Jumping to previous slide in the slide sequence
Dec 10, 2012
Choosing "Previous Slide" as an option in the "Jump to Slide" action takes you back to the slide that you viewed last and not to the slide previous to the current slide in the slide sequence.
I have created a menu of slides in my story which pops up in a lightbox and allows a user to jump to any slide in the course. Once a slide is chosen from this menu, I would like the Previous button to take us back to the slide which is just before the current slide in the slide sequence and not to the slide that we were viewing previously.
The "Jump to slide" - Previous slide takes us back to the slide that we came from which is not what I want.
Is there any generic way to go to the Previous slide the way I want it to be. I have custom Next and Previous buttons the Slide Master and would thus want to use some generic logic to go back to the Previous slide in the slide sequence.
Also, I also have a Replay button on my slide master which needs to be able to replay the current slide from the start. I am able to achieve the replaying by using a "Jump to Slide" and using the current slide as the target. The problem is that "current slide" is different for every slide so to be able to put the Replay button on a slide master, I need a generic way of replaying the "current" slide. As of now, I am copying the Replay button to every slide and then editing the trigger to set the slide to go to - to be the slide on which the button is.
So is there any generic way of replaying the "current slide"?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Paul
66 Replies
Agree that in a branching project I never use "jump to next" or "jump to previous".
In a perfectly linear project, prev and next buttons work. But the slightest deviation from this causes the prev and next triggers to become unusable, including your recommended nav menu.
As you say, even in a simple linear course, you'll often want to have a master "nav menu" that allows the user to revisit a previous section or go to some help page, for example. And that's all it takes for the prev and next buttons to behave unexpectedly (from the user's standpoint). If you jump to a page anywhere in the course from the nav menu, the prev button will then take you back to the nav menu instead of the expected behavior of "previous page in the course".
I don't know of many courses that are perfectly linear, with no special pages (like help, glossary, credits, etc) or any way to conveniently navigate from section to section.
Also agree that it's not about the developer's expectation, but about the user's. And with the exception of the back button on your browser, most of the time, back means "previous page in this content". Just look at the "back" button under my comment. You expect it to reliably take you to the previous page in this thread, not the last website you visited.
Anyway, happy Storylining!
Any update on this old topic?
Got exactly the same issue:
Many slides and a menu to jump to a certain slide (chapter).
So we need the user to navigate to the "previous" slide in the slide-sequence (not the "last" viewed slide like in a browser).
Doing this manually will only generate opportunities for errors later when slides are rearranged or added and also takes a lot of time. Not really an efficient approach.
Thanks in advance!
Edit: Maybe there's a way with javascript?
If there is a way with Javascript, I'd love to hear it. But as far as I know, we don't have access in JS to slide numbers or slide names. I have created variables for these, but never tried to use them for navigation.
And I can confirm, it IS a great opportunity for errors when slides are rearranged, added, or removed. Not an efficient approach at all.
Hello Beren,
The Prev button works as a browser back button as you mentioned, so it would need to be set via the triggers on the button.
JavaScript is not a specialty of mine and hopefully someone in the community will be able to chime in and help you out with that.
I understand Terry and hopefully someone in the community will be able to chime in if this is something they have accomplished. As I mentioned to Beren, JavaScript is not a skill of mine nor something we can support.
As has been stated here many times, by many users for the last 5 years: it is not logical for the Prev button to work as a browser back button when the Next button doesn't work the same as a browser forward button. It adds so much work for designers/developers, and frustration for users if we miss customizing a button and leave it at its default, (illogical) behaviour.
I really wish they would let this be a lesson-wide or per-slide option.
Hey all, I'm jumping into this and curious why this is even an argument and not just simply a feature request? I see the merits of BOTH previous btn options and I am CURRENTLY in the situation of the original poster. I have my custom navigation btns built into a master slide layer and do not want to have to place them and trigger them on every single slide, while also having a custom built nav menu. Instead of continuing to discuss the current setup of the previous slide functionality, I think the PREVIOUS SLIDE option should actually be TWO options in the pull down of trigger actions. 1) "Previous slide (sequentially)" and 2) "Previous slide (last viewed)" or whatever names would make the most sense. But I think the option to have a previous slide (sequentially) is a MUST ADD feature. Cheers and thanks for all your hard work over there!
Hi there, Jonah. Thanks for clarify how that option would help you out! I submitted a feature request with your information so we can continue to track the impact of this idea. Thanks for adding your voice!
Hi there.
Any news on the feature request? I'm working with SL360 and I would need a "Next in sequence" and "Previous in sequence". As far as I could see the "Next/prev slide" trigger guides you according the visiting of the slides and not the sequence. Too bad.
Regards Fäbu
As long as we are sending in feature requests, I want to take part. I (as the developer) think in terms of slides (and in the old days in terms of pages), but now I want my learners to think in terms of activities. While I may maintain a mental or physical catalog of which slide is next to which, I want the learners thinking in terms of "What am I doing now?", can I review what I just did?', and "What will I do next?" So I am registering my feature request for maintaining the current situation of a button for "what's next", and another one for "where was I?"
Hi Fabian,
The Prev/Next triggers default to the visiting of the slides, as you described. You'll have to specify in each trigger what slide you'd like to go to if you prefer a different setting. We currently don’t have plans for a feature to be able to default to visiting based on sequence, but we appreciate you letting us know this is important to you, too. We’ll update this discussion if our plans change in the future.
And thanks for the point of view, Walt! I'll tally your vote for keeping things as is!
I am having the same issue. Perhaps the Feature Request should to be to see if there is a menu widget that can be developed based on the player menu. My problem is not with the menu itself, but with the fact that using the player "Menus & control" puts whitespace around the slide. I don't like that for full screen background images. So I am trying to make a custom menu, but it lacks some of the features of the default menu (non-collapsible outline, doesn't show your current slide, etc). I may be able to figure out some elements, but others don't seem doable.
Hello, I am having an issue with jumping to the previous slide, when the previous slid is a video. I have tried both triggers (jump to previous slide and jump to the specific slide number), and neither of them are working. Any suggestions? Thank you.
What kinds of issues? If you can attach your .story file here, maybe somebody can help.
Is there possibly a way to break the cycle of the PREV button. It seems that once you tell the PREV button to jump to a specific previous slide, it's over, and you must now manually add a trigger to every slide before it. If that makes sense?
Maybe I missed it, but surely there is a way to break that cycle somehow?
I inserted a youtube video in a layer with a semi-transparent rectangle behind it. That enabled me to have the video popup form a link on the slide, and then exit via clicking the background to hide the layer. But this was a "click here for video" link to supplement part of what was on the page. It works well, if that is applicable for you (it just avoids the Prev/next issue.)
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