Forum Discussion
Always on top
I don’t think I understand. If I make a layer on a master slide template, that layer will always appear on a higher depth/Z-layer than anything on the base master slide of the template, including every other slide using that template.
A Show Layer when Timeline Starts on that master and Bob’s your uncle, no?
Technically you can do it, but you build a bit of a rod for your own back with regards to managing layers in slides. That's the method I had used, and why I experimented with this new method.
There are lots of times when the "Hide other slide lavers" option is handy, and means you don't have to write triggers to hide specific layers. If you put the navigation elements/header on a layer on the master slide and then show a layer on another slide, if you have "Hide other slide layers" selected, the nav elements and header would be hidden. Just a PIA.
I understand what your code block brings then, yeah. Using Storyline about 8 years now, I've consciously moved away from layers as much as possible. It's interesting you mention the Hide other slide layers option because I agree, my default is to disable that on every layer made now unless I already know the slide needs or would be indifferent to any other layer being hidden.
I'm sure your particular need differs, but for a more concrete example, I was part of a team that developed a "Fisher Price" version of a CRM in Storyline, removing the more complex features and functions in order to create a scaffolded version with lighter cognitive load. The real CRM has a header bar with a dropdown menu to change screens/sections
A carefully designed master slide layer made sure it and its drop shadow appeared not only on every slide we needed it to (unifying the slides into a perceived web-app) but also guaranteed that when the learner opened the "drop down menu" it would always exist higher than any of the text or shapes on the lower-level slide using that master template. Keeping the number of layers few definitely seems to be key, good call. If a single paste in a master slide template can keep me from pasting on 23 individual slides, yes please.
Yes, layers in the master slide for common things like help, drop-down nav etc are good. Layers are valuable in Storyline, especially when developing for WCAG/508, as they allow you to make the content in the layer exclusive when open.
This was just an experiment btw. I haven't actually used it in a project. It was just one of those things I though of in a specific project where I thought "I wish there was an option to have this element on the master slide, always show above other elements in slides that inherit it (excluding slide layers)". It was a specific need where some slides had full slide background images, and because of the irregular shape of the header in the master slide, there was no way of getting the slide background image behind the header, you would have to do some creative slicing etc. I didn't use it in the end as I wasn't confident it would be robust enough.