Pause timeline

Hi.  I just came up with a solution.  Leave the seekbar unselected when formatting the player.  Create play and pause buttons.  Initial state of the play button is hidden; initial state of play button is normal.  Enter these triggers:

1) Play media when the timeline starts.

2) Pause media when pause button clicked.

3) Change state of pause button to hidden when pause button clicked.

4) Change state of play button to normal when pause button clicked.

5) Play media when play button clicked.

6) Change state of play button to hidden when play button clicked.

7) Change state of pause button to normal when play button clicked.

This is working for me - hope it does for you, too!

Hi Elaine,

Thanks.

This works for pausing media, but it doesn't pause the timeline - which was exactly my issues. So if the timeline is not paused, then other items that are cued for a specific moment in time, still do happen. And then when you resume the media... well, it all becomes a mess.

Roy

Hi.  I realized that shortly after posting.  Works only if the only variable is the media - doesn't work for animations.  Boy, did I get too excited and jump the gun!  I just read Ashley's post and am going to give that a try.

Hi Roy, I don't know if this would work in your case, but you can use a layer to pause/continue the baselayer's timeline. See attached a quick example with a simple Pause/Continue button that toggles a variable. Based on the variable value, I show/hide a layer which is set to pause the baselayer timeline.

Hi.  Ashley Terwiggle's method works like a charm!   Here are the steps she outlined:

1.      Add a new layer toyour slide.

2.      Click the Properties button(gear icon) for the new layer, and change the following properties:

              o   Change Allow seeking to No.

              o   Mark the box to Pause timeline of base layer.

3.      Then add a Show layer trigger onthe base layer of the slide. (You may need to add a button oranother object to the slide to

           execute the trigger.)

4.      And add a Hide layer triggeron the layer itself. (Again, you may need to add a button or another object tothe layer to execute the

           trigger.)

Thank you, Ashley!!

Thank you all, and Michael, thanks for sending me the file, with a cute animation.

Indeed, adding an extra layer can pause the timeline of the base layer.

But now, for all those users who want to pause, they may want to restart the slide and hear things again. (Also without the seekbar enabled.)

Michael, I have made a button for that as well, in your file. It works - but not together with your button. Then either I can't click it or I suddenly loose the sound (that I added, counting up to 19 sec.).

Can you take a look?

(With also a forward button included this should make a wonderful set of three customizable buttons for anyone who is not to keen of the seekbar.)

Thanks a lot.

I've learned something today - the ability to toggle a variable! Thanks Michael! 

Hi Roy, I could only take a quick look. I added one trigger to reset the variable when the slide is looped and tugged in the audio file a tiny bit on the timeline, so it doesn't start right at 0sec. That seems to work with your button now. See attached file.

Happy to help Elaine!  

Thanks, Michael, a wonderful work-around!

But hey.. try copying this to other slides and other projects... Many manual adjustments to be made, with the risk of making errors.

So my feature request would be to add 'pause timeline' and 'start timeline again' to the actions in the trigger wizzard. (Can hardly believe it is not there already.)

I have to agree with Roy on adding a pause timeline action.  We use Storyline to create some instructor led courses, where we want the slide to hold until the instructor chooses the next button.  seems like it would be as simple as removing the "Jump to next slide when timeline ends" trigger but it still advances.  why is this?  I'm having to stretch the timeline out to 300 for each slide just to be sure the instructor has time for additional discussion.  On that note, is there a quicker way to stretch the timeline out than pulling it out manually on every slide?  (the content is already created, so I can not do a duplicate slide function here.) 

Hi Nicole,

Stretching or adding timeline is relatively easy. 

• Add a shape to your stage or off of the stage. (You could also use an object that's already on your stage)
• Right click the shape selection in the timeline.
• Select Timing from the context menu.
• Type a duration into the Duration box for the length of time you want your slide to be.

To shorten a timeline that's much longer than it needs to be, hit the left arrow key while dragging the timeline end handle to the left. As long as you don't have objects with set durations, excess time will be removed.

Steve, That is WAY faster!!  Thank you

Nicole, is it possible that your slides are set to advance automatically? If that's the case, you can select all slides in StoryView and select 'By user' in the slide properties panel (Lower right). With that slides will not auto-advance, but require the user to click the Next button.

Ooh!! Even better!! Thanks Michael - that was exactly it!!

Thought I would put my 2 cents in.

I usually add this functionality at the master slide level. I find it easier to keep there so that at the slide level the trigger pane is not overloaded. And you only have to input the commands once instead of on every slide.