Link button to .pdf added as a Resource

Jun 21, 2012

I have added a .pdf to my course by adding to the Resources area. I would like to add a button to the slide referencing the pdf that when clicked will show the learner the pdf. I know this can be done in Presenter, does anyone know how to do this in Storyline? Can these attachments (if linked by button) be viewed on iPad?

And feedback or direction is appreciated, 

Toni

44 Replies
Toni Lampros

Leslie, 

This post was right after the initial Storyline release - now all you have to do is add the .pdf to your resources (tab in the player editor) and then on the slide add a trigger to your button:

Add trigger

Select "Jump to URL/File

Select "Load File" (it is the button with the three dots)

Navigate to the file you would like to upload

When you are looking at the "Location" in the Trigger panel it is going to show the path of where the file was saved to your computer, but when you publish your file and post the course the the link the button will load the .pdf (which is now saved to the story_content/external_files folder of your published course files).

I am not sure how much experience you have with adding triggers and such or in what environment you are hosting the course so if need need more guidance let me know.

Michelle Mace

I've following the instructions above posted by Toni and it's not working for me at all.  Once I publish, the button will show a click response, but the file doesn't open.  What's more, I'm not getting any error message, such as "file not found."  Has anyone found this to not work?  I'm really anxious for a solution.

Thanks!

Jesse B

Stefanie Ford said:

I can add the PDF in resources just fine, but I CANNOT get the button/trigger to work... I am not sure what I am doing incorrectly.  Can someone please explain the process again?

Are you linking your PDF from a network server location or an external drive?

I have been experiencing trouble with this as well, but when I link the PDFs from my local disk (C) then Storyline will not only include the PDFs in the published files, but it will make the links correct. This does not seem to work, however if you link your PDF files to a network folder.

Stefanie Ford

Jesse Burroughs said:

Stefanie Ford said:

I can add the PDF in resources just fine, but I CANNOT get the button/trigger to work... I am not sure what I am doing incorrectly.  Can someone please explain the process again?

Are you linking your PDF from a network server location or an external drive?

I have been experiencing trouble with this as well, but when I link the PDFs from my local disk (C) then Storyline will not only include the PDFs in the published files, but it will make the links correct. This does not seem to work, however if you link your PDF files to a network folder.


I am linking from my C: drive... I am able to click the button, but nothing appears whatsoever.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Stefanie,

How are you testing the link? You'll want to test your published content within it's intended environment to ensure you don't encounter any security restrictions. You'll also want to check the name of the PDF file - are there any spaces, underscores, etc., in the file name? Try removing any of those extra characters, if possible, and see if that helps. 

If you are testing it as described above, are you able to share the PDF file with us and I'll try inserting it into my own Storyline project? 

Stefanie Ford

Thanks for all of the feedback! I am easily able to put the PDF in the resources.  That isn't a problem.  What I also want to do is put a button in the slide, and when the user clicks the button, I want the PDF to be accessed.  When I publish the content (because it cannot be accessed by previewing), I can "click" the button, but the PDF does not show up.  I can click the button all day long and nothing happens

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Stefanie,

I'm not able to recreate this with my own files, so if you're able to share a bit more about how your testing your published output (hopefully in it's intended environment) that'll help us figure out what is happening. It may also help if you can share your .story file here with us- and if you'd prefer to share privately you can send it to our Support team. 

Jesse B

Stefanie,

Gotcha... So, I don't think you need to use the resources at all. If you want to make a button open up a PDF document, follow these steps:

1. create the button

2. add a trigger to the button

3. Action: Jump to URL/File

4. use the "..." option next to "File:" to choose the PDF from your local disk

5. When: User clicks

6. Object: (whatever your button is called)

7. Publish your project and open it up in a web browser (it will not link when your just preview the project)

Let me know if this helps!

-Jesse

Cherie Hegarty

Hi guys,

I am about to use Storyline to roll out a induction for our company but I am having a access issue to pdf's in Mozilla Firefox.  This is the error I get:

This XML file does not appear to have any style information associated with it. The document tree is shown below.
      BlobNotFoundThe specified blob does not exist.
RequestId:67ea36d2-9656-4c37-abfc-a01043b1cdf3
Time:2013-11-02T03:48:22.8875113Z

I have stored them all in resources and linked as shown above.  I am playing the file from the web too (our LMS).

I would appreciate any assistance as I need to roll this out next week (EEEEKK!)

Cherie Hegarty

Just checked trying to open the PDF's using IE 7 and it doesn't load them either :(

This is the page

I have linked the markers to the PDF documents, that are stored in resources using the following as an example:

story_content/external_files/IT Conditions of Use.pdf 

I initially thought it could be because it is not labeled as IT_Conditions_of_Use.pdf

But other documents referenced do have the _ in the spaces and it is not working for them either.

This is a pretty big issue for me, if anyone can help it would be most appreciated

Tricia Pupel

I am having the same problem!  I have followed the insert trigger, jump to url/file, selected file from my computer and assigned it to my icon (grouped object).   When published, clicking on the icon that I added the trigger to does not work, but if I add the file to resources, the link works.  

I also tried jump to url/file and putting in story_content/external_files/myfile.pdf as well -- I think this was a work around in an earlier version of articulate.  I have this issue in 6 elearnings I'm trying to publish and the client does not want to use the resources link in player.

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Tricia,

Sounds like you've tried both of those suggestions so far with no luck. Can you confirm one thing, please?

Are you viewing the published output locally, or after uploading it to a web server or LMS?

If you're viewing your published files locally, this may be the problem. If you view a published Storyline presentation on your local hard drive or send it to someone else to view on their local hard drive, you'll encounter security restrictions from the computer, web browser, Flash Player, and network that'll cause various features of your content to fail.

To properly test your published content and share it with others, upload it to the environment for which it was published. Please review the article below for more information:

Publishing and Sharing Articulate Storyline Content

If you do not have access to a web server or LMS for testing, you could try using SCORM Cloud.

Another option would be to use our Tempshare server. Just keep in mind that this server is only available for testing content - it is not officially supported by Articulate and all content will be removed automatically after 10 days.

You're always welcome to try out Articulate Online, as well - it's available for a free 30 day trial.

It may also help to try un-grouping that icon, just for testing. 

Let us know if you see any improvement.

Thanks!

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