Forum Discussion
How to find master slides being used?
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.
55 Replies
Hi William and welcome to E-Learning Heroes :)
Sorry that you're running into an issue with this. Are you not able to delete a slide master and that's why you're trying to identify? I'm not sure of what the underlying issue is that you are seeing.
If you'd like to share the .story file so that we can take a look along with the steps to reproduce, we'd be happy to take a look!
I recently found a solution to the impossible-to-find '1 slide' that used a particular Slide Master, even after going through every slide. A Draw from Question Bank uses the 'Blank' slide layout from whatever the first / top Slide Master is. It can't be changed, or even seen, at the slide level because the draw is not itself a slide. The solution is to delete the draw, then delete the now-orphaned Slide Master, and re-create the draw (which will now use the 'current' or top Master Slide blank layout. Hope this helps!
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!
Good find David. Thanks for popping in to share with everyone :)
Hello I came up on this post as I had the same problem as William, and THANK YOU DAVID to letting me know the solution to an issue I was thinking since days!!
No worries. It was quite a mystery for me, as well -- was happy to finally figure it out!
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!
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.
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!
