You have total control over each slide in your course, including navigation, player features, presenters, and playlists. To access these properties, go to the Articulate tab on the PowerPoint ribbon and click Slide Properties.

When the Slide Properties window opens, change the behavior of individual slides or all of them. It's your choice.

Viewing Larger Slide Thumbnail Images

To see a larger version of a slide thumbnail, just hover over it.

Changing How Slides Advance

By default, slides advance automatically upon completion, but you can change it so learners control when slides advance. To change this behavior for an individual slide, do either of the following:

  • Click the Advance hyperlink next to any slide thumbnail. It'll toggle between Auto and By user.
  • Select the slide and click the Advance hyperlink on the right side of the window. It'll toggle between Automatically and By user.

To edit multiple slides at the same time, do any of the following:

  • All slides: Press Ctrl+A to select all the slides, then click the Advance hyperlink on the right side of the window.
  • Consecutive slides: Select the first slide in the series, hold down your Shift key, and click the last slide in the series. Then click the Advance hyperlink on the right side of the window.
  • Non-consecutive slides: Select the first slide, hold down your Ctrl key, and click the others. Then click the Advance hyperlink on the right side of the window.

Tip: The duration of each slide is controlled by its audio, video, and animations. Slides that don't have audio, video, or animations default to the number of seconds you specified in Presenter Options.

Locking the Player Controls for Some Slides

There may be times when you need to lock the player controls for a slide to prevent learners from navigating away too soon. Locking a slide means learners can't advance by clicking the player controls or the slide titles in the menu. To navigate away from a locked slide, you'll need to provide one or more hyperlinks that jump to other slides in the course, or set the slide to advance automatically (see above).

To lock a slide, do either of the following:

  • Click the padlock icon next to any slide thumbnail. It'll toggle between locked and unlocked.
  • Select the slide and click the Navigation hyperlink on the right side of the window. It'll toggle between Locked and Free.

To edit multiple slides at the same time, do any of the following:

  • All slides: Press Ctrl+A to select all the slides, then click the Navigation hyperlink on the right side of the window.
  • Consecutive slides: Select the first slide in the series, hold down your Shift key, and click the last slide in the series. Then click the Navigation hyperlink on the right side of the window.
  • Non-consecutive slides: Select the first slide, hold down your Ctrl key, and click the others. Then click the Navigation hyperlink on the right side of the window.

Tip: To restrict navigation for an entire course, see this user guide.

Assigning Different Presenters to Different Slides

Feature the narrator’s photo, bio, and contact information in the sidebar of your published course. It's a great way for learners to connect with the presenter of a course.

A course can feature one presenter for the entire course or different presenters for different slides. First, you'll need to add one or more presenters to your library. See Managing Presenters Bios to learn how.

To display the same presenter throughout your course, simply choose that presenter when you publish. If you'd rather feature different presenters on different slides, do either of the following for each slide in the Slide Properties manager:

  • Click the Presenter hyperlink next to any slide thumbnail. It'll reveal a drop-down list. Choose one of the presenters from your library. Choose None if you don't want to display a presenter for the selected slide.
  • Select the slide and click the Presenter hyperlink on the right side of the window. It'll reveal a drop-down list. Choose one of the presenters from your library or choose None if you don't want to display a presenter for the selected slide.

To edit multiple slides at the same time, do any of the following:

  • All slides: Press Ctrl+A to select all the slides, click the Presenter hyperlink on the right side of the window, and choose a presenter from your library. (An even easier way to feature the same presenter throughout an entire course is to choose that presenter when you publish.)
  • Consecutive slides: Select the first slide in the series, hold down your Shift key, and click the last slide in the series. Then click the Presenter hyperlink on the right side of the window and choose a presenter from your library.
  • Non-consecutive slides: Select the first slide, hold down your Ctrl key, and click the others. Then click the Presenter hyperlink on the right side of the window and choose a presenter from your library.

Tip: In order to feature a presenter in your course, you must enable the presenter panel in your player. See this user guide to learn how.

