Have you ever noticed when viewing a published Articulate Presenter presentation the sidebar links and buttons are still accessible even when the the display mode is set to exclude the sidebar?
The pink area shown in the image below represents the visible area the end user sees when viewing a published presentation. When switching display modes, either manually or triggered automatically, the sidebar is simply moved out of the viewing area. Although the sidebar is pushed to the left and hidden, the outline links and other click-able content is still accessible, leaving this area open for accidental clicks.
This above noted behavior happens when the following settings are used and the presentation is published.
1. Under the Player Templates –> Layout Tab –> View Modes | at least one of the following options is checked:
– No sidebar view
– Slide only view
2. Under the Player Templates –> Other Tab –> Presentation size: Scale presentation to fill browser window.
3. Either setting the Slide Properties to change to one of the above noted views automatically or the end user selects the ‘Change view mode button’
An easy way around this issue, is to publish the presentation with the following setting.
Under the Player Templates –> Other Tab –> Presentation size: Lock presentation at optimal size.
The above setting will lock the presentation to an optimal size, not always filling the available browser window dimensions. If you wish to have the presentation fill the browser and eliminate accidental clicks in the sidebar, please read on!
Use the killTheSidebar.swf to disable the sidebar when not in view
The killTheSidebar.swf is a small Flash file containing actionscript code. When inserted into a presentation, the code will monitor the display modes and disable the sidebar when hidden.
To implement this fix in your Articulate Presenter projects, please follow the instructions below.
1. Download the killTheSidebar.zip file.
2. Extract the killTheSidebar.swf from the zip file.
3. Select the first slide in PowerPoint.
4. Choose Insert –> Flash Movie from Articulate Presenter.
5. Browse for and select the killTheSidebar.swf movie and apply the following settings:
– Display in Slide
– Synchronization: Movie plays independently of slide
6. Select the OK button to complete the insert.
By placing the killTheSidebar.swf movie on the first slide, all subsequent slides will be monitored. This file can be placed anywhere in the presentation but will not initiate the monitoring process until the slide is reached.
7. Select the Flash Movie inserted above and move it off of the slide (this is necessary or the Flash control will show when published)
8. Publish and view the presentation.
Note: The above workaround in not supported by Articulate, and is provided as is. However, I have tested this extensively and found this to work without any issues. There is nothing in the actionscipt code that would interfere with the Articulate content.
I hope this was helpful!
Additional Information and Links
Download: killTheSidebar.zip
Articulate Help Document: Information about ‘Player Templates’ – View Modes
Articulate Help Document: Managing Slide Properties