Storyline’s versatility allows you to develop a custom dropdown menu. If you want to avoid using the built-in Storyline menu function in the player, this short video is for you. 
The custom dropdown menu is developed inside Storyline's ‘Slide Master’. 

Some of its benefits are:

✅ it shows branding consistency in the course

✅ the menu is available for all master slides

✅ the menu is editable in one place

✅ it allows controls of the menu display and content

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Check it out here:

Or, try it yourself. Click here to see the demo.

The steps are:

1. Prepare the design in Storyline with content and menu.

✳️ Turn off the built-in ‘Menus & Controls’ in the ‘Player’ settings
✳️ Ensure that you apply the correct 'master slide' to your design

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2. Prepare the slides in the ’Slide Master’

Use the first slide to add a 'Menu' layer. This is where you design your menu items.

✳️ Why? This set-up makes it available to all slide master layouts.

In the 2nd slide, add a 'Navigation' layer. This is where you'll place the menu icon.

✳️ Why? It allows you to develop other layouts without a menu.

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3. Create a True/False variable

Create a True/False variable to activate the dropdown menu. You can name it however you want. I name mine 'ToggleMenu'.
I set the default value as False.

✳️ Variable naming guide: You want to choose a name that you will quickly understand if you come back to this file a few months later.

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4. Add triggers to show and hide the menu using the variable

On the base layer of the first slide in the 'Slide Master', set 2 triggers to show and hide the dropdown menu.

• Show layer 'Menu' when the variable 'ToggleMenu' is True.
• Hide layer 'Menu' when the variable 'ToggleMenu' is NOT True.

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5. Add triggers on the ‘menu icon’ to change the variable's value

On the 'Menu' icon in the 'Menu' layer, set 2 triggers:

• Set the variable 'ToggleMenu' to value False when it reaches 3s
• Pause the timeline on 'this layer' when it reaches 2s

✳️ Why use 'when timeline reaches 3s' instead of 'timeline starts on this layer’? This set-up is useful to avoid clash with the content on the main slides (when there are elements that appear ‘when timeline starts on that slide’).

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6. Add triggers to activate the 'navigation' layer

On the base layer of the 2nd slide in the 'Slide Master', set a trigger:

• Show the 'Navigation' layer' when it time reaches 1s

On the 'Navigation layer', set a trigger:

• Set the variable 'ToggleMenu' to True when the user click on the menu icon

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7. Add triggers on the ‘menu content’

Still in the 'Slide Master', go to the 'Menu layer' in the first slide.

On the close icon, set 2 triggers:

• Resume timeline on this layer when user click on the Close icon
• Hide this layer when user click on the Close icon

On every menu item (text links), set 3 triggers:

• Set the variable 'ToggleMenu' to False when user click on the text link
• Hide the layer when user click on the text link
• Jump to its slide when user click on the text link

✳️ Why? Set the variable to False when user click on the text link won't leave an opened menu on the slide.

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8. All done! Now you have a custom dropdown menu.

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If you would like to watch the step by step tutorial, it's available on Youtube:

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