It would be a HUGE time saver to be able to set an entire project to disable the Next button until end of slide then set Next to Enabled if we're restricting free navigation instead of having to do this slide by slide. Any way to accomplish this in a single setting??
I'm not sure I understand what you're looking for - but if you change the navigation method from free to restricted, the next button is visible, but clicking it won't take you anywhere till the slide's timeline ends as described here.
Thanks for the reply Ashley. You know how you can go into a slide and create triggers to disable the Next button when the slide begins, then enable it when the slide ends. This provides a nice visual cue (grays out the next button until the end of the slide) for learners so they better understand when they have the ability to proceed and when Next is available. As it is now, if I restrict navigation there are no built in visual cues that gray out or indicate otherwise that the Next button is disabled (the Next button still looks normal and even has a click animation) unless I go in a build the triggers slide by slide - kind of time consuming and a pain in the butt. If I don't undertake this slide by slide manual trigger configuration, or provide additional alerts or instructions I'll have clients and learners calling the help desk wondering why their next button isn't working. It would be nice to have a setting to gray out the Next button for the entire project with a single check box or setting if I'm restricting navigation. Is there no way currently to set this once for an entire project? Am I making sense?
Thanks for clarifying and sorry for my confusion. Yes, you're correct. There isn't a way to disable the next button on all slides across the course. You can copy and paste triggers though to allow this to be set up a bit faster. Also, this would make for a good feature request.
Will, thanks so much for explaining how the Restricted navigation disables the Next button until the timeline completes. I spent my whole day yesterday trying to understand why my interaction stopped working until I went back and undid each change one by one until I discovered through cause and effect which change had altered the Next button state. I waited to put the Restricted navigation on until I was ready for my sandbox environment. It seems odd that we can't override this state change with our triggers.
I created an interaction where the base layer has a long music track as background, and I set the Next button to appear after each of the layers were visited. But the Restricted navigation disabled my Next button until the music track completed. I've just shortened my music track and the participant will most likely run out of music before the interaction is completed, but then they can jump to the next slide without any other wait or interference.
Agreed with Adrienne, Lee, and Mike. I need the old versatility of Storyline 1 apparently. Same problem as you guys: I want to show the menu to allow the learner to see their progress, but don't want them to abuse that and click everywhere. The next button allows them to see everything in the order it was intended, and allows for some learners who read faster or understand a question faster to move through the course at more or less their own pace. Without that next button (because restricting the menu does not allow it to function), this material becomes a headache and a bore to my speedy learners.
I saw you also found the thread with the solution created by Bobbi to work around this behavior, and if you'd like to see a change in the overall behavior of Storyline you'll want to look at submitting that feedback in the form of a feature request to our Product development team.
Does this solution only work for custom navigation buttons? I'm using default player navigations buttons, and don't see them as options for an Object to change the state to disable.
Hi Betsy! Can you explain a bit more about what you're trying to achieve? It sounds like you would like to disable the next button until an object is clicked - is that correct?
Hi! Yes, that's exactly it. I'm trying to disable the Next button until all the hotspots on the slide have been clicked. When I try to add a trigger, I see the text, images and hotspots as object choices, but not the Next button.
Would you mind sharing a screenshot of your slide design? In this case, it might be easier for you to use shapes instead of hotspots, because hotspots don't have 'states'. If you decide to use shapes, here are the two triggers you need:
Change state of Next Button to Disabled when timeline starts on [current slide].
Change state of Next Button to Normal when the state of all of [Shape 1, Shape 2, Shape 3...] are Visited.
I threw together a very quick example of this and attached it here. Take a look, and let me know if this will work for you!
What I'm struggling with is that my Next button is not showing a choice in order to change the state, and I don't understand why. In the design, each hotspot shows a different layer, with additional content, and ideally, I'd like to disable the Next button until each layer is visited. I unfortunately wasn't able to view your example; I get an error message that it was created in a newer version.
Thanks for sharing that screenshot here. It looks like you're actually using Storyline 1, and that is why you do not have the option to change the state of the Next button. That feature is only available in Storyline 2 and Storyline 360.
You may want to consider using a custom next button instead of the default buttons in the player, since you can disable a custom next button.
Also, I can now see why you chose to use hotspots instead of shapes to trigger the layers. You'll want to create a variable for each layer (initial value of False), and trigger each variable to adjust to True when the timeline begins on each layer.
I've attached another quick sample for you that I created in Storyline 1, so you should be able to open it this time. Let me know if this set-up will work for you!
Alyssa, thank you! My apologies on giving you the wrong version - I just started at a new company, and was told they gave me SL2. Lesson learned, and I'm learning Storyline quickly :)
The example helped a ton, and I think I figured out a way to make it work. I originally designed it for the navigation to be totally free (even duplicated hotspots on each layer, so the user didn't have to go back), but the request for more locked navigation came from the client after I'd developed it. I also found this article/video, adding the conditions to the default Next button, instead of changing the state of a custom button. Lots of ways to do it, we'll just see what the client prefers.
Great find, Betsy! I'm glad you found a solution that works for you. You're right - there's usually more than one way to make it happen in Storyline! And thanks for sharing that article/video here. I'm sure that will help others who stumble across this thread in the future. :)
48 Replies
Thanks Emily, I just submitted one. Also, the thread you linked to a few posts up worked for my situation. Thanks so much for your help!
Glad to help Lee!
Hey Ashley,
It would be a HUGE time saver to be able to set an entire project to disable the Next button until end of slide then set Next to Enabled if we're restricting free navigation instead of having to do this slide by slide. Any way to accomplish this in a single setting??
