Master Slide - Change Layout

Hi Jean!

Thanks for posting your question here in the community. 

1) What is causing this is that when you bring in a template slide, or a slide from another project, it brings in the entire Slide Master set that goes with it, even if you incorporate several slides of the same template. We know about this behavior, but you can always submit a feature request to have this changed. There is really no way to avoid them being brought it right now (as far as I know). 

2) What you can do is have one layout for each scene. That way you can apply a layout to one scene. For example, when I create courses I often have a Layout for each Scene/Module. Each layout has a different title across the top, and i can apply that layout just to the slides in that scene. Also keep in mind that whatever you apply to the very TOP slide in the Master slide view will be passed down to each slide in your course, so layouts that you want only for certain slides and not the entire course should not be on the TOP slide. 

3) No it shouldn't have any type of noticeable impact on the size of file or speed of publishing. However, if you want to get rid of them to be safe or as a precaution, you certainly can. When you go into the Slide Master view and hover over the slides in the column on the left-hand side it shows you how many slides use that layout. You can go ahead and delete all of the layouts that aren't used, so they don't clutter up your Master area. 

Hope this helps! :) 

I can't see how to apply a layout to a scene - the option for "Apply Layout" is greyed out and un-clickable.  I can only see how to change it on a single slide.  How do I change an entire scene?  That will save me significant time!

Hi Jean, 

Go to Story View, select all the slides you want to apply a layout to, right-click to bring up the menu and from the "Apply Layout" option select your layout.

OK, so it's still a slide at a time - it's just that I can select several in the Story View.  I was doing that, but I was hoping to do the entire scene with one click.  I have branches in my scenes, so it's not a straight line.  It's a lot of clicking.

Once I get them all switched over, I'll delete the layouts I'm not using.  This will make it easier to find the one I do want to use.

Actually if you click on a slide inside a Scene and hit CTRL and A on the keyboard at the same time, it selects all the slides in one scene, so you actually don't have to click on each one! Gotta love Storyline :) 

Thanks - that's what I was looking for! 

Now, how about a way to know which slides are using a particular layout?  There are now 25 master layouts, and most of them are used by 2-3 slides.  The layouts are identical to the main one I want to use, so I can't tell by looking at them.  I want to find those slides and change them, so I can delete the master.

Add a large shape onto the master is the only way I find out which is which

Thanks, Phil - that got a lot of them.  Many of the slides had images that covered the one I put on the master, so I had to keep moving it to see them all. It took me most of a day, but now I'm down to only a couple of slide masters and one feedback master. I feel like this was a wasted day, but at least now it's cleaned up and I'll be able to move forward more productively.  What a mess that was!  I think I may just leave my big green checkmark on the good slide masters for a while, just because it makes me happy to see it and know it's on the right layout!

Hi, seems like my question is related.

We create on-demand training for developers and coders using storyline 360 and ppt. The SMEs write courses in ppt, then send them to us for the rest. It is rare to have a deck of less than 100 slides, most are several hundred slides that we split into units. 

Our instructors teach from published Storylines (our attempt to have 1 course source file to update). Because of this, I have set up slide/player triggers to change the storyline slide with multiple keyboard keystrokes. I have placed these in the storyline slide masters. 

Like Jean has said, importing a ppt results in a lot of extra slide masters.

I don't enjoy copying 5 custom triggers one at a time across multiple new masters or hundreds of slides. I also don't enjoy applying layouts slide by slide...

Can I eliminate that pain of copying triggers by having the SMEs use a blank ppt with only 1 master slide, then use my storyline master slides to apply all colors / images / bkgs / branding with Apply Layout?

Open to other suggestions

Selecting all the slides in a scene attached them to a layout, but not to a master.  I have several layouts within a master, so although this got them into the right master, and most of them are using the right layout, I still find individual slides on the wrong layout.  Still, it helped, and getting them off the wrong masters allowed me to delete them.

We've had people collaborating on a single course and ended up with four or five copies of the same master, in part due to our inexperience. And if a developer has tweaked her master, those tweaks are in (say) copy 2, while another developer's are in copy 3.

Phil's suggestion of putting a distinctive object on a master or a layout is a good one. I tried having the object hang off the stage, thinking it'd be visible hanging off the related slides, but no such luck.

Nicole, this one is a HUGE time-saver!  I'm so glad I googled it...

So glad this was helpful for you as well, Karen. Thanks for chiming in to share and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)