Forum Discussion
Hidden Developer Notes
When I create courses in Canvas for higher ed, I create a hidden page for Faculty Notes that is unpublished that students can't see. I'm finding when I go back to Storyline courses that I created a while ago, I did things with logic or tricks I can't always remember. I just built a course with a web object that had code that I'd love to remember the original template if I have to fix it again. Sure I can have a separate file with this info, but it would be so nice if it was all connected. Is there a way to create a page of developer notes in a Storyline file with details about things like this that would be visible to the developer but not publish with the course?
We have Notes, but I use the Notes on each slide to create a transcript, and that's slide specific anyway. I'm looking for overall course.
Do others out there have a trick to help with this?
Thanks in advance for your brilliance!
Hi JeanMarrapodi-c! In my Storyline projects, I create a separate scene for design and branding notes, which I hide from the menu to ensure it's not visible in the course. Alternatively, you can place a text box "off stage" (outside the slide area) for developer notes on specific slides. Just remember to hide the text box in the accessibility settings.
Hi JeanMarrapodi-c! In my Storyline projects, I create a separate scene for design and branding notes, which I hide from the menu to ensure it's not visible in the course. Alternatively, you can place a text box "off stage" (outside the slide area) for developer notes on specific slides. Just remember to hide the text box in the accessibility settings.
Besides using the "Notes" panel, I've left notes for myself a couple ways:
- Add a bright-red, off-slide shape with a short note.
- Add a "DevNotes" layer to a slide (which, of course, is never triggered to show), and put the info there.
- Add a "Storage" scene with the slide(s) that explain the programming. If the built-in Menu is shown in the course, be sure this scene is removed from the Menu. (BTW, I also use a "Storage" scene for any slides to be lightboxed, plus any other slides I might want to keep handy for a while.)
FYI: Keep in mind that this text would be exported for translation along with the actual course content.
A simple internal method would be to create an additional slide in the project, maybe in its own scene, and not link it to anything. Then, create whatever note-type information you want on that slide. When finished, select the Show/Hide All icon in the top left of the timeline for that slide.
Hidden content does not get published. If you examine the web-published output for a project, you will find the slide contents listed under \html5\data\js. IN that folder, there will be a list of files named [some random text].js, one for each side. The random text is the slide ID (SL variable Slide.Id). Comparing one of these files between two published versions, one with visible content and one with hidden content (timeline hidden, not hidden states) will show that the hidden content is missing from the slide.
Nathan_Hilliard : I did some testing and discovered that even hidden text on a wouldn't-be-published slide is included when Exporting for Translations. (See attached files.)
I'm going to submit this as a case to the staff, because that just doesn't seem right...
I suppose the reason for that is that the developer may need to unhide content in the future, so all available content in the project is translated. Upon publishing, the hidden content should presumably still be absent. I haven't verified that however.
Content inside the Slide Master that is not applied to any slide or layer will not be included in the published course or in the translation files. You can create layouts such as "My Notes 1," "My Notes 2," etc., within the Slide Master to store your notes without worrying about anyone else seeing them. There's no need to hide anything, as this content will remain invisible in the final output. Simply give the Slide Master a meaningful name, such as "My Notes," and name the subsequent layers "Notes 1," "Notes 2," etc., to avoid the risk of mistakenly applying them to a slide.
Thanks! That's a great idea for adding development notes in a course that needs to be translated.
(Of course, then there's the problem of remembering the notes are there... 🤣 )
These are such good ideas!!! I'm glad I asked. Thanks all.
