PRIMER: Take advantage of built-in states

Many problems posted in the Forum are related to triggers that do what’s already done automatically by the built-in states (Normal, Hover, Down, Visited, Selected, Disabled).

This Review 360 project demonstrates how the built-in states work: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/eaccc037-929b-43b5-b636-5333181a9c70/review

Overview of built-in states

• When you insert a button, it will have the Normal, Hover, Down, Visited, and Disabled
• When you add multiple-choice or multiple-response question, the response buttons will have the Normal, Hover, Down, Selected, and Disabled
• You can add built-in states to any text box, shape, picture, illustration, or icon.
• There are also built-in states available for draggable objects in a drag-and-drop interaction. These include Drag Over, Drop Correct, and Drop Incorrect.

 

How the basic built-in states work

• When an item has a Hover state, that state will automatically display when the user’s mouse is over the item. The Hover state will go away when the user’s mouse is no longer over the item.
• When an item has a Visited state, that state will automatically display when the user clicks the item.
• When an item has a Selected state, the first click automatically changes the state to Selected. The next click changes it back to Normal. And repeated clicking toggles between the two states.
• When multiple items with the Selected state are in a button set, clicking one of those items will change it to Selected and will automatically change the other items in the set to Normal. (Here’s more information: https://community.articulate.com/series/articulate-storyline-360/articles/articulate-storyline-360-user-guide-how-to-work-with-button-sets.)
• When multiple items with Selected and Visited states are in a button set, clicking an item will change it to Selected. Any item that has not been clicked will remain Normal. Any item that was previously clicked will change to Visited.
• When an item is Disabled, it will no longer be clickable. In other words, triggers that are set to run when the item is clicked will not run when the item is in the Disabled
• Hidden is a unique state. It doesn’t show in the States panel—and you should not create a state called Hidden. Instead, when an item is put into the Hidden state, Storyline automatically hides it.

 

How the drag-and-drop built-in states work

• An object being dragged will change to its Drag Over state whenever any part of the object intersects with any of the drop targets.
• An object will change to its Drop Correct state when it is dropped onto the correct target.
• An object will change to its Drop Incorrect state when it is dropped onto the incorrect target.

 

Triggers that duplicate the built-in actions often cause problems. Instead, save time—and troubleshooting—by taking advantage of what the built-in states do automatically.

 

Bonus tip: You don’t need a trigger to change an item to a given state when the timeline starts. Instead, set the Initial state dropdown list to the desired state.