Hiding Layers When Seek Bar is Enabled

Hello James!

The learners should be able to use the Rewind button on the seekbar to get back to the start of the slide with no layers showing. Also, make sure the slide properties are set to reset to initial state when revisiting. 

Hi Emily

Thanks the input. I have tried this. Both the base layer and the layer in question are set to "reset to initial state" but the layer is still there even when the learner rewinds back to the start. 

The layer is revealed via a click trigger, not a timed trigger. Does that make a difference? 

Thanks again!

Hello James,

Do you have a file you could share?

Hi Emily

Thanks again for the reply. And sorry for the delay in getting back to you. 

File attached. It has two screens on it. One needs a button press to show the layer (press "Test the Seekbar"). The second has a trigger attached to the timeline. In both cases, the layer doesn't hide when I drag the seekbar back to the start. 

If you could take a look, that would be great. 

Many thanks in advance, Emily. :-)

Hello James,

Thank you for sharing the file. We do have an issue reported to the QA team about layers appearing when clicking and dragging within a seekbar. When any updates on this are available, I will post them here.

Using the rewind button at the end of the seekbar will reset the slide to its initial state.

Thanks for that, Emily. I can work around it until a fix is found. Appreciate the quick feedback. 

I'm using Story-line 2.7 and I got same issue.

one solution is there, in layer option tick mark on Prevent the user from clicking on the base layer.

Thanks for popping in to share Shailesh. Also keeping the seekbar as read-only assists as well. I do not have an update on this issue and it is still in the hands of the QA team.

Hi!  I'm experiencing the same issue.  I'm using Storyline 360.  Is there any update on this?

Hi there, Charoma! Really sorry the layers appear when clicking on the seekbar in Storyline 360 as well.

I don't see a similar bug report for Storyline 360 and would love to take a closer look at your .story file to see if it matches Storyline 2's report. Mind sharing it in this discussion? You can also share it privately with me here. I'll be standing by!

Thank you, Katie.

I have shared my story file via the private form. Please let me know if you have not received it.

Problem: Layers do not disappear if user rewinds the slide using the seek bar.
http://www.nephtc.org/Training/IcebergModelApplied/story

Appreciate you sharing your project with us, Charoma! Seekbar timelines can get tricky after scrubbing the seekbar when layers are incorporated. 

This was a tough cookie! My team and I put our heads together and put all of the content from the layers on the base layer instead. With this approach, nothing will be out of sync with the voiceover when learners scrub the seekbar. Could this option work?

Since the file is private, I shared an updated version of it with you via email. Fingers crossed that solution works – we'll be standing by ☺️

A solution that has worked for myself was to add a cue point near the beginning of the base layer's timeline. Then I add a trigger that hides each layer when the timeline reaches that cue point. 

Another Storyline issue. Shocking! Why add the functionality to hide layers when using the seekbar? I think probably because that would be too easy and make too much sense.

Michael Lawrence's solution to this issue seems to work, although it doesn't seem to matter where I put the cue point.

I have developed two other solutions to this issue, neither of which is ideal.

1. My layers are usually triggered by a button. If that is the case, use the trigger shown in the attached file (HideLayers1.jpg) to hide the layer when you use the seekbar to go to an area of timeline where the button that showed the layer no longer appears.

2. If that doesn't work, you can add an empty layer, let's call it "HideAll" . You can then add an invisible rectangle named "HideAllPopupsForSeekbar" onto your timeline and extend it according to where you want the layers to hide when using the seekbar. Then add the trigger shown in the attached HideLayers.jpg

I had the same issue. The option 1 suggested by Paul Colby works for me.

With narrated presentations, I like to throw up the key words as they are spoken, and having them on separate layers works better production-wise compared to trying to cram them into the base layer.  But I want the users to be able to use the seekbar without issues.

For me, an version of Michael Lawrence's solution:  a cue point on the base timeline hiding all layers at the point the last one disappears, and a second doing the same thing at the very beginning of the time line.  Then users can scrub away with no problem... Using the "Group Triggers" feature makes this solution appear neater.

I wish the HTML5 version could instead just "parse" the slide's entire timeline before it decides what should layers should be displayed at any point, but... as long as we can get it to work somehow in the meantime!

Thanks Paul, Option 2 worked for me. I don't like removing the drag bar on one slide as it looks messy and broken, so your workaround was perfect!

Option 2 worked really well for me. Thanks Paul. It really should be a built in feature to hide all/selected layers when a learner uses the seek bar.