Slides transition looks jumpy

May 24, 2018

Hi all - I am working on a project and having issues with my slides.  When it transitions from one slide to another it looks like it "jumps" or flickers.  I have ensured that all the pictures are the same size and in the same position on the slide.  I made sure there were no transitions built in.  I can't seem to figure out why its doing this.  Anyone run into this?

31 Replies
Tracy Carroll

I'm also running into an issue where the slides jump in one of my presentations. It's happening when the user reviews the quiz. I also made sure no slide transitions are built-in.

I'm attaching a gif so you can see how jumpy the quiz review is. (The client content is blocked.)

I really need to know how to fix this issue!

Crystal Horn

Thanks, Tracy.  I see your case.  I checked your file really quickly to see if any of those elements were "off" the slide stage.  We have an issue documented where clicking objects that were partially off stage created a similar shake.  Looking at your master layouts and review layers, though, it didn't appear to be the case.

It looks like Ryan is still working through it with you, so I'll follow along as well.  I see his first solution didn't work, so thanks for replying back!

Crystal Horn

Hi again, Tracy - just following up.  It looks like Ryan solved the mystery.  Some player features were appearing on a video slide, but they were formatted to be invisible.  Ryan determined that they were causing the jumpy transition.  

Glad we could find a resolution here!  Let us know if you need anything else.

Tracy Carroll

Hi Nina,

The issue was that my client required the elimination of Storyline's NEXT & PREV buttons completely, in favor of custom navigation. However, when users reviewed the quiz, invisible NEXT & PREV buttons were actually appearing.

I had set them to be invisible in the player color properties in case this occurred. What I didn't realize was that even though the buttons couldn't be seen, they affected the placement of objects on the slide.

It turned out that although I eliminated all of the PREV & NEXT buttons from the quiz slides, I didn't think about a couple of lightbox slides I had in the presentation.

Even though the PREV & NEXT buttons never showed on those slides, they were still enabled. So, the solution was to disable the PREV & NEXT buttons on every single slide in the presentation.

Alyssa Gomez

Hi there Nina,

I'm happy to lend a hand! First, can you tell me more about your project?

  • What version of Storyline are you using? To check, click the Help tab, then click About Storyline
  • Does this happen when you preview the project in Storyline, or only after the project is published?
  • Do you see jumpy transitions on all slides, or just a few slides?
Nina McMahon

Hey Alyssa,

The jump/flash is occurring in preview mode, as well as when I publish it to CD. However, when I publish it to LMS and go in and view the HTML file, it is not jumping/flashing. So I'm assuming it won't be a problem once we actually publish it to our site.

BUT in case anyone wants more info on this specific glitch I'll go ahead and answer your questions anyway!


1. I am using the most updated version of Storyline 3.

2. See above.

3. The jumpy transitions are all slides where the user has to click the custom-made NEXT button to continue. There are 3-4 slides where the slide advances per the timeline end, and the jumpyness is not taking place here and the transition is smooth.

Alyssa Gomez

Hey there Nina,

Thanks for those extra details! It sounds like this problem could be happening in the HTML5 output. If that's the case, your learners will likely run into the glitch when they view the course in the LMS. 

To be sure, would you mind sharing a few slides with me? I'd like to take a closer look to see if we've got a bug going on here. Thanks!

Nina McMahon

Well that wouldn't be good.

Here are the first few slides. The first-second slide transition does not have the glitch as it moves per timeline end. But the next few slides that are triggered by hitting the Next button will show the glitch. In preview mode it's just jumpy. When publishing in CD there's a flash as well as the same jumpiness.

Alyssa Gomez

Hi there Nina!

I'm seeing the same flickering in your file. I've seen this happen before when slide objects are partially off the slide stage, but that's not the case in your file. This one has me scratching my head. 🤔

I'd like to have our support engineers take a closer look, so I've shared your file with them. They'll be in touch with you soon!

Rory Lavender

Hello Alyssa. I am having a similar issue. My scenes do not utilize the Player triggers for the  Next/Previous buttons until the 2nd to last slide, which says Click > to see your score and the Next button is visible. When the student reviews the scene, there is very noticeable jumping on each slide. These slides originated in SL2, which did not have the issue. If I add the player triggers for Next/Previous for the entire scene, the jumpy review disappears. But, I am left with Next and Previous buttons which I do not want my students to use. I tried adding them, then hiding or disabling, but then they wouldn't show up in my review, which I need. Suggestions? Thanks.

Crystal Horn

Hi there, Rory.  Thanks for sharing your file and for the updates!  This jumpiness seems specific to quiz slides getting the Previous and Next buttons added only for the quiz review, yet I can't reproduce it in a new file on my end.

Tell me a little more about how you built your feedback layers.  I see that in Form view, no feedback is listed, and that you created custom feedback layers.  When I use a custom slide layer for feedback, this is what I see in Form view:

This clue might help me to narrow down what specifically is causing the jumpiness!  I realize this was built with Storyline 2, but any insight you can share will help.

Rory Lavender

Yes, it was built in SL2 using custom feedback layers. The slides were imported into SL360 so we can publish for HTML5 only. I have not created a 'pure' SL360 practice as yet, but you raise a good point. Perhaps this is just a SL2 > SL360 issue, not a SL360 issue. Wouldn't that be nice! 

Alyssa Gomez

Hi Rory!

I did some more digging into your file, and I found that this actually is a bug in Storyline 360. Here's a breakdown of what's going on.

When you disable the Previous/Next buttons on quiz slides, those slides are moved down in the player, because player space is not needed for navigation buttons.

But when you review those same quiz slides, the Previous/Next buttons are enabled to give the learner a way to move back and forth through the quiz. Now each quiz slide "blinks" or jumps up to create space for those Previous/Next buttons.

Fortunately, there's an easy workaround! Simply enable the Volume button in the player, and the "blinking" or jumping will disappear. 

Check out this Peek that explains all of this in action. 

I'm going to share this Storyline 360 bug with my team so we can begin looking at next steps. As soon as we know more, we'll pass it along to you!

Rory Lavender

Well, that is an interesting workaround - easier than adding custom navigation! But now I have to add sound so the volume button makes sense! hahaha 

Thank for you letting me know that it is a bug and that it is an issue with SL360 - I have not had a chance to test that. I look forward to the fix!

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Claire,

This issue is still open with our team, and it only occurs when the submit button is disabled on the quiz slides. Have you tried enabling any of the other player items, such as the volume button to see if that helps? That  the community. is one of the workarounds shared by earlier folks in