I hope you do not work for Articulate. When you select text in text box the highlighted text should be inverted so you can actual read it if the background is dark. Otherwise, you can not see the start or end off the selected text which make editing text pretty much impossible. The grey is what you see when you select text be it white or black text.
You said, "When you select text in text box the highlighted text should be inverted so you can actual read it if the background is dark. "
I went to SL and created a black-filled rectangle. On top of it, I created a text box with no fill, one line of black text, and one line of white text. The text box was placed partially on the white background, and partially on the black rectangle. I repeated those steps in Word. Maybe it's not exactly what you described, but close enough, I think to see what is happening. Both Storyline and Word treat highlighting text in the exact same manner. So I'm not sure what you describe is a bug in SL. It looks like a design philosophy that is pretty wide-spread.
While Articulate and Microsoft seem to have no apparent connection, and I have in the past disagreed heartily with some of their design decisions, I think that in this case, I am more inclined to agree with them as to the proper behavior of selected text than I am to agree with you. I have this wild theory that they have chosen not to change the color of selected text, but to merely cover it in a light gray. I think their hope is that this method will be effective for the largest number of options, without having to change text and background color. In short, what you are seeing seems to be not only expected behavior, but to my way of thinking, it is also good design.
I do agree with Philip in that it seems unusual to me that one would need to edit black text above a black background. Of course, I can't see your project, and have no idea of the constraints you are under. Still, if I had to do it, I imagine that I would temporarily turn off the visibility of the rectangle to allow the text to show long enough to edit it.
I am enclosing the results of my test with Storyline and Word. Each box has a line of black text, a blank line, and a line of white text. One side of the text container is above a black box, and all the text is selected. You can see the similarity between SL and Word.
At least PowerPoint puts an white outline around the selected text so you know what you have selected. It's not black text on black background !!!! It's the ability to see WHAT LETTERS YOU HAVE SELECTED !!!!!! I'll Assume no one who uses Storyline with ever have to edit text that has a dark background. Who needs to know what you are selecting anyways???? Just take a wild guess and paste your corrections on whatever is SELECTED !!!!!! I don't know how to make my point more CLEAR.
Over the years, I've made lots of mistakes. I'd like to think I've learned something from making this one; If it frustrates you (for example, trying to edit dark text on dark background), think how much it will frustrate your learners (for example, trying to read dark text on a dark background). Lots of experience has shown that learners do better if there is a strong color contrast between background and text color.
7 Replies
Umm, asking a silly question...but is your text colour also black?
The shape is a rectangle filled with Black and is behind the Textbox
Same thing happens if the text is inside the rectangle shape.
Cannot see the selected highlighted text
I have the entire text selected.
The second image is white text overtop the black shape (entire "HELLO WORLD" selected
ANYONE, ANYONE ????
I hope you do not work for Articulate. When you select text in text box the highlighted text should be inverted so you can actual read it if the background is dark. Otherwise, you can not see the start or end off the selected text which make editing text pretty much impossible. The grey is what you see when you select text be it white or black text.
Ken,
You said, "When you select text in text box the highlighted text should be inverted so you can actual read it if the background is dark. "
I went to SL and created a black-filled rectangle. On top of it, I created a text box with no fill, one line of black text, and one line of white text. The text box was placed partially on the white background, and partially on the black rectangle. I repeated those steps in Word. Maybe it's not exactly what you described, but close enough, I think to see what is happening. Both Storyline and Word treat highlighting text in the exact same manner. So I'm not sure what you describe is a bug in SL. It looks like a design philosophy that is pretty wide-spread.
While Articulate and Microsoft seem to have no apparent connection, and I have in the past disagreed heartily with some of their design decisions, I think that in this case, I am more inclined to agree with them as to the proper behavior of selected text than I am to agree with you. I have this wild theory that they have chosen not to change the color of selected text, but to merely cover it in a light gray. I think their hope is that this method will be effective for the largest number of options, without having to change text and background color. In short, what you are seeing seems to be not only expected behavior, but to my way of thinking, it is also good design.
I do agree with Philip in that it seems unusual to me that one would need to edit black text above a black background. Of course, I can't see your project, and have no idea of the constraints you are under. Still, if I had to do it, I imagine that I would temporarily turn off the visibility of the rectangle to allow the text to show long enough to edit it.
I am enclosing the results of my test with Storyline and Word. Each box has a line of black text, a blank line, and a line of white text. One side of the text container is above a black box, and all the text is selected. You can see the similarity between SL and Word.
At least PowerPoint puts an white outline around the selected text so you know what you have selected. It's not black text on black background !!!! It's the ability to see WHAT LETTERS YOU HAVE SELECTED !!!!!! I'll Assume no one who uses Storyline with ever have to edit text that has a dark background. Who needs to know what you are selecting anyways???? Just take a wild guess and paste your corrections on whatever is SELECTED !!!!!! I don't know how to make my point more CLEAR.
Over the years, I've made lots of mistakes. I'd like to think I've learned something from making this one; If it frustrates you (for example, trying to edit dark text on dark background), think how much it will frustrate your learners (for example, trying to read dark text on a dark background). Lots of experience has shown that learners do better if there is a strong color contrast between background and text color.