Show layer only when slide is revisited?

Jun 25, 2015

Heather Hossfeld
By Heather Hossfeld

Hello all you helpful folks,

I am setting up a course that the viewers must watch in entirety for compliance reasons. Each slide advances automatically at the end of its timeline, so there is no obvious transition between slides for the viewer. 

I can't let viewers skip ahead, so the navigation must be restricted. However, we need to let them refer back to sections they've already viewed; and if they go back, I want them to be able to jump around through everything they've already watched to get back to where they left off. 

Because the slides advance automatically, it makes no sense to have a Next button on screen for their first time through -- it is disabled until each timeline ends, at which point it may be clickable only for a fraction of a second before the player moves on to the next slide. This seems like it would be a common problem. 

The solution I see is to put a Next button on a layer that only appears when a slide is revisited. However, in trying to set up variables and triggers, I don't see that option. I don't want it to appear when the timeline ends, since because of the auto-advance I expect the result would be that the button would appear to the user to flash on screen randomly throughout the presentation. 

I don't want to set the slides to Resume Saved State on revisit, because there is audio throughout each slide to which the timeline is synced. 

 

Any ideas? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 Replies
Heather Hossfeld
almost 9 years ago07/09/15 at 7:23 pm (UTC)

Julie, I've tried a few approaches to this and none of them are functioning quite right. Any ideas? Details: 

I created a "timelineover" variable set to false.

> First I tried adding my triggers on the master slide. I added:

 - change "timelineover" to true when timeline ends

 - hide next button when timeline starts AND timelineover = false

 - show next button when timeline start AND timelineover = true

There were two problems with this approach: 

 1) The Next button flashes at the beginning of the slide, since its default state is normal. I couldn't find a way to change the default state of the Next button to hidden. 

2) For slide 2 and beyond, the Next  button was on the player right from the beginning. 

> Next, I tried moving those variables onto each individual slide. i got the same results. 

> Then, I tried disabling the player buttons and adding my own custom buttons. I tried setting them up on the master, with the Next button's initial state set to hidden and a trigger to change it to normal when the timeline starts if timelineover = true. 

But it never showed up at all. 

>So, I tried removing that from the master and adding it to the individual slides (both the trigger to change timelineover to true when the timeline ends, and the Next button triggers). But again, my Next button is never showing up at all. 

I've checked my trigger order and they seem to be in line. 

The slides are set to "Automatically decide" when revisiting -- if I set them to Resume Saved State the timeline doesn't replay, and if I set them to "Reset to initial state" I expect my variable trigger would also reset to false. 

Sorry for the novel, but I don't want to waste anyone's time suggesting anything I've already tried. Any idea what I'm missing here? 

 

 

 

 

 

Heather Hossfeld
almost 9 years ago07/09/15 at 8:00 pm (UTC)

Oooh... I think I just got it. You said to add a "unique variable to each slide". Meaning I need to set up a different version of the "timelineends" variable for every slide. So, across the three modules in this series, for a total of over 70 slides, I need to set up separate variables and corresponding triggers rather than trying to reuse the same one. Okay, here goes! 

That works, for better or for worse ;-)

Thanks again for your help! 

 

Shannon K
almost 9 years ago07/09/15 at 8:58 pm (UTC)

I work with multiple layers and I create custom buttons for all my courses all the time. I use variables whenever you need to jump back to a previous slide layer so it gives the course the appearance of multiple slides, when its really just one. If the learner needs to view the content before advancing, I change the state to disabled and make it mandatory to review the slide in full before advancing. When I make my buttons, I always put it on the layer vs. the base or master slide. I have better control over the content then. Julie is right with creating separate variables for each slide, but if you need to jump back to a specific layer, you need to create a trigger as well.

Example: Slide 1 has 6 layers and the learner advances to slide 2. When they click the previous button, it takes them to the beginning of layer of slide 1; but I want them to be on the 6th layer. To do that, you need to create a variable as true/false. So, LayerJump1 = to false. Then on slide 1 on the base, say "Show layer 6 when time line starts on slide 1 if Variable LayerJump1=True". then on slide 2, create a trigger "Adjust Variable LayerJump1 to True when user clicks Previous Button". Make sure your trigger is above the actual trigger for that button, otherwise it won't work. Then when the user clicks pervious, it'll take them back to the last layer they visited.

Hopefully that makes sense...if you still need help.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
almost 9 years ago07/10/15 at 2:31 pm (UTC)

Thanks Heather for sharing all those here - and it looks like you've got it. Each slide would need it's own variable or a trigger to reset it on each slide - so it's a bit to set up either way! Looks like Shannon has another method too - always the great thing with Storyline, you can do something in so many different ways. 

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