This may sound simple, but I'm having a hard time re-ordering slides (it doesn't matter whether or not I use story or slide view). It may be because I'm using a template someone else created, but I'm not sure how to change the structure of the template. Could someone advise?
I am having the same problem. I can move slides that are underneath the second layer triggered slide, but not ones that are a direct result of a triggered slide. Can I renumber the slides to force them in the place I want them? The attached screen shot shows the triggered slide circled and the next layer items I need to move that won't allow me to move. Anything on the 3rd or 4th tier down I can move no problem.
The flow of your program is controlled by the triggers, not by StoryView. Although Storyview drives our OCD friends to the brink of despair, remember: WHAT YOU SEE IN STORYVIEW IS IN NO WAY RELATED TO PROGRAM FLOW DETERMINATION. It is merely a visual representation of how the triggers are set up.
There is VERY little about program flow that you can change from StoryView. If you have a trigger that jumps to the next slide, you can identify which slide is next by dragging it. Otherwise, almost anything you do in StoryView to change program flow is wasted effort and can be VERY frustrating. NOTE: In recent updates, if your jump triggers are set to Slide names instead of NEXT slide, you can drag a slide to a spot and its number will change, but its position won't.
If you want to change program flow, find and change the triggers that control it.
Slide order in StoryView is somewhat dependent on the z-order of the objects that have the triggers attached to them. As SL builds the Storyview, it goes down the list of objects with triggers on a given slide. The first trigger's target slide is placed to the left (or sometimes right) in Storyview. If you can move those objects up or down on your time line without damaging your slide appearance, the slides will change places. You may have to close slide view to see the results. I imagine it will work the same way with scenes, too.
Here is a picture of some of my slides. Notice that #5,15,14,18, and 20 are not in numeric order from left to right.
If I take the button that jumps to slide 14 and change it to jump to slide 15, and change 15's button to jump to 14, slides 14 and 15 will change places in the story view. Or, if I drag the object holding slide 14's trigger above the one with 15's trigger on my timeline, they will also change places, but only in Storyview, not in navigational sequence.
If what I'm about to say no longer applies to the latest version of the software, or is out-of-date (since this is a year old thread), I'll beg forgiveness in advance.
Some of this stuff is frustrating to the point of distraction. For example, I am working on a program that has NO linear sequence, which--oddly enough--almost forces me to verify it sequentially in order to ensure it operates properly.
For example:
1) I created the opening scene with a title slide and a menu--which became slides 1.1 and 1.2. Later I realized I needed some background info and so inserted slides in between. Yet, the menu remained 1.2, and in Storyview still displays sequentially AFTER 1.1--though the triggers are entirely different. In scene view it is fine, and displays properly--though it is still odd to see the numbering off. However that menu then branches to several other scenes...and when I want those scenes to return to the main menu and am selecting the slide number in setting up their "return" triggers...I never can choose the last slide in the scene, because despite trigger order in the programming, the "Create" or "Edit" trigger functions still list the slides in numeric order, NOT functional order. So I always have to remember, "Even though it PLAYS as the last slide in the scene, it is NOT the last slide in the scene." Now multiply that issue by the eight scenes under that main menu, none of which were numbered sequentially. I end up solving it by meticulous naming of the slides so I can find the right slide by name, but that in turn makes for a non-user friendly menu in the slide menu.
2) One of the main menu triggers goes to a sub-menu, with four sub-scenes underneath. But for some reason, even though I created the three sub-scenes sequentially--I actually copied the first scene twice--the first two wound up in order. But then when I added the other higher level scenes, they slipped in between the sub-scenes and renumbered them. So I have a sub-menu that for all intents and purposes says, "Select 1, 2, or 3" (and branches), but what they actually branch two are scenes 1, 2, and 9! So when I'm trying to verify that everything within the sub-menu is operating properly, I have to skip around between the scenes it branches to, leaving scenes in between untouched. This is a tricky way of editing something. It's like saying, "You have 250 slides to check the grammar on. Start with number 1, then go to 72, then 163, then 9, then 248, then..." and so on. As you can see, if you have complex branching and the program simply inserts new scenes in between the previously created scenes, it's a pain trying to keep clear on what you have and have not reviewed and approved.
Imagine how we would respond if say PPT or Word did that. You have a slide deck of 40 slides and need to insert a new one between slides 9 and 10, but when you do the slide becomes slide #41. Or if you added another paragraph in Word that caused repagination and now your page numbers were not sequential. Let's just say Microsoft wouldn't have the market share it does if the programs operated this way.
So yes, I know not to depend on Storyline's numbering of scenes or slides to depend on actual functionally. That comes from the triggers. But it would sure make things easier if numbering followed program sequence--or at least let us change the numbering of scenes and slides to help us accomplish our tasks. That latter option would let us number things the way that work best for the program.
Take a look at these two videos; they show some fast ways to get your numbering straightened out. In the video for changing slide numbers, it looks like I am moving the slides, but I am moving them to the same spot they are already. They don't move, but the numbers are changed. If I had selected them all and "moved" them, all the numbers would have been changed to sequential numbers in one move.
7 Replies
Here is a tutorial on all things slides/story view: http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/using-story-view.aspx. If you don't find your answer there, can you give a bit more detail about the problem that is occurring when you attempt to reorder the slides?
