Timing Buttons that "Change State" of Multi-state Object

Question

Hi – I’ve designed a slide with multiple shapes configured as buttons. Each button has a different term on it, and each button’s Action is "On Success Change State of" a multi-state shape named text_placeholder_shape. As the user clicks each button, a different state displays the definition of each button’s term in text_placeholder_shape.

None of the term buttons includes a Pause, and I’ve unchecked the checkbox “Continue Playing the Project” for all of them as well. The slide also includes a separate navigation button configured with a Pause, which the user clicks to continue the course after they’ve viewed all definitions.

The term buttons work correctly if I set them up on the timeline so they are already on the slide when the user enters the slide. But if I try to time the buttons to appear on the slide one by one, and a click-happy user clicks one of the buttons before all have appeared, the buttons that have not yet appeared never do appear on the slide.

I can avoid this by designing slides with buttons that control a multi-state object so the buttons are already on the slide when the user enters the slide, but this does limit one’s design options. Does anyone know if I’m doing something wrong, or has anyone come up with a way around this?

Thanks in advance.

Lilybiri · Accepted Answer

I tried moving the Pause on the Return button to 13 sec on the timeline, but clicking a Term button again still made the project go to the next slide. Then I tried moving the Pause on the Return button to 10 sec on the timeline, but still with the same result: clicking a Term button again made the project go to the next slide. So then I added Pauses back in to the Term buttons and positioned all Pauses on all buttons at 13 sec on the timeline and unchecked the "Continue Playing" box on all Term buttons, but the original problem still remains: if the user clicks any Term button before all display on the slide (at any point before 9 sec, which is when the Return button displays), the remaining buttons don't display on the slide.

You are correct, there is a conflict between the need to have the playhead continue to have the later buttons appear, and the multiple clicks that want to enable to show the information.

You'll need another approach. Which version are you using? If it is not an old version, you do have the command 'Delay Next actions.....'. I would have all buttons timed on the slide from the beginning, but hidden in output. You can use the On Enter event of the slide to have the buttons appearaing in a staggered way:. Something like this:

That action will be executed even if the playhead is paused by clicking on a button, I have double-checked (and will present in two weeks about work flows like this on ALS).

Lilybiri · Answer

Can you track the frame number by inserting the system variable cpInfoCurrentFrame in a text container? The problem is not totally clear to me, would like to see the timeline as well. The option 'Continue playing the project' is normally meant to avoid that the playhead which is paused at the pausing point of the interactive object is not released. But you took out the pausing points. For that reason I suggested to track the frame number to see what is happening when you click a button before the rest has appeared.

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