Confused by master slides!
Apr 27, 2015
Forgive my ignorance but I can't seem to get the hang of master slides in Storyline.
My understanding is that if you apply a particular style to a master then all of the layouts inherit that style. It works fine with graphics but not with text. Have a look at the attached story 'sean_test'. I've applied particular formatting to the heading on the master. It's aligned left and horizontally to the top. However, when you look at the slides e.g. Slide 2, the title is aligned middle horizontally. Maybe I should format the text on the layout slides, but then what's the purpose of having text formatting on the master?
Very often when I apply a Title and Content layout to a slide, it gives a point size that is far bigger than what was applied on the master layout.
Slide 1.4 is taken from a different presentation. I went to Insert new slide/ Quizzing/ Multiple Response and filled in the form. I then applied my Question formatting layout to it. It just went haywire! What am I doing wrong here?
Is it a case of formatting the design/graphics elements on the master slide and formatting each layout slide individually?
7 Replies
Hi Sean,
Thanks for reaching out here and I'm sorry to hear about the difficulty you've run into. It looks like the .story file was not attached here, so are you able to post the ifle for us to take a look at?
In eht meantime, here is some additional information about working with master slides and some other general guidelines for working on your files.
Hello Ashley,
Many thanks for your reply and the useful links. I've followed the procedures as stated in the guide but still no luck.
Trust me to forget the attachment! It's attached here now.
Thanks again.
Thanks Sean for sharing the file here. I am taking a look and am not sure which masters/layers you're working with, but I was able to apply a particular font to the master slide, and it also applied to all the layouts. I was able to do the same thing with alignment within the text boxes and then I could add in new slides and choose to apply a layout and all the elements carried over. So it doesn't seem that I'm able to replicate what you're seeing? Could you walk me through the exact steps you're going through to see this?
Hello Ashley,
Here's what I've done:
1. View/Slide Master/Scenario 1/ Title and Content layout. Heading Arial Black 32pt
2. Close Slide Master. New slide/Layout/Scenario 1/Title and Content. Arial Black 32pt. All fine so far!
3. I then want to change the appearance of that slide. Home/Layout/Scenario General/Title and Content. The title comes up as 42.5pt, even though that layout's title is set to 32pt. It's as if the slide is referring to a different layout.
3. I clicked on New Slide/Scenario_general/Title Only. The title comes up 57pt, even though the layout is set to AB 32pt.
It seems that if I use one slide master, it works fine, but if I use more than one, then problems creep in.
Hi, Sean --
I went through the steps you outlined in your file, and I saw the behavior you described. Then I tried the same steps in a brand new file and didn't see the same behavior when I set Arial Black 32 as the font on both the Title and Content and Title Only slide masters. Can you please take a look at the test file I have attached and see if you can replicate it, please?
And also, here is some information regarding working locally, as that can contribute to unexpected behavior when creating, editing, and publishing Storyline courses.
Hello Christie,
Thank you very much for that. I've replicated what you did and it worked perfectly. Not sure what's happening on my own machine. I work locally and use all of the correct file naming conventions. Maybe it's just a computer problem...
So glad to hear that helped, Sean!
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