Using the Glossary Tab in Articulate Storyline to Track User Choices

Introduction

If you’re like me, you rarely use the glossary tab in Articulate Storyline, leaving valuable real estate unused. I’ve developed a clever hack that repurposes this tab to track learner choices throughout a course, providing a helpful summary of their decisions.

Visit the lovable.app to follow along!
Demo 1. A Mission to Mars.

Demo 2. What I work on in the video.

What This Hack Does

This solution allows you to:

• Display choices made throughout the course in the glossary tab
• Customize fonts, colors, and styling
• Organize choices into different phases or categories
• Generate the necessary JavaScript code automatically

Getting Started: The App Approach

I’ve created a simple app that helps generate the JavaScript code needed for this hack. Here’s how to use it:

Step 1: Configure Appearance Settings

• Choose from approximately 20 different fonts
• Set font sizes and weights
• Select colors for your display

Step 2: Define Your Phases

1. Create phases to categorize different decisions (e.g., “Mission Briefing,” “Operational Execution”)
2. For each phase, add the variables you want to track
3. Name each variable and set the display text that will appear when selected

Step 3: Generate and Implement the Code

1. Click “Generate Code” in the app
2. Copy the generated JavaScript
3. In Storyline, go to the Slide Master
4. Add a “Execute JavaScript” trigger to execute when the timeline starts
5. Paste the JavaScript code and click OK

Step 4: Create Your Variables

In Storyline, create all the variables referenced in your JavaScript code:

• Set them to Boolean (true/false)
• Ensure the variable names match exactly

Step 5: Customize the Tab Name (Optional)

• In the Player Properties in Articulate Storyline, go to Text Labels
• Find line 81 in the code where it says “glossary”
• Change it to whatever you’d like to call the tab (e.g., “Choices”)
• Make sure Glossary is called on any layer you want it to show.

Implementation Example

When implementing this in your course:

1. Set up slides with decision points
2. Add triggers to set your variables to “true” when specific choices are made
3. Preview the project
4. Click on your renamed glossary tab to see the choices displayed

Final Notes

This approach is more streamlined than my previous 364-line solution while maintaining all the functionality. The code automatically saves every 30 seconds as you configure it in the app, but you can also manually save your work.

Happy course building!