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🎓 Lesson 15: Layers, Buttons & Hotspots — Building a Custom Interaction

This is the payoff lesson. You've built the three pillars one at a time — states, triggers, variables. Now you'll add two more building blocks (layers and hotspots), meet Storyline's buttons properly, and then stitch everything into one complete, genuinely useful interaction: click each of four items to reveal its details, and unlock Continue once you've seen them all. When it works, you'll have built the single most common custom interaction in professional e-learning.

📚 What You'll Learn

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Explain what a slide layer is and use one for feedback or a detail pop-up
  • Show and hide layers with triggers, and set useful layer properties
  • Add buttons, and place invisible hotspots over an image
  • Recognize markers, and know that sliders and dials exist for advanced input
  • Combine layers + states + triggers + a variable into a complete click-to-reveal-and-gate interaction

⏱️ Estimated Time: 55 minutes

🎯 Project: Build a four-item "click to reveal" interaction where each item opens a detail layer, and the Continue button only unlocks after all four have been viewed. Windows only

In This Lesson

🗂️ Slide Layers: Content Stacked on One Slide

A slide layer is an extra sheet of content that sits on top of the base slide, hidden until you choose to show it. Picture the base slide as a sheet of paper, and each layer as a clear transparency you can flip down over it. The base stays put; the layer appears in front, then tucks away again. One slide can hold many layers.

Layers exist so you don't have to make a hundred slides for content that all belongs together. The classic uses:

  • Feedback — a "Correct!" or "Try again" panel that pops up over a question.
  • Detail pop-ups — click a term and a definition slides in without leaving the slide.
  • Reveals — click each part of a diagram and its explanation appears in place.

You manage layers in the Slide Layers panel (usually bottom-right, near the Timeline). Each slide starts with just its Base Layer; you click the plus to add more. Each layer is its own little canvas with its own objects, timeline, and triggers — which is why layers pair so naturally with everything you've learned.

🧠 Mindset

If Lesson 14 felt like a lot, take a breath — this lesson doesn't add hard new ideas so much as show how the pieces you already have snap together. Layers are just "content you show with a trigger." Buttons are "objects with states you click." Hotspots are "invisible click zones." You've done all three kinds of thing before. Today you're an assembler, not a beginner. Build slowly, preview often, and let each small win carry you to the next.

How you show and hide a layer is pure Lesson 13: a trigger. Show layer "Details" when the user clicks Item 1. Hide this layer when the user clicks the close X. Layers are the destination; triggers are how you get there.

⚙️ Layer Properties: Fine Control

Every layer has a small gear — its Slide Layer Properties — that answers questions like "what happens to everything else while I'm showing?" These few checkboxes fix most of the little annoyances beginners hit, so they're worth a quick tour:

Property What it controls Typical choice
Hide other slide layers Whether opening this layer closes any others On for pop-ups you want shown one at a time
Hide objects on base layer Whether the base content is dimmed/hidden behind the layer Often off, so learners see context behind the pop-up
Prevent clicking on other layers Makes the layer "modal" — the base is locked while it's open On for feedback you must acknowledge first
Resume saved state Whether the layer reappears as it was, or resets, on revisit Reset for feedback; resume for progress you want kept
💡 The most common gotcha: if clicking a second item doesn't close the first pop-up, turn on "Hide other slide layers" in each layer's properties. If a layer looks empty the second time it opens, check "Resume saved state" — you probably want it to reset. Two checkboxes solve the two problems everyone hits first.

🔘 Buttons & Hotspots

To trigger anything, the learner needs something to click. Storyline gives you two workhorses.

Buttons

A button is a built-in interactive object designed to be clicked. Insert one from the Insert tab, and it arrives already carrying the states you met in Lesson 12 — Normal, Hover, Down, Visited, Disabled — so it visibly reacts to the mouse with no setup. That built-in Disabled state is your best friend for gating: a button in its Disabled state looks greyed out and won't respond, which is exactly how you show "not yet" before a gate opens.

Hotspots

A hotspot is an invisible clickable region you draw on top of something else — usually parts of an image or a diagram. The learner can't see the hotspot; they just click "the fire extinguisher" or "the exit sign" in a photo, and your trigger fires. Hotspots are perfect when your clickable targets are baked into a picture and you don't want visible buttons cluttering it.

