Question
Play / Pause Button and audio
Several people - including myself - have had problems with
the Play/Pause button in a playbar not stopping audio. The
Play/Pause button stops the slide, but the audio continues.
Although I don't have a solution, I have pinpointed at least one
cause of the problem and wanted to share it with everyone. There
have been posts about this issue in the past, but the explanation
has larger implications than what was being discussed in those
threads, so I started a new thread.
In my case at least, the problem is tied to a button on the slide. I have narration audio on each slide. My audio narrations are usually about 20 seconds in length. On each slide, I use a button labeled Continue that pauses the slide until clicked. On click, the button navigates the learner to the next slide. The button comes in after about 7 seconds and is set to Pause after 1 second. The Stop Slide Audio option for the button is turned off.
The desired end result is that when the learner comes into the slide, the audio narration starts, after 7 seconds the Continue button appears and the slide pauses while the audio continues playing. If the learner does not want to listen to all of the audio, he or she can click the Continue button to go to the Next screen.
If the learner never touches the Play/Pause button in the playbar, everything works exactly as expected. However, if the learner uses the Play/Pause button to pause the presentation, we get some unexpected results:
Before the 7th second (when our Continue button appears), the Play/Pause button works as expected. Everything pauses and restarts as you would expect.
Once the slide reaches the 7th second, the Continue button appears, the slide pauses and the audio continues, as we expect, BUT clicking the Play/Pause button does not pause the audio. The audio will keep playing until we click the Play/Pause button two more times. The first click on the Play/Pause button actually restarts the slide from the paused state (because the Continue button had paused the slide) and so the slide and the audio keep playing. I can see this because the progress bar starts moving again.
The Continue button paused the slide, and the Play/Pause button considers the presentation paused (even though the button graphic does not change to indicate the paused state). So now we have a dilemma - the slide is paused (by the Continue button) but the audio is playing. The Play/Pause button is thinking the overall presentation is paused, even though the audio is stil playing. If you click the Play/Pause button at this point, you expect the audio to pause, but the Play/Pause button is acutally restarting the presentation and so the audio continues. Its a Catch-22.
A side effect of this behavior is that if you pause your presentation with a button or a click box to require the learner to perform an interaction on the screen, the learner can bypass the required interaction by simply clicking the Play/Pause button in the playbar a couple of times.
Hope this helps someone having pause issues.
Regards,
Chris
In my case at least, the problem is tied to a button on the slide. I have narration audio on each slide. My audio narrations are usually about 20 seconds in length. On each slide, I use a button labeled Continue that pauses the slide until clicked. On click, the button navigates the learner to the next slide. The button comes in after about 7 seconds and is set to Pause after 1 second. The Stop Slide Audio option for the button is turned off.
The desired end result is that when the learner comes into the slide, the audio narration starts, after 7 seconds the Continue button appears and the slide pauses while the audio continues playing. If the learner does not want to listen to all of the audio, he or she can click the Continue button to go to the Next screen.
If the learner never touches the Play/Pause button in the playbar, everything works exactly as expected. However, if the learner uses the Play/Pause button to pause the presentation, we get some unexpected results:
Before the 7th second (when our Continue button appears), the Play/Pause button works as expected. Everything pauses and restarts as you would expect.
Once the slide reaches the 7th second, the Continue button appears, the slide pauses and the audio continues, as we expect, BUT clicking the Play/Pause button does not pause the audio. The audio will keep playing until we click the Play/Pause button two more times. The first click on the Play/Pause button actually restarts the slide from the paused state (because the Continue button had paused the slide) and so the slide and the audio keep playing. I can see this because the progress bar starts moving again.
The Continue button paused the slide, and the Play/Pause button considers the presentation paused (even though the button graphic does not change to indicate the paused state). So now we have a dilemma - the slide is paused (by the Continue button) but the audio is playing. The Play/Pause button is thinking the overall presentation is paused, even though the audio is stil playing. If you click the Play/Pause button at this point, you expect the audio to pause, but the Play/Pause button is acutally restarting the presentation and so the audio continues. Its a Catch-22.
A side effect of this behavior is that if you pause your presentation with a button or a click box to require the learner to perform an interaction on the screen, the learner can bypass the required interaction by simply clicking the Play/Pause button in the playbar a couple of times.
Hope this helps someone having pause issues.
Regards,
Chris
