Reset to Initial State issue

Jul 11, 2023

Attached are two slides.  The first slide has layers for each US bill denomination, and the learner must visit each layer before being about to go forward.  The bill icons change color from light to dark as they’re visited.

When the learner returns to the first slide, the bill icons are all showing their initial state of light green, but as soon as you click one, they all turn dark green (the visited state).

I used “Reset to initial state” in the Revisit setting, so I’m confused about the icon behaviors.

4 Replies
Judy Nollet

You're working way too hard. There's no need to repeat the bill-icon buttons on every layer. Which means there's no need for all those triggers and variables to track which layers have been visited or not. 

The attached file has a simplified version of your Denominations slide.

  • The background oval and the bill-icon buttons on the base remain visible on the layers. So does a new text box with the "To continue..." message. 
  • The NEXT button is Disabled when the timeline starts, with the condition that a variable = False. 
    • FYI: I prefer having the NEXT button Disabled instead of Hidden. When it's Disabled, it remains in its place in the Player. When it's Hidden, the other Player buttons (e.g., PREV) move to the right to fill in the spot where the NEXT button normally is. I think that can be confusing to users. 
  • When all of the buttons are Visited, this is what happens:
    • The variable is adjusted to True.
    • The NEXT button changes to Normal.
    • The "To continue..." message changes to Hidden (because it's not needed anymore).
Walt Hamilton

As to your statement about being confused by the behavior of the icons, it's not you that is confused; it's the icons. Here's what confuses them:

If an object has a Visited state, it changes to Visited when it is clicked. Writing your own trigger to do something different frequently confuses them. There are good reasons to use triggers like this one, but to be safe, use a custom state (I use "Completed),, not a built-in one (like "Visited").

Otherwise, the closer you follow Judy's suggestions, the happier you'll be.

I do disagree with Judy when it comes to the disabled state. Personally, as a user, I want to wring the neck of every developer that puts something on my screen that I can see, but can't click, even if it does look different. Just personal preferences.