Figure 1 — The gated reveal (a simplified mock-up, not a real screenshot): buttons and a hotspot open detail layers, each sets a "seen" flag, and Continue changes from Disabled to Normal only when all four are seen.

📍 Markers, Sliders & Dials

Two more interactive objects round out your toolbox. You won't build with them today, but knowing they exist helps you reach for the right tool later.

  • Markers are little pin/label objects (from the Insert tab) that sit on an image and, when clicked or hovered, pop open a caption. They're a quick, pre-built way to make a "labeled graphic" style reveal — think of them as a hotspot and a pop-up bundled into one friendly object.
  • Sliders let the learner drag a handle along a track, and Storyline stores the position in a Number variable. Great for "set the temperature" or before/after comparisons.
  • Dials are the rotary cousin of sliders — the learner turns a knob, and again the value lands in a variable. Perfect for gauges and simulated controls.

Sliders and dials are genuinely advanced — they shine once you're comfortable with variables and conditions, because their whole point is feeding a live value into your logic. File them under "powerful things to explore after the capstone." For now, buttons and hotspots cover the vast majority of what you'll build.

💡 Which clickable should I use?

Use a button when you want a visible, labeled thing to click (and free hover/disabled states). Use a hotspot when the target is part of an image and you want it invisible. Use a marker when you want a quick pin-and-caption reveal on a picture. Reach for sliders/dials only when the learner needs to set a value, not just click.

🧠 The Blueprint: A Click-to-Reveal Gate

Now the synthesis. Here's the complete logic of the interaction you're about to build, drawn as one picture. Every arrow is something you already know how to do:

graph TD A["🖱️ Learner clicks Item 1"] --> B["⚡ Trigger: show the Item 1 detail layer"] A --> C["⚡ Trigger: set Item1Seen to True"] A --> D["🎭 Item 1 changes to its Visited state"] C --> E["🔀 Condition check
are all four Seen flags True?"] E -->|"Not yet"| F["🔒 Continue stays Disabled"] E -->|"All four True"| G["🎬 Change Continue to Normal — gate opens"] style A fill:#bfdbfe,color:#1e293b style B fill:#fed7aa,color:#1e293b style C fill:#fde68a,color:#1e293b style D fill:#c7d2fe,color:#1e293b style E fill:#bbf7d0,color:#1e293b style F fill:#fecaca,color:#1e293b style G fill:#f1f5f9,color:#1e293b

Figure 2 — The interaction logic: each of the four items does the same three things (show a layer, set a flag, change its state), and a condition watching the flags opens the gate.

Read it as a recipe you repeat four times (once per item), plus one gate check:

  1. Make four True/False variables — Item1Seen … Item4Seen — all starting False.
  2. Each item gets three triggers on "user clicks": show its detail layer, set its Seen flag to True, and let its built-in Visited state mark it as done.
  3. Add one trigger that changes Continue's state to Normal — with a condition that all four flags are True — set to run "when the variable changes" so it re-checks after every click.

That's it. Four items doing the same simple thing, and one condition watching the flags. This exact pattern — do a set of things, track them, then unlock — is behind "explore all the tabs," "meet the whole team," "review every policy," and countless real courses. Learn it once; reuse it forever.

🎯 Try It: Build the Interaction

🏋️ Activity: Click-to-reveal with a Continue gate Windows only

Objective: Build a single slide where the learner must open all four detail layers before the Continue button unlocks. You'll need Storyline 360 on Windows (or a Windows VM), on the trial or a plan. Trial / Paid Give yourself unhurried time — this is the biggest build so far, and finishing it is a real milestone.

