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Gray Out Features

The Gray Out feature provides the ability to disable any of the following buttons, tabs, or course links in the SkillSoft Course Player for an individual course and/or for all courses on a content site:

  • Accelerated Path - If the Accelerated Path button is grayed out, the learner does not have access to the Accelerated Path tab in the SkillSoft Course Player.
  • Assessments (Pre-assessments and/or Masteries) - If the Assessments button is grayed out, the learner does not have access to the Assessment tab and cannot view their Pre-assessment and Mastery scores or jump to a specific Pre-assessment or Mastery.
  • Reference - If the Reference button is grayed out, the learner does not have access to the Reference page that contains links to all the references for the course.
  • Job Aids - If the Job Aids button is grayed out, the learner does not have access to the Job Aids page that contains links to all the Job Aids for the course.
  • Help - If the Help button is grayed out, the learner cannot open and access the SkillSoft Course Player Help.
  • Audio - If the Audio button is grayed out, the learner cannot turn the audio ON (if you set the audio to off) or turn the audio OFF (if you set the audio to on).

When the feature is disabled, the button, tab or course link appears "grayed out." Disabled buttons and tabs are not "hidden" or "removed"; they are "grayed out" by displaying the grayed out form of the image.

Gray-out features are implemented by overriding properties in the SkillSoft Course Player (the same way they are implemented for skins). A courseinfo.properties file and/or <courseid>.Properties file is created and contains the customized properties.

Gray Out Properties

Gray out is implemented by editing course or SkillSoft Course Player properties. Gray out can be set at the course level by editing gray out properties for a course (in a <courseid>.Properties file), or it can be set at a site-wide level by editing the gray out properties for the SkillSoft Course Player Applet and/or Application (in the courseinfo.properties file). Course level gray-out always overrides site-wide gray out. Always use lower case "true" or "false" is equal (=) sign to enable or disable the following properties:

  • AcceleratedPathEnabled=
  • PreassessmentsEnabled=
  • MasteriesEnabled=
  • ReferenceEnabled=
  • JobAidsEnabled=
  • HelpEnabled=
  • DISABLE_AUDIO=

Pre-assessments

To gray out and disable the Pre-assessments in the course, include in the properties file:

PreassessmentsEnabled=false

OR

PreassessmentsEnabled=false

MasteriesEnabled=true

These properties settings will:

  • Gray out and disable Pre-assessment buttons on the Assessments panel.
  • Gray out and disable Pre-assessments on the Course Menu and Accelerated Path menu.
  • Cause the Player to skip Pre-assessments during navigation of the course using the Next Page and Previous Page buttons.

The Mastery buttons on the Assessments panel remain enabled and functional. Masteries on the Course Menu and Accelerated Path menus also remain enabled and functional.

Note: Pre-assessments will not automatically disable if the course does not contain Pre-assessments. There is no automatic detection by the SkillSoft Course Player. Disabling has to be set explicitly for the course. You can disable Pre-assessments whether or not Pre-assessments are present in the course.

Masteries

To gray out and disable Masteries in the course, include in the properties file:

MasteriesEnabled=false

OR

PreassessmentsEnabled=true

MasteriesEnabled=false

These properties settings will:

  • Gray out and disable Mastery buttons on Assessments panel.
  • Gray out and disable Masteries on the Course Menu and Accelerated Path menu.
  • Cause the Player to skip Masteries during navigation of the course using the Next Page and Previous Page buttons.

The Pre-assessment buttons on Assessments panel would remain enabled and functional. Pre-assessments on Course Menu and Accelerated Path menu would remain enabled and functional.

Note: Masteries are not automatically disabled if the course does not contain Masteries. There is no automatic detection by the SkillSoft Course Player. Disabling has to be set explicitly for the course. You can disable Masteries whether or not Masteries are present in the course.

Pre-assessments and Masteries

If you gray out the Pre-assessments and the Masteries, this disables the Assessments button and tab, in addition to graying out and disabling the Pre-assessments and Masteries in the menus. Use these settings in the properties file:

PreassessementsEnabled=false

MasteriesEnabled=false

These properties settings will:

  • Gray out and disable the Assessments button and tab
  • Gray out and disable Preassessments on Course Menu and Accelerated Path menu
  • Gray out and disable Masteries on Course Menu and Accelerated Path menu
  • Cause the Player to skip Preassessments and Masteries during navigation of the course using the Next Page and Previous Page buttons.

Audio Button

To gray out and disable the audio buttons, include in the properties file:

DISABLE_AUDIO=true

If DISABLE_AUDIO=true:

  • The Turn On Audio/Turn Off Audio button is disabled in its default "Turn Audio Off" state.
  • The Stop/Start Audio button is disabled in its default "Stop Audio" state.
  • The user can never enable the audio buttons for any play sessions while the properties are disabled.

To enable the audio buttons (default), include in the properties file:

DISABLE_AUDIO=false

If DISABLE_AUDIO=false:

  • The Turn Off Audio button is enabled
  • The Stop Audio button is enabled when audio is playing, and Play Audio button is enabled when audio is not playing.
  • If the user clicks Turn Off Audio button, the button changes to Turn On Audio and remains enabled, and the Play Audio button changes to disabled.
  • The user can click the Turn On Audio button to turn audio back on.

Note: The Audio buttons are not automatically disabled if the course does not contain audio. There is no automatic detection by the SkillSoft Course Player. Disabling has to be set explicitly for the course. You can disable audio whether or not audio is present in the course.

Reference

To gray out and disable the Reference button, include in the properties file:

ReferenceEnabled=false

Job Aids

To gray out and disable the Job Aids button, include in the properties file:

JobAidsEnabled=false

Help

To gray out and disable the Help button, include in the properties file:

HelpEnabled=false

Exit

Disabling the Exit button is not allowed since it is required for posting results properly to SkillPort. However, a course could be customized to display a "grayed out" graphic to make it appear that the Exit button is not enabled. If users use the Windows Close button to close the SkillSoft Course Player, the results might not be saved correctly.