Player jerking between slides depending on active features

Nov 26, 2018

Greetings,

I'd like to know if there's a way to resolve this particular issue: for my next project some slides will use the player's seekbar, and some will not. The problem is that the slide is slightly jerking between slides that use the seekbar and those that don't. Everytime the seekbar isn't used, the player re-centers the slide instead of simply hiding it and keeping the space of the same width as slides with seekbars.

Is there a way to tell SL3 to simply hide the seekbar and not reduce the space in between? This problem can also be seen for slides that use the Previous and Next buttons and those that don't.

8 Replies
JC Goyette

Hi Leslie,

Here is a JPEG showing the problem. This... is the best I can do. On the left is the slide without any feature, and on the right is the slide with Prev and Next buttons. The red rectangle highlights the height difference between slides. Basically, The player reconfigures it depending on what player features are checked. The left slide doesn't position itself to be as close to the Menu tab like the right slide. The software keeps recentering the slide instead of locking its position to prevent it from jerking between slides.

I mentioned the seekbar, but if your Notes tab isn't checked in one slide, but checked in the next, the player will enlarge itself to accomodate the tab's panel, but the slide will recenter itself instead of positioning itself where it would be if the panel was always present. Let,s say your Notes tab is supposed to pop left to the slide for one slide. The player will stretch to eventually accomodate the tab, but the slide will be place at the center, only shifting to the right when the tab will be displayed.

It feels like there's a missing option for the player to just lock the slide in place, as if to prepare itself todisplay all features and tabs, even if it would leave a blank space. Right now, the slide keeps jerking and shifting constantly because the player cannot keep up. Technically speaking all I want is the player to be displayed like the right slide, even if there's a blank grey area at the bottom, that's going to be filled with navigation buttons and a seekbar at some points.

Please note that it was also a problem back in SL2.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi JC,

Thanks for that explanation and image. I saw something similar in Storyline 3/360 where the slide is recentering within the player based on the items enabled in each slide. That's actually different than how Storyline 2 handled it, where we left space for items enabled in the player throughout the entire course regardless of the slide you were viewing. 

I've shared this example and another one with my team to review, so I'll be in touch with you as soon as I have any additional info! 

JC Goyette

Hi Ashley,

The only way I could work around was to recolor the navigation buttons to "blend them into the player" (same colors as the player), rendering them technically invisible. I simply check and uncheck them when needed afterward. While you can still click on the button, at least the buttons can be swapped for the seekbar without jerking the slide.

My concern is that the jerking cannot be prevented easily. Furthermore, the reason why I need the seekbar is because I'm using videos... and the only video controls are positioned below the video; there are no other options, such as controls that fade out like on YouTube. I know that the Flash output allowed that, but not the HTML5 version.

This brings me to another question: does Articulate offer more options for videos, or other features for SL? For instance, as I stated, you can only select "below video" for the controls, but the menu makes it look liek you can add more. Is it something that Articulate offers, or even the community offers?

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi JC,

I reported this to the team as a bug, so as soon as I have more info on a fix, I'll share here. I like your workaround though to at least prevent the jerking of the slide. 

The feature for Show Video Controls is a drop down to choose between None or Below the Video, so, unfortunately, there isn't another option to control where they are. The community may have ideas on how to make your own custom video controls, so I'll leave you in their hands.

Anyone with ideas to share on custom video controls to help JC? 

Katie Riggio

Hi, JC!

Remember when slides could shift up or down in a published course when player navigation features were enabled on some slides and disabled on others? That issue is now fixed in update 24 for Storyline 360; check out all the new fixes and features here!

Here’s how you can update Storyline 360 to see everything this release has to offer. Let us know what you think, and thanks for reporting this oddity!

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