Forum Discussion
Audio sometimes plays at timeline start
RonPrice and ThierryEMMANUEL - I've received my "solution", though it's not necessarily what I would have liked to hear :)
When you add a "Play media" trigger, it "detaches" it from the timeline, hence will not start automatically on the slide ("detach" was the term used by support when we got the final resolution as to why the audio wasn't starting). So, what I've done is add a "Play media when the timeline starts on this slide" trigger to "work around" the trigger on one of the buttons.
I thought about moving the audio, text box, and button to close the text block to that layer to their own layer with a "Play media when timeline starts on this layer." Then, change the buttons to close or display the text block would just have triggers to show or hide the layer.
I'm on the fence as to what best practice would be - my thought is that if there's only one text box, solution 1 is best, but if there's more than one layer, solution 2 is preferred. I'm wide open to input on that as well, being still newish to the machinations of Storyline.
Hello JasonDalrymple
Thanks for keeping us informed. I always appreciate learning something new.
Okay, I finally figured it out by doing a little test. If an audio file is managed by “Pause media” and “Play media (= continue playing media)” triggers, it needs a first trigger “Play media = start playing media” otherwise it will never start. On the other hand, if the media is on a layer and you manage the layer's timeline with triggers (pause timeline, resume timeline), you control the audio playback without changing its waveform. This is simpler (to manage, visually and in the long term, in my opinion).
I just finished a module with a kind of notebook where you can view written and audio notes. I didn't think twice about it: one layer for each audio file with its written transcription. On the base layer, one button per layer to make them appear (or appear automatically in your case?). One button on the layer to close it (and thus stop the audio). One layer closes the other layers (in Layer Settings). And then duplicate, duplicate, duplicate the layers. Done. Here's my recommendation. Keep it simple.
