How to show Base Layer

Hi Josie,

If you add "visited" states to your buttons, you can add a trigger that says: hide layer when the timeline ends if the state of all of the buttons are equal to visited.

I hope that makes sense! Let me know if you're struggling.

Hi, Josie,

What Allison suggested would work. However, it could confuse the user if they're looking at the last layer and the program suddenly returns to the base.

There are multiple options for handling this situation. For example, you could include an optional button on each layer that closes the layer. This could be as simple as an X in the corner. The user would still be able to switch between layers by clicking the main base-layer buttons, but this would also give them the option to return to the base layer at any time.

Here's how I like to program interactive slides with multiple layers:

• Put the initial content into its own layer. I usually name this layer "Intro."
• Add a button (e.g., "Introduction") on the base layer. 
  • Give it a trigger to show the Intro layer. This allows the users to return to that content at any time.
• On the base layer, add a trigger that shows the Intro layer when the timeline starts. This means the user sees the Intro content right away, without having to click a button.
• Set the Slide Properties to "Reset to initial state" when revisiting. That will replay the timeline, which means it will re-activate the trigger to show the Intro layer. In other words, when the user returns to the slide, they'll see the Intro layer.
  • Because the default setting for layers is to hide other layers when one layer is shown, the show-Intro-layer trigger will, in essence, also hide whatever layer the user was on when they exited the slide.
• You may also need to add triggers to control the State for the Introduction button. How you do this will depend on whether or not your buttons include a Selected state.
  • If you're working with a Button Set (i.e., each button has a Selected state, and the buttons are linked into a set so that selecting one button de-selects the others), then you can add a trigger to the Intro layer to change the state of the Introduction button to selected when the Intro layer's timeline starts. That will make that button appear selected when the slide first opens, even though the user hasn't clicked it.
  • If your buttons don't have a Selected state, but they do have a Visited state, set the Initial State of the Introduction button to Visited.