Locking interactions in Storyline

May 21, 2012

I have a course that I originally created with Studio and then recently moved it to Storyline. I have serveal interactions (timeline, circle graph, tabs) and I want to make sure the user cannot advance until they view all parts of the interaction. Where is that option?

I know it must be something simple, but I have looked and looked and I can't find it.

24 Replies
Jeanette Brooks

Hi Amy! Unfortunately, when you import an existing interaction from Engage, there's not really a turn-key way to lock the user onto that slide until they view everything. The imported Engage interaction is inserted as a Web object, which means it really plays independently of other stuff in your course, so there's not a way for it to communicate with (or restrict the navigation on) your Storyline player.

Here is an idea for you though. In Engage, you could set the interaction properties so that the Playback Mode is "Presentation--interaction advances by itself." Then, when you import the interaction into Storyline, use the timeline to set the duration of the slide equal to the duration of the interaction.

Then, to keep the user from advancing prematurely, you could either make your Storyline slide auto-advance and remove the Next button (you can do these things in the slide properties), or you could keep it as "advance by user" and keep the next button, but just adjust the trigger on the Next button like this.

I hope that helps!

Jeanette Brooks

You know what, yes -  I think you would find it pretty easy to built your timeline in Storyline, and the cool thing about doing it that way is, you would have complete control over the visual design of your interaction (rather than having to stick with the standard Engage look)... and you could also have complete control over whether the learners would be able to navigate past the interaction.

A timeline interaction essentially behaves a lot like a tab-style interaction, where the user clicks on an item on the base layer, and that reveals a separate layer of the slide. So it would be pretty fun and easy to create this! You could use Storyline's shape tools to draw a simple timeline on your base layer, and place a button along the timeline for each event. Then just add a trigger to each button to reveal a separate slide layer.

Also, if you want to restrict learners from moving on before they click each button, you could place a condition on the player's Next button, which would prevent learners from progressing till every event on your timeline has been visited. Here's a simple way to do that: https://player.vimeo.com/video/204929624

If you need more guidance on any of that, just let us know & we're happy to help!

Josh Uhlig

Amy,

In regard to your second post:

You can use the same trigger as Jeanette shows in her linked Screenr video.  You would likely need to create unique variables for each of the interactions within the slide to make sure all were true before moving on.  For example, you have 4 different buttons (or objects) that must be clicked before the learner can move on.  Each button (or object) has an associated variable that starts as false, but is triggered to change to true once the button is clicked.  So when you create the Next Button trigger, the condition is that all variables must be true instead of just the one as Jeanette shows.  Just be sure to use AND in the condition when listing all the variables.

You could also create a new layer with an alert message, and have it appear in the event the learner has not yet viewed all the interactions (i.e. any of the variables is still false).  I've attached an example.  Look at the triggers on the third slide.

Fabrizio Ruscelli

I saw your video https://player.vimeo.com/video/204931470

Very clear video! Congratulation ...but I have a question.

I used restricted option on slide and I removed the seekbar.

In this mode the user can't put to pause the slide. If the seekbak is visible the user can go fast at the end of the slide!
In Articluate 9 it's possible put to pause the slide and it's impossible to go at the end oo the slide. It's perfect.

Is it impossible in storyline to do the same?

Regards.

Fabrizio

Jeanette Brooks

Hi Fabrizio,

That's correct, if the seekbar is visible, the learner will be able to use it to fast-forward or rewind; there isn't a way to prevent them from doing that, if you want to show the seekbar.

If you just want to allow learners to be able to pause the timeline, you could use the method shown here: https://player.vimeo.com/video/145579182

Jeanette Brooks

Hi Fabrizio, you could certainly do that for any specific slide, but if you want the same functionality for all slides, it would be easier and quicker to instead add the pause button & the pause layer to the slide master layout(s) that you are using in your course. You can do that by going to View > Slide Master. 

Tammy Baca

I also started a project in Engage and then we purchased Storyline.  I am trying to set the engage slides to play in Storyline to require the user to review all the information within the slide before being able to advance.  I was able to set the triggers, however when the timeline runs out, the slide automatically advances instead of allowing the user to click the "next" button.

Did I miss a step somewhere?  I want the "Next" button to not allow them to advance until they have looked at all tabs etc on the slide - but I do want them to click the "Next" button to move forward - not for it to auto advance when the timeline runs out.

I'll look forward to any tips....Thanks so much!!

Tammy Baca

Thanks Josh and Jeanette.   I appreciate the quick responses as I'm up against the wall here.

But my project still does not play properly.  If all the trigger settings I posted above are ok, then I am totally stumped.  I'm behind on a deadline now and not sure how to proceed.  I need to be sure that they look at all the info before advancing and I'm out of ideas.

There are no other slide layers,   Below is a shot of all the settings for this slide.  Any other ideas??

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