Using CTRL in "user presses a key" trigger on a mac
Jun 04, 2020
I've built a transcription task and used a trigger to pause/play the audio by defining two keyboard shortcuts - one for pause, one for play. The two keys in question ideally need to be next to each other on the keyboard, so I've gone for Ctrl + [ and Ctrl + ]. So when a user presses Ctrl + [ the audio begins to play, when they press ctrl + ] it pauses so that they can type and catch up.
One user has reported that this key combination threw them out of the course on the LMS and I've found that Cmd [ and Cmd ] are the shortcuts for back/forward in a browser in Mac OS.
When I define a shortcut involving Ctrl, would that "translate" as Cmd for mac users? Cos Macs do have Ctrl keys, right?
6 Replies
Hello Christina!
Good question! The Control Key on a Mac keyboard is used for right-clicking. The Command button on a Mac is the equivalent of the Control button on a Windows keyboard. Confusing, right?
I have a (possibly) related question: What if I have a Storyline interaction that asks the learner to press the Ctrl key on a Windows machine, but I want to accommodate the same action for a learner using a Mac (which would be to press the Command key)? I haven't figured out how to set the expected keystroke for an action to Command, since my Windows keyboard does not include that key.
In the attached image, you can see the dilemma for a Mac user.
Thanks in advance!
Hi, Jay.
I just tested this on my end: I created a project that used the combination Ctrl+A to trigger an action. On my Mac, I could use both Command+A and Ctrl+A without any issues.
If you have a project ready that you can share, I'm happy to test it on a Mac to see if it works as expected.
Hi, Maria. I do not have a project to share, but I'd love to see how you set up the Ctrl+A. As an added challenge, I'm looking to do Ctrl+left click (to select two items). Any suggestions on how to do that, if it is different? Thanks!
Hi, Jay.
I did some additional testing, so I need to retract/add to what I said above:
I'm attaching the .story file so you can take a look at my triggers.
As for Ctrl+left click, I am not aware of a way of using this combination in Storyline. My knowledge in Javascript is very basic, and not something we offer support on, but you might be able to achieve that through coding.
Thanks, Maria.
It seems that I've reached a functional dead-end. While I wish that weren't the case, I don't feel so bad that I couldn't make this work. :-)
I'll stick with my work-around, which is to include a text box that says, "We've pressed Ctrl / Command for you." in between the two click selections.
Jay