Steps

  1. On one slide, add four buttons labeled Item 1–4, plus a Continue button. Set Continue to its Disabled state to start. (⏱️ 7 min)
  2. In the Slide Layers panel, add four layers — one per item — each with a bit of "detail" text and a small close X. In each layer's properties, turn on "Hide other slide layers." (⏱️ 10 min)
  3. In Manage Project Variables, create four True/False variables Item1Seen–Item4Seen, all default False. (⏱️ 4 min)
  4. For each item button, add two triggers on "when the user clicks": show that item's detail layer, and set that item's Seen variable to True. (⏱️ 10 min)
  5. Add the gate trigger: change state of Continue to Normal, when a variable changes, on condition that Item1Seen AND Item2Seen AND Item3Seen AND Item4Seen are all equal to True. (⏱️ 8 min)
  6. On each detail layer, add a trigger to hide this layer when the user clicks the X. Then Preview and click through: the detail should pop up, items should mark themselves Visited, and Continue should light up only after the fourth. (⏱️ 8 min)
💡 Hint

If Continue never enables, the usual cause is the gate trigger's event — it must run "when the variable changes" (so it re-checks after each click), and every condition must compare to True joined with AND, not OR. If clicking a second item leaves the first pop-up open, you missed "Hide other slide layers" on a layer. Preview after each item rather than building all four blind — small checks catch small mistakes.

✅ Activity Complete When…

  • Clicking any item opens its detail layer and closes any other open layer
  • Each clicked item visibly changes to its Visited state
  • Continue stays disabled until all four items are viewed, then becomes clickable

🎯 Quick Quiz

Question 1: What is a slide layer, in one sentence?

Question 2: You want learners to click parts of a photo (the exit, the alarm) with no visible buttons on top. What should you use?

📓 Learning Journal

Keep your Learning Journal going — after this big build especially, reflecting will lock it in. Jot down:

  • Key concepts you learned
  • Things that clicked for you
  • Questions or confusion points to revisit
  • Ideas you want to try
  • Your progress and how you feel about learning this

✍️ This lesson's prompt: You just built the click-to-reveal-and-gate pattern. Where in your capstone course could you reuse it? Describe a real spot — a set of steps, options, or examples the learner should explore before moving on — and note what would trigger the gate to open.

📝 Lesson Summary

🎓 Key Takeaways

  • A slide layer is content stacked on the base slide, shown and hidden with triggers — ideal for feedback, detail pop-ups, and reveals. Layer properties (hide other layers, modal, resume state) fix the common gotchas.
  • Buttons are visible clickable objects that arrive with built-in states (including Disabled for gating); hotspots are invisible click zones you draw over images.
  • Markers give quick pin-and-caption reveals; sliders and dials let learners set a value into a variable — advanced, for later.
  • The click-to-reveal-and-gate pattern combines all three pillars: triggers show layers & set flag variables, states mark progress, and a condition unlocks Continue when the flags are all True.

🎉 What You've Accomplished

Look at what you just did: you took five separate ideas — layers, buttons, hotspots, states, triggers, variables — and wove them into one interaction that responds intelligently to the learner. That's not "using a feature"; that's designing interactivity. The pattern you built is in real corporate courses right now. You've crossed from learning Storyline to building with it.

❓ Common Questions at This Stage

When should I use a layer versus a whole new slide?

Use a layer when the content belongs to the same moment — feedback on this question, a detail about this item, a pop-up over this scene. Use a new slide when you're genuinely moving the learner forward to a new step or topic. Layers keep related content together and cut down on slide sprawl.

Could I gate with one Number variable instead of four True/False ones?

Yes — a common alternative is a single Number that you adjust +1 each time an item is first viewed, then a condition "Continue enables when the count equals 4." Both approaches are fine; four flags are easier to read as a beginner, one counter is tidier. Try the flags first, then experiment.

My gate opens too early or never. Where do I look?

Check the gate trigger's event ("when the variable changes"), that conditions are joined with AND (not OR), and that each item really sets its flag to True on click. Previewing after each item — rather than after building everything — is the fastest way to find which link in the chain is loose.

🔭 Looking Ahead

In Lesson 16, you'll add production polish: audio narration, video, and Storyline's standout feature — screen recordings and software simulations in View, Try, and Test modes. Your interactions are about to get a voice and show learners exactly how to use real software.

✅ Before the Next Lesson

  • Finish the click-to-reveal build and preview it end to end — the win is worth it
  • Write this lesson's journal prompt about reusing the pattern in your capstone
  • Try one variation: swap an item's button for a hotspot, or gate with a single counting Number

📚 Additional Resources

🌟 Encouragement for the Journey

The first time your gate clicked open exactly when it should have, you felt it — that quiet "I made that work" satisfaction. Hold onto it. Every complex, award-winning course is just this feeling, stacked up many times over. You now build interactions, not just slides. That's a big deal.