State with text shows the text in other empty states (which is fine… BUT!)

Mar 07, 2023

Douwe Harder
By Douwe Harder

I’m developing a Storyline module in 2 languages. That means that textboxes and buttons have a ‘dutch state’ and an ‘english state’. I prefer to have the both languages in one object (button or textbox) so that it is easier to change the lay-out of a slide. And it also makes it easier to control the objects with triggers.

My setup is as follows. The Normal state is dutch. Then there is an L2Normal state (language 2) and the other states (hover, down selected, etc.) have no text but an empty buttons shape with a different background color. When I Preview the slide everythings works well. It is only working with in-built states. Empty custom states overlap and hide the text. That’s why I mis-used the drop correct and the drop incorrect state for an correct-selected-answer and correct-but-not-selected-answer.

It all works well! I have no problem. So what about the BUT? The only problem I have that I’m not sure if this is a future proof solution…

Is it normal behaviour that text form the Normal state shows up in the other states when those states have no text? Or is this a design flaw or update bug which will be corrected in one of the next updates? Which in my case will create a problem, because the hover, down , selected etc, will be without text. For our people with overlapping text in different states it will be a solution.

So please enlighthen me. Am I misusing a bug in SL? Or is this a good and future proof way of  working with states?

4 Replies
Douwe Harder
1 year ago03/08/23 at 10:44 am (UTC)

Hi Tom, Tis is really great! Thanks so much for your help and the very good video. This is what makes Articulate great: a whole pool of helping colleaugues including the staff! A very strong community!

There are a lot of points in your video which are very usefull to me and I really will use them. It's always nice to see somebody else working in Storyline. It brings in a lot of new ideas. Especially the Word doc for translation is very helpfull.

The problem with the module we are making is that the lay-out and behaviour of the slides will change a lot and that there are a lot of complicated triggers on each page. If every language has its own object It means I will have to work with 2 objects every time I change something in the lay-out. And if the objects have triggers attached to them... I will have to deal with 2 sets of almost the same triggers (for each object 1). (Or I have to put the triggers on layers, but that can become quite complicated.)

That's why I like to have single objects with multiple states for the languages. So object 'Dog' with the 2 dogs in the object. The same for the text and the buttons. The setup is a bit more complicated, but developing will be faster (for our specific module with a lot of variation between the slides).

Do you have any opinion about the last part of my original question?

In short: Each object has 2 states for the languages (language 1 and language 2). All the other states (like hover, down and sleected etc.) are empty. The text of the choosen langauage will appear in the 'start' state. And! as it works now it will also appear in all the other states.

Which is good. BUT is this normal and future proof  Storyline behaviour? Or could it be that after a future update the empty states will show as they are: which is empty instead of showing the initial text?

See update attachent file for a working example.

 

Eric Santos
1 year ago03/10/23 at 7:13 pm (UTC)

Hi Douwe,

Thanks for taking the time to report this issue, and I'm sorry you ran into this. You are correct; we have an open issue in Storyline 360 where the state change keeps the Normal state's text or image in Preview and Publish.

I'll share your findings with the team and notify you of any changes. Here's a peek into our process:

I appreciate your patience!

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