Changing the state of a checkmark from hidden to visible

Geert,

I'm afraid that didn't work. The initial state is hidden and I need it to be normal.

I seem to be having a bigger problem, though. The program became unresponsive about an hour ago and now many of the triggers that used to work no longer function. I've tried deleting and re-inserting without any luck. As a new user I have no idea how to troubleshoot so I sent a support request to tech support. As this sample needs to be done Monday morning, I hope I hear back soon. Thanks so much for your help; you're amazing!

Lynn

Hi Lynn,

can you upload the .story file. 

We're many in the community so we might come up with a solution for you by Monday. 

The Force is strong in thus community...

cheers

geert

Thanks...didn't know I could do that. Here it is.

Hi Lynn,

Set up a True/False Variable "TickHidden1" (or whatever...), and set it to False.

At the end of the appropriate Section/Scene, but moved to BEFORE pressing "Next" to return to the Menu, use a Trigger to set the Variable to True when the Next button is clicked.

Back on your menu, set up a Trigger that says "Change State of Tick1 (or whatever you have named it...) to Normal when Timeline of SLIDE starts.

Have a look at the attached for pretty much the same setup.

Hope this helps.

Bruce

Bruce,

Thanks for the idea. Unfortunately it didn't work. I think the problem is that I don't have the right condition listed.

There are two things that happen with each circle on the template. First if the learner hovers over it they get a text box that pops up a box with a summary of what's in that module. I put the pop up box on a layer. Then I have a trigger that directs them to a different slide with the section content. This trigger is activated by clicking on the circle hot spot. When they come back to the main menu is when the check mark to show up to indicate that they completed this section.

When I try to set the condition for the checkmark as in your example, the option for them having visited the section slide isn't there. My only option is if the layer is viewed. I tried that but that didn't work either.

I really think something happened yesterday when the program became unresponsive and shut itself down. I had several boxes on another slide turn to a different color after their linked slides were visited. It was simple to do and worked fine until the program re-started itself. Those triggers haven't worked since. I tried deleting the visited states and the triggers and starting over but so far nothing. I have spent hours on trying to make this work when I did it in about 10 minutes the first time. Grrr. Hopefully tech support will get back to me very quickly tomorrow morning as this sample has to be to a client by noon.

Thanks for your help.

Lynn

Lynn,

Can you upload your .story file, rather than the compiled output?

Try creating a custom state, called "Done" or something, with the tick. Set all the Triggers based on that rather than the default states. You will see in my example it is called "Completed".

Thanks

Bruce

Bruce, I'm afraid I don't know how to upload a .story folder. All I know how to do is publish and upload the zip file. So sorry but I've only worked with storyline for 5 days and, except for the great folks in the forum, I'm totally self taught. Can you tell me where the .story file "lives" in my computer. That way I can find the correct path and attach the file you want.

BTW. There's still something terribly wrong with the program. I can no longer insert a picture. When I try, nothing shows up. If I click on the spot I inserted it I'll get the resize points, to indicate something is there but nothing actually shows up. What the heck happened!!  Lynn

HI...

OK - the .story FILE is the file you go into to create the course.

It is the one that gets opened when you work.

If you do "Save > Save As..." you will see the location .

By the sounds of it I think you may need to re-install the Storyline programme, but I wanted to take a look at the .story to see if it was useable or not.

Bruce

Bruce,

Thanks. 

Reloading the program sounds really, really bad. Does that mean I'll loose all the work I've done!

Please be gentle as you look at this. Remember I'm a beginner.

Lynn

Hi again.

Reloading the programme is major, but may be needed. It's better than having all your files corrupt - and it does happen.

You will not lose any of your work - but usual advice - you MUST backup regularly, and certainly before doing this...

OK - I have had a look and all works fine - so sounds as though your programme may be corrupted, and may need a reinstall.

I have attached the new "BG" version - se if you can load it and see the changes. You have the basic concepts, but things in the wrong places.

I have created a Variable "ObjectivesSlide" - initially False. You need one of these for each of the checkmarks.

There is now a Trigger at the end of slide 1.2 that swaps the Variable state JUST BEFORE YOU PRESS the icon.

There is a Condition on slide 1.1 that checks for this state, and flips the checkmark state.

On the plus side, the course looks GREAT - lovely styling.

The only thing I spotted was that red as the checkmark colour always seems odd to me - would green be better?

So the flow, (and I have only done it for one slide...) is click on the circle....go to the section....look at the section....switch the variable and click...returns to the Main Menu slide......which checks the condition....and swaps the state of the checkmark.

This took me about 3 months+ to get the principle of, so you are doing REALLY well!!!!!  

Hope this helps.

Bruce

Bruce

OMG!! This is exactly what I needed to happen. Thank you so much. Now it should be a "simple" matter of copying exactly the format for the other ones.

Actually I wanted the checkmark to be white but I was having difficulty seeing it on the states page. I figured I'd change it once I got the functionality to work.

I think I'll get this project fine-tuned and finish the second project I started before reloading the program. Once I send the files to the potential client in the morning I can uninstall and reinstall the program. I'll be sure to put the files on an external drive before I do the uninstall.

