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BethanyMavro598's avatar
BethanyMavro598
Community Member
8 months ago

A Choose Your Own Adventure navigation

Hello! I set up my course with sections and have the triggers set to jump to those sections when the user clicks each map. I want them to be able to click on whatever section they want, have them go through the section, and then the last slide of the section goes back to the menu slide attached. When they go back to the main slide, I want whatever section they already went through to have an X (which I have set up in the states already as a VISITED state).

Then when they have viewed all 3, the blue "Click here to complete the course" button comes up to take them to the 4th and final section. I have a trigger set up to have the button HIDDEN when the timeline starts and NORMAL when the state of all 3 is VISITED. But it is not working. I am not great with variables yet and I find them pretty confusing so any help you pros can give me would be much appreciated! 

  • Generally, the Visited state is pretty reliable for indicating layers that have been visited on the same slide; less so when visiting other (or groups of other) slides. In those cases, I use a trigger to set the state on revisiting the menu slide. But that can also cause problems if you create your own trigger to change a built-in state, because it conflicts with the built-in action. So I give the state a different name.

    Most of us set a variable when each section is completed, and set the state when the timeline starts on the menu slide. Returning will start the timeline, and the trigger reads, "Change state of XXXX to Completed when timeline starts on this slide if {SectionVisitedVariable] = true.  Just rename the Visited state to Completed, and you're good to go.

    There is a sample at this discussion:

     
    that does what you want. Use the mixed navigation.
     
    Of course, there could be a number of reasons why it doesn't work. If this doesn't get you straightened out, attach your .story file here, and someone can take a look at it.
     
    This post can help you with variables.
    • BethanyMavro598's avatar
      BethanyMavro598
      Community Member

      Thank you for the quick reply and information! When I tried to change the name of the state from visited to completed, it gave me the message "renaming a built-in state disables its default function" and I need that function to be that it was clicked on/visited. I'm a graphic designer who was pulled into Instructional Design a year ago and I had to learn Storyline quickly, which wasn't too bad because it was so much like PowerPoint but the use of variables is still confusing. I opened the SL file you attached but transferring that to my existing project is pretty confusing.  I'm attaching the file so someone can take a look. I appreciate any help with setting up the triggers/variables on slide 1.4. 

      • BethanyMavro598's avatar
        BethanyMavro598
        Community Member

        Thank you so much for opening my file and adding those triggers. That was really kind of you.

        When the menu opens for the first time, the About Us already has the X on it and the Company Culture does not show the X after you go through it. The 3rd one did work. And the button that should pop up after all three are visited does not appear after visiting all 3. I studied the triggers you added and it should all work so I am totally stumped. Of course, it's 2am and I should have gone to bed awhile ago. :) 

  • You wrote:

    When I tried to change the name of the state from visited to completed, it gave me the message "renaming a built-in state disables its default function"

    That's precisely why you need to change the name. As long as that default function (Visited state)  exists, it is not totally reliable for what you need to do. But you can't just write the new triggers for it if it has the default name and thereby the default function. That can cause serious conflicts.

    The menu has new triggers to change the objects to Completed state according to the the value of the variables. Then each of the three branches has a trigger to set the variable when the learner is finished with that scene.

  • Hi Folks, First time poster here! I have a similar/adjacent issue. I'm trying to get the objects to hold their visited state when returning to the main slide, from other slides. The first button (Health and Safety) works just fine. I copied it, to create Sustainability, and it won't hold the visited state unless you visit the object twice. I cannot figure out why one works and the other doesn't. Any help is appreciated. 

    Thanks, 

  • Bethany,

    I'm there. It was late when I finished that, and I didn't test it.  Sorry.

    Set the initial value of AboutUs to False.

    On slde 3.6, NOT QUITE layer, set the first trigger to Set CompanyCulture, instead of AboutUs.

    Give that a try.

    By the way, nice looking design.

    • BethanyMavro598's avatar
      BethanyMavro598
      Community Member

      Thank you for the compliment! I'm hoping my skill in designing in Storyline can catch up with my graphic design skills. 

      Just went through the whole course. The blue button for the last section works now and the last 2 sections also work. The About Us does not show the X after going through it but everything else works perfectly. 

      You have been a HUGE help and having this template will set me up for the many courses I have ahead of me. 

  • Lindsay,

    Sometimes things can happen when objects are copied. My first step would be to delete the second button, and recreate it from scratch. That sometimes straightens things out.

  • You're welcome. PIAWYC  (Pass it along when you can). 
    I think slide 2.1 may be causing part of the problem. There is no Next button to click, like the other slides. I personally favor as much consistency as possible for the learners. It advances when the timeline runs out. The other navigation is when ABOUT US is clicked, which restarts the scene. You might want to check that.
    • BethanyMavro598's avatar
      BethanyMavro598
      Community Member

      Oh my gosh... finally figured it out. There was an added trigger on the last slide of the About Us section and the value was set to TRUE. I switched it to FALSE and it works now! Only took me all day of previewing the class over and over and that was all it was. Now I can publish and get on with my life! Thank you again for all your thoughtful replies and help!

    • BethanyMavro598's avatar
      BethanyMavro598
      Community Member

      Hi Walt. Me again.

      This was all working perfectly. Then we needed to break up the last slide in the Company Culture section into 3 slides. I made a new trigger instead of copying over because I know that can cause problems, but it is set exactly like the other 2 sections that still work. I checked the variable panel to make sure Company Culture mirrored the other 2 sections and there wasn't some random trigger messing it up. Went into layer properties.

      I've tried everything that I could think of. And since the Company Culture section isn't showing as "completed" when you go through it, the button that takes you to the end is not coming up. On paper, this should work. But we want to get these classes out in 2 weeks and I would hate to abandon the Choose Adventure branching that I've put hours into at this point.

      I'm attaching it again. If you have any ideas, I'm at the end of my rope and about to give up. I really appreciate the help. 

  • Here's your problem:

    Once the Jump trigger is encountered, the jump starts, and all the rest of the triggers below it are forgotten. Set the variable before you jump, and all will be well.

  • I never thought that the trigger panel was like the timeline panel but that really makes sense. Things need to be in order. Been using SL for over a year and that's such a valuable lesson. 

    I hope this thread can help others because it just opened up a door for me. These classes were going out for review today and I was going to have to dismantle the menu and make the class linear. 

    Thanks for saving my class and sanity, Walt! 

  • You’re welcome, and don’t feel badly. This is such a common problem, it should be mentioned in the User Guide.