Returning and re-using Essay text

Jul 08, 2015

I seem to recall there a way in Articulate Storyline 2 that I can capture the text a student has entered using a Quizzing>Survey>Essay field and give it back to them later? Are there instructions somewhere on how to do this?

8 Replies
Kevin Thorn

Hi Christine,

It's quite simple using the default template. 

Start by inserting a New Slide > Quizzing > Survey (tab) > select the Essay template.

From there enter the essay question and set the number of characters (default set to 5,000). Set any other parameters you'd like such as feedback or if the essay question is required or not.

Switch from Form View to Slide View and notice the new trigger added to the Data Entry Text Entry object (the big text box) - "Set TextEntry equal to the typed value when the control loses focus."

TextEntry is the name of variable that will hold the text the user enters/types into the text box.

When you want to display what the user entered on a later slide, add another text box with the variable's reference. A variable reference the variable name flanked by percent symbols. In this case, the reference would look like this: %TextEntry%

Things to consider:

  • You can change the variable name by clicking on the Manage Project Variables icon (far right icon on top of trigger panel). Such as "EssayResponse".
  • *IF* you do change the variable name the reference text box later in your course must be the exact same spelling.
  • Know the font size and character count of the Essay question. The text box later in the course can be a different font size, but be aware to allow enough real estate to accommodate the max character count a user may enter.

Hope this gets you going!

Kevin Thorn

A variable reference is simply a text box with the name of variable flanked by percent (%) symbols.

For example: If your essay variable is "TextEntry", then on the slide you want to reference that variable type "%TextEntry%" in a text box.

To get comfortable with the behavior, I'd suggest building a quick prototype.

  • Create a new project
  • Insert Quiz Template > Survey > Essay question. The "TextEntry" variable will be automatically created to capture whatever is entered by the user.
  • Insert new Blank Slide
  • Insert a simple Text Box and type, "%TextEntry%
  • Save a Preview.

The above little test will hopefully help you *see* how things are working.

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