Custom Table of Contents

If you’re building a custom menu on a slide master, you need a way to distinguish which slide is active because the master layer is shared across all slides. A common approach is to use separate True/False variables as simple state flags for each slide.

You would create variables like chapter01_complete, chapter02_complete, and so on, where each one represents a specific slide.

Then, on each slide, you add a trigger on timeline start that sets its corresponding variable to true. For example, when Chapter 01 slide starts, chapter01_complete becomes true; when Chapter 02 slide starts, chapter02_complete becomes true, and so on.

On the slide master, your menu items reference these variables. You add conditions so that when the timeline starts and chapter01_complete is true, the Chapter 01 menu item changes to a “visited” state, and similarly for the other chapters. Each menu item must be linked to its own variable so the master can correctly reflect progress.

I would personally avoid using the default Visited state if clicking the menu item is not required to change its “visited” state, as this can lead to issues with layer behavior when slides are revisited. Instead, it’s better to create a custom state. 

In this setup, the slide master layer remains shared globally, while the variables act as independent memory states for each slide, allowing the menu to update the states of its items.

Find the attached slide of simple custom menu on master slide reflecting persistent "visited" state across slides no matter if slides are revisited. Again, this is just one of many ways to achieve this, but I’ve found it to be simple and effective.

Either way, you should not skip Judy’s PRIMER: Mastering the Slide Master series, as it provides more detailed information on how this and much more can be achieved by properly setting up and manipulating the slide master and its layers for best results.

EmmaBooth​: When content needs to appear across multiple slides, it's often easier to program and maintain when it's on the Slide Master or a master Layout. With that kind of set up, when the content needs to be edited, you only need to edit it at one location. 

So, yes, I recommend building it on the Slide Master. 

The link in my previous reply goes to a post about master objects. The demo file available there has an example. 

It sounds like your custom TOC is on a Slide Master.

The state of a master object is set on a slide-by-slide basis. In other words, changing the state on one slide doesn’t change the state on other slides.

Thus, you need triggers on the Slide Master if you want to maintain a changed state as the user moves through other slides that share the master object.

This post has more info about Slide Masters, including a file that demonstrates how to maintain the state of a master button: PRIMER: Mastering the Slide Master | E-Learning Heroes