Simulations - Text Entry Fields

Hi Terry. Welcome to E-Learning Heroes!

Are you using this in a step-by-step simulation/screen recording? If that's the case, I believe Storyline captures the steps you take. If you hit enter after entering in the text in the field, the user would be prompted to do so. If you have to hit enter in order to move on in the recording, but don't want your user to,  you could stop the recording at that point, then pick up again on the next step (bypassing the "Enter" action). 

If this isn't what you're trying to do, maybe you can give me a little more information

Thanks!

Hi Christine!

I am, in fact, doing a step=by-step simulation/screen recording.

I did not hit Enter (intentionally) - I entered my text and then clicked in the next needed field.

Hi Terry,

Are you using Try mode or Test mode for this? Is it prompting for the user to hit "Enter"? Or is it just submitting it by hitting Enter, instead of the Submit button? I can't seem to recreate this with text entry, unless I've hit enter during the recording.

Thanks!

I am using the Try mode.

I don't want the user to have to hit Submit or Enter or any other key. I want it to mimic what I did:

• Click field
• Enter text
• Click next field
• Enter next text

Hi Terry,

Thanks for the additional information. I understand what's happening now. However, with Try mode the entry will need to be submitted either by hitting enter (to move on to the next section of the recording that includes the next field), or by clicking on Submit. 

Now, I do think you can work around this, however. What you could do, on the slide that contains the text entry, is change the submit trigger. You could set it to submit when the user clicks elsewhere on the image. So, if they went to click on the next field, it would advance to the slide with the next field.

It would look something like this:

This should make it a little more seamless for you, I think. This way, the submit action will happen as soon as the user clicks on the next text field. You could do this for each slide that contains a field and the user wouldn't have to hit enter or click on the submit button.

Let me know if this works for you.

Thanks!

I feel like such a pain..... UGGGGH. Thanks for hanging with me!

Conceptually, your idea rocks... HOWEVER (knew that was coming, didn't you?), the user does not KNOW the next field - they are learning through the simulation.

If I use Test mode, is there anyway to include the Step Text (the bubble that says, Click the XXX field)? Or, is the Test mode no hints at all?

Hey, no problem Terry! Don't sweat it, I'm happy to help (or at least try to).

Test mode won't tell them where to click. However, in Try mode you can enable the prompts to show "Always". 

The problem with this is that they won't see this until they've completed the previous step, which may make the trigger I mentioned earlier a less helpful option. 

Another option, though, would be to add some captions/shapes or text of your own on the slide that tells the user where to click. Then, you could ignore the prompts all together. To keep this clean and simple, I'd suggest having the text show up in an area that's "clean" and easy to see. For example, if your slide and recording doesn't contain a lot of text at the bottom, you could just keep the text along the bottom and the user will know to look here for further instructions. It would also be easier to just copy and paste the instructions here, rather than moving them around for each field they need to use.

Really just suggestions here - but maybe it'll help with your project.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks!

Hi Christine, whats the best set of tutorial videos on creating software training simulations in Storyline? Working on a project that requires, show-me, try-me, test-me features.

Thanks in advance!

Babak

Hi Babak, welcome to Heroes!

I'd say the tutorials here and here would be the two best places for you to start. 

Let us know if you have any specific questions.

Thanks

Thanks Peter. Another quick question, once I create my simulations in Storyline, can I export them out to Presenter by any chance?

Cheers, B

Sure thing, Babak!

You can export your screen recordings from Storyline to MP4, then insert those into Presenter. Note that you will lose any interactivity you had once in MP4 format though. 

Hope that helps!

ah, so any interactive simulation fucntionality you built using the try-me and test-me settings is lost as you can only export a video screen cast correct?

also, any zoom functionality available as you record the original screen recording?

thanks again

Exactly. The recording would basically become a non-interactive video of your screen

and in regards to zoom and pan functionality? thx

Hi Babak, 

I just ran a test and confirmed that the zoom / pan effect will not be included in the MP4 export. Hope you're still able to find it useful

Great thx. Sorry should have clarified, my question was in regards to where I can find the zoom pan functions in Storyline

If theres an online tutorial I'd be happy to watch it. Cheers

Sure thing, Babak

Here's how to add a zoom region to a Storyline slide:

http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/inserting-a-zoom-region.aspx

And here's how to use multiple zoom regions on the same slide to create a panning effect:

http://community.articulate.com/tutorials/products/creating-a-panning-effect.aspx