Hover Won't Restore on Mouse Leave

Apr 14, 2015

Hello!  I'm trying to build a menu that sits mostly off the page (left) until user hovers over the corner - then it reveals itself (essentially moves right, on to the page).  When I preview and hover, and then move my mouse off of the item, the menu item remains in its "hovered" state" (it stays on the page).  I have "restore on mouse leave" checked.

44 Replies
Ray Cole

I may have spoken too soon. Wendy, your workaround initially seemed very promising--it works fine when I start on the base layer and trigger a Show Layer when the learner mouses over hotspots on the device image. In that case Restore on Mouse Leave works to hide the "close-up" layer and restore me to the layer I started on (namely: the base layer).

However, when I add a second view on another layer, then things no longer work as expected.

I tried to create a little trace-map to illustrate the problem. In a nutshell, though, the problem is this:

  1. I start on the Device 03: Rear View layer (which is where I end up after clicking the Rear View radio button below the device). 
  2. When I hover over any of the hotspots on this layer (actually just 100% transparent rectangles with triggers attached), I am correctly taken to the associated "close-up" layer.
  3. But when I mouse off the hotspot, instead of being restored to the Device 03: Rear View layer where I started, I am invariably "restored" to the base layer.

Layer Trace: Restore on Mouse Leave Not Working

I have sent this info to Robert too, since he is managing my case.

My original conception of this interaction did not involve close-ups. The need for them is really, really complicating things. Any other ideas of how I could make them work?

Cheers!

    -Ray

Ray Cole

Thanks Wendy, that's very generous of you. I've uploaded a *.story file with just this one slide. It's still pretty big because of all the images.

I think the main thing I am trying to figure out is if this new behavior is also a Storyline bug or if I am just misunderstanding what "restore" means in Restore on Mouse Leave. It's also possible that the problem is that I have Hide other slide layers selected, which may be preventing a "restore" back to the Device 03: Rear View layer (since that layer is hidden when the trigger executes).

Either way--bug or not--it seems I will need another work-around. I've actually never used Storyline's markers feature. Thanks for the pointer--I may give it a try.

I saw in another thread that someone suggested putting a 100% transparent shape underneath each hotspot. Make each of these shapes slightly larger than the hotspot so that it surrounds the hotspot on all sides, like a moat around a castle.

If I did that, then I could put my desired trigger on the hotspot with Restore on Mouse Leave unselected. On the underneath shape (which is larger and surrounds all sides of the actual hotspot), I can put a hover-trigger that manually "restores" to the layer and state that I want. Since it's impossible to move the mouse off the inner hotspot without crossing over the underneath shape that surrounds it, in theory this should work. 

But--ugh--that's a lot of hoops to leap through and a lot of triggers to set up and maintain.

Cheers!

    -Ray

Wendy Farmer

Hi Ray

Excuse my ignorance if I'm not understanding.

I think because your device image (and associated states) are on the base layer, you would need to keep coming back to the image on the base to show the different button layers.

I think if you wanted them to go from layer to layer, the device image would need be repeated on each layer which would be a lot of work.

I've made a quick video of using markers and inserting the closeup image into the marker when the user hovers the mouse over the marker (option 'show all on hover') the picture for the button displays, when they mouse off the marker it closes.

You may need to reformat the slide but it may also be a lot easier for you to control.

Hope this helps or someone else chimes in with another workaround for you.

Shout out if I can help anymore.

Ray Cole

Hi Wendy,

Your suggestion to use markers is turning out to be a very good suggestion indeed. Using markers significantly reduces the complexity of this interaction. I don't think it's necessary for you to try to debug my previous implementation after all. Markers will save the day here. 

Hopefully, if there is a bug in the way the Restore on Mouse Leave works when the hover is triggered from a layer other than the base layer, the Storyline engineers will fix it. But in the short term, markers will get me the functionality I need and allow me to ignore Restore on Mouse Leave altogether.

Thanks!

    -Ray

Sandy Powell

Here is a stripped down version of my file. Any suggestions are appreciated.

The master screen has a map layer that needs to show whether a location (slide) has been visited, completed, or neither. I have the images working to do that, but would like the hover states to add text indicating the status, too, for accessibility. 

In this version, the images marking locations disappear after hovering, even with the built-in state. Thankfully that doesn't happen with the actual, more complex file.

Leslie McKerchie

Great news!  We just released another update for Articulate 360 and included a few important fixes that you'll see in the release notes here.  

The item you'll be interested in is:

Triggering a state change when the learner's mouse hovered over an object wouldn't always "restore on mouse leave."

Just launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button for Storyline 360. You can find the details here.

Please let us know if you have any questions, either here or by reaching out to our Support Engineers directly.

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Kaono,

The update today was for Storyline 360 specifically.

I see that this issue has also been reported for Storyline 3 and the fix for that should be in a subsequent update as well.

If you're seeing something different or utilizing a different version, please share the details and with your permission, the project file so we can investigate what's happening. You can share it publicly here, or send it to me privately by uploading it here. I'll delete it when I'm done troubleshooting.

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.