View question/answers on Feedback layers? Also: instability!

Feb 15, 2017

Chris Wirick
By Chris Wirick

I assume this is a simple matter, but I can't seem to figure it out. How do I get my questions and choices to appear on the feedback (correct/incorrect) layers? I want them to see the feedback as well as the original question and choices. All I currently see is my feedback text and my on-screen Continue button. If I try to copy and paste the question/choices text from the question layer to a feedback layer Storyline crashes immediately. Every time. On a previous project my questions/choices text did appear on the feedback layers. Not sure what I did differently this time nor how to fix it.

I made the mistake of thinking I could copy some survey questions from a previous project to the new project, input new text, and convert them to graded questions to save some time. NOPE! No conversion possible (that I could find) - you have to create each new question from scratch. I found that out the hard way, after a couple of hours of work that now had to be redone. :(

I've actually found the quizzing functionality in Storyline 2 to be either extremely buggy or just extremely counterintuitive. Some feedback layers absolutely refuse to accept my font changes. I have to copy some text in that font from an on-screen button, paste it into the text block, then drop my cursor within that text and manually retype (!!!) the entire feedback message to get the correct font (smells a lot like the weird unresolvable-formatting issues one can experience in Microsoft Word). Selecting the text and choosing the font fails. It shows that my selected font has been applied, but the text does not look like my selected font. Setting up slide masters for the quizzes has not seemed to work as expected. Also I wish you could vertically adjust the radio buttons. It just looks weird to have the button aligned center to a long text answer rather than to the top edge.

I've also experienced a lot of crashes. Running Storyline 360 in Windows 10 in Parallels on my iMac i7 with tons of RAM. I worked late into the night last night to finish up a project for a client and Storyline fought me every step of the way (hampering the Save Early/Save Often approach is the long amount of time Storyline takes to save a project file (this particular one is only 14 screens). 64-bit versions of the Articulate suite would probably help. :(

Better yet, a Mac-native version. (When???)

Anyone else experiencing similar frustrations?

23 Replies
Alyssa Gomez
7 years ago02/16/17 at 4:15 pm (UTC)

Hi there Chris,

Sorry to hear you've had such a frustrating experience with Storyline 360! I hate that you had to work into the night to contend with all of those crashes--let's see if we can get you up and running smoothly again.

Questions and answer choices on feedback layers

First you'll want to double check that the 'Hide objects on base layer' option is not selected on the Slide Layer Properties. If that option is un-checked and you're still not seeing anything from the base layer appearing on the slide layer, I'd want to take a closer look at your file to see what could be causing that issue.

Copying questions from one project to another

We generally recommend using Copy/Paste within the same project, such as copying a slide from one scene to another. If you're working with two separate projects, you'll want to Import the slides from one project to another. Just curious - were you copy/pasting slides from SL2 to SL360, or were both projects SL360?

Fonts on feedback layers

You definitely should not have issues changing the font on your feedback layers. Have you tried changing the font theme via View > Slide Master > Fonts? Even still, you should be able to format the font directly from individual feedback masters, so I'd like to take a look at the file to see exactly what's happening. 

Radio button alignment

The default alignment for radio buttons is centered with the text, but I know there have been other folks who have requested alignment to the top edge. It's definitely worth sharing with our product development team, as that gives us a better idea of how in demand the feature is. 

If you don't need to shuffle the answer choices, an alternative would be to manually add radio buttons and text boxes to a Pick One question slide, and those radio buttons can be aligned to the tops of the text boxes. 

Storyline crashing

You mentioned you struggled with Storyline 360 crashing while copy/pasting text and in other occasions. Did you notice that happening in just the one file, or in all of your Storyline 360 files? You may want to try running a repair to see if that fixes the issue. Beyond that, our Support Engineers are stellar at troubleshooting this kind of thing, and they can work with you one-on-one based on your specific set-up. You can reach them anytime, day or night, right here. 

