the mysteries of marker label behavior

Apr 23, 2019

Hi All. I'm working on a interaction in which users see and hear sample physician questions by clicking on markers, then hear patient answers and make a selection using some triggered additional layers. 

My issue is that I'd like the marker labels to automatically 'fold up' when the question audio layers complete, but I don't want to use the "Show All on Hover" approach because I want this to work for tablet users. Weird thing is, some of my marker labels fold up back into the marker just as I'd like when a new layer is triggered by the end of the question audio. With others, they stay put and can only be folded up by clicking on the marker or another button. Feel like the difference involves something in the way marker on the base layer is interacting with the other layers, but can't figure out what it is.

My question is:

1. Has anyone figured out exactly what prompts the label to fold up? (That is, absent the "Show All on Hover" setting, where it all seems automatic.) Is it a switch to a different layer, cursor hovering on a new layer? The pausing of the timeline on the (base) layer where the marker lives? Something else? Would be great to know the mechanism here. (I know many on this board prefer to make your own marker equivalents, but I like the simplicity and ease of the prefab items.)

Happy to send a file along if anyone thinks they can help with this. Facing a deadline and this inconsistency is creating a bunch of roadblocks. 

Thanks so much in advance!

 

 

6 Replies
Alyssa Gomez

Hey Ian! Welcome to the community!

Thanks for offering to share a sample of your file. That would really help us to get a clear picture of what's going on.

Since this is a public forum, you can import the slide into a new Storyline file. Then, remove any proprietary information from the imported slide. 

Attach the slide here to a new reply, and we'll take a look!

Ian L

Okay. here it is. My main objective would be to try to get all the markers to behave like the one for "social and emotional support." That is, expand on click then automatically hide the label when audio completes and triggers new layer with buttons. I reliably get the desired behavior (at least first time around) from that social/emotional marker no matter where I put the cursor. But I can't seem to get the others to do the same thing, no matter how much I try to match the settings and other parameters. My hunch is still something about length of the audio + timeline + layers, but still mysterious to me. Grateful for anyone's hunch about what is actually producing the auto-hide for that marker label and how I might replicate it across all the markers.

Thanks Alyssa et al for keep this community so valuable and responsive!

Alyssa Gomez

Hi, Ian!

Thanks so much for sharing your file. I'm seeing the same behavior for all markers, as long as I wait long enough for the layers to close before opening another marker.

I did notice several layer timelines are much longer than the audio files on those layers. Have you tried decreasing the duration of the layer timelines to fit the duration of the audio? 

Ian L

Thanks so much for suggestions, Alyssa. I realized when I got your message that at least the first three markers work okay on the first use. But it was revisiting where I run into trouble with them sticking around. I've tried setting both the additional layers to return to initial state when revisited, but that doesn't solve the problem. (If I put the timeline end too close to media end it actually prevents new layer from appearing and label gets even more stuck.) Nor does eliminating a pause I had put into the "choice" layers to keep their contents around, nor eliminating various objects from secondary and tertiary layers. So still perplexed. Do you know if there are any built-in differences for marker behavior between first and second hovering? Thanks for any additional help anyone can offer on the mystery. 

In addition, I find that I can't get the other layers to trigger at all--even on the first time--when I click the markers in the mobile ios tablet version. The labels open but no additional layers are triggered, so there is no sound and no buttons. Any idea why the ipad version won't work and how I might tweak the settings to get them to work in both? (I haven't had this problem with other markers in different slides.)

Alyssa Gomez

Hey Ian,

There shouldn't be any differences in marker behavior between the first and second hovering. I am seeing one documented bug for marker behavior upon revisit, but it's only for markers with an initial state of Hidden. That doesn't seem to apply here.

Let's tackle the issue you're seeing on mobile. On a mobile device, "hovering" is a bit different because there's no mouse. "Hovering" on mobile is tapping and holding your finger. As soon as you release your finger, the hover is over. Because you have a "hover" and a "click" action on one marker, you won't be able to achieve both actions. 

My proposed solution: Change the markers to buttons. Add a caption to the audio layer so the caption will appear for the same duration as the audio. Avoid using any hover states, since those don't play nicely on mobile devices. 

Try this change on the first marker to see what you think. If you like the idea, then make the switch on the remaining markers. 

Let me know if that would be an option for you!

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