Slide Layers Vs Slides

I don't personally have any hard and fast rules or best practices for use of Slides vs Layers other than using the features and drawbacks of slides to make the determination:

• Slides can show in the menu, layers won't
• Object states are controllable and persistent within a slide but require trigger assemblies when traveling between them
• Layers are really handy for fluid build-up over time but can be hard to manage in large stacks

I think of Slides as "macro" and Layers as "micro" when constructing a story. It's nice to see that Macro logic in the story view. When constructing an interaction that I want to flow together smoothly, I keep it on a single slide with layers. It mostly comes down to what you're most comfortable with.

Great explanation Steve!  

Am I correct that Freeform quizzes can only be constructed on base layers = slides and not on layers?  If not how do I get the convert to freeform to work on a layer?  Thanks!

Hi Sylvia,

Quiz questions (freeform or not) can only be on the base layer not on an individual slide layer. 

If you could share a bit more about what you'd like the do on the layer, perhaps the community will be able to offer some additional thoughts. 

Thanks Ashley, what I have is a choose one type quiz and if the choice is incorrect it goes to another drag and drop to give the user a chance to figure out why the first choice was incorrect (ie..."One or more parts are missing from your answer, of these four choices which one or ones are missing") and then they are given the option to go back and try again on their initial choice or to see the correct answer and move on in the course.

Hi Sylvia,

Instead of trying to set that up on layers, you could set up feedback that branches to a particular slide, so correct they continue on and incorrect they go to another slide to do a drag and drop, and when correct/incorrect there go back to the 1st slide. If you want them to retake that one, you'll need to set that first slides properties to "reset to initial state" and then could attempt the quiz again. 

Thanks so much Ashley.  I haven't worked with the feedback options yet.  I will have to give it a try.  I am just 3 weeks old at using SL2 and so lovin' it.

Hello. Steve's third bullet point is my rule of thumb. I am an old school type and prefer to keep it simple, wherever possible. Adding Layers adds extra complexity to any given slide and make things that much harder to manage. There are also some things that you can't do on layers. Use them for activities and complex interactions, or generally, use them when nothing else will work better.

Only 3 weeks in? You're doing great! Feel free to let us know what other questions you have and the tutorials are a great way to start! 

Thanks. This is really helpful :-)