Making the player transparent to view the slide underneath

Aug 08, 2012

Linda Ross
By Linda Ross

This one has been cofounding me, so I just gave up trying to figure it out on my own and thought I'd ask here.

I am required to have our copyright information appear on all components of elearning created with Articulate Studio, whether it be a standard ppt slide, an Engage Interaction, or a QuizMaker Quiz.. We start from a standardized slide deck that has the copyright in place as it should appear. I figured out how to make it appear when Engage interactions are inserted...here's one example:

The problem I'm having is figuring out how to have the slide copyright appear when inserting a QuizMaker Quiz. The player seems to cover it, and I can't figure out how to make just the bottom of the player transparent, without making the rest of the player transparent. We're trying to mimic the same look and feel regardless of what element is being used, so that the course appears seamless. We've been able to do this with the ppt slides and Engage interactions, but not with quizzes or learning games (I'm not even sure if the latter is possible).

Here's what the quizzes currently look like:

How do I make the quizzes look like the interactions and show the required copyright information?

Thanks in advance for any solutions you can provide.

Linda

12 Replies
Jeanette Brooks
over 11 years ago08/08/12 at 6:09 pm (UTC)

Hi Linda! You can definitely make the quiz's player frame transparent, and apply a slide master layout to your quiz placeholder slide to show through, so that the copyright info shows up. The process is similar to what you do for Engage interactions, and you can find more info here.

Looking at your screenshot, though, it seems like you'll have difficulty with the Submit button overlapping the red strip that says "Oracle" at the bottom of your slide master. So, you might need to create a slightly tweaked version of your slide master layout in order to come up with a slide design that looks consistent with the others but still accommodates the Submit button on your quizzes. 

Linda Ross
over 11 years ago08/09/12 at 10:53 am (UTC)

Hi again. So, I implemented making the player transparent, and there are a few issues with it, namely, the positioning of the title and buttons on the background image. Those I will probably just have to live with.

The other is what's referenced in the link regarding the pop-ups. We use the various default pop-ups extensively and making customized blank slides is a lot of work that I just don't see our CDs doing. I just spent the last hour doing it for only one of the standardized quiz types I'm creating for our team, and I'm still don't have the functionality exactly how I want it, which is pretty much what is provided by the defaults, but, to your point in your tutorial, it's difficult to read the pop-up text when the player is transparent given the default color scheme properties for the pop-ups.

Where in the QuizMaker Player Color Scheme editor does one edit the properties that correspond with the pop-ups? I'd like to change the background fill and line. The only options I see are Frame, Text, Buttons, Timer, and Scrollbar.

Linda Ross
over 11 years ago08/09/12 at 11:17 am (UTC)

Phil Mayor said:

The popup are part of the player, if you have a transparent player your popups are also transparent.

I believe James Kingsley sells a fix for this


I understand that the pop-ups are part of the player, but my question was, WHICH part? I'm not seeing any option to set the color for elements of the pop-up. There are several elements that are set to 100% transparency for the Frame, and the pop-ups appear to be set to approx 40%--I'm just not seeing WHERE it's set or if it's something we have control over. If i didn't have to work within the confines of a corporate ppt template this would be a non-issue, but I do, unfortunately.

Linda Ross
over 11 years ago08/09/12 at 12:16 pm (UTC)

Thanks for confirming. That was what I thought after attempting all the options in the drop-down from Frame on the color editor. I'm looking for James' solution now, currently watching this video, and a wee bit jealous that I don't have more control over what I'm allowed to do with slide masters

Thanks for your help, and if you happen to know where I can find James' solution, I'd sure appreciate it.

Linda Ross
over 11 years ago08/09/12 at 12:38 pm (UTC)

Okay, now THAT'S awesome (and yeah, great name)! I might get spanked for the $100, but I'm doing it.

At first I was a little concerned, because I do a lot of custom "QuizMaker interactions" by manipulating elements in slide view. But as I got further into the Screenr, it looks like you still have slide level control.

Thanks Phil, really appreciate your assistance =)

Linda Ross
over 11 years ago08/09/12 at 4:55 pm (UTC)

Thanks to Phil's and Jeanette's suggestions, this is what our standardized quiz templates are shaping up to look like:

I'm going to see if I can convince the "powers-that-be" to slightly modify the master slide so that I can have a specific one for QM quizzes. That way, I'll be able to get a better centering on the black title bar, where the quiz title defaults.

But in any case, much more seamless-looking, and should be pretty easy for my team to use.

Thanks again for the help!

Linda Ross
over 11 years ago08/13/12 at 8:59 am (UTC)

Thanks, Jeanette, but it didn't pass corporate review. I spent a bit more time on it, made a few more tweaks to the master, and now it's been approved. Here is what the approved version looks like:

Thanks so much for all the helpful tips and tricks. I certainly wouldn't have been able to pull off half the things I've implemented in this "template" without them =)

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