Page Numbering - Have Lectora Ignore a Page in the Page Count

sconnell

Hello folks,



I have hidden page in my lessons in order to act as a page reset. But I do not want this hidden page being counted.



I have tried subtracting 1 (-1) from total number of pages but that just gives me an error.



Is there someway to have Lectora ignore this hidden page?



Thank you

sdennis4616

Hello, just wondering if you ever resolved this issue as I am having the same one and can't find any info on this topic.

jvalley4735

Page numbering is determined by what you select from the Scope drop down (entire title, chapter, or section) when creating a new page number text object. You'd select entire title to include the entire title (excluding test pages which have their own page numbering) which sounds like what you have selected (default setting). You can also select the chapter or section to only include the pages within the particular chapter or section.  It sounds like this "extra" page could be moved somewhere in the course like out of one chapter and into it's own to  make sure it's no longer included.

Just words of wisdom from previous experience..... if you do this, the extra page will look out of place by having no page numbering when the rest of the course does.  This can be an issue for some (designers, SMEs, people who notice small details) so it's best to make the extra page appear as a pop up and therefore not needing a page number.

timk

Just create a new variable, e.g. "numberofpages". Set that variable to "PagesInTitle". Then you can subtract "1" from the new variable and use it in your page count.

Tim

cmetzler2560

Hi Tim K,

I'm new to Lectora and have been searching all day for this answer but I'm not sure how to write the variable, and where to put it. In an AU, we have a page called Rewind with an action that tells the rewind button to... rewind. The page counter is counting this Rewind page. How do I exclude it? Thanks in advance.

timk

You can modify the normal Lectora page numbering (Insert -> Page Number). Lectora adds a textfield with two actions. The textfield should be on title level:

1. Add an action to the textfield at the first position

On: Page Show
Action: Modify variable
Target: total_pages (Choose the last option from the "Target" menu, "New variable...". Name: total_pages, Use default for all other options)
Type: Set equal to
Value: VAR(PagesInTitle)

2. Create another action under that

On: Page Show
Action: Modify variable
Target: total_pages
Type: Subtract from Variable
Value: 1 (the number of pages you don't want to be counted)

3. Modify the 3rd action which has been added by Lectora

Text: Page  VAR(PageInTitle)  of  VAR(total_pages)

So instead of the "real" number of pages in the title, now the modified number is used for the page count.

The 4th action just shows the textfield, you can leave it as it is.

Tim

rwalters

I would recommend the above as learning to use variables help you accomplish quite a bit. But if for whatever reason this isn't working for you, you could always just enter the actual number of pages you want it to display in place of the default "VAR(PagesInTitle)"

 

 

timk

Alright, there's no need to think too technically... rwalters is of course right. You can just modify Lectora's default "Change content" action to "Page VAR(PageInTitle) of 25" but it's so simple ;-)

Tim

cmetzler2560

Tim,

Thank you for taking the time to write it out. It works! But I have this little issue of an extra Rewind Page holding the action to rewind. When I click on the Rewind button  you see the actual number of pages appear briefly, like this: Page 16 of 13 pages. I added actions to hide Page Count from all 3 instances of Rewind, but it still appears. How can I hide it?

Also, are there any 3rd party lectora forums with more in-depth help? I'm also interested in learning Jquery integration.

Thanks again Tim!

METZ

timk

You can disinherit the textfield from the page. Click on "Inherit" in the page properties, choose "Specific object from parent", then move the textfield from the left to the right column. If you've added actions to the page to hide the textfield you'd have to delete these because their target will have gone as the textfield doesn't exist on that page any more.

There are some Lectora-related groups on LinkedIn, of course these and this community have (more or less) the same members. I don't know of any other Lectora forums, but I'd be surprised if you found one that can provide with more in-depth help than this community.

Tim

cmetzler2560

Ah, that did it. Thank you!

azsafety

Hello,

There are certain areas of Lectora I have been struggling for months with.

My biggest weakness is the difficulty in variables.  I have viewed the tutorials, but i retain more effectively having a live person to answer questions.

Thank you for your instructions here.  They are what i have been looking for.  A step by step instruction on how to accomplish a task.

Do you have a blog with a collection of similar gems like this?  If you had a "Lectora Variables for Dummies" book I'd be the first to buy it!

Is a strong knowledge of javascript essential to getting the most of of this tool?

 

Thank you again.

 

 

timk

Hi,

I'm not blogging for two reasons:

1. In a blog I'd have to decide what to post next. I prefer to let you decide by asking questions.

2. If you read my blog instead of this community you'd miss the expertise of the other members, many of whom are better than me when it comes to not directly Lectora-related topics.

If you have specific questions concerning a certain task search the forum many have been answered before and / or just fire away. If you're uncertain whether to post questions, read Sergeys comment on this topic:

http://community.trivantis.com/forums/topic/javascript-101/

Lectora has been designed (I think quite successfully) to be usable without Javascript skills. It's of course easier to understand what's going on if you're familiar with CSS and Javascript. It also enables you to accomplish tasks that are beyond Lectoras limits.

The Trivantis blog is a source of more detailed information on certain topics: http://trivantis.com/blog/

There are some books about Lectora by Ben Pitman and Diane Elkins / Desirée Pinder. Just search for Lectora on Amazon.

Tim

Chris Paxton

@timk ...any idea why in Run Mode, the first page in my chapter would be changing the "of X" to "of 0", but the other pages show correctly "of 5" (in my current template there are 5 pages in this quiz chapter).

timk

It may be that the variable is not ready soon enough and it shows the initial value instead. You might try to add a delay to the action. You can of course insert "of 5" instead of the variable.