Having a CC scrolling caption persist throughout the course

Nov 08, 2017

I'm hoping there is a simple solution to this! We've decided that the best way to display a narration transcript discreetly is with a scrolling text box at the bottom of the screen that can be shown or hidden by a CC button. Here's the thing- how do you preserve the learner's selection from screen to screen? If they want CC they turn it on and it stays on, they don't have to click the CC button on every screen? I'm using Storyline 360.

9 Replies
Brian Allen

Hello Deepa,

We do this by creating a "CC" variable, True/False, defaulting to False.

Selecting the CC button will flip the variable to True and show the CC layer, selecting again should flip it to False and hide the CC layer.

At the beginning of each slide check your CC variable. If True, show the layer with the scrolling panel, if False don't show it.

Hope this helps!

Brian Allen

A tip on flipping the value of your CC variable: Use the "Not Assignment" option.

What this will do is change the value to whatever it isn't, so if it's False it'll change to True, and vice versa. Very simple.

Then, on the same button, add a trigger to show the CC layer IF your CC variable is = True, and a second trigger to hide the layer if it's False.

Brian Allen

Here you go, you were close.

I added a couple of triggers, edited a couple and removed all the triggers from the slide layer on slide 1 (they were what was causing the CC layer to not work at all).

If you take a look at the .story file, you'll see I added a couple of triggers to the CC button:

  1. Show the CC layer when the button is clicked if CC variable is = True, and 
  2. Hide the CC layer when the button is clicked if CC variable is = False.

I also added two triggers under Slide Triggers, these are what remember the user preference (CC layer on or off) from slide to slide. Because we want Storyline to check the value of the variable at the beginning of the slide, I've set these triggers to run when the timeline starts for each slide.

I've attached the updated .story file.

Let us know if you have any other questions about how this works!

Brian Allen

Just thought about it, but you may also consider trying Storyline's new built-in CC feature... So new I forgot all about it until I was replying to your post just now. Maybe not with this project, depending on how far you are with it, but possibly on your next...

Here's more info on how Storyline's new CC feature works, it's pretty cool - https://community.articulate.com/series/74/articles/articulate-storyline-360-user-guide-how-to-add-closed-captions

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