Slide Master layouts, storyline looses count so unable to delete (with workaround)

Oct 30, 2014

In SL2 update 1, storyline looses count of how many times a layout has been used, and there disables deletion. Sample .story file is attached...

Can be reproduced by importing questions into slides, and deleting them again.

I found a workaround though. By duplicating the Slide Master, and deleting the copy again - storyline seems to recount usage, and unused layouts can now be removed...

Anyone else experiencing this behaviour?

Best regards
Bjarne

10 Replies
Wendy Farmer

Hi Bjarne

each time you import one or more slides into SL it brings with it 'a slide master' so you do need to go through and do the housekeeping to get rid of the master slides you don't want just to keep things neat.  I haven't seen that behaviour where if I delete all slides using a specific layout that layout hangs on...but I'll check out your story.

Chris Petrizzo

Hi Bjarne,

Thanks so much for posting this. I'm having this exact problem. In fact, one of my layouts says it's being used by "-9" slides. That's right - in use by a NEGATIVE number. And as a result I cannot delete the layouts. Unfortunately the workaround you suggested - copying the master and then deleting the copy - isn't working for me. It does recount the number of slides being used by the master, but not the layouts. Consequently I still cannot remove the unused layouts.

What I've done to resolve this is duplicate the original master, remove the layouts I no longer need from the copy, then apply the copied versions of the layouts to the slides. This freed up the original master (even though the layouts still show incorrectly as being in use - the master is not) and then I can delete the original master. 

Ashley Terwilliger-Pollard

Hi Chris, 

This has been reported to our QA team - and in the meantime they've shared the following idea for a workaround:

Workaround: Users can right-click on the master slide for the layout(s) showing incorrect usage counts and un-check the 'Preserve Master' option (if it's not checked, they can check it, and then un-check it).

Unchecking 'Preserve Master' will force SL2 to re-calculate all of the layout usage and should get everything back to normal. They can re-check that option afterward without it harming anything, but they should be sure to save their project immediately afterward to make sure that the updated counts are persisted.

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