Forum Discussion
TIP: the Incredible Power of Invisible Layers
Slide layers are great when you need to show things. But they can also do things—even if they don’t show anything at all.
The attached Storyline file demonstrates possible uses for invisible layers:
- Consolidate feedback for a question slide on just one layer (for example, so you don’t have to maintain/edit the same feedback on both the Correct and Incorrect layers)
- Run triggers that would otherwise be attached to multiple actions
- Run triggers on multiple layers to loop programming (for example, so you can smoothly animate dials)
You can view the published project here:
https://360.articulate.com/review/content/458408a3-107d-42ad-a9d3-32486680d3c1/review
The project is annotated to explain how the programming works. Go ahead and analyze it. And then try these techniques yourself.
I hope these examples inspire your own incredible invisible layers.
4 Replies
Animating dials is fun. Still, the example to run triggers is probably the most useful. It makes it much easier to maintain and troubleshoot.
They can be used to run triggers at times other than returning to a slide. For example, if you have a bunch of triggers that depend on complicated IF conditions that need to run after a bunch of similar actions. Instead of putting the the triggers on every action, put them all on an invisible self-closing layer, and after each action, show the layer. It is the SL equivalent of what programmers call subroutines. Saves a lot of time, and saves having a lot of triggers on the slide.
So many uses for invisible layers. Thanks, Walt, for making another one visible. I always appreciate having your expertise in any discussion.
:-)
For reference, here's the question that originally got me thinking about how to animate a dial:
https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/longer-animation-with-states
My response includes a file that demos a smooth animation.
