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em47's avatar
em47
New to the Community
5 hours ago

Problem with previous button

Hello! I'm having a problem with custom previous buttons in Storyline. I have a page that has next and previous buttons. The timeline pauses after the entrance animation for the next button completes and the timeline restarts when someone clicks the next button and then moves onto the next slide. That works fine, the issue is with the previous button, I have a trigger saying jump to slide '...' when user clicks previous button. Instead of jumping the current slide reloads and it doesn't jump to where it is directed. I have tried lots of different things but nothing has worked, is it an issue with the timeline pauses? How can I fix it?

1 Reply

  • AmEy_Michelle's avatar
    AmEy_Michelle
    Community Member
    1 hour ago

    Hey em47​!

    It sounds like you might be running into a classic trigger conflict—based on what you said and without actually seeing the file, it could be a few things. Try this list of troubleshooting steps first, because this usually happens when the Reset to Initial State setting and your Timeline Pauses fight for control of the slide. 

    Here is a quick breakdown of how to fix this so your Previous button actually jumps instead of reloading:

    1. Change the Slide Revisit Property

    The reloading behavior is almost always tied to the slide's revisit settings. If it's set to Reset to initial state, it tries to restart the slide from the beginning while also processing your jump trigger, which can cause a looping or blinking effect.

    • The Fix: Open the Slide Properties and change When revisiting to Resume saved state.

    2. Check the Trigger Order

    Storyline executes triggers in a strict top-down order. If you have a trigger that pauses or restarts the timeline listed above your Jump to slide trigger, the slide might hang or reset before it ever reaches the Jump command.

    • The Fix: Move your Jump to slide trigger to the very top of the list for that specific button in the Triggers panel.

    3. Watch out for "Phantom" Triggers

    If you duplicated this slide from another one, there might be a hidden navigation instruction interfering with your custom button.

    • The Fix: Go to Story View. Look for any red arrows that don't belong. If you see an extra arrow pointing back to the current slide, right-click it and select Disconnect.

    Pro Tip: Since your timeline pauses after the entrance animation, make sure the button trigger is set to When user clicks, not When timeline ends, since a paused timeline never technically reaches its end.

    Let me know if that does the trick, or not! If not, please share a screenshot of your Slide View, Story View, Slide Properties, and the Trigger Panel if possible—that will help me or anyone else in the community narrow down exactly where the conflict is, especially when dealing with Triggers 🖤