copy/duplicate slide without changing variable names

Sep 26, 2023

I have created a slide with several variables and triggers. When I copy this slide multiple times (whether in the project itself or between two projects) there are variables where Storyline adds +1 to the name per copy, creating new variables and causing the slide to stop working properly. I always have to correct these variables manually. An example of this is the variable of a dial. If a slide has a dial, a new variable (+1) is created for the dial-variable with each copy. Does anyone know a solution how I can copy slides multiple times WITHOUT changing the names of the variables?

3 Replies
Eric Santos

Hi DVAG Akademie,

Thanks for reaching out; I'm happy to share some insight into your question!

It's expected that when you copy a slide with a dial object, a new variable will be created associated with the copy of the dial in the new slide. The last character of the variable name is an incrementing number based on the number of dials in the course. Only one variable can be associated with each dial object at a time. If you try to rename a variable with the exact name as an existing one, Storyline should return a warning, as shown below.

Variable names should be unique

Let me know if you see something different; I'm more than happy to assist further as needed!

DVAG Akademie

Thx for your reply :) But in my case I want all dials in my project to use the same one and only dial-variable and not separate variables for each dial.

In your screenshot you see: "Dial1 & Dial2"

I dont want to have 2 variables like: "Dial1 & Dial1", instead I just want to have 1 variable for all dials like: "Dial"

Now I am looking for a way to copy my first slide with a dial that uses the dial-variable "Dial", without generating a second dial-variable "Dial1" for the dial of the slide-copy. Instead it should just create a exact copy where the dial uses the same already existed dial-variable "Dial".

As you wrote "Only one variable can be associated with each dial object at a time", but I want to associate one variable with many dial objects and thats possible

Eric Santos

Hi DVAG Akademie,

I agree with you; we can change the variable associated with each copy of the dial to use the same one in Dial Tools --> Design.

Changing the dial variable

The current behavior is that when a dial or the slide containing it is copied, a new variable will be created associated with the new dial object. Storyline doesn't support the ability to copy objects and, at the same time, assign which variable it will use. 

I appreciate you sharing that this feature will be helpful for you! We'll be sure to update this thread if any adjustments are made to this in the future.