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
Lynn Hauser

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

 

 

Lynn Hauser

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

 

Lynn Hauser

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

Wendy Farmer

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

Wendy Farmer

Ok

these are the changes I have made to the first 7 slides only.

  1. Duplicated the normal state for the previous and next triangles to create a disabled state - and set the initial state to disabled so the user can't click them (first visit only)
  2. Updated variables 5, 6 and 7 to default 0 not 1.
  3. Changed the triggers so that the variable gets +1 added on timeline start
  4. Changed the trigger condition on the Prev/Next triangles from variable = 1 to variable >=1
  5. Changed the slide properties on revisit to 'initial state'

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.

Lynn Hauser

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??

 

Wendy Farmer

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. 

Lynn Hauser

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

 

Wendy Farmer
Lynn Hauser

version it was extended. 

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.

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:-)

Lynn Hauser

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.

Lynn Hauser

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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