Base Layers vs Slide Layers

Jan 08, 2016

I am a Storyline newbie and need a little explanation of what the difference is between a base layer and a slide layer. Coming from the world of Adobe, layers are just layers. In Storyline 2, there appear to be certain things you can do in a base layer (which includes its own sub-layers) and certain things you can do in a slide layer. Can anyone explain what the logic is behind this? 

Much appreciated,

Darin

5 Replies
Darin Fennell

I did run across the article you provided the link for. It has some good information about layers. I think where I got stumped was in the section about hiding base layer objects. It mentions clicking the eye icon to hide an object. This idea is familiar to me coming from Captivate. Having done that, however, I was expecting to then create a trigger on another object in the base layer to show the hidden object (in the base layer). To my surprise, this does not appear to be possible (within the base layer). In contrast, I had to create another layer to place the object I wanted to hide in order for the show trigger (in the base layer) to work. Is there any other way to show a hidden object in the base layer, or is it just a Storyline rule that any manipulation of an object must be done in a layer outside the base layer?

Judy Nollet

Darin: Hiding an object by clicking the eye icon is useful during development when you want to concentrate on other objects (for example, if you have multiple objects that appear at different times but overlap on screen when you're working). Any object hidden via the eye icon stays hidden, i.e., it will never show up when Previewed or Published. In other words, makes sure all eye icons are in the enabled state when you want all timeline objects active.

As Ron noted, the way to program an object to hide and show is to change it's state. For example, you can set an object's initial state to Hidden. Then use a trigger on another object to change the state to Normal (i.e., visible).

I hope this helps!

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