Trouble with states

Jun 04, 2015

Any thoughts on what is wrong with my states on this slide? When I move down from chapter 1-6 everything works fine with the hover state. However, if I hover in reverse chronological order the hover state does not work.

I've attached a copy of the story file along with a video screencast of the problem.

 

Thanks.

10 Replies
Rob Morgan

It seems like the problem is how SL2 deals with layering when there are multiple states available. It is not sure if the picture should go in front of or behind the base content so it is not recognizing that I am hovering over a different chapter since the image is in front of the text box that has the next chapter on it.

Sending the hover state to the back does not appear to help. This seems like a SL2 bug to me but I will work around it by just making my image smaller and off to the side.

Emily Ruby

Hi Rob,

After taking a look at your file, it is behaving this way due to the fact that Text box 6 is on top of the other items on the timeline. Since this is on top, if you hover over this first, you will not be able to access the other buttons until you leave the hover image to get the text box back to normal. Basically the hover image will sit on top of all the other items based on where the Normal object is on the timeline. The same thing occurs if you select text box 5 first, you cannot access the ones below while the hover image is visible.

The way to get around this, as mentioned above,  is to make the hover images not appear over the whole screen. This way the other text boxes can still be accessed when the hover image is showing. Hope this helps.

Rob Morgan

Not sure if you saw the post I made yesterday but that is what I had stated. To me this seems to be a defect or system limitation. In my opinion the items on the slide should always be clickable despite a hover state. The way to create something different that could work is to make the image smaller, the way to make this work the way I initially designed it is to use a layer rather than a state to accomplish the same thing.

 

Emily Ruby

Hi Rob,

Thanks for the update. As of now, the items and their states are based on the order they are within the timeline. If you would like to see something different with the items and their states, you can submit a feature request here.

One way to achieve what you are looking for is to put the "hover" image into a layer, and set up a trigger to show that layer when they hover over the text box. If you check "restore on mouse leave" it should work as intended.

Rob Morgan

I am not sure if you are seeing what I am writing but this is the second time you have suggested exactly what I had just written. My post from 30 mins ago said "the way to make this work the way I initially designed it is to use a layer rather than a state to accomplish the same thing." Your post from 2 mins ago says "One way to achieve what you are looking for is to put the "hover" image into a layer, and set up a trigger to show that layer when they hover over the text box."

Last night I wrote "It seems like the problem is how SL2 deals with layering when there are multiple states available."

And then you wrote: "After taking a look at your file, it is behaving this way due to the fact that Text box 6 is on top of the other items on the timeline."

I appreciate the assistance but if it is just a echo of what I have already written it is not necessary. I decided to go a different route with this though so I am good now. Thanks.

Emily Ruby

Hi Rob,

I was just letting you know that the way you had it set up using states was working as designed. You can submit a feature request if you would like to see the way these are handled within the timeline changed. And also that you were correct, using layers is a workaround, if making the items smaller does not work for your project :)

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