Button States: States for some buttons not changing when button is clicked

Apr 01, 2024

Ashley Click
By Ashley Click

Greetings:

Could someone please help me? I am sort of new to Storyline and am working on an eLearning project for a client. This needs to be resolved really soon!

I want the following to happen:

  1. when user clicks a specific button, the button will change to  "HOME state" and text will show.

What I did:

  1. Each button has a  "HOME state" which shows a text boxes with content related to the button.
  2. The background of each textbox is white so that it masks the text boxes from the buttons which have already been clicked.
  3. The initial state for each buttons is "normal."

The Problem

  1. For the top row of buttons, all states change to "HOME state" when the box is clicked and the text box shows; however, after the fourth box on the top row, it gets glitchy: 3 of 4 boxes on bottom row remain in the normal state when clicked and the text box does not show.
  2. I don't understand why this is happening  because I have put triggers on all of the buttons so that the state changes to show the "HOME state" when the button is clicked.
  3. I have added an icon to each button and grouped the icon with the button. This has caused glitches before, but I don't know how to fix it.

What kind of help I need:

  1. Please tell me what I can do so that all of the buttons will function properly and change to the "HOME state" with the text box  when the user clicks it.
  2. I want the learner to have to click on all of the buttons before they can go to the next slide.
  3. It would be extra cool if I could just make the text box disappear when the next button was clicked.
  4. How do I group an icon together with a button so that the user will ALWAYS cause the trigger to execute when the button group is clicked.

I have attached the file to this post. Thank you so much for your time!

Best.

Ashley

2 Replies
Judy Nollet
2 months ago04/01/24 at 12:46 pm (UTC)

You're doing way more work than you need to. 

You don't need to use Groups for buttons. In fact, I recommend against that, because it usually causes problems.

Instead, insert the icons while editing the states of the button shapes. Here's more info about that: TIP: Making icons easier to program and easier to click - Articulate Storyline Discussions - E-Learning Heroes 

Here's how to control the buttons:

  • Instead of your "Home" state, give each button a Selected state and a Visited state.
  • Put the buttons into a button set. That makes them act like the radio buttons in a multiple-choice question. Clicking one automatically deselects the previously selected one. 

Here's more info about using built-in states: PRIMER: Take advantage of built-in states - Articulate Storyline Discussions - E-Learning Heroes

You can control the NEXT button via checking that the buttons have all been Visited. Here's more about how to do that: TIP: Controlling the NEXT Button 101 - Articulate Storyline Discussions - E-Learning Heroes

Ashley Click
2 months ago04/01/24 at 1:47 pm (UTC)

Hi Judy!

Thank you for the remarkably helpful reply and all the great links. 

I love your feedback having the page as an option and a resource, and it's Interesting to reflect on the line of thinking that: "getting the user clicking equates to heighted user engagement." I would agree with you totally about not having the navigation page as a "requirement" to proceed to the next slide... it was "suggested" to put that in, so as the dutiful ID, I did. 

I can't wait to look at all that info!

Thanks again. 

Cheers,

Ashley

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