Navigation with custom buttons SL 2
Jun 29, 2017
Hello everyone,
My client wants to use custom Prev/Next buttons and disable the player navigation. They also want to use individual slides versus slide layers, even for content that would normally be chunked into layers. They want to have these chunked content slides automatically advanced and only use the custom NEXT button when we're moving to new content. I have grey PREV/NEXT buttons on all the screens that have no triggers attached. When the learner reaches the end of a timeline where I want them to manually advance, the buttons turn gold. So far it's easy.
Here's where I'm getting stuck. The client wants the learner to be able to click backwards through the module as much as necessary using the PREV button. But to be consistent, the navigation buttons need to turn gold. For example, slides 1, 2, and 3 advance automatically (grey buttons) and slide 4 is a manual advance so when they reach the end of the timeline the buttons turn gold. If the learner wants to go back to slide 3, they simply hit the gold PREV button. But, then once they're on slide 3, they need a gold NEXT button to move forward again. But I already have a trigger that states the slide advances automatically.
As I see it, I have 2 issues:
1) I need grey buttons to become gold on automatically advanced slides ONLY IF the learner has already visited the slide and is viewing it a 2nd time.
2) I need to "turn off" the auto advance when a slide is being visited for the 2nd time.
I have no idea how to make this happen but I think it has something to do with states and conditions, neither of which I've ever been able to figure out.
Can anyone help? I am using Storyline 2.
Thanks,
Lynn
52 Replies
Hi Lynn
i thought I did that on the first auto advance slide so they could click next if variable >1 and it would only auto advance when timeline ends if variable =1
If it's still auto advancing change the slide properties to 'by user' and let the triggers drive the behaviour.
I just checked the file again and there was no condition on that trigger. I added it and it works perfectly!! Thanks. Lynn
I'll keep that in mind if I have trouble with subsequent slides. Thanks.
Sorry i must have dreamt I did it - lol - glad you worked it out and good luck with your project!
Couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for your help. Lynn
You should be partying for 4th July long weekend - stop working :-)
Went berry picking today and plan to go to an outdoor concert on the 4th. It will be a fun day.
Wendy,
Believe it or not I have one more glitch to deal with. The triggers are now working exactly as they need to. Yeah!! But I also need the triangles on the manually advanced slides to be gold and clickable immediately if the slide is revisited. So in addition to the first trigger of turning them to gold at the end of the timeline, I added a new one that says to change their state at the beginning of the timeline if the slide is greater than 1. Based on the logic we used on the auto advance slides, that should work....it doesn't. They're clickable but the color doesn't change. Any ideas??
Thanks,
Lynn
Hi Lynn
do you have a variable for those manual slides e.g. slide6_new and you have the 'adjust variable slide6_new trigger' add 1 when timeline starts on slide 6.
also check your trigger order.
Wendy,
I had to change the "add 1" from when the slide starts to when the slide ends so that the learner can't navigate before they see the slide. That's working fine. Then I have the "change state to gold when timeline ends" for the first view...that's good. Following the logic of the auto advance slides where the color turns gold only on a revisit, I added a "change state....if slide is >1.00. But the buttons are still grey upon revisiting.
Actually, though, I have a bigger problem. I am not able to replicate any of the triggers you put on the automatically advancing slides. I literally copied/pasted them from slide 1.2 (where they work perfectly) to slide 1.6. Of course I changed the variable slide number so it should work just like 1.2, except it doesn't. The buttons on slide 1.6 are immediately gold. Then on slide 1.5, which is a manually advanced slide, the buttons don't work at all even though the trigger says to "jump to next slide if slide = 1.00, which is what you had on slide 1.3. The bottom line is that I'm not able to replicate any of the triggers.
Since I've already spent way too much time on this, I sent a message to Articulate support but of course they're closed today and tomorrow for the holiday. I've sent a message to my client to let them know of my difficulties. What a pain in the butt!!!!
Thanks,
Lynn
Hi Lynn
upload the latest version of the file and I'll take a look for you
Wendy,
I now have multiple problems even though I literally took a picture of the triggers you set up and replicated them (at least I thought I did) on subsequent slides. I deleted all the variable slides (except the ones you did) and started fresh.
Slide 1.2 works perfectly.
Slide 1.3 works great except I need the buttons to be gold on revisit but they're not even after adding a trigger that matches the one on slide 1.2 that made that change occur.
