Does Storyline have both a Seek Bar per slide AND per topic?

Oct 02, 2012

Newbie here.

I have a project that I must restrict the user from moving forward (the slide must be viewed for a number of seconds or minutes before moving forward). I would first like to know if Storyline gives me this ability?

Secondly, does Storyline have the ability to feature not only a slide Seek Bar that is timed for each slide AND an"overall" Seek Bar that covers the general topic discussed?

Sales assured me that this was possible through Storyline.

Any help would be spectacular in both answering these questions and directions to how this can accomplished/explained.

Cheers.

4 Replies
Simon Perkins

Hi Kevin - welcome to the community!

You could add an object (make it invisible) to a slide and have it time out at a certain point, thus creating a trigger for timing when the learner can move on.

The seekbar (to my knowledge) is only available at slide level.  You would need to create some kind of visual progress bar/icon if you wanted to 'display' the current location/progress within a given topic (scene).

Kevin Stump

Simon thanks for the quick info and your time.

If I am hearing you correctly, through Storyline I cannot keep the existing Seek Bar that runs at the bottom visible to the viewer AND control the slide so that it cannot move forward until theSeek Bar has completed offering its information. A hidden object would have to be placed and timed out to work around this paticular issue. If you are able can you push me toward a tutorial or lesson on how I would go about doing this.

Additionally, a creation of a (call it) Progress Bar would be something I would have to invent? Is that outside or within Storyline...this invention?

Thanks again

Simon Perkins

What exactly are you referring to when you say "topic"?  My understanding from your OP is that it's what we call a scene in SL, i.e. typically a chapter but can be another 'collection' of slides.

The seek bar is relevant only to any given slide.  You can use the Prev/Next buttons to allow native (player) navigation at any time.  You can also add your own buttons (or whatever) to any slide to encourage navigation - this method allows you more scope/flexibility.  

E.g. you might have an animation on the base layer of slide 4 that the learner must see before moving onto slide 5 ...  you could have a Next button appear at the end of that animation sequence (either on the same layer on maybe on a new layer - depending on what else is happening).  You use the timeline to control when when such objects appear and disappear.  This way, the learner can only move forward AFTER that animation.  

If you can't manage you timings using the current objects then you can 'invent' one and make it invisible, ie. make it 100% transparent or place it off-screen.  This can then be timed to appear/disappear at a relevant time to when you want the Next button to appear.  You may not need this at all - it just depends on the complexity of what's happening already.

SL doesn't have (unless I am mistaken) a progress meter for anything other than what's happening on a given slide.  Therefore you would need to create your own one if that's what your learners need.  Also, you might find using the sidebar menu is enough for giving them a sense of where they are in any given scene (topic?)?  But that depends on whether you can allow the sidebar to be included as part of your course/nav.

Does that help?

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