Changing the state of a button to active only when all 3 layers have been visited

Hi Suzanne

this demo I did may help you

Suzanne,

Just from glancing at your file I would not "Hide objects on base layer" but rather only use the layers to host the objects that are unique to just that layer (the X buttons indicating that the learner is on that layer and the text boxes you have flying in). That way you are using only one set of buttons across the base layer and all three subordinate layers. Then you can set up the next button to only work when all three buttons have been selected (you'll only be dealing with three buttons across four layers rather than 12 buttons across four layers).

I personally try and stay away from layers as much as possible. In this case I would have just used state changes and probably used SL's buttons (controls ---> buttons) rather than using ovals and hotspots, but that's just from years and years of trial and error on my part that I like to share so people new to Storyline don't have to go through what I went through!

Thanks Wendy and Benjamin for your help, I've looked at both options.

When looking at your demo slide Wendy, I don't appear to have the equivalent of a 'multiply 1' option to trigger the change of the button state on each layer.

Thanks for the simplification tips Benjamin, this works great until I previewed it and the messages flew in front of the machine rather looking like they came out of it - if that makes sense? I'll try this again and see if I can get it to work with state changes and buttons.

In that case I would keep the machine on the subordinate layers as well. That way you the messages flying in should stay behind the machine graphics. Does that make sense?

Benjamin,

If you don't mind me asking, what are the problems you see with layers?

Wendy I did receive email notification of your reply which was really, really kind of you to change the file and explain what you had done. But I noticed your post was now removed? 

Hi Suzanne

because I re-read your reply above about wanting to have all the objects repeated on each layer for the object to appear coming in from behind - my solution was to drop them all from each layer.

You could perhaps create a group of all the items and save as a picture then only have the picture on each layer?

Thanks so much Wendy for your help and quick reply.

Hi Suzanne

here is a really rough example of your file updated using an image and variables. The buttons can be done in any order. I have the prev and next button disabled on timeline start and then change to normal when the three variables are true.  You'll need to tweak the ovals I used to place them correctly and I removed the hotspots and used shapes that had a fill with 100% transparency.

Hope this helps

Thank you so much Wendy, I really appreciate you taking the time to help.