I have a Data Entry field in several places within a course. however, the cursor does not automatically appear in the field to begin typing text. I have to first click within the Data Entry field before typing. Does anyone know how to make the cursor appear in the Data Entry field automatically?
Do you have other objects on your slide? Try placing your text entry box at the bottom of the list of objects on the timeline. That usually takes care of it.
Thank you for your response Rebecca. The only other object on the slide, the layer really, is a button. I tried moving the text field to the bottom of the timeline, but that did not work.
Thanks Becky for letting me know - it looks like Matt and I replied at the same time so I didn't see it. Whoops!
Matt, I wanted to share some other reminders about working in Storyline that could cause some odd behavior:
Work on your local drive (your C: drive).Working on a network drive or a USB drive can cause erratic behavior, includingfile corruption, loss of audio, and other unexpected behavior.
You should also make sure the directory pathto your project files and your published output is less than 260 characters(for example C:\Articulate).
Avoid using special characters, accents orsymbols in your file names.
If you're still having difficulty, we'd be happy to take a look at your .story file either here in the forums or if you'd like to send it along privately here.
Thank you all for your quick replies. Unfortunately, I am not able to upload my .story file or share a screenshot of my course as the application that I am creating the course for is proprietary. In addition, our firewall would prevent me from sharing the file.
However, I have included a screenshot. There are typically a button or two on many of the slides that provide instructions as to what needs to be typed into the data field. I would like to be able to have the cursor move to the data field once the learner clicks on the button providing the instructions, so that they may begin typing. I have not been able to figure out how to have the cursor moive to the data field without adding another layer, which is not ideal. Thanks.
I haven't seen a set up that would allow the cursor to appear in that field based on a trigger, and as Becky and I previously shared if it's the top most item, then it should appear there automatically but not if you need to click on other buttons. Unfortunately I don't have a work around to offer, but I'd recommend that if you want to share your thoughts on why this is needed functionality for you, that you submit a feature request. I hope that if someone in the community has created a work around that they're able to share it here for you!
Thank you for your response. Perhaps someone else has some thoughts, but I am not sure that it is possible. The only workaround that I have found is to move the data entry field to a separate layer. Since there is nothing else on that layer the cursor is in the data entry field. However, this is not ideal if the course requires a lot of data entry, as my course does. Thanks again.
I left this same question in another thread because I'm not sure it's still alive. Here goes:
The tips above - (1) putting the background on a slide master, and (2) moving the text entry box to the bottom of the timeline - so that the focus of the screen is on the text entry box from when the timeline for the slide starts, enabling the student to input the data without clicking on the text entry box are great tips and they work fine for me. However, . . .
If the user enters the wrong string, I present them with a feedback layer that says "Wrong text" and has them click OK, which hides the incorrect layer and in effect sends them back to the base layer. But once that happens, the focus/cursor is no longer at the beginning of the text entry field; the user has to click in the text entry box in order to enter the correct text. This would not happen in the actual system that I am trying to mimic - it would give them an error message but put their cursor back to the beginning of the field.
Does anyone know of a solution where an incorrect entry (followed by incorrect layer feedback, where I also clear the text entry by setting it to blank, thus removing their incorrect text string) will put the cursor back to the beginning of the text entry box?
I hope I have explained that well enough. Any pointers would be welcome.
9 Replies
Hi Matt,
Welcome to the community!
Do you have other objects on your slide? Try placing your text entry box at the bottom of the list of objects on the timeline. That usually takes care of it.
Please shout out with any questions.
Thank you for your response Rebecca. The only other object on the slide, the layer really, is a button. I tried moving the text field to the bottom of the timeline, but that did not work.
Hi Matt and welcome to Heroes!
I'm glad Becky was able to assist you here, but let us know if you need anything else!
Hi Matt,
Sorry that didn't work. Could you upload your slide here for the community to take a look?
Also, are you just using "plain old" text entries, or are you using a Fill-in-the-Blank slide?
Ashley, my suggestion didn't work so I guess we need to remove the verified answer :(.
Thanks Becky for letting me know - it looks like Matt and I replied at the same time so I didn't see it. Whoops!
Matt, I wanted to share some other reminders about working in Storyline that could cause some odd behavior:
If you're still having difficulty, we'd be happy to take a look at your .story file either here in the forums or if you'd like to send it along privately here.
Thank you all for your quick replies. Unfortunately, I am not able to upload my .story file or share a screenshot of my course as the application that I am creating the course for is proprietary. In addition, our firewall would prevent me from sharing the file.
However, I have included a screenshot. There are typically a button or two on many of the slides that provide instructions as to what needs to be typed into the data field. I would like to be able to have the cursor move to the data field once the learner clicks on the button providing the instructions, so that they may begin typing. I have not been able to figure out how to have the cursor moive to the data field without adding another layer, which is not ideal. Thanks.
Hi Matt,
I haven't seen a set up that would allow the cursor to appear in that field based on a trigger, and as Becky and I previously shared if it's the top most item, then it should appear there automatically but not if you need to click on other buttons. Unfortunately I don't have a work around to offer, but I'd recommend that if you want to share your thoughts on why this is needed functionality for you, that you submit a feature request. I hope that if someone in the community has created a work around that they're able to share it here for you!
Hi Ashley,
Thank you for your response. Perhaps someone else has some thoughts, but I am not sure that it is possible. The only workaround that I have found is to move the data entry field to a separate layer. Since there is nothing else on that layer the cursor is in the data entry field. However, this is not ideal if the course requires a lot of data entry, as my course does. Thanks again.
Matt
I left this same question in another thread because I'm not sure it's still alive. Here goes:
The tips above - (1) putting the background on a slide master, and (2) moving the text entry box to the bottom of the timeline - so that the focus of the screen is on the text entry box from when the timeline for the slide starts, enabling the student to input the data without clicking on the text entry box are great tips and they work fine for me. However, . . .
If the user enters the wrong string, I present them with a feedback layer that says "Wrong text" and has them click OK, which hides the incorrect layer and in effect sends them back to the base layer. But once that happens, the focus/cursor is no longer at the beginning of the text entry field; the user has to click in the text entry box in order to enter the correct text. This would not happen in the actual system that I am trying to mimic - it would give them an error message but put their cursor back to the beginning of the field.
Does anyone know of a solution where an incorrect entry (followed by incorrect layer feedback, where I also clear the text entry by setting it to blank, thus removing their incorrect text string) will put the cursor back to the beginning of the text entry box?
I hope I have explained that well enough. Any pointers would be welcome.
Thank you!
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