Link to external document - CBT content gets lost in background
Aug 20, 2021
Hello Heroes!
I'm wondering if anyone has any advice for my predicament.
Occasionally, I need to link to a document that is housed on an internal SharePoint site. This is the preferred method to ensure learners are always seeing the most up-to-date version, and prevents us from needing to update content each time a change is made.
I do this by simply creating a hyperlink and entering the SharePoint link as the destination.
The problem, however, is the document opens in a new window, and users frequently "lose" the CBT content behind other windows. Once a person closes the document, our LMS screen typically shows and users get caught in a loop of trying to relaunch the CBT. I get calls frequently, and have to point out to users that the content didn't get lost or closed, just hidden by another window.
Is there a better way to approach this, or settings I can adjust to make this easier on the end-user?
6 Replies
Hi Kyle! Are you open to learners downloading the document immediately instead of it opening in a new window? If so, I’ve done something similar by editing the hyperlink. I haven’t tried it in SharePoint, but I did find this blog that uses a similar process. I hope that helps your learners to keep content front and center while also saving you time. 😊
I would also be interested in how you get on Kylie as I have the same issue. Would love a fix and work around.
Hmmm... I couldn't get it to work using the steps in that blog. Looking at the comments on that thread, others were not able to, either. I thought I was following the instructions correctly, but there may have been some user error in there, too!
I was thinking more about this and I'd love to find a way for this to work when visiting third-party/external sites, too. Sites also pop open in a separate window forcing the content into the background.
Are there any other thoughts?
Hi Kyle! I'm sorry those steps didn't work. 🙁 The only way I know how to create an automatic download link is to use Google Drive and follow the instructions in this blog. I don't know what that process looks like for SharePoint. Perhaps someone in the community who uses SharePoint might be able to share their solution.
Do you have any other advice for link redirects in general?
The only other option I see is to "open in the same window" but my browser window that runs the content doesn't have navigation buttons to go back.
Hi Kyle! Another option I can think of would be to customize the window size of the download pop-up window. All you have to do is click the hyperlink to file trigger you set up. In the Trigger Wizard window, click the gear icon (Browser options). In the New Browser Window Properties pop-up window, go to Window size and click the drop-down. Select the custom option and set it to be smaller than your story size settings. The download will still pop up in a new window, but it will be much smaller, making the course still visible behind it. Here's an image for reference.
I hope that helps!