Consistently inconsistent button behavior while hovering to show layers

Dec 29, 2015

Problem: Hovering over buttons (images with triggers, not Storyline buttons) in a different order produces different results.

Background: I am rebuilding an existing course in Storyline 2. The course was developed in Flash, and the interactions need to work the same (my client does not have the source files).

On the problem slide, the learner hovers over four buttons, each of which displays a layer while the learner is hovering. The layers hide on mouse leave. Easy enough, so far.

Each layer plays the identical audio at different levels, one representing normal hearing and the others mild, moderate, and severe hearing loss. In the original course, the learner does not need to listen to the entire audio before moving to a different level - and because it's the same audio, I don't expect anyone would. This means that I can't expect the timeline to finish when a layer is shown.

After all four layers have been displayed, a popup box summarizes the activity. 

To accomplish this (and if there's an easier way, please let me know) I have variables for each layer, and a variable called Hovering. All are True/False.

Each button has a trigger that, when the learner hovers, toggles Hovering from False to True and then another trigger that shows a layer. When the layer is shown, a trigger adjusts its variable to True. When the mouse pointer is moved off the button, the layer is hidden and the value of Hovering toggles to False.

At the slide level, a trigger displays the final feedback when the value of Hovering changes and its value is False (i.e., the mouse pointer has moved off of the button) and the value of all the layer variables is True.

This works fine (i.e., the feedback is displayed when the learner moves the mouse from the fourth button) except when the Normal button is hovered last. In that case, the feedback is displayed when the mouse hovers over the button. 

Any ideas about what might be causing this? I've added a text box with %____% for the variables and they change as expected. The order of triggers is the same on all of the buttons. I even tried changing the name of Normal, since it is the name of a state, just in case.

A screenshot of the triggers is attached (the slide also has a layer called "Intro box" that is unlikely to have any effect on the problem).

 

4 Replies
Walt Hamilton
Walt Jones

Any ideas about what might be causing this?

 

When the user hovers over, a new layer shows, between the mouse and the speaker graphic. Technically, the mouse is considered to have left the graphic; it is no longer hovering over it. However, if you are lucky enough not to move the mouse even one pixel in any direction, it does not pass on to the program the fact that it has left. (Makes sense, no motion, no leaving.) You can test this by hovering, then twitching the mouse, but not enough to leave the graphic. That will close the layer, and the mouse will be considered to be hovering again, and the audio will restart.

The action you describe as happening to the norm button will happen to any of them, if it is visited last, and the mouse is twitched over it.

My solution is:

1. Set the hover to show the layer, but do not restore when the mouse leaves.

2, Put a transparent rectangle around and behind the speaker graphic on each layer. Give it a trigger to show the final feedback layer when hovered over (again without restore) if the conditions are met and another one to hide the layer (which is triggered if the conditions are not, and does not restore)

Leaving the graphic on the layer returns to the main unless the conditions are met. Doing it this way doesn't require the hovering variable.

I really like the way you have it set up and the way it works.

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