Forum Discussion
Storyline 360 Buttons and Builtin States
In Storyline 360 I built buttons using a shape with no fill / lines and then within each state inserted a photo of a shape from PowerPoint to get the 3D effect that I couldn't quite get using shapes in Storyline. When I preview the slide and hover over the button, it shows the hover state and the normal state if I use the prebuilt button states with my photos inserted behind the text box. If I duplicate the states, rename them, and set the same triggers then the states display correctly. I've attached a photo with two buttons in it. The one of the left is the duplicate state, rename process I mentioned above. The one on the right is using the prebuilt button states. The set up is the same other than that.
When I was trying to figure this out, I also went and made a button using a text box and then inserting photos in the individual states as well as having a photo and inserting a text box on each state. The results are captured in a photo below. They are all set to show the same button photo with different texts in down state- but as you can see the text box one and shape one with the prebuilt states malfunction. It seems like they are trying to show both the normal and down state at the same time.
The downside to the photo button is I went into each state to drop the text box and photo so if I wanted to change the text box contents I have to change in each state which is time consuming and could be missed if someone else edits the file. Or I could just add the text before saving as photo from PowerPoint and setting button up in Storyline but that limits reuse of photos/buttons. The other downside is the photos in other states don't seem to auto resize when you resize the normal state like it would in shape or text box.
The shape with duplicated states works but if someone else takes over the file in the future it could definitely be confusing for them and if someone unwittingly switches from the custom state to the built in one then the problem would begin again.
I'm wondering what the differences are with how text boxes, shapes and photos interact with the preset states - based on this exercise they don't seem to act identically across the objects. I'm also wondering if there is something I am missing here in terms of setting buttons up with non-Storyline visuals.
2 Replies
As I understand it, you inserted a picture into a state. Instead of doing that, I suggest you use the picture as the fill for the shape.
FYI: States are built on the Normal state. If you insert extra objects into states, you have to consider how they will layer.
- That's a screenshot from the Combining States slides in this project: https://360.articulate.com/review/content/eaccc037-929b-43b5-b636-5333181a9c70/review
I feel your pain. I've been there. This is what I have done in the past:
Used Individual variables (true/False) for each question and set the default value to False.
On each question slide I added a trigger that sets the corresponding value to True when the user selects the correct answer and clicks Submit
Slide Master-On the slide master for each circle add a trigger
ACTION - Change state of circle to Correct
WHEN - Timeline Starts
Add a CONDITION - If corresponding variable is equal to True
This takes care of the slide loading so the circles reflect the current state of each question
Then make sure the slide properties are set correctly - Each question slide is set to "When revisiting" to "Resume saved state" so that it maintains the state of the slide and its objects if user navigates back and forth.
I would also not use the "When variable changes" trigger on Master slides because I find it unreliable. It tends not to see the changes made on other slides. The better option is to use "When timeline starts" with conditions based on variable values.
