Forum Discussion
Hidden Developer Notes
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.
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.
It does seem that the hidden slide content is still absent, even after translation. It's likely a convenience to translate everything at once.
Never experienced this aspect of Storyline before. Thanks for the prompt.
I've never needed to be concerned about this, either. I checked because I thought your suggestion of hiding on the Timeline would be a good way to keep developer notes in the file but not have them exported for translation, because translation costs are typically charged per word.
IMHO, if an item isn't visible on the Timeline, its text shouldn't be exported for translation. If that were how it worked, one could keep developer notes visible if they were going to hand off translated files to developers who speak those languages. Otherwise, don't pay to have them translated.
Oh well. This is a niche issue anyway. 🤷♀️