Triggers In Interactive Simulations

Hi Jessica,

When you set the trigger up to submit it based on the hotspot, was that on a "button" area or where they clicking within the text entry? Without seeing how your simulation is set up, it's hard to know - but you could also set the trigger to when the user clicks a button (a default submit is when the user hits the "enter" key). Also, if you disable the "submit trigger when user clicks submit" did you also remove the submit button from the individual slide properties? 

Hi Ashley.  Good insights!  So, I guess the way Storyline records the screen, each text box has two slides:  the first slide is the hotspot to click inside the text box, and then the second slide has the text entry.  I like the idea of pressing enter--that's a bit more natural.  I didn't record it that way, but I'll definitely try it.  I haven't gotten rid of the submit button yet, but I will.  I just want to get my triggers working first.  Oh, so, another thing I tried was making the text entry a variable, and when the variable changes then submit.  That worked for one text box, but not the other although I made two separate variables.  I attached a video of what should be going on.  I hope it makes sense

FYI, I am totally loving this software and this community!  Forgive me for posting so much, but e-learning is new to our department, and I've been charged to learn as much as I can within 3 weeks before we need to start producing things.  E-Learning Heroes has everything I need to get an excellent jump start on my learning, and I feel confident that I will be creating some top-notch material very soon!

Hi Jessica,

First off, no apologies necessary for posting! That's what we're here for.

Thanks for sending along your video! That was helpful to see how you'd like it to behave. Each item you click on or text you enter while doing a screen recording will count as a new slide in Step by Step mode, which you can easily delete if you don't want them. What I did was take a screen recording (just of the Support page - someplace to enter text) and you'll see I changed the triggers associated with my text entries and made them all a bit different. (Ignore my feedback layers on this one...left over from a project I was just working on) What you'll see is there were a few different ways I could set it up including when a user clicked a part of the screen (transparent shape), when they hovered over (a hotspot) or when the user pressed a key (enter). It's really up to you how you would like them to interact with it. 

The text entry is automatically created as a variable, and that is the only one I didn't set up here - but you'd want to set it to submit "when the control loses focus" which is when the variable is set to whatever the user enters. 

Oh cool, thanks!

I think I may be misunderstanding what's supposed to happen here.  So, on yours, the second slide says submit text entry when user presses the Enter key.  I assumed that meant after I click the hotspot, I type my name, and then I press Enter.  However, when I pressed Enter I got the Incorrect pop-up, and I can't continue the rest of the simulation.  Am I understanding the triggers incorrectly?

Hi Jessica,

Sorry, my feedback layers were not correct in this example, I was more just demonstrating how the triggers worked. The first slide is the hotspot of clicking within the full name field, you'd still need to use the submit button on that one. The second slide may have also given you an incorrect as the answer is my name, Ashley (which was what I typed while recording). I'm able to continue through the simulation if I enter the correct answers and use the correct trigger for each text entry. If you're not going to use the submit button, you'll also want to remove it from the player set up, so that the user doesn't try clicking on it. 

Ahhh, ok.  So, pretty much, it would probably make my life easier if I just stick with clicking the submit button after the actions lol.  I'll do that for this one, but I'll keep practicing your other suggestions like the enter key.  Thanks so much!

Wait!  I think I get it now!  Do the text responses have to be the same as what I actually typed in the video?  That's the only way mine are working now.

  You got it. 

Whatever you enter is the default answer the user needs to enter. If there could be more than one acceptable answer, you'll want to click on the button in the top right of the Trigger/layer panel that says "Edit Text Entry" and you'll be able to add additional answers there. 

I see!  Ok.  I didn't know that it was actually capturing my text.  I thought you could put whatever you wanted lol.  Awesome.  Thank you sooo much Ashley!

No worries Jessica! The screen recording feature captures everything you do - and you can always delete the individual slides if you've inserted as step by step if you don't want to show the "click on hotspot" type ones. 

If you need anything else, let us know!