Reference slide that bypasses timeline triggers

Hi Lu,

There are few ways to approach this. The first thought would be to put that slide into the last Scene of your project and when you link (trigger) to it, just use Jump To slide rather than Jump To Lightbox slide.

This will keep the aspect ratio of your slide the same as your Story Size. However, since it's now a standard slide it doesn't behave like a built-in lightbox slide (returning to last slide visited). To mimic that behavior a set of variables are needed. May need more variables but I'm just thinking out loud at the moment.

Essentially you'll need to know where users are when they access that slide to know where to send them back. Basically a T/F variable for every slide in your course. All set initially to False. When a user clicks the global button to access the references slide, change the variable associated with the slide the user is currently on to True. Then when they return from the references slide evaluate which variable is True and send them to that slide. At the same time you'll reset the variable back to False. This method works pretty flawlessly, but it can be quite a task to manage the variables if you have a lot of slides.

Another thought would be to transfer all your references content to a Master Slide and set of layers. This way you can use the entire real estate of a Master layer as the same size as a slide. Then add your button to access references on the Master base slide, and add a trigger to show the layer(s) when user clicks. Build it once; access anywhere; no variables.

Hope that helps!

Thank you Kevin,

I don't think that would work because when I link to back to the slide, whether it's just a slide with a previous button or a slide in the last scene, when you return back to the original slide, the timeline will still start again and that is what's causing the problems. Also, I have some functionality on the reference slide that doesn't do well on layers. That's why I built it separately on a slide.

I'll keep working with it and really appreciate your time and suggestions.

Hmm...well, the best thing about Storyline is there "is always a way." :)

Hard to help troubleshoot at this point without seeing the project file. Is it possible to share the file here?