Variables within Layers

Sep 14, 2014

Hello All,

I'm having a problem getting a character to show based on a true/false variable set at the beginning of the course. It seems to work just fine on the base layer of a slide but not on a layer of a slide.

I'm attaching the file so you can see what I'm talking about.

I've tried several different things so far and can't seem to make it work. It may be that what I want to happen is not possible and I may have to just duplicate my slides (layers and all) for the two different paths the end user could take but that seems like a duplication of effort and a doubling of the end file size.

Am I missing something?

3 Replies
Kevin Thorn

Hi Rick,

You're on the right track and you're not going to believe that it was just a case of mistaken identity.

On Slide 1.3 your base slide character objects are named "aFEMALE" and "aMALE" in the timeline. Those two characters on that slide's layer have the exact same name. While having objects sharing the same name from slide to layer if fine, it can become quite challenging when it comes to asset management.

I've fixed it in the attached .story file, but take a look at your file and the two triggers on that layer that change the characters from Hidden to Normal. The trigger is correct, although it's pointing to the object's name (character) on the base slide and not the character on the layer. It all sense your slide is working just fine only you're not seeing anything because the base character is already set to Normal.

I simply pointed those two triggers to the characters on the actual layer. Since you have a lot of objects, you have to scroll down the list a bit to find them.

TIP: Give your objects unique names across layers. Triggers can affect objects on the base slide and any of the layers. It's easy to lose them when you have a lot of objects and/or layers. Ex: MALEbase, FEMALEbase, MALElayer, FEMALElayer. This also helps when looking at the Triggers panel for a quick scan.

Rick Nusz

Thank you Sir!

That actually makes sense now that I stop and think about it. It also clears up something I saw the other day and at the time thought was odd. Trying to remember who's doing what on each slide layer or from slide to slide is sometimes a pain but worth it if it gets the point across to the end user. Your tip is a good one which I will now be putting into practice! That should help me keep things straight. I was just about to duplicate all my slides and now I don't have to.

Thank you for your time and effort.

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