I'm loving Storyline! A big thank you to everyone involved in the creation of this great (and much needed) product.
I have a question regarding the seekbar. I want to display it but I don't wan't users to be able to click within it and skip ahead. I can do that in Presenter but I don't see how do do this in SL. Any ideas?
Hi Mark, I'm afraid you can't lock the seekbar in SL. The primary purpose of a seekbar is to allow users to quickly locate and replay specific parts of the audio so I guess the idea of locking it does not really make sense from a UI perspective.
Do you want to use it as a way to show progress or as a visual cue that the slide has ended? Some users in the beta test forum came up with their own progress meters and I did a project where I have a visual cue appear when the timeline ended to instruct users to move ahead.
I'm importing swf files created on a timeline with audio. Each lesson is about one - two minutes in length and I wanted to display a visual cue as to the duration.
I guess I can't have a have a play/pause button without the seekbar either?
I'm going to submit that request also since I frequently look at the seekbar myself to get a sense of video/audio length.
In the meantime (and I guess I'm being lazy) does anyone have the links at the tip of their fingers (hah! sure Becky, we were all just sitting waiting for you to ask this question) for the progress meters some community members have come up with?
FYI. The submit feature request is not working. Nothing happens after entering the request and clicking "Submit Request" button. I've tried Chrome and FF browsers. I'll give a shot tomorrow. Cheers.
I've filled out the form, but when I click "send request", nothing happens. This is the link I see in my status bar when I click the send request button:
I'm importing swf files created on a timeline with audio. Each lesson is about one - two minutes in length and I wanted to display a visual cue as to the duration.
I guess I can't have a have a play/pause button without the seekbar either?
I'll submit a feature request.
Thanks again!
Yes - you can.
It can be set up in the Player, then you use the "Gear" on the slide to turn it on/off for specific slides, overriding the Default setting.
Thanks Bruce but that doesn't do the trick (unless I'm missing something).
When I show the seekbar I don't want people to be able to click within in it. So it is more like a progress bar as opposed to a playback control. (Although I still need the play/pause functionality)
I'm not sure if this would be a work-around for you , but you could put a transparent shape over the seekbar (make sure it's is on the top and not covering the "Play" button). This would make the seekbar only viewable, not clickable.
If you want them to be able to use the seekbar after they've viewed it, you can create a trigger to change the state of your invisible rectangle to Hidden when the media completes.
I'm not sure if this would be a work-around for you , but you could put a transparent shape over the seekbar (make sure it's is on the top and not covering the "Play" button). This would make the seekbar only viewable, not clickable.
If you want them to be able to use the seekbar after they've viewed it, you can create a trigger to change the state of your invisible rectangle to Hidden when the media completes.
Hope this works for you!
Jill
@Jill. That's an awesome idea. I'll give it try and let you all know how I made out.
I'm not sure if this would be a work-around for you , but you could put a transparent shape over the seekbar (make sure it's is on the top and not covering the "Play" button). This would make the seekbar only viewable, not clickable.
If you want them to be able to use the seekbar after they've viewed it, you can create a trigger to change the state of your invisible rectangle to Hidden when the media completes.
I will dig around to see if I have copies of the progress examples. I am not sure if the links to the beta forum will work here since it was restricted.
@Mark - as for your question about not having a play/pause - you can easily create your own.
I've attached a storyline project to show you one way that it can be done.
Basically what you do is create a pause button and place it on the base slide and create a layer called play where you will create the play button.
Now back on the base layer, add a couple of triggers to the pause button.
the first one is to pause the media when the user clicks the button.
the second one is to show the play layer when the user clicks the button
On the play layer, add a couple of triggers to the play button
the first one tells tells the media to play when the button is clicked.
the second trigger is to hide this layer
On the play layer, make sure you hide pause button on the base layer - you can do this in the layer timeline. This will prevent the pause button from showing at the same time as the play button.
I'm not sure if this would be a work-around for you , but you could put a transparent shape over the seekbar (make sure it's is on the top and not covering the "Play" button). This would make the seekbar only viewable, not clickable.
If you want them to be able to use the seekbar after they've viewed it, you can create a trigger to change the state of your invisible rectangle to Hidden when the media completes.
Hope this works for you!
Jill
Unfortunately that didn't work. The player controls and menu are on a higher level. It was worth a try though. Thanks.
@Mark - great to be of service. One thing I forgot to mention is that the order of the triggers is important. The triggers to pause or play the media must be above the triggers to show or hide the layer.
Just a quick heads up, if you're having problems uploading feature requests, we're looking into it. I wasn't able to replicate it in any of my browsers, but we're scanning the logs to see what's up. Thanks for your patience.
You could switch off the player seekbar and then use the player controls on the video. This way you can place a shape over the top of the seekbar as in Jil's suggestion.
You guys are amazing. I just did a quick test and adding the video controls with a transparent blocker works! Plus I get the added bonus of displaying the lesson time. I have to head out right now but I'll upload an example for others later. Thanks again.
I've attached an example of disabling the video control's seek area.
Here's how it works: Right mouse on the Rectangle 1 in the Blocker slide layer and select Format Shape. In the Fill tab choose Solid fill and give it a transparency of 100%.
Hopefully this feature will be added in a future release so that we wont need this workaround and we can use the Players' seekbar.
