Hi all, it appears that Storyline 360 (v. 3.10) currently does not have a hot key for toggling captions on and off. (If it does, please let me know what it is.) So, I've been trying to program triggers to do this with a press of the space bar--one to turn them on if they're currently off, and another to turn them off if they're currently on. Alas, they're not working; I'm stumped. Thoughts?
Hi Michael (et al.), I've discovered that the space bar is actually pre-programmed in Storyline to behave like the Enter key (which explains the vexing behavior I was seeing of toggling captions AND advancing the slide!). I have changed the key in the trigger to the C key, and now the trigger/key isn't working at all. Thoughts?
Hi Crystal, I tried this and it's still not working. I've also looked for conflicting triggers on the master pages, and nothing. Is there some other place that might have hidden triggers or states that might conflict with this? It's working fine in one of our other courses created by someone else, so I'm stumped.
Hi Crystal, an update: Actually, I went into that course where I thought it was working, and sometimes it works and other times not. The C key toggle works only on the very first page with audio. It does not work on the pages with audio after that. Also, if you revisit that first page with audio, it won't work again. I thought it might have something to do with states on the slide properties, but it works the same whether I select Reset to Initial, Resume Saved, or Automatically. Any other ideas? If I have this trigger set up correctly (as Michael posted above, except with the C key) and there are not other hidden triggers or states that might be interfering, might this be a bug?
Thanks, Bob. Unfortunately, your single-slide test is not enough to show that your caption toggle works for the entire course (please read my last post, which specifies that the problem occurs when there are multiple pages with audio).
Please try this to replicate the problem in your little test course: Go into your CC_Toggle story and duplicate your slide several times. Then for each of the following scenarios, preview the entire project. Be sure you exit out of the preview and rebuild the preview for each scenario to ensure you're testing with a "clean slate" and the course isn't picking up on some change in state from one scenario to the next.
Scenario 1: In preview, on the first slide, press C to turn on the captions. Press Next to go to the next slide. Press C to try to turn off the captions. **They do not turn off.**
Scenario 2: In preview, DO NOTHING to turn on captions on the first slide. Click Next and go to the second slide, and then press the C key. The captions do not display.
Scenario 3: In preview, on the first slide, click the captions button in the playback bar. Click Next and go to the second slide, and then press the C key. Nothing happens.
Scenario 4-X: Do any of the above or any other combination of actions, and then navigate back to the first slide and press the C key, and you should see that nothing happens.
It appears that the only way to get the C key to work is to click the captions button on the playback bar FIRST on that slide, and then the C key will work *on that slide.* After the first page with audio, the C key does not work without clicking the captions button on the playback, which of course defeats the purpose of having a toggle key for captions. We cannot assume that a learner is going to turn on captions at the very beginning of the course. Someone may decide to turn on or off captions at any point. I believe that this is a bug, and I hope someone from staff (Crystal?) will follow these steps to replicate the problem at Articulate and verify if this is a bug. Seeing that your course file is brand new (clean), Bob, I don't see now how the issue can be with some hidden state or trigger in my own courses.
This is an old bug where triggers based on pressing a key only work when the slide has focus, if you click next (the slide loses focus) and then click into the slide on the second slide the toggle will work. If not the slide does not have focus and key presses dont work.
Hi Phil. Thank you so much for this information! This makes sense; when I click the slide again, the C key works. (The same thing problem occurs with having right/left arrow keys programmed to navigate to next/previous slides; once you start clicking the Next/Previous buttons in the playback bar, the arrow keys no longer work.) I suppose this is because the hotkey triggers are done at the slide level, not the player level. An old bug... seems like this could be fixed by now. So, this is probably a question with an obvious "no" answer (or SL would have been updated to make sure these triggers are done this way), but is there no way to program hotkeys at the player level instead? (e.g. Pressing C toggles the caption button on the playback bar, pressing right arrow key activates the Next button in the playback, left arrow activates the Previous button.)
I found the bug when i built my Ninja game in Storyline 2, I had to add a button on screen for the user to press each time so the slide had focus and the trigger would work. I dont think there is any other answer.
I think this might have higher priority for a fix now because of accessibility.
OK. Yes, this is my thought exactly, regarding accessibility. It makes using the keyboard to navigate potentially buggy. Maybe not a huge problem for a learner who never uses a mouse, but a potential issue for someone who might use the mouse sometimes and the keyboard at other times. Thank you SO much for this explanation. At least I don't have to keep pulling my hair out trying to figure out what is wrong and can just move on. We on my team will have to think of a workaround; maybe we include triggers right at the beginning of the course that asks learners to select (e.g. via a check box or button with variables) if they will have to use a keyboard and/or need captions turned on, and then show them instructions for using the keyboard and/or turn on captions for them (respectively). Many thanks again!
