triggers, layers, and states of objects

Aug 27, 2012

Dorothy Stark
By Dorothy Stark

Could someone tell me if triggers on a layer can change the state of objects on that layer or only the state of objects on the base layer?

I wanted a Correct layer to show different captions based on the value of a variable. (If the variable has a certain value, then a character has a caption saying one thing. If the variable has a different value, then a different state of the caption appears.) I tried to have everything on the Correct layer itself, attaching triggers to the layer (not the object) and starting them at the beginning of the timeline of the layer.

Since that didn't work, I figured out how to achieve what I wanted by putting the captions on the base layer and having them start out hidden. Then the Correct layer could trigger changes to the the base layer.

But I'm pretty new to all this and don't know whether that's just the way Storyline works or whether I should have been able to do everything on the Correct layer and somehow just messed up the triggers. Before I start on another project, I was hoping someone could set me straight. Thanks!

Dorothy

3 Replies
Michael Rosenberger
over 11 years ago08/27/12 at 5:47 pm (UTC)

I am sure there are several ways to do this but I made this using a data entry field which stored in a variable. Then when the submit button was clicked it would evaluate the variable. If the value was one, it would show layer one. If two, layer two, And of course, if the value was 3 it would show layer three. The variable could be evaluated as an exact number, or even for ranges of numbers, and could have as many response layers, or captions as you mention, as you need.

Story

http://pod.pc.maricopa.edu/licks/story.html

Source file

http://pod.pc.maricopa.edu/licks/licks.story

Hope this helps.

You could also edit the states of a text field with different responses. So a text box (call it TEXT1) response could be set to hidden by default, the you would use 'change state' of TEXT1 to response 1 if the value of VARIABLE  is 1...and so on.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense. Trying to get this in before a meeting!

Dorothy Stark
over 11 years ago08/27/12 at 6:29 pm (UTC)

I appreciate your response, Michael. I don't think I explained things very well. My issue wasn't with a trigger on the main slide calling up different layers based on the value of the variable. It was with a trigger on a Correct/Incorrect quiz slide layer changing the state of an object on that layer.

But I just tried that with a simple case, and it worked fine, even though in the middle of a big project, it didn't. I guess I must have done something else wrong then, and my workaround using the base layer wasn't necessary. All part of the learning process, I guess. Thanks again.

Dorothy

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.