Countdown timer for Storyline 360 - not in results slide
Oct 09, 2019
All-
I spent most of all day and a significant portion of this morning trying to create a backwards counting timer, not in a result slide, for a build I am working on. I searched the forums and couldn't find a way to do this. So, on the shoulders of the following people whose posts and work gave me pieces of the puzzle, I was able to build my countdown timer. Thanks to: @RobbieCollett, #eswiftlearning, @GodwinVinnyCarole, @JeffreyRiley, @PaulAlders and @MichaelHinze.
If you are interested, here it is. I have 3 slides where the timer is sitting on slides and 3 slides that access it from the Slide Master that I created. Feel free to use this is you need a backwards counting timer. It's complex and I won't detail all of the intricacies, but here it is and I am pretty proud of it.
22 Replies
Nice and thanks for sharing
Looking all over forums for stuff...and this did it! Thanks so much for sharing!!!!!
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So glad it helped you! I've had to do some additional build out with it- my customers want 30 second increments up to 4 minutes, so I've had to expand it, which has been challenging, but achievable.
Thanks Joe!
Matt, this is amazing! I have been searching for something like this all week. Thank you! I need to modify the duration but can't figure out how to do it. Would you kindly post instructions? I am new to Storyline 360, so it might just be something I'm unfamiliar with. Thank you again so much!
Hi Hilary, sorry just now saw this. Not sure if you have completed your project or not, but here are the instructions I logged when I completed this, along with the slide masters that I reference. Good luck!
I couldn't resist the temptation to try using the "Jump to time" trigger to also accomplish this. I purposely did not look at Matt's instructions because I wanted to figure it out on my own and make my own variation. I'm sure it can be cleaned up a lot but I got it to work.
Thanks, Matt! We decided not to use timers for this project, but this will be helpful in future projects!
I like it Steve! Wouldn't it be nice if Articulate took our work and actually created something off the shelf that we could just apply, like any other trigger...
I tried to get my customer to forego the timer as well, but they were insistent. I am actually not sure I will have an occasion to use it again, but it's nice to know it's here when and if the need arises.
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Yes! I hope you have the chance to use it again, after all the work you put into it. Any idea how long it took you to do all of this?
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This is great, Steve! I have worked very little with variables. If I wanted to create a 15-minute timer in your story, would I need to enter this in the variables? On the slide, I entered 15 for minutes and 00 for seconds, but it counted down immediately. Thanks in advance!
I recently created an EKG rhythm interpretation exercise for our nursing staff and I could see adding a timer in the future to up the challenge. But I like doing stuff like this just to refresh on some of the features i don't use very often. It took me longer to remember how to create the ability for the user to enter the desired times and then get them to work than it did for most of the rest of it.
Thanks Hilary. I use T/F variables all the time so this was a good practice to use a different type. The number you enter becomes the variable value. I had originally created the exercise with the default variable time set at five minutes, but then decided to push myself (now if I were Michael Hinze I would have used a slider dial hooked to moveable clock hands . . . WAAAAAY out of my league, but I love to see his stuff anyway!).
The timer is on a layer and I just set it to start immediately on entering the layer (clicking the start button). That made the "Jump to time" trigger easy to keep straight.
To me, one of the best thing about Storyline is that there are so many ways you can create things. And one of the best things about this forum is that people are so willing to share their variations. I keep a whole file of these examples. Matt's timer from the start of this thread was already in there, so I knew about the hidden object moving on a motion path, but now I'm going to have to go back to one of my other examples I downloaded and try to remember why the creator used half-second Loop in and Loop out layers to get the one second time. It's another of those "Sorry dear - I had to work late on a really important project!" nights!
It took me about a day and half.
Thanks for this thread and the shared files/expertise. Awesome!
This is exactly what I need for a timed drag and drop game. I am new to storyline. How do I incorporate it into my project?
This is amazing, Matt! Thanks so much for sharing this! (:
Hi Emily- sorry I missed this. You should be able to open my build and then just copy and paste it into your project.
Thanks!! Glad you like it!
This is great! I used it to create a hidden timer for a Try It interaction (Recorded Screen, set to Try it, and show Hint Caption layer when hovered) - but I also want the Hint Caption to show up if the end-user had trouble hovering in the right spot. I didn't want the Hint Caption to show all the time, but to delay appearing after X-number of seconds after the instructions finished playing.
I put all the assets on the base layer (shape - motion path - and %seconds% text box) just out of sight (outside the slide area). And then modified the initial Move trigger to move my shape (Timer) along the motion path when the timeline on the slide ended, while keeping the looping trigger intact (move Timer along Motion Path when animation ends on Timer) . Finally, I add a 2nd show Hint Caption layer trigger to make it appear after %seconds% reached 0 (the %seconds% was set to 8, and Matt's trigger to subtract 1 each time the animation completes would count it down to 0 eventually. And I can set %seconds% to whatever seconds I want by changing the variable value).
This way the "timer" doesn't start counting until the instructions end, and the Hint Caption appears even if they don't roll over the right place.
Thanks, Matt (and all the ELH's that have helped along the way)!
Wow! That's awesome! Sounds like you took it to the next level and beyond!!