I would like to disable the fast forward feature in the video player, essentially forcing the audience to sit through the video. How can I do this while still keeping the pause and volume buttons?
Sorry, Diana. You can only disable the video controls as a whole or not at all. To choose which controls you want would make a great feature request though. Thanks!
If you haven't already, you'll want to share your thoughts on that feature request with our product development team using the link Peter shared.
Also, if you're using the video controls instead of the player seekbar, did you look at laying a transparent shape over the parts of the video player that you don't want the users to be able to click on? That's a common work around mentioned here in the forums.
This thread is 2 yrs old and there are a hundred more with the same request. why is this not a feature? a lot of users don't want to let their users fast forward through slides which works fine with regular slides but videos the function is pointless. I have been jumping through hoops to achieve a simple goal. users must watch the video in full before being able to re-watch with ability to navigate throughout the film freely. on first watch, they can only rewind. it seems so simple yet years later, its still not a function. its super frustrating.
Have you looked at placing a transparent shape over the top of the video so that the user can't click on the video rewind/fast forward elements? You could then set that shape to disappear on the timeline or be hidden when the video has reached a certain point. That would allow the user to then access those functions going forward. You'll also want to ensure you've set the slide properties to resume saved state.
As for why it's not a feature yet, thats not a question I'm able to answer, but the feature requests do go on to our product development team who track them and evaluate each for inclusion in future updates or versions.
I thought about the transparent object but it would need to gradually disappear as the timeline progressed. If there was a way to even just give the option to rewind in 10 secs increments, that would be fine too but I haven't figured out a way to do that even. any other ideas? I've seen articles about creating custom players and embedding as an object but that also wasn't working. I was able to achieve this function after a user watches the media to the end by adding a trigger to play a hidden slide that had the progress bar but the 1st view is what is giving me the most trouble. students will want to review information if they didn't understand or hear it but they can't move forward...
There isn't a way I could think of to have it gradually disappear - as in allowing them to slowly start rewinding back. You could put an exit animation on the object, but in my suggestion the object is transparent so that they could see the video and all the controls on the slide, just not click on them. - so I'm unclear on what you'd want it to be transparent.
I'd defer to the community for additional expertise since it's a bit outside the scope of the standard set up, and I'm not a design expert.
If anyone is ever interested. I ended up using vimeo's api and embedding the videos as objects using the attached js and the index is the embedded object. just change the track id to your custom variable within the articulate slide to control the next button to become visible once the variable set to 1. the js sets the variable to 0 until the video is complete and also bookmarks the users place within the video using a cookie so they can return later and pickup where they left off within the video.
I hope they are not disregarding this feature request. It is important for accessibility to allow users to be able to stop, pause and rewind but I don't want all users to be able to fast forward. Why has this not been added?
I hear how this is an important addition to the courses you're creating which is very helpful that you've included that! You've brought up Accessibility which is high on our radar right now.
On January 21st, we released our, long-awaited, Accessible Player in Update 36 (Build 3.36.21213.0) of Storyline 360! We have more features in the works, so it's helpful to hear what is beneficial for our customers creating accessible courses.
I've added your comments to our feature report and will keep this discussion updated when this report progresses.
Thanks for checking in! We don't have an update on this feature to add fast forward options as video controls. We are continuing to track customer impact so I appreciate you sharing how this feature would benefit your courses and learners. We'll report back when we have an update!
I'm chiming in here in hopes the feature will be added to Storyline. So much content is being pushed towards video and we really need an option to restrict users from fast-forwarding. But then also the ability to have the video unlock once the video has been watched.
PLEASE add this ability as soon as possible! Thanks!
Yes this is an important feature to add, please. Learners should be able to rewind videos but not fast-forward before completing the entire video. Thanks!
Apologies for the late notice, but I wanted to jump in here to let you know in Storyline 360 Update 47, in addition to keyboard shortcuts to mute/unmute audio, replay the slide, and turn closed captions on/off, learners can also fast forward and rewind a slide's timeline using the arrow keys on the seekbar. You can learn more about accessible player controls here!
In player properties, keep the default setting to Allow user to drag seekbar. To prevent fast forward and rewind, just change the seekbar to Seekbar is read-only.
If you haven't already updated to the latest version, launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button for Storyline 360. Details here.
@Ren Gomez - The function you mentioned is nice to force the user to watch the content - but there desperately needs to be an option to then allow a user to scrub through what they already have watched. Once you've watched something, it should become unlocked - allowing them to easily review content and skip to any timestamp in the video afterwards.
Also putting in a plug to make this work for videos hosted on either YouTube or Vimeo.com. A simple solution to add the hyperlink and let Storyline track the progress is long overdue.
Jumping in to say that I also would like to see this future. An increasingly large amount of training my team is producing is being kept out of Articulate products simply because we can't restrict a user from fast forwarding, but still view what they've already seen. It's disappointing that this feature hasn't been included after almost a decade of requests from your customers.
We have a feature via the conditional seekbar in Storyline 360 to prevent learners from skipping ahead until they've completed a slide. The seekbar is locked the first time learners view the slide. After that, they can drag the seekbar back and forth.
Bumping this thread as it appears to be the most recent, to see if anyone has yet to accomplish this apparently unobtainable goal of allowing a user to move backwards within the video but not forward or if this updated feature is on any type of timeline for resolution.
31 Replies
Sorry, Diana. You can only disable the video controls as a whole or not at all. To choose which controls you want would make a great feature request though. Thanks!
I agree. This feature should be added! It's very disappointing that it's not there.
Hi Jim and welcome to Heroes!
If you haven't already, you'll want to share your thoughts on that feature request with our product development team using the link Peter shared.
