Text position on master pages
Aug 06, 2014
I am an extensive master page user in PowerPoint, and, on the surface, QuizMaker seems to offer that. However, the placeholders do not seem to consistently hold their format and position when applying and resetting masters to individual slides.
The first screen below is the master; how the type is supposed to appear by format and position. The second screen is a slide in Normal view. Both the format (flush right instead of flush left) of the question and the position of the Choice placeholder are different.
Further, and using the example of this same quiz, I later moved the choices placeholder on the master to be flush left with the question, but the actual choices on the Normal view of the slide did not move, even after resetting the master.
Am I doing something wrong or do the masters just not work as good as those in PowerPoint?
6 Replies
Hi Jim!
You can check out this tutorial on using slide masters in Quizmaker '13.
Are you applying the appropriate layout to your slides?
Thanks for your reply Leslie, but it doesn't really help me.
The tutorial is fine, but didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. The problem is that the slide master layouts aren't "taking" on the slides I am trying to apply them to in terms of text placeholder position and format. So far my workaround just to get stuff done is to create one slide for one quiz question, apply the appropriate layout so that at least the background items "take" to the slide, manually fix the text boxes that did not correctly "take" from the master layout, then, finally, duplicate the slide and copy and paste the text content over the duplicated content for each successive quiz question. It works, but it isn't particularly friendly. Way more steps than should be the case.
Hi Jim! Does this happen with any project or just the one that you are working on? If it happens with other projects, does it happen with a different slide master?
Regarding your first question, I have been working on a different but similar project this week, and have been having somewhat better luck. As for the second question, so far I've been using just one master layout, so I may have to troubleshoot that one a little more. A related frustration I have is that, every time in insert a quiz into my PPT file, I have to rebuild the master pages, including placeholder position and format. I have created a custom theme for the background and colors, but that doesn't help me with the text elements. I suppose the workaround for that is to get a quiz the way I want it, then save it as a template for any subsequent quizzes that I want to format the same. My guess is that I would have to then build them directly from the QM application (outside of PPT), and then bring them into PPT later. If that works, I guess my problem would be solved, unless of course I later decide to change master elements and those changes don't "take" like in my original problem.
Thanks.
Hi Jim,
Did you ever figure out a work around? I'm having the same issue and I've been using since 2006 and find myself scratching my head.
I created a template file with my masters formatted just as I needed them, and I get the right justification randomly still.
A real pain since each question needs to be touched individually, slowing down development!!!
Hi, Doug -- Since this thread is a little bit older and Jim may no longer be subscribed to it, you may want to reach out to him directly via the "Contact Me" link on his profile. Thanks! :)
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