Conditions are stumping me

Hey Karen,

I've attached a simple sample of how I got it to work.  I added four true/false variables to the project.  One four each of the different topics. I set them to false.  When the user clicks on a link to that topic, when the timeline starts, the variable is adjusted to equal TRUE.  The continue button has two triggers. The first trigger will check if all the topic variables are true (visited), if it is then it goes to the summary page. If one of them is not true, than that trigger stops and moves to the second trigger which just goes to the main menu.  The order of the trigger is important.  Storyline executes each trigger in order. So if you have the trigger to go to the main menu first, it will do that and not execute any of the triggers that follow.

Hi Karen - take a look at this post - http://community.articulate.com/forums/t/36392.aspx

Carolyn was having a similar problem except that she was trying using layers instead of slides. I think a similar solution will work for you.

You are going to have to use variables to keep track of which slides have been visited and then add a trigger to each slide to jump to the top slide once all of the variables = true.

Hope this helps

Nancy

Thanks Jerson. Now the light dawns.  We used to call that a stacked interaction (back in the real old days of coding 15 years ago!?!?!)  This will work great!

Nancy, I think your suggestion would work too but since I have all the slides built, it'll be easier to follow Jerson's suggestion but I will try the layer approach on my next one.

Thanks all!!!

I am completely confused by variables, so you can do it without them. I just change the state once an item has been clicked - so you can grey them out or have them change color... then add a "continue"  button. The button is hidden in its initial state and changes to normal state once all of the states on A, B, C, and D have been viewed. I think its way easier to do it this way, but perhaps because I just can't figure out the variables...

@Gina,

I've always had problems with inconsistencies with the buttons and state changes.  Sometimes they stay in the state where you want, other times they default to "normal".

Hey Karen, I think Jerson's solution is pretty similar to mine

Hi Gina, in this case you are correct. You can do this by adding a visited state to each of the links and hiding the continue link until each of the other links has been visited.  Visited is the only state that Storyline remembers when you jump to a slide and then go back .

@Jerson... are you checking the box that says "resume saved state"? I haven't had any issues with it remembering. I would love to understand the variables, though... is there a good screener I can watch that really explains it? I watched the one in the original tutorials, but it didn't make any sense to me.

I have one small question, I see the column Use Count on Jerson's sample is set to 6.  After building my variables, mine is at 0.  I can click on the ) and a field opens but I can neither type in the field or copy into it.  Am I missing something?  Jerson's sample seems to list all the triggers & variables.

Thanks,

@Gina, Variables aren't difficult- just logical.  I haven't done enough with them to feel totally adept but I used to lose them alot when I did handcoding and then when I had to use Lectora which functions almost totally with variables.  Storyline's variables aren't difficult once you understand the logic of it.  Map it out, that's what I try to do (and then fail and have to go asking for help). 

Hi All,

Karen, did you try clicking ON the use count in the variables dialog box? It will display how the variable is being used in the story. Here's an example from the story I'm uploading:

It's so cool how many ways you can "fry a fish" in SL. My variation on the theme is:

• One variable: a number variable called count
• On each of the 4 slides, the Continue button jumps Learners back to the Main slide AND adds 1 to the count IF the button's state is not equal to visited. Without this condition, Learners could simply visit the same slide repeatedly, the count would equal 4, and they could view the summary slide.
• On the Main slide, a trigger to jump to the summary slide when the timeline starts IF the count = 4.

Another way around this, rather than adding the condition on the continue button would be to set each of the buttons on the main slide to disabled once Learners had clicked. This would be useful if you wanted to prevent Learners from revisiting - not something most adult Learners like...we would rather be in control of our learning...but worth mentioning while I'm posting.

It only add to the count if you actually use the variable in the storyline file. If has to be referenced in one of the triggers. If you just built the variables and haven't added any triggers that reference them, than the count would be 0.

Variables are like jars of information.  Some variables only allow certain type of information, like numbers or T/F statements. In storyline, you can use these jars throughout the course at anytime. When you need to use the variable, you just call it up by name and it will give you the information that is stored inside. It helps when you name the variable (like putting a label on the jar)  that makes sense to the information that is stored in it. You don't want to name a variable Apples and store "orange" inside this variable for the data.  You could name the variable Fruit, and then put orange inside, then you can change the contents to apples later on.

I'm a visual person, I'll try to work on a visual representation of what I'm trying to say when I have time and post it here.

This is a pretty good site for learning basic coding.

http://www.codecademy.com/

Thanks all for the help and answers here for Gina and Karen.

Jerson, I especially liked the variables as jars analogy and imagine a cool example you're working up to demonstrate it visually.