Forum Discussion
I can't get "hide slide layer when timeline finishes" to work.
I can't get the "hide slide layer when timeline finishes" to work!
Do I understand this option correctly? When a layer's timeline ends after an animation or video completes, the layer reverts to the base layer. Is this correct? If it is correct, then why doesn't it work for me after I added an animated text box, or a video?
I can confirm that layer six does hide itself, returning me to the base layer. Layer 6 is also over 18 seconds long though so I suspect you simply weren't waiting for it to end. Since all of the other layers are only five seconds long, I expect the 18-second timeline is an accident? It can either be manually shortened to match the length of the video, or a trigger added to hide the video "when the media completes":
And yes, the play button at the bottom of the player allows someone to restart the base layer. As far as I know it can't restart any non-base layers because we can create projects that show multiple layers at a time, so I'm not sure how the play button would know which non-base layer to play/pause.
If you want to hide the play button on the bottom, you can change the Menus & Controls toggle to Off from the Player menu:
7 Replies
Well, most obviously: do you do anything that would stop the timeline before it reaches the end?
Try hiding the layer a second before the timeline ends? I've been known to add a button to hide the layer, just to make sure that I'm hiding the right one.We'll be better able to troubleshoot if you can share the project file or a screenshot of the layer and its triggers/timeline. It sounds like something is interfering with the ending of the slide, but without more context we're left to guess unfortunately.
For instance, what makes you think the base layer isn't resuming? Perhaps it is and whatever evidence you're using to verify that is getting hung up some other way?
Here is the Storyline file. The number 6 slider is the one with the "hide slide layer when timeline finishes." It has a video in it. Shouldn't the layer go back to the slider one once the video is played and the timeline ends?
And this brings up another confusing question. What am I to do with the player buttons? Each time they are clicked, it goes directly to the slider/base layer.
I can confirm that layer six does hide itself, returning me to the base layer. Layer 6 is also over 18 seconds long though so I suspect you simply weren't waiting for it to end. Since all of the other layers are only five seconds long, I expect the 18-second timeline is an accident? It can either be manually shortened to match the length of the video, or a trigger added to hide the video "when the media completes":
And yes, the play button at the bottom of the player allows someone to restart the base layer. As far as I know it can't restart any non-base layers because we can create projects that show multiple layers at a time, so I'm not sure how the play button would know which non-base layer to play/pause.
If you want to hide the play button on the bottom, you can change the Menus & Controls toggle to Off from the Player menu:
Thank you!!!! :)
Now I see what I did wrong, thanks to you! The video was only 7 seconds long, but the timeline was 18 seconds long. Once I made the timeline 7 seconds, it worked perfectly!! :)
Update!
I do have one more problem I need help with.
When you go backward on the slider from slider 1 to slider 0, the slider 1 image remains. Why is that happening?
Good question. Layer 2 is hiding Layer 1 because its visibility is set to "Hide other slide layers" but we don't have a similar option for the base layer. In essence, nothing is telling Layer 1 to hide.
If you add the below trigger to Layer 1, it'll hide when the slider is moved to the zero position:
Note though that it's not a Slider moves trigger but rather a Variable changes trigger. It seems the trigger can only see sliders on the same slide as itself so the base layer slider won't show up.
There are lots of use cases for changing layers using a slider so don't let me talk you out of them, but the whole hiding and showing thing can complicate some things like we've seen. I've attached an alternative design that puts most of the images into different states of one central "image" and then uses triggers to swap states instead of layers. It naturally resolves the conflict above where Layer 1 wasn't reappearing after moving the slider back from 1 to 0. The central image's states can also hold the number six video but timing the return to 0 is trickier so I left it in, but in theory all of your slider's updates could trigger one single image. I find that compartmentalization is much leaner to work with.
