Progress Bar on Slide Master Not Visible

Oct 06, 2022

My progress bar on my slide master quickly flashes on a few slides in my first scene and isn't visible consistently throughout my project. I can see the progress bar when I go to certain scenes and pull down backgrounds. So I arranged the progress bar to the front, but still cannot see it on all slides. My first scene is the only one that is close to being finished, but I still use the other scenes for testing.

3 Replies
Diarmaid Collins

You have to consider the Master Slides as kind of a 'foundation' for all other layers.

Kinda like a sandwich really. Maybe an open-top sandwich, but with the possibility of near-infinite layers of tasty goodness on top of a well-prepared and sturdy foundational base.

It's kind of important to realise that if you want stuff to be visible on every slide you will have to factor in that content on other Master Slide Layouts (the slides indented underneath the main master slide) AND on actual slides themselves can cover over and obscure the important stuff on your Master Slide.

So that is what is happening here. You have your progress bar at the top of your master slide and every subsequent slide in your build has an image that covers it.

There are a few ways of overcoming this.

The easiest way is to clear a region of your slide to cater for the progress bar. Generally, this is the bottom area, so if you move your bar to the bottom and then remember to reduce or crop ALL your images in the slides by 20 pixels (the height of your particular progress bar - a smaller height eats less valuable screen real estate) you should be able to view your bar on every slide.

A second option would be to utilise the very handy fact that layers, uh... layer... ON TOP of the base layer so you can use this to move your progress bar to a new layer ON THE master Slide and have a trigger that says "Open Layer "Progress_BAR" when the timeline starts on this slide" as a trigger on your master slide, so that on any slide within your module, the base layer will load, see that master slide variable and kick in, therefore loading that layer on top of your current slide. So that way, the progress bar will always overlay on top of your base layer content and you can have your base layer artwork and imagery appear full screen, filling the entire stage, with no crop at the bottom.

The only drawback to this is that any layer that is called up by a slide within your module could have content that will overlay or obscure the progress bar.

And, also, (and this is probably more common because it is a default setting) any layer that is called up within the module will probably have the "Hide All Other Layers" option toggled on within the Layer Properties box, so your nicely placed and well-thought-out progress bar will disappear once that has been triggered.

But, do not worry, because it will re-appear once the user moves on because the trigger to activate it is on the master slide and kicks in on every new slide. YAY!

So, pros and cons. No matter your solution, you will have to be aware of where your progress bar is at all times, and factor your on-slide content to accommodate its position.

Either be super-diligent with your image cropping and sizing, or be hyper-vigilant of layers nuking the master slide layers (Correct, Incorrect and Try Again layers always trip me up, still).

Apologies for the long-winded reply.

Minjon Jones

Good morning Diarmaid!

I have to begin this response with your first response yesterday. No need to apologize, it was not long-winded to me. I appreciate you taking the time to be thorough. I am new to Articulate and I am excited and overwhelmed at the same time by all that can be done. It’s a playground with lots of bells and whistles!

I carefully read your response last night and started to work on the "Open Layer "Progress_BAR" suggestion, but quickly got frustrated and decided to try again in the morning. It is difficult for me to move on when I can’t find a solution. I had been working on the progress bar for two days and was wasting time. I am creating a flagship project for my electronic portfolio and every day I don’t make progress is another day away from applying for a job.

I saw your second response and suggestion this morning and now I’m on cloud nine, back on track, and laughing – thanks to you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!