Found a way to delete masters and layouts that are grayed out even though they are not used

Dec 23, 2015

I have seen several suggestions for how to delete masters and layouts that are unused but the option is grayed out, including reinstalling Storyline. I found that if I applied a new Theme to the master, then the option to delete the master becomes available and it can be deleted.

12 Replies
Allie Munro

Suni, Thank you for posting this information. I didn't know this was an issue. I know you can't delete slide masters or feedback masters if any slide is referencing it. I do notice that some slides though will still show the grayed out delete function but "DEL" on the keyboard still solves this. As long that their not referenced they would delete.

Phil Nissley

This is still not working for me.

I'm trying to set up a Storyline template for my team, based on a corp PPT deck. I wanted to add a slide with a slight variation and thought I'd create a new Master for this one exception. Instead, I realized that it would be simpler to just create a new slide, select "Hide Background Graphics" and then manually copy/paste the one graphic I wanted for this one new slide.

Now that I want to delete the extra Master layout and all its master slide, the Delete function is greyed out and even Suni's workaround of applying a different Theme is not working. And no, there are no slides using any layouts from this Master either.

Phil Nissley

Hi Leslie,

Thanks for the quick reply. Since the original Master Layout had two bands at the top and bottom of the slide and I wanted a variation that had a band at just the top, I did what I mentioned in my original post. "I realized that it would be simpler to just create a new slide, select Hide Background Graphics and then manually copy/paste the one graphic I wanted for this one new slide." So all I did was close the template file without saving changes and created this one additional and simple Layout.

I think the issue of the second Master Layout not being able to be deleted was the fact that I created it as a copy of the original Master Layout. Since the project had one slide that used one of the Layouts of that original Master, I assume that this second Master Layout retained that connection and therefore caused the Delete Layout option to be disabled. Those are my thoughts at least.

But I'm okay now, since I only needed to create that one additional Layout.

Thanks again,

Phil

Leslie McKerchie

Hi Terry,

We have an open feature request that we are tracking for the ability to identify which Slide Masters are in use and where within the project.

It sounds like you may be seeing something a bit different. With your permission, I'd like to take a look at your project file to investigate what's happening. You can share it publicly here, or send it to me privately by uploading it here. I'll delete it when I'm done troubleshooting.

Terry Bell

I guess I needed a few days off to look at it with fresh eyes. It seems that my problem was an unused question bank which WAS using the slide master. I hope the feature request that you mention will be implemented - it would have saved me some grief! Thanks for following up with me.