Also, if you're using the video controls instead of the player seekbar, did you look at laying a transparent shape over the parts of the video player that you don't want the users to be able to click on? That's a common work around mentioned here in the forums.
This thread is 2 yrs old and there are a hundred more with the same request. why is this not a feature? a lot of users don't want to let their users fast forward through slides which works fine with regular slides but videos the function is pointless. I have been jumping through hoops to achieve a simple goal. users must watch the video in full before being able to re-watch with ability to navigate throughout the film freely. on first watch, they can only rewind. it seems so simple yet years later, its still not a function. its super frustrating.
Hi Julie,
Have you looked at placing a transparent shape over the top of the video so that the user can't click on the video rewind/fast forward elements? You could then set that shape to disappear on the timeline or be hidden when the video has reached a certain point. That would allow the user to then access those functions going forward. You'll also want to ensure you've set the slide properties to resume saved state.
As for why it's not a feature yet, thats not a question I'm able to answer, but the feature requests do go on to our product development team who track them and evaluate each for inclusion in future updates or versions.
I thought about the transparent object but it would need to gradually disappear as the timeline progressed. If there was a way to even just give the option to rewind in 10 secs increments, that would be fine too but I haven't figured out a way to do that even. any other ideas? I've seen articles about creating custom players and embedding as an object but that also wasn't working. I was able to achieve this function after a user watches the media to the end by adding a trigger to play a hidden slide that had the progress bar but the 1st view is what is giving me the most trouble. students will want to review information if they didn't understand or hear it but they can't move forward...
Hi Julie,
There isn't a way I could think of to have it gradually disappear - as in allowing them to slowly start rewinding back. You could put an exit animation on the object, but in my suggestion the object is transparent so that they could see the video and all the controls on the slide, just not click on them. - so I'm unclear on what you'd want it to be transparent.
I'd defer to the community for additional expertise since it's a bit outside the scope of the standard set up, and I'm not a design expert.
If anyone is ever interested. I ended up using vimeo's api and embedding the videos as objects using the attached js and the index is the embedded object. just change the track id to your custom variable within the articulate slide to control the next button to become visible once the variable set to 1. the js sets the variable to 0 until the video is complete and also bookmarks the users place within the video using a cookie so they can return later and pickup where they left off within the video.
Thanks Julie for that update and example!
I hope they are not disregarding this feature request. It is important for accessibility to allow users to be able to stop, pause and rewind but I don't want all users to be able to fast forward. Why has this not been added?
Hi Karin!
I hear how this is an important addition to the courses you're creating which is very helpful that you've included that! You've brought up Accessibility which is high on our radar right now.
On January 21st, we released our, long-awaited, Accessible Player in Update 36 (Build 3.36.21213.0) of Storyline 360! We have more features in the works, so it's helpful to hear what is beneficial for our customers creating accessible courses.
I've added your comments to our feature report and will keep this discussion updated when this report progresses.
Hi Lauren,
Are there any updates regarding this feature? I too would like to keep the video controls, but prevent users from fast forwarding through the videos.
This thread started 8 years ago, it seems odd that this feature has not progressed since then.
Hi Scott!
Thanks for checking in! We don't have an update on this feature to add fast forward options as video controls. We are continuing to track customer impact so I appreciate you sharing how this feature would benefit your courses and learners. We'll report back when we have an update!
I'm chiming in here in hopes the feature will be added to Storyline. So much content is being pushed towards video and we really need an option to restrict users from fast-forwarding. But then also the ability to have the video unlock once the video has been watched.
PLEASE add this ability as soon as possible! Thanks!
I too would like to keep the video controls/seekbar, but prevent users from fast forwarding through the videos.
Yes this is an important feature to add, please. Learners should be able to rewind videos but not fast-forward before completing the entire video. Thanks!
Hi Everyone,
Apologies for the late notice, but I wanted to jump in here to let you know in Storyline 360 Update 47, in addition to keyboard shortcuts to mute/unmute audio, replay the slide, and turn closed captions on/off, learners can also fast forward and rewind a slide's timeline using the arrow keys on the seekbar. You can learn more about accessible player controls here!
In player properties, keep the default setting to Allow user to drag seekbar. To prevent fast forward and rewind, just change the seekbar to Seekbar is read-only.
If you haven't already updated to the latest version, launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button for Storyline 360. Details here.
@Ren Gomez - The function you mentioned is nice to force the user to watch the content - but there desperately needs to be an option to then allow a user to scrub through what they already have watched. Once you've watched something, it should become unlocked - allowing them to easily review content and skip to any timestamp in the video afterwards.
Yes I agree with Baden! Escalate this feature please.
Also putting in a plug to make this work for videos hosted on either YouTube or Vimeo.com. A simple solution to add the hyperlink and let Storyline track the progress is long overdue.
Jumping in to say that I also would like to see this future. An increasingly large amount of training my team is producing is being kept out of Articulate products simply because we can't restrict a user from fast forwarding, but still view what they've already seen. It's disappointing that this feature hasn't been included after almost a decade of requests from your customers.
Hello Nikke, and welcome to E-Learning Heroes. 😊
We have a feature via the conditional seekbar in Storyline 360 to prevent learners from skipping ahead until they've completed a slide. The seekbar is locked the first time learners view the slide. After that, they can drag the seekbar back and forth.
Storyline 360: How to Use the Conditional Seekbar
Leslie, if your team can build this feature out more to allow videos hosted on Vimeo or YouTube, that would be THE BEST.
Thank you!
Bumping this thread as it appears to be the most recent, to see if anyone has yet to accomplish this apparently unobtainable goal of allowing a user to move backwards within the video but not forward or if this updated feature is on any type of timeline for resolution.
Hi Leslie, can the seekbar be viewed on when users are on an iphone?