I have a text box with several hyperlinks that trigger showing of layers on the slide (for this layout, using buttons isn't really an option). When you rollover one of the hyperlinks I see a nice hover-over effect. But after clicking, the hyperlink doesn't change color (like an html link would). On a page with several links, it sure would be nice to have this feature.
There may well be a much simpler/smarter way to achieve this, but I haven't yet found an official way to change the state of a hyperlink. However, in the attached example, I have created a state change of the text in the text box where only the hyperlink component changes (text colour change from blue to dark grey) when the hyperlink is clicked.
I deliberately haven't used the built-in Visited state as that appears to prevent the hyperlink from activating. What I have done instead is to create a new state for the text box (called "Clicked") which changes when the timeline starts for Layer 1. That way the hyperlink jumps the user to Layer 1 and then the state change is activated. The other advantage of this is that if you have a trigger to change the state of the text box before the user jumps to Layer 1, the entire text box becomes selectable and not just the hyperlink. This would enable the user to select anywhere in the text box, change the state of the text and disable the hyperlink without being able to visit the next layer.
Once the user returns to the base layer by clicking the Close Layer 1 button, the state change can be seen and they will find that the hyperlink is no longer active. If you want the hyperlink to be active whenever the slide is visited, all you need to do is change the Slide Properties to "Reset to Initial State When Revisiting".
Hope this gives you something to work with. If you have any queries, just get back to me here.
If you have several links within the same text box on your base layer, you will probably have to use a series of text boxes containing the hyperlink text, overlaid on you main text.
The attached version shows the same result as in my original post, but with the hyperlink in its own text box, carefully blended into the original text. You can see what I have done by clicking on the hyperlink text box and deleting it.
Thanks, but when the course has 50-60 of these, it can become a nightmare to update, especially by clients who want the ability to edit the content after we deliver it and have a very limited skill set with SL360. Not to mention the 508 problems this introduces. The hyperlink text wouldn't read, so the sentence read to the screen reader would be missing words. SL360 provides a rollover/hover state natively, there should also be a visited state.
Apologies for the late notice, but I wanted to jump in here to let you know in the addition of text styles to Storyline 360 Update 47, there's now the ability to change the color of visited hyperlinks in a text box!
If you haven't already updated to the latest version, launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button for each application. Details here.
Hi Ren, I see that you have posted about this update on a couple threads about changing the color of visited links using text styles. Is there somewhere I can find a tutorial on how to do this? I am new to SL and would like to be able to change this but I don't see where I would do that. Thanks in advance!
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Hi Bill,
There may well be a much simpler/smarter way to achieve this, but I haven't yet found an official way to change the state of a hyperlink. However, in the attached example, I have created a state change of the text in the text box where only the hyperlink component changes (text colour change from blue to dark grey) when the hyperlink is clicked.
I deliberately haven't used the built-in Visited state as that appears to prevent the hyperlink from activating. What I have done instead is to create a new state for the text box (called "Clicked") which changes when the timeline starts for Layer 1. That way the hyperlink jumps the user to Layer 1 and then the state change is activated. The other advantage of this is that if you have a trigger to change the state of the text box before the user jumps to Layer 1, the entire text box becomes selectable and not just the hyperlink. This would enable the user to select anywhere in the text box, change the state of the text and disable the hyperlink without being able to visit the next layer.
Once the user returns to the base layer by clicking the Close Layer 1 button, the state change can be seen and they will find that the hyperlink is no longer active. If you want the hyperlink to be active whenever the slide is visited, all you need to do is change the Slide Properties to "Reset to Initial State When Revisiting".
Hope this gives you something to work with. If you have any queries, just get back to me here.
Hi Bill,
One further addition to my last post.
If you have several links within the same text box on your base layer, you will probably have to use a series of text boxes containing the hyperlink text, overlaid on you main text.
The attached version shows the same result as in my original post, but with the hyperlink in its own text box, carefully blended into the original text. You can see what I have done by clicking on the hyperlink text box and deleting it.
Thanks, but when the course has 50-60 of these, it can become a nightmare to update, especially by clients who want the ability to edit the content after we deliver it and have a very limited skill set with SL360. Not to mention the 508 problems this introduces. The hyperlink text wouldn't read, so the sentence read to the screen reader would be missing words. SL360 provides a rollover/hover state natively, there should also be a visited state.
Hi Bill,
Thanks for reaching out and sharing the additional insight and what you expect to see with a visited hyperlink.
I've added your comments to our report for this feature request and will pop back here when there's any progress to share!
Hi Bill,
Apologies for the late notice, but I wanted to jump in here to let you know in the addition of text styles to Storyline 360 Update 47, there's now the ability to change the color of visited hyperlinks in a text box!
If you haven't already updated to the latest version, launch the Articulate 360 desktop app on your computer and click the Update button for each application. Details here.
Nice! Thank you.
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Hi Ren, I see that you have posted about this update on a couple threads about changing the color of visited links using text styles. Is there somewhere I can find a tutorial on how to do this? I am new to SL and would like to be able to change this but I don't see where I would do that. Thanks in advance!
Never mind, Ren, I found it! For anyone else who is looking for how to do this, I found it here.