A Great Storyline Time-Saver: Button Sets

I know that others have blogged about the amazing button sets feature in Articulate Storyline, but they are such a handy feature that I just had to bring them up again! I think it’s worth it in case someone out there hasn’t heard about them, or isn’t using them to their full potential.

What Does a Button Set Do?

A button set makes it so learners can select only one of multiple objects. Say you have two shapes and each has a “Selected” state, but you only want the learners to be able to select one shape at a time. Add a button set to your two shapes and—voila!—only one can be selected at a time. Button sets are a huge time-saver as compared to triggers.

Button Sets Can Be Applied to Any Object

Button sets don’t apply to buttons only. You can apply a button set to almost any object on your slide: text boxes, shapes, images, characters, captions, and such. When you include an object in a button set, you’ll see that a Selected state is created automatically for that object. The Selected state shows learners visually which option is selected out of the button set. You can leave the default Selected state, or modify its look any way you want.

How Do I Create a Button Set?

Creating a button set is a simple process. Start by selecting all of the items that you want to include in the set. You can do this by holding the CTRL key and clicking on the objects. When you’ve selected all the desired objects, right-click on an object and from that menu select “Button Set.” From the drop-down menu that appears, click “New set.” From here, you’ll name your button set and click OK. Done! To remove a button set, simply re-select all of the items included in the set, right-click, select “Button Set” and click “(none).” This will remove the button set.

There you have it, folks! The Storyline button set is easy to use and will save you lots of time you would have spent creating all those triggers. Do you have any fun or original uses for the button set? If you do, please leave a comment below!

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