to those slides. That way, much of the content can be managed in one place - so if there are updates, you don't have to make the same change over & over. The only thing you really need to place on the individual slides would be the unique items you want the learner to see when they click the hyperlinks. Here's a good screencast that describes use of slide masters, in case you're not familiar: https://player.vimeo.com/video/149035472

Kayla Burtch
almost 13 years ago06/16/11 at 6:13 am (UTC)

I signed in to say what Jeanette said, but she beat me to it.

It is not possible to trigger animations in articulate unfortunately, as "triggers" are not supported. (Even though it is possible in theory in powerpoint, it won't work once published.

Once you get used to slide masters it actually is nice to have everything on different slides so you don't end up with 100s of overlapping elements.

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.