In the slide master if you mouse over any of the slides a pop-up shows how many slides are using the slide layout. How do you find out which slides are using a specific layout? I have some duplicate slides in my slide master and some of them are only used once by a slide. I want to find that one slide and change the layout so I can get rid of the duplicate in the slide layout.
I recently read that deleting unused slide masters is one way to reduce file size. Being able to easily identify which slide masters aren't being used would make that process so much easier.
Deleting slide masters is one of the methods to help reduce file size, and you can spot which slide masters aren't being used by hovering over each and you'll see an "In use" indication on each to indicate how many slides are using that layout.
It's hard to believe this "ask" has been around for over 8 years! How can we finally get a quick way to search for slides that use an obscure master?
I think the suggestion, to put a mark, like a big red box, on the master, is brilliant. But, I've done that, but still can't find the last slide. So, I'm guessing something is on top of it.
I know, Peggy -- this is still frustrating. My main method is to go to the slide master in question and put a big red circle in the middle of the master slide. I might do the same for other masters -- green circle, blue circle, etc. From the Story View, MOST of the slides will then be easily identifiable. When the circle isn't visible (hidden by a slide element), I have fewer slides I have to check manually.
Not ideal, but it has been working in lieu of a real solution.
Thanks for the quick response, David. I'm trying to create a new template, based on slides from previous courses. So, as you can imagine, Storyline is pulling in multiple masters, that I want to get rid of. I also find that I have to save, and close Storyline, occasionally, for the masters that I have deleted, to really go away.
I will get there. It's just more time-consuming that I'd like.
Understood -- I feel your pain. When I pull in slides, I always pull them into a separate scene, replace each slide's master, delete the orphaned master and then put them where I want them in existing scenes. They do sneak in, though, and it is time consuming!
Good idea! Between marking a big, red, circle on the master, and changing the master as soon as I import, upcoming master management should be easier. Thanks for the tips!
Ahhh!!! I just found my problem! I have a slide, which has three layers. The layout master was changed for the slide, but the layers did not adopt the change. I'm not sure if this is a bug. But, I am unable to change the master for the layers. I guess my only option may be to delete and recreate them (?).
Ah, makes sense. Something is telling me the layers are defaulting to Feedback Layers, which you may not have created to go along with your slide master. Quick way to tell is to create a new Feedback layer master and seeing if your new layer(s) will take that style. If not, you're probably starting from scratch as you suggesting.
It looks like I don't have a blank feedback layer. If I look at the layout style for the base layer, I see the master I want. If I make the layer active, then look at the layout of this slide again, I get an obscure master, that I usually see in quiz feedback. Where would I define a blank feedback later? I am about to start an afternoon of meetings, but hope this is an easy fix when I return. Again, thanks for the direction.
I used Geert's solution, but in the opposite way. My presentation had 3-4 masters, so it was easier to change the background color on the master I wanted to KEEP to green. Then I looked through my presentation for any slides that weren't green and updated those. Once every slide was green, I deleted the unused masters and updated the "keeper" master back to its original color.
I think this method may help in some cases described above because anything that's not green stands out and you can easily take a closer look at the details (e.g., a white rectangle covers the whole slide).
I know, Peggy -- this is still frustrating. My main method is to go to the slide master in question and put a big red circle in the middle of the master slide. I might do the same for other masters -- green circle, blue circle, etc. From the Story View, MOST of the slides will then be easily identifiable. When the circle isn't visible (hidden by a slide element), I have fewer slides I have to check manually.
Not ideal, but it has been working in lieu of a real solution.
I used David's method, and it worked for spotting an eluding layer that was defaulting to the feedback master. I wish Articulate were more responsive with essential feature requests like this one.
Glad I was able to help; I agree, it's frustrating to have to use a lot of the same tricks, but we're still using Storyline here. My team and I have created our own Style Guide that captures a lot of our 'workaround' techniques that specifically try to avoid known issues (some native to Storyline, some thanks to our LMS.)
Ellen thanks for sharing but even now in 2021, the hover feature is only available in PowerPoint, Storyline still only tells you if it is in use or not, not the slide numbers that are using it. It is disappointing to see that even though this has been talked about for more than 8 years, it still appears to be an issue :(
So thank you all for your suggestions. I have done all of these things. I have looked at each and every slide in my presentation (several times) and now again with the big red X and there are still several slides masters showing as being used that are not showing on any slide. (says one is on 16 slides! I couldn't have missed ALL of them) Is there a way to 'hide' entire slides? I discovered that unused questions banks had slide in them that had to be updated but even having done that there are still slides I can't 'find'. Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful.
OK well, that actually makes sense. I don't have time to recreate 30 'draws' for each of my presentations but at least I will know for new presentations moving forward. Thanks for sharing!
@wendy - I haven't been staying current with this discussion recently, so maybe someone already suggested this. But, I found that when I was unable to tell where a master slide was being used, it ended up being in some obscure location, like a quiz question, or layer. It might even be in a place that will almost never be seen (such as an incorrect feedback for an easy-to-answer quiz question).
