Unable to insert photographic to Master slide in Presenter 13

Jul 07, 2014

Hi, all: Trying to insert a photographic character on a Slide Master in Presenter 13 and getting the following message: "Unable to get reference to the active slide. Please ensure slide is selected and repeat the operation."

I assume I'm able to insert photo characters on Master slides. Of course, I can do it at the Slide View, but that's gonna slow me down. Suggestions? Thanks, Daniel

11 Replies
Christine Hendrickson

Hi Daniel,

Oddly enough, no - I've seen the same thing on my end. I think this is because it's different than Storyline's Slide Master. The PowerPoint Master looks similar, but I don't believe the Master slides are connected the same way with the ribbon for Articulate.

Now, what I usually do is set up the character the way I like it in a slide, then copy it and paste it into a Master or layout. You cannot modify the character from a layout/Master, but it does keep it out of your content slides. If you need to modify the character, you can temporarily place it into a slide and adjust it, then place it back in your master. 

I know that's not exactly what you were after - but I hope it saves you some time! :)

Have a great day,

Christine

Daniel Brigham

Hi, Christine: Thanks for the reply. I got a different answer from support who said they couldn't duplicate the issue, suggesting the issue was all mine, baby. Is Articulate's stance that it's not possible to add a photographic character to a Master in Studio 13? Or may it's that in certain circumstances, say if you're Daniel Brigham, you MAY run into problems when trying to do that.

btw, this isn't a big deal for me personally, but I'm prepping for an advanced Studio 13 course and don't want to say the wrong thing. Thanks, Daniel

Christine Hendrickson

Hi Daniel,

I apologize for the confusion - looks like the support engineers were able to reproduce the issue. From the case (#00409260 for my reference) I see that Gren was able to reproduce the issue and also filed a report on this with our Quality Assurance team.

Here's Gren's last message:

"We were able to duplicate your issue. I have submitted your case to our Quality Assurance team for their review. As a workaround you can insert the Photographic Character first in a regular slide in your project, then copy this object, and paste this to the Slide Master or Slide Layout.


I cannot offer a time frame for when or if this issue will be resolved, so please continue to take advantage of the workaround if you encounter this issue in the future. "

This isn't something I've used often in Studio, to be completely honest. The few times I have, I've ended up using the workaround I mentioned earlier. Apparently, Gren used the same workaround :)

I've asked Gren for the ticket details, so I can provide this thread in the ticket.

I'll be sure to share any additional information as soon as I can.

Thanks very much!

Beth Buser

I am having this problem, and No matter what I do, I cannot get a character added to the presentation.  I am going through the tutorial learning the program and I can't even make it past the first slide.  I keep getting the same error message that Daniel explained.  Can you please offer assistance on how to navigate through this problem?

I recently discovered that if I open up a blank Power Point presentation, I was able to insert the character there, then I copied and pasted it into the presentation I was using for the training.

This will work for time being; however, a true resolution would be appreciated.

Thank you!  Ms. B.

Leslie McKerchie

Thanks for popping back in with an update Beth :) Glad that it's working for you now. So, was it just a practice file that you were looking at? Or is it something you need to work for you? I would advise to try to import into a new file if you need to utilize this.

  1. Open a new, blank presentation in PowerPoint.
  2. Go to the Home tab, click the drop-down arrow beside New Slide, and choose Reuse Slides.
  3. In the Reuse Slides panel, click the Browse button and choose Browse File.
  4. Browse to your original PowerPoint file and click Open.
  5. At the bottom of the Reuse Slides panel, mark the box to Keep source formatting.
  6. Right-click the first slide in the Reuse Slides panel and select Insert All Slides.
  7. Save the new presentation and republish.

Note: Articulate resources, such as audio and video, will need to be inserted again into the new presentation. You may need to export the narration from your original presentation, then import it into the new presentation.

This discussion is closed. You can start a new discussion or contact Articulate Support.