Disabling the next button

Hi Mark, 

I’m no expert but I think the next buttons are being hidden because they are set to 'hidden' when the timeline starts. When the user clicks the ‘Return to FAQs’ button they return to the start of the timeline again and the button is hidden.

I’ve attached a solution where I added an all_visited variable. It’s set at 0 initially and changes to 1 when all the layers are visited.

Now that’s in place I’ve changed the trigger for hiding the next button when the timeline starts to only work on condition that all_visited is 0. I added another trigger to say if all_visited is 1, display the button when the timeline starts.

I’ve left the previous button alone so it still disappears when you return to the start. You could copy the triggers and change which button is hidden/displayed from within the triggers to see what’s happening.

Hope this helps, as I say I’m no expert but can get things to work! Hopefully someone will let us know if there’s a more simple solution. 

Dave 

Thanks Dave.  I get that but it does seem a bit complicated and this seems a very normal thing to want to do (at least in the stuff I'm writing).  Don't you think there must be a simpler solution?

Hi, Mark -- Thanks for reaching out! May I ask if you have come across this information yet: How to Temporarily Disable or Hide Navigation Buttons?

Hi Christie - no I hadn't seen this but not sure it helps?  That's sort of what I've done (although it's about everything being visited not media completing because there's no media on the slide. I'm a bit tired now though so will have another look at it tomorrow.

Hi, Mark -- Thanks for your reply, and if what I have provided is not what you had in mind, hopefully Dave or others in the community might have some other suggestions you can try! :)

<rant> "Normal" design is for the reader to be faced with hundreds of words of text, or hours worth of video, then click NEXT and do it over again, in a very linear fashion. I can't count how many of those I've been subjected to. <rant off>

There is not a simpler solution than some form of what Dave is suggesting. If you want a highly customized process, you have to do a lot of customizing, but the control you get in the end is worth it.

Thanks Walt.  I understand what you are saying and yes I have had to do quite a lot of customising to make the material work in the way I need.  But all I'm trying to do in this instance is get people to interact with a slide for a while and be unable to access the next button until they've done that.  Surely this is a common requirement (even for the sort of course you describe!).  I can't understand why what I'm doing (show the next button when states are visited) doesn't work in this case, and am sure I'm missing a trick somewhere.  I'll have another go today, following the advice given so far and see what I can do, but if anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong that would be very helpful,

Hi Mark! I took a look at your setup, and Dave summed up the issue: that trigger to change the next button to hidden when the timeline starts will always fire when you return to the base layer. I noticed that the next button is revealed on the last layer on which the learner clicks, so the trigger to show the next button based on the states IS working, but once you return to the FAQs, the "hidden" trigger will again fire.

BUT I did find a way to use conditions on your "hidden trigger" to only fire under the following circumstances: if shape structure is not equal to visited, OR shape include is not equal to visited, OR shape help is not equal to visited, OR shape what's involved is not equal to visited.

That way, if any of those shapes are not visited, it will hide the next button.  That trigger won't fire, however, if all of those shapes are visited.  You won't even need your trigger to change the next button to normal, since it will default to normal unless the above conditions apply.

I attached your modified project file; you'll just have to put the same conditions on your previous button trigger.

Can you tell I was excited to figure that out?  :)

To Answer your question about what is wrong,  the problem is this trigger;

The "When " portion of the trigger tells what action the trigger should watch for, so it knows when to fire.
"When State is ..." is not an action, and therefore does not work to initiate a trigger. This is not your fault; it is an error on the part of Storyline's programmers. It should not have been included in the trigger wizard in the "When ... " dropdown, even though sometimes it does work. Those rare times are highly dependent on timing and a great deal of luck. Who wants their interaction to work "If I get lucky?"
The problem is that people use it thinking that it means "When state changes", but it is not programmed that way, so it cannot consistently work in the "When" portion.
It is, however very reliable when used where it belongs, and that is in the conditions portion of triggers.

Crystal's story works because she has changed the "When" part to an action (Timeline starts), and put the "State is ..." in the conditions part, which is what it is programmed to do.

Thank you all so much!  I've sorted it now and as importantly understand so should be able to do something similar in the future if needs be.

It's taken me a while because I needed a holiday from Articulate Storyline!  But back on the case now so once again many thanks.

Mark

Sounds great, Mark, and thanks for stopping back in with an update! Please don't hesitate to let us know if you need anything further. :)