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No worries. It was quite a mystery for me, as well -- was happy to finally figure it out!
This is a brilliant workaround, Geert!
So glad that this was able to help you out as well Eric. Thanks for popping in to share.
Thank You, Thank You, David! This has been driving me crazy!
I recently read that deleting unused slide masters is one way to reduce file size. Being able to easily identify which slide masters aren't being used would make that process so much easier.
Hi Sherri,
Deleting slide masters is one of the methods to help reduce file size, and you can spot which slide masters aren't being used by hovering over each and you'll see an "In use" indication on each to indicate how many slides are using that layout.
Thanks!
This post was removed by the author
It's hard to believe this "ask" has been around for over 8 years! How can we finally get a quick way to search for slides that use an obscure master?
I think the suggestion, to put a mark, like a big red box, on the master, is brilliant. But, I've done that, but still can't find the last slide. So, I'm guessing something is on top of it.
I know, Peggy -- this is still frustrating. My main method is to go to the slide master in question and put a big red circle in the middle of the master slide. I might do the same for other masters -- green circle, blue circle, etc. From the Story View, MOST of the slides will then be easily identifiable. When the circle isn't visible (hidden by a slide element), I have fewer slides I have to check manually.
Not ideal, but it has been working in lieu of a real solution.
Thanks for the quick response, David. I'm trying to create a new template, based on slides from previous courses. So, as you can imagine, Storyline is pulling in multiple masters, that I want to get rid of. I also find that I have to save, and close Storyline, occasionally, for the masters that I have deleted, to really go away.
I will get there. It's just more time-consuming that I'd like.
Understood -- I feel your pain. When I pull in slides, I always pull them into a separate scene, replace each slide's master, delete the orphaned master and then put them where I want them in existing scenes. They do sneak in, though, and it is time consuming!
Good idea! Between marking a big, red, circle on the master, and changing the master as soon as I import, upcoming master management should be easier. Thanks for the tips!
No problem at all. Good luck!
Ahhh!!! I just found my problem! I have a slide, which has three layers. The layout master was changed for the slide, but the layers did not adopt the change. I'm not sure if this is a bug. But, I am unable to change the master for the layers. I guess my only option may be to delete and recreate them (?).
Ah, makes sense. Something is telling me the layers are defaulting to Feedback Layers, which you may not have created to go along with your slide master. Quick way to tell is to create a new Feedback layer master and seeing if your new layer(s) will take that style. If not, you're probably starting from scratch as you suggesting.
It looks like I don't have a blank feedback layer. If I look at the layout style for the base layer, I see the master I want. If I make the layer active, then look at the layout of this slide again, I get an obscure master, that I usually see in quiz feedback. Where would I define a blank feedback later? I am about to start an afternoon of meetings, but hope this is an easy fix when I return. Again, thanks for the direction.
Very good, I like that
I used Geert's solution, but in the opposite way. My presentation had 3-4 masters, so it was easier to change the background color on the master I wanted to KEEP to green. Then I looked through my presentation for any slides that weren't green and updated those. Once every slide was green, I deleted the unused masters and updated the "keeper" master back to its original color.
I think this method may help in some cases described above because anything that's not green stands out and you can easily take a closer look at the details (e.g., a white rectangle covers the whole slide).
I used David's method, and it worked for spotting an eluding layer that was defaulting to the feedback master. I wish Articulate were more responsive with essential feature requests like this one.
Glad I was able to help; I agree, it's frustrating to have to use a lot of the same tricks, but we're still using Storyline here. My team and I have created our own Style Guide that captures a lot of our 'workaround' techniques that specifically try to avoid known issues (some native to Storyline, some thanks to our LMS.)
Ellen thanks for sharing but even now in 2021, the hover feature is only available in PowerPoint, Storyline still only tells you if it is in use or not, not the slide numbers that are using it. It is disappointing to see that even though this has been talked about for more than 8 years, it still appears to be an issue :(
So thank you all for your suggestions. I have done all of these things. I have looked at each and every slide in my presentation (several times) and now again with the big red X and there are still several slides masters showing as being used that are not showing on any slide. (says one is on 16 slides! I couldn't have missed ALL of them) Is there a way to 'hide' entire slides? I discovered that unused questions banks had slide in them that had to be updated but even having done that there are still slides I can't 'find'. Any ideas or suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks!
OK well, that actually makes sense. I don't have time to recreate 30 'draws' for each of my presentations but at least I will know for new presentations moving forward. Thanks for sharing!
@wendy - I haven't been staying current with this discussion recently, so maybe someone already suggested this. But, I found that when I was unable to tell where a master slide was being used, it ended up being in some obscure location, like a quiz question, or layer. It might even be in a place that will almost never be seen (such as an incorrect feedback for an easy-to-answer quiz question).