Forum Discussion
Add all values in a Storyline 360 table column?
Hi all:
I have no idea if this is even possible, but I thought maybe someone might be able to help. I have a Storyline 360 course that has many, many layers with the same table on them (just different contents and varying numbers of rows). One of the columns will be "Seat Time" where I'll add the number of minutes a course will take to complete.
What I'd love to be able to do is to enter a number of minutes into each cell in that column (I'm guessing as a variable) and then have a separate area where I total those variables. Kind of like this:
Total Seat Time: 20 minutes
| Course Name | Seat Time in minutes |
| Course 1 | 10 |
| Course 2 | 5 |
| Course 3 | 3 |
| Course 4 | 2 |
Does anyone know if that's even possible; and, if it is, how I would go about doing that?
Do you want the user to enter the seat time during development? If so, put Numeric Entry Fields in each row.
When you insert an entry field, Storyline automatically creates a variable to hold its value.
- I suggest you rename each variable (e.g., "Row1," "Row2," etc.)
- Note that the value doesn't change until the field "loses focus" (that is, the user clicks something else). Therefore, it's best to have a button (e.g., "Done") for the user to click when they're ready for the values to be added.
- This button can also be used to run the triggers for adding the values.
You'll need create a number variable (e.g., "Total") to hold the final total.
Add triggers to the "Done" button that add the value of each row variable to the "Total" variable. For example, those would look something like this:
Finally, wherever you want to show the total, insert a reference to the "Total" variable.
Here's more info about about data-entry fields: https://community.articulate.com/series/articulate-storyline-360/articles/articulate-storyline-360-user-guide-how-to-work-with-data-entry-fields
And here's more info about variables: https://community.articulate.com/series/articulate-storyline-360/articles/articulate-storyline-360-user-guide-how-to-work-with-variables
And if you don't want the user entering the values, well, just enter the values. You could show the total elsewhere by just entering the total. There's no need to bother with variables if you can do the math in advance.
I second Judy's suggestion. If the learner isn't entering those numbers, you want a spreadsheet, or a calculator. Add the numbers, put them in a variable and the learner can see how long it takes. It will be faster than a bunch of triggers that run in preview and show the learner how long it takes.
Thanks, Judy. :-)
No, I wasn't looking for the user to enter the values. This isn't actually a course as such. I'm creating a heat map that shows all of the learning offerings for our coporation month by month for a couple of years and also broken down by audience, modality, division, etc.
I need to enter the values myself into Storyline, but they'll have to be updated on a regular basis. My issue is that there are a LOT of these layers, and the number of rows to be added changes with each one. I was hoping I could be lazy and do something like MS Excel where I could enter the values onto each layer and it would automatically SUM them for me.
I think the best "lazy" solution is to put the offerings in MS Excel. That's easy to update. And you could save it as a PDF, and share that with people who need to see the content.
😊
Thanks, Judy. They're already in a spreadsheet. They wanted a heat map. Don't worry about it. I'll just do it manually. Thanks again for responding.
Excel will do a heat map. If the numbers are already there, it’s a huge, and in my opinion, unnecessary investment to move them to SL. Then next month, when they change, you have to re-create the graphics, and realistically, you are constantly re-inventing the wheel. Frankly, using storyline for this is like trying to use an eggbeater to drive your fishing boat; I guess you could, if you don’t care how hard it is or how long it takes, but why would you want to?