Hi Eric and welcome to Heroes!
For some reason the link Matthew shared above won't open for me, so I'm re-linking it here for you. If you need anything else, please let us know!
I am having the same problem. I can move slides that are underneath the second layer triggered slide, but not ones that are a direct result of a triggered slide. Can I renumber the slides to force them in the place I want them? The attached screen shot shows the triggered slide circled and the next layer items I need to move that won't allow me to move. Anything on the 3rd or 4th tier down I can move no problem.
The flow of your program is controlled by the triggers, not by StoryView.
Although Storyview drives our OCD friends to the brink of despair, remember: WHAT YOU SEE IN STORYVIEW IS IN NO WAY RELATED TO PROGRAM FLOW DETERMINATION. It is merely a visual representation of how the triggers are set up.
There is VERY little about program flow that you can change from StoryView. If you have a trigger that jumps to the next slide, you can identify which slide is next by dragging it. Otherwise, almost anything you do in StoryView to change program flow is wasted effort and can be VERY frustrating. NOTE: In recent updates, if your jump triggers are set to Slide names instead of NEXT slide, you can drag a slide to a spot and its number will change, but its position won't.
If you want to change program flow, find and change the triggers that control it.
Slide order in StoryView is somewhat dependent on the z-order of the objects that have the triggers attached to them. As SL builds the Storyview, it goes down the list of objects with triggers on a given slide. The first trigger's target slide is placed to the left (or sometimes right) in Storyview. If you can move those objects up or down on your time line without damaging your slide appearance, the slides will change places. You may have to close slide view to see the results. I imagine it will work the same way with scenes, too.
Here is a picture of some of my slides. Notice that #5,15,14,18, and 20 are not in numeric order from left to right.
If I take the button that jumps to slide 14 and change it to jump to slide 15, and change 15's button to jump to 14, slides 14 and 15 will change places in the story view.
Or, if I drag the object holding slide 14's trigger above the one with 15's trigger on my timeline, they will also change places, but only in Storyview, not in navigational sequence.
Thanks Walt - really nice, comprehensive review of the story view set up.
There is a basic tutorial here on using Story view and another article by one of our Community managers on how to use story view.
If what I'm about to say no longer applies to the latest version of the software, or is out-of-date (since this is a year old thread), I'll beg forgiveness in advance.
Some of this stuff is frustrating to the point of distraction. For example, I am working on a program that has NO linear sequence, which--oddly enough--almost forces me to verify it sequentially in order to ensure it operates properly.
For example:
1) I created the opening scene with a title slide and a menu--which became slides 1.1 and 1.2. Later I realized I needed some background info and so inserted slides in between. Yet, the menu remained 1.2, and in Storyview still displays sequentially AFTER 1.1--though the triggers are entirely different. In scene view it is fine, and displays properly--though it is still odd to see the numbering off. However that menu then branches to several other scenes...and when I want those scenes to return to the main menu and am selecting the slide number in setting up their "return" triggers...I never can choose the last slide in the scene, because despite trigger order in the programming, the "Create" or "Edit" trigger functions still list the slides in numeric order, NOT functional order. So I always have to remember, "Even though it PLAYS as the last slide in the scene, it is NOT the last slide in the scene." Now multiply that issue by the eight scenes under that main menu, none of which were numbered sequentially. I end up solving it by meticulous naming of the slides so I can find the right slide by name, but that in turn makes for a non-user friendly menu in the slide menu.
2) One of the main menu triggers goes to a sub-menu, with four sub-scenes underneath. But for some reason, even though I created the three sub-scenes sequentially--I actually copied the first scene twice--the first two wound up in order. But then when I added the other higher level scenes, they slipped in between the sub-scenes and renumbered them. So I have a sub-menu that for all intents and purposes says, "Select 1, 2, or 3" (and branches), but what they actually branch two are scenes 1, 2, and 9! So when I'm trying to verify that everything within the sub-menu is operating properly, I have to skip around between the scenes it branches to, leaving scenes in between untouched. This is a tricky way of editing something. It's like saying, "You have 250 slides to check the grammar on. Start with number 1, then go to 72, then 163, then 9, then 248, then..." and so on. As you can see, if you have complex branching and the program simply inserts new scenes in between the previously created scenes, it's a pain trying to keep clear on what you have and have not reviewed and approved.
Imagine how we would respond if say PPT or Word did that. You have a slide deck of 40 slides and need to insert a new one between slides 9 and 10, but when you do the slide becomes slide #41. Or if you added another paragraph in Word that caused repagination and now your page numbers were not sequential. Let's just say Microsoft wouldn't have the market share it does if the programs operated this way.
So yes, I know not to depend on Storyline's numbering of scenes or slides to depend on actual functionally. That comes from the triggers. But it would sure make things easier if numbering followed program sequence--or at least let us change the numbering of scenes and slides to help us accomplish our tasks. That latter option would let us number things the way that work best for the program.
Take a look at these two videos; they show some fast ways to get your numbering straightened out. In the video for changing slide numbers, it looks like I am moving the slides, but I am moving them to the same spot they are already. They don't move, but the numbers are changed. If I had selected them all and "moved" them, all the numbers would have been changed to sequential numbers in one move.
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