Forum Discussion
Story View Slides Position Glitch - Slide Order Does Not Respect Numbering
In Story View, slide positions will sometimes randomly change when triggers link to those slides, as shown in this Peek 360 video.
- I have all the slides numbered in the order I want.
- I want the Table of Contents slide (slide 1.2) to directly link to nearly all the rest of the slides.
- When I added triggers to the TOC slide to jump to slides 1.3 to 1.8, they began to look like a branching scenario under the TOC slide in the correct number order left to right.
- The glitch occurred when I updated the TOC slide trigger to jump to slide 1.9. When I added that slide reference, slide 1.9's position jumped to the spot between slides 1.4. and 1.5!
- This random position glitch continued when I updated the TOC jump to slide trigger references for slides 1.10, 1.11, and 1.12.
I have tried every trick in the book. Cut all the slides and paste them one by one in the correct order, then add the triggers again. Create a new scene and paste the slides in the correct order one by one, then add the triggers again. Every time, I get slide position glitches in Story View.
I understand that the system menu still will respect the slide numbering for Next and Previous triggers, but having these slides in random positions creates issues in Slide View when I'm trying to move through thumbnails on the left in order, but the slides are not in the correct visual order.
SOLVED! Thanks to Johnrey with Articulate Support. In my case, two factors on the Table of Contents (TOC) slide determined the visual position on the slides in Story View:
- TOC Timeline: The shapes on the Table of Contents slide with Jump to Slide triggers must be in order from bottom to top to match the desired left-to-right order in Story View. This will also ensure the next factor is ordered correctly. In the past, I've operated off the advice I've seen on other threads that the order of when the items were added was most important; however, that does not seem to be the case.
- TOC Triggers: The triggers on the Table of Contents slide with Jump to Slide triggers must be in order from top to bottom with correct slide references to match the desired left-to-right order in Story View. At this point, if you change one of these triggers to an out of order slide reference, that slide will jump to an incorrect visual position in Story View.
Hello Robert, would you be willing to share your project file (.story) here so that someone can take a look and assist you with a better solution?
I guess that the clickable buttons on the TOC slide are in randomized order and that's causing this issue. Try to recreate those clickable boxes on the TOC slide one after the other and then reassign those triggers and see if you can replicate the specified issue.
Make sure to add those clickable buttons in the correct order!! Let me know if you need any further help with this by sharing your SL file.
Thanks, Sandeep. On the TOC slide, I followed your tip and deleted the existing shapes (pseudo buttons) and added them in order, then added the triggers in order. After this in the Story View, the slides were in a logical order. However, as soon as I started messing with jump to triggers on other slides, the positions of the slides randomly changed. I deleted all the triggers that involved jumping to other slides, dragged the slides into the correct positions, then added triggers again. The positions are respecting my wishes for now, but I suspect, they'll randomly change when I add or edit triggers for other things. This approach (copying and pasting each shape one-by-one) took way longer before when I copied and pasted groups of shapes in a logical order.
It's a time-waster for me why the visual position of slides in Story View will change based on the order in which shapes/buttons on another slide were added. As I mentioned before, this wouldn't be as big a deal, except that it directly affects how an editor can page or click through thumbnails in the left panel in Story View, especially in branched scenarios, This can lead to errors in triggers that are harder to troubleshoot in Story View because the slides are not in a logical order and cannot be forced to remain in that logical order when I drag them into place.
Thank you for your detailed explanation of the issue you've encountered while working on the presentation. I understand your frustration with the unexpected slide reordering in Story View, especially when working with jump to slide triggers. It's clear that this behavior has had a significant impact on your workflow and the overall usability of the software. The order of the slides in Story view was totally dependent on the triggers associated with the clickable buttons on the other slides.
I appreciate the effort you've put into following the recommended steps on the TOC slide, such as deleting and re-adding shapes in order and applying triggers sequentially. It's unfortunate that despite your meticulous approach, the positions of slides still changed unpredictably when dealing with jump to slide triggers on other slides. I can see that you took the necessary steps by deleting triggers, manually rearranging the slides, and reapplying triggers, which led to a temporary resolution of the issue.
Your concerns about the potential recurrence of this problem when adding or editing triggers for other elements are valid. The added time and effort required for such manual adjustments, especially when compared to the previously used method of copying and pasting groups of shapes, is indeed a significant concern.
I wish Articulate could implement a permanent solution for this!!
That's great to hear, Robert; I'm glad Johnrey was able to help! I appreciate you sharing the solution with an annotated screenshot, making it easier to visualize the fix. I'm sure other community members with the same issue will also find this helpful.
Enjoy the rest of your day! 🙂