Hopefully this helps clear up some of the issues you're experiencing, and I'm happy to take a look at your file if you'd like to send it may way. :)

And by the way, since you asked about a Mac version, I don't have any information to share about our desktop applications being accessible on a Mac without Parallels at this point. Keep in mind you can use certain elements of Articulate 360 such as Rise, Review, and Peek natively within a Mac. We will be sure to let everyone know if we have any news on developments of Mac versions of desktop apps, so always keep your ear out! 

Wendy Farmer
7 years ago02/19/17 at 4:13 am (UTC)

Hi Chris

 Coming  late to the party so apologies if youve tried this. On the bottom right base layer can you see an eye icon?  I know this is on a normal slide from memory I  think it is on quiz type sides as well. This is a show hide visibility toggle - not sure if you have tried tweaking this.

Wendy Farmer
7 years ago02/20/17 at 12:14 am (UTC)

Hi Chris

see if the attached video is of any help.  I duplicated the default feedback master then made my changes. I don't delete the default elements I move them off stage and add my own.

I know you are sharing stuff directly with support so it's hard for us to see what's happening - just thought I would do this quick video to show how it's working for me that may help you out.

Hope I have understood your issue.

Good luck with your project.

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard
7 years ago02/20/17 at 5:00 pm (UTC)

Hi Chris,

Let us know if Wendy's suggestions help or if you're still running into issues. You mentioned conducting a screen recording of the behavior and we'd be happy to take a look at that, but I didn't see it shared here? If you meant to attach it you'll want to make sure you use the "add attachment" button vs. responding to the forum discussion using your email and trying to attach it there. 

Alyssa Gomez
7 years ago02/21/17 at 8:44 pm (UTC)

Yikes, I can see how that's got you completely stuck. Thanks for sharing a video of how it's behaving. Have you seen this happen in other Storyline 360 files, or just this one? And is this file saved to your local hard drive as opposed to a network drive? 

We want to get you up and running again as soon as possible, and the fastest way to get help is to share your file with our Support Engineers here. They're available 24/7 and will work with you one on one to get this sorted out. 

Chris Wirick
7 years ago02/21/17 at 8:50 pm (UTC)
Alyssa Gomez

Have you seen this happen in other Storyline 360 files, or just this one? And is this file saved to your local hard drive as opposed to a network drive?

This is my first experience with this issue, but I have not been using Storyline 360 long. My files are stored both on the local hard drive as well as on a network drive (DropBox), but Storyline should be accessing the local drive version.

Wendy Farmer
7 years ago02/21/17 at 9:18 pm (UTC)

Hey Chris

I've rebuilt the feedback master and used it on a newly created quiz slide - so there is only a correct and incorrect feedback layer instead of the 5 layers you had as it seems the four incorrect responses all received the same feedback and you weren't using triggers to say 'show layer x' when something happened so SL is really only looking to use two layers Correct and Incorrect or if more than one attempt the 'Try Again' layer as well.

Also, the fonts will look different as I didn't have yours installed.

Let me know if this helps or I'm off the track.

I've attached updated file and a quick video 

Chris Wirick
7 years ago02/21/17 at 9:58 pm (UTC)

Fantastic Wendy, thanks so much for your help! I'll take a look at this and let you know how it goes.

Oddly I didn't create the 5 feedback layers manually. I believe Storyline created them for me, even though the incorrect feedback for this particular question is the same for each answer. That's not the case for some of the other questions in my quiz. Hmm.

Bronwyn Botts
over 6 years ago08/18/17 at 2:22 pm (UTC)

Hey everybody...looks like I'm about 6 months late to the conversation, but I'm hoping one of you can help me!  I'm having a similar problem as Chris...my base layer is ALSO not showing up when the feedback layer pops up.  I've used a basic feedback layer (the "clean" one).  At one point in my course, my base layer was there when it popped up and now all of a sudden, it's not there.  Not sure what I've done to break it.  I've attached my slide here...any help you can give me is appreciated!

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