Slide Title as Variable

Jul 02, 2012

I am wondering if it is possible to add the slide title as a text variable to slides. I have used the screen capture mode, changed the slide titles to make them more descriptive, and would like to use these slide titles in the caption boxes for my slides. Is it possible to add a %SlideTitle% variable, or something like it, to each one? Thanks.  

43 Replies
Nancy Woinoski

Hi Matt,  you can definitely insert text variables into your captions as suggested, but you will first have to create a text variable for the slide title - you can't  just add %SlideTitle% to your caption and have it automatically pick up the name of the slide title.

You would first have to click the x icon located just under the Triggers panel and add a text variable called SlideTitle.   You can leave the default value blank or put the name of the first slide title into it.

On each slide, add a trigger to adjust the value of the SlideTitle variable - set the value to the name of the slide title as shown in the example.

Make sure When is set to Timeline Starts

Then on the each of the captions that you want to display the title, you would add a text box with %SlideTitle%.  When previewed or published this will pick up the value you set for the variable.

Hope this makes sense and let me know if you have any other questions.

Nancy Woinoski

Brian Batt said:

Nancy Woinoski said:

Agree, the system read only variables are a little light in SL. It should be easy for them to expose more of these and I really hope they do in the next release.

Maybe a feature request is in order.


Keep those feature requests coming:

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/submit.php?form=feature

Done
Russell Still

Hey Brian, I'm not sure exactly how to phrase this, but it would be really powerful if layer calls could be dynamically configured.

For example, you have "layer1", "layer2", and "layer3".

In the slide, the value "n" gets incremented through various user actions.

Then, a show layer trigger could say "show layer%n%".

It lets us built more intelligence into the slides.

Brian Batt

Russ Still said:

Hey Brian, I'm not sure exactly how to phrase this, but it would be really powerful if layer calls could be dynamically configured.

For example, you have "layer1", "layer2", and "layer3".

In the slide, the value "n" gets incremented through various user actions.

Then, a show layer trigger could say "show layer%n%".

It lets us built more intelligence into the slides.


Hi Russ,

Mind fleshing that example out more when you submit a feature request?  If you can, include a screencast or even a .story file that explains it.  We would really appreciate it.

Steve Flowers

I think that would be a real time saver as well. Kind of the equivalent of eval for frame labels and object targets.

Set variable1 to "lions" on click.

Whenever variable1 changes, set the state of pictureObject1 to the evaluated value of variable1. So if variable1 equals lions and a state exists for that value, it bounces to that state. Same thing could apply to layers AND slide jumps

Chris Agaiby

Brian Batt said:

Nancy Woinoski said:

Agree, the system read only variables are a little light in SL. It should be easy for them to expose more of these and I really hope they do in the next release.

Maybe a feature request is in order.


Keep those feature requests coming:

http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/submit.php?form=feature


Hi Brian, Hi Nancy.  Pertaining to the read-only system variables for such things as slide titles, etc...Do you know if this request been submitted, and if so, do you know the status of when will these variables be available?  Thanks,

Chris

Nancy Woinoski

Hey Chris, I know that some people have put in feature requests to expose more of the system variables, but I don't know specifically what they asked for. If you want something specific, it would not hurt to put in your own request. I can't speak to if or when Articulate will implement the suggestions. Even though it says I am a super hero, I don't really have any super powers

Chris Agaiby

We're all superheroes in one way or another.  I get to play the superhero in the bedtime stories I tell my 5 year old. ...she's into Batman...so, hence we have Batdad. ....and then there is Super Ponydad for the My Little Pony stories.

I'd like to have access to read-only variable(s) that I can pass to a javaScript trigger which will do a mailTo command.  The purpose is to send information about the current slide via email.  The intent is to create a feedback mechanism on each slide for users to send feedback if they find errors.  The variables would automatically populate the slide information in the body of the email.  That added information in the email is sent to the developer, and will help the developer easily locate the slide in Story Line, for review and/or updating. 

I believe a few folks have posted similar needs/wants.   We all seem to be asking for an easy way to uniquely identify a slide, without having to add counters, text boxes, or other objects to each slide, and also to be able to use that information for various purposes.  I tend to agree that build-in "read-only system" variables in Story Line is the way to go. 

I'll think about formulating the request and sending it in .... just hope it's not costly or too specific to my needs, but rather a popular enhancement 

Thank You

Cheers!

Chris 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Ramesh,

We did add a number of features to the Storyline 2 vs Storyline 1, and in our recent update 5. All the new features as a part of update 5 are detailed here:

  • Added support for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
  • Added feature to define custom tab order of slide objects (Flash output only)
  • Added feature to skip player navigation when tabbing through elements with a screen reader (Flash output only)
  • Added feature to adjust player font size up to 200% (Flash output only)
  • Added language identifier to published output for screen readers (Flash output only)
  • Added keyboard support for interactive sliders (Flash output only)
  • Added feature to show the player background color and the default notes color in the Storyline notes panel, so content authors can see how their notes will look in their published output
  • Enhanced screen reader support for slide objects and interactive elements
  • Enhanced performance of HTML5 output so slides load faster
  • Enhanced Tin Can API reporting for easier identification of tracked elements

Also if you'd like to look at a comparison of Storyline 1 vs. Storyline 2 you can see it here. 

Ramesh Yadav

THANKS for sharing this Ashley.

I asked for features like:

  1. we can change the shape dimension(height and width) using trigger
  2. text box get auto scroll if its shape is fixed and some variable value is coming into it and variable value is too long
  3. If we have a else condition for a trigger like lectora.

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