I haven't been able to figure this one out and need some help.
In my current training module it is necessary for each section to have a seekbar but at times in the training the user is required to click on something for the training to progress.
To do this I have a layer appear with a button/click box that the user needs to click on, which hides the layer and allows the training to progress.
However if that layer is showing and the user clicks on the seekbar to go to a different part of the training the layer stays and I don't know how to make it hide itself.
Thanks for the suggestion and I thought it was gold for a minute there but I guess that is an option but it would make the seekbar flash on and off when the training jumped to the other slide an back. It would also mean you wouldn't be able to use the seekbar while on the interaction slide. I know that's not for a long period of time but I can see it as being viewed as looking glitchy.
It really is a shame that a group of slides can't share a timeline - If I can have one timeline for a slide with many layers in the fashion I have done here I don't see why the same can't be done across slides.
I can't send you the actual file due to security restricions but I can make something up.
In this quick project a number of rectangles appear and you are asked to click on various ones. When the instruction appears a red box appears around the correct rectangle. If you use the seekbar to navigate at this time the red box will stay even though it is not represented on the timeline for that part of the training.
I get why it is happening - the layer the red box is on was never told to 'hide' but I can't think of a good way to correct the problem.
For the layer that pauses the base timeline you could try enabling the seekbar for the layer. This way they can use the seekbar all they want and it will only affect that layer. When they click the thing they need to click, it returns to the base timeline context.
The other option is to use a dummy shape after the period of time to hide the layer. You can span this shape to fill any time space you like. When the time is "seeked to" it'll trigger the hide.
The main objective of this idea of having layers pause ad display the interaction for the learner is to make it so you can have a timeline for the duration of a training topic since Storyline is so annoyingly deficient in allowing timelines across slides.
I have disallowed seeking on the pause/interaction layer because that layer only goes for a second or two and is only there to pause the base layer until the learner does the interaction that will allow the training to continue. There is no actual content on the slide so allowing seeking wouldn't help.
I had thought of the dummy shape idea but because the person may seek to any part of the training, backwards or forwards, you would effectively need a dummy shape every second of the base layer which hid all possible layers. Sure it's possible but it would also take a lot of time. What we really need is the ability to make a trigger/setting that if the base layer is displayed (triggered to) that all layers are hidden. Similar to the option on layers where you can 'hide other layers'.
At the moment I just don't think this idea of placing interaction on layers so a section of training can all fit on one slide with one timeline is possible. Which is frustrating because not being able to span timelines over slides (when you can over layers) and not having a 'hide layers' option on the base layer (which exists for all other layers) are two of a handful of missing features where you wish the developers had gone just that little bit further and included.
I know Storyline had a very good Beta team and a long beta period so i am always suprised when i find these gaps in it.
7 Replies
Hi, James!
Rather than use a layer, can you move to another slide (one without the seekbar) and then go back to the original slide via the button?
Hi Gerry,
Thanks for the suggestion and I thought it was gold for a minute there but I guess that is an option but it would make the seekbar flash on and off when the training jumped to the other slide an back. It would also mean you wouldn't be able to use the seekbar while on the interaction slide. I know that's not for a long period of time but I can see it as being viewed as looking glitchy.
It really is a shame that a group of slides can't share a timeline - If I can have one timeline for a slide with many layers in the fashion I have done here I don't see why the same can't be done across slides.
James,
Can you post a sample slide that we could look at and problem solve?
Thanks,
Mike
I can't send you the actual file due to security restricions but I can make something up.
In this quick project a number of rectangles appear and you are asked to click on various ones. When the instruction appears a red box appears around the correct rectangle. If you use the seekbar to navigate at this time the red box will stay even though it is not represented on the timeline for that part of the training.
I get why it is happening - the layer the red box is on was never told to 'hide' but I can't think of a good way to correct the problem.
Thanks
For the layer that pauses the base timeline you could try enabling the seekbar for the layer. This way they can use the seekbar all they want and it will only affect that layer. When they click the thing they need to click, it returns to the base timeline context.
The other option is to use a dummy shape after the period of time to hide the layer. You can span this shape to fill any time space you like. When the time is "seeked to" it'll trigger the hide.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for your input.
The main objective of this idea of having layers pause ad display the interaction for the learner is to make it so you can have a timeline for the duration of a training topic since Storyline is so annoyingly deficient in allowing timelines across slides.
I have disallowed seeking on the pause/interaction layer because that layer only goes for a second or two and is only there to pause the base layer until the learner does the interaction that will allow the training to continue. There is no actual content on the slide so allowing seeking wouldn't help.
I had thought of the dummy shape idea but because the person may seek to any part of the training, backwards or forwards, you would effectively need a dummy shape every second of the base layer which hid all possible layers. Sure it's possible but it would also take a lot of time. What we really need is the ability to make a trigger/setting that if the base layer is displayed (triggered to) that all layers are hidden. Similar to the option on layers where you can 'hide other layers'.
At the moment I just don't think this idea of placing interaction on layers so a section of training can all fit on one slide with one timeline is possible. Which is frustrating because not being able to span timelines over slides (when you can over layers) and not having a 'hide layers' option on the base layer (which exists for all other layers) are two of a handful of missing features where you wish the developers had gone just that little bit further and included.
I know Storyline had a very good Beta team and a long beta period so i am always suprised when i find these gaps in it.
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