In my e-learning I ask the user to enter their name. You're supposed to see their name reappear during the e-learning. For some reason it only shows the users name and not the text around it. See the attached images. I'm trying to avoid a separate text entry box so that the layout still works nicely with different name lengths. The screenshot called knipsel is not in preview mode.
Your variable in %% doesn't seem to be recognised by SL as variable, because it doesn't have the yellow surrounding. Maybe try with a shorter name for variable, like 'name'? Also, try upgrading project text boxes (ctrl+enter and textbox settings).
PS - Try not to mangle with built-in states. State 'selected' is, as name says, for distinguishing normal object from selected object. You probably wanted to have disabled and normal state pair :)
Mateusz is right about the variable. Did you insert it using Insert -> References? If not, it won't be recognized.
Don't upgrade text boxes unless you know what that does, and you're sure you want that.
If you could attach at least those two slides, somebody could take a look at it.
That's 100% not true. Why would you write that? I'm using hundreds of variables and never used "insert > references". When you write variable name in a textbox and wrap it in %% it should go in nice yellow box to let you know that everything is ok. Here's something wrong.
> Don't upgrade text boxes unless you know what that does, and you're sure you want that.
These are no magic or something, they are perfectly fine. If you are starting a new project that should be a frist thing to do, as Articulate will eventually fully migrate into modern text boxes and therefore this advice will cause you problems in future, when you are forced to upgrade text boxes.
Slides would be useful for diagnosing the problem, as always.
My 2 cents on the Modern text boxes. Articulate in a somewhat older update introduced them as default and immediately got dozens of responses and bugreports of users having problems with them. So fine they werenot at that moment. Quite quickly they put out a new update reversing the default back to the old textboxes. Whether the textboxes work flawless at the moment i am not sure about, but as history confirms it is not certain they will become the new format for text as users reported a lot of issues with them. Quite a lot companies i know do not update their Storyline versions the moment Articulate updates them. Too often things have bugs in them still. So they wait a few updates...do some tests with older projects whether all works as before. If so, they update.
From your screenshots your variable name and reference in the textbox seem fine. It might have to do with Dutch-English issue, not that clear without testing the project. Allthough it should work like you do...just typing the varname with %% around it, it might be good to test whether referencing it from the menu like Walt suggest.
Aangezien ik ook NL ben, ga ik eens testen met die variabele ;-)
So i quickly remade your project. And in my sample the variable shows as 'yellow textfield'. I didnot use references, just typed %Deelnemernaam% and that worked properly.
However when doing so i did notice a weird trigger in your screenshots.
On the 'Vraag 4' page you do have a trigger on 'Text Entry 1' that sets 'Deelnemernaam' equal to the typed value. I guess you duplicated a page and reworked it...thus keeping that trigger in there. This one might cause the issues. Gonna test that too now.
So apparently what i mentioned above was the case. I also duplicated the first page and changed the input field on the second one so it looked like a normal textfield ( whereas it in fact is a input field ) and thus still has the trigger.
When running it like this, your referenced variable in the input field will not work. In fact this is a bug. I do think it should use referenced variables in input fields just like in normal textfields.
Disabling the trigger on the inputfield doesnot help...it still doesnot show the variable. Here you can see it happen... https://360.articulate.com/review/content/d5a96b82-dcf5-4ff7-beca-ee6e4a805dbd/review The first 'first slide is the input slide. The second slide 'first slide' is the duplicate where i changed the appearance of the inputfield and put the text including the variable in it. Here it shows this ain't working. If you click next you go to the last slide where its a normal textfield and works as intended.
So what you need to do...remove that input field from your 'Vraag4' and add a normal textfield and all will work.
@Articulate : i do think this is a bug and should be fixed. In Inputfields referenced variables should work!
8 Replies
Your variable in %% doesn't seem to be recognised by SL as variable, because it doesn't have the yellow surrounding. Maybe try with a shorter name for variable, like 'name'? Also, try upgrading project text boxes (ctrl+enter and textbox settings).
PS - Try not to mangle with built-in states. State 'selected' is, as name says, for distinguishing normal object from selected object. You probably wanted to have disabled and normal state pair :)
Mateusz is right about the variable. Did you insert it using Insert -> References? If not, it won't be recognized.
Don't upgrade text boxes unless you know what that does, and you're sure you want that.
If you could attach at least those two slides, somebody could take a look at it.
That's 100% not true. Why would you write that? I'm using hundreds of variables and never used "insert > references". When you write variable name in a textbox and wrap it in %% it should go in nice yellow box to let you know that everything is ok. Here's something wrong.
> Don't upgrade text boxes unless you know what that does, and you're sure you want that.
These are no magic or something, they are perfectly fine. If you are starting a new project that should be a frist thing to do, as Articulate will eventually fully migrate into modern text boxes and therefore this advice will cause you problems in future, when you are forced to upgrade text boxes.
Slides would be useful for diagnosing the problem, as always.
My 2 cents on the Modern text boxes. Articulate in a somewhat older update introduced them as default and immediately got dozens of responses and bugreports of users having problems with them. So fine they werenot at that moment. Quite quickly they put out a new update reversing the default back to the old textboxes. Whether the textboxes work flawless at the moment i am not sure about, but as history confirms it is not certain they will become the new format for text as users reported a lot of issues with them. Quite a lot companies i know do not update their Storyline versions the moment Articulate updates them. Too often things have bugs in them still. So they wait a few updates...do some tests with older projects whether all works as before. If so, they update.
Hi Stephanie,
From your screenshots your variable name and reference in the textbox seem fine. It might have to do with Dutch-English issue, not that clear without testing the project. Allthough it should work like you do...just typing the varname with %% around it, it might be good to test whether referencing it from the menu like Walt suggest.
Aangezien ik ook NL ben, ga ik eens testen met die variabele ;-)
So i quickly remade your project. And in my sample the variable shows as 'yellow textfield'. I didnot use references, just typed %Deelnemernaam% and that worked properly.
However when doing so i did notice a weird trigger in your screenshots.
On the 'Vraag 4' page you do have a trigger on 'Text Entry 1' that sets 'Deelnemernaam' equal to the typed value. I guess you duplicated a page and reworked it...thus keeping that trigger in there. This one might cause the issues. Gonna test that too now.
As you can see here... my version works flawless. Do read the next entry as i added a slide in it...
The 3rd slide shows the proper working solution.
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/d5a96b82-dcf5-4ff7-beca-ee6e4a805dbd/review
So apparently what i mentioned above was the case. I also duplicated the first page and changed the input field on the second one so it looked like a normal textfield ( whereas it in fact is a input field ) and thus still has the trigger.
When running it like this, your referenced variable in the input field will not work. In fact this is a bug. I do think it should use referenced variables in input fields just like in normal textfields.
Disabling the trigger on the inputfield doesnot help...it still doesnot show the variable.
Here you can see it happen...
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/d5a96b82-dcf5-4ff7-beca-ee6e4a805dbd/review
The first 'first slide is the input slide. The second slide 'first slide' is the duplicate where i changed the appearance of the inputfield and put the text including the variable in it. Here it shows this ain't working. If you click next you go to the last slide where its a normal textfield and works as intended.
So what you need to do...remove that input field from your 'Vraag4' and add a normal textfield and all will work.
@Articulate : i do think this is a bug and should be fixed. In Inputfields referenced variables should work!
Thanks guys! @Math thank you so much, it works! Such a simple solution in the end, i agree it must be a bug. So happy this forum is available. Cheers!