Hi Jim,
I'm not sure I understand what you're looking for - but if you change the navigation method from free to restricted, the next button is visible, but clicking it won't take you anywhere till the slide's timeline ends as described here.
Thanks for the reply Ashley. You know how you can go into a slide and create triggers to disable the Next button when the slide begins, then enable it when the slide ends. This provides a nice visual cue (grays out the next button until the end of the slide) for learners so they better understand when they have the ability to proceed and when Next is available. As it is now, if I restrict navigation there are no built in visual cues that gray out or indicate otherwise that the Next button is disabled (the Next button still looks normal and even has a click animation) unless I go in a build the triggers slide by slide - kind of time consuming and a pain in the butt. If I don't undertake this slide by slide manual trigger configuration, or provide additional alerts or instructions I'll have clients and learners calling the help desk wondering why their next button isn't working. It would be nice to have a setting to gray out the Next button for the entire project with a single check box or setting if I'm restricting navigation. Is there no way currently to set this once for an entire project? Am I making sense?
Thanks again.
Hi Jim,
Thanks for clarifying and sorry for my confusion. Yes, you're correct. There isn't a way to disable the next button on all slides across the course. You can copy and paste triggers though to allow this to be set up a bit faster. Also, this would make for a good feature request.
Will, thanks so much for explaining how the Restricted navigation disables the Next button until the timeline completes. I spent my whole day yesterday trying to understand why my interaction stopped working until I went back and undid each change one by one until I discovered through cause and effect which change had altered the Next button state. I waited to put the Restricted navigation on until I was ready for my sandbox environment. It seems odd that we can't override this state change with our triggers.
I created an interaction where the base layer has a long music track as background, and I set the Next button to appear after each of the layers were visited. But the Restricted navigation disabled my Next button until the music track completed. I've just shortened my music track and the participant will most likely run out of music before the interaction is completed, but then they can jump to the next slide without any other wait or interference.
Hi Sandy! I'm so glad that this thread was able to assist you as well. Thanks for sharing :)
Hi Sandy,
I've seen at least one example of how to change it such as the one here.
Thanks, Ashley!!
Perfect, worked exactly how I needed it to. Thanks everyone!
Agreed with Adrienne, Lee, and Mike. I need the old versatility of Storyline 1 apparently. Same problem as you guys: I want to show the menu to allow the learner to see their progress, but don't want them to abuse that and click everywhere. The next button allows them to see everything in the order it was intended, and allows for some learners who read faster or understand a question faster to move through the course at more or less their own pace. Without that next button (because restricting the menu does not allow it to function), this material becomes a headache and a bore to my speedy learners.
Hi Jazzmine,
I saw you also found the thread with the solution created by Bobbi to work around this behavior, and if you'd like to see a change in the overall behavior of Storyline you'll want to look at submitting that feedback in the form of a feature request to our Product development team.
Does this solution only work for custom navigation buttons? I'm using default player navigations buttons, and don't see them as options for an Object to change the state to disable.
Hi Betsy
which version of SL are you using - if SL2 or SL360 yes they are available in the dropdown list if SL1 they aren't
Hi Betsy! Can you explain a bit more about what you're trying to achieve? It sounds like you would like to disable the next button until an object is clicked - is that correct?
I'm using SL2.
Hi! Yes, that's exactly it. I'm trying to disable the Next button until all the hotspots on the slide have been clicked. When I try to add a trigger, I see the text, images and hotspots as object choices, but not the Next button.
Hi again Betsy!
Would you mind sharing a screenshot of your slide design? In this case, it might be easier for you to use shapes instead of hotspots, because hotspots don't have 'states'. If you decide to use shapes, here are the two triggers you need:
I threw together a very quick example of this and attached it here. Take a look, and let me know if this will work for you!
Hi Alyssa!
What I'm struggling with is that my Next button is not showing a choice in order to change the state, and I don't understand why. In the design, each hotspot shows a different layer, with additional content, and ideally, I'd like to disable the Next button until each layer is visited. I unfortunately wasn't able to view your example; I get an error message that it was created in a newer version.
Thanks for sharing that screenshot here. It looks like you're actually using Storyline 1, and that is why you do not have the option to change the state of the Next button. That feature is only available in Storyline 2 and Storyline 360.
You may want to consider using a custom next button instead of the default buttons in the player, since you can disable a custom next button.
Also, I can now see why you chose to use hotspots instead of shapes to trigger the layers. You'll want to create a variable for each layer (initial value of False), and trigger each variable to adjust to True when the timeline begins on each layer.
I've attached another quick sample for you that I created in Storyline 1, so you should be able to open it this time. Let me know if this set-up will work for you!
Alyssa, thank you! My apologies on giving you the wrong version - I just started at a new company, and was told they gave me SL2. Lesson learned, and I'm learning Storyline quickly :)
The example helped a ton, and I think I figured out a way to make it work. I originally designed it for the navigation to be totally free (even duplicated hotspots on each layer, so the user didn't have to go back), but the request for more locked navigation came from the client after I'd developed it. I also found this article/video, adding the conditions to the default Next button, instead of changing the state of a custom button. Lots of ways to do it, we'll just see what the client prefers.
Thank you for your help!
Great find, Betsy! I'm glad you found a solution that works for you. You're right - there's usually more than one way to make it happen in Storyline! And thanks for sharing that article/video here. I'm sure that will help others who stumble across this thread in the future. :)
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