Thanks for the kind words about the project. I can't take credit for the template, though, as I downloaded it from the website. While I've never used Articulate (or any e-learning tool) before last Wednesday, I've been using PPT forever and many of the principles are the same. The biggest difference, of course, are the triggers and states. Some of the simple ones I figured out for myself but I obviously needed help with some of the more complicated ones. I guess it doesn't help that the program isn't working correctly. Because I'm so new, though, I wasn't sure if it was me just not knowing what I was doing or the program. Guess it was a combination of both.

You've been a huge help! Thanks again and have a great rest of the day.

Lynn

No problem - glad to have ben able to help you out.

I'm UK-based, so I'm going offline soon, but some of the US-based folks may be able to help if you run into any further issues.

Take care.

Bruce

Bruce...to follow up. I never got it to work even though I copied your triggers exactly. Obviously you got it to work so it can't be the corrupt program. I wanted it to increase the cool quotient but but I just can't spend any more time on this, so I'll have to live without it. When I finish the second sample, maybe I'll try reinstalling to see if that works. Thanks again for your help and have a nice night. Lynn

Send it over if you want me to have a look some time.

Bruce

Hi Lynn,

Sorry that you are still having troubles. Great advice from Bruce on the re-install if you have weird things happening, and its not very difficult to do. It may be a little scarey, especially if time is short (but no worse than installing the first time really and may resolve some of your issues).

Here's an alternate solution you might also try-

I've copied the colored ovals from the master slide and pasted them on top of the originals on your intro slide, added the check mark (now white!) to the visited states and removed the hotspots. This may do the trick for you for now, please see what you think.

I hope this may be of help, and as Geert has said (and Bruce and he are fine examples of), this is a great forum and community for support. Good luck with your project!

Hi Greg,

You guy are amazing! I'd pretty much given up hope of getting this thing to work. While some of it might be a program issue, obviously if you and Bruce were both able to get the check marks to show up, this part is nothing more than operator error.

Thanks for getting the check marks where they're supposed to be, but now I still have to get the hover function back as well as the triggers that move the learner through the tutorial. Hopefully I won't screw everything up when I put those back in.

I've been working on this for 6 days now all in the effort of getting my first articulate e-learning design project. The potential client knows I've never used articulate before but feels that with my background I should be able to learn quickly. Given what Bruce said earlier I guess I'm doing okay, but these little issues are killing me!

Thanks for your help and enjoy the rest of your day.

Lynn

Hi Lynn,

Here's another run at it! After setting up the first oval, I moved pretty quickly to set up the other four (a little too quickly). There are now click and hover settings for each of the 5 ovals on the intro page.

Copy/pasting your existing home icon image on pages you still need to link back to the menu page may save some time setting up additional navigational triggers (the triggers will be copied with your object).

If you are still having difficulty I can check back later this evening.  -Greg

See Lynn,

the force is trong here in the community !

Cheers

Geert

BTW, don't be too hard on yourself - triggers, states, variables, and ways they can interact does take a little getting used to!

I finally had to break down and reinstall the program. I was working on a second sample training, hit the undo button and it wiped outs 2 hours worth of work. I almost had a heart attack! I closed the program without saving, reopened but the work was still gone. So I went ahead with the reinstall. The good news is that the rest of my slides have reappeared.

Now it's back to trying to fix that first sample. I'm going to get this if I have to work all night.

Many thanks to all of you for helping me get the cool quotient up on my sample.

Back to it...

Lynn

Lynn,

So sorry to hear about the crash (arrrrgg), but sounds like good news on the reinstall.

Hopefully things are now back to moving smoothly. Post back if more questions come up. -Greg

Hello,

I was hoping you could help me. I am struggling with a similar issue to Lynn above. I am trying to have checkmarks selected when the user completes each section. I have already set up my course to have the hotspots to direct the user to each section and triggers on each section when the media completes it jumps back to the menu page.

I have followed your suggestions above and added a variable that is initially false for the checkbox I am using. I then set up the trigger on my first section to adjust the variable to true when the media completes. Then added a trigger on the first menu page to change the state of the check box to selected when the timeline starts if the variable is true.

The problem is that every time I enter the course to preview the checkmark is already selected. I am not sure what I am doing wrong. I have attached screen shots of my variables and triggers that I created. Any guidance you can provide would be much appreciated. I am new at this just like Lynn and trying to work my way through learning about these variables and changes of state!

Often changes my state to frustrated!

Thank you

Nicole 

Hi Nicole...

Have had a look at the .docx, but it is difficult to tell I'm afraid without looking at the whole picture...

Any chance I could look at the entire .story file?

Hi Nicole and welcome to E-Learning Heroes! 

I'd agree with Bruce, it would be easier to diagnose if we were able to take a look at your .story file. If you're unable to share it here in the forums, you're welcome to share privately here, and if Bruce has a preferred method for you to share it privately with him I'll let him share that. 

Something else that you may want to look into include the order of your triggers (they'll fire from top to bottom), and therefore you'll want to make sure that they're firing prior to a trigger to jump back to the slide/layer.