Too many variables for the scene to load?

Feb 15, 2023

Melisa Hamidovic
By Melisa Hamidovic

Hello,

So I have this assignment where I'm making a payslip where the user has to enter the correct numbers into the different fields. If the number is incorrect, the field turns red, and green if the number is correct. In total, I've 28 text entries that need to work at the same time.

I previewed it multiple times to make sure that it was working, but when I was finally done setting everything up, I couldn't preview the scene. The preview is just blank and the same happens if I try to publish.

At first, I'd grouped everything to make it easier. Although I've had some issues with grouped objects and text entries before, so I thought that might be the issue - but it didn't help to ungroup and I've also tried building it from scratch without copying anything from the first one.

I'm at a lose as of how to fix it, so I'm hoping that someone here can help me out.

Thanks in advance.

4 Replies
Daniel Canaveral
1 year ago02/15/23 at 2:33 pm (UTC)

Hi Melisa.  It seems that SL is being overwhelmed by the number of boxes/shapes used to create the pay slip. With the help of SL's built-in Table feature, and just one additional shape for the last column on the far-right side, I was able to recreate the pay slip and preview the new slide.

A few things to note:

  • In order to get the rows to the appropriate height, I had to set every cell to a font size of 2. This means that you won't be able to type directly into the cell, but you wouldn't want to do this anyway as you need State changes to occur, and the cells are not built for interaction.
  • To make certain cells interactive or provide you the ability to trigger State changes, you'll need to create shapes (or data entry fields) that sit neatly on top of the cells (I've done one for you with cell A1 - Peter Hansen). This will also allow you to increase the font size to help with legibility.

Hope this approach works out for you!

Daniel   

Steve Gannon
1 year ago02/15/23 at 2:37 pm (UTC)

Hi Melisa,

Unfortunately, this is a long-standing known issue:

https://community.articulate.com/discussions/articulate-storyline/text-entry-boxes-extremely-slow-to-load 

I seem to recall this issue being introduced in a Storyline 360 update a few years ago.

I tried a few things with your file. First, I disabled all of the text entry fields in the timeline. Doing that, the form would appear when previewed. Then I activated just one text entry field; it appeared when previewed but a bit of lag occurred. Then I activated five fields and the delay was untenable.

Next, in addition to the entry fields, I hid all of the rectangles and repeated the steps above. Performance was better, but by the time I activated all of the entry fields, the slide took nearly 20 seconds to appear (though at least it did eventually appear).

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Open a case with Articulate Support.

2. Use lines instead of rectangles to create your form (that will cut down on the number of objects Storyline has to display).

3. Hide all of the text entries and text on the form. Group the form, export it as a PNG, delete all of the rectangles and import the PNG version of the form in its place. The form will be slightly blurry compared to Storyline-drawn shapes but you may find it acceptable. Then re-enable the text and text entries. This will dramatically cut down the number of objects Storyline has to display.

4. You may be able to put your text entry fields on layers, so that there are only a couple of entry fields per layer. I haven't tried this but it may speed up the display of the slide since there would be fewer text entries for Storyline to deal with at any given time.

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