Forum Discussion
Webpage/PDF Launching in New Tab Rather than New Window
Hi!
I have a question regarding browser windows, and thought maybe somebody here might have a few suggestions.
I've put together a short course for a client in Storyline 360, to be hosted on Cornerstone, likely launched using either Chrome or IE. The module itself is fine and works/records completions perfectly. However, as an important part of the training module, we need to launch a page in Google Drive, as well as a PDF from the Resources tab, from the training module, and this is where we've been running into an issue.
I have a slide set up to launch the Google Drive page automatically in a new browser window (Display in Slide doesn't work well for the Google Drive page or the PDF). However, all this does is open a new tab next to the Cornerstone launch page (not the training window). This is confusing, because Cornerstone launches the training module in a new window entirely, and users so far are having a difficult time returning to the training because it looks to them like the module closed when the new page opened. It's the same problem with the PDF in the Resources tab.
(I should note that the training module window stays open when this happens, so users can click back to it by using Alt + Tab or hovering over the task bar at the bottom of their computer screen. However, this is not intuitive or very user friendly.)
Has anybody else had this issue? Is there a way to resolve it without having to adjust individual user settings? Is it possible to get the Google Drive page and PDF to open in a new, minimized window and NOT a new tab? Because we're launching this company-wide, it's not practical to adjust each user's browser settings. Any suggestions would be most welcome! Thank you!
@Samantha Raisor - Then my posting accomplished what it was intended to do! I'm glad it helped!
Hello! I am very new to Storyline, just switched over from Captivate. I know of a simple JavaScript solution for opening URLs in a separate window. The JavaScript came from Paul Wilson, a Captivate expert, and it allows you to set the size of the new window. You can check out his YouTube tutorial here, beginning at minute 2:00 (https://youtu.be/Nfm4N4jTlsU).
window.open("https://YOUR-URL", "WINDOW-NAME/TITLE", "height=700,width=1024,left=25,top=25");
I've used this JS in Storyline on a link I created for the modern player topbar and it works great on MS Edge and Google Chrome. In addition to the JS, for my project I unchecked the "Launch player in new window (creates launch page)" that is located under the Browser Settings (Player > Other > Browser Settings). I unchecked this because I don't want the extra launch page. This also helps because the player will open in fullscreen mode, so when the link is clicked the file opens in a smaller window that is completely separate from the LMS window, and you can still see the player behind it. I hope this helps!
