Help? Wrong layers showing in accordion interaction.

SOLVED...mostly... 

Ok, well, after reading some other threads, I added hotspots and used those as triggers instead of the groups, and now the triggers work correctly, and go to the correct layers. Is using hotspots over a group the preferred method now? Perhaps that template I based thison was created for an earlier version of Storyline? 

The only thing is now the hover and down states for the "buttons"/groups no longer show up. I guess hotspots cannot have states? Is there any way to keep the functionality of the states for the shapes in the groups under them? Not really critical but would be nice. 

new version:

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/70b1e783-4092-48f9-abd6-4192510d0910/review 

Thanks for any insights or ideas! 

Lon 

Hi, Lon.

Thank you for sharing your .story file!

The original file you attached was correct - you just needed a few minor changes so it could work. I noticed the groups on your layers were named differently (so group 1 on layer Item 01 was called group 4 on layer Item 02, for example), which is why the triggers were not working correctly. 

I fixed the triggers, and I'm attaching the edited file here.

As for your question about hotspots, you are correct - hotspots and groups can't have states. You can use transparent shapes instead as an alternative since you can add states to shapes.

Hi Maria,

Thank you so much for taking the time to troubleshoot this and for sharing this information! I will definitely be more attentive to naming errors in the future. And thanks for the other information and suggestions. I will check out also using transparent shapes also. 

Thanks again, Maria for catching those scrambled group names. Not sure how that happened. However, as I look further into this, and as I am working to set up some rollover triggers on shapes for another page, there seems to something else going on. It seems that for some reason, hover states for shapes are not working at all.

Here is the updated version of the file you worked on... (I think... somehow the groups names got scrambled again but I changed them all and the that part seems to work now.)

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/9229489c-d495-4f5f-b84b-471af2f291c1/review

Clicking on each group does show the right content.  But I noticed that the hover state for the shape of each group is being triggered only when hovering over the text label or the arrow icon. In between there is no hover effect. 

This same problem seems to be happening when I try setting up a shape to trigger a popup, vs using a hotspot here:

https://360.articulate.com/review/content/d0a2a219-11bc-4cfd-987b-cad3cb1ebbbf/review

Story files for both examples attached. 

Triggers are working for hotspots, so a work around is to create a shape to trigger from each hotspot. But that seems like a more complicated way to do it as it means setting up a shape to trigger for the hover effect. And I just don't understand why the shape triggers are not working. 

I am using the latest version of Storyline 360, via VMware on a Mac. But it seems like many people are doing this without problems. 

I'm really interested if you have any ideas, or if this is something I should submit a support ticket for. 

Thanks!

Lon 

Lon,

The shortest answer is that the shapes aren't working because they have no fill. With no fill, there are no pixels inside the shape to sense the mouse hovering over them. For a shape to catch the mouse, it has to have a fill. For you not to see the shape, it has to have its transparency set to 99%, You can do this by right clicking and choosing Format Shape.

A longer answer involves best practices for States. There is an old saying in the theater: "Anyone who puts kids or animals on the stage deserves what happens to them." That means that no matter how well-behaved, or well-trained you think they are, at some time they are going to revert to their true nature, and you can only hope it doesn't happen during a performance. The SL correlation is: "Anyone who uses groups deserves what happens to them." That means that no matter how well-behaved or how well-trained you hope they are, groups don't play nicely with anything, and especially not states, clicking on, and triggers. Sooner or later, you are likely to have problems with them, as you may have already noticed.

I used a group in SL once, and it worked the way I wanted. I think it was in 19... No, wait. I'm thinking of another program, Maybe ... Well, it doesn't matter; the point is that groups don't work in SL. Pretty much you can use groups, or you can have triggers and states that work, but not both. My advice: quit messing around with groups, and create objects that work with states, and clicks.

One way to do this is to create a single object. Objects can have text on them.

Another method is to create a simple object, then if you have to add other items (like a graphic, text, etc) edit the normal state, and paste the second item into the Normal state. That works because it is still all one single object.

A third method is to put everything together, select them all, right click, export shape as picture, and insert it as a graphic.

A fourth method is to create all of the object in a graphics program and inset the graphic.

Editing these is easier if you create a shape, instead of a graphic. It doesn't take as long, either.

The ultimate aim is to have one single object to catch the clicks, and change state. Groups can't do that because they are a bunch of separate items.

None of these methods will allow a partial area of a table to trigger from a hover or click, so your best bet is a transparent shape.

Walt, 

Lol. Thank you so much for all these tips and information...and the humor! Everything you say makes sense. Good to know. Very much appreciated. So many little features and tricks to learn! 

You're welcome. PIAWYC (Pass it along when you can).