Slide 1.4 I'm able to navigate before the end of the timeline with the grey buttons.
Slide 1.5 Again, can navigate before the end of the timeline with grey buttons but once they turn gold they aren't active.
Slide 1.6 This slide should work exactly like 1.2 as it's an automatically advanced slide but the buttons are gold and active immediately. And for some odd reason, everything is now disappearing off the screen at the end of the timeline even though the are butted right up against the end of the timeline.
Slide 1.7 Again, I'm able to navigate from the grey buttons. This was as far as I got as I'm clearly doing something wrong but have no idea what.
BTW. This is why I don't usually use triggers, states, and conditions. Even when I copy them exactly, they still don't work.
I've reached out to Articulate Storyline support but their closed for the holiday. I'm so frustrated I could just scream. Any help you can give me is greatly appreciated.
Lynn
All good - Walk away from it for a while and let me take a look.
Exactly what I did. We decided this morning to sell our house so I'm "thinning out" some of the closets to make them look bigger. Just what I needed....mindless activity.
Ok a few things I've found
Variables were set as default 1 instead of 0
On revisit: triggers were set to jump to next slide when variable = 1 instead of when variable >=1
Question: On the revisit should the audio replay so should they be reset to initial state or resume saved state?
I'm still working through it
OMG!! I say this all the time in my workshops but I guess everything is easy when you know how. I didn't realize that putting the one in when setting up the variable makes it a default.
On a revisit of the slide, it should set to initial state so the learner can look at the entire slide if he/she chooses.
Ok
these are the changes I have made to the first 7 slides only.
You will see I have text boxes on the slides with the variable reference in them - this is for testing only so I can see that the variable is triggering when it should be. You can remove these but it is a good idea to use them when testing the module.
Ok from what I can see, all the slides are working perfectly except slide 1.6 that has a gold next button on first visit.
What I'm confused about, though, is that in your text #4 you said you changed the variable +1 to variable >=1, but that's not what I see when I open the trigger wizard. It says "slide 5 > Greater than 1.00. Maybe this is why I can't duplicate it; I'm not understanding the code??
Hi Lynn
maybe I uploaded the wrong version. I have reviewed this one (tagged it WF2) and it's working how you have explained it. Sorry if that's not what you want.
Also be careful of your timeline ends - a couple had the timeline duration quite a few seconds past the end of the audio so it took time for the Prev/Next to change to gold.
There are two triggers where the variable is used in a condition
I thought I caught all of the extended timelines. The "Priority" slide I was having difficulty with had a correct timeline but then when I saw your corrected version it was extended. Who knows??
I just looked at the first 7 slides and they are doing EXACTLY what they need to do. You are amazing!! How did you learn to do this? The big challenge now is being able to replicate it on the remaining 45 slides. But that will be a problem for tomorrow when I have a fresh brain. Yes, I will work through the holiday but my husband will be gone. He sells beer at Wrigley Field and the Cubs have a day game. But we plan to meet at Millennium Park in the evening for a 4th of July free concert. I'll take a picnic dinner and a very large bottle of wine.
Thanks again for your help and enjoy your day.
Lynn
Hi Lynn
when you copy/paste triggers from one slide to another quite often if the copied from slide has a longer timeline than the pasted to slide, the timeline will be extended.
How did i learn to do this? By helping people in the forum. Also when i start a project that has custom navigation I create a 5 slide file and test it till it breaks or doesn't break - then I know the logic to be applied to the final project.
The first thing to do is to create the 45 number variables (one for each remaining slide) and make sure the default value is 0.
Without knowing the remaining content of your slides you have 6 recurring triggers for each slide and you just need to make sure the variables and conditions are mapped for each slide.
Another tip for the future - create the first Prev/Next buttons with triggers and then copy/paste them to each slide and the triggers would have come across and you just need to change the variable condition name. Alternatively sometimes having the Prev/Next on a master slide layout works as well.
Enjoy the concert tonight:-)
More handy tips I didn't know.
I have another project to do with this client starting later this week. This one will go much smoother because you've taught me so much. You really are terrific to take so much time. I'm going to give it a go and, hopefully, I can make everything work as well as you did.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Well, I'm up to slide #13 and everything is perfect!!
I took your suggestion and am copy/paste the buttons that are already triggered and just changing the slide numbers.
By jove, I think I've got it. Too bad it took 4 days!
Next time I'm Down Under or you're in the Windy City, drinks (lots of them) are on me!
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