13 Replies
You should only need ONE trigger like this:
That works! Thank you so much!
Hi Michael (et al.), I've discovered that the space bar is actually pre-programmed in Storyline to behave like the Enter key (which explains the vexing behavior I was seeing of toggling captions AND advancing the slide!). I have changed the key in the trigger to the C key, and now the trigger/key isn't working at all. Thoughts?
Hi Lisa! I was able to successfully use the C key in the keypress trigger. Can you try deleting the original trigger and rebuilding it?
Hi Crystal, I tried this and it's still not working. I've also looked for conflicting triggers on the master pages, and nothing. Is there some other place that might have hidden triggers or states that might conflict with this? It's working fine in one of our other courses created by someone else, so I'm stumped.
Hi Crystal, an update: Actually, I went into that course where I thought it was working, and sometimes it works and other times not. The C key toggle works only on the very first page with audio. It does not work on the pages with audio after that. Also, if you revisit that first page with audio, it won't work again. I thought it might have something to do with states on the slide properties, but it works the same whether I select Reset to Initial, Resume Saved, or Automatically. Any other ideas? If I have this trigger set up correctly (as Michael posted above, except with the C key) and there are not other hidden triggers or states that might be interfering, might this be a bug?
Works for me. Maybe post your file or even a single slide Lisa.
Thanks, Bob. Unfortunately, your single-slide test is not enough to show that your caption toggle works for the entire course (please read my last post, which specifies that the problem occurs when there are multiple pages with audio).
Please try this to replicate the problem in your little test course: Go into your CC_Toggle story and duplicate your slide several times. Then for each of the following scenarios, preview the entire project. Be sure you exit out of the preview and rebuild the preview for each scenario to ensure you're testing with a "clean slate" and the course isn't picking up on some change in state from one scenario to the next.
Scenario 1: In preview, on the first slide, press C to turn on the captions. Press Next to go to the next slide. Press C to try to turn off the captions. **They do not turn off.**
Scenario 2: In preview, DO NOTHING to turn on captions on the first slide. Click Next and go to the second slide, and then press the C key. The captions do not display.
Scenario 3: In preview, on the first slide, click the captions button in the playback bar. Click Next and go to the second slide, and then press the C key. Nothing happens.
Scenario 4-X: Do any of the above or any other combination of actions, and then navigate back to the first slide and press the C key, and you should see that nothing happens.
It appears that the only way to get the C key to work is to click the captions button on the playback bar FIRST on that slide, and then the C key will work *on that slide.* After the first page with audio, the C key does not work without clicking the captions button on the playback, which of course defeats the purpose of having a toggle key for captions. We cannot assume that a learner is going to turn on captions at the very beginning of the course. Someone may decide to turn on or off captions at any point. I believe that this is a bug, and I hope someone from staff (Crystal?) will follow these steps to replicate the problem at Articulate and verify if this is a bug. Seeing that your course file is brand new (clean), Bob, I don't see now how the issue can be with some hidden state or trigger in my own courses.
This is an old bug where triggers based on pressing a key only work when the slide has focus, if you click next (the slide loses focus) and then click into the slide on the second slide the toggle will work. If not the slide does not have focus and key presses dont work.
Clicking the player anywhere will also fix it.
Hi Phil. Thank you so much for this information! This makes sense; when I click the slide again, the C key works. (The same thing problem occurs with having right/left arrow keys programmed to navigate to next/previous slides; once you start clicking the Next/Previous buttons in the playback bar, the arrow keys no longer work.) I suppose this is because the hotkey triggers are done at the slide level, not the player level. An old bug... seems like this could be fixed by now. So, this is probably a question with an obvious "no" answer (or SL would have been updated to make sure these triggers are done this way), but is there no way to program hotkeys at the player level instead? (e.g. Pressing C toggles the caption button on the playback bar, pressing right arrow key activates the Next button in the playback, left arrow activates the Previous button.)
I found the bug when i built my Ninja game in Storyline 2, I had to add a button on screen for the user to press each time so the slide had focus and the trigger would work. I dont think there is any other answer.
I think this might have higher priority for a fix now because of accessibility.
OK. Yes, this is my thought exactly, regarding accessibility. It makes using the keyboard to navigate potentially buggy. Maybe not a huge problem for a learner who never uses a mouse, but a potential issue for someone who might use the mouse sometimes and the keyboard at other times. Thank you SO much for this explanation. At least I don't have to keep pulling my hair out trying to figure out what is wrong and can just move on. We on my team will have to think of a workaround; maybe we include triggers right at the beginning of the course that asks learners to select (e.g. via a check box or button with variables) if they will have to use a keyboard and/or need captions turned on, and then show them instructions for using the keyboard and/or turn on captions for them (respectively). Many thanks again!
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