Seekbar on slide layers

Oct 08, 2015

Hi guys - is it possible to allow learners to see the Seekbar moving on a slide layer, without them being able to move the seekbar? 

I think this is the setting, but I can't seem to get this working with any of the following options:

27 Replies
Leslie McKerchie

Hi Ant! Is the last bit of logic the missing piece for you?

  • Allow seeking: If the parent slide includes a seekbar, use this option to make the seekbar control the layer. Select Yes to make the seekbar active for the layer. Select No to ignore the seekbar. (It'll still be visible; it just won't affect the layer's playback.) Select Automatically decide to let Storyline decide whether or not the seekbar will be active for the layer. Here's the logic: Seeking will be allowed if you mark Hide objects on base layer, Prevent the user from clicking on the base layer, or Pause timeline of base layer.

This documentation can be found here.

If I have misunderstood, please share a sample .story file for me to take a look at.

Ant Pugh

Thanks Justin, but it is the seekbar behaviour on the layers am interested in - the seek bar is behaving correctly on my base layers.

@Leslie - Thanks for the suggestion, however I'm not sure this really answers the question? I don't want to hide any graphics on the slide, I simply want the seek bar on layers to behave in the same way that it behaves on the base layer i.e. the learner can see progress of the seek bar but is unable to click it.

Maybe I have misunderstood your suggestion?

Justin Wilcox

Hi Ant.

The only way that I was able to set up a slide to do what you were saying was to set the player properties so that the seekbar is read only. Change allow seeking to Yes. This means that your player will show the seekbar for whatever is happening on that layer but you won't be able to move the scrubber because the seekbar is read only. 

Justin Wilcox

Hi David. 

I did just test the seekbar and it worked as expected for me. The seekbar scrubber would move but could not be scrubbed if you set the player seekbar to read only and set allow seeking to Yes. The Yes means that the seekbar will match the timeline of the visible layer and the read only means you should not be able to scrub it. If you are seeing something different, could you provide an example?

david mckisick

Sure Justin. The behavior you are experiencing is not the correct behavior for how the seekbar is supposed to work. As you said, "The only way that I was able to set up a slide to do what you were saying was to set the player properties so that the seekbar is read only."

This is incorrect behavior. Here is the correct behavior:

Allow seeking: If the parent slide includes a seekbar, use this option to make the seekbar control the layer. Select Yes to make the seekbar active for the layer. Select No to ignore the seekbar. (It'll still be visible; it just won't affect the layer's playback.) Select Automatically decide to let Storyline decide whether or not the seekbar will be active for the layer. Here's the logic: Seeking will be allowed if you mark Hide objects on base layer, Prevent the user from clicking on the base layer, or Pause timeline of base layer.

Bug report submitted = case #00664651

Justin Wilcox

Hi David. 

When you select Yes, you are saying that the seekbar will be tied to the active layer. However, the properties of the seekbar in the Player itself will override allowing you to use the scrub of the seekbar. It simply allows you to see the timeline play (if you are wondering how much longer you have to go, that will tell you). If you wanted to allow a user to scrub, you would need to allow it in the player. There currently isn't a way to do that for individual slide layers. 

david mckisick

Thanks for the quick response Justin, and I think I understand what you mean. This is not the functionality described by Leslie which she copied from the Articulate Storyline support pages. My question is then, is Storyline going to be given the seekbar functionality described in the Articulate website support pages, or is the description of that functionality going to be updated to reflect the current behavior you just described?

david mckisick

Exactly Justin. I have been frustrated for at least a year now because I thought this was a bug in Storyline, and I have been trying to get it to work (and I do wish it would work that way). Turns out, it's not a bug. At least for now, the support page can be updated to make everyone aware when they are curious about this.

Ant Pugh

Wow some serious action on this thread! Looks like I opened a can of worms?!

I'm a bit confused about what was decided by the subsequent conversation, but this is my ongoing dilemma with current settings:

  • Seekbar is set to Read Only in Player Properties ( I want the seekbar to be visible but not allow the learner to scroll forwards)
  • Layer Properties - Allow Seeking set to No (I want the seekbar on layers to be visible and show the layer progress without allowing seeking). 

The seekbar looks fine on the base layer, but is not moving on the additional layers.

Ant Pugh

Thanks but this doesn't provide a solution for my requirements (my reasons below in bold)

If the base layer includes a seekbar, use this option to control how the seekbar affects the current layer.

  • Select Yes to make the seekbar active for the layer (I don't want the seekbar on the layer to be active - assuming active means draggable?)
  • Select No to ignore the seekbar. It'll still be visible; it just won't affect the layer's playback. (This is the setting I have, and the seekbar is not visible ie. you cannot see the seekbar moving)
Brad Glendenning

This is the best analogy I can think of for what I think is being asked for on this issue:

On my DVR when watching LIVE TV, I can scrub backwards to rewind to rewatch something that may of just happened. However, I can't scrub forward, past the current moment that is being broadcast. 

I think the is the sort of functionality people are looking to employ in their courses. I know our team would like it to function this way.  

I would like to let my students scrub the audio or video back to rewatch or relisten to something, but I don't want them to have full seek bar scrubbing to advance all the way to the end of the timeline (and cheat) for a particular slide. 

As it is now, if the navigation is restricted and when one clicks the rewind button on the seek bar, the playback starts over from the beginning of the timeline for that slide, which is not what we are wanting to happen. If you happen to be 20 seconds in on a 1:30 narrated slide, you can't then scrub forward to where you left off.

I want the navigation restricted so that students have to finish the slide before advancing to the next one.

In summary, scrub backward but not forward, but with one caveat: at the point at which you choose to scrub back, you can only scrub forward up to that point, no further.ideal seek bar function with restricted navigation

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.