Adding Playlists to Slides

Add background music or sounds to your course. Playlists are separate from slide narration; they play in the background. They can even play continuously across multiple slides.

First, you'll need to add one or more playlists to your library. See Managing Playlists to learn how.

Then, assign a playlist to a slide in the Slide Properties manager. Do either of the following:

  • Click the Playlist hyperlink next to any slide thumbnail. It'll reveal a drop-down list. Choose one of the playlists from your library. Choose None if you don't want the selected slide to have background audio.
  • Select the slide and click the Audio Playlists hyperlink on the right side of the window. It'll reveal a drop-down list. Choose one of the playlists from your library or choose None if you don't want the selected slide to have background audio.

To edit multiple slides at the same time, do any of the following:

  • All slides: Press Ctrl+A to select all the slides, click the Audio Playlist hyperlink on the right side of the window, and choose a playlist from your library.
  • Consecutive slides: Select the first slide in the series, hold down your Shift key, and click the last slide in the series. Then click the Audio Playlist hyperlink on the right side of the window and choose a playlist from your library.
  • Non-consecutive slides: Select the first slide, hold down your Ctrl key, and click the others. Then click the Audio Playlist hyperlink on the right side of the window and choose a playlist from your library.

Adding Branched Navigation

Build non-linear scenarios with easy-to-use branching options. By default, the Prev and Next buttons on the course player jump to the previous and next slides, but you can branch to any slides in your course. Here's how:

  1. Click one of the Branching hyperlinks beside a slide thumbnail or on the right side of the window.
  2. Choose the slide to which you want to branch. If you need to switch back to the default branching behavior, choose Previous slide or Next slide at the top of the list.

Hiding the Previous and Next Buttons

Want to hide the previous and next buttons on your course player? Easy. You can hide one or both on a slide-by-slide basis. Do either of the following:

  • Click the Controls hyperlink next to any slide thumbnail and uncheck one or both boxes.
  • Select the slide and uncheck one or both navigation boxes on the right side of the window.

To edit multiple slides at the same time, do any of the following:

  • All slides: Press Ctrl+A to select all the slides, then uncheck one or both navigation boxes on the right side of the window.
  • Consecutive slides: Select the first slide in the series, hold down your Shift key, and click the last slide in the series. Then uncheck one or both navigation boxes on the right side of the window.
  • Non-consecutive slides: Select the first slide, hold down your Ctrl key, and click the others. Then uncheck one or both navigation boxes on the right side of the window.

Tip: If you include Articulate Engage interactions in your course, the previous and next buttons for those slides will be controlled by the playback mode in Engage. In other words, the Engage settings will override the Presenter settings for showing/hiding the navigation buttons.

Managing Player Features for Each Slide

By default, each slide will display the features you've chosen to include in your course player, but you can show or hide the following player features on a slide-by-slide basis, too.

  • Menu
  • Glossary
  • Resources
  • Notes
  • Seekbar
  • Play/Pause
  • Logo

To change the player features for an individual slide, select the slide and click the On/Off selectors in the lower right corner of the window.

On (default) means that the feature is enabled in the course player. Off (default) means that the feature is disabled in the course player. If you select a default option, the feature will always match the setting in the player, even if you change the player settings later.

To edit multiple slides at the same time, do any of the following:

  • All slides: Press Ctrl+A to select all the slides, then click the On/Off selectors in the lower right corner of the window.
  • Consecutive slides: Select the first slide in the series, hold down your Shift key, and click the last slide in the series. Then click the On/Off selectors in the lower right corner of the window.
  • Non-consecutive slides: Select the first slide, hold down your Ctrl key, and click the others. Then click the On/Off selectors in the lower right corner of the window.

Tip: If you change your mind, click the Reset hyperlink beside the Features section header to revert back to your player defaults for the selected slide(s).

Customizing the Course Menu

To customize the menu for your course, click Edit Menu in the lower left corner of the Slide Properties window. The Player Properties window will open to the Menu editor. See this user guide for details on customizing the menu.

You Might Also Want to Explore:

Managing Presenter Bios
Managing Playlists
Choosing Player Features
Customizing the Player Menu