Text Input Overflowing the Input Area

Mar 15, 2017

I have text input boxes in my project and have tried setting the autofit parameters to "shrink text on overflow" and "do not autofit" (and adding a larger textbox), but neither option is keeping the text from running off of the textbox when I preview the slide.

I would appreciate any insight into correcting this problem.

I have attached my story file. 

 

31 Replies
Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Lisa,

When I took a look at your text entry box I saw the expected behavior, that the text continues on one line and that you can continue to see the text as you're typing. The text entry boxes won't wrap or shrink text as a default behavior. If the text box is large enough to accommodate more than one line of text, the user can press the enter key to advance to the next line and if it's not large enough to accommodate that then they can use the enter key to submit the text entry. 

Steven Amiss

Hi Ashley I am having a similar problem which you may be able to help me with. The shrink text on overflow works for the default text in a text entry box, but when the story is published and the user adds text it loses this behaviour and it results in scrollboxes being added.

I need the user to fill text in a certain area and then upload an image of the screen hence the reason adding scroll bars is of no use.

 

Lisa Reilly

Thank you Ashley.  I see that it is actually wrapping now. I wonder if it I had to reopen the project for the textbox to apply the "wrap text in shape"? I had originally had it set to not wrap, and then changed it to wrap. However, I can confirm that my project is also not shrinking text on overflow as Stephen described. As he described, it does not shrink the text; it adds a scroll bar.

This is not a huge problem for this particular project, but I would like to understand the solution for future projects.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Stephen,

Can you share a copy of your project so that we can get a look at what you're seeing here? 

Hi Lisa,

Sometimes a save and close allows all those changes to take effect, and ensure that they're the changes you want. The text entry fields are set up so that if you only include enough space to accommodate one line of text, the box will be kept at one line and continue to insert text on that same line. If you insert a text entry box that accounts for multiple lines, Storyline will know to start wrapping the text and begin to create the scroll bar for text that goes beyond that.

If you'd want to not have either of these situations, you'd need to look at creating a text entry box that accounts for the possible text from a user. 

Alyssa Gomez

Hey Stephen,

One thing you can try is duplicating that slide, but on the duplicate version, insert Text Reference boxes instead of text entry boxes. The formatting option Shrink text on overflow applies to the text that is referenced from the previous slide. The screenshots below show the difference between text entry and text reference--notice how the text reference boxes do not have scroll bars. In this scenario, your users will take a screenshot of slide 1.2:

Slide 1.1

Slide 1.2

Alyssa Gomez

Hey Stephen! I tested that link in Chrome 56, Edge, IE11, and Firefox 51, and it worked well in all of those browsers. Here are the browsers that are supported for Storyline 2:

If you're still having trouble, I'd like our Support Engineers to weigh in on what could be causing the issue. You can reach out to them directly right here--they're available 24/7 to assist!

Crystal Horn

Hey folks! I'm happy to let you know that we just released Update 12 for Storyline 360, and you can check out the new features and fixes here!

Specifically included in this version is a fix to address some issues with data entry fields:

  • Data entry fields that should have focus when slides load weren't immediately accepting learner input.
  • Text entry fields didn't always have scroll bars when learners entered overflowing text. 

Simply update Storyline to the latest version and republish your project to see the fix. Here's how updating Storyline 360 works.

I'm happy to hear how you make out!

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