Forum Discussion
TIP: Customizable Feedback Layers
Any shape or photo on a Feedback Master or Slide Master cannot be moved or revised when that layout is used on a layer or slide. That’s great if you want an item to stay put. But what if you’d like ...
Hi, Jonas,
Alas. Storyline does not handle master buttons well. My experience is like yours: the states in the master button aren't properly replicated when the layout is used. This might be because SL has defaults it uses for warning messages. It'll also automatically add a button to a question's feedback layers even if you delete the button completely from the the master. But, no matter what the reason, this is still a problem.
Here's what I do when starting a new project (or a shared set-up file):
- Customize the feedback master as desired, including the button states.
- Add a scene (which I call "Storage").
- In the Storage scene, add a set-up slide for each type of question. (Or, at least, each type that you'll use.)
- As noted previously, the buttons won't have the proper states at this point. Sigh...
- Use the Format Painter to apply the master button states to the buttons on the question slides.
- Another option: prep a button on one of the set-up question slides. Then copy and paste that button to the other set-up questions (and, of course, delete the auto-created buttons). I often do this when I don't want the buttons to have all of the default states.
- When the time comes to add questions to the course, copy the appropriate question set-up slide from Storage and paste it where it belongs in the course.
- After the course is approved, delete the Storage scene, so it doesn't add to the file size.
BTW, this issue has been happening for a long time. I don't remember whether or not I ever submitted it as a case to the staff, but I will do that today. You can, too, by going here: https://articulate.com/support/contact. (The more complaints, the more likely they are to pay attention to the problem.)
Hi Judy,
thank you for the response and sharing your experience with the issue.
Did you also make the experience that the layout changes when you copy the question-slide to another project (even if its based on the same master)?
Hi, Jonas,
I haven't copied question slides to other projects, so I haven't had the same issue you've had with that.
I have noticed that the layout for question slides tends to be quirky (to put it nicely). That might be due to SL using some of the text boxes for Form View. Thus, those objects may have special coding that we developers can't see. And that might cause problems.
Also, I've noticed that Storyline doesn't recognize when one project uses the exact same layout as another. For example, if you duplicate a project, and then import a slide from one copy to the other, SL will import the entire Master associated with the imported slide. Which means you end up with multiple Master layouts that are the same.
Despite all this, I still like using SL!