74 Replies
Hi Mark, I'm afraid you can't lock the seekbar in SL. The primary purpose of a seekbar is to allow users to quickly locate and replay specific parts of the audio so I guess the idea of locking it does not really make sense from a UI perspective.
Do you want to use it as a way to show progress or as a visual cue that the slide has ended? Some users in the beta test forum came up with their own progress meters and I did a project where I have a visual cue appear when the timeline ended to instruct users to move ahead.
Hmmmm - a "View-only Seekbar".
Not sure it's possible, can see the benefits but may be a Feature Request!
Bruce
Hi Mark,
You can submit feature requests here:
http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/submit.php?form=feature
Thanks everyone.
I'm importing swf files created on a timeline with audio. Each lesson is about one - two minutes in length and I wanted to display a visual cue as to the duration.
I guess I can't have a have a play/pause button without the seekbar either?
I'll submit a feature request.
Thanks again!
Hi All,
I'm going to submit that request also since I frequently look at the seekbar myself to get a sense of video/audio length.
In the meantime (and I guess I'm being lazy) does anyone have the links at the tip of their fingers (hah! sure Becky, we were all just sitting waiting for you to ask this question) for the progress meters some community members have come up with?
FYI. The submit feature request is not working. Nothing happens after entering the request and clicking "Submit Request" button. I've tried Chrome and FF browsers. I'll give a shot tomorrow. Cheers.
Brian, I just used the request link you provided above (http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/submit.php?form=feature).
I've filled out the form, but when I click "send request", nothing happens. This is the link I see in my status bar when I click the send request button:
http://www.articulate.com/support/contact/submit.php?form=feature#
I'm using FireFox, version 12.0. Just updated today.
Any thoughts? I can try IE if that would be helpful.
Yes - you can.
It can be set up in the Player, then you use the "Gear" on the slide to turn it on/off for specific slides, overriding the Default setting.
Bruce
Thanks Bruce but that doesn't do the trick (unless I'm missing something).
When I show the seekbar I don't want people to be able to click within in it. So it is more like a progress bar as opposed to a playback control. (Although I still need the play/pause functionality)
OK - I misunderstoood what you asked on the last post.
Bottom line...it is a Seekbar, so people can seek
I think it's reasonable to want it as merely "display only", so that would make a decent feature request.
Bruce
Mark,
I'm not sure if this would be a work-around for you , but you could put a transparent shape over the seekbar (make sure it's is on the top and not covering the "Play" button). This would make the seekbar only viewable, not clickable.
If you want them to be able to use the seekbar after they've viewed it, you can create a trigger to change the state of your invisible rectangle to Hidden when the media completes.
Hope this works for you!
Jill
Brian,
I just now placed my feature request using IE. But as I said above, the request Submit request button did NOT work in FF, version 12. So, a heads up.
@Jill. That's an awesome idea. I'll give it try and let you all know how I made out.
That's clever
I like that !
Nice one Jill.
Bruce
I will dig around to see if I have copies of the progress examples. I am not sure if the links to the beta forum will work here since it was restricted.
@Mark - as for your question about not having a play/pause - you can easily create your own.
I've attached a storyline project to show you one way that it can be done.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/73851/play_pause.zip
Basically what you do is create a pause button and place it on the base slide and create a layer called play where you will create the play button.
Now back on the base layer, add a couple of triggers to the pause button.
On the play layer, add a couple of triggers to the play button
On the play layer, make sure you hide pause button on the base layer - you can do this in the layer timeline. This will prevent the pause button from showing at the same time as the play button.
I think that is about it.
Unfortunately that didn't work. The player controls and menu are on a higher level. It was worth a try though. Thanks.
@Jill, I don't think you can place anything over the seekbar as it is part of the player not the slide.
Thanks Nancy. That will definitely help!
@Mark - great to be of service. One thing I forgot to mention is that the order of the triggers is important. The triggers to pause or play the media must be above the triggers to show or hide the layer.
Just a quick heads up, if you're having problems uploading feature requests, we're looking into it. I wasn't able to replicate it in any of my browsers, but we're scanning the logs to see what's up. Thanks for your patience.
@Mark,
In addition to Nancy's sweet solution...
If you don't mind having the seek bar right on the SWF itself, you can:
1. Remove the player seekbar for that slide
2. Add video controls to your SWF (double click the SWF and Movie Tools panel will open. Click "Show Video Controls")
3. Add the transparent shape over SWF seekbar.
Not sure if this meets the visual specs you'd want, but it does solve the issue have no seek.
You could switch off the player seekbar and then use the player controls on the video. This way you can place a shape over the top of the seekbar as in Jil's suggestion.
I used a play/pause button without layers here http://dl.dropbox.com/u/41914570/periodic%20split%20vids10.story
Ah yes, I forgot about the ole cover up the video controlsoption - that would certainly be the easiest solution.
You guys are amazing. I just did a quick test and adding the video controls with a transparent blocker works! Plus I get the added bonus of displaying the lesson time. I have to head out right now but I'll upload an example for others later. Thanks again.
I've attached an example of disabling the video control's seek area.
Here's how it works: Right mouse on the Rectangle 1 in the Blocker slide layer and select Format Shape. In the Fill tab choose Solid fill and give it a transparency of 100%.
Hopefully this feature will be added in a future release so that we wont need this workaround and we can use the Players' seekbar.
Cheers,
Mark
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